US President Barack Obama has confirmed for the first time that US drones have targeted Taliban and al Qaeda militants on Pakistani soil, a programme that has escalated under his administration. The Pakistani government however, appeared to shrug off the confirmation but made a rare public acknowledgement that the programme had “tactical advantages”. Asked about drones in a chat with web users on Google+ and YouTube, Obama said “a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA”. “For the most part, they’ve been very precise precision strikes against al Qaeda and their affiliates, and we’re very careful in terms of how it’s been applied,” Obama said on Monday.
“This is a targeted focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists, who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases, and so on.” He said many strikes were carried out “on al Qaeda operatives in places where the capacities of that military in that country may not be able to get them”, such as the Tribal Areas. “For us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot more intrusive military action than the ones we’re already engaging in.” According to an AFP tally, 45 US missile strikes were reported in the tribal belt in 2009, 101 in 2010 and 64 in 2011. The New America Foundation think tank in Washington says drone strikes in Pakistan have killed between 1,715 and 2,680 people in the past eight years. Human rights campaigners have expressed deep concern over increased use of drone strikes. The State Department also confirmed it used surveillance drones to protect US diplomats in so-called “critical threat environments” overseas. The United States had until now refused to discuss the strikes publicly, but the programme has dramatically increased as the Obama administration looks to withdraw all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Tactical advantages: “Notwithstanding tactical advantages of drone strikes, we are of the firm view that these are unlawful, counterproductive and hence unacceptable,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told AFP in a text message on Monday.
“Our view has always been very clear and position principled,” he added. It was back in October last year that the US defense secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged the CIA’s drone programme but he did not specifically say that they were used in Pakistan. According to US and other western officials, Pakistani authorities agree to the programme despite popular opposition at home. But the authorities in western capital also admit that the drone strikes fuel widespread anti-American resentment, which is running high in Pakistan since US/NATO airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November, last year.
The US/NATO investigation had blamed the deaths on errors and faulty communications on both sides. But Pakistan has rejected those findings and said the strikes were carried out intentionally.
In the wake of NATO airstrikes, Pakistan is reviewing its relationship with the United States and has kept its border closed to NATO supplies since November, 2011.
It also ordered the US to vacate Shamsi airbase in Balochistan, which was believed to have been a hub for the CIA drone programme. Moreover, Islamabad boycotted an International conference on Peace and Security in Afghanistan that was held in Bonn.
Now that the review of Pakistan-US relationship is about to end and a joint session of parliament is likely to take a view of recommendations prepared by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) in next two or three days, Pakistani diplomats say that the NATO supplies are expected to be restored but with taxation being imposed on NATO containers.
“Both the sides are also working on reaching some understanding on the drone strikes as Pakistan wants the US to go for very limited number of these attacks in future and that too in accordance with the intelligence information provided by the Pakistani officials,” said a diplomat here requesting anonymity.
I would laugh if it wasn't so tragic
1) Stealth or no-stealth, 5th generation or 4th generation, fighter aircraft are as obsolete for India's defence as bows and arrows. They can be used against neighbors such as Pakistan and China but the United States is EVERYBODY'S neighbor. It has already invaded and occupied Afghanistan, a part of traditional India and will expand its occupation to the rest of the subcontinent. I am India's expert in strategic defence, the father of India's strategic program including the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program and the world's greatest scientist (my biography is in Marquis' Who's Who in the World, 2012 and earlier editions). The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan means the coast-to-coast destruction of the U.S. by India; see my blog titled 'Nuclear Supremacy for India Over U.S.', which can be found by a Yahoo search with the title, for what India needs to do. Russia and other white countries are U.S. allies. These are the enemies to destroy. All other enemies will be taken care of automatically. Conventional arms are worthless for destroying the United States. Nuclear arms to destroy the United States with a FIRST STRIKE — this is the key — are cheap and easy to produce with technology India already has. All the money earmarked for fighter aircraft etc., and more, must be pumped into research, development and production of missiles able to deliver India's nuclear warheads — in the thousands — to the continental United States. India's missile scientists & engineers should have tested such missiles to their full range decades ago — everything else, including short and intermediate range missiles and missile defence, is secondary and tertiary — but have not done that because of prohibitions by India's C.I.A.-controlled governments. This must be done on a war footing; the first step is to destroy RAW through which the C.I.A. rules India; see my blog. Producing such weapons in the thousands and very quickly is important. This means that the vast majority of them must be land-based, including road and rail-mobile, missiles rather than submarine-based which take a long time to produce.
2) In the modern world nuclear weapons are the only weapons that matter. India has done a negligible amount of testing of nuclear warheads. India must resume the testing of nuclear warheads immediately, both of warheads already in the stockpile and of new designs including thermonuclear warheads. These warheads must have non-digital triggers that cannot be interfered with by microwave signals from satellites, as I have discussed in press releases included in GaddafiCrimeDOTblogspotDOTcom , IndianAirForcePilotsMurderDOTblogspotDOTcom , and JoinIndiaWarOfIndependenceDOTblogspotDOTcom .
3) The Indian Army and Air Force are worthless for destroying India's number one enemy — the United States. Everyone in New Delhi is a collaborator with the enemy. But India's nuclear forces obey Satish Chandra; he does not need India's conventional forces or the rest of the government and citizenry to defend India which will be done by nuclear means, by the simultaneous nuclear destruction of New Delhi, Washington and New York with a warning that additional U.S. cities will be destroyed, with nuclear warheads already emplaced in them by special forces, if there is any retaliation. Five years later the coast-to-coast destruction of the United States will be carried out.
Satish Chandra
1) Stealth or no-stealth, 5th generation or 4th generation, fighter aircraft are as obsolete for India's defence as bows and arrows. They can be used against neighbors such as Pakistan and China but the United States is EVERYBODY'S neighbor. It has already invaded and occupied Afghanistan, a part of traditional India and will expand its occupation to the rest of the subcontinent. I am India's expert in strategic defence, the father of India's strategic program including the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program and the world's greatest scientist (my biography is in Marquis' Who's Who in the World, 2012 and earlier editions). The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan means the coast-to-coast destruction of the U.S. by India
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