AP Examines U.S. Focus On Branding Aid To Pakistan

The Associated Press examines recent U.S. efforts to more clearly brand aid to Pakistan.

"Desperate to win hearts and minds in Pakistan, the U.S. has begun pushing aid organizations working in the country's most dangerous region along the Afghan border to advertise that they receive American assistance. The new requirement has disturbed aid groups, which fear their workers providing food, water, shelter and other basic needs to Pakistanis will come under militant attack if they proclaim their U.S. connection," the AP reports, noting that groups in the country's tribal region – "the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters" – are especially concerned. "But U.S. officials in Pakistan are under increasing pressure from Washington to increase the visibility of the country's aid effort to counter rampant anti-American sentiment that can feed support for militants targeting the West," the news agency writes (Abbot, 7/20).