BBC: 'Zawahiri' strike sparks protest

[Eugene]

Last Updated: Saturday, 14 January 2006, 16:50 GMT

'Zawahiri' strike sparks protest

A missile strike apparently targeting al-Qaeda's deputy leader in a village in Pakistan has prompted
Islamabad to protest to its American allies.

Ayman al-Zawahiri was not in the village on the border with Afghanistan, Pakistan officials said.
But the attack left at least 18 local people dead.

The US military has denied knowledge of the attack, which US media reported had been carried out
by the CIA.

But Islamabad condemned the strike and called the US ambassador to complain.

Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told a news conference the Pakistani government
wanted "to assure the people we will not allow such incidents to reoccur".

<snip>

Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4613108.stm

[acmavm]

1. Big deal, think the American military or the bush** admin care how many

innocent civilians we kill and maim in a horrible, fiery (is that right?) death? They're not white republicans.

[oasis]

2. "The U.S. military denied knowledge of the attack". It would be nice

to know when the CIA is rocketing your enemy so you don't have any Navy Seal commandos in the area. :dunce:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Their relatives will be joining the neocon movement any day

now... chanting pro-American slogans and thinking of ways to help support American interests abroad.

[gratuitous]

4. I read elsewhere

The strike was ordered "based on bad intelligence." I wonder how many folks in favor of warrantless wiretapping and snooping have considered what the possible range of consequences is that could be based on "bad intelligence." You know, a tapped conversation is misheard or misinterpreted, and though I don't think the military or the CIA would call in an air strike on an American neighborhood, there's still a lot of firepower that can be brought to bear on a home or a neighborhood where suspected terrorists are supposedly plotting to dismantle the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches or some other such nonsense.

A mistake made by someone with fighter jets is a lot worse than a mistake made by paper pushers.

[saltpoint]

5. I imagine Musharaff (sp?) is none too thrilled with this either.

When you become an ally of the Bush administration, you tend to encounter increased obstacles. It's stressful. Just ask Tony Blair.

The United States ought to have issued a massive apology by now to those men, women, and children in that village that they bombed to smithereens to advance their goddamend "war on terrorism."

Bulletin to world leaders: if you PICK the Bush Administration, you GET the Bush Administration. And good luck to ya.