Drones Batter Qaeda and Allies Within Pakistan

[swag]

Source: New York Times

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A stepped-up campaign of American drone strikes over the past three months has battered Al Qaeda and its Pakistani and Afghan brethren in the tribal area of North Waziristan, according to a mid-ranking militant and supporters of the government there.

The strikes have cast a pall of fear over an area that was once a free zone for Al Qaeda and the Taliban, forcing militants to abandon satellite phones and large gatherings in favor of communicating by courier and moving stealthily in small groups, they said.

The drones, operated by the C.I.A., fly overhead sometimes four at a time, emitting a beelike hum virtually 24 hours a day, observing and tracking targets, then unleashing missiles on their quarry, they said.

The strikes have sharpened tensions between the local tribesmen and the militants, who have dumped bodies with signs accusing the victims of being American spies in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, they said.

The impact of the drone strikes on the militants’ operations — on freedom of movement, ability to communicate and the ease of importing new recruits to replace those who have been killed — has been difficult to divine because North Waziristan, at the nether reaches of the tribal area, is virtually sealed from the outside world.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/world/asia/05drones.html?ref=global-home

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. Drones should be able to seek out the enemy if used properly

[Iggo]

2. Thank gawd no innocent bystanders have been injured or killed.

'Cause that would suck royally.

[Renew Deal]

8. Like the people in the World Trade Center?

:shrug:

[Iggo]

9. Oh yeah! That's right!

Fuck those motherfuckers!

(Seriously, though: Yes, like the people in the World Trade Center.)

[Robb]

3. The Taliban have become the people of the Elephant.

Qu'ran story.

Have you considered how your Lord dealt with the people of the Elephant?
Did He not bring their evil scheme to nothing?
He sent down upon them flocks of birds (unknown in the land),
Shooting them with bullet-like stones of baked clay);
And so He rendered them like a field of grain devoured and trampled.

[cosmicone]

5. LMAO n/t

[Robb]

6. I'd take credit for the notion

...but it came out of Waziristan.

[cosmicone]

4. Mainly innocents die in these attacks.

Pakistani military/Taliban/ISI (they are one and the same) shield the real targets in a double-crossing game with the US.

Everyone in South Asia knows it. The only terrorists that get killed or caught are the expendable ones or the ones who run afoul of the Pakistani brass.

[Bigmack]

7. I find your skepticism ......

totally realistic. Damn near every one of these stories ends up with a "Whoops" followup a couple of days later. From various stories I've read, between 30 & 40% of the killed in drone raids are civilians.

The Repubs are outraged that a dime of their precious tax money might go for abortion, but how much goes to kill the innocent? And not a peep.

[zonkers]

10. Talk about psyops. I bet they have cheap decoy drones that just buzz, just to fuck with them.

[proteus_lives]

11. No doubt.

Deception is at the heart of warfare.

[madrchsod]

12. what a wonderfully written piece of propaganda...

Goebbels would be proud of his student.

[Robb]

13. Jane Perlez is a student of Goebbels?

Or were you employing hyperbole? :D

[bemildred]

14. Does this mean we don't have to call them "suspected US drones" anymore?

It can just be "US drones" that blow stuff up in Pakistan now?

[Robb]

15. Usually it's reported as a "suspected US drone attack"

...because, really, unless you're in the control room, it's a little hard to tell where a supersonic missile is coming from.

[bemildred]

16. Well then there are three things one could be suspicious of:

That is was done by the US, that it was a drone, that it was an attack. I had not considered the thought that these might be an accidents.

Nevertheless, given the enthusiasm with which the OP admits that we are doing this a lot in the Pakistani tribal areas, it would still seem to me that the "suspected" is completely unneccessary.

[maxsolomon]

17. Get used to it. The drones aren't stopping.

How realistic would it be to remove every female from Afghanistan? I'd feel much better about leaving if there were no women for the Taliban misogynists (and regular old Afghani men) to oppress.