A deadly own-goal

Of equal weight is question not only of legitimacy of US drone strikes, but rules of engagement surrounding them

Apologies for anything by sitting US presidents are exceedingly rare, and the body language of President Barack Obama as he apologised for the killing of two hostages in a drone strike spoke of his extreme discomfort at finding himself forced into such a position. An American national, Warren Weinstein, and Italian, Giovanni Lo Porto, had both been long held by al Qaeda and were both killed in a drone strike in January 2015. The Americans were unaware of the hostages’ presence in the building they hit, which as far as they were concerned held only al Qaeda operatives. In a further development, it is revealed by Foreign Policy magazine that the government of Pakistan was in touch at various points with the captors of Mr Weinstein and has “facilitated” the payment for him of a privately-raised ransom of $250,000 and transferred the money to the group holding him. There was an expectation that he would be released, but the kidnappers reneged on the deal and Mr Weinstein’s life ended as collateral damage.

A host of questions arise, not the least of these being that if the government was able to be involved in the payment of ransom for Mr Weinstein, then why was it not able to rescue him as presumably it had more than a vague inkling of where he was? Of equal weight is the question not only of the legitimacy or otherwise of American drone strikes in Pakistan, but the rules of engagement surrounding them. These were recently relaxed by President Obama, according to The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, the CIA operating in Pakistan is no longer required to demonstrate that its targets pose an imminent threat to the US or its interests. Had that exemption not been granted, the CIA would have been required to gather further intelligence before a strike was authorised. All this has only emerged into the public domain on the belated admission of an own-goal by an American drone. Sadly, the questions raised are never likely to have an answer.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th,  2015.

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