]Pakistani man threatens to sue CIA over drone attacks

Pakistani man threatens to sue CIA if not compensated for relatives' deaths
By Karin Brulliard and Shaiq Hussain
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, November 29, 2010; 2:37 PM

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - A Pakistani man who said two of his relatives were killed in a U.S. drone strike said Monday that he planned to sue the CIA in Pakistani courts for "wrongful death" if he is not compensated within two weeks, a move that could renew debate over the legality of the covert program.

Kareem Khan, a journalist from the semi-autonomous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan, said he was seeking $500 million in damages from U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, CIA director Leon Panetta and the CIA station chief in this capital city. Khan said the strike killed his brother, his son and another man. He said that they were not connected to Taliban and al-Qaeda militants who are based in the region and are the targets of regular CIA drone strikes.

The U.S. carries out unmanned drone strikes in the tribal areas with the cooperation of the Pakistani government, but neither nation publicly acknowledges the clandestine program, and it is unlikely U.S. officials would cooperate with a court case. The attacks have increased sharply this year, and the vast majority have targeted militants in North Waziristan.

The drone strikes are highly controversial in Pakistan, where they are frequently blamed for civilian casualties and characterized as a violation of national sovereignty. But victims rarely come forward with their accounts or photographic evidence, and danger and government travel restrictions in the tribal belt make it all but impossible to investigate such claims independently.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112903499.html?hpid=topnews

illegal and declared a war crime.

They are blowing children to pieces. They are not 'being blamed' they ARE responsible for the deaths of so many beautiful, innocent people.

I remember reading an account of what it looks like after a drone attack on civilians by Robert Fisk, I believe. He saw such grief as relatives tried to find their loved ones so they could at least bury them. All that was left of the children were limbs and other body parts.

He tried to convey to the world how cruel and unnecessary they were. But we seem to live in a world where killing, murdering innocent people in foreign countries does not disturb people at all.

Having watched now the slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan for ten years, I find it mind-numbing to know that we live in such a cruel country. I used to think we were the good guys. And I do not know what to do about it. One thing I know, we cannot point fingers at the German people and wonder why they 'did nothing'.