[Peace-discuss] Obama's killer joke

[C. G. Estabrook]

	“Pattern of Life” Drone Strikes
	By: emptywheel Thursday May 6, 2010 9:56 am	

The LAT reports that targeting for most of the drone strikes that have killed 
more than 500 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been based not on 
information about an individual’s ties to terrorism, but rather on “pattern of 
life” analysis that targets the actions of a person.

"The CIA received secret permission to attack a wider range of targets, 
including suspected militants whose names are not known, as part of a dramatic 
expansion of its campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan’s border region, 
according to current and former counter-terrorism officials.

"The expanded authority, approved two years ago by the Bush administration and 
continued by President Obama, permits the agency to rely on what officials 
describe as 'pattern of life' analysis, using evidence collected by surveillance 
cameras on the unmanned aircraft and from other sources about individuals and 
locations."

Think about that: we’re potentially killing people based not on what we know 
about an individual, but what we have observed solely through the camera of a 
drone. Or, if we’ve got particularized information from someone on the grounds, 
it’s as likely to be someone from Blackwater or an even more disreputable 
contractor posing as PsyOp warriors. And this includes strikes in Pakistan, a 
country with which we are not at war, supposedly. And among those targeted in 
such a manner may be associates of Faisal Shahzad.

Remember that old Bush ditty, that we were fighting them over here so we didn’t 
have to fight them here? Apparently that has now been turned on its head: we are 
targeting them from here which may make it more likely we’ll be fighting them here.

On 5/6/10 1:08 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> President Obama made his Predator joke at the White House
> correspondents' dinner with the casual arrogance we've come to expect of
> his attitude towards the killing he's ordered. Practically the first act
> of the Obama administration was to increase substantially the use of the
> deadly weapon that has killed more innocent civilians in Pakistan than
> the "terrorists" have.
>
> Is it surprising that the Pakistanis hate us? They know the US
> government considers Pakistan potentially the greatest threat to its
> dominance of the Mideast and its energy resources - and that we'll stop
> at nothing to control that country - and the region - because of the
> leverage control of those resources gives us in regard to our economic
> rivals in Europe and Asia. That's why Obama's spending so much money -
> and killing so many people - in AfPak.
>
> http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/05/obama-drone-joke-was-it-offens.html?wprss=44
>
>

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