$300 Million in Hush Money for Pakistan’s Politicians
American taxpayers need to dig into their wallets. In order to keep the government of Pakistan from doing anything about U.S. drone strikes on their people, especially children, the U.S. government has to make payments. I call it hush money.
Because the hostility of Pakistanis against the U.S. government is growing, drone by drone, the amount of this hush money keeps going up.
The U.S. government has just called for bids by profit-seeking U.S. firms to cash in on this hush money. They will get paid for building certain unnamed “infrastructure” projects. We read:
The purpose of these four Indefinite Quantity Contracts (IQCs) is to provide comprehensive program management services, including the design, construction management, and construction services for infrastructure projects throughout Pakistan.The goal is to provide a quick response mechanism to satisfy the expanding demand for infrastructure in the USAID/Pakistan Mission Portfolio. These multiple award IQCs have a shared ceiling of $300 million for the implementation of USAID/Pakistan funded infrastructure activities across all technical sectors in Pakistan. The IQC holders will perform all infrastructure management services for construction including all aspects of overall management, administration, coordination, assessments, planning, design, tendering, regulatory compliance, capacity building, outreach, construction monitoring and evaluation. Multiple projects ranging in value from $5 million to $50 million are anticipated over the next five years under this activity. Task Orders under this multiple award IQC may include activities for small to large scale infrastructure projects in transportation, vertical structures, water and sanitation, water resources, and energy and power.
It’s expensive to keep fighting the war on terror. The cost keeps rising.
Continue reading on fbo.gov.
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Published on October 19, 2012. The original is here.