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Enrique

(27,461 posts)
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 01:29 PM Apr 2013

Obama's drone war kills 'others', not just al Qaida leaders

Source: McClatchy

WASHINGTON — Contrary to assurances it has deployed U.S. drones only against known senior leaders of al Qaida and allied groups, the Obama administration has targeted and killed hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified “other” militants in scores of strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area, classified U.S. intelligence reports show.

The administration has said that strikes by the CIA’s missile-firing Predator and Reaper drones are authorized only against “specific senior operational leaders of al Qaida and associated forces” involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks who are plotting “imminent” violent attacks on Americans.

“It has to be a threat that is serious and not speculative,” President Barack Obama said in a Sept. 6, 2012, interview with CNN. “It has to be a situation in which we can’t capture the individual before they move forward on some sort of operational plot against the United States.”

Copies of the top-secret U.S. intelligence reports reviewed by McClatchy, however, show that drone strikes in Pakistan over a four-year period didn’t adhere to those standards.

The intelligence reports list killings of alleged Afghan insurgents whose organization wasn’t on the U.S. list of terrorist groups at the time of the 9/11 strikes; of suspected members of a Pakistani extremist group that didn’t exist at the time of 9/11; and of unidentified individuals described as “other militants” and “foreign fighters.”

In a response to questions from McClatchy, the White House defended its targeting policies, pointing to previous public statements by senior administration officials that the missile strikes are aimed at al Qaida and associated forces.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/04/09/188062/obamas-drone-war-kills-others.html#storylink=cpy

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/04/09/188062/obamas-drone-war-kills-others.html

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Obama's drone war kills 'others', not just al Qaida leaders (Original Post) Enrique Apr 2013 OP
recruiting for al queda, in the name of security nt msongs Apr 2013 #1
...and thereby justifying the next several invasions FiveGoodMen Apr 2013 #2
more innocents died from soldiers , be real larkrake Apr 2013 #3
Just being there recruits Al Queda members larkrake Apr 2013 #4
 

larkrake

(1,674 posts)
4. Just being there recruits Al Queda members
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 06:24 PM
Apr 2013

We should not be there, never should have been. Special forces could have taken out the guilty in weeks, but Cheney wanted billions. We are the bull in the china shop. The Pentagon is so damned corrupt, so self serving.

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