As President Biden and other world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, we turn to a major new investigation by The Intercept about how the Biden administration helped Pakistan get a controversial new IMF bailout after Pakistan agreed to secretly sell arms to the United States for the war in Ukraine. According to The Intercept, the secret arms deal was worth about $900 million, money which Pakistan then used to help shore up its financial position in the eyes of the International Monetary Fund. The Intercept reports the deal was discussed at a meeting in Washington in May between Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu and the Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Masood Khan.
Pakistan’s stance on the war in Ukraine has shifted notably since Russia’s invasion and the ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was removed from office in April 2022. Khan is now imprisoned in Pakistan. In August, The Intercept revealed the existence of a classified Pakistani cable that outlined how the U.S. State Department had encouraged the Pakistani government to remove Khan from office in March 2022, just weeks after Russia had invaded Ukraine. The document stated the U.S. objected to Khan’s
— source democracynow.org | Sep 19, 2023