U.S. pledges $100M to help displaced Pakistanis
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/17/pakistan.taliban/art.pakistan.girl.apf.gi.jpg caption="A Pakistani girl displaced by the offensive against the Taliban rests at a camp Saturday north of Islamabad."]
CNN
The United States is sending $100 million in aid to Pakistan to help alleviate the plight of the estimated 2 million people displaced by the offensive against Taliban extremists, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Tuesday.
The money comes on top of $60 million in assistance already provided by the United States to Pakistan since last August.
The assistance is "essential to the global security and security of the United States," Clinton said in a White House briefing. Much of the aid will be directed toward the purchase of Pakistani grain as part of a larger "investment in the people and economy in Pakistan."
The Pakistani government is helping to lead the fight against extremists threatening "our collective security" and therefore deserves to be supported, she argued.
Clinton called on individual Americans to support the relief effort in the form of $5 donations by texting the word "SWAT" to the number 20222.
Pakistan's military launched a massive operation against Taliban militants in its northwest region earlier this month after a peace deal collapsed and the militants moved within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad.
Much of the recent fighting has been centered in and around Pakistan's Swat Valley.
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Filed under: 360° Radar • 360º Follow • Hillary Clinton • Pakistan • Taliban |
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I hope the people get to see any of this help money. i dont trust that the people that really need the help will get any halp at all. I have been to countries of this kind and i know what really happens to the money, monticarlow anyone?
Well gee...what happened to the $10 billion we already gave them? Do we own Pakistan now where's the pink slip? still so many of us here can't even get health care without a million miles of red tape and taxation, and what about our homeless, un friggin believable...