Pakistan Condemns Deadly U.S. Airstrike

I hope the US pay compensations to the families of those civilians that were targetted and killed. How have they dealt with similar situations in the past?

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader was invited to dinner marking an Islamic holiday at the Pakistani border village struck by a purported CIA airstrike, but he did not show up, intelligence officials said Sunday, as Islamic groups demonstrated across the country in protest of the 17 people killed in the missile strike.

The two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press that this could explain why Friday's predawn attack missed its apparent target, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Usama bin Laden's top lieutenant.

Al-Zawahiri sent some aides to the dinner instead and investigators were trying to determine whether they had been in any of the three houses that were destroyed in the missile strike that killed at least 17 people, one of the officials said."

So al-Zawahiri was invited to a dinner at this particular house, interesting. That certainly casts a great deal of doubt on the innocence of the people in the house. And if al-Zawahiri's personal aides were at the dinner, then the strike might not have been a mistake at all. Again, in a few more days we'll probably have even more information.

http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=220237&cat=India

...no?

they have a system for this. families are given cash, anywhere from $50-$1000, IIRC, if they can find out where to go and queue up for hours or days. fanks, america!

If this last attempt was any indication, they'd probably sit outside the guys condo complex with marked vehicles parked across the street for a couple days before doing anything. Of course, when they'd enter, they'd break into the wrong condo, shoot some innocent family, and then realize the guy they were looking for went out the back door while they were busy running such obvious surveillance.

Also, the picture remains on Yahoo with a misleading caption.

Pakistani tribesmen stand by a unexploded ordinance at their house which was damaged in an alleged US air strike the day before in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border. Pakistani officials said that Al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was likely not killed in a US air strike, as Islamabad protested to Washington the deaths of 18 villagers in the attack.(AFP/Thir Khan)

so it wasn't even a NYT photo, was it? Or even an AP photo, huh? It's Agence France-Presse. The caption is correct(it's a kid and other Pakistan folks by a piece of unexploded ordinance), but you're right in that the caption writer could have better specified that the shell came from a different attack. Those damn frenchies always hate Amurka and our freedom, huh?

But, yes, let us focus on a shitty caption and draw up a tempest around that error(an error since corrected). Guess we won't have to talk about the actual shitty event that way.

If somebody gets killed in your city, the local paper might run a photo of the crime scene alongside the story but they would NOT run a photo of a completely different crime scene or 50 Cent or whoever in order to make a generalized point about murder or gun violence. Either report what actually happened or don't report it at all -- using completely unrelated photos to conveniently tell the story you feel like telling. If the NYT doesn't have a photo of the actual scene of the attack then they shouldn't place a photo in their story -- particularly not a blatantly misleading one (don't think for a moment that the editor who put the photo there didn't know exactly what they were doing).

Also, the fact that the photo wasn't taken by a NYT photographer is unimportant -- they ran it, that's all that matters.

"instead of using completely unrelated photos to conveniently tell the story you feel like telling"

I thought I heard on npr today that four top operatives were killed in this missile attack.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080916/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

Nice. Now is any US official going to publicly state how the ISI was directly responsible for the creation of the Taliban in the first place? Oh wait

U.S. military commanders accuse Islamabad of doing too little to prevent the Taliban and other militant groups from recruiting, training and resupplying in Pakistan's wild tribal belt.

Okay. I guess we can still only come that far, out of fantasy-land.

This, in addition to the fact that the hotel was the almos-stay of Zardari & other leaders (Prime Minister, members of Parliament) is concerning: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7627584.stm

Pakistani troops fire on intruding U.S. choppers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080922/wl_nm/pakistan_usa_helicopters_dc;_ylt=AgSBA7nI8wi2uvPtcZ1ORc8UewgF

Pakistani troops fire on intruding U.S. choppers
By Augustine Anthony
Mon Sep 22, 5:07 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani troops fired on two U.S. helicopters that intruded into Pakistani airspace on Sunday night, forcing them to turn back to Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani security official said on Monday.

It was the second such incident in a week, and reflects frayed relations with the United States over Pakistan's failure to act more forcibly against Islamist fighters in the tribal lands bordering Afghanistan.

The number of missile attacks by U.S. drone aircraft in the remote tribal areas has multiplied in recent weeks.

---

so is the US going to admit it's basically at war here, or no no, that still doesn't apply to "key allied in the war on terror" ?

the US is not going to declare war on Pakistan

I've got a pretty wild tribal belt

>>the US is not going to declare war on Pakistan

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, September 22, 2008 9:42 AM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark<<

Hahaha who is expecting that? - but acknowledging that whoever we think we may be fighting in Afghanistan are, oh, the same people funded by the Pakistani ISI might be a fucking start (even if it's nearly 7 years too late)

Musharraf's cons were great but having "Mr. 10%" take his place is one of the worst options, period. I'd put a bet on those tribes over 10%'s long life-expectancy any day

It's always touching when a new button-man makes his bones.

"The second attack was aimed at the house of a Taleban commander about 10km (six miles) from the town of Wanna, local reports said.

But officials told the BBC that the drone actually hit the house of a pro-government tribal leader, killing him and four members of his family, including a five-year-old child."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7847423.stm

http://www.sudiptasingh.com/lasvegas/buttonman.JPG

"The second attack was incredibly poorly aimed at the house of a Taleban commander..."

fixed

http://www.uffdashoponline.com/images/uffda2.jpg

Obama, welcome to the world of trusting the military brass to tell you what's true and to carry out its mission without fucking up, when you're 8,000 miles from the scene and so are they. I suggest you chew some asses. Big time.

this will never work of course, sadly

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/23/AR2010122301278.html?wprss=rss_world/wires&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=main-twitter