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Collateral damage from drones strikes has lessened: US Senator Feinstein
Senator says despite frictions, they want to see relations with Pakistan to improve. Haqqani Network be declared FTO.
Dianne Feinstein, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
WASHINGTON: Senate Committee on Intelligence chairperson Senator Dianne Feinstein says that that collateral damage has been greatly reduced in the drone strikes.
In a speech at an event organised by the World Affairs Council at the National Press Club, Senator Feinstein said that the committee’s staff has made 28 visits to various centres as part of their oversight of the drone program, and that the collateral damage from targeted strikes was far less than what was reported in the press.
On Pakistan, Senator Feinstein said that the Abbotabad raid had created friction between the US and Pakistan. She added that it was hard for many of the committee members to believe that Osama Bin Laden had lived in the compound for over five years in a town that had a military community and yet no one knew.
Improved Pak-US relations still desired
In response to a question, Senator Feinstein said that she would like to see improved relations between US and Pakistan, and there was a need to improve the levels of trust between the two countries.
Senator Feinstein added that there was a real need for Pakistan to step up and take action on the rocket attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
Haqqani networks
The Senator said that she is not sure why the State Department has not yet designated the Haqqani Network as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in reference to the bill Feinstein had introduced in the Senate earlier this month, calling on the Secretary of State to designate the Haqqani Network as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.
Senator Feinstein said that the committee would soon release their report on the interrogation and detention of high value detainees, their treatment and custody.
Correction: Senator Feinstein did not mention time period for collateral damage from drone strikes. The error is regretted.
Reader Comments (12)
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Still its illegal and against international law. I wonder how can they sleep in peace and smile in press conferences when hundreds of innocents have been killed by drones.
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Shame on ET for publishing this smiling picture of killers
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Oh ok, what about the 10 people that were killed a few hours back??
Are those included in the so called ‘co-lateral damage’?
If Zardari/Sharif/Altaf/Chudary Shujat/Asfandyar Wali had any dignity they would ask this question to U.S.!!
WAKE UP PAKISTAN!!
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The significant collateral damage from the drone attacks has been to the Pakistan’s Establishment. With each additional drone strike, the Establishment is getting exposed more and more for its duplicity and complicity in sheltering and supporting the terror groups, if not for its inefficiency and incompetency that has allowed these terror groups to flourish in Pakistan.
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Just a hollow statement without any statistics nor complete names of those killed.
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@Raj – USA:
Right on target sir. As the establishment keeps getting exposed since the discovery and killing of OBL, their touts are out against all secular and democratic forces making them responsible for all what is wrong with Pakistan. There has not been a single terrorist that our generals/judges and their rightwing supporters did not like. If we are not going to eliminate the safe havens America would have an easy hunting ground.
Cheers,
Mirza
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@USA means Devil:
Shame on ET for many things. Sometimes it feels like an Indian newspaper.
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@Raj – USA:
Raj-Indian macaca ; you guys hang around Pakistani forums like a communicable disease.
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The artillery from Pakistan has proven to be very effective and with no collateral damage unlike drones. They will continue until and unless the US and Kabul effectively control Afghanistan, something they have failed to do. The Senator needs to know the facts.
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it means everyone killed in drone strikes will be portryed as a millitant by US and pakistani media which is run by CIA.Recommend
@Mirza:
Thank you for your nice comments. Appreciate it.
No other country has a better chance to become best friend of Afghanistan than Pakistan. Not India, not USA, or even Iran and China. But wrong priorities and strange strategies are costing Pakistan a golden opportunity and turning it into a disaster for both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Why Pakistan is not realizing this, is beyond explanation.
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“Take care of your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves.”
Or, “take care of the country and your reelection will take care of itself.”
The wisdom of this was missed by the President’s handlers who also misjudged the savvy of the independent voters. Why else would they have bombarded them with dumbed down TV ads?
Somebody should have told them that these folks are sitting on the fence for a reason, and it is not a lack of foresight.
Indeed, it takes more foresight to figure out things yourself than to merely follow one herd or the other. And deciding the things you care about does take time.
Yet, independent voters also need help. Though they do not blame the President for all of the country’s problems, or expect him to solve them overnight, they do expect him to stay on the task day by day.
Yes, honest effort is what they want, but they are not seeing it lately. Perhaps this is because the President’s handlers are too worried about losing their jobs to let him do his. But he is the President and he should get them all out of his way to focus on running our country.
Besides, keeping his nose on the grindstone might be the best way to convince the independents that he should get more time to finish out the job.
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