With Pakistan Rounding Up Osama Bin Laden Informants, Mike McCalister Calls to End U.S. Aid

With reports coming out that Pakistan has rounded up informants who helped American forces find and kill terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, Mike McCalister, a businessman and retired Army officer who is now running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2012, weighed in on Wednesday.

"It's evident to me that Pakistan provided sanctuary to Osama bin Laden, said McCalister, who took more than 10 percent in the Republican gubernatorial primary back in 2010. Upon confirmation of this New York Times report that the Pakistani government has arrested people that helped us eliminate our biggest enemy in the world, we should immediately link our military aid to Pakistan to specific benchmarks of cooperation.

"Especially in these tough economic times, we simply cannot allow Pakistan to take U.S. taxpayer money and then work directly against our interests, added McCalister. As a retired military officer, I can say that it is offensive for Pakistan to take actions that jeopardize the lives of American soldiers and intelligence officials."

"As a U.S. senator, I would call upon our senior military, intelligence, and State Department officials to identify operational benchmarks tied to military cooperation and intelligence gathering, said McCalister in closing. I would then sponsor a law in the Senate that makes it illegal for the Obama [administration], or any other subsequent administration, to provide foreign aid to Pakistan, unless they are achieving the operational benchmarks specified by our senior, on-the-ground commanders."