CIA Drone Operators Oppose Strikes as Helping al Qaeda

[kpete]

Source: IPS

CIA Drone Operators Oppose Strikes as Helping al Qaeda
By Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Jun 3, 2010 (IPS) - Some CIA officers involved in the agency's drone strikes programme in Pakistan and elsewhere are privately expressing their opposition to the programme within the agency, because it is helping al Qaeda and its allies recruit, according to a retired military officer in contact with them.

"Some of the CIA operators are concerned that, because of its blowback effect, it is doing more harm than good," said Jeffrey Addicott, former legal adviser to U.S. Special Forces and director of the Centre for Terrorism Law at St Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, in an interview with IPS.

Addicott said the CIA operatives he knows have told him the drone strikes are being used effectively by al Qaeda and Taliban leaders to recruit more militants.

CIA officers "are very upset" with the drone strike policy, Addicott said. "They'll do what the boss says, but they view it as a harmful exercise."


Read more: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51706

[Forkboy]

1. K&R

[Captain Hilts]

2. The method or the policy? Would fighter jets be better? Or, is the problem the policy itself? nt

[Soylent Brice]

3. K&R

[Jefferson23]

4. 5 STARS for the CIA who have come out against this policy, please

listen up Obama.

How much more blowback does our country want to take on?

[skeptical cynic]

5. Method and policy both show and understanding of behavior that is

simple and unschooled.

We're creating more "terrorists" than we're killing.

And I don't believe a person who is avenging the death of an innocent person is a terrorist.

But I do believe the pilot of a Predator drone who sits safety at a console 12,000 miles away from the target sipping an espresso drink is a coward and a mindless tool of empire.

[Mari333]

6. geezus h christ, anyone with half a brain knows this..but the USA LIKES its purported enemies

and likes making them...to keep the military industrial complex and corporations flush with money

[WileEcoyote]

7. They will be fired for

getting in the way of prospective business.

Arming all sides and reaping profits both ways is the CIA's business.