Pakistan – Page 4 – Drone Wars UK

Drone Strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, Proliferation Elsewhere

07/05/2011Chris Cole

A US drone strike in Yemen on Thursday (5th May), was an attempt to assassinate US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, said to be head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Two Saudi brothers were killed in the strike but Al-Awlaki apparently escaped. Al-Awlaki has been placed on a list of people approved for targeted killing by President Obama. This was unusual in that he was a US citizen. Ai-Awlaki’s father and the US civil rights group ACLU have attempted to have him removed from the list but failed.

On Friday (6th May) four US drones attacked a compound in North Waziristan killing at least 17 people. While most press reports concentrated on the fact that this was the first drone strike in Pakistan since the killing of Bin Laden, it is also the first strike since Imran Khan threatened further civil disobedience against NATO supply routes if drone strikes did not cease.

Meanwhile drone proliferation continues as military companies push drones in Africa, Europe, South America and India. As we have reported previously, Israel is a key exporter of drones and drone technology and a recent report suggests that they are currently negotiating to sell – or perhaps rent – Heron drones to Angola. The report also suggests that Kenya may be a future customer.

In Europe, defence industry officials are pressing governments and companies to “get on with it” and push forward with developing the next generation of drones. BAE Systems CEO told shareholders at the companies AGM to expect a decision on development of a new Anglo-French drone within the next six months. In India, development work on an autonomous combat drone has begun. India’s Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) told press that the aim is to develop the UCAV within seven to eight years .

In Latin America, at least 11 countries are using surveillance drones with many drones flying over other nations territories and borders. Most, if not all, the drones have come from Israeli companies or been built with Israeli technology. The proliferation has led to calls for a ‘code of conduct’ to prevent the arming of drones and it will be interesting to see if this is taken up.

Transfer Speculation

02/05/2011Chris Cole

I wrote most of this post last night before the announcement that US special forces entered Pakistan and killed Osama Bin Laden and members of his family. It is noteworthy that drones were not used to attack the compound where Bin Laden was staying – were they not see as reliable? – but no doubt they were flying overhead recording the attack.

There has also already been much speculation about what impact this will have on drone strikes in Pakistan with some arguing that with Bin Laden death the strikes should cease. Others are arguing, however, that Bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan justifies further strikes. There will, no doubt , be more on this….

Leon Panetta, Director of the Central In — Leon Panetta, nominated US Defense Secretary calls drones "the only game in town"

There has been a fair amount of speculation – but no official confirmation – that the CIA has been asked by Pakistan to leave the Shamsia Air Base in Pakistan. It is from this base, in South West Pakistan, where the CIA are said to launch their drones against targets in Pakistan (although the drones are controlled remotely from the US).

As we have detailed over past months, there has been growing anger in Pakistan at the continued CIA drone strikes and even senior Pakistani military and political figures are now calling for an end to the CIA’s drone strikes. It should be remembered that the CIA Predator drones are a different ‘fleet’ of drones than are being used by the USAF in Afghanistan.

The CIA’s drones, according to reports, will be moved to Afghanistan from where they will continue to attack targets inside Pakistan.

The drones transfer comes as Barack Obama has nominated the head of the CIA, Leon Panetta to the post of Defence Secretary while nominating General David Petraeus, the Afghan war commander, to replace Panetta at the CIA. Given that Panetta, has been a big supporter of drone strikes in Pakistan, calling them “the only game in town” as US Defense Secretary, he may well expand their use. Petraeus, too has been a supporter of drone strikes in his time as the Afghan war commander and will no doubt maintain their use as he oversees the continued transformation of the CIA from an intelligence gathering agency into a paramilitary organisation.

Drones everywhere

22/04/2011Chris Cole

: Obama: Sending Drones to Bomb Libya

It’s been a busy week! On Monday the Guardian highlighted the MoD’s new document on the need for serious discussion on the ethics and legality of using drones (see post below), a story which was taken up by the Daily Mail, The Telegraph and many others.

On Wednesday evening James Cameron tweeted that this was the week – in his Terminator movies – that autonomous armed machines rose up against humanity. This sparked a lot of interest in autonomous weapon systems, including an article on drones on the BBC website.

And then on Thursday night Barack Obama approved the use of armed Predator drone in Libya. In between media interviews I’ve been watching this blog’s stats go through the roof!

Meanwhile drone strikes continue in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The MoD confirmed last week that UK drone have now conducted 167 armed drone strikes in Afghanistan. US strikes continue intermittently in Pakistan with the latest strike killing 25 people, including according to some reports five children. This strike comes almost a month after a strike on March 17^th killed 44 people including many civilians. Relations between the US and Pakistan have reached crisis point over the drone strikes with many Pakistanis calling for the air force to shoot the drones down. Coincidently, Col Grant Webb, Commander of the US Joint UAS Centre of Excellence announced that Operation Blue Knight, this year, a regular drone training exercise, will this year feature F15’s and F16s trying to shoot down drones.

dronestrike_grph — UK Drone Strikes in Afghanistan

However, a story that has passed almost unnoticed in the mass of recent drones stories is the killing of two US servicemen by a US drone in Afghanistan in the first week of April. A key argument of those who support drone strikes is that they do not make mistakes as the drone’s incredibly accurate cameras can show the target in great detail allowing strikes to be made with pin-point accuracy. US spokespeople, when denying civilians have been killed, use this argument time and again. The killing of two US soldiers by a US drone in a so-called ‘friendly fire’ incident shows that drones are far from infallible.

Talking of fallibility, another Reaper drone has crashed – this time on a training mission in New Mexico. Time to update the drone crash database.

I’ll be back…..

Pakistan protests after deadly drone strike and release of CIA Agent

17/03/2011Chris Cole

Pakistan protests at release of Raymond Davis

Twenty-four hours after the release of CIA man Raymond Davis, a US drone strike has killed more than 40 people, mostly civilians, in North Waziristan. Protests and a nationwide strike have been called for Friday.

CIA ‘contractor’ Raymond Davis was released from prison after the murder charges against him were dropped following the payment of ‘blood money’ to relatives of the victims. Davis, named by The Guardian as a CIA spy, had shot dead two men – Faizan Haider and Mohammad Faheemin – in disputed circumstances in Lahore. A third man, Muhammad Yameen, was killed by a US embassy car speeding to the scene to rescue Davis. The widow of Mohammad Faheemin, Shumaila Kanwal,committed suicide soon after.

The killings caused outrage in Pakistan coming on top of the hated CIA drone strikes and there were public demonstrations calling for Davis to be hanged. Meanwhile the US put enormous pressure on Pakistan to release Davis arguing that he had diplomatic status. Aid budgets were threatened and the drone strikes were halted – at least for the first month of his incarceration – in an attempt not to further inflame anger.

Wednesday’s agreement to accept the multi-million dollar compensation by relatives of the dead men was apparently done under duress, with the family’s lawyer under detention. The relatives have now left Pakistan and disappeared.

Thursday’s drone strike, on a tribal meeting near Miranshah, in which 41 people are known to have died, (some reports suggesting up to 80 victims) has been condemned by many including the Pakistan army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayaniv. As Jason Ditz of Antiwar.com reports:

The casualties from the attack included six tribal elders who were overseeing the jirga, which was apparently to discuss the ownership of mineral rights, a number of children who were brought by their families to the gathering, and several members of a pro-government militia the tribe helped organize.

The US has announced that it will close its embassy on Friday in anticipation of nationwide protests.

In space (and Afghanistan) no one can hear you scream

14/03/2011Chris Cole

Further evidence of the rise of research into unmanned military systems in British universities comes with the news that engineers from Newcastle University are part of a team working on a giant solar powered surveillance drone for the US military.

The Solar Eagle drone which is being built by US arms giant Boeing and funded by the Pentagon’s research agency, DARPA , is being designed to fly at an altitude of 18km for five years nonstop. Engineers from Newcastle University’s Centre for Advanced Electrical Drives have worked previously with UK arms giant QinetiQ on the Zephyr drone (see report here) and this work will presumably form the basis of work on this new drone.

An altitude of 18km however, is nothing for the USAF’s unmanned space plane which took off for another secret mission last week (5th March). While NASA normally builds and tests US space vehicles, the USAF is running the show for their unmanned space drone. The USAF’s X-37B, called the Orbital Test Vehicle will stay in orbit for up to 270 days, according to Air Force officials. Little is known about the purpose or budget for the unmanned space drone but speculation is rife on the blogosphere.

Meanwhile, drone strikes have returned with a vengeance in Pakistan after the recent ‘pause’ attributed to the arrest of Raymond Davis. In the past week reported strikes took place on Tues 8th, Fri 11th and Sunday 13th

No doubt US and British military drone strikes continue as well in Afghanistan although these remain unreported. The silence from the mainstream media on this is becoming deafening.

US drone strikes resume in Pakistan

21/02/2011Chris Cole

The Washington Post reported today (Feb 21^st) that out of 118 CIA drone strikes in Pakistan only 13 ‘High Value Targets’ had been killed, of which only two were on the US’ Most Wanted list. According to the New American Foundation it is estimated that a total of 607 people were killed in US drones strikes in Pakistan in 2010. Interestingly the Post report also states that each drone strike in Pakistan costs the CIA £1m!

The press report comes as two separate drone strikes in Pakistan reportedly killed eleven people . These are the first drone strikes in Pakistan in almost a month, a gap which many attribute to the US attempts to free Raymond Davis, an alleged CIA spy accused of killing two men in Lahore in mid-January. For more about the Davis case see this report from the Guardian.

The ‘DC Exile’ blog has some interesting reflections on the legality of US drone strikes following last week’s Newsweek interview with the former CIA counsel , John Rizzo, who authorised drone strikes in Pakistan. They suggest that the revelation that once identified, a targeted individual may be subject to the use of force at any time thereafter calls into question one of the US stated legal justification for drone strikes:

“such continuous targetability calls into question the ability of the United States to rely on self-defense as one of its two legal justifications for its targeted killing program. Strikes against these continuously targetable individuals would then only be lawful within the context of an armed conflict. Any targeted killing outside of an armed conflict or valid self-defense would be an illegal, extrajudicial execution.”

It’s well worth reading the whole post.

Meanwhile Radio One’s ‘Newsbeat’ programme secured an interview with 15 year old Sadaullah Wazir who lost both his legs and an eye in US drone strike in North Waziristan (as well as members of his family). He is currently attempting to sue the CIA. You can see short video of the interview here.

In Afghanistan NATO have launched an investigation after the Governor of Konar province said 65 people including 22 women and more than 30 children were killed in a NATO operation. Most reports suggest the attacks were carried out by NATO helicopters but the Washington Post says a Predator drone was also involved.