is anybody else bothered by this?
Is anybody else bothered by this?
In the predawn hours of Jan. 29, a CIA Predator aircraft flew in a slow arc above the Pakistani town of Mir Ali. The drone’s operator, relying on information secretly passed to the CIA by local informants, clicked a computer mouse and sent the first of two Hellfire missiles hurtling toward a cluster of mud-brick buildings a few miles from the town center.
The article in today’s Washington Post goes on to report that the missiles succeeded in killing a top Al Qaeda operative, Abu Laith al-Libi. So … success?
The strike force relied on local informants to target these particular houses. (Who else was in the houses? What if the informants were mistaken or lying?) And the strike was carried out without prior permission or notification of the Pakistani government … because they might say, “No”; because the delay could jeopardize the success of the operation. (Doesn’t the Pakistani government have a right to say, “No”? Would we tolerate a foreign government carrying out unilateral military actions on our soil … regardless of the justification?)
Is anybody else bothered by this?