Lugar: Pakistan too important to cut aid

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday that “a lot of people in Pakistan” had to know where Osama bin Laden was, but that Pakistan is too important an ally in battling terrorism to cut off U.S. aid.

“It appears to be very logical that if Osama bin Laden was in that home for six years of time, a group of people there connected with the military, that a lot of people in Pakistan knew about his whereabouts,” Lugar said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

{mosads}But asked whether he would join others in Congress who have called for a freeze in foreign aid to Pakistan, Lugar said no because the U.S. needs Pakistan’s help.

“As a matter of fact, Pakistan is a critical factor in the war against terror, our war, the world’s war against it, simply because there are a lot of terrorists in Pakistan,” Lugar said.

“Now, that’s a big difference from the thoughts that bin Laden might have been proposing attacks on American trains or bridges or this very possibly and a portfolio of circumstances. But Pakistan is a very critical country,” Lugar said.