Abstract
From July 2008 to June 2011, the CIA carried out 220 attacks inside Pakistan. It justified them by informing they had killed 1400 “suspects”, along with 30 civilians. The private entity Conflict Monitoring Center (CMC) in Islamabad, however, calculated that in the 5 years until June 2011, the “kill/capture” campaign in Pakistan claimed 2052 lives, most of them civilians, and that in 2010 alone, 132 drone strikes caused 938 deaths. According to estimates from the New America Foundation, US drones killed close to 3000 people in Pakistan between 2004 and July 2012, of which 2447 during the first 3½ years of Obama’s administration.
Although these attacks eliminated many militants, they also increased the ranks of the Tehrik-e-Taliban of Pakistan (TTP), the group Quetta Shura led by the Pashtun warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani and the radical Sunni organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi. They also boosted al-Qa’ida’s prestige, which could now rely on countless local safehouses to circumvent the drone attacks and organize operations against the United States.
As a consequence of the attacks, the Pashtuns in both Afghanistan and Pakistan took it upon themselves to avenge their dead, whether these were civilians or militants, fulfilling their traditional Pashtunwali code of honor. Around 2011, the Taliban in Pakistan were more dangerous than the Taliban in Afghanistan, informed the Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. Camps in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were training young Swedes, Brits and Germans, among others, to return to their countries and become terrorists. Approximately 3 million people lived in tribes in this region, in addition to the 15 million Pashtuns of Afghanistan, all of them adhering to the tribal Pashtunwali code of honor and conduct, which included melmastia (hospitality), nanawati (the notion that hospitality could not be denied to a fugitive), and badal (the right to vengeance).
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Notes
- 1.
Peter Singer, “Do Drones Undermine Democracy?” The New York Times, January 21, 2012. Peter W. Singer is head of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution and author of Wired for war: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. Peter W. Singer, “Predator Drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)”, The New York Times, May 11, 2012.
- 2.
Scott Shane and Thom Shanker, “Strike Reflects U.S. Shift to Drones in Terror Fight”, The New York Times, October 1, 2011.
- 3.
Scott Shane, “A Biker, a Blonde, a Jihadist and Piles of C.I.A. Cash”, The New York Times, October 19, 2012. Af Orla Borg, Carsten Ellegaard and Morten Pihl, “CIA i hemmelig optagelse: Obama kendte til dansk agent. I en skjult lydoptagelse lavet af Morten Storm fortæller CIA-agent, at Obama kender til den danske PET-agent”, Jyllands-Posten, Oktober 22, 2012.
- 4.
Anwar al-Awlaki, a fundamentalist cleric born in New Mexico in the United States, was killed by a drone in the tribal area of Pakistan, in addition to his 16 year-old son, Abdulrahman, born in Colorado. Another American killed by a drone was Samir Khan. They were executed without trials and their families have filed suit against the Pentagon and the CIA. “Military sued over al-Awlaki Yemen drone death”, BBC, USA-Canada, July 18, 2012.
- 5.
Jimmy Carter, “A Cruel and Unusual Record”, The New York Times, June 24, 2012.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Chris Woods, “Drone War Exposed — the complete picture of CIA strikes in Pakistan”, Bureau of Investigative Journalism, August 10, 2011. Benjamin Wittes, “Civilian Deaths from Drone Strikes”, Lawfare — Hard National Security Choices, August 12, 2011.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
Declan Walsh, Eric Schmitt and Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud, “Drones at Issue as U.S. Rebuilds Ties to Pakistan”, The New York Times, March 18, 2012.
- 12.
Chris Woods, “160 children reported among drone deaths”, Covert War on Terror Over — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, August 11, 2011.
- 13.
“Obama’s kill list — All males near drone strike sites are terrorists”, Russia Today, May 31, 2012.
- 14.
International Human Rights, Conflict Resolution Clinic (Stanford Law School), Global Justice Clinic (NYU School of Law), Living Under Drones: Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians From USs Drone Practices in Pakistan, September 2012, accessed http://livingunderdrones.org/. “US drones terrorize communities: Report”, Al-Akhbar (English), September 25, 2012.
- 15.
Ibid., p. vii.
- 16.
Ibid., p. v.
- 17.
Peter Bergen and Megan Braun, “Drone is Obama’s Weapon of Choice”, CNN, September 6, 2012.
- 18.
Priest and Arkin (2011), p. 251.
- 19.
Ibid., p. 6. See also: Pakistan. http://www.asien.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/pakistan-karte.gif. Accessed 29.07.2015.
- 20.
Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe, “U.S. ‘secret war’ expands globally as Special Operations forces take larger role”, Washington Post, June 4, 2010. Nick Turse, “A secret war in 120 countries. The Pentagon’s new power elite”, Le Monde Diplomatique, August 18, 2011.
- 21.
Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe, “U.S. ‘secret war’ expands globally as Special Operations forces take larger role”, Washington Post, June 4, 2010.
- 22.
Priest and Arkin (2011), p. 209.
- 23.
Ibid., p. 209.
- 24.
“The Year of the Drone — An Analysis of U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan, 2004–2012”, New America Foundation, accessed http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones. Accessed 17 Nov 2014. Also: http://vcnv.org/files/NAF_YearOfTheDrone.pdf. Accessed 16 Dec 2016.
- 25.
Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud, “The Changing Face of Terror — Al-Qaeda takes hold of tribal regions”, Asia Times, July 10, 2012.
- 26.
Rashid (2002b), p. 26.
- 27.
Ibid., p. 26.
- 28.
Rashid (2008), p. 265–266.
- 29.
CIA Fact Book, accessed http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/geos/pk.html.
- 30.
Der Koran (Arabisch-Deutsch), 2011, Teil 25 — Sure 44 — Der Rauch (ad-Dukhan), 51–55, p. 498. In the several surahs where the Qur’an mentions huris, which can be boys or girls, there is no reference to any number.
- 31.
Der Koran (Arabisch-Deutsch), 2011. Teil 27, Sure 56, Das Unvermeidliche (al-Waqu’a), 51–55, p. 535.
- 32.
Kierkegåard (1993), p. 48–49.
- 33.
“Pakistan buries 24 troops killed in Nato airstrike”, BBC News Asia, November 27, 2011.
- 34.
See: Supply routes blocked by Pakistan. In: http://www.schule-studium.de/Sozialkunde/Afghanistan-Pakistan-Krisen-Konflikte-Hintergrundinfos-2.html. Accessed 11.05.2015.
- 35.
Owen and Maurer (2012), p. 235–236. Eric Schmitt, “Book on Bin Laden Killing Contradicts U.S. Account”, The New York Times, August 29, 2012.
- 36.
Sanger (2012a), p. 68–113. Priest and Arkin (2011), p. 256–263. Peter Baker, Helene Cooper and Mark Mazzetti, “Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama Says”, The New York Times, May 1, 2011. Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper, “Detective Work on Courier Led to Breakthrough on Bin Laden”, The New York Times, May 2, 2011. Kate Zernike and Michael T. Kaufman, “The Most Wanted Face of Terrorism”, The New York Times, May 2, 2011. Scott Wilson, Craig Whitlock and William Branigin, “Osama bin Laden killed in U.S. raid, buried at sea”, The Washington Post, May 2, 2011. Bob Woodward, “Death of Osama bin Laden: Phone call pointed U.S. to compound — and to ‘the pacer’”, The Washington Post, May 7, 2011.
- 37.
“Bin Laden death prompts questions about legality”, USA Today, 5/4/2011. “Bin Laden’s killing prompts uncomfortable legal, ethical questions for US”, Deutsche Welle, 4/5/2011.
- 38.
Woods Jr. and Gutzman (2008), p. 182.
- 39.
According to some sources, General Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, had wanted to give the status of prisoner of war to the Taliban imprisoned in Afghanistan, which in fact they were. But he yielded to the decision of President George W. Bush, who counted on the support of his adviser and attorney-general, the neocon Alberto R. Gonzales. Gonzales also justified torture, which he euphemistically called stress and duress techniques, such as sleep deprivation, isolation, waterboarding, sexual humiliation etc. These methods were not only used in Guantánamo, but also in Abhu Graib, in Iraq and in the Black Sites, the secret CIA prisons in Poland, Romania and other countries. Scarborough (2004), p. 17–19. McCoy (2007), p. 108–135.
- 40.
McCoy (2007), p. 113–114.
- 41.
Helmut Schmidt, “Bin Laden zweifellos Urheber des schändlichen Attentats”, Hamburger Abendblatt, 2/5/2011. Lilith Volkert, “TV-Kritik: Beckmann zu Bin Laden Gegengift zur Aufgeregtheit”, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 3/5/2011.
- 42.
Briody (2003), p. 146–148.
- 43.
Daniel Golden and James Bandler, “Bin Laden Family Is Tied to U.S. Group”, The Wall Street Journal, p. A3.
- 44.
Briody (2003), p. 145.
- 45.
John Omicinski, “General: Capturing bin Laden is not part of mission”, USA Today, 11/8/2001.
- 46.
Jeremy R. Hammond, “Ex-ISI Chief Says Purpose of New Afghan Intelligence Agency Rama Is ‘to destabilize Pakistan’”, Foreign Policy Journal, August 12, 2009.
- 47.
Maura Reynolds, “The Presidential Debate — Bush ‘Not Concerned’ About Bin Laden in ‘02”, Los Angeles Times, October 14, 2004.
- 48.
Christi Parsons and David Cloud, “Obama announces drawdown of forces from Afghanistan, saying ‘tide of war is receding’”, Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2011.
- 49.
Jane Perlez, “Pakistani Army, Shaken by Raid, Faces New Scrutiny”, The New York Times, May 4, 2011. “Pakistan after Bin Laden”, The New York Times, May 13, 2011.
- 50.
Declan Walsh and Eric Schmitt, “Militant Group Poses Risk to U.S.-Pakistan Relations”, The New York Times, July 30, 2012.
- 51.
Rashid (2008), p. 375.
- 52.
“Obama aide confirms US holding back aid to Pakistan”, The Express Tribune with The International Herald Tribune, Reuters/AFP, July 10, 2011.
- 53.
Saeed Shah, “Anti-Americanism Rises In Pakistan Over US Motives”, McClatchy Newspapers, September 7, 2009.
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Moniz Bandeira, L.A. (2017). Drones and Kill/Capture Campaign in Pakistan. In: The Second Cold War. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54888-3_11
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