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BHO set a new standard for public statements from the oval office. He was talking about economic recovery. “So I want to send a clear message to Congress: Do not slow down the recovery that we’re on. . Keep it moving in the right direction.” Thank you Democracy Now for that transcript, and for the rest of the quotes in this story .
Kansas/Kenya lips were moving on another subject recently. During a “virtual interview” with youtubers last week, BHO was talking about drone strikes in Pakistan. “I want to make sure that people understand, actually, drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties. For the most part, they have been very precise precision strikes against al-Qaeda and their affiliates. ” A report from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism paints a different picture .
“We’ve been looking at this since August of last year. When we were putting together our massive database on CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, we noted that there were repeated reports at the time, contemporaneous reports in publications like _New York Times, news agencies like Reuters, by CNN, that there were these strikes on rescuers, that there were reports that there had been an initial strike and then, some minutes later, as people had come forward to help and pull out the dead and injured, that drones had returned to the scene and had attacked rescuers. Now, we didn’t take that at face value when we began a major investigation, that’s been ongoing for many months now, that we just published in conjunction with the London Sunday Times, where we looked at those 18 original reports, and we’ve been able to confirm, through our researchers on the ground in Waziristan, that a dozen of those attacks on rescuers, and also two attacks on funerals, have taken place in Waziristan. And we’ve been able to name just over 50 civilians that we understand have been killed in those attacks. In total, we think that more than 75 civilians have been killed, specifically in these attacks on rescuers and on mourners, on funeral-goers.”
The US government had a witty response. “A senior American counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, questioned the report’s findings, saying ‘targeting decisions are the product of intensive intelligence collection and observation.’ The official added: ‘One must wonder why an effort that has so carefully gone after terrorists who plot to kill civilians has been subjected to so much misinformation. Let’s be under no illusions—there are a number of elements who would like nothing more than to malign these efforts and help Al Qaeda succeed.”
A few years ago, in Sandy Springs, an abortion clinic was bombed. About fifteen minutes later, a second bomb went off at the site, designed to hit those who had come to aid the victims of the initial blast. Apparently, our armed forces were impressed by this tactic, and have used it in Pakistan. It is not known whether abortion clinic bombers set off bombs at victim funerals.
There were indications that the situation may be improving. “And just to be clear, the attacks on rescuers and mourners that we note, they’ve all occurred under the Obama administration between 2009 and July 2011. I think that date is quite interesting, because that’s also when Leon Panetta stepped down as head of CIA. You have an interim CIA leader, and then David Petraeus comes in. We haven’t had any reports from Pakistan since July of last year of attacks on rescuers. So there’s an indication of a policy change, and there’s also an indication of a targeting change on the ground. So, things may be changing at the moment. “
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.