UPDATE: Kidnapped Anti-Drone Activist Karim Khan Has Been Freed, Says He Was Tortured. Human Liberation - an Islamic Renaissance. U.S. curtails drone strikes in Pakistan as officials there seek peace talks with Taliban. Concern about Pakistani political sensitivities provides one explanation for the absence of strikes since December, the longest pause in the CIA’s drone campaign since a six-week lull in 2011, after an errant U.S. air assault killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at a border post, triggering a diplomatic crisis.
The current pause follows a November strike that killed Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud just days before an initial attempt at peace talks was scheduled to begin. CIA's most senior officer in Pakistan 'unmasked' by Imran Khan's party. The political party led by the former cricket star Imran Khan claims to have blown the cover of the CIA's most senior officer in Pakistan as part of an increasingly high-stakes campaign against US drone strikes.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party named a man it claimed was head of the CIA station in Islamabad in a letter to police demanding he be nominated as one of the people responsible for a drone strike on 21 November, which killed five militants including senior commanders of the Haqqani Network. John Brennan, the CIA director, was also nominated as an "accused person" for murder and "waging war against Pakistan". The US embassy said it could not comment but was looking into the matter. The CIA spokesman Dean Boyd would not confirm the station chief's name and declined to immediately comment, AP reported.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: A visualization of drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004. UN condemns US drone strikes in Pakistan. The United Nations has condemned US drone strikes in Pakistan, saying that they violate Islamabad’s sovereignty. Washington’s response to the UN condemnation was muted. The UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, Ben Emmerson, has said that Washington's drone campaign in Pakistan's Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) violates international law. Miranshah. Miranshah (Urdu: میران شاہ; Pashto: میران شاہ) (pronounced "mirānshāh") is a town and administrative headquarters of the North Waziristan Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
Geography and topography[edit] The town lies on the banks of the Tochi River in a wide valley surrounded by the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains. It is situated approximately 17 km from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at an elevation of approximately 3,050 ft. The nearest town in Pakistan is Bannu and the nearest town across the border in Afghanistan is Khost. Administration[edit] Imran Khan, Drone Protestor Detained/Interrogated from US Airliner. By Ezra Van Auken Imran Khan, the Pakistani politician and ex-professional cricketer has made a name for himself in the past month, after the anti-drone protest he held in Pakistan.
The demonstration, which was guided to show opposition against the United States drone campaign over Pakistan brought out tens of thousands of supporters and was a two day long march. As the protest winded down, Khan spoke briefly about the success of it, “We have given our message – it has gone across the world,” as well as saying, “We have succeeded in raising this issue. We came here to raise this issue, we came here to take a stand against drones.” U.S. officials remove Imran Khan from plane to quiz him on drones. Obama 2012 Pakistan strikes. President Obama visits the Pentagon, 2012 (Photo: White House) The events detailed here occurred in 2012.
These have been reported by US or Pakistani government, military and intelligence officials, and by credible media, academic and other sources, including on occasion Bureau researchers. Below is a summary of CIA drone strikes and casualty estimates for 2012. Please note that our data changes according to our current understanding of particular strikes. Below represents our present best estimate. Click here for our 2013 Pakistan data set. Click here for our 2011 Pakistan data set. Click here for our 2010 Pakistan data set. Click here for our 2009 Pakistan data set. Drone Strikes: Map Shows Pakistan Drone Strikes. CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, NV - AUGUST 08: An MQ-9 Reaper flies by on a training mission August 8, 2007 at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada.
The Reaper is the Air Force's first "hunter-killer" unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and is designed to engage time-sensitive targets on the battlefield as well as provide intelligence and surveillance. The jet-fighter sized Reapers are 36 feet long with 66-foot wingspans and can fly for as long as 14 hours fully loaded with laser-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles. They can fly twice as fast and high as the smaller MQ-1 Predators reaching speeds of 300 mph at an altitude of up to 50,000 feet. The aircraft are flown by a pilot and a sensor operator from ground control stations. Pakistan has not okayed drone strikes: Sherry Rehman.
Two boys reported killed in CIA strike. Friday’s Grand Jirga against drone strikes, at which Tariq was present - Pratap Chatterjee Two boys aged 12 and 16 years old were reportedly killed in a CIA drone strike in Pakistan on Monday night.
One of the boys, Tariq Khan, had attended an anti-drone rally in the Pakistan capital just days beforehand. Monday’s deadly attack struck a vehicle near the town of Mir Ali in Waziristan. Up to four people died, including 16-year old Tariq Khan and his 12-year old cousin Wahid. U.S. put new restrictions on CIA drone strikes in Pakistan. Reporting from Washington — The White House over the summer put new restrictions on CIA drone strikes in the wake of concerns that the program was primarily targeting lower-level militants while provoking anger in Pakistan, U.S. officials said. Since then, according to an independent analysis, the strikes have yielded a significant increase in the percentage of people killed whom the government considers "high-value targets. " But the program is still killing mainly rank-and-file fighters, the study indicates.
Drone attacks in Pakistan. Since 2004, the United States government has attacked hundreds of targets in Northwest Pakistan using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division.[4] Most of these attacks are on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Northwest Pakistan.
These strikes began during the George W. Bush administration, and have increased substantially under President Barack Obama.[5] Some in the media have referred to the attacks as a "drone war".[6][7] Until recently,[when?] The US government had officially denied the extent of its policy; in May 2013 it acknowledged for the first time that four US citizens, including Anwar Al-Awlaki, had been killed in the strikes.[8] Surveys have shown that the strikes are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, where they have contributed to a negative perception of the United States.[9] There is a debate regarding the number of civilian and militant casualties.
Overview[edit] The civilian victims of the CIA's drone war. I would not deny that the pilotless plane, flying bomb, or whatever its correct name may be, is an exceptionally unpleasant thing, because, unlike most other projectiles, it gives you time to think.
What is your first reaction when you hear that droning, zooming noise? Inevitably, it is a hope that the noise won't stop. You want to hear the bomb pass safely overhead and die away into the distance … – George Orwell, "As I Please", Tribune, 30 June 1944 George Orwell wrote of V2 attacks on London in 1944. Pakistani military want veto on drone strikes. Pakistani civilian and military leaders are insisting on an effective veto over which targets US drone strikes hit, according to well-informed Pakistani military sources here.
The sources, who met on condition that they not be identified, said that such veto power over the conduct of the drone war is a central element in a new Pakistani demand for a formal government-to-government agreement on the terms under which the United States and Pakistan will cooperate against insurgents in Pakistan. The basic government-to-government agreement now being demanded would be followed, the sources said, by more detailed agreements between US and Pakistani military leaders and intelligence agencies.
The new Pakistani demand for equal say over drone strikes marks the culmination of a long evolution in the Pakistani military's attitude toward the drone war. A free hand. US censures report on drone casualties - Americas. US officials have strongly rejected allegations in an independent UK study that a covert drone war in Pakistan has killed large numbers of civilians, saying the numbers are "way off the mark".
On Friday, US officials criticised the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism report's finding that there had been many more CIA attacks on alleged al-Qaeda and Taliban targets and far more civilian deaths than previously reported. The report said that bombing raids by unmanned aircraft had killed up to 168 children in Pakistan over the last seven years. "The numbers cited by this organisation are way off the mark," said a senior US official, who spoke to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.
Up to 320 Civilians Killed in Pakistan Drone War: Report. CIA Snitches Are Pakistan Drone-Spotters. CIA’s Drones Join Shadow War Over Yemen. CIA Drone Targeting Tech Revealed, Qaeda Claims. American drone strikes are finding their targets in Pakistan through a series of infrared homing beacons, Al Qaeda alleges in a new online publication. The American and Pakistani intelligence services credit U.S. unmanned aircraft with decimating the ranks of terrorist and insurgent operatives in Pakistan. “Very frankly, it’s the only game in town in terms of confronting and trying to disrupt the Al Qaeda leadership,” CIA director Leon Panetta said in May. The unmanned aircraft have supposedly carried out 28 attacks on suspected militants, just since the start of the year.
Hundreds have been killed, including as many as 45 more people in a series of strikes today. But how the killer drones find their targets has been a matter of some dispute. U.S.: Reported Drone Strike Casualties 'Way Off the Mark' The U.S. is disputing today a report that its counter-terror drone program has killed hundreds of civilians in Pakistan, including more than 160 children. The London-based non-profit Bureau of Investigative Journalism released a report this week that claimed the CIA drone program, credited for killing approximately 2,000 suspected militants, is also responsible for the deaths of 385 civilians, 168 of them kids, in 291 strikes since 2004.
"The numbers cited by this organization are way off the mark," a senior U.S. official told ABC News. Civilians make up over 90% of casualties in US drone strikes in Pakistan' The Year of the Drone. The magical realism of body counts. Covert Drone War. Over 160 children reported among drone deaths. Pakistan drone strikes – our methodology. Over the past two years, the Bureau has made an extensive study of reports of US covert activities in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
We present our findings for each country in two key ways: firstly datasets, which comprise narrative accounts of each reported action, a casualty count of the number of individuals reported killed or wounded in that action, and all sources used in researching each action. Secondly, we produce overall casualty counts, which add up the total reported deaths caused by drone strikes and other covert actions in each country.
Our Pakistan datasets cover CIA drone strikes in that country since 2004. For Yemen and Somalia, the datasets include other US covert actions including airstrikes, missile attacks and ground operations, and we also note significant events to provide context for US actions. The data is collected and researched by a team of Bureau journalists. The CIA drone strike that rewrote the rules. Orphaned survivors of the Bismullah family. Photo Noor Behram/Reprieve. These three children stand surrounded by the debris of their former home, a few hours after it was reportedly obliterated by a Hellfire missile fired from a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone in the early hours of August 23 2010.
When photographer Noor Behram reached the children a few hours later he said the children were shocked but had, at least, survived the blast. Their father, Bismullah, their mother, and 8 and 10-year-old brothers had been blown to pieces by the strike – the 109th in Pakistan of Obama’s presidency. Drone strikes rise to one every four days. Demonstration against CIA drones in Pakistan, April 22 2011. Nobody Knows if Drone Strikes in Pakistan Work. Zygmunt Bauman for Social Europe. The next generation of drones 'will stay invisible while making everything else accessible to view'. Photograph: James Lee Harper Jr/AFP/Getty Images Two apparently unconnected items of news appeared on the same day, 19 June – though one can be forgiven overlooking their appearance… As any news, they arrived floating in an "information tsunami" – just two tiny drops in a flood of news meant/hoped to do the job of enlightening and clarifying while serving that of obscuring and befuddling.
Response: We mustn't ignore the fact that British drones kill too. 1021-unmanned-drone-attack_full_600.jpg (600×400) US drones launch chemical attacks on Pakistan. Four civilians reported killed in latest CIA drone strike. Al-Qaeda number two killed in Pakistan: US. How the CIA Became ‘One Hell of a Killing Machine’ The day 69 children died. UPDATE: DRONES, BODY COUNT and The Dark Side of Christian History: By Yale Theologian. Get the data: Twenty-five deadly strikes. Where have drone attacks taken place? Interactive map. Covert Drone War. The Bush Years 2004 – 2009. Obama 2009 Strikes. Obama 2010 Strikes. Fresh evidence of CIA civilian deaths in Pakistan revealed.
US drone strike kills 24 in Pakistan's Wazristan tribal region. Seven killed in suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan. Will I Be Next?