Carl Levin Wants To Expand Drone Strikes In Pakistan

[tekisui]

Source: Huffington Post

The top Senate Democrat on defense issues said on Tuesday that he would like to see an expansion of the U.S. military's controversial drone-strike operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told a group of reporters that he favors targeting the militant insurgent group, the Haqqani network, through drone strikes -- something that U.S. forces don't currently do.

"As a matter of fact, I think we have to include on the list other threats to the Afghan mission," Levin said, during a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. "We have to have, I believe, we should have on our list the headquarters of the Haqqani network. We know where they are. We know where that headquarters is... I don't think they should be off-limits to those strikes. They directly threaten the Afghan mission."

"I think we have got to have them on a list of targets, absolutely," he added, after the breakfast. "I don't see any reason why they are not on a target list and I won't be surprised if they are. So I'm not gonna go beyond that."

Levin also said that he supports adding the Haqqani network, which has links to Osama bin Laden, to the State Department's list of terrorist sponsoring organizations, hinting that he would pursue legislative action to do as much in the near future. The Michigan Democrat called the insurgent group, which is closely allied with the Taliban and based primarily in northwest Pakistan, the "greatest threat" to stability (and, subsequently, the U.S. mission) Afghanistan -- greater, he said, than Taliban fighters crossing the border into Afghanistan.

more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/13/carl-levin-wants-to-expan_n_644212.html

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Any 'threat to the Afghan mission', it is being argued, should be on the drone target list. The Endless War just got another extension and expansion.

[Robb]

1. "Expansion" would suggest we are not already bombing Haqqani safehouses.

So, wrong word. ;)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Another "greatest threat". They never run out of bogeymen. K&R

[Moochy]

3. Carl Levin who chairs the Senate Armed Service Committe

"I don't see any reason why they are not on a target list and I wont be surprised if they are."

National borders mean nothing to bipartisan US Empire!