I was on a panel this afternoon so I wasn't around to see most of what happened at TPM after early afternoon. But Spencer Ackerman wrote up a story that we'd been discussing for the last couple days about Pakistan and the money we give the Musharraf government. It turns out that that choice of wording is more apt than you might think. In the wake of Musharraf's re-coup over the weekend, Condi Rice told reporters that the money we provide Pakistan really isn't to Musharraf or his government as it is to the people of Pakistan.

But it turns out that it really is to Musharraf. Spencer provides the details. But the upshot is that the great bulk of the more than $10 billion we've given to Pakistan since 9/11 has been in the form of unsupervised and unaudited cash transfers. We cut him a check and he can do with it whatever he wants. It's not tied to a specific US Agency or program; it's just cash to do with as he pleases.

There doesn't seem to be any evidence that he's lining his pockets. But it's very hard to believe that that money isn't being used to fund the patronage networks that buttress Musharraf's hold on power. In other words, we're funding his dictatorship.