NOVANEWS
By Sajjad Shaukat
After the September 11 tragedy, the Muslim countries which joined the Bush’s fake global war
on terror became the target of the US state terrorism which still continues in one way or the
The US-led troops, supported by CIA have carried out indiscriminate mass round-ups in catching
up suspected Muslim men and women in Afghanistan and Iraq, including some Arab countries
without evidence. Israeli secret agency Mossad has helped the CIA officials in arresting the
Muslim men, having beard and ladies, wearing scarves. Besides Guantanamo Bay and Iraq’s
Abu Ghraib prison, CIA torture cells were present in several Islamic countries and were set up
even in ships where US secret agencies and military personnel employed various methods of
torture on the militants and suspected persons like physical violence and even murder.
In this regard, in March, 2013, an investigative report by the British Guardian/BBC pointed out
that acting under the direction of the top US officials; the CIA utilized a global network of secret
prisons, foreign intelligence agents and torture centers in various Islamic countries including
Belgium etc. where torture was conducted directly by American intelligence operatives.
The report which also mentioned Bagram and Guantanamo, links US high officials to atrocities
carried out in Iraq—unleashed a deadly sectarian militia which terrorized the Sunni community
and germinated a civil war, and claimed tens of thousands of lives.
But, under the pretext of American so-called counterinsurgency programme, and while
implementing the anti-Muslim policy of his predecessor, the US President Barack Obama has
broken all the record of human rights by extrajudicial killings of the innocent people through
CIA-operated drone attacks in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen etc. in general and Pakistan in
particular, while, the United States claims to be protector of human rights not only inside the
country, but also all over the world.
On March 11, 2014, Ben Emmerson, UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human
Rights, who conducted an investigation into targeted killings, and examined legality of drone
strikes, presented his report on drone strikes to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). His report
examined 37 drone strikes as sample—the US, UK and Israel have launched in Pakistan, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza, which resulted into civilian casualties. Emmerson told
the HRC, “These strikes require a legal duty on the relevant states to provide…a justification for
the use of deadly force…to disclose the results of their own fact finding inquiries, why no such
inquiries have taken place.”
Emmerson also referred to an interactive website, produced by Forensic Architecture teem which
marked the location of 30 drone strikes which helped in his final report.
In this context, Professor Eyal Weizman, the Principal Investigator of the Forensic Architecture
project said, “Studying buildings hit by drones reveal much of consequences of a strike. The
work we do is essential because states undertaking drone strikes, such as the US and Israel,
attempt to hide actions and even deny them outright.”
In another report, issued by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner For Human Rights
(OHCHR) on September 14, 2015 pointed out that since 2002 between 156 and 365 civilians
including children have been killed in drone attacks in Yemen.”
In this connection, some classified US intelligence documents, obtained by The Intercept-an
anonymous whistleblower, published on October 15, 2015 as the Drone Papers shed light on the
secretive drone programme which has become a staple of United States counterterrorism policy
since the attacks of September11, 2001. The papers indicated, “Drone strikes have often been
based on thin intelligence, kill a large number of unintended people and refer to people
inadvertently killed by strikes as “enemies killed in action” (EKIA), even when their identities
were unknown.”
As regards these revelations about drone strikes, civil liberty groups strongly condemned the US
Administration for a lack of accountability and transparency in national security decisions. Hina
Shamsi, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is involved in several
Freedom of Information Act lawsuits about the legal basis and the targets of America’s drone
program said, “These eye-opening disclosures make a mockery of U.S. government claims that
its lethal force operations are based on reliable intelligence and limited to lawful targets.”
Naureen Shah, the director of the security with human rights program at Amnesty International
USA, stated, “These documents raise serious concerns about whether the USA has systematically
violated international law, including by classifying unidentified people as ‘combatants’ to justify
It is notable that in 2013, first time, a US Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of the
predator attacks, openly admitted that 4,700 people have been killed by the raids of America’s
secretive drone war. The number exceeds some independent estimates of the death toll.
According to the research of London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, “Between June
2004 and September 2012, these unmanned aerial vehicles killed between 2,562 and 3,325
people in Pakistan, of whom between 474 and 881 were civilians including 176 children.” In this
respect, in a report, The Guardian disclosed on August 11, 2011, “The CIA claims that there has
been not one non-combatant killed in the past year…it is a bleak view: more people killed than
previously thought.”
Nevertheless, details collected by the Pakistani journalists show that civilian casualties through
unmanned aircraft are higher as indicated by the US officials—more than 5000 innocent civilians
and only 22 Al-Qaeda commanders have been killed by these aerial attacks.
While justifying these air strikes by the spy planes, counterterrorism advisor to Obama, John
Brennan who had faced a Senate confirmation hearing for his nominee as CIA director is the
main player, advising Obama on which strike, he should approve.
Especially, during his first presidential campaign, Obama had pledged to reverse excesses of the
Bush era in relation to terrorism. He also promised to reformulate a counterterrorism policy in
accordance with the legal and moral values of the US. Contrarily to his assertions, Obama
followed the Bush’s approach of counterterrorism in its worst form by expanding and
accelerating the predator strikes.
Notably, The New York Time on May 26, 2011, in an article which was written with assistance
of several counterterrorism advisers of the administration revealed, “President Obama has
become personally involved in the process” and “has normalised extrajudicial killings from the
Oval Office, taking advantage of America’s temporary advantage in drone technology. Without
the scrutiny of the legislature and the courts, and outside the public eye, Obama is authorising
murder on a weekly basis.”
It is of particular attention that American constitution explicitly grants the right to declare war to
the Congress so as to restrain the president from chasing enemies around the world, based solely
on his authority as commander-in-chief by waging a secret war. But, instead of capturing
militants alive and to avoid giving the right of due process of law to them in a court, President
Obama has openly acted upon a ruthless policy of targeting killings by supervising the CIA-
controlled drone warfare.
Besides, a report of the New America Foundation had disclosed that President Obama has
“authorised 193 drone strikes in Pakistan, more than four times the number of attacks that
President Bush authorised during his two terms.” The report explained, “When the US drones
attack Pakistan’s tribal areas, it is not just the 10, or 50 innocent civilians they kill, these killings
provide reason to the youngsters for joining terrorist groups waging war against US and of
course Pakistan…while killing 10 militants, the US has murdered more than 1400 Pakistanis, not
involved in any terrorist activities. Could it not imply that it gave birth to another 1400
Based on research, a report, “Living Under Drones,” prepared by experts from Stanford Law
School and the New York University School of Law had revealed that the US campaign of drone
“strikes in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt is terrorising civilians 24 hours a day and breeding
bitter anti-American sentiment…have killed thousands of people…even stopping their children
going to school for fear of being targeted.” The report urged Washington to rethink its drone
strategy, arguing it was counterproductive and undermined international law.
Citing unnamed US officials, The Washington Post reported on January 21, 2013, “The Obama
administration is completing a counterterrorism manual that will establish clear rules for
targeted-killing operations…the guidebook would contain a major exemption for the CIA’s
campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan to continue striking Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in
The then Defense Minister Leon Panetta had defended these attacks on Pakistan’s tribal
areas under the pretext of North Waziristan-based Haqqani militants whom they blamed for
several assaults on American and NATO bases in Afghanistan. On the other hand, US-led
coalition forces had failed in stopping incursions of heavily-armed insurgents in Pakistan from
Afghanistan’s side, who killed more than 100 personnel of the Pakistan’s security forces in 2011,
2012 and 2013, while targeting the infrastructure of the tribal areas. In fact, US wanted to make
Pakistan’s North Waziristan areas, a scapegoat of NATO’s defeat in Afghanistan by continuing
illegal mass murder of the innocent people through CIA-operated drones.
It is mentionable that Pakistan’s then Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt.
Gen. Zaheerul Islam who visited America in August, 2012, emphatically told the then CIA
Director David Petraeus that predator strikes which are violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty must
be stopped. He pointed out that these strikes are proving counterproductive, giving a greater
incentive to the fundamentalist and extremist elements in Pakistan, and are increasing anti-US
sentiment among the people.
However, setting aside the parliament resolution, rallies and processions of Pakistan’s political
and religious parties, while ignoring the Pak-US rapprochement, and without bothering for any
internal backlash, these aerial attacks have kept on going on the tribal regions.
In fact, America’s such a duplicity contained a number of covert designs. The continued wave of
strikes by the pilotless aircraft has thwarted the offer of militants and Pakistani government for
peace talks. And the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) accelerated subversive activities in the
country. These aerial attacks provoked the tribal people against Pakistan’s security forces by
increasing recruitment of insurgents. Another aim was to create a rift between Pakistan’s armed
forces on one side and the political and religious parties on the other. Besides, Pakistan is the
only nuclear country in the Islamic World. Hence, US, India and Israel are determined to
destabilise it. Drone campaign is also part of this game.
It is noteworthy that Pakistan’s armed forces have successfully achieved their objectives in the
ongoing military operation Zarb-e-Azb which started on Jun 15, 2014 against the militants in
North Waziristan Agency and Khyber Agency, and fight now is moving into last few pockets
close to Afghan border. What the US-led NATO forces could not do in the last 14 years in
Afghanistan, Pakistan’s armed forces did within 14 months, while, geographically, the North
Waziristan is the largest Agency and has the same topography like Afghanistan. Even, the US
and other NATO countries have praised the capabilities of Pak Army in defeating the terrorists.
But, the US did not stop drone attacks which have shown American double game with
Nonetheless, in one of the major drone attacks, more than 40 civilians and policemen were killed
on March 18, 2011 in Datta Khel area of North Waziristan.
On the one side, US top officials have repeatedly stated that America needs Pakistan’s help not
only for peace process with the Afghan Taliban, but also for stability in Afghanistan in the post-
withdrawal scenario of NATO troops, but on the other, CIA-operated unmanned planes on Pak
tribal regions have been undermining international efforts of stability both in Afghanistan and
Pakistan including peace dialogue with the Afghan militants.
US ex-presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have opposed Obama’s faulty drone strategy.
Even, Secretary of State John Kerry has also criticised unabated use of unilateral drones in
Pakistan, saying, “US engagement with the world is not just about drones.”
Apart from widespread criticism from some US allies and human rights groups which have
remarked that these aerial attacks are illegal and unethical, and violation of the targeted
countries’ sovereignty, the United Nations Charter, universal declaration of human rights and
international law, the US warrior President Obama remains obstinate to continue extrajudicial
killings through CIA-operated drones.
