WHAT: Pakistan is sending out a battalion of Washington lobbyists to fight for continuation of its $3 billion in annual U.S. aid. The Pakistani government is panicked at the rising congressional suspicions that it deliberately hid Osama bin Laden for six years.

HOW: Mark Siegel, partner in a Washington lobbying firm paid $900,000 a year by the Pakistani government — told Reuters that President Asif Ali Zardari personally told him twice to mount an all-out effort to protect Pakistan’s American aid.

WHY: Pakistan has received over $20 billion in U.S. aid since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “They are certainly concerned,” Siegel said, adding his campaign slogan that “There is no proof that a support system was government-based.”