Feinstein: Aid for Pakistan 'Makes Less Sense'

Politico reports:

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein said Monday that the relationship between the United States and Pakistan “makes less and less sense” and questioned continuing to send billions of dollars in aid to the country now that it’s been revealed Osama bin Laden had been living there for years before being killed there last week.

In challenging the financial relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan, Feinstein broke with the top two members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts and Republican Dick Lugar of Indiana — who have defended American aide to country where the world’s most-wanted terrorist was hiding out for six years.

“Either we’re going to be allies in fighting terror, or the relationship makes less and less sense to me,” Feinstein told reporters outside the Senate chamber Monday evening. “Everyone knew that bin Laden was the head of al Qaeda. Everybody knew that he was the leader of the attack on New York City. And to enable him to live in Pakistan in a military community for six years, I just don’t believe it was done without some form of complicity.”

When pressed on the fact that her views diverged from other top lawmakers, like those of Lugar and Kerry, Feinstein did not waver from her position.

“I understand that. I feel a little differently,” said the California Democrat. Lugar and Kerry defended American aid to Pakistan on Sunday television shows, with Lugar staking out an even stronger stance on the value of the alliance between the two counties.

“No, I don’t see that at all,” Lugar told CNN when asked about curbing financial assistance. “As a matter of fact, Pakistan is a critical factor in the war against terror, our war, the world’s war against it, simply because there are a lot of terrorists in Pakistan.”

Meanwhile, Kerry was a bit more tempered in his support but has said consistently the relationship should continue.

“I see this as a time for us to be careful, to be thoughtful, to proceed deliberately but determinedly in order to lay on the table the things that we know have to change,” Kerry said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “I see opportunity in all of this to sort of punch a reset button and frankly serve our interests and theirs much more effectively.”