hollywoodtone.blogspot.com New report gives details of over 300 Pakistan drone strikes
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com New report gives details of over 300 Pakistan drone strikes
Islamabad - The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has published a leaked official document that records the details of over 300 drone strikes. The document represents the fullest official record of drone strikes in Pakistan to be revealed so far.
The document includes details such as exactly where the strikes took place often even including the names of homeowners whose homes had been struck. The document is not that helpful in determining the total number of civilian deaths however since after 2008 it simply does not record civilian deaths but only when the deaths were local or non-local. Even in cases where civilian deaths have already been well documented they are not listed as such. Even so in the years before 2008 the numbers are greater than the Pakistan government suggested at the time as the appended video notes. The Bureau had published part of the document last July that listed attacks between 2006 and 2009. It showed that the Pakistani government was aware of hundreds of civilian casualties and that there civilian casualties in strikes that officials had denied any civilians had been killed. The Bureau now has an updated version of this report that covers attacks up to September of last year. The reports are generated by senior officials in the field to the FATA ( Federally Administered Tribal Areas) Secretariat each evening. The officials gather the information from local informants in FATA. When the Bureau published the earlier part of the document anonymous U.S. officials said it was far from authoritative but the U.S. has consistently refused to release its own assessment or information. The total casualties listed in the new document are not that far off those calculated by the Bureau. The Bureau estimated that there were at least 2,371 people in total who were killed during the period covered where as the document lists a total of 2,217. The year 2007 is missing from the report. Pakistani intelligence agencies and the military are thought to have their own assessment of the number killed and other aspects of the drone strikes. The Pakistani government has been inconsistent in its reporting with the number of civilian deaths often framed to reflect political considerations rather than the truth it would seem. In March of 2013 the Foreign Affairs Ministry told UN expert Ben Emmerson who was carrying out an investigation into the attacks that at least 400 civilians and possibly 600 were among 2,2000 casualties. In October after Prime Minister Sharif had met with Obama and the U.S. aid was unfrozen, the Ministry of Defense said that only 67 civilians were killed since 2008. Later anonymous defense officials said that the figures were incorrect and even fabricated. The full Pakistani document as reported by the Bureau can be found here.
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com New report gives details of over 300 Pakistan drone strikes