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U.S. drone strikes on targets in Pakistani regions along the border with Afghanistan remain highly controversial and are deeply unpopular in Pakistan. The Washington Post reported last week that U.S. officials have nearly completed a counterterrorism manual that would establish stringent rules for lethal "targeted-killing operations" through Obama's second term. However, the newspaper quoted unnamed officials as saying that before the CIA is asked to comply with the new counterterrorism guidelines, the agency would be allowed to continue sending unmanned drones to fire missiles at suspected al-Qaida, as well Taliban, targets in Pakistan for at least another year.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told the Senate, the lower house of Pakistan's parliament, on Tuesday that her country considers the U.S. drone strikes a violation of its sovereignty and believes they are counterproductive in the anti-terrorism fight. Pakistani Senate Defense Committee Chairman Mushahid Hussain said that continuing the drone strikes will damage bilateral ties. He said the United States is actively seeking Pakistan's cooperation in promoting peace in Afghanistan, in order to allow American and NATO forces to withdraw from that country by the end of next year. But the senator said it is surprising to Pakistan that Washington intends to continue waging war through drone strikes on Pakistani territory.
"And this also goes against the pledge by President Barack Hussain Obama in his inauguration speech where he talked that [the] U.S. can no longer afford a perpetual war," said Hussain. "But what he is prescribing for Pakistan is something close to perpetual war by drones, which will also be counterproductive, [a] violation of Pakistani sovereignty, and also promote anti-Americanism among the people of Pakistan." Pakistan publicly condemns the drone campaign and wants the U.S. to end it, saying that it not only violates the country's sovereignty, but that collateral damage caused by the strikes is fueling militancy in the region. U.S. officials, however, insist the drone strikes are an effective tool in countering terrorism, saying it has disrupted the al-Qaida network.
But Hussain said he believes Washington may be more willing to listen to his country's narrative on drones in view of what he called the "new ground realities." "The U.S. is going to be more dependent on Pakistan, on the Pakistani government, Pakistani armed forces and the Pakistani security services, to facilitate a smooth [military] withdrawal [from Afghanistan]. So, given this context, I would say that Pakistan has more leverage vis-à-vis Washington to push forward its perspective," said Hussain.
The United States has conducted hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Area, or FATA, where al-Qaida and fugitive Afghan militants are believed to have set up hideouts for attacks on targets across the border in Afghanistan. It is difficult to get real details of the damage caused by drones because the Pakistani tribal areas are too dangerous for reporters to travel to. Independent organizations keeping track of the drones estimate that as many as 3,300 people have died in these strikes in Pakistan, including several hundred civilians.
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That about says it all.Barack Obama and the U.S. government policy makers have shown an incredible level of hypocrisy before; on the one hand lamenting such senseless deaths as have occurred in "mass shootings" while conducting their own mass killing, torture, and terror campaigns in foreign lands.
Even if they do throw the family's cases out, the ACLU has another shitload of cases against Obama, the administration, and Panetta.our wonderful government at work wanting to keep the sheople unaware of how they are murdering us at this very moment.
Activist Post: U.S. Gov't Asks Federal Judge to Dismiss Cases of Americans Killed by Drones
Careful, you might make it on Obama's "kill list", too.That about says it all.Barack Obama and the U.S. government policy makers have shown an incredible level of hypocrisy before; on the one hand lamenting such senseless deaths as have occurred in "mass shootings" while conducting their own mass killing, torture, and terror campaigns in foreign lands.
John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief and Obama's nominee to run the nation's spy agency, helped manage the drone program. The confirmation hearing Thursday sets the stage for a public airing of some of the most controversial programs in the covert war on al-Qaida, from the deadly drone strikes to the CIA's use of interrogation techniques like waterboarding during President George W. Bush's administration. Obama directed the Justice Department to provide access to the secret document to members of the Senate and House intelligence committees, an administration official said Wednesday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the Senate committee's chairman, said the legal opinion would be provided to her committee by Thursday morning.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a committee member who had pressed the administration to provide the opinion, left open the possibility he might still try to block Brennan's nomination. He said turning over the opinion was a good first step. "I'm committed to making sure that we get all the facts," Wyden said on NBC's "Today" show. "Early this morning, I'm going to be going in to read the opinion. We'll go from there." Wyden said "there are still substantial questions" about how the administration justifies and plans drone strikes. "The Founding Fathers thought the president should have significant power in the national security arena. But there have to be checks and balances," Wyden said. "You can't just skirt those checks and balances if you think it's inconvenient."
An unclassified memo leaked this week says it is legal for the government to kill U.S. citizens abroad if it believes they are senior al-Qaida leaders continually engaged in operations aimed at killing Americans, even if there is no evidence of a specific imminent attack. That unclassified memo is based on classified advice from the Office of Legal Counsel that is being made available to the intelligence committees' members, the official said. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the decision and requested anonymity. Brennan laid out the administration's policy for targeting al-Qaida with lethal drone strikes ahead of the hearing, defending the use of such strikes but disavowing the harsh interrogation techniques used when he was at the CIA.
In answers to pre-hearing questions released Wednesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, Brennan said no further legislation was necessary to conduct operations against al-Qaida wherever it's operating. Brennan answered some of his critics who charged him with backing the detention and interrogation policy while he served at the CIA. Those allegations stymied his attempt to head the intelligence agency when the Obama administration began in 2009. Brennan said in his written answers that he was "aware of the program but did not play a role in its creation, execution, or oversight." He added that he "had significant concerns and personal objections" to the interrogation techniques and voiced those objections to colleagues at the agency privately.
More Lawmakers to get drone report before CIA hearing - Yahoo! News
The Senate Intelligence Committee received a classified document on Thursday that seeks to justify the administration's policy of targeting Americans overseas via drone attacks, a congressional aide told CNN. The document was demanded by lawmakers, mainly Democrats concerned about secrecy in national security decisionmaking, ahead of a hearing later in the day on the nomination of John Brennan to become the next CIA director. It provides the Justice Department's legal rationale for the controversial policy of using lethal force against U.S. citizens fighting on behalf of terrorist groups.
The drone campaign against al Qaeda and its allies has been one of Brennan's biggest legacies in the four years he has served as President Barack Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser. "It is critical for the committee's oversight function to fully understand the legal basis for all intelligence and counterterrorism operations," Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein said after the Obama administration disclosed late on Wednesday that it would turn the secret information over to relevant committees. According to an official who spoke on condition of not being identified, Obama decided to turn over the legal opinion because he believes the scrutiny and debate is healthy. Congress last summer received an outline around the policy that became public this week. However, it was a white paper that did not carry any legal authority and did not satisfy congressional demands for detailed information.
According to the public policy group New America Foundation, at least 28 of al Qaeda's leading members have been killed in drone strikes, including the U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who officials said played an operational role in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In a 2012 speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, Brennan asserted that the drone strikes are legal under a military force authorization approved by Congress after the 2001 al Qaeda attacks on the United States. "There is nothing in international law that bans the use of remotely piloted aircraft for this purpose or that prohibits us from using lethal force against our enemies outside of an active battlefield, at least when the country involved consents or is unable or unwilling to take action against the threat," Brennan said at the time.
On Wednesday, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said the attack that killed al-Awlaki was justified. "This is somebody who had said that he didn't want his U.S. citizenship anymore," Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, told MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports." He said al-Awlaki had officially joined al Qaeda, and al Qaeda had declared war on the United States." "The legal basis of this goes back many, many years when U.S. citizens would go and fight for foreign nations that were engaging in combat with the United States," Rogers said. "So what they were saying is, once you've made that choice, you no longer get the protections that you would. I mean, if you join the enemy overseas, you join the enemy overseas. And we're going to fight the enemy overseas."
More Senate panel gets classified drone document from Obama - CNN.com
