(MintPress)— Between 464 and 818 civilians have been credibly reported as killed, including 175 children, as a result of U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, according to an in-depth investigation by the British Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ). In total, the report claims that over the past eight years, the United States’ undeclared drone war in Pakistan has left at least 2,413 people dead and over 1,158 people injured.
President Barack Obama said in an online interview hosted by Google and YouTube, that “Drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties.” Perhaps the President is unaware that at least half of civilian drone deaths occurred during his first three years in office.
Between 282 and 535 civilians have been reportedly killed as a result of drone attacks since 2008, including at least 60 children. TBIJ found evidence that 50 of those killed since 2008 died during follow-up strikes while helping victims, while another 20 civilians are believed to have been killed in deliberate attacks on funerals and mourners.
The lack of government transparency on the use of drones leaves rights groups skeptical on the real number of civilian casualties and threatens an already shaky relationship with the Pakistani government.
Lack of Transparency
America’s drone campaign in Pakistan is a classified C.I.A. program, which makes official data difficult to obtain. The government has released little information on the process for ordering drone strikes and how the government differentiates between civilians and non-civilians who threaten the United States.
The government has also refused to release information regarding the legality of C.I.A. drone operations in countries like Pakistan where the United States is not engaged in military combat operations.
As a result of the lack of transparency surrounding the C.I.A. drone program, it is difficult to confirm various conflicting reports on drone casualties in Pakistan. The Colombia Journalism Review cites sources that reveal leading Pakistani media groups have released unconfirmed reports that as many as 1800 civilians and mid- to low-level militants killed by drone strikes just over the past three years.
In an attempt to increase transparency, the New York Times has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request information on drone procedures believed to be improperly withheld by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Through the lawsuit, filed in December, the New York Times hopes to acquire information on the legality of targeted killing, “especially the extrajudicial use of lethal force away from any so-called ‘hot’ battlefield where United States forces are engaged in active combat,” and the government’s explanation of the compatibility between drone attacks with the Constitution and international law.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also filed a similar FOIA request against the U.S. government in regards to “targeted killing” activities. In early February, the ACLU filed a lawsuit requesting the release of records pertaining to U.S. drone strikes that target U.S. citizens, specifically pertaining to the Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
Harming Relationships, Supporting the “enemy”
AFP reported in 2010, that Kareem Khan, a Pakistani tribesman, attempted to sue the CIA for $500 million dollars after his son and brother were allegedly killed by an U.S. drone attack in North Waziristan. A 15-year-old boy, also from North Waziristan, claims to have lost an eye and both legs in a drone strike the same year and blames the attacks for the deaths of three family members
Khan said in a news conference, “The drone attack killed my son, my brother and a local man. We are not terrorists, we are common citizens.”
Members of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the intended targets of CIA drone operations, capitalize on stories like those of Khan in order to seek support for their own militant movements from the innocent victims of botched drone attacks.
David Rohde, a New York Times reporter held captive by the Taliban in Pakistan in 2008, experienced the U.S. drone presence in Pakistan first-hand during his seven-months in captivity, during which a drone attacked a target a few hundred feet from where he was being held.
“The drones killed many senior commanders and hindered their operations,” said Rohde. “Yet the Taliban were able to garner recruits in their aftermath by exaggerating the number of civilian casualties.”
Rohde also reported that the Taliban began executing innocent civilians, who they believed to be American spies guiding the missiles. The Taliban’s hatred for President Obama has begun to outweigh the criticism faced by President Bush.
According to McClatchy’s Washington Bureau, “Pakistan’s Taliban routinely cite revenge for drone attacks when carrying out terrorist attacks in their own country, leading many Pakistanis to think they’re paying an unacceptably high price for the country’s alliance with the U.S.”
As a result, many ordinary citizens have begun condemning the Pakistani government for their cooperation with the U.S. war on terrorism and the complacency with American foreign policy. Pakistani officials have repeatedly denounced U.S. drone attacks as a violation of state sovereignty, but the strikes continue.
However, President Obama insists that the drone operations actually protect Pakistan’s sovereignty, while protecting American soldiers from combat operations in rough Pakistani terrain.
“Our ability to respect the sovereignty of other countries and to limit our incursions into somebody else’s territory is enhanced by the fact that we are able to pinpoint strike an Al-Qaeda operative in a pace where the capacities of the military in that country may not be able to get them,” said the President when asked whether the U.S. drone program harmed relations with other countries.
The President failed to comment on whether Pakistani officials are notified or given an opportunity to approve drone operations beforehand.
Despite the opposition from the Pakistani government and people, Obama’s drone war in Pakistan will continue throughout 2012, resulting in even more Pakistani civilian casualties, as the United States begins to pull out troops from Afghanistan and expands its focus on combating terrorism in the region with even more covert, technological tactics.