Pakistan: US Drones Killed at Least 400 Civilians

[anatta]

The Pakistani government’s testimony to the UN human rights rapporteur has revealed that their own estimates on the US drone strikes against their tribal areas shows a major civilian toll, with at least 400 of the slain confirmed as civilians
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/18/us-un-drones-idUSBRE99H16Z20131018
That’s a low-ball estimate, and Pakistan admitted as much, saying that over 200 other victims are officially classified as “probable non-combatants,” and a large number of others are simply totally anonymous.

It’s difficult to accurately figure these tolls, of course, since Pakistan’s government rarely officially comments beyond terming anyone slain as a “suspect,” and the only time civilian deaths come out is when there’s a surviving relative who is willing to push the issue, something that’s not easy to do in the lawless region.

The Obama Administration has occasionally disputed claims of civilian deaths in general, insisting they are super-careful about their killings, but also refusing to provide any real details on the matter, claiming they are classified.
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/10/18/pakistan-us-drones-killed-at-least-400-civilians/

 

[anatta]

It is not difficult to make the case Obama acting with Brennan's CIA is a war criminal. So is Bush of course but the Dem's are silent about Obama.....

Classified documents reveal CIA drone strikes often killed unknown people ... as many as half of the strikes were classified as signature strikes,,,,

The bulk of CIA's drone strikes are signature strikes."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/signature-strikes-and-the_b_3575351.html

On March 17, 2011, four Hellfire missiles, fired from a U.S. drone, slammed into a bus depot in the town of Datta Khel in Pakistan's Waziristan border region. An estimated 42 people were killed. It was just another day in America's so-called war on terror. To most Americans the strike was likely only a one-line blip on the evening news, if they even heard about it at all.

But what really happened that day? Who were those 42 people who were killed, and what were they doing? And what effect did the strike have? Did it make us safer? These are the questions raised, and answered, in a must-watch new video just released by Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation.

The attack was what has come to be called a "signature strike." This is when the CIA or the military makes the decision to fire based not on who the targets are but on whether they are exhibiting suspicious patterns of behavior thought to be "signatures" of terrorists (as seen on video from the drone). Given that the CIA is killing people it's never identified based on their behavior, one would assume a certain rigor has gone into defining the criteria for the kinds of behavior that get one killed.

So what's a signature behavior? "The definition is a male between the ages of 20 and 40," former ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter told the Daily Beast's Tara McKelvey. "My feeling is one man's combatant is another man's -- well, a chump who went to a meeting." The New York Times quoted a senior State Department official as saying that when the CIA sees "three guys doing jumping jacks," the agency thinks it is a terrorist training camp

 

[Dantès]

This is what happens when both parties in this insipid democracy so called are in the pockets of the military industrial complex and dependent on $billion dollar presidential campaigns. Everyone from the Wall Street Bankers to the executives at Rockwell, Boeing et al. Are looking for an endless war to feed! And nearly every politician is ready to oblige if it means jobs for their district, meanwhile the poor, the working poor and their children continue to be relieved of the most basic social necessities such as head Start and school lunch programs because there just isn't any funding for those programs. So we are killing women and children over there with money that could be feeding women and children here. How much more fucked up do things have to get before this logic and real world effect ceases to make any sense to our elected officials. And they finally stop pursuing these kinds of actions.

 

[anatta]

^
Indeed the MIC must feed on death. we keep trying to change Islamic societies with our "nationbuilding" (counterinsurgency) crap.

Now we're going to 'transition' Afganistan...to what??

 

[Big Money]

Meanwhile the poor, the working poor and their children continue to be relieved of the most basic social necessities such as head Start and school lunch programs because there just isn't any funding for those programs. So we are killing women and children over there with money that could be feeding women and children here.

Innocents can't outrun O-BOMB-YAs drones...

I'll believe liberals care about children when they tell Obama to stop droning them.

​

 

[Dantès]

Innocents can't outrun O-BOMB-YAs drones...

I'll believe liberals care about children when they tell Obama to stop droning them.​

Would you please post a copy of the letter you sent the president asking him to stop droning them!​