Less Than 4% of Pakistanis Killed by CIA Drone Strikes Named as al-Qaeda Members

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/2014/10/23/less-4-pakistanis-killed-cia-drone-strikes-named-al-qaeda-members/

Although the U.S. government claims only confirmed terrorists at the highest level are being targeted in drone strikes, the CIA does not know the names or identities of the majority of people the agency has killed in Pakistan since June 2004. After a decade of drone strikes in Pakistan, less than 4% of the victims have been identified as named members of al-Qaeda. Since the inception of the drone program, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have unconstitutionally murdered at least four American citizens.

According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the CIA has launched 400 drone strikes in Pakistan killing at least 2,379 people. Only 704 of these drone strike victims have been identified. 295 have been classified as militants belonging to either the Afghan Taliban or the Pakistani Taliban, while only 84 have been positively identified as members of al-Qaeda.

At least 168 Pakistani children have died in drone strikes, but only 99 have been identified by name. Sixty-seven of these children were executed in a drone strike on a madrassa in October 2006 that left 81 civilians dead.

Drone strikes have killed at least 55 women in Pakistan, but only two have been identified by name. Bibi Mamana, a grandmother in her 60s, was slaughtered while tending a field near her home. Her grandchildren were injured in the attack. Raquel Burgos Garcia, the Spanish wife of an al Qaeda member, died in the same UAV attack that killed her husband. The Bureau believes the number of women killed in drone strikes is significantly lower because many women’s deaths in Pakistan traditionally remain unreported.

Last year, Secretary of State John Kerry claimed only “confirmed terrorist targets at the highest level” were fired upon during drone strikes. If the CIA does not have a “near certainty” that a strike would result in zero civilian deaths, President Barack Obama personally decides whether or not to attack. But Obama has also changed the criteria determining whether a person is a civilian or not. According to the president, all military-age males within a strike zone are classified as enemy combatants unless explicit intelligence posthumously proves their innocence.

[KG]

1. oh, c'mon. if they got killed by a u.s. drone, they had it coming. because obama!

[malaise]

2. International law does not apply to the West

We kill with impunity.
I am almost speechless when I hear M$Greedia delivering news about Iraqis killed by ISIS - they never gave us news about Iraqis killed by Americans and their allies in that illegal war and occupation.

How dare anyone in the West mention the word torture while Gitmo remains open.

We are hypocrites with the best propaganda machine on the planet.