sonicboom
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2009
- Messages
- 704
- Reaction score
- 2
Pakistan selects some drone targets
Monday, 02 Nov, 2009
The change in US policy led to the killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in August.
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration quietly decided last March to allow Pakistan to choose some of its own targets for drone attacks, according to the New Yorker, a prestigious US magazine.
Earlier last week, the magazine published a piece on the use of unmanned aircraft to target Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects in Fata. On Sunday, its author Jane Mayer gave an online interview to the readers, telling them that the Obama administration agreed to allow Pakistanis to select targets to calm down Islamabads protests over the drone attacks.
The change in US policy led to the killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in August.
The journalist, who interviewed senior US intelligence officials for the interview, wrote that on Aug 5, officials at the Central Intelligence Agency, in Langley, Virginia, watched a live video feed relaying close-up footage of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan.
He could be seen reclining on the rooftop of his father-in-laws house, in Zanghara, a hamlet in South Waziristan. It was a hot summer night, and he was joined outside by his wife and his uncle, a medic; at one point, the remarkably crisp images showed that Mehsud, who suffered from diabetes and a kidney ailment, was receiving an intravenous drip.
The image remained just as stable when the CIA remotely launched two Hellfire missiles from the Predator. Authorities watched the fiery blast in real time. After the dust cloud dissipated, all that remained of Mehsud was a detached torso. Eleven others died: his wife, his father-in-law, his mother-in-law, a lieutenant, and seven bodyguards.
In her interview, Ms Mayer noted that the use of unmanned aircraft to kill militants had both good news and bad news. According to the CIA, theyve killed more than half of the 20 most wanted Al Qaeda suspects. The bad news is that theyve inflamed anti-American sentiment, because theyve also killed hundreds of civilians.
DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Pakistan selects some drone targets: magazine
Monday, 02 Nov, 2009
The change in US policy led to the killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in August.
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration quietly decided last March to allow Pakistan to choose some of its own targets for drone attacks, according to the New Yorker, a prestigious US magazine.
Earlier last week, the magazine published a piece on the use of unmanned aircraft to target Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects in Fata. On Sunday, its author Jane Mayer gave an online interview to the readers, telling them that the Obama administration agreed to allow Pakistanis to select targets to calm down Islamabads protests over the drone attacks.
The change in US policy led to the killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in August.
The journalist, who interviewed senior US intelligence officials for the interview, wrote that on Aug 5, officials at the Central Intelligence Agency, in Langley, Virginia, watched a live video feed relaying close-up footage of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan.
He could be seen reclining on the rooftop of his father-in-laws house, in Zanghara, a hamlet in South Waziristan. It was a hot summer night, and he was joined outside by his wife and his uncle, a medic; at one point, the remarkably crisp images showed that Mehsud, who suffered from diabetes and a kidney ailment, was receiving an intravenous drip.
The image remained just as stable when the CIA remotely launched two Hellfire missiles from the Predator. Authorities watched the fiery blast in real time. After the dust cloud dissipated, all that remained of Mehsud was a detached torso. Eleven others died: his wife, his father-in-law, his mother-in-law, a lieutenant, and seven bodyguards.
In her interview, Ms Mayer noted that the use of unmanned aircraft to kill militants had both good news and bad news. According to the CIA, theyve killed more than half of the 20 most wanted Al Qaeda suspects. The bad news is that theyve inflamed anti-American sentiment, because theyve also killed hundreds of civilians.
DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Pakistan selects some drone targets: magazine
