Cobb

Second Class Heroism

From Tenth Grade AP English:

1. Elie Wiesel once said that anyone who witnesses an atrocity, or an act of inhumanity, and does nothing to stop it, is just as guilty as a person committing the act. Those who know and remain silent are guilty of the same offense. To stand by silently is to participate in the crime. Using support from the novel, show why the reader should agree or disagree with the above commentary. 

Not having read Night, I can't really understand the context of this claim, but it begs the rather obvious Leviathan question of any peasant. If someone armed with a gun holds up a liquor store and you are one of the obedient citizens who has never owned a gun, nor presumed to take the law into his own hands, are you truly responsible for intervening?

It seems a simple matter of common sense that those who don't have the skill to accomplish a task should get some moral credit for a brave attempt. But should one's morality be called into question if your judgment goes against brave attempt? If you are convinced it would be foolish for you to try and stop an armed robbery, can you be blamed?

This is an exercise in determining guilt and glory by association. As I observe this, there seems to be a fairly lopsided amount of reasoning. Consider the following scenarios:

1. You vote for Candidate A who loses. Candidate B is a total cockup. Should you be blamed?
2. You vote for Candidate B who is a total cockup. You could not have known how bad he would be. Should you be blamed? 
3. You didn't vote for either candidate. Should you be blamed?

I bring my examples directly toward electoral democracy because I perceive that Wiesel's ethics are directed towards people more or less out of direct control of things that go on in their communities. Note that my assumption is that within the next two decades, electronic voting and democratic processes will be ubiquitous here in the West. When voting becomes something you can do in a moment, your share of the responsibility for what goes on diminishes significantly. Not because the act of voting itself is less demanding, but because of the context of advertising that will be simultaneously present in electronic voting. Concurrently with this assumption is that we will continue to, in America, stridently resist the elevation of qualifications to franchise as part and parcel of our continuing downward spiral into identity politics. The undead have always voted in Chicago, the mentally retarded and autistic will have more lobbies than they expect when their clicks count. 

There is, as a paradox of the democratic 'empowerment' doled out to American peasants, a sense of responsibility to be held on the perpetrators of history. Which is to say as we witness in our discussion about Lincoln, the untested assumption that individuals of the day hold collective responsibility for good and evil done around the matter of slavery. As an egregious example, the agenda of Black Freedom Struggle must be born by anyone with enough brain cells to rub together and see that racial inequality is wrong. 

I would suggest quite strongly that Elie Wiesel's admonition can only apply to elites. It trebles their responsibility in all cases. 

A consequence of this logic is that 'The People' will do what they will and that nobody in particular is more or less responsible for The People. In other words, The People are a force of nature.

I Did Not See The Flowers

Africville

Paradoxes of Democracy

This afternoon I had a passing thought that struck me about the paradox of American democracy as we go through the melodrama of red and blue states. It is how identity politics and class warfare, two social phenomenon that I find particularly nauseating, are both the inevitable result of democracy and inimical to American exceptionalism. 

Class Warfare
What I perceive about class in America is that it is moving from the uncomfortable zone of the Obama rhetoric towards something more entrenched. Not me. I have too much class to go in for that class warfare stuff. I'm more about class prerogatives and measured expectations. The way I've described it before is that class is the thing we really want when we finally realize how unforgiving a true meritocracy is. 

The problem with class warfare in America is not that America is a classless society. It is not a classless society and never was. But America has been a transparent and open society with some shared sense of destiny. Americans still have that sense, but it is being tried. I am watching with interest as the truth of class differences and interests keeps getting reiterated for the purposes of warfare in our public life. I look at America as the place where you can take your family to Morton's Steakhouse in Beverly Hills for Dad's birthday and hey look that's Ben Stein over there at the bar. And on any day there are probably a couple millionaires right there at Morton's and everybody is cool with that. They're not trying to hide away from you and you're not trying to hide away from them. America is ideally like that restaurant. No matter how rich you are, you can trust the waiter with your credit card.

But is that continuing to be the case? Have we really started to bend that sociability to the breaking point? I think that in the main, we have. And I think it is the fault of nasty self-righteous new money bastards. In other words, an improper elite who have taken a bit too much upon themselves. But here's the thing. The more that certain opportunists exploit class differences, the more it accellerates the bastardization of the elites. It's getting to the point at which the upper middle class has to ask itself seriously if putting up with the abuse is worth it. It is also the fault of shameless lazy chav bastards. And you can witness all of their Snoop Dogg shenanigans on any cable network because the cable networks are owned by nasty self-righteous new money bastards. In other words, one set of bastards is pissing off another set, and they're all taking our society down the tubes because genuine ambition is getting a bad name. Sellouts and shoppers. Everybody has an exit strategy.

I think I have depressed myself by writing this and I don't want to any longer. I'll take up the balance on another day.

 

Lincoln

The new Speilberg movie probably looks like a Speilberg movie to lots of people, but it looked like something else to me considering that I forgot what a Speilberg movie is supposed to look like. 

The Lincoln movie is an excellent piece of film, as it occurs to me that dramatic moments of testimony in Congress, or in a courtroom can work very nicely as dramatic cinema. That's because you don't have to do the normal tricks in having people explain to each other what they already know, just so the audience can have a little backstory. As I am writing my book, I see how difficult this can be. At any rate, Lincoln makes you want to go back to some history book and find the names of the characters in the movie and figure out something about their lives tangential to the context of the passing of the 13th Amendment. 

Aside from that, the lighting of the film is done in an excellent way. I am certain that Speilberg wanted the indoors to look like the indoors would in a world before electrification. Very well done. And there is much to be appreciated for the diction of the characters. I haven't heard English like this in quite some time.

As an aside, if you find the English diction of the man who famously played the Wizard of Oz in that film and it reminds you of an earlier time in America, you  would do well to purchase the audiobook of Thomas Pynchon's 'Against the Day'. Truly marvelous voice acting in that.

The film was throroughly entertaining. A high quality diversion. Film doesn't get much better. And what a lovely portrayal of Mary Todd. That was a complete surprise. Perhaps Gore Vidal was a bit harsh? Also much tenderness in Lincoln as a father. Superb touches there. 

Thanksgiving Fragments

More Zombies
I'm currently about halfway through the book World War Z, which makes for a rather cute audiobook as it records a set of curious futuristic interviews from individuals around the world reflecting on their experience with the Zombie Apocalypse. Cap'n, my oldest daughter, is decidedly into zombies these days. She just got 'Warm Bodies', a new book that's sold out just about everywhere. 

More Endeavor
Just got together with a huge crew of buddies I used to hang out with back in the days I used to hang with a crew. They were the GDZ Crew to me, my close friends of mostly young black professional engineers based here in Southern Cal. One day I may have to tell the story of GDZ, which stands for Geographically Desireable Zipcode. Anyway, the trip was to have us and our families go see the Space Shuttle one last time, recounting for many of us, our various contributions to the Space Program. For me, at Rocketdyne, I built the Component Weight Calculator for the ISS, way back in 1990 or 89. My buddy Charles' dad designed avionics for the Saab Viggen some components of which were adapted to the Orbiter (as it was called back then). 

I also discovered that it was Endeavor that was the shuttle that scared the mess out of me by landing at Edwards AFB several weeks after 9/11. The double sonic booms threw me into a panic until I checked the news. Funny when I think about it, how my brother had cops check out a suspicious bag of white powder in his driveway around that time. Anthrax scares. 

The most awesome thing about Endeavor is the sweet curve of its underbelly. It's just a thing of beauty. 

Halo 4
I'm probably not going to write much of a game review of the new four that I have in slow rotation. I did a short and super enjoyable stint with Borderlands 2, which I probably will not finish. I also just got started with Dishonored which, while first rate, was not quite totally immersive. There was quite a lot of really great art direction, but I wish that it would have been as smooth as Half-Life. I'm really persnickety about control. This is the reason I'm not enjoying Assassin's Creed 3 as much as I thought I would. Something's not quite right. I haven't done much, three missions, in the new Black Ops 2. This narrative is truly incoherent. But it plays well. I'm going to have to give the nod to the Battlefield guys from here on out. 

Halo 4 however, I am digging in spades. Everything about it is damned near perfect. It is without question the best Halo multiplayer ever. I have to say that the campaign, while it has its moments, is not as good as Reach. It's still not clear to me why the Forerunner structures are so massive, and why 343 had to make me run through them all. But there is nothing so compelling as Halo online multiplayer, and they killed it. The loadouts, the in-game upgrades, the universe continuity, the daily, weekly and monthly challenges, the Spartan Ops, the weapons, the split screen multiplayer.  

Thanksgiving Meal
Ham, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, ratatouille, macaroni & cheese, stuffing, string beans, yams. Pumkin pie, peach cobbler, red velvet cheesecake, lemon meringue pie. Honey egg nog.  

 

 

Maker #4

Lost at Barnsdall

I was in a gifted children’s class at 6th Avenue School, and among the children I had gotten more points than anyone else. I was number one in the class - I had always been number one in every class. My best friend at the time was a kid named Guy. Guy was a Boy Scout. I never found out where he lived. At any rate, this class over at 6th Avenue, I had to ride my bike to on Wednesday mornings.

I liked the teacher well enough until she betrayed me. One day we had a field trip to Barnsdall Park, the art park in Hollywood behind Kaiser Sunset. I had been there several times before because all of my kid brothers and sister were born at that hospital. Our pediatrician was Dr. Robbie whom I liked very much. He was in the professional building just across the street from the emergency room entrance. So long as we were going to the professional building, things were cool, but that isopropyl alcohol smell from the other side of the street always felt like pain. Barnsdall, however was a happy place. The architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright was fascinating, as were the channeled fountains and pools that ran through the area near the Hollyhock House. I always wanted to get a closer look but the house was closed to the public. Nor did we ever go into the other buildings. For me, Barnsdall was a happy place; my dad and I would wait there, staring over the hill to wait for a new baby.

My gifted class went there for the art studios or something. I didn’t really know that there was much else there other than the Hollyhock House. Somehow Guy and I got separated from the rest of the class. We searched all around and could not find them. Nor could we find any adults to show us where they might be. We did find a frisbee, and so we played frisbee. Since we were lost, we were sure that someone would come looking for us. But nobody did. And the whole trip was over when we were finally returned to the group. The teacher blamed Guy and I for wandering off to play frisbee. As if. And she docked me several hundred points.

I fell behind in the lead of the class and I was never able to catch up, even though I closed the gap between myself and the girl who took first place at the end of the term. I no longer cared to please the teacher who betrayed me, and at some point during the term this contretemps solidified. It was during one of the drop drills.

During the Cold War, of course we all had drop drills and the air raid sirens usually fired off on the first Friday of every month at 10am sharp. I am always reminded of the corner of Jefferson and La Brea. That was the one place I knew that there was a yellow klaxon at the top of a telephone pole as part of the Civil Defense network. As it turned out, my favorite teacher, Miss Milliken who was a die hard USC Trojan, had the right amount of skepticism of drop drills. She knew that a nuclear blast would demolish the school and mere desks would not save us. Over at 6th Avenue however they took things a bit too seriously. I specifically recall that in the 6th Avenue drills, they had us leave the classroom to hide under the stairwell. The problem was that the stairwell led up to the east. Downtown was east of 6th Avenue and so the blast would come from that direction. If we wanted any protection at all, we should go to a stairwell that led up to the West instead. I informed our teacher of this contradiction and she told me to shut up. At that moment I realized she was an idiot and I lost all respect for her, she who would lead children to their deaths.

I think that is the last time, somewhere around my tenth birthday, that I would ever love school and obey my teachers unconditionally. I loved my oceanography class and remember how proud I was to have eaten the octopus that they had there on the last day of school. But it was the last time I ever talked about seamounts or the various types of plankton in any class for the rest of my schooling - and I remember being told not to eat any more of the brightly colored shrimp chips, even though all the rest of the children were full. I wonder if I might one day chase down the name of that teacher who proved to me that teachers weren’t all so smart and many unworthy of heeding. It has made me the sort that allows me great pleasure in reading about Harry Dresden and Bob Howard, wise-ass fictional heroes of misread genius and hearts of gold. Writing this at this point in my life I can only hope serves as some kind of lesson to somebody. I don’t get much pleasure from it.

The Gamma Male Theory

Was it Chris Rock who gave us a guide for newly married men to respond to their wives' endless tirades about their day? "Uh huh. No kidding? I don't believe it. I told you that bitch was crazy." These are the proper grunts, stretched into phrases of support and understanding. But the last one is key, because there's always a crazy bitch. It's as true as 'follow the money', cherchez la femme.

But some machos don't have time to reflect on the need some women have to have their daily behavior analyzed, commented upon and put into proper persepctive. And into that gap deftly leaps the gamma male. You know who I'm talking about. First seat at the fern bar, just waiting to share stories about how all men are dogs, especially his man. And what woman can resist a male sob sister, given that Chris Rock must surely be another typical sexist brute?

It occurs to me that in Hollywood, there are never stories of infidelity between homosexual men, and in this I find a great deal of intrigue. Everybody in the English speaking world will know by the end of this week that Kevin Clash, millionaire friend of Oprah and superstar voice of Elmo will have resigned from Sesame Street because of allegations of sexual impropriety. What kind of sexual impropriety? Apparently he liked teenaged boys. Well, teenaged boys under the magic number of 18. 18 year olds and 19 year old boys are just peachy if perhaps slightly unfashionable, but what do I know? I know that the Liberaces of the world never lose their fortunes and possibilities for employment through the putrid public scandals attached to infidelity.

That's because when it comes to such matters for gay promiscuity, as they say in the PC dictionary, 'not that there's anything wrong with that'. 

I'm not being fair of course. I'm one of those individuals for whom the prospect of gay marriage seems downright oxymoronic. But we don't need to get into that. Surely single hetero men are legendarily promiscuous and nobody dings them for that. Surely they should be celebrated, and aren't they? If gay men were allowed to marry, surely their transgressions would be as serious and Hollywood would scandalize them equally. Do you believe that? I don't.

What I believe is this.

In the wild and wolfish world that is Hollywood, it is generally accepted that a certain quota of degenerate sexuality is natural. Hollywood, according to this theory, is just chock full of beautiful people that every human on the planet wants to bed. That is just human nature, and human nature abhors a vaccuum of libertine booty snatching. If everybody were as hot as Hollywood hot, then they'd be screwing like bunnies all the time. So of course uninhibited beautiful people are always on the boink, that is how it's supposed to be. Of course this makes for a dog eat dog world of youth and beauty - they go hand in hand. The ordinary people in flyover country, who are by Hollywood standards, unfuckable, have to settle for monogamy, and they dress it up with fake solemnity and call that tedious condition Marriage. But all people who are married are really hypocrites because they really don't love each other, they're just locking in a contract on the best they can do. Proof? Divorce rate. And we would have learned this sooner if we weren't a nation of regressive homophobic prudes. 

SO

The more we can prove that all of America's monogamous prudery is hypocritical, the more we can accept the real truth of human sexuality that is the truth of Hollywood's beautiful people. Movie stars, rock stars, TV stars. Everybody wants to be one. Right?

In the news business, which is owned by the entertainment business, we know that scandal sells. It monetizes the Hollywood theory of human sexuality, youth and beauty. And there is nothing so deliciously juicy as the gamma male nailing the married man. Because all men are dogs, and it takes one to know one, except the gamma male is different, because he is not a hypocrite.

 

Obligatory Seriousness on Citizens United, Corporations & Free Speech

Every once in a while I hear a bunch of noise about Citizens United being a singular perversion about the ideas of liberty and free speech blah blah. I never paid so much attention to that controversy assessing in a reactionary way that the opponents will spend as much money as they like to defend whatever it is they want to defend. Just because they don't call it a corporation doesn't change matters. I roll this in with my growing skepticism about democratic aggregation in the Peasant Theory. More on DA later.

Apparently Justice Alito has saved me some trouble with his own snappy answer. Or was it Roberts? 

But basically the snappy answer is this. Does the New York Times have a First Amendement right to free speech? Is the New York Times a corporation?  Case closed.

The Duplicitous Narrative of Decline

The other day I imagined myself to be an executive for Hostess. This was, in fact, a meditation I made during a shower. In this scenario, I invited the head of the Teamsters local to a private meeting in which I would disclose the future strategy of the management team. The trick was about how to make the offer significant enough to demonstrate that it was of utmost importance that he attend without giving up any pertinent information. This is something that I presume attorneys do all the time, and so I paid that nuance no further mind.

At this meeting I would reveal to the labor leader that our best minds have seen no strategic way forward for the company. That ultimately we were second rate, that our competitors were better funded, better managed and really just cared about these stupid cupcakes more than we did. It was a come to Jesus meeting showing that we are not deluded about the future of Twinkies in an America obsessed with fitness and terrified of obesity. We would tell the labor leader that we're basically going to run this puppy into the ground, or become a successful pariah organization rather like those in the tobacco industry.

So Mr. Labor Leader, should we give ourselves a raise and hasten our own inevitable demise, or should we continue to put on a false face and whistle while we work for nothing?

We understand that a corporation is the creature that can be abandoned and so executives and labor can move on to ride the next beastie to fame, or not. It is not a singular reflection of executive or labor skill. It's an indicator, but you need a bigger sample size than one. But when you are convinced that decline is inevitable, what then? 

There must be a definite name for this dilemma. The 'classic' American pop culture reference is to Ra's al Ghul, the mentor of the Dark Knight, whose aim is to cleanse the world's corruption by fire. Is accellerating the death of the weak virtuous or cruel? Must one be cruel to be kind? Is there such a thing as creative destruction?

I believe that there is such a thing as creative destruction, but should one profit from the accelleration of decline? I am not sure. But I do know that I find subversion to be immoral. It is the duplicity that I am averse to. I cannot stand the idea that based on insider knowledge one is publically commited to the preservation of something one is privately determined to destroy. 

Do you see that pattern anywhere? How do you manage it?

Maker #3

The Global Climate Hooha

So let me tell you what I really think.

I think that to ask any political question about the subject matter of 'global climate change' is ridiculous in the first place, and asking for trouble in the second place. I shall first recount some of my own blather on the matter I recently posted to Facebook. 

I agree that American politics on the matter of climate change is ridiculous, pointless and mental masturbation. The only aspect of it that actually does have any credibility is the extent to which some fraction of the populous is compelled to defend scientific research. I have sympathy with that - however the 'science clique' has resorted to demogoguery of the worst kind, and that's the thing that annoys me. So I always make a point to raise matters of scientific study that do not support the popular scientistic consensus. 

Of course I also enjoy mocking Progressives on this particular matter because it is the rise of the BRICs that will, should the entire 'carbon theory' prove correct, be responsible for what warming there would be. So how will Progressives convince Indians and Chinese to *not* want first world transportation systems? And how would global anything be enforced without empire? I think these are questions they are too dainty to address - that they would rather pick on Americans than deal with the actual environmental intransigence of the global populations.

Tangentially, if science is so smart, how come they are so often hapless do-gooders? I mean how have they not figured out how to get along with each other, form a cabal and have their way with everything? Hmm. Maybe it's because they're just dreaming and have delusions of grandeur. Or perhaps they simply don't believe in actual reality as much as political reality. After all, you cannot make money betting against reality in reality-based markets. So where is the reality-based market on the delivery of cotton in China? Everywhere.  It's as old as China itself.  Well, anyway, back to the topic at hand. 

When I get really serious about questions of climate change, the most important question I have deals with how the world's food is produced and distributed, because truly the only thing that is going to make an important difference is whether or not what is good farmland and good fishery today is going to be good tomorrow. And indeed nobody's livlihood depends more on weather than farmers. Am I right? So take JR Simplot for egregious example. They are the world's king of potatoes. And if I had a metric I would do as Paolo Bacigalupi has done in his excellent 'The Windup Girl' and begin to measure total world food production in terms of calories and then divide that by how many people are in the world. Who grows how many calories and who eats how many calories, now what's the price of calories? How we know this about gasoline and oil and don't know it for food shows how unimportant the food problem is. Today.

So when do the weather watchers, who are also money minders, at JR Simplot say. Hmm. We may have to relocate out of Idaho because the climate has changed and Idaho just don't mean potatoes any more. Do the global warmists think JR Simplot are a bunch of dumb micks who will just die out in a potato blight? They surely think that the dudes at BP are bloody geniuses who will exploit the last drop of oil where ever on the globe it may be. So I think that sort of thinking should be applied to all of the seed bankers and mega-agriculturalists on the globe. Which is to say, they will figure out how to feed us all because it's in their interests, and furthermore the weather is not going to creep up on these guys. I am trying to imagine which group of eggheads has more access to more satellite time, feeds, maps and data - the scientists at Monsanto or the grad students at East Anglia? Duh.

So now you know my drift. I am much more interested in food scarcity as reflected in the business of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the likes of Duke & Duke. Nobody ever, ever, ever puts these two things together when talk about 'global climate change' is discussed. That's because they are politicizing the 'science' and ignoring the economics. Yeah I said 'they', and I don't bother to find out who they are. 

Here's the nut. Whatever the hockey stick is with climate change, farmers will move production, swap crops and otherwise be quicker than the weather or the climate. Say what you like about El Nino or the Ozone Hole, neither Katrina nor Sandy made one whit of difference to Iowa. When hurricanes get as far west as Ohio, maybe we can all take a hint. And what about you and me? You and I will eat whatever. Hell, if we can miss Twinkies and put up with non-alcholic beer, we really have no worries.

Now let me speak my other piece. 

That is about the BRICs. Well, I'll just underscore the fact that so long as people on Earth will want automobiles for their personal transportation, then we'll keep using fossil fuels for cars. And we'll keep burning coal for electricity because we all want nightlife. And nobody in these environmental movements will, in the next 40 years (because they're all the same and they haven't done a damned thing about Sudan or Tibet - all they do is move to Seattle and take trips to Alaska to wash oily ducks) will suggest we go to war in order to stop the Chinese from polluting the planet, or the Russians or the Indians or anyplace else that horrendously polluted. Hell we don't even stop Mexico, and have you been to Ciudad Juarez? Holy crud! 

So. Show me where agribusiness is losing the war against weather on a crop by crop basis with regard to the cost of global calorie provision, and I'll tell you exactly what I care about global climate change. 

 

UPDATE:

Interesting Link: USDA Global Agricultural Report

Maker #2

Take America's Twinkies Back

The impending bankruptcy of the Hostess company has the little skinny black kid in me yelling at the top of his exhausted lungs. But when my daughter and I discussed the matter today, it was really a small surprise to her. The first thing out of her mouth was, well, that's what all the dieting did. She's right.

I've noticed these kinds of creeping stupidities as consumer tastes change. It must be kept in mind that's all that going on. People like to pretend that they are getting smarter and making wiser choices, but there's nothing smart about using 4 disposable razor blades instead of 2. There's nothing smart about paying whatever people pay for Garnier Frucktisse, or whatever that green shampoo is. And there is nothing smart about eating yogurt instead of Twinkies, because both are dessert and there's nothing smart about dessert. It's all fashion. 

The thing about Twinkies and Wonder Bread is that they are Americana. So people will lament their demise as a sign of the good old days long gone. Look at us, we grew up on the stuff and we turned out OK. But that's not what the consumer marketers want you to think - they want you to think that you are fat and old and you need to change your habits and products. And they have been successful. Maybe it's because Met Life stole the Peanuts characters away from Hostess, or maybe Lucy isn't as attractive as she used to be. Maybe it's because cops need to be more paramilitary and Donettes just weren't doing it. Or maybe the police departments, since they are breaking municipalities all around, demanded an end to the powdered sugar for healthcare insurance reasons.

I like to blame Progressives of course. It's clear that the 18,000 workers at the 33 bakeries and 500 odd distribution centers around the country were engaged in a capitalist conspiracy to make us all eat unhealthy, environmentally unsound foodstuffs. Since their candidate has been re-elected, who cares about unemployment? Besides, Hostess was the enemy, right? In a perfect world, there would be no Ding Dongs, so we must be making Progress!

Israel vs Palestine: It's Always Only War

I said this before and I'll say it again, and now I understand what when I said it before people didn't like me. The real solution to Israel vs Palestine is a one state solution. The two state solution is not a real solution because Palestine is destined to become a failed state. 

It is obvious that poltically, the Palestinian people in Gaza desire for their elected(?) government representatives to initiate violent hostilities towards the state of Israel. It really doesn't matter who started it. It's started. It's war. Nothing more and nothing less. It's a small war, and on global the scale of things, it's a rather inconsequential war, notable only to the extent that bourgie Americans and Europeans indulge their bloodlust by proxy. The news:

(Reuters) - Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip targeted Tel Aviv on Thursday in the first attack on Israel's commercial capital in 20 years, raising the stakes in a showdown between Israel and the Palestinians that is moving towards all-out war.

Earlier, a Hamas rocket killed three Israelis north of the Gaza Strip, drawing the first blood from Israel as the Palestinian death toll rose to 19, six of them children.

Israeli warplanes bombed targets in and around Gaza city for a second day, shaking tall buildings. In a sign of possible escalation, the armed forces spokesman said the military had received the green light to call in up to 30,000 reserve troops.

Plumes of smoke and dust furled into a sky laced with the vapor trails of outgoing rockets over the crowded city, where four young children killed on Wednesday were buried.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Palestinian militants would pay a price for firing the missiles.

So here is the problem of the 21C. If you launch rockets at the nation next door and you are really a proto-nation, how should the problem be resolved? I say it should be done in national terms. Which basically means somebody is going to have to say that Palestine is a nation and then the war can be a normal war.

Here's the paradox. A one state solution is the only way in which Palestinians can get civil rights in an actually civilized nation, but to have all those annexed people running around Israel means domestic violence via rocketry - the very kind that makes a joke of civil rights because of the requirements of homeland security.  A two state solution is essentially what you have when there is a state of hostilities involving two governmental authorities shelling each other's population. 

So I'm saying that right now, a two state solution exists with one of them being a failed state, so failed that even the UN doesn't actually recognize them as a state. So there will be no peace the problem is solved. How is it solved? With war.

Sooner or later the world is going to have to accept that this is war. And sooner or later Israel is going to have to pursue the war as if it is a war. I don't see exactly if they have an economic reason not to. So here's the final question. Considering that there are 3.5 odd million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, what kind of refugee problem is Israel willing to face? 

Borky Concepts - Education

Borky's Beach is the working title of a near-future science fiction novel I'm writing in the spirit of Aldous Huxley & George Orwell. It describes a pleasant simalcrum of life with some sinister overtones which I think are generally imperceptible in today's society. But it also allows me to do some futuristic speculation.

On education, the premises & concepts are the following.

#1. Everything that allows people to live healthy lives to 80 years old is pretty much known and understood. To learn this (and how to fit into society) costs money. The purpose of public education is to help know and allow you to pick where you wish to apply yourself. To that end, the government allots $50,000 for the equivalent of primary, secondary and tertiary education, tertiary being two years of college equivalent, which amounts to roughly equivalent to an Associate's degree, but really about as useful (or useless) as what is considered today to be a solid college prep high school education, with one provision. There is no language requirement - as language is translated automatically by your cellphone.

#2. Everything inventive is proprietary and there is pretty much no way around it. 'Mental Services' is an economy unto itself, including education, entertainment, and all non-material consumption. You want to hear it? See it? You pay for it. There is an open market. 

#3. The state provides educational facilities that are only marginally staffed by full time professionals who are primarily the equivalent of janitors and administrative staff. There is a very sophisticated universal credentialing system (run by the ISO - International Standards Organization) that has replaced every 'degree program' in existence. So the Professoriate are less like today's professors and more like consultants. Large consultingn partnerships teach - they are guild like, but there is also no such thing as tenure. Anybody with the ISO credential can teach anything they please in a state facility. You learn what you want to learn, and people teach what they want to teach. All that matters is the credential. 

#4 If you want to homeschool or go off the ISO recommended list, you are entirely free to do so. That's 50K in your pocket. It's all you get. It is pretty much your single government benefit. 

#5 Private universities exist, but they are generally extensions of professional guilds and corporate training programs. Which is to say there is a significant economy in educational certs which are finely tailored to the specific training requirements of proprietary organizations. Wealthy people mostly invent toys and entertainments for wealthy people, and wealthy people with no scruples mostly invent toys and entertainments for the rest of the people. IE there is porno of every sort imaginable. See 'Mental Services' above.

#6. Open source as we know it does not exist. The demand for it has gone pretty much to zero. Why? Because of the $50K benefit, and the fact that a high standard of living for no cost is well nigh universal. If you don't understand that, think of it this way. If you were a rich kid who got a free iPhone with every app you can think of, why would you try to learn Android and hack it yourself. Or. Think of it this way, if you lived in the United States in 2012 and you wanted to drive from LA to NYC, why would you try to build your own road? Exactly. You wouldn't be a civil engineer studying how to build roads - it's already done. 

In Borky's future, everything is already done. Humanity is on the verge of intellectual and material post-scarcity. So what do we do? That's the premise of the book..

 

A NeoSecessionist Manifesto & A Return of the Creed

As I received it in the mail this morning:

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, regressive, Marxists, and Obama supporters, et al:

We
have stuck together since the late 1950s for the sake of the kids, but
the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I
want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the
sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run
its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and
will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on
friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable
differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

1.Our
two groups can equitably divide up the country by land mass, each
taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure
our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should
be relatively easy. Our respective representatives can effortlessly
divide other assets since both sides had such distinct and disparate
tastes.

2. We don't like redistributive taxes, so you can keep them.

3. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.

4. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA, and the military.

5. We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar, and bio-diesel.

6.
You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore, and Rosie O'Donnell. You are,
however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move
all three of them.

7. We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart, and Wall Street.

8. You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless homeboys, hippies, druggies, and illegal aliens.

9. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and Rednecks.

10. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.

11. You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.

12.
You can have the peace-niks and war protesters. When our allies or our
way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

13. We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.

14.
You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness,
and Shirley McLain. You can also have the U.N., but we will no longer
be paying the bill.

15. We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks, and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Prius you can find.

16. You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.

17. We'll continue to believe healthcare is an earned luxury and not a right.

18. We'll keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The National Anthem."

19. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute "Imagine", "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Kum Ba Ya," or "We Are the World".

20. We'll practice trickledown economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

21. Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our constitution and our flag.

22.
Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other
like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree,
just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you answer
which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S.: Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, George Clooney and Jane Fonda with you.

P.S.S..: And you won't have to "Press 1 for English" when you call our country.

**If you can't stand behind our Military, please feel free to stand in front of them! **

Cute.

I think they've named a lot of things in a lot of people's heads. People who don't really have the time or inclination to engage the public via the Chatting Classes. 

I have found comfort in my adopted ridiculously expensive neighborhood of Redondo Beach and now I have some feeling about propriety - some sense of not giving up an inch to the Element. It's partial. But if it were my town, where all my property was, I would defend it to an extreme degree. 

If there were some way to get all the property owners in unison on those matters of keeping the proper laws in place, I think there would be no secession. But I think many have turned against the ownership society. And so we will be under a state of siege for some time. But there is everything in owning your own castle and running it properly. 

My point is that secession of the mind in society is not complete, and I believe that people with a sense of propriety will simply bar the doors, not move. We will not flee to Red States. We simply will not flee. We can stand our ground wherever we are. At some point, the secession of the mind will be complete, and people once again will have creeds that matter. 

So provisionally, this is the new creed of Cobb the Downsider:

Sense Amid Madness. Wit Amidst Folly.

Maker #1

A Combination of Curses

I have been traveling for training, writing my book, reading Iain Banks, reorganizing my digital media,  working on my daughter's community service project and building databases & wikis. Oh yeah and playing Halo 4. So you see a relatively empty blog. I'm also withdrawing from getting into spats over this presidential thing. 

I live in interesting times.

Petreaus Takes the Easy Sword

Just because I thought you might want to know, I think David Petraeus is way too smart and far too disciplined to crumble under a certain kind of political pressure. And I further think that at some point he would be duty bound to say what he knew and when about various matters that would make an ex-President look foolish, but would irreparably damage a sitting President. So instead of damaging a sitting President, he found a convincing sword upon which to fall. 

I'll have to remember that trick. it's really quite simple. Hell, all he needed to do was go to South America with the Secret Service...

Now. Where do I go if I'm David Petraeus?

Our Great Leader

Jail!

Inevitably, people talk about America's 'Prison Industrial Complex'. Why do Americans jail so many people on a per capita basis? It's because we value property and morality, it's part of the American Dream. In other words, we do it for you, you peasant!

To understand this, all you have to realize is that we are punishing more crime than other countries. Very specifically, you cannot bribe policemen or judges in America. If you want to be a petty theif, drug dealer or thug, America is the wrong country for you. Elsewhere, you can get away with it. Here, you cannot escape the justice system. Consider the crime of assault. Notice that there is also aggravated assault and assault with a deadly weapon and assault and battery.  The latter crimes are more serious, but the former remains a crime punishable by jail. Breaking and entering. Theft. Grand theft. Grand theft auto.

What is the difference between theft and grand theft? Grand theft means you are stealing something worth more than $1000. Ahh. Now we are getting somewhere. America is willing to send people to jail for crimes that don't even cost $1000. And it obviously cost more than $1000 to jail them. To arrest them, send them to trial and then house and feed them in jail costs way more money than that. What are we trying to prove?

We are trying to prove that crime against people who aren't rich is still crime, and it will be punished.

Who cares if I punch you in the face? Who cares if I break your daughter's leg? Who cares if I dent your precious automobile? Who cares if I steal your TV? The American criminal justice system. And that's why America puts so many people behind bars. Because we care about crimes against peasant nobodies like you and your tedious desires, your petty ambitions, and your peace of (tiny) mind. We save you from the consequences of your predictable, miserable failures. And this is because we have a liberal plurality. Let me remind you about one of the differences between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives use the strength of the family and private institutions to protect against the abuses of the state. Liberals use the power of the state to protect against dysfunctions of private institutions and family. Who wants more jail? Liberals want more jail.

You are correct to believe we live in a police state. It's more accurate to say that we live in a first responder state. There are millions of people employed by the government, federal, state and local, to take care of yon bohunks in their emergencies. All you have to do is pick up your pocket communication device, any time of the day or night, punch three buttons and whine out your complaint, and some officials will get involved in your life and help you out of your little jam.

Bullies text threats to a fat girl online? Call 911. Rowdy teenagers throw a brick through your window? Call 911. Drunk college students set a trashcan on fire? Call 911. Your dumbshit husband treats you like dumb shit? Call 911. Operators are standing by to send all those bastards to jail. 

If you could take care of yourself, you wouldn't have to pay for somebody else to take care of you. If we in the public ignored your complaining and told you that you were on your own, there would be no public law and regulations, an therefore no public system to get into your business. We would be under no public obligation to take over your private failure. 

But then that wouldn't be America, would it?

Black Income Inequality

Trick question.

Professor WJ Wilson said this in 1998:

WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON: If you take a look at black income today, if you divide black income into quintiles, the top quintile has now secured almost 50 percent of the total black income, which is a record. The top quintile in the white population has secured about 44 percent of the white income, which is also a record. [www.pbs.org: Read more of this interview]

Now, it is true that the gap-- that whites have much higher income, overall wealth, than blacks. And by  ́ ́wealth,'' I mean not only income but assets. But nonetheless, if you just look at the distribution of income, inequality is growing more rapidly in the black community, surprisingly enough, than in the white community.

What have black people done in particular to make that income inequality and what can we learn from that? 

Drone War 2012

Obama 2012 Pakistan strikes

January 11th, 2012 | by The Bureau | Published in All Stories , Covert War on Terror - the Data , Drones data carousel

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The events detailed here have been reported by US or Pakistani government, military and intelligence officials, and by credible media, academic and other sources in 2012.

For the 2011 Pakistan drone strike database click here and for the 2010 data click here . A database incorporating all 2009 drone strikes in Pakistan after President Obama’s inauguration is here . For the database encompassing the President Bush strikes, from 2004 to 2009, click here .

January 2012

c. January 4th 2012 
♦ 0 total killed
The first hoped-for US strike of 2012 did not happen, according to the Washington Post, following a veto by Pakistan , with the two countries still locked in negotiations over new terms for CIA drone attacks:

In a rare display of deference early this month, the CIA informed the Pakistani government that it planned a drone strike against a terrorist target in the North Waziristan tribal region and asked Islamabad’s permission. When Pakistan declined, the strike was canceled, officials said.

Location: Unknown, North Waziristan
Source: Washington Post , The Bureau

Ob257 – January 10 2012
♦ 1-4 total killed
♦ 2 injured (woman and child)
The longest pause of the Obama drone war in Pakistan (55 days) came to an abrupt end when in a late evening attack two missiles destroyed a mudbrick house just outside Miranshah. Up to four alleged militants were reported killed, with Reuters initially citing Pakistani officials as saying the victims were ‘foreign fighters of Arab and possibly also Uzbek extraction.’ Qasim Noor, a student who witnessed the attack, told Associated Press : ‘ It was an unusually big bang. Since it was extremely cold I didn’t leave the house, but could see a house on fire. In the morning, we saw a modest mud house had been destroyed.’ Ten days after the strike Reuters reported that the attack killed Aslam Awan aka Abdullah Khorasani, who it described as a Pakistan-born senior external operations operative for al Qaeda . Pakistan’s The News reported that a Saudi national  may also have died. According to a local tribesman:

A guest from the holy land (Saudi Arabia) living in a ramshackle house was killed on the spot but his wife and a son staying in the same room survived’.

The attack led to a number of protests in Pakistan. On February 22 Reuters reported that US Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and General Martin Dempsey,  chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all spoke with senior Pakistani officials just prior to the attack to let them know the campaign would be resuming. The News later claimed that according to its sources in the security establishment this strike – and one on February 9 2012 – ‘was carried out on a tip off provided by the Pakistani intelligence community.’

Location: Miranshah, North Waziristan
References: Associated Press , Express Tribune ,  Xinhua , Daily Telegraph ,MSNBC , CNN , BBC , The Bureau , Reuters , Los Angeles Times , Washington Post , Voice of America , Dawn , The News , McClatchy, Reuters , Express Tribune , New York Times , Reuters , The News , The News

Ob258 – January 12 2012
♦ 5-9 total killed
♦ 2-3 injured 
Up to nine militants, mostly Turkmeni, were killed in a US strike on two vehicles in Dogga, 18 miles west of Miranshah. Reuters reported a Pakistani intelligence source as saying: ”The missiles hit two cars that were heading towards the border. Several foreigners were in the cars, but we have no information on their nationalities yet.’ The News reported that those killed

Were sitting in their vehicles after performing their Maghrib prayers when they came under attack. They said the double cabin pick-up vehicle caught fire and four men were killed on the spot. Their badly mutilated bodies were pulled out of the destroyed vehicle later. Another person, villagers said, was killed in the car. His body was mutilated and beyond recognition. There was no way to ascertain the identity of the slain men.’

Reports for a while claimed that Pakistan Taliban (TTP) leader Hakimullah Mehsud may have been killed in the attack , based on radio intercepts. The TTP denied the claim.

Location: Dogga near Datta Khel, North Waziristan
References: Dawn , IRNA , BBC , Pakistan Today , Reuters , Voice of America ,The Nation , CNN , AFP , Express Tribune , The News , Fox News , The Nation ,Press Trust of India , McClatchy , The News , ABC News Radio , Dawn , Asia Times , The News

Ob259 – January 23 2012
♦ 4-5 total killed
♦ 1 injured
Up to four alleged Turkmeni militants – possibly allied to al Qaeda, according to Reuters – were reported killed in a morning strike on a vehicle in North Waziristan. The vehicle was en route from Degan to Datta Khel and according to the BBC ‘was engulfed by fire after the missile strike. A nearby house was also damaged.’ A related attack on a house may have taken place in the nearby village of Mohammad Khel.  

Location: Degan, North WaziristanReferences: Associated Press , PTI , Press Association , Reuters , CNN , The Nation , BBC , AFP , Express Tribune , The News

Ob259c – January 23 2012
♦ 0-2 total killed
Two missiles may also have struck a house in Mohammad Khel. CNN reported local intelligence officials as saying that nobody was killed in the attack, although The News reported local tribesmen as saying that two people died. This attack may be confused with Ob259 – awaiting clarification.

Location: Mohammad Khel, North WaziristanReferences: Associated Press , PTI, Press Association , Reuters , CNN , The Nation , The News

February 2012 

Ob259ci – February 1 2012
♦ 13-20 total killed
There were clashing reports as to the source of an early morning attack on four Pakistan Taliban (TTP) compounds in Orukzai Agency. Dawn reported that the strike was carried out by the Pakistan Air Force – and that a TTP commander may have been killed. Earlier there had been some speculation as to whether US drones were involved .

Location: Darand Shekhan, Orukzai Agency 
References: GeoTV , Dawn , IRNA , SANA

Ob260 – February 8 2012
♦ 9-10 total killed
♦ 2-12 injured
Ten alleged militants were killed in an early morning attack on a house near Miranshah, North Waziristan. One anonymous Pakistani official reported: ‘The locals have pulled out nine bodies and around a dozen injured from the rubble of demolished house.’ ‘There was wide speculation about the victims. One source claimed that those killed were part of a group run by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a local militant commander. A second reported that the Haqqani Network may have been targeted. Other Pakistan intelligence sources suggested that some of the targets were ‘from central Asia’, or from the Punjab . It was the first confirmed CIA drone strike in more than two weeks.

Location: Tappi or Spalga, North Waziristan
References: AFP , Herald Sun , Express Tribune , Deutsche Presse Agentur , AP ,Al Jazeera , Reuters , BBC , The News , The Nation

Ob261 – February 9 2012
♦ 5-8 total killed
♦ 0-2 civilians reported killed, including 1 child
♦ 3 injured
Badar Mansoor, the commander of a Pakistan Taliban faction with strong links to al Qaeda, was among at least five people killed in a 4am attack by the CIA in Miranshah, North Waziristan, the second US strike in 24 hours. AFP named the other dead as Qari Fayaz, Maulvi Faisal Khurasani, Qari Mushtaq and Yasir Khurasani. There was confusion about whether civilians had also died or were only injured in the strike. Reuters cited a Pakistan Taliban commander as saying that Mansoor’s family died alongside him .

He was living in a small rented house with his wife and children in Miranshah. He, his wife and two other members of his family died on the spot.

Other sources stated either that one wife was killed, one wife and one child, or that one or both wives were injured in the attack, ‘possibly the wife and daughter of Mansoor.’ Badar Mansoor (aka Fakher Zaman) took over the local leadership of Al Qaeda after the death in a drone strike of Ilyas Kashmiri in summer 2011. AFP reported Pakistani intelligence officials as saying ‘Mansoor was responsible for attacks in Karachi and on the minority Ahmadi community that killed nearly 100 people in the eastern city of Lahore in May 2010.’ Officials told Reuters that ‘the death toll could rise because of damage to buildings next to the one targeted by the drone.’

Three policemen were murdered in Peshawar on February 24  by militants calling themselves the Sheikh Abdullah Azaam Brigade. Six other officers were wounded in the triple suicide bombing of a police station, which the Brigade said ‘was to avenge the killing of Badr Munir in a drone attack. The group warned that there would be more such attacks,’ according to The Nation.
On March 8 Al Qaeda’s media wing released a nine minute eulogy for Mansoor,claiming that :

America is now more eagerly attacking the Pakistani government’s targets. The drone program is being run with the full consent, permission and cooperation of the Pakistani government.

The News later claimed that according to its sources in the security establishment this strike – and one on January 10 2012 – ‘was carried out on a tip off provided by the Pakistani intelligence community.’

Location: Miranshah, North Waziristan:
References: AFP , ABC News , Reuters , Associated Press , AFP , Reuters , Fox News , Associated Press , CNN , BBC , New York Times , MSNBC, McClatchy ,AFP , The Nation , The News (Pakistan) , Central Asia Online , Dawn (AP) , The News

Ob262 – February 16 2012
♦ 6 total killed
♦ 4-7 injured
An early morning strike on a house in Spalga, near Miranshah, killed six alleged militants. Four were seriously injured. At least three Pakistani security officials in the area confirmed the attack, which a number of reports claimed was against the Haqqani Network. The strike came five days after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told Al Jazeera :

I want to inform you that we did not allow or give permission to fly drones from Pakistan. Drones are counter productive and we have discussed it thoroughly with the US administration.

Location: Spalga near Miranshah, North Waziristan
References:Express Tribune , AFP , Press Trust of India , Radio Free Europe , The Nation (Pakistan) , Associated Press , Al Jazeera , CNN , PTI , Washington Post, AAP , Voice of America , BBC ,  Time , Dawn , Express Tribune , Daily Times ,The News , Frontier Post

Ob263 – February 16 2012
♦ 10-15 total killed
♦ Unknown injured
In the second drone strike of the day up to 15 alleged militants died in an attack on a pick-up truck in Mir Ali. A number of reports referred to the dead as ‘Uzbek Islamists.’ According to a Pakistani security official ‘the vehicle caught fire and the dead bodies are badly mutilated.’ Four drones were reported to take taken part, according to villagers. One told The News: ‘No one could risk his life to get close to the destroyed vehicle and retrieve bodies of the slain people due to fear of the drones which were still flying over the area even after the attack.’

Location: Khaisoor, Mir Ali, North Waziristan
References: CNN , PTI , Washington Post , AAP , Voice of America , BBC , Dawn, The News , Express Tribune , Daily Times , Frontier Post

Ob263a – February 25 2012
♦ 0 killed
The News reported that Pakistani troops searching for the wreckage of a crashed US drone narrowly missed injury when a missile was fired from a circling drone. A senior local official told the paper:

We were looking for the wreckage of the drone in Machikhel village, Mir Ali, and were almost close to the debris of the destroyed aircraft when one of the drones flying over the area fired a missile and hit two missiles lying on the ground. It would have caused heavy losses to security forces and others engaged in the search operation. They were lucky to survive.

The US drone had crashed earlier that day, with the Taliban claiming it had shot the UAV down. Militants allied to Hafiz Gul Bahadur told Reuters: ‘The drone today in Machikhel was flying at low altitude and our fighters fired at and shot it down. We have trained people for such type of job. We got hold of half of the wreckage and were looking for the remaining parts when the Pakistan army troops arrived there and then we decided to leave. The troops fired heavy search lights and are looking for wreckage of the drone.’ A US official denied that the drone had been shot down.

Location: Machi Khel, Mir Ali, North Waziristan
References: The News , The News , Reuters , Associated Press , Dawn , AFP ,Express Tribune , CNN , PTI

March 2012 

Ob264 – March 9 2012
♦ 8-15 total killed
♦ 3 injured

A rare CIA drone strike just inside South Waziristan killed up to 15 alleged militants. The attack, the first in more than three weeks, struck a vehicle (see also below) in the Mandao borderlands area. A senior Pakistani security official told AFP:

 

A drone fired two missiles on a vehicle. At least eight militants were killed. It is not immediately clear if some important target was hit in the missile strike.’

The News reported that those killed wereallied to the Pakistan Taliban (TTP) and as well as ‘local Mehsud’ may have included ‘some foreign militants.’ Der Spiegel later reported that the morning strike killed Samir H, 29, a German citizen. At least one of three missiles hit the vehicle, a pick-up truck, killing Samir and 11 others, the magazine continued. The attack that killed Samir occurred on the same day that Islamabad announced the imminent replacement of controversial spy chief General Ahmad Shuja Pasha. Pasha, who had run the ISI for four years, was to be replaced by Lt. General Zaheerul Islam the following week.

Born in west German city of Aachen to a German convert mother and a Tunisian father, Samir left Germany for Pakistan in October 2009. He traveled first to Iran then Pakistan, accompanied by his wife, a German of Tunisian descent, his son Hamsa and his daughter Shaima. Der Spiegel reported German investigators believed Samir to be one of the most dangerous Islamists in the country. The magazine cited a 2010 video posted by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in which he refers to himself as Abu Laith. His sister Soumaia left for Waziristan in 2010 where she is believed to remain. Der Spiegel reported this strike had the potential to reignite the debate in Germany on the legality of the drones by the US and could increase diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

Location: Shaktoi Mandao, South Waziristan
References: Express Tribune , Associated Press , CNN , BBC , AFP , Kuna , AP ,Reuters , CNN , Dawn , The News , TIME , Der Spiegel

Ob264a – March 9 2012
♦ 0-6 killed
Two sources reported a second strike. The first reportedly hit a vehicle, killing up to 15 militants. The second strike was said to have hit a house 12 kilometres away, killing ‘six Uzbeks.’

Location: Nishpa, South Waziristan
Reference: CNN , Dawn

Ob265 – March 13 2012
♦ 6-8 reported killed
♦ 2-4 injured
Two senior commanders of a Taliban faction were among up to eight people killed in a CIA strike on South Waziristan. The men – part of a group commanded by Maulvi Nazir – died in an attack on their vehicle. An eyewitness identified one of the commanders as Amir Hamza Toji Khel - described as ‘a prominent member of the newly established council of the militants namely Shura Muraqiba’. The shura was reportdely formed in late December 2011 ‘to sort out differences among militant groups and stop killing of local tribesmen by terming them “spies”.’ The other commander was named as Shamsullah, reported to be an assistant to Maulvi Nazir himself. Two other deceased militants were named as Wajahat and Abdullah. Although Nazir’s group fights in the insurgency in Afghanistan, it has maintained a six year ceasefire with Pakistan’s forces inside Waziristan, making it highly unlikely that Islamabad would have endorsed the strike.

Location: Drey Nishtar, South Waziristan
References: Dawn , Associated Press , PakWatan , Express Tribune , IRNA , The Nation , BBC , PTI , Reuters , The News , Frontier Post , Dawn , The News

Ob266 – March 13 2012
♦ 7 reported killed
♦ 3 injured
A strike was reported on another vehicle ‘some hours later’ in the borderlands of North and South Waziristan, killing seven militants. According to the Frontier Post ‘locals of the area said that a double cabin pick up was hit by missiles from drone planes which killed seven people burning down the pick-up to ashes. It was not known who were the killed ones.’ The News reported  that the men were also part of Maulvi Nazir’s Taliban group.

Location: Shawal, South/ North Waziristan borders
References: Express Tribune , Reuters , The News , Frontier Post , The News

Ob267 – March 30 2012
♦ 4 reported killed
♦ 3 injured
A house in the market area of Miranshah town was destroyed in a 3am attack, killing four alleged militants. According to AFP, the CIA strike also triggered a fire in the moneychangers’ market . The blast reportedly destroyed five shops including a bakery, three grocery shops and a telephone kiosk. Eyewitness Yousuf Khan described the attack and aftermath: ‘I was sleeping in my home when a deafening sound woke me up. Fearing that my house has been attacked, I peeped out of my window and saw flames raging from the building facing my house. Two men holding Kalashnikov rifles warned me to go inside. I shut the window and went to sleep.” There were competing claims as to the identity of the victims. AP cited intelligence officials saying that those killed and injuredwere Uzbeks ; Reuters reported that they were local Taliban ; and agency AGIclaimed they were ‘Arabs.’  MSNBC later aired footage of the aftermath of the attack , showing that it took place in a built-up market area of the town.

MSNBC airs footage of the strike

The drone strike came at a highly sensitive time, with a recent Parliamentary Committee on National Security report to Islamabad’s parliament calling for an end to all US drone strikes in Pakistan, and during high-level negotiationsbetween the US and Pakistan on possible new rules, said to include limiting the type of strikes, and informing Pakistan in advance. A senior unnamed US officialvoiced rare internal criticisms of the US programme telling CNN that the White House was making a serious mistake by putting the options on the table for the Pakistanis to seize.

The big mistake was the administration – I did try to warn them – that once you put it on the table, it will only get worse. Sure enough, once they put it on the table, (Pakistan) grabbed it, and they’ve run with it and now it’s the centerpiece of their negotiations.”

The senior official also voiced criticisms of CIA Director David Petraeus: ‘The director and I have had serious go-rounds about this particular issue before he did it, and he did it anyway. And now I think we’re paying the price.”

Location: Miranshah, North Waziristan
References: Express Tribune , AFP , Associated Press , Reuters , AIG , Express Tribune , Associated Press , CNN , Associated Press , CNN , MSNBC , The News

April 2012

Ob268 – April 29 2012
♦ 3-6 reported killed
♦ 2-3 injured
Despite ongoing negotiations between the US and Pakistan – and a unanimous vote by Pakistan’s parliament to end the drone strikes – the CIA ended a 29-day pause by bombing an ex-girls’ school in Miranshah and killing up to six alleged militants – among them the leader of an Uzbek militant group.  The school was reportedly engulfed in flames. Locals described four drones flying over the town prior to the attack. Pakistan strongly condemned the strike , describing it as ‘in total contravention of international law and established norms of interstate relations.’ At the same time US counter-terrorism chief John Brennan went on American TV to claim that ‘Sometimes you have to take life to save lives.’

Local resident  Haji Niamat Khan told Reuters that more than two dozen militants were living in the school when it was attacked. The location was in the town’s market area – scene of the previous strike in March. Reuters also quoted a Pakistani security official:

 

We intercepted internal conversation of the militants asking for arranging four coffins for the slain men in the drone attack. We don’t know about their identity and nationality but those living in the girls’ school were mostly Arabs.

However Associated Press reported another official as saying the victims may have been ‘Uzbek or Tajik militants.’ Dawn reported that the target was ‘Punjab Taliban . And an anonymous US official later said that the school  was a “staging and planning area for Al Qaeda, the Haqqanis and other terrorists.’ In August 2012 the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan reported on its Furqon website that its leader, Uthman/ Usman Atil, had died in the attack . Atil had replaced previous IMU leader Tahir Yuldashev, also killed by a drone.

Location: Miranshah, North Waziristan
References: Reuters , Associated Press , Al Jazeera , AFP , Punjab News , MSNBC, Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs , Los Angeles Times ,New York Times ,Express Tribune , Wall Street Journal , AP , NPR , Dawn , New York Times ,Furqon (Uzbek) , Long War Journal , The News , The News

May 2012 

Ob269 – May 5 2012
♦ 8-10 reported killed
♦ 1-3 injured
♦ 0-10 civilians reported killed
The CIA carried out its third drone strike during ongoing sensitive negotiations with Pakistan. Missiles hit an alleged militant training camp in the forested Shawal area, killing up to ten people. The Pakistan Observer reported local claims that the dead were ‘local tribesmen’ rather than militants. CNN reported the dead as members of the Pakistan Taliban according to Muhammad Amin, a senior government offiicial in the region. The Frontier Post reported that locals were afraid to assist in rescue work as up to four drones remained in the area after the attack. Pakistan’s government once again condemned the strike in strong terms , calling the attack ‘illegal’ and stating that

It is our considered view that the strategic disadvantages of such attacks far outweigh their tactical advantages, and are therefore, totally counter productive.

The attack came just days after chief US counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said that the US would seek to respect other nations’ sovereignty in its drone strikes. Leon Panetta, US Defense Secretary, also confirmed that ‘the United States is going to defend itself under any circumstances.’

Location: Shawal, North Waziristan
References: AFP , MSNBC , Reuters , Associated Press , BBC , PTI , Frontier Post, The News , The Nation (Pakistan) , SANA , McClatchy , Dawn , Express Tribune, CNN , Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

President Obama welcomes fellow NATO-leaders to Chicago

Ob270 – May 23 2012
♦ 4-5 reported killed
♦ 2 injured
In the first recorded US drone strike in Pakistan in 18 days, up to five alleged militants were killed in a 2.40am strike on a house in Datta Khel, with ‘several’ injured. As many as five drones were reported over Miranshah at the time of the attack, suggesting a possible High Value Target may have been present. AFPreported residents as saying that the bodies of those killed had been charred badly, and that militants had cordoned off the area and were sifting through the rubble.

The strike came despite continuing Pakistani protests at the attacks, and an ongoing dispute with the United States about the resumption of the delivery of NATO supplies to Afghanistan through the country. At the NATO summit in Chicago, two days before the strike, President Obama told reporters : ‘I don’t want to paper over real challenges there. There’s no doubt that there have been tensions between [the NATO military coalition] and Pakistan, the United States and Pakistan over the last several months.’

Location: Datta Khel Kalai near Miranshah, North Waziristan
References: Xinhua , Los Angeles Times , Associated Press , AFP , BBC , CNN ,GeoTV , Christian Science Monitor , Deccan Herald , Express Tribune , The News

Ob271 – May 24 2012
♦ 10-12 reported killed
♦ 3 injured
♦ 3-10 civilians reported killed
The CIA’s drones returned to the attack for the second time in 24 hours, killing up to a dozen people, only some of whom appear to have been alleged militants. A house and a nearby mosque were hit as villagers attended morning prayers, and between three and eight civilians died. It is not clear which building was the primary target. Associated Press’ sources said that ‘most of those killed wereUzbek insurgents ‘ and said the attack targeted a ‘militant hideout’; researchers at Stanford University and New York University noted that an Associated Press report filed four days later referred to the strike but still did not mentionmultiple reports that a mosque had been hit. But AFP reported at least three civilians died when the mosque was struck during morning prayers. A security official told the news agency that three worshippers, believed to be Central Asians, ‘were seriously wounded and died later in the hospital.’ Channel 4 News said that most of the dead were local villagers , with four of 12 killed being ‘foreign fighters, believed to be Turkmen.’ KUNA reported tribal elders as saying that all of those killed were ‘innocent local tribesmen.’ Villager Mohammad Roshan Dawar later told The News :

Some of the people had offered the prayers and were leaving the mosque. Others were still praying and some were reciting the Holy Quran, when the drone fired two missiles and struck the mosque. The small structure of the mosque was demolished in the attack and those present inside were buried under the debris of the building.

The wounded were reportedly taken to Miranshah Agency Headquarters Hospital, where an anonymous doctor complained that the injured ‘were brought to us in a serious condition and had suffered multiple injuries. Also, we do not have any facility here in the hospital to save lives of seriously injured patients. Let alone other facilities, the only X-ray machine at the hospital is also out of order.’

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters that ‘We strongly condemn the drone attacks. We regard them a violation of our territorial integrity. They are in contravention of international law. They are illegal, counter-productive and totally unacceptable.’ He added that ‘matters related to NATO supply [and] drone attacks are under discussion with the US, and that ‘Pakistan wants to solve the matter of drones with the US through negotiation rather to move UN Security Council or the International Court of Justice.’ The strike occurred on the same day that Amnesty International issued its annual report, in which it again raised concerns that US covert drone strikes ‘appear to have amounted to extrajudicial executions.’

Location: Khassokhel near Mir Ali, North Waziristan
References: Dawn , Reuters , KUNA , Pakistan Today , Associated Press ,Associated Press , AFP , BBC , CBS , The Nation (Pakistan) , MSNBC , Channel 4 News , Amnesty International, SANA , SANA , The News (Pakistan) , Dawn ,Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs , Living Under Drones

Ob272 – May 26 2012
♦ 3-4 reported killed
♦ 2 injured
Drone strikes returned to levels not seen in Pakistan since autumn 2011, as the CIA attacked for the third time in a week. Four alleged militants died in a 4.30am attack when a bakery was struck in Miranshah bazaar, North Waziristan. According to Associated Press the victims – all ‘foreigners’ or ‘Arabs’ – werebuying bread when the shop was bombed, marking a rare deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure. Other agencies reported that a house was struck., or that the target was an apartment above the bakery . All reported that the building was destroyed. BBC reporter Ahmed Wali Majeeb was staying just 500m from the attack site when the missiles struck. He later wrote:

It’s 04:15 in the morning when the blast wakes me. Just as someone next to me says it’s the sound of a missile being fired there is an angry whizzing noise overhead and then an explosion. The gap between the missile being launched and hitting its target is just a few seconds. People run out of their homes into the street in fear. Some are rushing to the spot to see who has been hit. A room on top of a bakery in the centre of the market has been destroyed. Some local people and Taliban are clearing the rubble. They say three people have been killed. A few minutes later, the Taliban and locals are able to sift through the rubble and dig up the dead and injured. These are quickly taken away from the site of the attack and no-one is willing to say who they are. When I try to speak to people and militants later, everybody gives a different answer. It seems that no-one is sure who has been killed, but before long I hear on the radio that a senior al-Qaeda leader – Abu Hafs al-Misri – is among the dead. In the aftermath of this attack, I speak to local shopkeepers. One is very angry. He says the attacks have destroyed the lives and livelihood of the local population.

Al-Misri had previously been reported killed in autumn 2010.

Location: Miranshah, North Waziristan
References: BBC , Associated Press , AFP , CNN , Xinhua , MSNBC , Pakistan Observer , Frontier Post , The News , Express Tribune , BBC , Viewpoint Online

Ob273 – May 28 2012
♦ 5-10 reported killed
♦ 4 injured
CIA drones returned to the attack in North Waziristan for the fourth time in six days, with a double strike on the village of Khassokhel, 25km east of Miranshah. Up to ten people were killed in the bombing of a house under construction, reportedly owned by Balbal Khan. The first strike came at around 12.20m local time, with some local media reporting that five drones were hovering over the target area. Officials claimed that most of those killed were foreigners , but could not confirm their nationality. A Pakistani security official said the area ‘was known for harbouring Uzbek, Arab and other foreign militants.’ Drones returned to attack the house again some 30 minutes later. It was not known initially if this marked a return to the deliberate targeting of rescuers at the scene, a tactic first uncovered by the Bureau.

CBS News later reported that Al Qaeda commander Yahya al-Libi was the target of the attack, but that he had escaped with injuries. Al-Libi was killed June 4.

Location: Khassokhel near Mir Ali, North Waziristan
References:Xinhua , BBC , AFP , Express Tribune , Sky News (Australia) , The Nation (Pakistan) , Associated Press, Khaama Press , Voice of Russia Radio , RTT News , ANI , IANS , Dawn , Express Tribune , Washington Post , Pakistan Observer , CBS News , The News , The News

Ob274 – May 28 2012
♦ 2-5 reported killed
A second missile attack destroyed a vehicle in Datta Khel, 30km west of Miranshah. Up to five alleged militants died. A security official told AFP that ‘The drone fired two missiles on a vehicle. The vehicle caught fire and the bodies of the people inside were badly burnt.’ Another official reported that the deceased were ‘two foreigners and their local driver.’ The News reported a villager as saying that ‘a nearby house was also damaged in the attack, but its inmates remained safe.’

Location: Mir Ali, North Waziristan
References: Express Tribune , Dawn , AFP , Associated Press, The News , Express Tribune

June 2012 

Ob275 – June 2 2012
♦ 2-4 reported killed
♦ 0-2 civilian killed
In the first reported CIA action in South Waziristan since March 13, up to four people were reported killed in a strike targeting  a vehicle in Khawashi Khel, 5km to the east of Wana. Security officials told AFP that alleged militants had been moving from one area to another near the Afghan border, and that ‘the US drone fired two missiles which completely destroyed the vehicle.’ Two local militant leaders were reported killed, both members of Maulvi Nazir’s Taliban-aligned faction. The men were identified as Khalil Yargul Khail and Rehmanullah Gangi Khail by the Express Tribune : ‘According to security officials, Rehmanullah Gangi Khail was the brother of Muhammad Wali, a local commander of the Mullah Nazir Group.’ Although most agencies reported that either an unspecified ‘vehicle’ or motorbike was the target of the strike, Dawn reported that a motorbike was accidentally hit , suggesting possible civilian casualties.

Location: Khawashi Khel, Wana, South Waziristan
References: The Nation (Pakistan) , CNN , Radio Free Europe , AFP , GeoTV ,Dawn , The News (Pakistan) , Associated Press , IRNA , Express Tribune , The News (Pakistan) ,

Ob275c – June 2 2012
♦ 3-4 reported killed
One agency reported a second drone attack of the day, on a house in the Ghowa Khowa area close to Wana. Four people were reported killed.

Location: Ghowa Khowa, Wana, South Waziristan
References: The Nation (Pakistan) , ANI

Ob276 – June 3 2012
♦ 7-10 reported killed
♦ 7-10 injured
♦ Possible civilian casualties 
An attack on funeral prayers held with the family of a Taliban commander killed the day before killed up to ten people. US drones struck a house in Mana Raghzai as people gathered for funeral prayers for Rehmanullah Gangi Khail and the brother of local commander Malang. Local officials told the Express Tribune

The militants had gathered for condolence of commander Malang’s brother Rehmanullah, who was killed in a US drone strike earlier on Saturday.Commanders Malang and Gulam Khan were seriously injured in the attack.

Although there were reports that both commanders had died,  the New York Times later quoted a Wana government official as saying that both men livedand were ‘stable’. Two others killed were described as ‘foreigners’. Local people took part in the rescue operation. A nearby vehicle was also destroyed in a related strike, killing five and injuring others.

Location: Mana Raghzai near Wana, South Waziristan
References: Kuna , Daily Mail , Express Tribune , CNN , Reuters , The News (Pakistan) , The Nation (Pakistan) , The Guardian , AFP , Al Jazeera , Associated Press , Dawn , Sky News , New York Times , The News (Pakistan)

Ob277 – June 4 2012
♦ 1-18 reported killed
♦ 4 injured

Al Qaeda’s effective number two, Abu Yahya al-Libi, was killed as the CIA continued with a tempo of strikes not seen in Pakistan for over a year. The Islamabad government once again condemned the attacks as ‘illegal’ and urged the US to stop. Drones struck at 5am in North Waziristan, killing up to 18 people as a militant compound and a vehicle were hit. US and Taliban figures confirmed the following day that al-Libi had died in the attack. Some reports claimed that al Qaeda was now so degraded in Pakistan that there was no natural successor to succeed al-Libi. White House spokesman Jay Carney said of his death:

 

His death is part of the degradation that has been taking place to core al-Qaida during the past several years and that degradation has depleted the ranks to such an extent that there’s no clear successor.

One anonymous US official claimed that only five people died in the strike, another that only al-Libi died . However most sources reported between 14 and 18 deaths, including al-Libi’s driver and bodyguard. According to the BBC, the CIA attacked militants attending the scene of an initial strike. Up to six drones participated in the attack. In September 2012, Associated Press reported two US intelligence officials as saying that a Saudi man named Najam had lost both legs in a drone strike ‘at about the same time as al-Libi died.’ According to the anonymous officials:

Najam, who came from an affluent family, was able to reach an agreement with the Saudi government to return to his wife and children. Intelligence suggests that Najam’s treatment has encouraged other militants to seek similar deals, switch to other battlefields or seek leniency from their governments.

The intensity of the US campaign led to claims by some that the US was carrying out punitive strikes. Islamabad called in the US charge d’affaires Richard Hoagland to formally complain about the strikes. He was told that ‘drone strikes represented a clear red-line for Pakistan.’ The Islamabad-based Conflict Monitoring Center, in its monthly report , accused the US of going on a ‘rampage’ in ‘a bid to punish Pakistan for the conviction of Dr. Afridi as well as its reluctance to reopen NATO supply routes.’ The CMC noted that prior to the NATO summit and Afridi’s conviction, only one US strike had taken place in May. Afterwards there were five, mainly aimed at ‘Taliban groups who are in a peace agreement with Pakistani authorities.’ An anonymous senior US official rejected this, claiming that the jump in CIA strikes was simply down to the weather. He told the New York Times that ‘Until now the area was socked in by a long stationary front with cloud cover.’

Less than a week after the strike messages were posted on al Qaeda websitessuggesting that al-Libi remained alive.  The terrorist group also posted a video of al-Libi discussing recent events in Libya, with no references to his reported killing. However on the anniversary of 9/11 al Qaeda’s leader Ayman al Zawahirifinally confirmed al-Libi’s death.

Location: Hesokhel near Mir Ali, North Waziristan
References: The News (Pakistan) , The Nation (Pakistan) , Reuters , AGI , PTI ,New York Times , Conflict Monitoring Center , Associated Press , MSNBC ,IRNA , CNN , The Guardian , Reuters , BBC , ABC News, Reuters , Washington Post , Reuters , The Guardian , CNN , CBS , Al Arabiya , New York Times ,Washington Post , AFP , AFP , Los Angeles Times , The News , Associated Press, AFP

Ob278 – June 13 2012
♦ 4 killed
Four alleged militants were killed in the first strike for nine days. Initial estimates put the casualty figure at three but AFP reported this was subsequently updated by an anonymous Pakistani official. The men were traveling in a vehicle in the evening when multiple missiles were fired from a US drone. The strike came 10km east of Mirahshah in the village of Isha. Witnesses said the vehicle immediately caught fire when finally hit, adding that several drones had been seen circling the area that day.

The strike came amid continued strained relations between Islamabad and Washington. Two days previously the US announced it was withdrawing its negotiators who had spent six weeks trying to reach a deal with Pakistan to reopen supply routes through the country. Closing the border to NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan had forced the US to reroute the convoys through central Asia. This was costing the US $100 million a month, reported the Washington Post . Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar also urged a visiting delegation of US Congressmen to end the drone strikes.

Location: Isha near Miranshah, North Waziristan
References: AFP , Trend.AZ (DPA) , ABC , NewsPakistan , INP , The Express Tribune , Xinhua , The News , The Hindu , Xinhua , Outlook India , The News Tribe, Radio Free Europe , Reuters , Washington Post , Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ob279 – June 14 2012
♦ 3-4 killed
Three to four alleged militants were killed in an early morning CIA drone strike in Miranshah bazaar. Two missiles were fired on a shop or house, hitting the first floor according to a senior official . For the third time in recent weeks there were indications that the CIA had used a ‘follow-up strike’ tactic first exposed by the Bureau in February 2012. A tribesman who requested anonymity told AFP:

When the first missile hit the building, I heard cries for help and ran towards it, but militants stopped me at a distance. When they started rescue work, another missile hit.

A local journalist said the strike came at 3.30am, with witnesses reporting that two drones took part. One fired the missiles, with the second hovering over the area. As many as five drones reportedly remained over the area following the strike, indicating the possible presence of a High Value Target.

Location: Miranshah, North Waziristan
References: AFP , Associated Press , Xinhua , Outlook India , The News Tribe,Radio Free Europe , ABC Australia Network News , CNN

Ob280 – June 26 2012
♦ 4-6 killed
♦ 2-7 injured
CIA attacks resumed after a 12 day pause, when missiles struck a house in Shawal in North Waziristan late in the evening, killing up to six people. Local officials told AFP that the target was militants linked to Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a leader involved in the Afghan insurgency but with a peace agreement with Pakistan.The attack came the day before Pakistan’s top military commander, General Kayani, was due to hold talks with General John Allen, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, to discuss ways to improve relations. As Pakistan’s The News noted: ‘This was the first attack by the CIA-operated pilotless planes in North Waziristan after the local Taliban, led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, banned the anti-polio immunisation campaign in the tribal region as a mark of protest against the US drone strikes.’

Location: Shawal, North Waziristan
References: Dawn , Radio Free Europe , CNN , AFP , The News , Dawn , Los Angeles Times , Xenhua , Associated Press, PTI , The Express Tribune , Al Jazeera

July 2012 

Ob281 – July 1 2012
♦ 6-8 killed
♦ 2-3 injured
US drones struck a house in the Shawal area at around 7am, killing up to eight people. A local security official told agency AFP: ‘Two missiles targeted the compound, killing six militants.’ A second official reported that ‘the strike destroyed the house and triggered a fire. It was difficult to identify the bodies immediately as some of them were charred.’ It was reported that some of those killed were linked to Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the target of other recent CIA strikes, with others from the Turkmenistan Islamic Movement.

Location: Dre Nishter/ Shawal, North Waziristan
References: AFP , Geo TV , Reuters , The Nation (Pakistan) , Associated Press,Xinhua , MSNBC , The News , PTI

Ob282 – July 6 2012
♦ 17-24 killed
♦ 0-3 civilians reported killed
♦ 2-6 injured
As many as 24 people were killed in a triple evening strike on a house in Datta Khel. The dead were said to include ‘foreigners,’ with AFP reporting : ‘The initial strike on a house killed nine, three others were killed in a second attack when they drove to the site to recover dead bodies, and a third drone killed another three five minutes later, a senior security official in Peshawar told the AFP news agency.’ Dawn also reported that three rescuers were killed , whom it described as ‘tribesmen.’  Some reported that those killed were linked to local militant leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur. The New York Times reported a local resident as saying that ‘the compound was owned by a Taliban commander namedRahimullah.’ However in August 2012 Time magazine quoted a US official as saying the strike was actually on ‘a truck packed with explosives heading across the border.’

It was a clear shot. We had to take it.

The official also said that the number killed was less than 20. This was the first CIA strike after Pakistan re-opened its border to Nato supply convoys, ending a seven month diplomatic stand-off. The standoff ended after US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton apologised on July 3 for US forces killing 23 Pakistani soldiers in November 2011. Negotiations over the future of the drone programme continued after Clinton’s apology. Pakistan’s leaders reportedly were pushing for more control of drone strike targeting .

 

But on July 5 the Foreign Office repeated Pakistan’s view that drone strikes are counter-productive and a violation of the country’s sovereignty. Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, Islamabad’s former High Commissioner to London, told Al Jazeera :

It can’t go against the will of the people and Pakistan is quite unanimous in rejecting the drone strikes on its territory. All the political parties, parliament and military have categorically condemned the strikes. We know that in the past there were all kinds of backdoor dealings - we are told we don’t know for sure - between Pakistan and the US which sort of winked and nudged and looked the other way while drone strikes would be conducted. Now those days have gone because the relationship between the two country is so brittle and tense. And anything smacking of backdoor dealings would really risk a reaction in the public against the government in Pakistan.’

Location: Datta Khel, North Waziristan
References: Express Tribune , The News Tribe, Saach , Associated Press , US State Department, Express Tribune , PTI , Associated Press , AFP . Xinhua ,Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs , MSNBC , Voice of America , PTI , Al Jazeera , AFP , The Nation (Pakistan) , Guardian , Reuters , New York Times ,CNN , ABC News , The News , Deutsche Welle , Dawn , Dawn , Time, The News

Ob283 – July 23 2012
♦ 11-14 killed
♦ 0-14 civilians reported killed
♦ 2 injured
Up to 14 people were killed in the first known US drone strike in 17 days. An unknown number of CIA drones struck at 9.20pm , firing up to eight missilesinto a housing compound alleged to belong to Sadiq Noor , a militant commander and ally of Hafiz Gul Bahadur. It was not clear if Noor was among the dead although Abdur Rauf, son of Abdul Karim, described as a militant, waslater buried in Dhoda village.  After the attack ‘more than five US drones kept flying  over the area, hampering the rescue work.’ This was the second strike of the month to hit the village of Dre Nishter. The News was the only source to report that civilians may have been among those killed – and that rescuers may have died in a follow-up strike:

Some reports said the drones first fired two missiles and hit a house in the valley and when other people gathered for rescue efforts almost half-an-hour later, the drones started firing missiles on them, killing most the rescuers. There was, however, no independent confirmation of this piece of information. About the victims, there were conflicting reports with some saying they included militants while tribal sources insisted all of them were local residents.

Location: Dre Nishter/Shawal, North Waziristan
References: Xinhua , AFP , Associated Press , Xinhua , Geo.TV , PTI , The News Tribe, Voice of America , Dawn , The Star , CNN , Reuters , IANS , Long War Journal , The Express Tribune , BBC , The News , CNN , BNO News , The Nation (Pakistan) , Dawn , PakTribune , Big News Network , RIA Novosti , The News

Ob284 – July 29 2012
♦ 4-7 killed
♦ 0-3 civilians reported killed
♦ 4 injured
The CIA’s drones returned to the attack in a Sunday strike on the village of Khushhali Turikhel in North Waziristan. Between four and seven people died, with six missiles fired at a house, according to AFP. One or two vehicles were also reported destroyed. However another source reported that ‘Uzbek militants’ were killed ‘visiting a spring for leisure .’ A large number of drones were said to have taken part, with SANA reporting that ‘six drones continued their flights in the area which created panic in the local residents.’ It was later reported that all of those killed were not Uzbeks but local people from Janikhel in Bannu, where they were buried. The News named three of the four it said were killed asAhmadullah, Asadullah and Hidayat Khan. Its reporters toldf the Bureau that they were unsure of the status of the deceased.

The attack took place hours after Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Sherry Rehman, again called for the US to halt drone strikes , saying that ‘We will seek an end to drone strikes and there will be no compromise on that… I am not saying drones have not assisted in the war against terror, but they have diminishing rate of returns.’

Location: Khushhali Turikhel, North Waziristan
References: AFP , Associated Press , Express Tribune , AFP , AAP , Associated Press , NBC News , SANA , PTI , The Nation , Dawn , The News , IANS , Xinhua, The News , The Nation

August 2012 

Ob285 – August 18 2012
♦ 5-12 killed
♦ 1 civilian reported killed
♦ 2-6 injured
A twenty day pause in the CIA’s campaign ended with a drone strike just after noon on Shuweda in North Waziristan. A house and car were reported damaged or destroyed and up to a dozen people, possibly ‘alleged militants’ – were killed. As AFP noted :

The attack came as people in the deeply religious region were celebrating the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, residents said. It was the third drone attack since the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

AP reported that those killed were allies of local Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a regular target of CIA drone strikes in connection with the insurgency in Afghanistan. ‘Uzbeks’ were said to be among the dead. Eid was declared early in Waziristan, and people appear to have been gathering for the festival. The News reported that ‘the CIA-operated drone fired four missiles. Two of them hit a house located in the forest-covered mountainous Shawal Valley while two others hit vehicles parked outside a residence where a group of men had gathered for lunch in connection with Eid.’ Among those killed were 43-year old Kashmiri militant ‘Engineer’ Ahsan Aziz and his wife (the daughter of Jamaat e Islami Azad Kashmr leader Aleefud Din Turabi), according to Aziz’s father .

The attack was almost immediately condemned by Islamabad . A statement from the Foreign Ministry said: Pakistan strongly protests the drone attacks in North Waziristan this morning. Pakistan has consistently maintained that these attacks are a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and are in contravention of international law.’

Location: Mammon Narai, Shuweda, North Waziristan
References: AFP , Associated Press , Frontier Post , CNN , AGI , Voice of America, Express Tribune , Long War Journal , News Tribe, Xinhua , Pajhwok , Al Akhbar, Dawn , The Hindu , The Examiner , The News , Pakistan Foreign Ministry , Al Jazeera , SANA , Reuters , PTI , International News Network , PTI , Long War Journal , The News , Daily Times

Ob286 – August 19 2012
♦ 4-7 killed
♦ 2-3 injured
Drones returned to the attack for the second time in 12 hours in the Shawal valley area, with a reported early morning strike on two vehicles near the Afghan border. The Express Tribune said that the vehicles were en route from Miranshah. AFP reported a Pakistani security official as saying: ‘US drones fired four missiles on two militant vehicles in the early hours of Sunday, killing four militants.’ However a second official told the agency that the identities of those killed was unknown. Other speculated that those killed were supporters of militant leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur.

Location: Mana, Shawal valley, North Waziristan
References: AFP , The News , AFP , Associated Press , AAP , Long War Journal ,Dawn , The News , The Nation , Reuters , Associated Press , PakTribune ,Pajhwok , Voice of America , Geo TV , Express Tribune , PTI

Ob287 – August 19 2012
♦ 2-3 killed
♦ 2 injured
It was reported that a further two or three people were killed when CIA drones returned to the attack at Mana. News agency AFP reported a Pakistani security official as saying:

At least two militants were killed and two others wounded when a US drone fired two missiles at the site of this morning’s attack where militants were removing the wreckage of their two destroyed vehicles.

However The News and AP reported that the strike was on a house.

Location: Mana, Shawal valley, North Waziristan
References: Dawn , Long War Journal , The News , Reuters , Associated Press ,Geo TV , Express Tribune

Ob288 – August 21 2012
♦ 5-25 killed
♦ Civilians reported killed, including 1 child
♦ 2 injured
In the fourth US drone attack in as many days, the CIA bombed a house and a vehicle in Shana Kora village, 10 kilometers from Miranshah. Between 5 and 25 people were killed in the 7pm attack. It was soon reported that Badruddin Haqqani, son of the Haqqani leader and the network’s military commander,may have been killed . A ‘senior Taliban commander’ said Haqqani had died in the strike and Afghanistan’s intelligence agency also reported him dead . Two Pakistani intelligence officials said they were 90 percent sure he had been killed.  But they conceded they had not spoken with anyone who had seen the body and Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied Haqqani’s death, saying he was alive in Afghanistan. US officials told the Washington Post August 29 that ‘We now believe he is dead.’ Additional reports said that other members of Haqqani’s family had died in the attack. Haqqani’s 13-year old son Osama wasreported by a number of source s to have been killed. A further report claimedthat

There are three fresh graves in the family graveyard of Haqqanis. However, the family is reluctant to arrange any death ceremonies amid persistent US drone flights in the area.’

Reuters among others reported that far more civilians had died in the strike, reporting one of its sources as saying ‘The drone fired two missiles on the house last Tuesday and killed 25 people, most of them members of the Haqqani family.’

Two days after the strike, Pakistan’s government again protested the strikes . An official release stated:

The US Embassy was today démarched on recent drone strikes in North Waziristan. A senior US diplomat was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and informed that the drone strikes were unlawful, against international law and a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty. It was emphatically stated that such attacks were unacceptable.

Concern was later expressed that the death of such a senior member of the Haqqani family might impact upon negotiations for the release of a US Prisoner of War . Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, captured on June 30 2009, is thought to be held captive by the Haqqani network.

Location: Shnakhura, Datta Khel, North Waziristan
References: Express Tribune , AFP , The News , Associated Press , Xinhua , The Nation (Pakistan) , PTI , International Herald Tribune , Voice of Russia , Express Tribune , Dawn , Pakistan Foreign Ministry , Dawn , Xinhua , Reuters , PTI ,New York Times , Dawn , Reuters , Associated Press , The Guardian , Pak Tribune , Express Tribune , Al Jazeera English , The Nation (Pakistan) , Dawn ,Reuters , Reuters , Washington Post , WTOP FM

Ob289 – August 24 2012
♦ Overall killed in three strikes 13-18 killed
♦ 14 injured
♦ Reported killed Makai only: 6
The CIA brought to seven the number of attacks carried out in a week when it bombarded three villages in the Shawal valley with coordinated drone strikes that left up to 18 dead and a further 14 wounded.  Five drones  reportedly took part in the coordinated attacks, launching six missiles and ‘continued hovering over the area after the attacks’ . The strikes hit villages ‘several kilometers ‘ from each other with strikes that came ‘minutes apart ‘. The Long War Journal cited a US intelligence officia l as saying that repeated CIA strikes on the Shawal valley area had been targeting an ‘important jihadi leader.’ Across the border in Afghanistan on the same day, an airstrike also killed TTP commander Mullah Dadullah, commander of the Pakistan Taliban in Bajaur Agency.

At least six were killed in the village of Makai of Maki Ghar in a strike around11am or noon local time. Pakistani officials said the compounds were used by militants when crossing into Afghanistan. Tribal sources said the compounds belonged to local tribesmen and the dead included Punjabis and foreigners of Arab origin. AFP said the area hit ‘is an area used by militants belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban allied Haqqani network and the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group.’ A Bureau researcher, citing Pakistan intelligence and Taliban sources, named those killed in the first strike as:

Four Turkistanis named as Emeti Yakuf, aka Abdul Jabar; 35-36 year oldYaku Emeti aka Saleh; Tuersun Toheti aka Zabeh ullah; and Mukhtar. Additionally two Pakistan Taliban (TTP) militants died named as Karimand Matee ullah.

Dawn also reported that Emeti Yakuf had died, naming him as ‘Emir’ of the East Turkistan Movement.

Location: Makai/Maki Ghar, Shawal, North Waziristan
References: Dawn , Express Tribune , Xinhua , CNN , AFP , The News ,Associated Press , Xinhua , Reuters , Xinhua , The News Tribe, Associated Press, Reuters , PTI , KUNA , PakTribune , PTI , BBC , ANI , Xinhua , Radio Liberty ,The News , Al Jazeera , AFP , The Nation (Pakistan) , PTI , Voice Of America ,AAP , UK Press Association , Long War Journal , New York Times , Christian Science Monitor , CBS News , Dawn , The Nation (Pakistan) , Dawn , Pakistan Today

Ob290 – August 24 2012
♦ Reported killed Dara only: 4-6
In a second strike CIA drones hit another walled compound, killing at least four. A Bureau researcher, citing Pakistan intelligence and Taliban sources, said that ‘six militants’ were killed in this strike including local TTP commander Gil Aman.

The Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Ahmad Khan was giving apress conference as news of the strikes broke. ‘We regard these strikes as illegal and unproductive,’ he said, adding: ‘These attacks also violate our sovereignty, territorial integrity and are in contravention of international laws.’

Location: Dara, Shawal, North Waziristan
References: Dawn , Express Tribune , Xinhua , CNN , AFP , The News ,Associated Press , Xinhua , Reuters , Xinhua , The News Tribe, Associated Press, Reuters , PTI , KUNA , PakTribune , PTI , BBC , ANI , Xinhua , Radio Liberty ,The News , Al Jazeera , AFP , The Nation (Pakistan) , PTI , Voice Of America ,AAP , UK Press Association , Long War Journal , New York Times , SANA , The News , Christian Science Monitor , CBS News , The Nation (Pakistan)

Ob291 – August 24 2012
♦ Reported killed Dre Nishter only: 3-8
In the third coordinated strike at least three people were reported killed when drones targeted two vehicles in Dre Nisther. The drones reportedly fired five missiles at the vehicles in this strike.

Location: Dre Nisther, Shawal, North Waziristan
References: Dawn , Express Tribune , Xinhua , CNN , AFP , The News ,Associated Press , Xinhua , Reuters , Xinhua , The News Tribe, Associated Press, Reuters , PTI , KUNA , PakTribune , PTI , BBC , ANI , Xinhua , Radio Liberty ,The News , Al Jazeera , AFP , The Nation (Pakistan) , PTI , Voice Of America ,AAP , UK Press Association , Long War Journal , New York Times , Christian Science Monitor , CBS News , The Nation (Pakistan)

September 2012 

Ob292 – September 1 2012
♦ 4-6 reported killed
♦ 2-3 injured
After a week’s pause the CIA’s offensive in Waziristan continued. Attacks at 9am on a housing compound and a vehicle in Degan reportedly killed up to six people. The News noted :

Unconfirmed reports suggested that most of the militants slain in the attack were aligned with the group of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is head of the local Taliban in North Waziristan. There were also reports attributed to unnamed government officials that two out of the five men killed in the strike were foreigners. The remaining three were stated to be local militants.

Location: Degan, North Waziristan
References: AFP , Associated Press , Pakistan Today , CNN , Dawn , Voice of America , The News , The Nation , DPA , The News , Al Jazeera , Daily Mail

Ob293 – September 21 2012
♦ 3-4 killed
♦ 0-3 civilians reported killed
♦ 2-3 reported injured
CIA drones reportedly returned to the attack in North Waziristan. A car was destroyed near Datta Khel by two to three missiles and three or four alleged militants, possibly linked to Hafiz Gul Bahadur, were killed. The News reportedthat ‘Witnesses said that drones continued hovering over the area even after the strike that triggered fear among the residents.’ While security sources said militants were killed, local residents told Pakistan Observer the dead were ‘ordinary tribesmen’ and ‘nothing to do with the militancy’. A second vehicle was reportedly damaged in the strike as it passed the target car.

The attack came at a precipitous time in Pakistan. It was launched after a 20 day pause, possibly driven by global Islamic unrest over a blasphemous video produced in the United States. Up to 17 Pakistanis had died in protests against the film the previous day. AP noted : ‘The latest attack comes despite Pakistani demands to halt the missile strikes. It also comes at a time when Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar is visiting Washington to discuss a range of issues, including how to resolve differences over US drone attacks in Pakistan.’ The strike hit North Waziristan Agency as the Pakistani military and civilian politicians debated an assault on militant positions in the tribal agency.

Location: Mohammed Khel/ Datta Khel, North Waziristan
References: AFP , IANS , AGI , The News , Express Tribune , Deutsche Welle ,Radio Free Europe , Al Jazeera , PTI , The Express (UK) , CNN , Associated Press ,Daily Times , Press Association , Pakistan Observer , Dawn , Sana , Nation (Pakistan) , Associated Press , DPA , Express Tribune

Ob294 – September 24 2012
♦ 5-8 killed
♦ 2 injured
At least five people were killed in a 9pm strike on a house south of Mir Ali. A single CIA drone reportedly fired two missiles at a ‘mud compound ‘ said to be ‘known as a bastion of the Taliban and al Qaeda ‘. The strike was said to have killed Abu Kasha al Iraqi, ‘reported to be a liaison between al Qaeda and the Taliban’ and a second ‘al Qaeda operative’ named as Saleh Al-Turki. Dawn reported local sources as saying that both men were buried that night. Al Iraqi was first reported killed in October 2008 (B38 ). The others killed were said to be ‘foreigners’ . However the bodies ‘were burnt in the attack and were beyond recognition’. Local tribesmen said that four drones had been flying over the area since the afternoon.

A Pakistani security official told the New York Times al Turki was a field operative, saying: ‘He was not on the FBI’s bounty list, but was a mid-level AQ guy.’ Al Iraqi was said to be ‘long a target of Western counterterrorism agencies’. He had been living in Pakistan’s border regions for 15 years and had married a local tribal cleric’s daughter. US intelligence officials told the Long War Journal they were aware of the reports of the deaths but would not confirm if the two men had died in the strike. They would not confirm or deny if the two had been the target of the strike. But one did say al Iraqi ‘has been on our list for quite some time.’

Location: Khaider khel village, Mir Ali, North Waziristan
References: DPA , Associated Press , The News , Dawn , Xinhua , The News Tribe, AFP , KUNA , Dawn , PTI , Express Tribune , CNN , Dawn , Radio Free Europe , New York Times , Long War Journal

October 2012 

Ob295 – October 1 2012
♦ 2-4 reported killed
A 6am drone strike reportedly targeted a motorbike (or possibly car) near Mir Ali in North Waziristan, killing at least two alleged militants. A security official told AFP that ‘US drones fired four missiles on a militant vehicle, killing three rebels.’ AP cited officials as saying that ‘the men appeared to be foreigners, but that their identities are not known’. An Arab was killed, PakObserver suggested,adding that according to some accounts the attack ‘targeted a motorcycle with a couple of projectiles with one missile landing closed [sic] to the bike and the other hitting the directly the bike eliminating both the vehicle and the rider who was an Arab militant’. The News also cited locals people who reported that a motorbike carrying two men was struck as it drove through a dry stream bed.

The villagers said the bodies were disfigured and were beyond recognition. The identity of the slain men wasn’t known, but official sources said they were militants.

Locals had reported seeing several drones flying over the area prior to the attack. The previous US strike on September 24 which killed two named al Qaeda militants had also targeted the village.

Location: Khaider khel, Mir Ali, North Waziristan
References: AFP ,  PTI , Voice of America , Associated Press , Xinhua , Long War Journal , AAP , PakObserver , The News , Express Tribune , SANA

Ob296 – October 10 2012
♦ 5-6 reported killed
♦ 3 reported injured

A pre-dawn attack destroyed a house reportedly belonging to Maulvi Abdullah,described as a local cleric or tribesman, killing five or six alleged militants and injuring up to six more, according to reports. ’Several US drones flew into the area before dawn and fired four missiles on a compound, killing five militants,’ an unnamed security official told  AFP. A second official confirmed the casualties to the BBC. ‘The whole house has been damaged in an attack but two rooms of the house have completely collapsed. Six bodies has been recovered from debris,’ a local told the Times. ‘The death toll may increase as all injured are in a very critical condition,’ an official said. Militants had arrived at the compound the previous night, tribesmen told PTI; locals reported seeing five drones flying at low altitude prior to the attack. This was the first strike since amass rally led by Imran Khan attempted to march into Waziristan in protest at drone strikes on October 7. Although the march was blocked from entering Waziristan, it garnered significant media attention.

On October 15 a jihadi website announced the death of Moezeddine Garsallaoui, leader of militant group Jund al Khilafah, reporting that he had been killed in a ‘cowardly, treacherous raid’ in North Waziristan that may have been a drone strike, although few further details. Garsallaoui, who is variously reported as being Swiss or Belgian-Tunisian, was the second husband of Belgian-Moroccan Malika El Aroud, who was convicted of running terrorist websites in 2007. Jund al Khilafa claimed responsibility for the Toulouse shootings in March 2012 that killed a rabbi and three children.

Location: Hurmuz, Mir Ali, North Waziristan
References: Telegraph , PTI , BBC , AFP , Associated Press , Long War Journal ,The Times , Voice of Russia , Xinhua , Long War Journal , SITE intelligence ,Newsweek Pakistan

Ob297 – October 11 2012
♦ 16-26 reported killed
♦ 5-15 reported injured
♦ Possible civilian casualties 

In one of the deadliest CIA strikes of 2012, four missiles were reportedly fired at a madrassa belonging to Maulvi Shakirullah, killing up to 18 and wounding many more. Shakirullah is connected to the Haqqani network, Geo TV reported , while the dead included fighters for militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, Associated Press said . ‘US drones fired four missiles on a militant compound, and initial reports say 11 militants have died,’ local official Khushal Khan toldAFP , adding that several Afghans were among the dead. Khan’s deputy later raised the number of those killed to 18, with SANA noting that three other buildings were also damaged in the attack.  The News named five of the injured and two of those killed : ‘Some of the injured militants included Mehmood, Khitab, Hafiz Saadi, Khalil Khan, Siddique and Muhammad Irfan while two of the dead were identified as Muhammad Zahir and Younas. The injured were taken to the Civil Hospital in Thall tehsil in Hangu district.’

Eight of the wounded later died of their injuries, the News reported a couple of days after the strike, adding that 16 of the dead were buried in Bulandkhel, four in Miranshah and four elsewhere in the region. Abdullah Khurasani, Tehreek-i-Taliban spokesman, told the paper the strike killed ‘innocent seminary students’ and refuted reports that Maulvi Shakirullah and alleged bombmakerUmar Haqqani had died.

Most media reported the strike took place in Orakzai province, which would make this only the second drone strike recorded by the Bureau in the province, with the previous being a strike targeting Hakimullah Mehsud in April 2009 (Ob10). Dawn reported the building was exactly on the border with North Waziristan, while some local officials insisted it had taken place in North Waziristan itself. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry once again protested the strikeand that of October 10, with an official government note stating:

A protest has been lodged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the US Embassy Islamabad on drone strikes inside Pakistani territory on 10 and 11 October 2012. The Embassy was informed that drone strikes on Pakistani territory were a clear violation of International Law and Pakistan’s sovereignty. These attacks were unacceptable to Pakistan.

Location: Bulandkhel, Orakzai/North Waziristan
References: Xinhua , Geo TV , Associated Press , Dawn , News Track India , AFP ,CNN , AAP , BBC , AFP , Associated Press , SANA , Voice of America , The Nation , Express Tribune , Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs , The News , New York Times , News Pakistan , FARS , Dawn , The News , Express Tribune

Ob298 – October 24 2012
♦ 1-5 reported killed
♦ 1 civilian reported killed
♦ 6-8 reported injured

The wife of Reshmeen Khan, a retired school headmaster, was reportedly among up to five people killed in the village of Tappi, east of Miranshah. The woman and her six grandchildren were left critically burned when CIA drones were said to have destroyed a house and a vehicle in a mid-afternoon strike, according to most reports. However villagers claimed the drones targeted the woman and children as they walked from a field to the house. The injured children were later named by The News as ’18-year old Kaleemur Rahman son of Siddiqur Rahman; Shahidur Rahman, 12, son of Rasool Badshah, a student of 7th class; Zubair Khan, 11, son of Rafiqur Rahman, 6th class; Samad Rahman, 9, son of Siddiqur Rahman, 5th class; and two girls, a four-year oldAsma daughter of Rafiur Rahman and five-year old Saira daughter of Atiqur Rahman.’ One man killed in the attack was said to be a foreigner although his identity could not be confirmed. Military officers said  civilians as well as militants were in the house. However a security official said : ‘It was a militant compound used to store arms and ammunition.’ He added: ‘Three militants were killed. The casualties were not high because there [are] not many militants inside.’ While reports said six children were injured in the strike intelligence officials told Associated Press that two men were injured. Drones remained over the area after the attack, reportedly hampering rescue efforts. An anonymous foreign ministry official  condemned the strike. Local residents said three cows  or a buffalo and two goats also died. Apparently the livestock were to be sacrificed at the Muslim festival of Eid al Adha on October 26.

Location: Tappi village near Miranshah, North Waziristan
References: Express Tribune , News Tribe, The Nation (Pakistan) , The News ,Dawn , Frontier Post , AFP , Xinhua , CNN , Associated Press, The News , Radio Free Europe , AGI , PTI , AFP , Voice of America , Voice of Russia Radio , Gulf Times , CNN , The Nation (Pakistan) , The News , The News , SANA 

 

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