Posts tagged drone strikes
Judge Napolitano raps on executive “kill list”
0Do you want a President, or a King?
Are you willing to accept a government that kills who it chooses without respect for Law, due process and/or our national charter The Constitution?
The value provided to us by removing these men (and boys) from the face of the Earth is not worth the price we pay in liberty.
More blowback…Pakistan bashes US, supports Iran
0Read the civilian death tolls and decide for yourself how you would feel if your family among the estimated 500-1000 civilians killed in anonymous drone-based airstrikes.
Also, please remember that unlike Afghanistan, Iraq or Iran, Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
From TheSun.co.uk:
The nuclear power chillingly declared it “has the means” to retaliate unless the carnage ceases.
Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Britain Wajid Shamsul Hasan told The Sun in an exclusive interview that his country’s relations with America are at their lowest ebb.
He said: “Patience is definitely reaching exhaustion levels.”
Mr. Hasan said Pakistan backs the War on Terror waged by Britain and the US. But he urged PM David Cameron to condemn US drone attacks on al-Qaeda and Taliban training camps in the north west of his country — dubbing them as “war crimes” and “little more than state executions”.
Tough-talking Mr Hasan also declared Pakistan would have no choice but to support Iran if “aggressive” Israel attacks it.
But his immediate concern is the drones known to have killed 535 civilians, including 60 children, in three years.
Pakistan claims the real death toll is more than 1,000. The unmanned aircraft blast missiles at targets, directed by a computer thousands of miles away. The High Commissioner said: “I think time is running out until the Pakistan government can take a stand.” They will have to at some stage take punitive actions to stop them. They have got means to take such actions to defend their own frontier and territories.
“But that will inflame the situation and stop the War on Terror and that is not what we want.”
The US military claim drones have “decimated” the al-Qaeda leadership since 2008 with no reported civilian casualties.
But Mr Hasan said: “We know the damage — destroyed schools, communities, hospitals. They are civilians — children, women, families. Our losses are enormous.
“Generally people think that deaths caused by drone attacks should be treated as war crimes. There is so much animosity that perhaps the Americans are the most hated people in the minds of the people in Pakistan.”
Mr Hasan urged Britain to tell the US its drone strikes are counter-productive.
On Iran, Mr Hasan said: “We would not like Israel to attack any country, irrespective of whether it’s Iran or any nuclear country. We wouldn’t like to be seen as part of Israel’s campaign against any country. If Israel attacks Iran, it will have an impact on Pakistan as well.
He warned that India and Gulf countries could also get involved in any conflict.
Historian Mark Almond said of Mr Hasan’s declarations: “This represents an escalation in tension.”
Freaky, fascinating, fearsome: The CIA and alleged nuclear arms sales to al Qaeda
2The following article highlights a number of reasons that Thomas Jefferson seems dead-on when he advocated a foreign policy of non-intervnetionism.
In an accusatory and incendiary article, 
EUTimes.net describes a deadly gun fight between accused CIA agent Raymond Allen Davis, his arrest by Pakistani intelligence, and his alleged attempt to sell al Qaeda “nuclear material” and “biological agents.”
Is this proof of a massive conspiracy by rogue American intelligence agents to supply terrorists with weapons that will be used against civilian targets in order to fuel the “War on Terror?”
Or is it simply a clever setup by the CIA looking for al Qaeda members trying to buy nuclear arms?
If the rational “setup” answer is correct, why did a gunfight start between Davis and the Pakistanis who would likely be on “our side” in the war with al Qaeda? Although I agree there is a lot of assumption in that statement; why would deadly force be used–in a crowded area with extremely high risk of capture–if a simple conversation behind closed doors would have sufficed?
This tragic event takes place within a chaotic and wildly emotional climate of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan after–among many other major problems–continuous aerial drone strikes on Pakistani targets believed to be linked to al Qaeda have killed hundreds, including many civilians.
Many Pakistanis want their government to stand up to American influence believe in “vast U.S. conspiracy against them.”
Raymond Allen Davis’ gunfight and arrest was also reported in The Washington Post however an anonymous U.S. official said that “both sides agree [the killed Pakistanis] were probably would-be robbers” and that Davis was only a “member of the technical and administrative staff at the U.S. Embassy.”
The Washington Post continues to state that, “The shooting, as well as ambiguous answers from U.S. officials about whether Davis was part of the CIA, have fanned speculation that the incident was not a botched robbery but a deadly confrontation between spies.”
Whatever the case may be, the world is far too complex for us to think our chess games will not have ramifications and blowback that is beyond our control. When you view events like the ones described here with long-term vision, do you feel that way too?
The CIA calls the reaction to acts this “blowback.” Here’s the former head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit Michael Scheuer (with an intro from Ron Paul) describing the phenomenon:
To discover more details on the complex, intense and shaky relationship between Pakistan and The US, have a look: