The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tells Pakistan in advance about “broad areas” where it intends to take aim at suspected terrorists with drone strikes and interprets the other government’s silence and clearing of airspace as “tacit consent,” The Wall Street Journal said in a report on Wednesday.
Saying its sources were “US officials” and “two senior Obama administration officials”, the paper said the rationale used by the administration, “interpreting Pakistan’s acquiescence as a green light, has set off alarms among some administration legal officials. In particular, lawyers at the State Department, including top legal adviser Harold Koh, believe this rationale veers near the edge of what can be considered permission, though they still think the program is legal”.
Officially, the journal said, “Representatives of the White House’s National Security Council and CIA declined to discuss Pakistani consent, saying such information is classified.”
Officially, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the US to end the drone strikes, because people in Pakistan “hate the drone attacks”. The strikes are aimed at fighters from al Qaeda, the Taliban and other groups that allegedly use parts of Pakistan as a safe haven from which to launch attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a report from human rights researchers at the Stanford and New York University law schools alleges that the drone strikes in recent years have killed and injured many more Pakistani civilians — possibly close to 900 — than the US has acknowledged.
The New York Times at War blog says the report also concludes that the strikes have “alienated Pakistani public opinion and set a dangerous precedent under international law”.
Next to zardari, kiayani is the biggest traitor Pakistan has today. kiayani is two faced and a coward. He rides around in bullet proof Mercedes while poor soldiers get killed. If kiayani had any shame, he would have resigned after his total failure to protect Pakistan borders. He is only in for money. We will all read baout his corruption and incompetence after he retires.
I am tired of my repetitive statement that this drone war cant be proceeded until the feed back and support of intelligence agencies and GHQ respectively are not available to them but whole nation is following the stupid comments of IK like leaders that it is political govt or Musharraf who are responsible of all this.We are not realizing that we are victim of self-created frankenstein's monsters. The problem with them is that once the monster is unleashed, it cannot be reined in. Our agencies and its out of control but foreign controlled heads not once but all time plans such dirty games like creation of IJI,MMA, mehran bank case, mid night jackal , NRO, NATO supply agreements and this drone attacks as conditional maneuvering for maintaining their power plays in regional or national politics and all are resulting catastrophic effects on Pakistan and Pakistanis
Whether the US believes that it has the tacit approval of Pakistan for drone attacks or not, the point is who is going to stop the US from what it pleases to do, no one. Especially a country where the elite robs the treasury and invests this money overseas in private bank accounts, the very survival depends on assistance from the US or loans from the world bank, IMF, the institutions controlled by the US.
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