[Peace-discuss] Obama kills more in Mideast as he suppresses antiwar voices at home

[C. G. Estabrook]

  C.I.A. Steps Up Drone Attacks in Pakistan...
By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: September 27, 2010

WASHINGTON — The C.I.A. has drastically increased its bombing campaign in the 
mountains of Pakistan in recent weeks...

Some 30,000 American soldiers are taking part in the Afghanistan surge...

As part of its covert war in the region, the C.I.A. has launched 20 attacks with 
armed drone aircraft thus far in September, the most ever during a single month, 
and more than twice the number in a typical month...

...Pakistan’s government has not been aggressive enough in dislodging militants 
from their bases in the country’s western mountains...

Beyond the C.I.A. drone strikes, the war in the region is escalating in other 
ways. In recent days, American military helicopters have launched three 
airstrikes into Pakistan [WE ARE NOIT AT WAR WITH PAKISTAN] that military 
officials estimate killed more than 50 people suspected of being members of the 
militant group known as the Haqqani network...

Pakistani officials have angrily criticized the helicopter attacks, saying that 
NATO’s mandate in Afghanistan does not extend across the border in Pakistan.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Afghanistan, has recently 
issued veiled warnings to top Pakistani commanders that the United States could 
launch unilateral ground operations in the tribal areas should Pakistan refuse 
to dismantle the militant networks...

Special Operations commanders [I.E., US ASSASSINATION TEAMS & DEATH SQUADS] have 
also been updating plans for cross-border raids...

The Obama administration has enthusiastically embraced the C.I.A.’s drone 
program, an ambitious and historically unusual war campaign by American spies. 
According to The Long War Journal, the spy agency in 2009 and 2010 has launched 
nearly four times as many attacks as it did during the final year of the Bush 
administration...

The intelligence technology, General Petraeus said, has also enabled the 
expanded campaign of raids by Special Operations commandos against Taliban 
operatives in those areas.

Rod Nordland and Alissa J. Rubin contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, 
and Ismail Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/world/asia/28drones.html?exprod=myyahoo