These missions are remotely flown by U.S. Air Force pilots at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada; the footage is shared with the Pakistani government, including at joint coordination centers on the border.
In addition, some of the military’s Predators and Reapers are placed under the operational control of the CIA, which uses them to conduct their own strike and surveillance missions. Some of those drones take off from Jalalabad, others from within Pakistan itself, at a remote base called Shamshi. According to the New York Times, those aircraft are operated out of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia…. From what I can tell, these CIA missions comprise the bulk of the drone flights over Pakistan. And the military has, at times, encouraged the notion that operating the unmanned aircraft was the spy agency’s job.69
Regardless of whether the source of the upswing in drone strikes in September 2008 was the military’s JSOC or the CIA, there were few criticisms from the Pakistani authorities, who were caught up in the election of their new president, Ali Asaf al Zardari. Zardari was the widower of the recently slain presidential candidate Benazir Bhutto, who had been killed by a Baitullah Mehsud Taliban suicide bomber upon her return to Pakistan in 2007. For this reason the Americans hoped Zardari would be a strong ally, and in this expectation they were not disappointed. Zardari seemed to be willing to stand by the Americans and the war on the terrorists who threatened his state, even if it cost him some popularity among his own people. Zardari referred to the Taliban as a “cancerous” threat to Pakistan and told the Americans that he would “take the heat” if the United States launched a cross-border raid to capture an HVT like bin Laden or Zawahiri.70
On September 30 the CIA took advantage of the new climate of cooperation, and a drone struck again, this time in Mir Ali, North Waziristan. The drone missile struck the house of a “local Taliban commander” and killed six people.71 On the night of October 3–4 a drone struck yet again. A senior Pakistani military official said of the attack, “Our reports suggest that around 20 suspected militants were killed when a missile hit a house in Mohammad Khel village in North Waziristan. Most were foreigners.”72 There were no recorded civilian deaths on this occasion.
On October 9 a house east of Miranshah, North Waziristan, whose owner was hosting foreigners, was hit by a drone. At least six people, including three Arabs, were killed in the attack.73 Three days later a drone struck again in Miranshah, killing five people, but there were no reports on the victims’ identities.74 Just four days later, on October 16, a drone struck in the village of Taparghai, South Waziristan. This strike killed four people, “some of them Arabs,” including Khalid Habib, the number four in al Qaeda and head of their operations in the Pakistani tribal regions.75 Habib and the other Arabs were killed in their Toyota station wagon in one of the first recorded hits on a vehicle in Pakistan.
On the night of October 22–23 a drone struck again, this time against the Haqqani Network in a village just outside Miranshah, North Waziristan. Locals reported, “One missile hit a room in the compound where the militants were sleeping.”76 Three days later a drone struck a “facility/alleged militant compound” in a village near Wana, South Waziristan.77 Twenty people were killed in this strike, among them Mohammad Omar, a Taliban commander who had been close to Nek Muhammad.78 Interestingly enough, the drone missile completely destroyed Omar’s compound but only “damaged” two neighboring houses.
Five days later, on October 31, a drone struck again in Wana, killing six foreigners and a local tribesman who was hosting them.79 That same day a drone also struck in neighboring North Waziristan, killing a prominent al Qaeda leader named Abu Jihad al Masri and two other “rebels” who were traveling in a car with him. Masri was an Egyptian and a high-ranking propaganda expert who appeared in a video with Ayman al Zawahiri.80 There were no civilian bystander casualties in this strike.
Shortly after these strikes, on November 4, the Americans chose a new president, Barack Obama. But this did not slow down the pace of the kills in Bush’s final months in office. On November 7 a drone attacked an al Qaeda training camp located near the Afghan border in the village of Kumsham, North Waziristan. According to a Pakistani source, “Between 11 and 14 militants, mainly foreigners, were killed in the strike.”81 Among those killed were seven al Qaeda operatives and one Taliban commander. Once again there were no reports of civilian casualties in the attack.
On November 14 a drone attacked again, this time in the village of Garyom near Miranshah, North Waziristan, an area described as a “hotbed of Al Qaeda and Taliban support.”82 In this strike twelve people, including “nine foreign militants, believed to be Al Qaeda fighters,” the homeowner, and two of his family members, were also killed.83 The message for other Pashtuns who might have been tempted to host foreign al Qaeda fighters in their houses was clear: You run the risk of having your home and family destroyed if you provide sanctuary to foreign terrorists-militants.
At this time President Zardari, who was visiting New York, publicly claimed that the drone strikes were “counter-productive and violated Pakistan’s sovereignty.”84 This pro forma statement was obviously meant to garner support among his own people, who strongly disliked the idea of a foreign power operating with impunity on their own soil, killing what many believed were almost exclusively innocent Pakistani citizens. The Pakistani people wanted their leaders to publicly stand up to the American “invaders.” But secretly Zardari was said to have told the Americans, “Kill the seniors. Collateral damage worries you Americans. It does not worry me.”85 He also said, “There are no differences between Pakistan and the US over any issue, including drone attacks.”86 He even made a plea for the United States to give his country access to the drones. He told a U.S. delegation, “Give me the drones so my forces can take out the militants.” That way, “we cannot be criticized by the media or anyone else for actions our Army takes to protect our sovereignty.”87
Zardari seemed to appreciate that the drone attacks were helping his country avoid military casualties they would have sustained had they directly attacked the terrorists’ lairs. According to a Wikileak cable from Ambassador Patterson, “Referring to a recent drone strike in the tribal area that killed 60 militants, Zardari reported that his military aide believed a Pakistani operation to take out this site would have resulted in the deaths of over 60 Pakistani soldiers.”88 Similarly, a spokeswoman for Zardari’s political party, the Pakistan People’s Party, declared, “There is a segment in the country who support the drone attacks, and they feel that drone attacks have been helpful in eliminating many of the militants.”89 One military officer told AFP, “The Pakistani army supports drone strikes because they are efficient for eliminating TTP people… and give it a good reason not to start a dangerous offensive in North Waziristan.”90 Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States added, “Pakistan has never said that we do not like the elimination of terrorists through predator drones.”91
The Wikileaks documents from 2009 and 2010 show that Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Gilani similarly opined of the drones in private, “I don’t care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it.”92 Gen. Shah Shuja Pasha summed up his views of the Taliban and al Qaeda when he said, “We would obviously like to fix these rogues. They are killing our own people and are certainly not the friends of this country.”93 In addition, General Kayani asked the United States for “continuous Predator coverage of the conflict area” during his forces’ campaigns against the Taliban in the FATA.94 This request was answered in the affirmative during Pakistani operations in South Waziristan, and one U.S. military official told the Los Angeles Times, “We are coordinating with the Pakistanis. And we do provide Predator support when requested.”95