Kirk questions U.S. aid to Pakistan

Giving U.S. aid to Pakistan is “naive at best and counterproductive at worst” and should be re-examined, Sen. Mark Kirk said today.

“I'm taking a pretty tough line here on Pakistan,” the Highland Park Republican said.

Kirk, a naval intelligence officer who recently returned from his third assignment to Afghanistan, said he had believed the U.S. should work to advance diplomacy with Pakistan.

But based on what he saw during his two-week tour last month, Kirk said, he's changed his mind.

Kirk, speaking to a group at Chicago's Union League Club, believes that “as much as Pakistani officials claim otherwise,” the country's intelligence service is backing and supporting an increasingly threatening terrorist group, the Haqqani network.

“The Haqqani network kills Americans, attacks the elected government of Afghanistan and remains protected in its Pakistani headquarters,” Kirk said.

“In such an environment, and with our deficits and debt, aid to Pakistan seems naive at best and counterproductive at worst,” he said.