PAKISTAN/FILE: Pakistanis condemn U.S drone attacks on their territory as CIA nominee John Brennan appears for a hearing before the U.S. Senate

Record ID: 184883

  • Title: PAKISTAN/FILE: Pakistanis condemn U.S drone attacks on their territory as CIA nominee John Brennan appears for a hearing before the U.S. Senate
  • Date: 7th February 2013
  • Summary: VENDOR SELLING CORN
  • Embargoed: 22nd February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA6TJSH1QPPY8EBJVCR6E214V1W
  • Story Text: Many Pakistanis denounced on Thursday (February 7) U.S. drone attacks on their soil, as President Barack Obama's nominee to head the CIA, John Brennan, is expected to face tough questioning on spy activities.
    Brennan is expected to be quizzed on activities from waterboarding to the use of drones.
    The disclosure of an unclassified Justice Department memo laying out the legal framework for the U.S. government's ability to attack its own citizens has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups. But the White House strongly defended the controversial policy as legal and ethical.
    The U.S. government has dramatically increased its use of drone aircraft abroad in recent years to target al Qaeda figures in far-flung places from Pakistan to Yemen.
    In Pakistan, opinion is divided over drone strikes. Many criticise them as an infringement of the country's sovereignty and because they have killed civilians. Others say the strikes reach militants terrorising the local population in areas the Pakistani army cannot go.
    But most people oppose the attacks in a country where anti-U.S sentiment runs high.
    Lawyer Arif Niazi called the drone attacks a "blatant aggression, intrusion and violation of our sovereignty", adding they were counter-productive.
    "Increase in drone strikes will be very dangerous because initially this terrorism was limited to border areas in the north-west but now it is spreading everywhere in the country," he said.
    University lecturer Haroon Haider said people were angry. "Many people become handicapped and families are left helpless in a (drone) attack," he said.
    The United Nations recently launched an investigation into the use of drones.
    Despite many protests in Pakistan, analyst Agha Masood Hussain feared the attacks will continue.
    "Drone attacks will continue unabated. And the present chief of CIA has also said that it will not stop," Hussain said.
    The United States says the strikes have killed top Taliban and al-Qaida commanders and civilian casualties are minimal. But it refuses to say how targets are selected or how the military determines whether the dead were fighters or civilians.
    A recent report, Living Under Drones, said that large swathes of Pakistan's tribal areas were terrorised by the drones.
    Civilians were scared to go to school or work in case they were targeted, the report by Stanford and New York Universities said.
    Getting accurate data on casualties and the effects of drones is extremely difficult since the government allows few foreigners into the tribal areas and the Taliban often seal off the sites of strikes. Drones also often attack people arriving at the site of the strike.
    Drone victims have been staging protests in Pakistani capital and elsewhere for several years.
    Pakistani authorities stopped a protest over U.S. drone strikes led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan from entering the troubled region of South Waziristan last year, prompting allegations the government was ambivalent about U.S. actions.
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