Obama admits Pakistan drone attacks

marslanqaisar · #1 Wednesday, February 01, 2012

US president says use of drones is "kept on very tight leash" in rare acknowledgement of controversial missile strikes.

The US drone programme has provoked protests in Pakistan over concerns that many of its casualties are civilians

US President Barack Obama has confirmed that unmanned drones have regularly struck Pakistan’s tribal areas in his government’s efforts to dismantle what it alleges are al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the region.

Obama's rare public acknowledgement of the US drone programme in Pakistan came on Monday during an hour-long online video chat with users of the Google social network.

Obama said the strikes were a “targeted focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists”.

The president said “a lot” of the strikes had targeted "al-Qaeda suspects who are up in very tough terrain” in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), along the border with Afghanistan, long believed to be a hub of activity for armed groups.

"For us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot more intrusive military action than the ones we're already engaging in."

The controversial drone programme run by the CIA has often been met with protests in Pakistan amid concerns of civilian casualties. The Pakistani government publicly protests the operations, but is believed to support them.

A spokesperson for Pakistan's foreign ministry reiterated the government's public protest in response to Obama's comments.

"Notwithstanding tactical advantages of drone strikes, we are of the firm view that these are unlawful, counterproductive and hence unacceptable," Abdul Basit said.

High death toll

The New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington, says drone strikes in Pakistan have killed between 1,715 and 2,680 people in the past eight years.

According to the AFP news agency, the number of missiles that struck the tribal region went down from 101 in 2010 to 64 in 2011.

Amnesty International, the UK-based rights group, called for the US to pay closer attention to the Pakistani civilians being killed by drones.

"The US authorities must give a detailed explanation of how these strikes are lawful and what is being done to monitor civilian casualties and ensure proper accountability," Sam Zarifi Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director, said.

"What are the rules of engagement? What proper legal justification exists for these attacks? While the President's confirmation of the use of drones in Pakistan is a welcome first step towards transparency, these and other questions need to be answered."

Iraq use limited

Obama, however, played down the use of drones in Iraq, saying the programme was very limited and focused mainly on protecting the US embassy in Baghdad.

"The truth is we're not engaging in a bunch of drone attacks inside Iraq. There's some surveillance to make sure that our embassy compound is protected."

Earlier, the New York Times newspaper had reported that the increasing use of drones in Iraq had outraged Iraqi officials.

The paper, citing a senior US official, said the US government was in talks with the Iraqi authorities, seeking authorisation for the drone operations. But it quoted three Iraqi officials saying they were unaware of such efforts.

"I think that there's this perception that we're just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy nilly," Obama added. "It is important for everybody to understand that this is kept on a very tight leash."

Obama admits Pakistan drone attacks - Americas - Al Jazeera English

marslanqaisar · #2 Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Pakistani foreign minister heads to Kabul as leaked report piles more pressure on already strained diplomatic relations.

Pakistan boycotted last year's Bonn conference on Afghanistan in protest of a deadly cross-border attack [Reuters]

Pakistan's foreign minister heads to Kabul on Wednesday with Afghan-Pakistani relations under fresh strain over a leaked NATO report claiming that Pakistan's security services are helping the Taliban, and suggesting that the group is poised to regain power.

Hina Rabbani Khar, the Pakistani foreign minister, is due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai on a one-day visit to Kabul aimed at improving strained relations between the two neighbours.

But the meeting, heralded by the Afghan foreign ministry as a "new co-operation phase" between the antagonistic neighbours, was overshadowed by the leaked report, obtained by the BBC and the UK's Times newspaper.

While the allegations that Pakistan's security services are helping the Taliban have been made time and again, the timing of the leak appeared to place fresh strain on already fractured diplomatic ties.

The report is derived from thousands of interrogations and alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders, the BBC and the Times said.

Pakistan denounced the report, calling it "frivolous" and reiterating its non-interference in Afghanistan.

"This is frivolous, to put it mildly. We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan and expect all other states to strictly adhere to this principle," said Abdul Basit, a foreign ministry spokesman.

Wednesday’s meeting comes with bilateral and trilateral meetings (including the US) still frozen since the September assassination of Afghanistan’s chief peace negotiator, Burhanuddin Rabbani, which one Afghan minister blamed on Pakistani spies.

In December, Pakistan boycotted a major conference in Germany on the future of Afghanistan to protest against a cross-border US air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26. It also closed down the crucial supply routes that NATO forces uses.

Khar meets her Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rasoul and Karzai amid tentative moves towards negotiations in Qatar involving the US and the Taliban, who were removed from power by a 2001 US-led invasion.

Karzai has given a lukewarm welcome to the Taliban opening a political office in the Gulf state, but is wary of being sidelined and has insisted that his government should have a central role in any peace talks.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2...357228690.html

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