WASHINGTON, D.C. May 31, 2007 — While U.S. efforts to combat terrorism have been somewhat successful in Asia, they have come at the expense of a deteriorating human rights situation in countries receiving record amounts of military aid, according to a series of investigations by the Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The ICIJ’s continuing investigation, “Collateral Damage,” found the staggering amount of U.S. military aid to Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Uzbekistan in the three years following 9/11 underscores the importance of U.S. anti-terrorism priorities in the region. Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. military aid to Pakistan rose 45,000 percent, from $9 million to more than $4 billion; in the Philippines, similar aid increased 1,500 percent, from $14.6 million to more than $245 million; military assistance from the United States to Uzbekistan increased nearly 1,000 percent, from $9 million to nearly $100 million. These record amounts have not only been given to regimes with documented histories of human rights abuses, but American taxpayers have little way of monitoring how this money was spent.

Well-heeled Washington lobbyists hired by foreign governments, including former members of Congress, have often played a key role in ensuring that U.S. military aid continues to flow to governments despite their checkered human rights records, according to the investigation.

The Indonesian government spent more than $1 million to hire a team of lobbyists led by former Senate majority leader Bob Dole, with a goal to reinstate military aid that had been cut off after Indonesian troops massacred more than 100 demonstrators in East Timor in 1991. In the Philippines, national security adviser Norberto Gonzales signed a contract in 2005 with a Washington law and lobbying firm to secure even more American military and political support for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration. Gonzales was later held in contempt by the Philippine Senate when he refused to disclose who had authorized and financed the agreement.

The governments of Uzbekistan and Pakistan have seemingly used the U.S.-led war on terror to legitimize domestic crackdowns against their own citizens, at times arbitrarily detaining and arresting terrorist suspects and allegedly participating in the CIA’s controversial “extraordinary renditions” program— transferring terrorist suspects to a foreign country for interrogation without any legal proceedings.

In June, the Center will release additional stories examining U.S. post-9/11 military aid in Colombia. The “Collateral Damage” investigation provides one of the most comprehensive databases, including $54 billion in U.S. military aid, $700 million in foreign influence spending and human rights records in 77 countries.