By Arun Kumar
IANS
Washington : Controversial US allies recruited into the global war on terror, such as Pakistan, Indonesia and Djibouti, have received billions of dollars in additional, new military aid thanks to a dramatic shift in policy in the post-9/11 era.
The shift was brought about by lobbying by foreign governments and concerns over terrorism, according to a yearlong investigation by the Centre for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a non-profit Washington-based organization.
Washington lobbying and aid dollars have reshaped policies towards countries ranging from Djibouti in Africa, Pakistan and Thailand in Asia, Poland and Romania in Europe, to Colombia in South America, said ICIJ in a report released here Tuesday.
In some countries, human rights have suffered as authoritarian regimes are rewarded for their strategic and political importance. Often times military aid was given with little oversight by Congress, it said.
The change in priorities often came at the cost of human rights and fiscal accountability, according to "Collateral Damage", which makes public for the first time a comprehensive accounting of the 50 percent increase in US military aid since the Sep 11, 2001 attacks.
Meanwhile, foreign governments such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Ethiopia spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress, the White House and the Pentagon to secure record amounts of US military aid in an often chaotic policymaking environment, ICIJ said.
The investigation combines original in-country reporting and an analysis of thousands of foreign lobbying records and data from dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests from the State and Defence Departments.
"Collateral Damage" represents a full year's worth of extensive international investigative work by 10 reporters working on four continents, digging through 40,000 records," said Executive Director Bill Buzenberg.
"We've found massive transfers of funds from our country that have taken place with very little Congressional oversight or public discussion."