Sky Blue Lou
Well-known member
It freakin stinks. The world is going in the shitter and the maw is open.
"The controversial International Monetary Fund bailout for Pakistan earlier this year was driven by a secret arms deal between Pakistan and the United States to funnel much-needed weapons and equipment to Ukraine for the war against Russia, The Intercept reported on Sunday. Citing two sources familiar with the deal, The Intercept wrote that the arms sale generated enough revenue, and political goodwill, for Pakistan to “secure the bailout from the IMF, with the State Department agreeing to take the IMF into confidence regarding the undisclosed weapons deal.”
In the spring of 2022, State Department officials expressed concern to their Pakistani counterparts over Prime Minister Imran Khan’s “aggressive neutral” stance on the Ukraine war, a position that “would be forgiven” if Khan were removed. Soon after, Pakistan military led a no-confidence vote to oust Khan. The replacement government in power since ousting Khan has become an active supporter of the West’s war effort in Ukraine while protests have erupted across the country against the military’s harsh crackdown on Khan’s supporters.
To avoid Pakistan defaulting on foreign debt obligations, the terms of the IMF bailout dictate that Pakistan raise energy prices for residents, which has kicked off new violent protests across the country as demonstrators burn their electricity bills in the streets. On Monday, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch rejected the claims of a connection between arms exports and the bailout, calling them “baseless and fabricated.”
“The premise is that we have to save Ukraine, we have to save this frontier of democracy on the eastern perimeter of Europe,” Arif Rafi, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute and specialist on Pakistan, told The Intercept. “And then this brown Asian country has to pay the price. So they can be a dictatorship, their people can be denied the freedoms that every other celebrity in this country is saying we need to support Ukraine for—the ability to choose our leaders, ability to have civic freedoms, the rule of law, all these sorts of things that may differentiate many European countries and consolidated democracies from Russia.”
From - The Scroll
thedailyscroll.substack.com
"The controversial International Monetary Fund bailout for Pakistan earlier this year was driven by a secret arms deal between Pakistan and the United States to funnel much-needed weapons and equipment to Ukraine for the war against Russia, The Intercept reported on Sunday. Citing two sources familiar with the deal, The Intercept wrote that the arms sale generated enough revenue, and political goodwill, for Pakistan to “secure the bailout from the IMF, with the State Department agreeing to take the IMF into confidence regarding the undisclosed weapons deal.”
In the spring of 2022, State Department officials expressed concern to their Pakistani counterparts over Prime Minister Imran Khan’s “aggressive neutral” stance on the Ukraine war, a position that “would be forgiven” if Khan were removed. Soon after, Pakistan military led a no-confidence vote to oust Khan. The replacement government in power since ousting Khan has become an active supporter of the West’s war effort in Ukraine while protests have erupted across the country against the military’s harsh crackdown on Khan’s supporters.
To avoid Pakistan defaulting on foreign debt obligations, the terms of the IMF bailout dictate that Pakistan raise energy prices for residents, which has kicked off new violent protests across the country as demonstrators burn their electricity bills in the streets. On Monday, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch rejected the claims of a connection between arms exports and the bailout, calling them “baseless and fabricated.”
“The premise is that we have to save Ukraine, we have to save this frontier of democracy on the eastern perimeter of Europe,” Arif Rafi, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute and specialist on Pakistan, told The Intercept. “And then this brown Asian country has to pay the price. So they can be a dictatorship, their people can be denied the freedoms that every other celebrity in this country is saying we need to support Ukraine for—the ability to choose our leaders, ability to have civic freedoms, the rule of law, all these sorts of things that may differentiate many European countries and consolidated democracies from Russia.”
From - The Scroll
What Happened Today: September 18, 2023
Our secret arms deal with Pakistan; Ibram X. Kendi's institute falls apart; The mystery of the missing F-35
thedailyscroll.substack.com