A Look At The Drone War In Afghanistan

[longknife]

by War News Updates Editor

The Air Force Men Who Fly Drones In Afghanistan By Remote Control -- The Telegraph

The unmanned aircraft patrolling the skies above Afghanistan are controlled by pilots sitting in front of screens as far as 7,000 miles away

Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan is reckoned to be as busy as Gatwick. Every few minutes the cloudless skies are filled with the roar of a military fighter taking off – hugging the ground to avoid pot shots by the Taliban’s crude rockets before disappearing into the heat haze.

In between there is a more persistent sound: the high-pitched whirr of 'drones’ – military aircraft without a human on board – as they head out for 18-hour stints monitoring the vast empty spaces of Afghanistan. This sound, generated by the aircraft’s tail propeller, is a constant white noise for the inhabitants of Kandahar Airfield.

Read more ....Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph

My Comment: An informative and comprehensive look at the drone war in Afghanistan.

And most of them are flown by pilots sitting in comfy, air conditioned buildings at Creech AFB just north of Las Vegas.

 

[waltky]

CIA about to get a free pass in upcoming drone strikes in Pakistan...

CIA gets exception in upcoming drone strike ‘playbook’
January 19, 2013 The Obama administration is nearing completion of a detailed counterterrorism manual that is designed to establish clear rules for targeted-killing operations but leaves open a major exemption for the CIA’s campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan, U.S. officials said.

The carve-out would allow the CIA to continue pounding al-Qaida and Taliban targets for a year or more before the agency is forced to comply with more stringent rules spelled out in a classified document that officials have described as a counterterrorism “playbook.” The document, which is expected to be submitted to President Barack Obama for final approval within weeks, marks the culmination of a year-long effort by the White House to codify its counterterrorism policies and create a guide for lethal operations through Obama’s second term.

A senior U.S. official involved in drafting the document said that a few issues remain unresolved but described them as minor. The senior U.S. official said the playbook “will be done shortly.” The adoption of a formal guide to targeted killing marks a significant — and to some uncomfortable — milestone: The institutionalization of a practice that would have seemed anathema to many before the Sept. 11 , 2001, terrorist attacks.

Among the subjects covered in the playbook are the process for adding names to kill lists, the legal principles that govern when U.S. citizens can be targeted overseas and the sequence of approvals required when the CIA or U.S. military conduct drone strikes outside war zones. U.S. officials said the effort to draft the playbook was nearly derailed late last year by disagreements between the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon on the criteria for lethal strikes and other issues. Granting the CIA a temporary exemption for its Pakistan operations was described as a compromise that allowed officials to move forward with other parts of the playbook.

The decision to allow the CIA strikes to continue was driven in part by concern that the window for weakening al-Qaida and the Taliban in Pakistan is beginning to close, with plans to pull most U.S. troops out of neighboring Afghanistan over the next two years. CIA drones are flown out of bases in Afghanistan. “There’s a sense that you put the pedal to the metal now, especially given the impending” withdrawal, said a former U.S. official involved in discussions of the playbook. The CIA exception is expected to be in effect for “less than two years but more than one,” the former official said, although he noted that any decision to close the carve-out “will undoubtedly be predicated on facts on the ground.”

MORE

 

[waltky]

No drone court...

Senate Republicans shoot down new court to oversee drone strikes
Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - Say the idea intrudes on executive powers

Senate Republicans shot down a Democrat-inspired plan to create a new court to oversee the use of drones for attacks, saying the idea intrudes on executive powers. “I think it’s a terrible idea,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, in a report from The Hill. The court would be “the biggest intrusion … in the history of the country” on the president’s role as commander in chief of the military.

The idea of creating a new court was brought forth last week by Sen. Diane Feinstein, The Hill reported.

Sen. John McCain’s argued against Ms. Feinstein’s plan, too, suggesting instead the drone program be moved into military hands to oversee. “You just need to move it to the Department of Defense,” he said, in The Hill report. “We are talking about using equipment to kill people.”

Read more: Senate Republicans shoot down new court to oversee drone strikes - Washington Times

 

[georgephillip]

"An AGM-114 Hellfire missile hung on the rail of an US Air Force (USAF) MQ-1L Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is inscribed with, "IN MEMORY OF HONORABLE RONALD REAGAN."

NOT WORTH IT: Every Hellfire missile fired in Afghanistan costs USD58,000 « RAWA News