Pentagon Joins CIA’s Drone War on Pakistan

[Eugen Leitl]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/pentagon-joins-pakistan-drone-war-gives-islamabad-robo-control/ 

Pentagon Joins CIAbs Drone War on Pakistan

    * By Noah Shachtman Email Author

    * May 13, 2009  | 

    * 10:26 am  | 

    * Categories: Af/Pak, Air Force, Drones

For years, the CIA has flown killer drones over Pakistan b without giving
local authorities much say in how or where the aircraft operate. But therebs
been a major shift in the unmanned war over Pakistan, the Los Angeles Times
reports. Two shifts, really.

First, Pakistani and American military officers have begun jointly operating
a set of American Predator and Reaper unmanned planes. Second, those aircraft
are from the U.S. Air Forcebs remotely-piloted squadrons, not the CIAbs. This
shift from spy drones to military drones could have important consequences in
the air war over Pakistan, and the larger struggle against Islamic extremists
in the region.

Under a new partnership with Pakistani Government, the Timesb Julian Barnes
and Greg Miller write, this bseparate fleet of U.S. drones operated by the
Defense Department will be free for the first time to venture beyond the
Afghan border under the direction of Pakistani military officials, who are
working alongside American counterparts at a command center in Jalalabad,
Afghanistan.b Pakistani officers previously have been able to see footage
from the Predatorsb high-powered cameras. Now the military men are being
given bsignificant control over routes, targets and decisions to fire
weapons.b

The CIA drones will continue to bfocus on the United Statesb principal
target, Al Qaeda. The military drones, however, are intended to undermine the
militant networks that have moved closer to Islamabad, the capital, in recent
weeks.b The underscores an expansion of the Obama administrationbs military
aims in the region. No longer is this fight solely about bdefeat[ing] Al
Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan,b as the President said two months ago. The
warbs goals now include keeping Islamabad from being overrun by a distinct,
but related, group of homegrown extremists.

The Air Force drones now being employed against those militants are now
presumably subject to the oversight of the lawyers, intelligence analysts,
and targeting specialists at the U.S. militarybs Combined Air and Space
Operations Center (CAOC). Such reviews could cut down on the unmanned
strikesb civilian casualties b as well as the popular and political
resistance to the attacks. But the greater hesitancy to use the dronesb
arrays of Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs may allow militant targets
to get away, unscathed.

Already, bsome U.S. officials have expressed frustration that the Pakistanis
have not used the Predator capabilities more aggressively. Officials said
Pakistan was given the authority to order strikes on the jointly operated
flights as long as there was U.S. agreement on the targets,b the Times says.
Pakistan also bdeclined an offer to use the drones for its recent military
offensives in the Swat Valley and Buner areas, and poor weather has caused
other sorties to be scrapped.b

Until now, bthe heavy U.S. military presence in Afghanistan has been largely
powerless to pursue the Islamic extremists who routinely escape into
Pakistan,b Barnes and Miller notes.

Largely b but not entirely. There have been cross-border raids by special
forces. And occasionally, the Air Forcebs Predators and Reapers are allowed
to enter Pakistani airspace b with Islamabadbs explicit permission.

Yesterday, Danger Room examined the possibility that the new American
commander in Afghanistan might look to expand operations into Pakistan. Looks
like that already happened.

[Photo: Noah Shachtman]

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