By Sajjad Shaukat
After the September 11
tragedy, the Muslim countries which joined the Bush’s fake global war on terror
became the target of the US state terrorism which still continues in one way or
the other.
The US-led troops,
supported by CIA have carried out indiscriminate mass round-ups in catching up
suspected Muslim men and women in Afghanistan and Iraq, including some Arab
countries without evidence. Israeli secret agency Mossad has helped the CIA
officials in arresting the Muslim men, having beard and ladies, wearing
scarves. Besides Guantanamo Bay and Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, CIA torture cells
were present in several Islamic countries and were set up even in ships where
US secret agencies and military personnel employed various methods of torture
on the militants and suspected persons like physical violence and even murder.
In this regard, in
March, 2013, an investigative report by the British Guardian/BBC pointed out
that acting under the direction of the top US officials; the CIA utilized a
global network of secret prisons, foreign intelligence agents and torture
centers in various Islamic countries including Belgium etc. where torture was
conducted directly by American intelligence operatives.
The report which also
mentioned Bagram and Guantanamo, links US high officials to atrocities carried
out in Iraq—unleashed a deadly sectarian militia which terrorized the Sunni
community and germinated a civil war, and claimed tens of thousands of lives.
But, under the pretext
of American so-called counterinsurgency programme, and while implementing the
anti-Muslim policy of his predecessor, the US President Barack Obama has broken
all the record of human rights by extrajudicial killings of the innocent people
through CIA-operated drone attacks in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen etc. in
general and Pakistan in particular, while, the United States claims to be
protector of human rights not only inside the country, but also all over the
world.
On March 11, 2014, Ben Emmerson, UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, who conducted
an investigation into targeted killings, and examined legality of drone
strikes, presented his report on drone strikes
to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). His report examined 37 drone strikes as
sample—the US, UK and Israel have launched in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan,
Yemen, Somalia and Gaza, which resulted into civilian casualties. Emmerson
told the HRC, “These strikes require a legal duty on the relevant states to
provide…a justification for the use of deadly force…to disclose the results of
their own fact finding inquiries, why no such inquiries have taken place.”
Emmerson
also referred to an interactive website, produced by Forensic Architecture teem
which marked the location of 30 drone strikes which helped in his final report.
In this
context, Professor Eyal Weizman, the Principal Investigator of the Forensic
Architecture project said, “Studying buildings hit by drones reveal much of
consequences of a strike. The work we do is essential because states
undertaking drone strikes, such as the US and Israel, attempt to hide actions
and even deny them outright.”
In another report,
issued by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner For Human Rights (OHCHR) on
September 14, 2015 pointed out that since 2002 between 156 and 365 civilians
including children have been killed in drone attacks in Yemen.”
In this connection, some
classified US intelligence documents, obtained by The Intercept-an anonymous
whistleblower, published on October 15, 2015 as the Drone Papers shed light on
the secretive drone programme which has become a staple of United States
counterterrorism policy since the attacks of September11, 2001. The papers
indicated, “Drone strikes have often been based on thin intelligence, kill a
large number of unintended people and refer to people inadvertently killed by
strikes as “enemies killed in action” (EKIA), even when their identities were
unknown.”
As regards these
revelations about drone strikes, civil liberty groups strongly condemned the US
Administration for a lack of accountability and transparency in national
security decisions. Hina Shamsi, the director of the American Civil Liberties
Union, which is involved in several Freedom of Information Act lawsuits about
the legal basis and the targets of America’s drone program said, “These
eye-opening disclosures make a mockery of U.S. government claims that its
lethal force operations are based on reliable intelligence and limited to
lawful targets.”
Naureen Shah, the
director of the security with human rights program at Amnesty International
USA, stated, “These documents raise serious concerns about whether the USA has
systematically violated international law, including by classifying
unidentified people as ‘combatants’ to justify their killing.”
It is notable that in
2013, first time, a US Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter
of the predator attacks, openly admitted that 4,700 people have been killed by
the raids of America’s secretive drone war. The number exceeds some independent
estimates of the death toll.
According to the
research of London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism,
“Between June 2004 and September 2012, these unmanned aerial vehicles killed
between 2,562 and 3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom between 474 and 881 were
civilians including 176 children.” In this respect, in a report, The Guardian
disclosed on August 11, 2011, “The CIA claims that there has been not one
non-combatant killed in the past year…it is a bleak view: more people killed
than previously thought.”
Nevertheless, details
collected by the Pakistani journalists show that civilian casualties through
unmanned aircraft are higher as indicated by the US officials—more than 5000
innocent civilians and only 22 Al-Qaeda commanders have been killed by these
aerial attacks.
While justifying these
air strikes by the spy planes, counterterrorism advisor to Obama,
John Brennan who had faced a Senate confirmation hearing for his nominee as CIA
director is the main player, advising Obama on which strike, he should approve.
Especially, during his
first presidential campaign, Obama had pledged to reverse excesses of the Bush
era in relation to terrorism. He also promised to reformulate a
counterterrorism policy in accordance with the legal and moral values of the
US. Contrarily to his assertions, Obama followed the Bush’s approach of
counterterrorism in its worst form by expanding and accelerating
the predator strikes.
Notably, The New York
Time on May 26, 2011, in an article which was written with
assistance of several counterterrorism advisers of the administration revealed,
“President Obama has become personally involved in the process” and “has
normalised extrajudicial killings from the Oval Office, taking advantage of
America’s temporary advantage in drone technology. Without the scrutiny of the
legislature and the courts, and outside the public eye, Obama is authorising
murder on a weekly basis.”
It is of particular
attention that American constitution explicitly grants the right to declare war
to the Congress so as to restrain the president from chasing enemies around the
world, based solely on his authority as commander-in-chief by waging a secret
war. But, instead of capturing militants alive and to avoid giving the right of
due process of law to them in a court, President Obama has openly acted upon a
ruthless policy of targeting killings by supervising the CIA-controlled drone
warfare.
Besides, a report of the
New America Foundation had disclosed that President Obama has “authorised
193 drone strikes in Pakistan, more than four times the number of attacks that
President Bush authorised during his two terms.” The report explained, “When
the US drones attack Pakistan’s tribal areas, it is not just the 10, or 50
innocent civilians they kill, these killings provide reason to the youngsters
for joining terrorist groups waging war against US and of course Pakistan…while
killing 10 militants, the US has murdered more than 1400 Pakistanis, not
involved in any terrorist activities. Could it not imply that it gave birth to
another 1400 militants?”
Based on research, a
report, “Living Under Drones,” prepared by experts from Stanford Law School and
the New York University School of Law had revealed that the US campaign of
drone “strikes in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt is terrorising civilians
24 hours a day and breeding bitter anti-American sentiment…have killed
thousands of people…even stopping their children going to school for fear of
being targeted.” The report urged Washington to rethink its drone strategy,
arguing it was counterproductive and undermined international law.
Citing unnamed US
officials, The Washington Post reported on January 21, 2013, “The
Obama administration is completing a counterterrorism manual that will
establish clear rules for targeted-killing operations…the guidebook would
contain a major exemption for the CIA’s campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan
to continue striking Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan.”
The then Defense Minister
Leon Panetta had defended these attacks on Pakistan’s tribal areas under
the pretext of North Waziristan-based Haqqani militants whom they blamed for
several assaults on American and NATO bases in Afghanistan. On the other hand,
US-led coalition forces had failed in stopping incursions of
heavily-armed insurgents in Pakistan from Afghanistan’s side, who killed more
than 100 personnel of the Pakistan’s security forces in 2011, 2012 and 2013,
while targeting the infrastructure of the tribal areas. In fact, US wanted to
make Pakistan’s North Waziristan areas, a scapegoat of NATO’s defeat in
Afghanistan by continuing illegal mass murder of the innocent people through
CIA-operated drones.
It is mentionable that
Pakistan’s then Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt. Gen.
Zaheerul Islam who visited America in August, 2012, emphatically told the then
CIA Director David Petraeus that predator strikes which are violation of
Pakistan’s sovereignty must be stopped. He pointed out that these strikes are
proving counterproductive, giving a greater incentive to the fundamentalist and
extremist elements in Pakistan, and are increasing anti-US sentiment among the
people.
However, setting aside
the parliament resolution, rallies and processions of Pakistan’s political and
religious parties, while ignoring the Pak-US rapprochement, and without
bothering for any internal backlash, these aerial attacks have kept on going on
the tribal regions.
In fact, America’s such
a duplicity contained a number of covert designs. The continued wave of strikes
by the pilotless aircraft has thwarted the offer of militants and Pakistani
government for peace talks. And the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)
accelerated subversive activities in the country. These aerial attacks provoked
the tribal people against Pakistan’s security forces by increasing recruitment
of insurgents. Another aim was to create a rift between Pakistan’s armed forces
on one side and the political and religious parties on the other. Besides,
Pakistan is the only nuclear country in the Islamic World. Hence, US, India and
Israel are determined to destabilise it. Drone campaign is also part of this
game.
It is
noteworthy that Pakistan’s armed forces have successfully achieved their
objectives in the ongoing military operation Zarb-e-Azb which started on Jun
15, 2014 against the militants in North Waziristan Agency and Khyber Agency,
and fight now is moving into last few pockets close to Afghan border. What the US-led NATO forces could not do in the
last 14 years in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s armed forces did within 14 months,
while, geographically, the North Waziristan is the largest Agency and has the
same topography like Afghanistan. Even, the US
and other NATO countries have praised the capabilities of Pak Army in defeating
the terrorists. But, the US did not stop drone attacks which have shown
American double game with Islamabad.
Nonetheless, in one of
the major drone attacks, more than 40 civilians and policemen were killed on
March 18, 2011 in Datta Khel area of North Waziristan.
On the one side, US top
officials have repeatedly stated that America needs Pakistan’s help not only
for peace process with the Afghan Taliban, but also for stability in
Afghanistan in the post-withdrawal scenario of NATO troops, but on the other,
CIA-operated unmanned planes on Pak tribal regions have been undermining
international efforts of stability both in Afghanistan and Pakistan including
peace dialogue with the Afghan militants.
US ex-presidents, Jimmy
Carter and Bill Clinton have opposed Obama’s faulty drone strategy. Even,
Secretary of State John Kerry has also criticised unabated use of unilateral
drones in Pakistan, saying, “US engagement with the world is not
just about drones.”
Apart from widespread
criticism from some US allies and human rights groups which have remarked that
these aerial attacks are illegal and unethical, and violation of the targeted
countries’ sovereignty, the United Nations Charter, universal declaration of
human rights and international law, the US warrior President Obama remains
obstinate to continue extrajudicial killings through CIA-operated drones.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on
international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants,
Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email:
sajjad_logic_pak@hotmail.com
Courtesy Veterans Today
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