[Peace-discuss] End the war in Pakistan now

[C. G. Estabrook]

The US asserts the CIA man was hastily withdrawn because his name was revealed - 
as if any interested people in the ISI, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Russian and 
Chinese intelligence, etc. etc. - didn't know who he was!

A more accurate story may be given here:

    CIA top spy flees Pakistan over lawsuit
    Fri Dec 17, 2010 5:20PM

The US central intelligence agency (CIA) has been forced to call back its top 
spy in Pakistan after he was accused of killing civilians in unauthorized drone 
attacks.

This comes days after a Pakistani lawsuit designated the CIA station chief by 
name, accusing him of killing civilians in missile strikes.

Kareem Kahn, a resident of the North Waziristan tribal district, filed an 
official complaint with Islamabad police against CIA station chief Jonathan Bank 
at the US Embassy in Islamabad on Monday.

The lawsuit has also named CIA Director Leon Panetta and US Defense Secretary 
Robert Gates.

This is the first such case filed against a CIA official for the use of 
non-UN-sanctioned drone attacks in Pakistan.

Khan's relatives were slain in an unauthorized US drone attack in the North 
Waziristan tribal district in 2009.

"That drone attack killed my son, my brother and a local man. We are not 
terrorists, we are common citizens," Khan told a news conference in Islamabad in 
late November.

"According to Islamic law the punishment for blood is blood. If I have the 
means, I will take revenge for this attack," he said.

"We need justice. We are innocent people."

Khan's lawyer Mirza Shehzad Akbar had previously said he would file a lawsuit in 
Pakistan and, if necessary, one with the International Court of Justice based at 
The Hague.

The CIA station chief in Islamabad runs the unmanned drone attacks which are 
said to target militants in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt.

Official figures show that most of the victims are civilians. The unauthorized 
US drone attacks have drawn strong criticism from the Pakistani people and 
officials.

In the latest developments, four non-UN-sanctioned US drone attacks killed at 
least 26 people in the Khyber Agency tribal region.

The news that CIA has pulled its top spy out of Pakistan comes just a day after 
the U-S announced its new Afghanistan-Pakistan war strategy review and also a 
day after America's drone attacks expanded into a new region in Pakistan, 
Kheybar Agency.

It is the second consecutive day that US drones target the same region.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people held anti-US protests in Islamabad over the past 
days. The Protesters condemned non-UN-sanctioned US drone attacks on Pakistan's 
tribal areas.

US drone strikes have killed 2,000 people in northwest Pakistan since 2004. 
These airstrikes have intensified since US President Barack Obama took office in 
2009.

Washington claims the attacks target militants but figures show most of the 
victims are civilians.

Militant attacks, unsanctioned drone strikes and political unrest have claimed 
the lives of over 4,000 people throughout Pakistan since 2007.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155905.html

On 12/17/10 12:07 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Like a gambler raising the stakes each time he loses, the Obama administration 
> is shifting the emphasis in the "AfPak War" (only one theater, as Obama says, 
> in the Long War for control of energy Mideast resources) to the second 
> syllable...
>
> The lead article in the semi-official US war gazette today:
>
> "US WILL WIDEN WAR ON MILITANTS INSIDE PAKISTAN - ALLY RELUCTANT TO ACT - 
> Pentagon Planning More Attacks With Drones and Commandos":
>
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/world/asia/17afghan.html?ref=world>.
>
> See also "Top U.S. Spy Flees Pakistan":
>
> <http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101217/ap_on_go_ot/us_pakistan_cia>.
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