Monday, February 16, 2009

Pakistan Seethes After Killer Drone Disclosure

By Noah Shachtman Email
February 15, 2009 | 5:10:18 PM
Categories: Drones, Perils of Pakistan
Courtesy Of Wired Blog NetWork

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U.S. drones unleashed another attack on Pakistani militants Saturday -- reportedly killing more than 30 people in the process. It's the fifth attack this year and the second since Barack Obama took office, less than a month ago. But what everyone in Pakistan wants to know is: Was the attack launched from inside Pakistan itself?

On Thursday, U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein caused an international uproar, when she told an intelligence committee hearing that "as I understand it, these [drones] are flown out of a Pakistani base."

Up until then, Islamabad had allegedly kept up a kind of "don't ask, don't tell" policy towards the robotic strikes, which are deeply unpopular among the Pakistani public. Officials would denounce the drones in the press -- and then sneak peeks at the robo-planes' video feeds.

So the Pakistani government went into damage-control overdrive, after the Senator's little comment. "It was an off-the-cuff remark and not a revelation as some media reports have made it out to be," said Pakistani embassy spokesman Nadeem Kiani. "There are no foreign bases in Pakistan."

"We do have the facilities from where they can fly, but they are not being flown from Pakistani territory. They are being flown from Afghanistan," Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar added. "I do not know on what she based all this."

The Pentagon, meanwhile, seemed caught off-guard by the whole thing. "The first I have heard of it. I know nothing of it. I -- I’d, frankly, follow it up with her. I know nothing of it," Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

But Pakistan's press isn't buying it. "Official sources have lost all credibility. After all, we have been officially briefed on more than one occasion that no drone flew without the knowledge of the Pakistani military," says The News. "The brazenness with which the government has chosen to lie not only to its people but to Parliament shows how little it cares for either."

Islamabad "has remained stuck to its policy of denial for too long and this will, precisely for that reason, hurt more than anyone might have thought in Washington," the Daily Times says. "But the bow is already bent and drawn. The government will have to show some slick footwork to get out of this mess."

On Tuesday, counterinsurgency guru Dr. David Kilcullen told Danger Room that "if we want to strengthen our friends and weaken our enemies in Pakistan, bombing Pakistani villages with unmanned drones is totally counterproductive." That was two days before Feinstein's disclosure.

[Photo: USAF]

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