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”.