Arms for Abuses

The decision of the U.S. to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan is made at the same time that the U.S. State Department issued a critique of Pakistan's human rights record. An excerpt from the State Department report on Pakistan for 2004 reads as follows:

Security force personnel continued to torture persons in custody throughout the country. Human rights organizations reported that methods used included beating; burning with cigarettes; whipping the soles of the feet; prolonged isolation; electric shock; denial of food or sleep; hanging upside down; and forced spreading of the legs with bar fetters. Officials from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) estimated 5,000 cases of police torture annually; the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid Madadgaar Project recorded 1,101 cases of torture during the year.

Indeed, President and Chief of Army Staff Pervez Musharraf overthrew the elected civilian government in 1999 and has ruled since. And, showing its true colors, the U.S. rewards this tyrant who destroyed democracy and imposed a repressive dictatorship with F-16 fighter jets that have the capacity to transport nuclear weapons. Saddam Hussein didn't overthrow a democratically elected government.

Sorry State Department - it doesn't matter what your reports say regarding a country's human rights abuses - corporate America still needs to make a profit.