RARE LIGHT SHED ON US DRONE PROGRAM IN PAKISTAN

afpc.org

The Wall Street Journal has shed light on the obscure operations of the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan; operations generally condemned by Pakistani leaders but thought to be conducted with tacit assistance from the Pakistani military. According to the report, “About once a month, the [CIA] sends a fax to a general at Pakistan’s intelligence service outlining broad areas where the U.S. intends to conduct strikes...The Pakistanis, who in public oppose the program, don’t respond. On this basis, plus the fact that Pakistan continues to clear airspace in the targeted areas, the U.S. government concludes it has tacit consent to conduct strikes.” The legality of this “tacit acceptance” rationale has been questioned by some lawyers inside the administration. Top State Department legal advisor Harold Koh believes “this rationale veers near the edge of what can be considered,” say U.S. officials, but Koh still believe the program is legal. A group of lawyers known as the “council of counsels” is apparently trying to develop a new framework for the legal legitimization of drone strikes. Complicating matters, there is a lack of international legal precedents on drone strikes to draw from.

U.S. drone attacks have decreased in frequency over the past year, down to an average of four a month as compared to ten a month at the program’s peak in 2010. The drop can be attributed to tensions in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship -- Pakistan closed a CIA drone base operating from inside Pakistan in December 2011 – and the “thinner ranks of al Qaeda after years of strikes.”(Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2012)