Drone scrutiny ratchets up

[Taco John]

Late last August, a 40-year-old cleric named Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber stood up to deliver a speech denouncing Al Qaeda in a village mosque in far eastern Yemen.

It was a brave gesture by a father of seven who commanded great respect in the community, and it did not go unnoticed. Two days later, three members of Al Qaeda came to the mosque in the tiny village of Khashamir after 9 p.m., saying they merely wanted to talk. Mr. Jaber agreed to meet them, bringing his cousin Waleed Abdullah, a police officer, for protection.

As the five men stood arguing by a cluster of palm trees, a volley of remotely operated American missiles shot down from the night sky and incinerated them all, along with a camel that was tied up nearby.

The killing of Mr. Jaber, just the kind of leader most crucial to American efforts to eradicate Al Qaeda, was a reminder of the inherent hazards of the quasi-secret campaign of targeted killings that the United States is waging against suspected militants not just in Yemen but also in Pakistan and Somalia. Individual strikes by the Predator and Reaper drones are almost never discussed publicly by Obama administration officials. But the clandestine war will receive a rare moment of public scrutiny on Thursday, when its chief architect, John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism adviser, faces a Senate confirmation hearing as President Obama’s nominee for C.I.A. director.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/wo...ards.html?_r=0

[Taco John]

I'd love to know the story of Mr. Jaber's last 15 years. Would be interesting to know more about him, and how he got to the place where he was brave enough to stand his ground and meet with the bad guys. Might even make a stirring movie.

[mikey23545]

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Taco John

incinerated them all, along with a camel that was tied up nearby.

I am not a fan of indiscriminate drone usage by any means... BUT this story would require a hell of a lot of validation before I'll show any outrage.

#1 Is this completely true about Jabar or did we have solid convincing intel to the contrary?
#2 How do we know that this was even a drone attack?

The problem is that even if we NEVER used drones outside of active war zones, we would still be blamed as if we did. When people hate you they will convince themselves of any and all sorts of evil acts to justify their hatred.

I would use the example of Chiefs fans being convinced the Broncos have a culture of cheating (cooking spray, salary cap, etc) except that is completely true.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

I am not a fan of indiscriminate drone usage by any means... BUT this story would require a hell of a lot of validation before I'll show any outrage.

My point of view is that I typically require a hell of a lot of validation in order to green light killing with remote-controlled robots, rather than needing validation not to.

[Taco John]

^

[BucEyedPea]

Problem with these things, is they're supposed to be more accurate but they're not.

[Dayze]

I hope they're not running MS Vista

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by Taco John

It was a brave gesture by a father of seven who commanded great respect in the community, and it did not go unnoticed. Two days later, three members of Al Qaeda came to the mosque in the tiny village of Khashamir after 9 p.m., saying they merely wanted to talk. Mr. Jaber agreed to meet them, bringing his cousin Waleed Abdullah, a police officer, for protection.

As the five men stood arguing by a cluster of palm trees, a volley of remotely operated American missiles shot down from the night sky and incinerated them all, along with a camel that was tied up nearby.

With three members of AQ coming "to talk," Mr. Jaber probably wasn't going to be around much longer.

And PETA is going to be really pissed about that camel.