‘US drones kill rescuers, mourners, children’

 

The civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals were targeted by US drones, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times revealed.

 

The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a ‘targeted, focused effort’ that ‘has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties.’

 

Speaking publicly for the first time on the controversial CIA drone strikes, Obama claimed last week they are used strictly to target terrorists, rejecting what he called ‘this perception we’re just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy-nilly’.

 

‘Drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties’, he told a questioner at an on-line forum. ‘This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists trying to go in and harm Americans’.

 

But research by the Bureau found that since Obama took office three years ago, between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed including more than 60 children. A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.

 

Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.

 

There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days. Because the attacks are carried out by the CIA, no information is given on the numbers killed.

 

Administration officials insist that these covert attacks are legal. John Brennan, the president’s top counterterrorism adviser, argues that the US has the right to unilaterally strike terrorists anywhere in the world, not just what he called ‘hot battlefields’.

 

‘Because we are engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the United States takes the legal position that, in accordance with international law, we have the authority to take action against al-Qaeda and its associated forces,’ he told a conference at Harvard Law School last year. ‘The United States does not view our authority to use military force against al-Qaeda as being restricted solely to”hot” battlefields like Afghanistan.’

 

But some international law specialists fiercely disagree, arguing that the strikes amount to little more than state-sanctioned extra-judicial executions and questioning how the US government would react if another state such as China or Russia started taking such action against those they declare as enemies.
 

Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive

 

Biden spelled out a blunt reelection message for his boss President Barack Obama on Tuesday — “Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.”

 

Biden s comment at a Texas fundraiser came as Obama stepped up his drive to claim credit for rescuing the iconic US car industry, as he took a spin around the Washington auto show and declared “the US auto industry is back.”

 

The vice president boiled down Obama s State of the Union message into some pithy sound bites at a fundraiser in Fort Worth expected to raise more than $150,000 dollars for the reelection campaign.

 

Biden hailed Obama as a champion of America s hard-pressed middle classes as they emerge from the deepest recession since the 1930s and said the president had kept his promise to pull US troops out of Iraq.

 

“But the best way to sum up the job the president has done — if you need a real shorthand — Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive,” Biden said, adding that he was passing on a line suggested to him by a supporter.

 

Biden also suggested that the bitter race for the Republican nomination was helping his and Obama s chances in November s presidential election.

 

“For the first time, the Republicans are not hiding the ball. … They are saying what they believe, God love them. They are not even pretending.”

 

“This is going to be one heck of a race. I think we are doing better and better every day, … in no small part because they are making it clear what they are for.”

 

Obama earlier made a more prosaic attempt to claim credit for an auto bailout which is credited with saving General Motors and Chrysler from going bust, as he toured a selection of gleaming new hybrid vehicles at the Washington auto show.

 

The bailout plan featured prominently in his annual address to Congress last week, along with the US special forces raid that killed Al-Qaeda leader bin Laden last year and bolstered Obama s national security credentials.

 

“When you look at all these cars, it is testimony to the outstanding work that s been done by workers — American workers, American designers,” Obama said.

 

“The fact that GM is back, number one, I think shows the kind of turnaround that s possible when it comes to American manufacturing,” said the president, who favors using government to create conditions for jobs growth.

 

“It s good to remember that … there were some folks who were willing to let this industry die. Because of folks coming together, we are now back in a place where we can compete with any car company in the world.”

 

Obama s comments appeared to be a swipe at Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney over his initial criticism of the idea of shoring up iconic auto giants General Motors and Chrysler with federal funds.

 

The president argues that his federal funding and bankruptcy plan for the two firms, inherited from former president George W. Bush, saved the US auto industry.

 

Romney, apparently seeking to capitalize on public fatigue with bailouts, argued that the firms should have gone through bankruptcy — which they later did — without a prior cash injection which eventually hit $82 billion.

 

Obama signed off on the risky and unpopular bailout, seeking to save thousands of jobs, after concluding that if GM and Chrysler had failed, the entire auto parts support industry, as well as a third firm, Ford, could have also gone under.
 

Gunmen kill 15, burn bodies in northern Nigeria

 

Gunmen have killed 15 village traders returning from a market at night and set their bodies ablaze in northern Nigeria s Zamfara state, a local police chief said on Friday.

 

“Gunmen, suspected to be armed robbers, attacked some local traders on their way back from a market in neighbouring Katsina state late Thursday,” Zamfara state police commissioner Tambrai Yabo told AFP.

 

“The armed robbers waylaid the traders travelling back in an open truck and opened fire on them. They then loaded the truck with 14 bodies and burnt them,” said Yabo, adding that a 15th victim had died in hospital.

 

Villagers said around 100 robbers came out of the bush and forced the truck to stop. The attack ocurred near a village that is close to the town of Birnin Magaji in Zamfara state, which borders Niger.

 

Armed robberies have been on the rise in Zamfara in recent months.

 

In October, marauding bandits combed a village in Lingyado and killed 19 people in response to an attack on a gang of robbers by local vigilantes, residents said.

 

In December, four policemen and two children from one family were killed by armed men in Dansadau village.

 

Zamfara is around 350 kilometres west of Kano city, where Islamist sect Boko Haram killed 185 people in a wave of gun and bomb attacks a week ago.
 

Obama: more effort needed to improve Muslim ties

JAKARTA: President Barack Obama said on Wednesday much more needs to be done to repair frayed U.S. relations with the Muslim world in an acknowledgement of the difficulties in eradicating “years of mistrust.”

In a speech highlighting a nostalgic visit to Indonesia, where he spent four years as a young boy, Obama spoke fondly of his formative years in the world’s most populous Muslim country.

“Indonesia is a part of me,” said Obama, who left around 10:45 a.m. (10:45 p.m. EDT) for the G20 summit in South Korea, the next stop on a 10-day Asia tour.

His speech was an update to a major address he gave 17 months ago in Cairo where he declared a “new beginning” in U.S.-Muslim relations after the tensions over the September 11, 2001, attacks and the Bush government’s response to them.

Since his Cairo address, irritants remain on both sides. Al Qaeda still

Obama: more effort needed to improve Muslim ties

JAKARTA: President Barack Obama said on Wednesday much more needs to be done to repair frayed U.S. relations with the Muslim world in an acknowledgement of the difficulties in eradicating “years of mistrust.”

In a speech highlighting a nostalgic visit to Indonesia, where he spent four years as a young boy, Obama spoke fondly of his formative years in the world’s most populous Muslim country.

“Indonesia is a part of me,” said Obama, who left around 10:45 a.m. (10:45 p.m. EDT) for the G20 summit in South Korea, the next stop on a 10-day Asia tour.

His speech was an update to a major address he gave 17 months ago in Cairo where he declared a “new beginning” in U.S.-Muslim relations after the tensions over the September 11, 2001, attacks and the Bush government’s response to them.

Since his Cairo address, irritants remain on both sides. Al Qaeda still

Obama endorses mosque construction near Ground Zero

President Barack Obama backed construction of a proposed mosque and Muslim cultural center near the site of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in New York, i.e Ground Zero — a project opposed by US conservatives and many New Yorkers.
As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country, Obama said to applause at an event attended by diplomats from Islamic countries and members of the US Muslim community. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances, he said, weighing in for the first time in a national debate that has grown increasingly heated in recent weeks.
Earlier, this month a New York city agency cleared the way for construction of the community center, which will include a prayer room, two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks, popularly known as Ground Zero. This is America and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable, said Obama, who has made improving ties between the United States and the Muslim world a cornerstone of his foreign policy. Obama was speaking during an Iftar dinner he hosted at the White House. About 2,750 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, when al Qaeda hijackers crashed two passenger planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The attacks deeply traumatized Americans and sparked the US invasion of Afghanistan and the Bush administration’s war on terror. Many families of those killed in the attacks have mounted an emotional campaign to block the community center, calling it provocative and a betrayal of the memory of the victims. Conservative politicians such as former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, a Republican former Speaker of the House of Representatives, also have called for the project to be scrapped. The president also stressed that al Qaeda was not synonymous with Islam.

Afghan-related files of Pak agencies leaked

WASHINGTON: The US government has condemned the leak of more than 90,000 military documents on the war in Afghanistan, including details of Afghan civilian deaths, covert operations against the Taliban.

Pakistan”s ambassador to the United States on Sunday denounced the leak of secret files on the Afghan war and insisted his nation was fully committed to fighting insurgents.

Ambassador Hussain Haqqani called the release of the file by web whistleblower site Wikileaks “irresponsible,” saying it consisted of “unprocessed” reports from the field.

“The documents circulated by Wikileaks do not reflect the current on ground realities,” Haqqani said in a statement.

“The United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan are strategic partners and are jointly endeavoring to defeat Al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies militarily and politically,” he said.

James Jones, the US national security adviser, said the US “strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organisations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk and threaten our national security”.

“These irresponsible leaks will not impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan; to defeat our common enemies; and to support the aspirations of the Afghan and Pakistani people.”

The unverified documents allegedly consists largely of classified reports and assessments from junior officers in the field that analysts use to advise policymakers.

It is unclear who the source of the leaked documents is, and Jones did not address the veracity of the information contained in the leaks.

He did point out that the documents “reportedly cover a period of time from January 2004 to December 2009″, the bulk of which time George Bush, the former US president, was in office.

Jones also noted that Barack Obama, who took over from Bush, announced on December 1, 2009 “a new strategy with a substantial increase in resources for Afghanistan, and increased focus on al- Qaeda and Taliban safe-havens in Pakistan”.

“This shift in strategy addressed challenges in Afghanistan that were the subject of an exhaustive policy review last fall,” Jones said.

The documents were released by the online whistle-blower Wikileaks website, which gave US newspaper The New York Times, Britain”s Guardian newspaper and the German weekly Der Spiegel access earlier.

Eric Schmitt, one of the New York Times reporters who worked on the story, told said that the documents gave an unvarnished view of the war – a “very fine grain, down on the ground level detail that hasn”t been revealed before … whether it”s in firefights or drone activities, secret operations performed by commandos of the CIA”.

They painted “a much grimmer picture and portrayal than either the Bush or Obama administrations have allowed so far,” he said.

According to the reports, the US deploys special forces to work from a capture or kill list, missions that were stepped up under the Obama administration and that have led to some civilian deaths.

Also, the US has tried to cover up the fact that the Taliban have heat seeking surface to air missiles.

And the documents say the CIA expanded paramilitary operations in Afghanistan and ran the Afghan spy agency from 2001-2008.

The documents also describe US fears that ally Pakistan”s intelligence service was aiding the Taliban.

According to the Times, the documents suggest Pakistan “allows representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organise networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders”.

That prompted Pakistan”s ambassador to the US to denounce the leak and insist his nation was fully committed to fighting al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Hussain Haqqani called the release of the files “irresponsible” and said it consisted of “unprocessed” reports from the field.

He added the democratically elected government in Pakistan led by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, is committed to fight and alienate the terrorists and Pakistan armed forces and intelligence agencies are effectively pursuing the same policy.

Al-Qaeda”s No. 2 praises slain group leaders

WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda”s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, praised two Al-Qaeda leaders killed in a shootout last month and offered condolences for their deaths, in video clip released Monday by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

In a 27-minute message titled, “Eulogy for the Two Commanders,” Ayman al-Zawahiri praised the two Al-Qaeda In Iraq (AQI) leaders “for their character and their actions in jihad (holy war),” SITE said, and vilified those who they fought against.

The message closed with images of attacks carried out by AQI, the al-Qaeda front in Iraq which Zawahiri in his message calls the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri, who had direct links with Osama bin Laden, were killed in a shootout when a joint Iraqi-US force raided their safehouse north of Baghdad on April 18.

Baghdadi was the political leader of AQI while Masri, an Egyptian militant, was the insurgent group”s self-styled “minister of war.”

AQI had confirmed their deaths on April 24.

US expands secret military acts in Mideast: report

WASHINGTON: The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents, a top US daily reported in its May 24 edition.

The secret directive, signed in September by Gen. David H. Petraeus, authorizes the sending of American Special Operations troops to both friendly and hostile nations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa to gather intelligence and build ties with local forces. Officials said the order also permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate.

While the Bush administration had approved some clandestine military activities far from designated war zones, the new order is intended to make such efforts more systematic and long term, officials said. Its goals are to build networks that could “penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy” Al Qaeda and other militant groups, as well as to “prepare the environment” for future attacks by American or local military forces, the document said. The order, however, does not appear to authorize offensive strikes in any specific countries.

In broadening its secret activities, the United States military has also sought in recent years to break its dependence on the Central Intelligence Agency and other spy agencies for information in countries without a significant American troop presence.

General Petraeus”s order is meant for use of small teams of American troops to fill intelligence gaps about terror organizations and other threats in the Middle East and beyond, especially emerging groups plotting attacks against the United States.

But some Pentagon officials worry that the expanded role carries risks. The authorized activities could strain relationships with friendly governments like Saudi Arabia or Yemen, or incite the anger of hostile nations like Iran and Syria. Many in the military are also concerned that as American troops assume roles far from traditional combat, they would be at risk of being treated as spies if captured and denied the Geneva Convention protections afforded military detainees.

The seven-page directive appears to authorize specific operations in Iran, most likely to gather intelligence about the country”s nuclear program or identify dissident groups that might be useful for a future military offensive. The Obama administration insists that for the moment, it is committed to penalizing Iran for its nuclear activities only with diplomatic and economic sanctions. Nevertheless, the Pentagon has to draw up detailed war plans to be prepared in advance, in the event that President Obama ever authorizes a strike.

NKorea has ”nothing to fear” from new nuclear policy: US

WASHINGTON: North Korea has “nothing to fear” if it breaks from its nuclear weapons program, officials in Washington insisted Friday after Pyongyang attacked the new US nuclear policy as showing continued hostility.

“If they have concerns about what”s in the Nuclear Posture Review, they have control on what happens next,” said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, referring to the policy renouncing the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states in compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“If they come back to the six-party process, if they take affirmative steps toward denuclearization, then they have nothing to fear from (the) NPR,” Crowley said.

A foreign ministry spokesman in Pyongyang told the official news agency earlier Friday that “as long as the US nuclear threat persists, the DPRK (North Korea) will increase and update various type nuclear weapons as its deterrent.”

The ministry said that because Washington left options open against countries such as North Korea or Iran, which it said defy non-proliferation obligations, the new policy is “nothing different from the hostile policy pursued by the Bush administration.”

The North quit the treaty in 2003 and has since staged two atomic weapons tests.
“There is a clear path for North Korea” to move toward denuclearization of the peninsula, Crowley said. “In doing so, North Korea can benefit from improved relations with the US and the international community.”

The North has also complained that the new US policy “chilled the hard-won atmosphere for the resumption” of stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

The talks, grouping the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, were last held in December 2008. The North announced in April 2009 it was quitting the forum and it staged its second nuclear test a month later.

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