More Hellfire for enemy in Pakistan

NY Times:

On Sunday, a senior Taliban leader vowed to unleash two suicide attacks a week like one on Saturday in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, unless the Central Intelligence Agency stopped firing missiles at militants. Pakistani officials have expressed concerns that the missile strikes from remotely piloted aircraft fuel more violence in the country, and some American officials say they are also concerned about some aspects of the drone strikes.

But as Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Richard C. Holbrooke, the special envoy to the region, arrived in Islamabad on Monday, the administration officials said the plan to intensify missile strikes underscored President Obama’s goal to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as to strike at other militant groups allied with Al Qaeda.

Officials are also proposing to broaden the missile strikes to Baluchistan, south of the tribal areas, unless Pakistan manages to reduce the incursion of militants there.

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The plans have met strong resistance from Pakistani officials and have also worried some former American officials and some analysts, who say that strikes create greater risks of civilian casualties and could further destabilize the nuclear-armed nation.

“You will be complicating and compounding anti-Americanism here,” said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general and military analyst in Islamabad. “How can you be an ally and at the same time be targeted?”

Some American experts say a crucial change in aerial warfare, in which American forces are now often stalking individuals rather than tanks and other large armaments as in past wars, has raised new legal issues.

A. John Radsan, who worked as a C.I.A. lawyer from 2002 to 2004, argued in a recent scholarly article he wrote with Richard W. Murphy, a fellow law professor, that the United States should follow the lead of the Israeli Supreme Court and require an investigation of “targeted killings” by the C.I.A. to control the practice.

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One of the prized attributes of the drones — the Cessna-size Predators and their larger and more heavily armed cousins called the Reapers — is that they can linger over an area day after day, sending back video that can be used to build a “pattern of life” analysis.

Some experts have compared them to mini-satellites that can monitor a suspected terrorist compound for weeks, watching where the people go and with whom they interact, to help confirm that the right people are being singled out for attack.

Experts say the drones also carry laser-guided weapons with small warheads that are precise enough to kill a group of people in a street without damaging nearby buildings.

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The final preparations for strikes in Pakistan take place in a crowded room lined with video screens, where C.I.A. officers work at phone banks and National Security Agency personnel monitor electronic chatter, according to former C.I.A. officials.

The intelligence officers watch scratchy video captured by the drones, which always fly in pairs above potential targets.

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Bringing lawfare approach to the targeting will only delay attacks giving the bad guys a chance to avoid destruction. That would be s significant mistake.

We need to help Pakistan by doing more to destroy their internal Taliban enemies. We also need to be using the UAV's protect the supply lines and destroy enemy attacks along the MSR.

This story gives a good description of how the attack work. Most wire service reports go though the motions of having the US military deny having anything to do with the attack while ignoring the fact that the CIA is behind them.

There have been very few civilian casualties from these attacks. One of the giveaways is the lack of street demonstrations following them. The al Qaeda and Taliban leaders who are being killed have been bullying the population for years and most are glad to be rid of them. The government seems to feel the need of going through the motions of protesting the strikes but those protest are disingenuous. I think many in the Pakistan government support the increased strikes since they are clearly in their interests.

These strikes could be even more effective is Pakistan would allow the US special forces to work with their units to scout out these targets. Pakistan also should agree to work with US forces in training their troops in counterinsurgency warfare. Pakistan's reluctance to do so makes little sense.