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Yemeni tells US of drone strike that killed innocents

Zarvan

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Yemeni civil engineer Faisal Ahmed Nasser Bin Ali Jaber says a U.S. drone strike killed his brother-in-law and nephew, two civilian bystanders in late August 2012. He says the drone attacks have made al Qaeda more popular among the younger generation and he wants the U.S. government to investigate civilian deaths and be held accountable.

By Michael Isikoff, National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News
A Yemeni civil engineer has provided White House officials with a first-hand account of a controversial CIA drone strike last year that he says "terrorized" his small village, scattered body parts near the local mosque and mistakenly killed two members of his family -- an imam who had denounced al Qaeda and a local police officer.


Two National Security Council officials met Wednesday afternoon with Faisel bin Ali Jaber, 55, a Yemeni government engineer who is seeking U.S. government compensation for his village, a White House official confirmed to NBC News.

"This is significant, this is a breakthrough,” said Alka Pradhan, a lawyer for Reprieve, a London-based human rights group that helped sponsor Jaber's visit and who attended the meeting. "This is the first time that a drone strike victim has come to the United States and met with members of the U.S. government."

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In an earlier interview with NBC News, Jaber described what happened on Aug. 29, 2012, when Hellfire missiles fired from a CIA drone struck Khashamir, the village where he lives in eastern Yemen.

Moments after hearing the humming sound of a drone buzzing over the village, "We saw a flash of light-and a huge explosion,” said Jaber, 55, an engineer with the Yemeni Environmental Protection Agency. “… We thought a mountain was falling on us."

When he rushed to the scene, Jaber said, he discovered a bloody scene – legs, arms and a head strewn on the ground. Among the five he later learned had been killed, he said, were his brother-in-law, the local imam, and Jaber's 26-year-old nephew, a traffic policeman. He said the attack had only made al Qaeda "more popular" and that young people in his village were "infused with anger," including two local teenagers who left to join the terrorist group, never to be heard from again.

“They would join al Qaeda or any other group that would be able to get them revenge," he said of the youths.

Jaber also briefed about a half-dozen members of Congress on the attack during his five-day visit to the U.S.

U.S. officials declined to comment on Jaber's account of the drone strike, sticking to a standard policy of refusing to discuss the specifics of any particular strikes other than to confirm those that result in the deaths of high-level al Qaeda militants.

Jaber’s vivid description of the attack comes as the Obama administration faces increasing pressure to reveal what it knows about civilian casualties in drone strikes followng reports by the United Nations and human rights groups in the last month contending that as many as 600 non-combatants have been killed in Pakistan and scores more in Yemen.

"It's one thing to read about collateral damage. It's another to talk to someone who lost their brother-in-law and their nephew," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, who also met with Jaber on Wednesday. "I was struck by the perspective that people in his village go about their lives thinking, at any moment, that if they make the wrong turn, or are in the wrong place at the wrong time, the heavens may open up and it may be the end of their existence."

After a dramatic ramp up in the early years of President Barack Obama's administration, the numbers of drone strikes targeting al Qaeda militants have recently tapered off : There have been 25 in Pakistan this year, down from 46 in 2012, and 23 in Yemen (including one this week that is reported to have killed three al Qaeda militants) down from 42 last year, according to the Long War Journal, which closely tracks the strikes.

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But despite Obama's acknowledgement last May that the strikes have led to civilian casualties "that will haunt us as long as live," the administration has resisted demands by human rights groups that it provide any public accounting of those deaths. This prompted the Senate Intelligence Committee to approve an amendment earlier this month that would require an annual public tally on the numbers of militants and civilians killed in such strikes. (The House Intelligence Committee is poised to take up a similar amendment, sponsored by Schiff, on Thursday.)

The CIA also declined to comment. But an Obama administration official, who responded to NBC News’ inquiries on condition of anonymity, said in an email: "We take extraordinary care to make sure that our counterterrorism actions are in accordance with all applicable domestic and international law and that they are consistent with U.S. values and policy. Of particular note, before we take any counterterrorism strike outside areas of active hostilities, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured -- the highest standard we can set."

131120-yemen-drone-map-hmed-636p.380;380;7;70;0.jpg

Human Rights Watch

Locations of the six U.S. targeted killings in Yemen documented in a recent Human Rights Watch report.

The strike recounted by Jaber was prominently featured in a recent Human Rights Watch report that focused on six drone and missile strikes in Yemen that it says killed 82 people -- including 57 civilians.

According to Jaber's account, one of the victims, his brother in law, Salim bin Ali Jaber, an imam and father of seven, had just given a sermon at the local mosque criticizing al Qaeda and challenging the group to justify its actions.

"His last words, his last sermon was that there wasn't anything in the Quran that justified the killing of innocent civilians," Jaber said. "It's not in our religion."

After the sermon, three men armed with rifles arrived in the village and asked to meet with Salim-apparently to confront him about his anti-al Qaeda message. As Salim left the mosque to meet the visitors, Jaber said, the drones were heard buzzing above and the explosions occurred.

Days later, Jaber said, he got a call from a Yemeni counterterrorism official who apologized for the attack and told him that the killing of Salim had been a "mistake."

But Jaber said that's not acceptable. "I want an investigation to know who was responsible for the deaths … and who will be held accountable," he said, adding that he wants compensation for his village, such as a road named for his brother-in-law. "The whole village were victims of this strike. The village was paralyzed by this. … Most importantly, people are still living in fear."
Yemeni tells White huse of US drone strike that he says killed innocent kin - Investigations
@Aeronaut @Leader @WebMaster @Oscar @Jazzbot @Yzd Khalifa @Arabian Legend @al-Hasani @BLACKEAGLE and others
 
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While I deplore all loss of innocent lives caused by NATO and work to reduce that, I also gotta say;

If NATO kills innocent muslims, it's an international scandal to muslims.
If Muslims kill innocent muslims, I see hardly any complaints from muslims, other than in the form of calls for retaliation strikes.. That's been like this since 9/11/2001 at least.

I think that if NATO would completely withdraw from all muslim lands, you'd see an increase in bloodshed among muslims, possibly a big one.
 
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While I deplore all loss of innocent lives caused by NATO and work to reduce that, I also gotta say;

If NATO kills innocent muslims, it's an international scandal to muslims.
If Muslims kill innocent muslims, I see hardly any complaints from muslims, other than in the form of calls for retaliation strikes.. That's been like this since 9/11/2001 at least.

I think that if NATO would completely withdraw from all muslim lands, you'd see an increase in bloodshed among muslims, possibly a big one.

That is because you don't know what you are talking about or following Arab news, social media, forums, newspapers, peoples views etc. So you have this idea of Muslims or Arabs accepting civilian killings.

The point is that this strategy by USA (not sure why you as a Dutch person have the need to defend them having no ties to that country) in Yemen fighting "Al-Qaeda" militants is a failed one. It is very easy to use a monitored drone from somewhere in Nevada and kill 100-150 terrorists a year while killing roughly a similar number of civilians. For each civilian you kill 10 more people will join Al-Qaeda or feel the need to avenge those killed. Yemen is a traditional country where honor is very important. That is a utterly failed tactic.

Instead USA, if they really cared that much about the security of Yemen, the region and the world, help the Yemeni government to fight poverty which is the main root for all the problems, help the central government to become stronger, help negotiate for the North-South divide problems, take a HARD stance on the Zaydi Houthi rebels who ironically are not targeted by those drones despite being basically a similar organization just with another name and sect and supported by the US "arch enemy" Mullahistan (Iran).

Yes, is that why the region was very calm until the West started to meddle? And I find it funny that a European is talking about killing each other.

You have the UNDISPUTED world record in that discilipne. You killed how many of each other during WW1 and WW2? Just 2 generations ago. 40-50 MILLION? LOL. We need like 1000 other similar wars as those right now to happen without a stop for the next 50 years or so to even come close to that number.

Stop the moral preaching and for once read about what you comment on more thoroughly than what you once read on BBC from time to time when you hear about another drone attack in the beautiful and ancient land that is Yemen.
 
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That is because you don't know what you are talking about or following Arab news, social media, forums, newspapers, peoples views etc. So you have this idea of Muslims or Arabs accepting civilian killings.

Actually I have that from people on this and other muslim forums. Local mass media here is silent about such matters.

The point is that this strategy by USA (not sure why you as a Dutch person have the need to defend them having no ties to that country)

extremist muslims are a threat to all but their own leaders and soldiers.

in Yemen fighting "Al-Qaeda" militants is a failed one. It is very easy to use a monitored drone from somewhere in Nevada and kill 100-150 terrorists a year while killing roughly a similar number of civilians. For each civilian you kill 10 more people will join Al-Qaeda or feel the need to avenge those killed. Yemen is a traditional country where honor is very important. That is a utterly failed tactic.

"roughly a similar number of civilians" - got any evidence for that? because (a) the number of muslim civilian casualties by nato is a lot lower than the number of terrorists killed, according to western sources, and (b) muslims tend to inflate the number of civilian casualties, hiding behind their burial customs and extra graves filled with dead goat..

Instead USA, if they really cared that much about the security of Yemen, the region and the world, help the Yemeni government to fight poverty which is the main root for all the problems,

The US government can't vote at the voting booth for all the muslims in muslim countries..
It's up to you to choose better quality leaderships, who focus on fighting corruption rather than secretly embracing it, and who focus on creating a fair economy instead of enforcing some set of religious lifestyle rules on their constituents with force.

help the central government to become stronger, help negotiate for the North-South divide problems, take a HARD stance on the Zaydi Houthi rebels who ironically are not targeted by those drones despite being basically a similar organization just with another name and sect and supported by the US "arch enemy" Mullahistan (Iran).

Well, with muslim governments complaining about those drone strikes all the time, I guess the CIA guys have to prioritize their targets..

Yes, is that why the region was very calm until the West started to meddle?

We "meddled" in 2 ways as far as I can see: (1) creating Isreal, and (2) buying your oil in large quantities. These 2 got connected when Israel was attacked by 6 muslim nations and NATO backed Israel up, resulting in that serious oil price hike in the 1970s, and more secret meddling by oil customers in oil selling nations to prevent a repeat of that serious attempt of muslim nations to turn oil consumers like nato into their lap dogs (political & economic slaves).

And I find it funny that a European is talking about killing each other.
You have the UNDISPUTED world record in that discilipne. You killed how many of each other during WW1 and WW2? Just 2 generations ago. 40-50 MILLION? LOL. We need like 1000 other similar wars as those right now to happen without a stop for the next 50 years or so to even come close to that number.

What's funny is the muslim tendency to bring up the suffering and sins of long dead generations to accuse the current generation of their foes. Bringing up the far past in this way only serves to make peace now and in the future that much harder to reach.

Stop the moral preaching and for once read about what you comment on more thoroughly than what you once read on BBC from time to time when you hear about another drone attack in the beautiful and ancient land that is Yemen.

Oh, I should stop my moral preaching so extremist muslims can continue their moral 'preaching'??....

Wipe that sand out of your eyes please, and see that the sky is indeed blue as i've been claiming it is..
 
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Actually I have that from people on this and other muslim forums. Local mass media here is silent about such matters.



extremist muslims are a threat to all but their own leaders and soldiers.



"roughly a similar number of civilians" - got any evidence for that? because (a) the number of muslim civilian casualties by nato is a lot lower than the number of terrorists killed, according to western sources, and (b) muslims tend to inflate the number of civilian casualties, hiding behind their burial customs and extra graves filled with dead goat..



The US government can't vote at the voting booth for all the muslims in muslim countries..
It's up to you to choose better quality leaderships, who focus on fighting corruption rather than secretly embracing it, and who focus on creating a fair economy instead of enforcing some set of religious lifestyle rules on their constituents with force.



Well, with muslim governments complaining about those drone strikes all the time, I guess the CIA guys have to prioritize their targets..



We "meddled" in 2 ways as far as I can see: (1) creating Isreal, and (2) buying your oil in large quantities. These 2 got connected when Israel was attacked by 6 muslim nations and NATO backed Israel up, resulting in that serious oil price hike in the 1970s, and more secret meddling by oil customers in oil selling nations to prevent a repeat of that serious attempt of muslim nations to turn oil consumers like nato into their lap dogs (political & economic slaves).



What's funny is the muslim tendency to bring up the suffering and sins of long dead generations to accuse the current generation of their foes. Bringing up the far past in this way only serves to make peace now and in the future that much harder to reach.



Oh, I should stop my moral preaching so extremist muslims can continue their moral 'preaching'??....

Wipe that sand out of your eyes please, and see that the sky is indeed blue as i've been claiming it is..

Yes, English media. In reality you have no clue about the Arab or Muslim world since I doubt that you even speak one single language native to the Muslim world. So don't give me some forums full of teenagers living in the West of a Muslim background as a example. Not representative at all. They grew up in a totally different environment often with very different norms. You are telling me that your average Moroccan Joe living somewhere in a Amsterdam "ghetto" like environment is representative for Moroccans living in Morocco, the whole Arab or Muslim world?
I know, unlike you, what I am talking about since I was born in the ME and have lived in both the West (EUROPE and 1 year in USA due to studies) and I live right now in Europe due to studies and I am frequently visiting the oldest part of the world - the Middle East.

Are you crazy? Extremists people are very much a threat for all Muslims and its leaders since most of the people killed/attacked by such people are NATIVES. Come again. If this is your level then I better not even be replying to your post. Let us see once I read and answer other parts of your post.

I don't have the exact numbers but I know that many civilians die and that is a fact. Also the Americans have no clue who they bomb or about the casualties. Those drones attacks are often made in the deep mountains of Northern and Southern Yemen where there are often no real governmental control so the Yemeni government cannot even confirm who got killed.

Haha, the easy way out. Yemen would not have all those problems, at least many of them, had it not been for Western meddling or before exploration and colonization. Let me beat up a stranger to death nearly who was a football star before the beating and then laugh at him for not being as good anymore because I destroyed his knees and legs. Man, nice logic.

No, the American government could clean up the mess they started by supporting Taliban/Al-Qaeda elements in Afghanistan during the 1980's when they fought a proxy war against the Soviets.

And if the Americans can spend millions of dollars on a drone war then surely they could help Yemen fight against poverty, make it more stable etc. Hey, maybe such a approach would make people like USA and create a future ally that both parties can benefit from. Yemen is a ancient country - one of the oldest in the world with a very strategic location. We are not talking about Kosovo here. Americans could very much need a friendly Yemen in the future.

Eh, the Yemeni government supports the strikes. So do other Muslim governments. The problem is that most of the Muslim governments are corrupt and lapdogs of foreigners and only worry about filling their own pockets.

They don't care if a whole family gets killed in Pakistan or Yemen as long as 1 terrorists gets killed. This is the harsh reality.

Who are we? You are a Dutch person. Your country is very irrelevant in the world stage. You are not an American and have no need to talk in their name. Nor that of any other European power.

Don't care about the tiring Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this topic. Not the topic. Talk about something else. All that happened before I was born and has nothing to do with me.

LOL. Far past? Kid, that happened only 68 years ago. When your grandfather was a kid probably and your father maybe a baby. I was just telling you to mind your own business and that your history is the most bloody of all in this world and that we need 1000 more wars to reach your level. Not my problem that you can't stand to hear the truth.

What has this to do with "extremists Muslims". I am saying that the drone strikes are not a success and that has nothing to do with being a "extremist Muslims". Non-Muslims and Westerners and several other human rights organization are against such a approach too. If it really worked on the ground, WHICH IT DOES not - Al-Qaeda in Yemen has never been as popular and strong as now since the drone attacks started, then I would support it.

But it does not but you are too empty-headed to understand that which is again not my problem hence you should stop preaching and stick to issues you know something about. Tulips for example.
 
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@al-Hasani

The leaders that were around 68 years ago are probably not even alive anymore, considering our leaders are 40+ when they become leader at the national level.. You claim the current generation has not learned from their mistakes (and successes), well, we have.

You claim, like other semi-extremist muslims, that all muslim problems of today are created by non-muslims. Or don't you? Then I want to see you admit all muslim leadership mistakes of the past 50 years.

You complain about civilian casualties caused by nato's quite necessary campaigns to prune terrorist organisations, but do you or do you not acknowledge that many muslim countries engage in state sponsored terrorism (which tends to create more civilian casualties than western forces ever did among you)?

State-sponsored terrorism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saudi Arabia is said to be the world's largest source of funds for Salafi jihadist terrorist militant groups, such as al-Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban, and Lashkar-e-Taiba in South Asia, and donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide, according to Hillary Clinton.[110] According to a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state, "Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups."[111]

and drone strikes are a great success, otherwise the pakistani taliban for instance wouldn't be threatening the more moderate pakistani leaders into asking the US to stop drone strikes over Pakistan. and every dead terrorist is one who can't kill. i'm pretty sure the world would've seen more innocent lives lost by terrorist muslims if drone strikes weren't happening.

and I think nato officials, all along the chain of command, from trigger person to president, care more about the innocent lives lost than you think or want to admit. or they wouldn't have come up with those new explosives for drone missiles, that decrease their kill range from 10 meters to 3 meters..

and sorry, but we westerners give pretty much every muslim land in the middle east development aid. development aid which gets stolen by officials elected by the locals, whether it's for food or pay for local muslim government soldiers or military equipment... once again muslims, you gotta be smart at the voting booth. overly nationalistic or tribe-loyal leaders -> bad. greedy leaders -> very bad. etc.

and, the taliban of afghanistan that we helped in the 1980s were under attack from the Russians, and it served the US interest of containing communism (had meglanomaniac ambitions too, back then) to help them out at that time. When they turned on the US (over what again? i'd love to hear some valid arguments for that one, extremist-muslim supporters..), they invited the problems they have today onto themselves.

and finally, I don't get my opinion only from english mass media. I get the most important tidbits from muslim people from the middle east that I meet on various forums, either globetrotters like you, or actual citizens who stay put in some middle eastern / south-asian / african country. and nationalistic/(semi-)extremist muslims (like yourself) love to appear trustworthy and respectworthy, but the problem is that you are raised with nationalistic lies in an attacked-religion sauce that teach you to blame outsiders for all your problems, and rob you of any desire to improve your own culture (hint: start at local and intensive anti-terror and anti-corruption campaigns)..
 
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Nonsense not worthy replying. It seems that you live on a different planet.

Please stick to tulips and educate yourself on issues that you comment on.




Idiot.
 
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Nonsense not worthy replying. It seems that you live on a different planet.

Please stick to tulips and educate yourself on issues that you comment on.

.....

Idiot.

(1) i *have* educated myself about muslim problems.
(2) your refusal to reply i'll consider an admission of your failure to be able to refute what I said earlier.
(3) the real idiots are the ones who think violence is a valid tool to convert people to their own ways of worship, and all those who consider violence useful against enemies of theirs that they can NEVER hope to change by violence, and then claim that they have God's permission to do so, no less! oh wait, that's YOU and your foulmouthed friends here, ain't it?
 
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Stick to your tulips as I wrote before and worry about what is happening somewhere in Utrecht in your little insignificant country. Let the big boys alone.



 
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(1) i *have* educated myself about muslim problems.
(2) your refusal to reply i'll consider an admission of your failure to be able to refute what I said earlier.
(3) the real idiots are the ones who think violence is a valid tool to convert people to their own ways of worship, and all those who consider violence useful against enemies of theirs that they can NEVER hope to change by violence, and then claim that they have God's permission to do so, no less! oh wait, that's YOU and your foulmouthed friends here, ain't it?

'Peacefan' it's okay...we understand it's not your fault. Just don't forget the nightly dose next time buddy. We sympathize with you and will remind you so it doesn't happen again. Does this strike your memory?

t1larg.abilify.gi.jpg
 
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'Peacefan' it's okay...we understand it's not your fault. Just don't forget the nightly dose next time buddy. We sympathize with you and will remind you so it doesn't happen again. Does this strike your memory?

t1larg.abilify.gi.jpg

:lol::sarcastic::laugh::rofl:

Add that @GoodoldBoy to the list of intended recipients.
 
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:lol::sarcastic::laugh::rofl:

Add that @GoodoldBoy to the list of intended recipients.
lol.....you trying to troll me you dress wearing slave?..........go pick o some immigrants or women or something.......because here all youre going to get is the D............ive got a never ending supply for you terrorist sympathizers......a never ending supply.......
 
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'Peacefan' it's okay...we understand it's not your fault. Just don't forget the nightly dose next time buddy. We sympathize with you and will remind you so it doesn't happen again. Does this strike your memory?

t1larg.abilify.gi.jpg

I say people like you are more in need of that stuff than I ever will be, although in your cases (of you new but-buddies who are ganging up on me here now), i'd prescribe this alternative:

Thorazine_advert.jpg
 
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