I really do hate to say "I told you so", I really do. But do you remember my diary
U.S. Conducting Secret War in Pakistan?
And it looks like that missile missed Al-Zawahiri, killing 18 totally innocent people, including women and children.
From Carlotta Gall at the
New York Times:
Pakistan's government on Saturday condemned a deadly American airstrike on a village in the northwestern tribal region, and a Pakistani security official said he was confident that Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda and the target of the strike, had not been in the village when it was hit.
Local officials in the Bajaur district, which includes the village Damadola, where the airstrike happened, said 18 civilians were killed in the attack, including six children. But the Pakistani security official who spoke of Mr. Zawahiri seemed to suggest that the death toll was higher, and he said that at least 11 militants were killed in the attack. Seven of the dead were Arab fighters, and another four were Pakistani militants from Punjab Province, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the news media.
Lots of people here support that war against Al-Qaeda/Taliban in Pakistan. But remember this is a secret war:
American and Pakistani officials have said they believe that the attack was carried out by a remotely piloted Predator aircraft armed with missiles in the early morning hours on Friday. On Saturday, a Central Intelligence Agency spokesman declined to comment on any raid that might have taken place. The agency is known to operate armed Predator aircraft, but the missions remain classified and are not generally acknowledged by the C.I.A.
Blair Jones, a spokesman for the White House, said Saturday that he had no information on the incident.
And don't think that this is going over well in Pakistan (or around the Muslim world) either:
Thousands of tribesmen, led by a local parliamentarian, protested the killings on Saturday, chanting anti-American and anti-government slogans in the town of Khaar, the central administrative center of Bajaur. After the rally dispersed, 800 to 900 men went on the rampage and attacked the offices of two nongovernmental organizations in the town, according to a local reporter. The crowd looted computers from an American-financed aid organization, called BEST, and then torched the entire compound. The office of another Italian aid group, Intersos, was smashed and looted before the authorities intervened.
What a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive...
Peace