North Waziristan Residents Live In Constant Fear: 21 US Drone Attacks Launched This Month

A rare interview of a close relative of a recent US drone attack victim in North Waziristan provides some insight into the havoc created by the widespread and indiscriminate attacks that have claimed hundreds of innocent lives. This year 72 drone attacks have been launched. The latest attack was launched on Saturday (Sept. 25) killing at least seven people.

Haider’s brother-in-law, Mohammed Asghar, a resident of Peshawar, was visiting his friends in Miranshah, North Waziristan, when he became victim of the US drone attack. Haider told Cageprisoners: “As he was a guest there – and as is the custom of the people – many of the locals gathered to welcome him into the area. He was sitting with a group of people from the community when everybody gathered for the evening prayer (‘Isha) together. The drone attack happened in the middle of the prayers and the entire congregation was martyred. In total, 31 people were killed.”

Haider said that all the people gathered were locals from the community who had come to welcome the new guest to the area. “The people are renowned for their hospitality and it is unthinkable for them that somebody would come to visit and they would not have a gathering to welcome them.”

He said that the people who had witnessed the attack had come to tell us and described what they saw of the remnants and damage in the aftermath. They said the attack was so severe that they could not even distinguish the bodies from one another- even the bones of the people were completely blown apart. The dead were completely unrecognizable. “My brother-in-law’s coffin was tightly sealed and we were not allowed to open it to view anything. We had the coffin with us for 30 minutes before it was taken away for burial.”

According to Haider, the civilians in all these regions are extremely frightened and fearful. “They can’t work in the day, nor can they sleep during the night. As soon as they hear the slightest sound of an aero-plane, they flee in panic from their homes and buildings trying to find a place for security. The whole community is in a state of fear and I just cannot explain to you how unbearable these calamities are for the people.”

Haider pointed out that every household has at least half of its people have been killed as a result of these attacks.

The region where the US attacks are being launched is a no go area since newsmen or human rights groups are not allowed by the mercenary Pakistan Army which is itself involved in killing its own people in the name of ‘war on terror’ since 2004.

Ironically, Pakistan’s nominally free media is not allowed to carry any independent report about the US drone attacks. Often names of the killed terrorists are announced but their bodies or injured are not shown. It is claimed after the attack that the militants cordoned off the area after the attack and took away all their dead and injured. All drone attack casualties reports are coming from un-named Pakistani intelligence officials since the US client government of President Zardari is complicit in helping the US kill his countrymen.

American journalist, Bob Woodward in his new book – Obama’s Wars – reported about former CIA director General Michael Hayden’s meeting with president Asif Ali Zardari in November 2008, during which, Zardari reportedly gave the Bush administration the green light to carry out more drone strikes inside Pakistan. Tellingly, Zardari told Hayden, “Collateral damage (read civilian casualties) worries you Americans. It does not worry me.”

In the 18th strike this month, two US drone attacks were launched on Saturday (Sept. 25) in Miranshah, North Waziristan, killing at least seven people. In the first attack three missiles were fired at a vehicle traveling in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan killing four people. Another three people were killed in the second attack in the same area where the first strike was launched. During the second strike, five missiles were reportedly fired and six to seven U.S. drones were seen hovering over the area. On September 22, at least 28 people were killed in three US drone strikes in the remote areas of South and North Waziristan.

According to the statistics compiled by the New America Foundation, US drones have now launched more than 123 deadly strikes in Pakistan since President Barack Obama came to power. In other words, US drone attacks in Pakistan have almost tripled under Obama claiming hundreds of innocent lives. Under his predecessor, George W. Bush, 45 drone attacks were launched from June 2004 to January 3, 2009. Obama was inaugurated on January 20 and stepped up drone attacks.

Tellingly, according to the statistics compiled by Pakistani authorities, the US drones killed 708 people in 44 predator attacks targeting the tribal areas between January 1 and December 31, 2009. For each Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorist killed by US drones, 140 innocent Pakistanis also had to die. Over 90 per cent of those killed in the deadly missile strikes were civilians, claim authorities. The success percentage for the drone hits during 2009 was hardly 11 per cent. On average, 58 civilians were killed in these attacks every month, 12 persons every week and almost two people every day. Most of the attacks were carried out on the basis of human intelligence, reportedly provided by the Pakistani and Afghan tribesmen, who are spying for the US-led allied forces in Afghanistan.

Intensified US drone attacks came amid shocking revelation that the US Central Intelligence Agency is running and paying for a secret 3,000-strong army of Afghan paramilitaries whose main aim is assassinating Taliban and al-Qa’ida operatives not just in Afghanistan but across the border in neighboring Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Bob Woodward’s new explosive book, Obama’s Wars, describes these forces as elite, well-trained units that conduct highly sensitive covert operations into Pakistan as part of a stepped-up campaign against al-Qa’ida and Afghan Taliban havens there.

The secret army is split into “Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams”, and is thought to be responsible for the deaths of many Pakistani Taliban fighters who have crossed the border into Afghanistan to fight Nato and Afghan government forces there.

The British newspaper Independent said that the details of the clandestine army have surprised no one in Kabul, the Afghan capital, although the fact that the information is now public is unprecedented. There have been multiple reports of the CIA running its own militias in southern Afghanistan along border with Pakistan.

Woodward says that Obama is seriously betting on his exit strategy – he wants by all means a progressive withdrawal from Afghanistan starting next summer. But “his” general, Petraeus – the Pentagon in fact – wants infinite war. Pepe Escobar asks why infinite war? He says what Woodward’s book and the corporate media orchestrated narrative will never tell is “why” infinite war. Pepe Escobar argues that this infinite or long war is:

Because of the New Great Game in Eurasia.

Because of the need of military bases to spy on strategic competitors Russia and China.

Because of the US’s obsession with Pipelineistan in Central Asia bypassing both Russia and Iran.

Because of the Pentagon’s full spectrum dominance doctrine – which justifies infinitely ballooning military budgets. 18 US Drone Attacks Launched This Month: North Waziristan Residents Live In Constant Fear By Abdus Sattar Ghazali, 27 September, 2010, Countercurrents.org

Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor of the online magazine American Muslim Perspective: www.amperspective.com Email: asghazali786@gmail.com

Pakistani Establishment and Kiyani refused to be cowed down by US threats

US threats against Pakistan have been ubiquitous and part and parcel of US policy since the sixties. Pakistan has been used to threats. The Pakistani establishment can discern what is a threat and what is a bluff. The state was threatened by Nehru on the day of her independence. Many think that Liaqat Ali Khan was murdered for working on a plan for a confederation with Afghanistan. Kruschev threatened Islamabad of dire consequences if the US near Peshawar was not closed. Pakistan was threatened by President Johnson when Ayub Khan closed down the US base. Nixon and Kissinger threatened Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for pursuing a Nuclear Program.  President Carter refused to visit Pakistan. Pervez Musharraf was threatened with being “bombed to the stone age” if the Pakistani government did not accept the seven points. Hillary Clinton threatened Pakistan with dire consequences without clarifying what that threat meant. Now there are revelations that President Obama threatened Pakistan and that the US wanted to bomb 150 sites in Pakistan.

Have the threats achieved the results that Washington wanted?
The US base was closed down despite the threats. Islamabad continues to pursue its aims in Afghanistan despite the assassination of a Prime Minister. President Carter was forced to deal with President Zia Ul haq. Pakistan continued to pursue the Nuclear Program despite sanction and threats to the life of the Prime Minister who initiated the program. Pervez Musharraf agreed to the points in theory, but was not totally compliant. General Kiyani, according to Bob Woodward totally rebuffed the US delegation.

• Frustrated over Pakistan’s lackluster response to the war against terrorism, US President Barack Obama, sent his top aides to threaten Pakistan
• The Pakistani establishment in particular the all powerful Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani refused to adhere to any of the four demands.
• ” Kayani would not budge very much. He had other concerns. “I’ll be the first to admit, I’m India centric,” he said, according to the book.

WASHINGTON: Frustrated over Pakistan’s lackluster response to the war against terrorism, US President Barack Obama, sent his top aides to warn Pakistan that he would have no other option but to respond, if they do not take decisive action against terrorist safe havens.

Adding to the frustration, the Pakistani establishment in particular the all powerful Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani refused to adhere to any of the four demands the US made through National Security Adviser Gen James Jones and CIA chief Leon Panetta during that trip in May this year, says noted investigative journalist Bob Woodward, in his latest book, “Obama’s War”.

“The President wants everyone in Pakistan to understand if such an attack connected to a Pakistani group is successful there are some things even he would not be able to stop. Just there are political realities in Pakistan, there are realities in the United States.

No one will be able to stop the response and consequences. There is not a threat, just a statement of political fact,” Zardai was told during the meeting, the book claims.

Giving a series of specific instances how terrorists’ leaders are operating unhindered inside Pakistan, Jones told Zardari that Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the LeT commander if the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is not being adequately interrogated and “he continues to direct LeT operations from his detention center.”

LeT is operating in Afghanistan and the group carried out a recent attack at a guesthouse there. Intelligence also shows that LeT is threatening attacks in the United States and the possibility is rising each day, Jones said according to the book.

After meeting Zardari, US officials met Kayani, wherein Jones told the Pakistan Army Chief that the clock was starting now all the four requests made by Obama.

“But Kayani would not budge very much. He had other concerns. “I’ll be the first to admit, I’m India centric,” he said, according to the book.

Kiyani fully knew that the bluff did not hold water. What would the day after the bombing look like. Several thousand Pakistanis would be dead but the basic threat is not buildings but from men. 180 million Pakistanis cannot be evaporated.

The Day after the bombing– need not be spelled out–but it is sufficient to say that the war in Afghanistan would come to a grinding halt and and Iranian-Pakistani alliance would be unstoppable.

US bases in Pakistan would be history, and the logistical connection through Pakistan would end. US bases in the vicinity could become targets.

The US wiped out any goodwill that it may have created through the Kerry Lugar Bill of the Flood Relief.

Aafia Siddiqui’s Sentencing: Viceral Reaction

On September 23, the FBI headlined, “Aafia Siddiqui Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to 86 Years for Attempting to Murder US Nationals in Afghanistan and Six Additional Crimes.” In sentencing, Judge Richard Berman ruled her acts premeditated, contradicting jurors saying they were not. More on the press release below.

No matter that she’s completely innocent, and has been a US political prisoner since her March 30, 2003 abduction, incarceration, torture, prosecution, and conviction on bogus charges. Her case is one of America’s most egregious examples of horrific abuse and injustice, climaxed by her virtual life sentence for an alleged crime she never committed.

Yet she was convicted for these claimed felonies:

(1) one count of trying to kill US nationals outside the US;

(2) one count of trying to kill US officers and employees;

(3) one count of armed assault of US officers and employees;

(4) one count of using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence; and

(5) three counts of assault of US officers and employees.

Earlier articles about her can be accessed through the following links:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/12/abduction-secret-detention-torture-and.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/02/aafia-siddiqui-victimized-by-american.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/aafia-siddiqui-victimized-by-american.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/09/aafia-siddiqui-sentenced-grievous.html

Gloating about another victory, like a predator over its prey, the FBI quoted Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara saying:

“As a unanimous jury found beyond a reasonable doubt (they’re all unanimous or hung), Aafia Siddiqui attempted to murder Americans serving in Afghanistan, as well as their Afghan colleagues,” though only Americans were with her in Bagram Prison at the time the alleged incident took place, as follows:

In the presence of two FBI agents, two Army interpreters, and three US Army officers, this frail 110 pound woman allegedly assaulted three of them, seized one of their rifles, opened fire at close range, hit no one, yet she alone was severely wounded.

It was her word against theirs. At trial, no credible evidence was presented, because there was none, not even her fingerprints on the alleged weapon. The charges were concocted, bogus and absurd, not even rising to the level of a bad film plot, yet jurors were intimidated to convict.

A Pakistani/American scientist, home visiting her family in 2003, local authorities abducted her at the behest of Washington, after which she was handed over and incarcerated at America’s infamous Bagram Prison, Afghanistan.

Yet the FBI statement says: “SIDDIQUI was detailed (on July 17, 2008) by Afghan authorities,” who found alleged incriminating items “in her possession” about a “mass casualty attack” planned against high-profile New York targets. “Other notes….referred to the construction of ‘dirty bombs,’ (and) ways to attack ‘enemies,’ including by destroying reconnaissance drones, using underwater bombs, and deploying gliders.”

Yet these charges weren’t in her indictment, exposing them as spurious. Instead, on July 18, 2008, she was accused of allegedly disarming and attacking seven armed Americans during interrogation.

Rampaging Imperial America

Post-9/11, America declared war on Islam to justify rampaging globally, focused heavily on Eurasia’s mineral wealth, principally Middle Eastern oil, comprising two-thirds of the world’s proved reserves.

Abroad, illegal imperial wars and occupations followed. At home, Muslims have been victimized, vilified, and persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, prominence, and activism – opportunistically targeted for political advantage. They’ve been singled out, hunted down, rounded up, held in detention, kept in isolation, denied bail, brutally tortured, restricted in their right to counsel, tried on secret evidence, convicted on bogus charges, given long sentences, and incarcerated as political prisoners or extraordinarily renditioned to a similar or worse fate abroad.

Victims are innocent pawns in the war on terror, mocking the rule of law, judicial fairness, and democratic freedoms – the modus operandi of rogue states, calling wars of aggression liberating ones, suppressing civil liberties for our own good, and rampaging globally for alleged “democratic freedoms,” ones America won’t tolerate at home or abroad.

US v. Pakistani Media Reports

After her sentencing, US media reports highlighted bogus government charges, ignoring the truth and Aafia’s horrific treatment. CBS, for example, affirmed allegations that she’s an “Al Qaeda supporter” and “cold-blooded radical.” CNN noted her “Anarchist’s Arsenal.” ABC News called her “Lady Qaeda.”

Wall Street Journal writer Chad Bray referred to her alleged “mass casualty attack” plan on New York landmarks, and for Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, she’s a “terror mom (and) reputed Al Qaeda associate,” a Bruce Golding headline saying, “Judge throws book at Pakistani plotter….’terror mom’ has been eighty-sixed.”

Note the difference in Pakistan. The entire country is outraged – in Karachi (Aafia’s home city), Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Lehore, Quetta, Peshawar, Multan, and elsewhere.

Dawn.com headlined “Pakistanis furious over Aafia Siddiqui’s sentence,” saying:

In Karachi, “Pakistanis burned tires, (Obama effigies), and chanted anti-US slogans after a New York (hanging) judge handed down an 86-year sentence” on bogus charges. Her case “has long stirred passions in Pakistan….where anti-American sentiment is (deservedly) widespread.”

“Many Pakistanis believe the US abducted Siddiqui and kept her in a secret prison for years as it pursued its war on terror.” News of her “harsh sentence immediately sparked anger and disbelief.” In Peshawar, angry protestors burned tires and shouted “Down with America!” Pakistan’s president and prime minister were also named, and “Some hit a portrait of….Obama with their shoes.”

Islamabad students were also outraged, shouting “Crush America, Siddiqui is our sister,” and “We will bring her back.”

More in Multan where dozens of lawyers and activists blocked traffic, shouting “Down with America,” and burning effigies of Obama and former Pakistani despot Pervez Musharra.

In Peshawar, thousands of political, social, and religious activists protested on city streets, holding banners and placards condemning the sentence. They demanded Aafia’s release and end to US Waziristan drone attacks.

A supportive Pakistan Times editorial called America “an authoritarian, arrogant superpower,” and Aafia’s sentence “unheard of….people will be waiting to see how (Obama reacts). Only time will tell if the US president will step in to mitigate (this outrage) by either pardoning Dr. Aafia or sending her back to Pakistan to serve at least part of her sentence in her home country.”

“Dr. Aafia may very well become the poster-child for increased hatred against the US and more sympathy for the militants,” a possibility both countries should consider.

Aafia’s sister, Fauzia, called the sentence “a slap in the face of our rulers, who have pledged and made promises to bring” her back.

Addressing a supportive rally, she said they failed miserably to help Aafia. “The sentence bears testimony to the fact that this government is a puppet of the US. We are peaceful people, and our aim is to bring back Aafia.”

Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit expressed “disappoint(ment with) the sentence and sad that our efforts….did not succeed. We are still in touch with the US administration to see what possible options are available. We are not giving up.” At issue is whether they ever tried, given the ties between the countries “in the fight against Terrorist militancy….”

The International Tribune reported that Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said government efforts “will surely bring (her back), but it needs time to do it.”

Pakistan’s US ambassador, Hussain Haqqani, said “the government took every possible step for (her) safe release,” adding that efforts will continue.

Pakistan’s Jamiat Uleme-e-Islam Party (JUI) chief, Fazalur Rehman, cancelled his US trip in protest, saying “the punishment of Doctor Aafia has added to the list of American crimes, and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said he, too, “would make all efforts for Dr. Aafia’s release,” adding that “the entire nation was praying for her safe return.”

Tekreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party chairman, Imran Khan, condemned the verdict as “unethical and inhuman,” warning it could inflame the entire Muslim world. He also announced launch of a countrywide protest, saying Pakistanis won’t tolerate this outrage.

“Aafia is the daughter of the nation,” he said, “and all-our efforts should be made for her early return.” PTI plans protest rallies, seminars and meeting throughout the country, its campaign to continue until Affia’s back home.

Farooq Sattar, Parliamentary leader of Pakistan’s third largest political party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), condemned Aafia’s sentence, announced protests, and said MQM officials would meet with America’s ambassador to demand her release. MQM head, Altaf Hussain, also wants her released and sent home, saying, if in power, MQM “would have immediately severed ties with the US and its allies….”

In America, Aafia’s a “terrorist,” in Pakistan a national hero, at least on the country’s streets, if not the halls of power, despite the above rhetoric.

For their part, Aafia’s family vowed to launch a “movement” for her release, Fauzia telling reporters that all of Pakistan would agitate for her. “I was alone when I started the campaign to release my sister, but from now on it will be the Aafia movement as the whole nation is with me.”

Qazi Muhammad, Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president asked “Why is our individual and collective conscience as a nation silent on the maltreatment of Dr. Aafia, the daughter of the nation?” He said an SCBA delegation would meet with her family, and offered to defend her in the US pro bono.

Responses from Human Rights Groups

The International Justice Network (ICN – supporting human rights globally, including Aafia’s family) issued a press release, saying:

“Dr. Aafia Siddiqui – who has never caused harm to anyone – has now been condemned to spend the rest of her life in a (US) maximum security prison….This sentence is not only unjust because of its harshness, (but) also because of its impact on her….children….who may never see their mother again. But the greatest injustice….is that those who are responsible for the kidnapping, disappearance, and abuse of Dr. Siddiqui and her children without cause have yet to answer for their actions.”

“The International Justice Network stands in solidarity with the international community in condemning this unfair and unjust result in Dr. Siddiqui’s case.”

Dr. Mehdi Hasan, chairperson of The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) issued the following statement:

America must “assess the impact of the unusually harsh punishment awarded to (Aafia), particularly in view of the absence of direct and credible evidence against her.”

In fact, there’s none.

It’s also a red herring for the US embassy to say Pakistan must sign two international treaties relating to prisoner exchanges before Aafia can be returned – the Council of Europe Treaty and OAF Convention. In fact, reversing her sentence and repatriating her is as simple as doing it, an Obama stroke of the pen sending her home. It’s time for Pakistan’s government to put its muscle where it’s rhetoric is and demand nothing less, suspending diplomatic relations until done.

A Final Comment

On September 11, 2001, America declared “war on terror” based on a lie, then used it as justification to rampage globally. Thereafter, democratic freedoms weakened or disappeared, and Muslims became the target of choice. A war on Islam followed.

Stereotypically called culturally inferior, dirty, lecherous, untrustworthy, religiously fanatical, and violent, they’ve been prejudicially called Islamofascists, “terrorists,” or a homeland fifth column. Their fate became summary judgment – no due process, judicial fairness, or innocent unless proved guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt by an impartial jury of their peers.

Aafia is their poster child, an innocent woman brutalized and condemned to spend the rest of her life in maximum security confinement, meant for America’s “worst of the worst” criminals. The facilities are extremely harsh. They crush the human spirit, body and mind, in Aafia’s case even more than already after seven and a half brutalizing years.

More is now planned for the rest of her life unless world outrage saves her, no easy task given the Obama administration’s contempt for the rule of law, human rights and justice, as roguish as Bush officials.

That alone should incite everyone’s moral outrage. Aafia’s case adds an exclamation point!

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. Reaction To Aafia Siddiqui’s Sentencing By Stephen Lendman
27 September, 2010, Countercurrents.org

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/

NATO attacks: Pakistan should move beyond ‘bumper sticker protests”

NATO has impugned on Pakistani sovereignty and crossed the border. This incursion should not be tolerated. It crosses the red line drawn by Pakistan. Islamabad should halt NATO supplies for a week. They will be able to replenish the supplies through airlifts and through ammunition and food that has been stored inside Afghanistan. However this will certainly impact the war being waged inside Afghanistan.

• Two Apache helicopters crossed the border from eastern Afghanistan after insurgents attacked a remote Afghan security outpost in Khost.
• A statement released late on Sunday night said: “An air weapons team in the area observed the enemy fire, and following International Security Assistance Force rules of engagement, crossed into the area of enemy fire.
• The ISAF aircraft then engaged, killing more than 30 insurgents.”
• The raid was followed up on Saturday morning when two Kiowa helicopters returned to the border area killing four more insurgents.
• Pakistan said the helicopters intruded into its territory twice from the eastern Afghan province of Khost as they chased the militants.
• “These incidents are a clear violation and breach of the UN mandate under which ISAF operates,” a spokesman from the foreign office said.
• Pakistan added that ISAF’s mandate “finishes” at the Afghan border.
• “There are no agreed ‘hot pursuit’ rules. Any impression to the contrary is not factually correct. Such violations are unacceptable,” the foreign office statement added.
• “In the absence of immediate corrective measures, Pakistan will be constrained to consider response options,” it warned.

The Pakistan Army is busy in Flood Relief and counts on NATO support in many areas–however if it does not act properly this time, the “hot pursuits” on the Western borders will become the norm. Taking its cue the same type of nonsense can then be undertaken on the Eastern borders.

There has to be some sort of retaliation towards NATO. They have not apologized. Instead NATO has tried to justify its actions by trying to rationalize it. More than fifty people were killed which NATO says are “Terrorirsts”. The same NATO is talking peace with the same Taliban that they consider as “Terrorists”.

• Military sources said the message communicated to the Nato command was crystal clear that in view of declining public support for war on terror, the security of Nato supply routes through Pakistan could be threatened in the aftermath of the new air campaign.
• Analysts say Pakistan could only stop US-led forces from such violations by tactfully using its leverages that largely relate to the support for war on terror and the supply routes.
• Nato was asked to coordinate its actions with Pakistan military and avoid crossing the ‘red lines’ — a euphemism for Pakistani sensitivities.

Update: International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which had earlier defended the aerial engagement as an action ‘under the right of self-defence’, later in the evening, according to military sources, informed Pakistani commanders that they were trying to establish that their helicopters during the operation did not cross into Pakistani territory.