LAT: "CIA Expands Use of Drones in Terror War" (assassinations by missles)

[Nothing Without Hope]

This long article about a secret CIA program describes the use of missles designed for reconnaissance but now armed and used to demolish suspected terrorist-related targets. There is basically no oversight of this highly classified program, it violates territorial sovereignty, and there is a great deal of "collateral damage." The explosiions are so violent, the article reports, that "in some cases, the destruction was so complete that it was impossible to establish who was killed, or even how many people." The now-notorious failed Pakistan strike on Jan 13 was part of this program, and the article goes on to outline other apparent strikes.

Given the apparently low success rate and high level of death and destruction in sovereign nations not at war with us, it seems to me that this program is itself a form a terrorism.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-predator29jan29,0,5819230.story?track=tothtml,0,172222.story?track=tothtml
January 29, 2006
latimes.com : World News
THE NATION

CIA Expands Use of Drones in Terror War

'Targeted killing' with missile-firing Predators is a way to hit Al Qaeda in remote areas, officials say. Host nations are not always given notice.

By Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Despite protests from other countries, the United States is expanding a top-secret effort to kill suspected terrorists with drone-fired missiles as it pursues an increasingly decentralized Al Qaeda, U.S. officials say.

The CIA's failed Jan. 13 attempt to assassinate Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman Zawahiri in Pakistan was the latest strike in the "targeted killing" program, a highly classified initiative that officials say has broadened as the network splintered and fled Afghanistan.

The strike against Zawahiri reportedly killed as many as 18 civilians, many of them women and children, and triggered protests in Pakistan. Similar U.S. attacks using unmanned Predator aircraft equipped with Hellfire missiles have angered citizens and political leaders in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen.

(snip)

Several U.S. officials confirmed at least 19 occasions since Sept. 11 on which Predators successfully fired Hellfire missiles on terrorist suspects overseas, including 10 in Iraq in one month last year. The Predator strikes have killed at least four senior Al Qaeda leaders, but also many civilians, and it is not known how many times they missed their targets.

(snip)

[AlamoDemoc]

1. "In some case people are killed"

N/t...else I will say otherwise

[bigtree]

2. According to John Lumpkin, "CIA Sent Drone to Save Rebel Leader,"

Associated Press :

"So far, there are four reported cases exist of the Predator-Hellfire combination being used. Two of these attacks resulted in the deaths of at least 13 innocent civilians. On February 4, 2002, a Predator Hellfire missile killed three Afghans scavenging for metal in the hills around Zhawar Kili, Paktia. On May 6,, 2002, a Predator fired a Lockheed missile at a convoy of cars in Kunar province, seeking to assassinate Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, but succeeded only in destroying a madrassah and killing at least 10 nearby civilians. On October 26,, 2001, the CIA sent a missile-armed Predator drone from Pakistan to protect Afghan opposition leader Abdul Haq, who at the time was being tracked by the Taliban. That mission failed.

The lone reported 'success' of the Predator-Hellfire was the Wednesday, November 14, 2001, night attack upon a three-story hotel building south of Kabul, where fleeing Al Qaeda and Taliban had gathered and parked their SUVs. Predator imagery was used to call in F/A-18 jets, which bombed the building, reportedly killing a senior lieutenant of bin Laden, the Egyptian Mohammed Atef as well as others. As the survivors scattered Hellfire missiles struck fleeing vehicles."

[deminks]

3. These are going to be used for 'border patrol' too

from November 2005:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1356342

Bush promises drones for border security

EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) - President George W. Bush promised the use of unmanned flying drones on Tuesday to help patrol the porous U.S.-Mexican border as Democrats charged he had not done enough to provide border security.

"We're going to use drones to be able to help enforce the border in rural Texas and in rural New Mexico and rural Arizona. See, it's one thing to add agents, but if you look at the size of this border, you can't add enough agents," Bush said.

The U.S. military has used drones to track down suspects in the war on terrorism.

Bush said technology as well as fencing was key to curbing illegal immigration.

from OP article:

"It's clear that the U.S. is prepared to use and deploy these weapons in a fairly wide theater," he said.

[The2ndWheel]

4. Once again

when you have agencies such as DARPA, all you're going to end up with is a machine. It isn't shocking that the NSA uses new technology, and will use even newer technology, developed by DARPA(and others) to know everything. It's not shocking that machines will allow them to kill anyone they want(or some poor people...wait, hmmmmm), from the comfort of their living room.

Since the NSA(and others) isn't going anywhere, welcome to the 21st Information Age Century.

[enough]

5. K&R

[chat_noir]

6. Revealed: UK's role in deadly CIA drone

Targeted assassinations by Predators break international law, says Amnesty International

Antony Barnett, investigations editor
Sunday January 29, 2006
The Observer


A British technology company and a secretive airforce base in Cambridgeshire are playing a key role in the CIA's use of robot Predator planes, deployed to assassinate suspected terrorists overseas,The Observer can reveal.
A missile fired from a Predator killed more than 20 innocent people in Pakistan earlier this month in a botched US bid to kill Ayman al Zawahiri, the deputy leader of al-Qaeda, and similar attacks have been made in Iraq, Yemen and on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The attacks have been condemned by humanitarian organisations, which argue that extra-judicial killings break international law and have led to the deaths of innocent civilians.

SNIP

An earlier case of what President George W Bush described as 'sudden justice' occurred in Yemen on 3 November 2002, when six men were killed in a car, blown up by missiles fired from a CIA-controlled Predator drone. One of the people in the vehicle was alleged to be a senior member of al-Qaeda, Abu Ali al-Harithi

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1697399,00.html

[bemildred]

7. Lets not forget our former buddy Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Another stirring "success" of this great new technology.
I'm still waiting for the news to start calling them "precision drones".

[sattahipdeep]

8. Lockheed Northrup Grumman

Departments of Economics and Women's Studies

In August 2002 The Air Force, which wants a fleet of 51
unmanned Global Hawks, was shocked to discover that the price
of the planes has jumped from $15 million each to $75 million

http://www.cursor.org/stories/dronesyndrome.htm

[bemildred]

9. Shocked, shocked I tell you, to hear gambling is going on in there ... nt

[WhiteTara]

17. Is that called War Profiteering?

That's a 5 fold increase! Who is on their boards?

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. There are plans to make this a GLOBAL assassination program:

From the LAT article in the opening post:

"We have the plans in place to do them globally," said a former counter-terrorism official who worked at the CIA and State Department, which coordinates such efforts with other governments.

"In most cases, we need the approval of the host country to do them. However, there are a few countries where the president has decided that we can whack someone without the approval or knowledge of the host government."

No oversight, no qualms about killing and destroying innocent bystanders, no limits of any kind, apparently. All that's needed is that Bush wants to kill or intimidate someone or show his power to destroy. Naturally, he's only targetting "terrorists," and he's infallible and loaded with integrity. Dissenters and whistleblowers and truth-telling journalists, let alone children who happen to be in the general vicinity, are quite safe. :sarcasm:

[file83]

12. Bush has lost what little he had of his f-cking mind.

Terrorism is the new Communism, McCarthy style.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

18. WMD's have no conscience. "collateral" damage is fine-The USA the greatest

threat to word stability since Hitler's Third Reich.

The word will soon respond in a unified fashion to quell
this regime's insatiable appetite.

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. kick n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

13. kick n/t

[moondust]

14. "We don't need visual confirmation."

"All we need is a suspicious target and its coordinates," said an unidentified source. "Our tip lines are open at 1-800-CALL-A-DRONE."

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. Exactly. And "oops - killed another unbribable reporter!" n/t

[Javaman]

16. Instead of, "death from above", it's now, "death from a laptop"...

just doesn't have quite the same ring, huh?

pigs