16 November 2009

I suspect this was an awkward meeting....

Much has been written about the CIA's use of Predator strikes in the FATA region of Pakistan. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the program is actually highly classified, and is largely disavowed by many government officials, despite the fact that it seems to appear in the news every other day.

Anyway, a few Pakistani students repeatedly asked Secretary of State Clinton about these strikes during a recent Q&A session (from the NY Times, in an article regarding Pakistan's reluctant support in the AF/PAK region):

White House officials have said comparatively little about the Pakistan side of the administration’s evolving war strategy, in part because they have so few options. They cannot place forces inside Pakistan, and they cannot talk publicly about the Central Intelligence Agency’s Predator drone strikes in the country, though they are so much of an open secret that Mrs. Clinton was asked about them repeatedly in meetings she held late last month with Pakistani students and citizens. (She refused to acknowledge the program’s existence.)
If I were Secretary Clinton, I'd say, "Well, while we're on the topic of open secrets, let's discuss the Pakistani ISI and Frontier Corps providing fire support for the Taliban". (Tom Ricks article, In the Graveyard of Empires excerpt, India Defence, you get the picture)

1 comment:

courtneyme109 said...

Land of the Pure's largest foreign aid donor is not too concerned with religious fatwas or opinions, feelings or thoughts of ineffective militaries that cannot control their own borders, that do fiddle about with terrorist sympathizers, enablers and recruits or fail to maintain their state's monopoly on violence.

Instead, perhaps - Land of the Pure should carefully consider what the opinions, feelings and thoughts of Great Satan are.