US drone strikes in Pakistan claiming many civilian victims

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c203134838cc.jpg[/atsimg]

But Noor Behram says his painstaking work has uncovered an important – and unreported – truth about the US drone campaign in Pakistan's tribal region: that far more civilians are being injured or dying than the Americans and Pakistanis admit. The world's media quickly reports on how many militants were killed in each strike. But reporters don't go to the spot, relying on unnamed Pakistani intelligence officials.

Noor Behram believes you have to go to the spot to figure out whether those killed were really extremists or ordinary people living in Waziristan. And he's in no doubt. "For every 10 to 15 people killed, maybe they get one militant," he said. "I don't go to count how many Taliban are killed. I go to count how many children, women, innocent people, are killed."

The drone strikes are a secret programme run by the CIA to assassinate al-Qaida and Taliban extremists using remote, wild Waziristan as a refuge. The CIA does not comment on drones, but privately claims civilian casualties are rare.

www.guardian.co.uk...

This is terrible. I had no idea that the US droned Pakistan regularly and it seems disturbing to me that Pakistani intelligence would under report the actual casualties, why would they do that? It's as if their people are expendable in this 'war on terror'.

The statistics here are just awful and it really does take a man like Noor Behram to actually get the real numbers, if we just rely on the 'intelligence' of the governmental bodies to accurately report the numbers of civilian casualties then we may be pulling the wool over our eyes and allowing these horrible occurrences to continue unchallenged.

I really feel for the people over there.

But Obama said we are spreading Peace through kinetic military action

Plus he has a Peace Prize, so I think we should listen to the CIA and our government and trust them on this one...


(good post OP - /sarcasm )

A saying comes to mind: going to war for peace is like having sex for virginity. It just doesn't make any sense. I mean, the U.S. is just kind of casually invading half the middle east.

Unfortunately these drone strikes on Pakistan are not a new, or an uncommon occurrence. Killing 10-15 civilians for every 1 alleged militant seems to defeat the purpose. In fact, killing civilians is exactly what creates militants/terrorists in the first place - because if you kill one innocent person, you're left with very pissed off family members and friends that now hate those who caused their loved one's death. A vicious cycle.

Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Syria, we're droning all over the place. Obama calls them "assassinations" and he orders them directly.

All hail Emperor Obama!

Originally posted by Signals
But Obama said we are spreading Peace through kinetic military action

Plus he has a Peace Prize, so I think we should listen to the CIA and our government and trust them on this one...


(good post OP - /sarcasm )

edit on 17-7-2011 by Signals because: (no reason given)

i heard something hilarious (yet sad) today:

"Yup, Obama has fired more missiles than all the Peace Prize recipients combined!"

reply to post by EmVeeFF


Man that is a serious killer.

Our government does what Israel and Zionists tell it to do.

reply to post by CREAM


I guess that is somewhat beneficial to the US in a sense, it means they can continually justify the war while giving young arabs a reason to fight them.

Drone kill under Operation Black Ops

Pakistan is just as much to blame for allowing the drones to fly out of their own bases.

The use of drones is going to increase since the legality of their use is vague IMO.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by jam321


Well that's definitely an issue, the legality should be clearly defined and respected.

I did mention that the behavior of Pakistan in this situation is rather disturbing.

It is a casulalty of war unfortunately, especially when your enemy hides in civilian population centres.

its called friendly fire , the trigger happy U S forces are passed masters in this art.
ok so we massacred a village but we got the bad guy .

friendly fire or collateral damage , IT IS STILL MURDER OF INNOCENTS