Pakistani and Yemeni Girls

"…If Malala had been killed in a drone attack, you would neither have heard updates on her medical status, nor would she be called ‘daughter of the nation,’ nor would the media make a fuss about her. General Kiyani would not have come to visit her and neither would the world media be constantly reporting on it. The pliant western media and its liberals do not give even 1% of this attention to the Pakistani and Yemeni girls their government kills with drones everyday. Even humanitarian outrage - they only express it when it serves the interests of their snake governments…"

— Professor Fouzi Slisli

Living Under Drones

http://www.warcosts.com
Since 2004, up to 884 innocent civilians, including at least 176 children, have died from US drone strikes in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. A new report from the Stanford and New York University law schools finds drone use has caused widespread post-tramatic stress disorder and an overall breakdown of functional society in North Waziristan. In addition, the report finds the use of a "double tap" procedure, in which a drone strikes once and strikes again not long after, has led to deaths of rescuers and medical professionals. Many interviewees told the researchers they didn't know what America was before drones. Now what they know of America is drones, death and terror. Follow the conversation @WarCosts #UnderDrones

Deadlier drones are coming

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Aerial drones are America's newest frontline weapon in an escalating global campaign against Islamic militants. And they could get a lot more dangerous in coming years as their underlying technology advances.
Compared to today's fairly rudimentary Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), the drones of the future will be faster and more heavily armed. They will also have better sensors plus more sophisticated computers allowing them to plan and execute attacks with less human participation

please read on


http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120920/deadlier-drones-are-coming

The Drone Age

The global market for drones is booming. But what does the coming arms race mean for US national security interests — and the future of warfare? GlobalPost correspondents report from critical locations around the world, from Israel to Iran to Yemen to Brazil — where unmanned aerial vehicles are radically transforming combat and surveillance.

http://www.globalpost.com/special-reports/the-drone-age-why-we-should-fear-global-proliferation-uavs

U.S. drone strike kills muslim families in Yemen,

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- A U.S. drone strike targeting al Qaeda suspects in Yemen killed 13 civilians, including three women, three security officials in the restive Middle Eastern country said.

"This was one of the very few times when our target was completely missed. It was a mistake, but we hope it will not hurt our anti-terror efforts in the region," a senior Yemeni Defense Ministry official told CNN. The official asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The United States typically does not comment on reports it has used unmanned aircraft to target terror suspects, but is widely believed to be doing so in Yemen, a key battleground against al Qaeda.

More: Suspected U.S. drone strike kills 4 in Pakistan

Families of the victims closed main roads and vowed to retaliate. Hundreds of angry armed gunmen joined them and gave the government a 48-hour deadline to explain the killings, which took place on Sunday.

Eyewitnesses said that families attempted to carry the victims' corpses to the capital, Sanaa, to lay them in front of the residence of newly elected President Abdurabu Hadi, but were sent back by local security forces.

Drones in Action

"You want us to stay quiet while our wives and brothers are being killed for no reason. This attack is the real terrorism," said Mansoor al-Maweri, who was near the scene of the strike.

The strike took place near the town of Rada in al-Baitha province on Sunday, Yemeni officials said.

A senior Defense Ministry official said the strike initially targeted two members of al-Thahab clan who lead the terror network's operations in the province. He said the militants were in a vehicle near the one that was hit, and fled unharmed.

At least 200 suspected al-Qaeda fighters are believed to be hiding in the province.

Earlier this year, militants occupied Rada and declared it as an Islamic emirate. But two weeks later, they evacuated the town after authorities released al Qaeda prisoners.

Residents are not denying the existence of al Qaeda elements in their region but say that misdirected strikes work in favor of the militant group, helping them recruit new operatives.

"I would not be surprised if a hundred tribesmen joined the lines of al Qaeda as a result of the latest drone mistake," said Nasr Abdullah, an activist in the district of the attack. "This part of Yemen takes revenge very seriously."

The latest attack was the fourth drone strike reported this week. The first three hit their targets, killing at least 12 suspected al Qaeda militants, according to Yemeni officials.

Radical American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in September 2011, is the highest-profile target of an American drone hit in Yemen to date. He was linked to several terror plots, including the shootings at Fort Hood in 2009.

" Fair game"

The false statistics of US media reports on civilian drone deaths, including those of CNN, have misled Americans about such deaths caused by Washington’s use of drones, study reveals.

The revelation comes as many US journalists have started to reassess how they report on deaths in drone strikes after the New York Times recently disclosed that the CIA considers all military-aged males in Pakistan’s Waziristan to be ‘fair game’ in its drone attacks.

CNN’s national security analyst Peter Bergen’s views were therefore the subject of strong criticism when he produced a graph claiming that ‘no civilians have been killed in Pakistan this year by US drones’.
Among Bergen’s critics was a columnist for the American magazine The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf, who accused CNN and Bergen of running ‘bogus data’.
The accuracy of Bergen’s drone killings data is of great importance as he is the director of the New America Foundation (NAF) - the most common source of statistics for the US media, including CNN.
The New America Foundation has run a database on CIA drone strikes in Pakistan for more than three years and provides estimates of the causalities.
For example, out of 148 - 220 deaths in Pakistan this year until July 16 between three and 27 civilians have been reported killed, some of whom were clearly defined as civilians by news organizations including Reuters and AFP.
Yet the civilian deaths are not necessarily limited just to these. Uncertain reports sometimes refer to those killed as ‘people’ or ‘local tribesmen’ killed.
The US has so far been able to name just 13 individuals of the remaining alleged militants killed thus rendering Bergen’s claim of zero reported civilian casualties this year as "factually inaccurate".
Speaking with such certainty is also illogical. The Bureau’s own data shows that the identities of merely around 500 of the at least 2,500 people killed by the CIA in Pakistan since 2004 are known, whilst most of the others have been reported by local and international media as being ‘alleged militants’.

This inconsistency is not limited to NAF’s 2012 data, in which reliable reports of civilian deaths have been either missed or ignored. There are also factual errors in NAF’s Pakistan data, wherein confirmed strikes are left out and the estimated numbers of people killed are considerably lower than even that of the CIA’s own accounts.
Pakistan contends that the drone strikes against suspected Taliban militants are ‘unlawful’ and ‘counterproductive.’
The US claims the airstrikes target Taliban militants. But locals say civilians are the main victims.
The aerial attacks, initiated by former President George W. Bush, have escalated under President Obama.

UK and France sign deal on Drone cooperation

Bismillahir Rahmaanir Raheem
And [mention, O Muhammad], when your Lord said to the angels, "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority." They said, "Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?" Allah said, "Indeed, I know that which you do not know." 2;30

France and Britain have signed two agreements for further cooperation on the use of military drones, AFP reports.
British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian met in London to agree closer military ties.
Under the first deal France will cooperate with Britain on the Watchkeeper tactical unmanned air system, which provides British armed forces with surveillance and
reconnaissance.
The second agreement represented the first phase of a collaborative "demonstration program" for a Future Combat Air System (FCAS), another unmanned air system, to be completed between 2030 and 2040, the ministers said
According to Le Drian’s aide, Britain and France are soon to make an announcement on plans to jointly develop medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles.

courtesy http://www.passionislam.com/assets/archive/26.pdf