U.S. Plans New Drone Attacks in Pakistan
By JAY SOLOMON, SIOBHAN GORMAN and MATTHEW ROSENBERG
U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials are drawing up a fresh list of terrorist targets for Predator drone strikes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, part of a U.S. review of the drone program, according to officials involved.
Pakistani officials are seeking to broaden the scope of the program to target extremists who have carried out attacks against Pakistanis, a move they say could win domestic support. The Obama administration is weighing the effectiveness of the program against the risk that its unpopularity weakens an important ally.
Underlining the fragility of the situation, the U.S. believes Pakistan's top intelligence agency is directly supporting the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan, even as the U.S. targets those groups, says a person close to the deliberations.
The Central Intelligence Agency's drone program is important to Washington because areas of Pakistan remain a haven for Taliban and al Qaeda militants operating in Afghanistan.
The Obama administration is reviewing how it uses missile strikes to target militants on the border, according to national-security officials, as part of a broad review of its strategy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The administration considers the program a success, and the program isn't expected to be significantly curtailed. But officials familiar with the review say it could change the pace and size of the program, and make some technical refinements in an effort to hit targets faster. The review seeks to determine under what circumstances drones should be used, the officials say.
The broader reassessment could be announced as soon as Friday, according to people familiar with the matter. The review is believed to address plans for increasing troops and combating drug trafficking in Afghanistan, as well as strategies for strengthening institutions of civil government and building the economies in both countries.
President Barack Obama has declared the war in Afghanistan is a key foreign-policy priority, and the U.S. is sending an additional 17,000 troops to amplify U.S. efforts there.
Spokesmen for the White House's National Security Council, which is conducting the review, and the CIA said they couldn't confirm or comment on the review.
Officials reviewing the drones policy are assessing how destabilizing the strikes could be for Pakistan's government, which was elected last year.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani have quietly supported the attacks even though the strikes have stirred domestic unrest -- largely because they have killed some civilians, and many Pakistanis see al Qaeda as a greater threat to the U.S. than to Pakistan.
But Mr. Zardari's government has been shaky in recent weeks. Large-scale protests forced him last week to allow the reinstatement of Pakistan's Supreme Court chief justice, a major concession to his opponents that left him politically weakened.
Mr. Zardari was pressed by senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to resolve the conflict peacefully -- pressure that included a warning that his resistance could hurt the prospects of getting foreign aid for his country.
But stability in Mr. Zardari's government is seen in Washington as important to maintain support for U.S. efforts to strike at terrorist targets. Washington also wants to get Islamabad to take stronger steps against militants on the border.
If the Zardari government were to fall, U.S. officials say they would be unsure of the next government's support. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif have been publicly critical of the strikes, though what support they might offer the U.S. behind the scenes if they gain more power is uncertain, U.S. officials say.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials say they are continuing to find evidence Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency continues to support militant groups in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, and groups run by Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. "There is definite unhappiness that the U.S. is still finding direct links between the ISI and those three organizations, which are operating in Afghanistan," said a person working on the issue. Mr. Haqqani's network has been targeted in drone attacks, as has Taliban leader Mullah Omar, the person said.
Pakistani officials say they only maintain contacts with some elements of the Taliban and no longer directly support the militants.
U.S. officials say that telecommunications intercepts showed ISI officials were in contact with Mr. Haqqani's operatives when they bombed the Indian embassy in Kabul last July.
The Predators are seen to have hurt al Qaeda's leadership in the near term. U.S. and Pakistani officials say more than half of an initial list of 20 high-value targets have been either killed or captured over the past six months. But there remains a fear among U.S. allies that the strikes could fuel a political backlash in Pakistan that in the long run aids Islamist extremists.
"At some point, a line needs to be drawn" on the scope of the program, said a European official briefed on the review.
The review is examining ways to reduce the time it takes between identifying a target and when the Predators fire -- now less than 45 minutes -- said a former CIA official.
President Barack Obama concluded that the drones have been an effective weapon against al Qaeda since President George W. Bush accelerated the missile strikes last year. U.S. officials have seen evidence of disruption as militants devote more time to operational security, choose to sleep in orchards instead of buildings, and take more care about the people with whom they interact, said a person familiar with the evidence.
Already, the campaign has apparently stepped up attacks on the network of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is believed to be behind the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was Mr. Zardari's wife. In the fourth of a series of recent attacks targeting Mr. Mehsud's network, a drone attack Wednesday killed at least eight militants along the Pakistan-Afghan border, according to two Pakistani officials.
The intensified campaign could help win domestic support for the strikes because it shows that the drone attacks are targeting direct threats to Pakistan, said a Pakistani official.
There is a discussion about whether to expand the strikes to outside Pakistan's tribal areas, such as the province of Baluchistan. U.S. intelligence officials say they believe many of the Taliban's senior leaders, such as Mullah Omar, operate openly in the provincial capital of Quetta. The idea of going that far has prompted concern in Islamabad that such strikes will greatly increase the numbers of civilian casualties and further fuel unrest.
—Zahid Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this article.
U.S. Plans New Drone Attacks in Pakistan - WSJ.com
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Well this is interesting - apparently Pakistan is looking to broaden the strikes against targets its considers a major threat.
P.S: Is this the Jay Solomon (solomon2) who posts on this forum?