US President Barack Obama is following the drone war in Pakistan as an “election campaign strategy” for next year’s
presidential race in the United States, an investigative journalist tells Press TV.
“The president has personal political interests that certainly are aligned with the interest of the CIA,” Gareth Porter said in an interview with Press TV’s US Desk on Tuesday. The US president has an interest in showing that he is successful in combating al-Qaeda, he added.
Porter said as far as the CIA is concerned, the agency is engaged in the drone operations to “satisfy its own constituency, its own staff.” They (CIA authorities) had made commitment to the staff that we’re in this to stay.
That is to say we’re going to be committed to a drone war and there’s going to be lots of jobs,” he said. The US frequently carries out non-UN-sanctioned drone attacks on Pakistan’s tribal areas.
The attacks were initiated by former US President George W. Bush and have been escalated under President Obama.
The White House claims the attacks target al-Qaeda linked and pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
However, locals insist that the strikes mostly kill civilians. The issue of civilian casualties has strained relations between Islamabad and Washington.
Pakistan has repeatedly condemned the strikes as a violation of its sovereignty, asserting that such attacks have proven counterproductive in the so-called war against terrorism.
