A new report shows that US assassination drones in Pakistan have killed “scores of innocent civilians” instead of targeting terrorists. - On Tuesday, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) published a report entitled “Drones: Myths and Reality in Pakistan” that says the United States’ refuses to acknowledge that the CIA-led drone campaign “undermines efforts to assess the program’s legality.” The ICG called on Washington to “demonstrate respect for the international humanitarian law principles of humanity, distinction, proportionality and military necessity.” The report said the US must “establish clearer lines of authority and accountability, including greater congressional and judicial oversight.”

“The Obama administration should terminate any practice, such as the reported signature strikes, that does not comply with principles of international humanitarian and human rights law. It must also introduce transparency to the drone program, including its governing rules, how targets are selected and how civilian damage is weighed.”

Signature strikes target groups of men by using behavior patterns associated with terrorist activity rather than targeting terrorists with known identities. Pakistan’s tribal regions are often attacked by US assassination drones.

Pakistani voters decisively repudiated the country’s outgoing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led government, which for five years served as a pliant instrument of US imperialism, extending the AfPak War across northwestern Pakistan and imposing IMF austerity measures. - Official results of Saturday’s national and four provincial assembly elections are not expected for several more days. But unofficial partial returns indicate that the PPP’s traditional electoral rival, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) or PML (N), will obtain a strong plurality or possibly a majority of the seats in the National Assembly. The PML (N) also retained control over the government of the Punjab, home to 60 percent of Pakistan’s 180 million people.

Hussain Yasa: Pakistan: Elections with Fragmented mandate [Saturday 11 May 2013]

The government of Pakistan ordered the New York Times' bureau chief in Islamabad to leave the country on the eve of national elections, the newspaper said on Friday. - A two-sentence letter was delivered by police officers to the home of the bureau chief, Declan Walsh, at 12:30 a.m. local time on Thursday, it said. "It is informed that your visa is hereby canceled in view of your undesirable activities," the Times quoted the letter as saying. "You are therefore advised to leave the country within 72 hours." The newspaper protested the action and urged the government to reconsider, said Danielle Rhoades Ha, a company spokeswoman.

Blackwater mercenaries already busy little assassination bees: Anti-US Drone Candidate Imran Khan injured in Pakistan poll rally fall 07 May 2013 Leading Pakistani politician Imran Khan has been injured after falling off a lift that was taking him on stage for an election rally. Officials told the AFP news agency that the former cricketer suffered head injuries after the fall in Lahore. TV footage showed supporters carrying a bloodied and dazed Mr Khan away from the rally. Mr Khan has recently emerged as a serious contender in May's elections, with thousands attending his rallies. "He has received injuries to his head and he has been taken to hospital," Malik Ishtiaq, a local spokesman for Mr Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) told the AFP news agency. [Right, the hospital - where CIAciopaths will 'finish the job.']

PolicyMic: Pakistan Election 2013: Imran Khan Vows to Shoot Down US Drones If Elected

Even as Americans grieve over the Boston Marathon bombings, they should know that US assassination drone strikes worldwide kill many more people weekly and continue unpunished, an analyst says. - “While we mourn the horrific events in Boston, we must remember that our government perpetrates a Boston bombing weekly in Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan,” political commentator Sean McElwee says. He adds that although the White House administration alleges that it prefers trials for the rule of law, the true reason for its targeted killing program across the globe is that: it’s cleaner, simpler and less embarrassing to just off the suspected terrorists. The government uses mafia logic - why waste time and energy risking the rule of law when you can just swoop in and launch a smart bomb?

In particular, Mazzetti’s April 6 article, “A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood,” exposes the wanton and deliberate criminality with which the CIA launched its drone murder program in Pakistan in June 2004. Using a missile launched from a Predator drone, the CIA killed Pashtun tribal leader Nek Muhammad—who Pakistan wanted out of the way—and six other people as they were sitting down to dinner, including two children aged 16 and 10. Mazzetti reveals that the assassination of Muhammad was part of a quid pro quo: the CIA agreed to murder Muhammad in return for assurances from Pakistan’s authorities that the CIA would be free to use Pakistan’s airspace to carry out future assassinations. Meanwhile, the governments of both Pakistan and the US agreed to falsely claim that Pakistan had carried out the attack. The two children and the other men killed in the attack were labeled “militants.”

The humiliation of Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf deepened today when he was arrested by police and taken before a judge - a day after he fled from court in an apparent bid to avoid detention. Police arrested the former dictator overnight at his “farmhouse” on the outskirts of Islamabad and took him to the court of a judicial magistrate. He was later allowed to return to his residence which has been classified as a “sub-jail” and where he will be held under house arrest. In a comment posted on social media following his arrest, Mr Musharraf claimed the charges against him were politically motivated. "I will fight them in the trial court, where the truth will eventually prevail" he said. Television footage showed Mr Musharraf being led to the office of the judge, walking past lines of police and paramilitary soldiers. He was taken inside the building and then later taken back to his house in the Chak Shahzad neighbourhood in a convoy of vehicles.

The Nation: Musharraf’s fate (Op-Ed)
The Nation: Musharraf shifted to police headquarters
The Frontier Post: Nawaz says 'Musharraf committed great crimes'
The Frontier Post: Treason case: Musharraf submits plea to form full bench
The News: Pervez Musharraf arrested, granted 2-day transit remand
The News: Pervez Musharraf arrested, in government’s custody: Habib

The former military ruler of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, fled a courtroom in the capital on Thursday, making a dramatic escape after a judge revoked his bail over a case dating to his nine years in power. - Television footage showed Mr. Musharraf being jostled as his security detail pushed through the court precinct following the hearing, then quickly driving away in a convoy of SUVs as angry lawyers chased behind. The escape was the latest twist in Mr. Musharraf’s quixotic bid to return to Pakistani politics. It was the first time in Pakistan’s history that a former army chief faced potential imprisonment, which analysts said could open a new rift between the courts and the military. After fleeing Thursday, Mr. Musharraf drove to his luxury farmhouse on the outskirts of the capital, where he has been living since returning from exile last month, and which is protected by retired commandos and soldiers still in the armed forces. At the hearing, the court refused to extend Mr. Musharraf’s bail in relation to his controversial decision to sack and imprison the country’s top judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007.

CIA's drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens
of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or
were attending funerals (All Hail the Assassin in Chief!)

“Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror,” Obama told reporters in the White House briefing room. “What we don’t yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual.”

There is undoubtedly a political struggle within the US government and its intelligence apparatus over how to make use of the events in Boston to advance US security policies at home and militarist policies abroad. There was an immediate campaign to place the events within the narrative of the “war on terror,” which has been used to legitimize unending militarism abroad and the dismantling of democratic rights within the United States. Media coverage has sought to connect the events with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The aim is once again to utilize the tragic events to justify the massive buildup of the government’s military, security and intelligence apparatus. The immediate response to the attacks has been a security clampdown not only in Boston, but nationwide, to condition the public for another expansion of the militarization of American society.

Boston Globe: Image shows suspect carrying, perhaps dropping, black bag
Politico: Reports: Suspect identified in Boston Marathon bombing
PressTV: Obama lied about targets of drone strikes: report
Tony Cartalucci: Boston Highlights the Illusion of Terror & Security

Reader Comment (Russia Today): Boston blank: No suspects, no motives over deadly bombings - Like the FBI-CIA-NSA-TSA-DHS-Nazi Bastards-Pedophiles are going to find evidence against themselves...?

PressTV: ‘False-flag’ meme goes mainstream on Boston Marathon bombings - On September 11th, 2001, the US media began chanting “Bin Laden” in unison almost from the moment the attack was reported. The possibility that US government insiders had orchestrated the attack - in order to blame Muslims, launch wars on Muslim countries, and seize near-absolute power - was never mentioned. But after the Boston bombings of April 16th, 2013, even the corporate monopoly media could no longer ignore the possibility of a false-flag attack. Yahoo News asked “Who's behind the Boston Marathon bombings?” and offered 4 theories: (1) Islamic jihadists, (2) Right-wing militia types, (3) the government, and (4) a criminally-insane lone wolf. Numbers (1), (2), and (4), of course, are the usual suspects. But including (3) “the government” on the suspects list is unprecedented for a mainstream news story reporting on a domestic terror incident.

At least four people have been killed in an attack carried out by a US assassination drone in northwestern Pakistan, Press TV reports. - On Sunday, the US killer drone fired two missiles at a house in Datta Khel area located some 35 kilometers (22 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in the Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan. Officials say the house was completely destroyed in the attack. Pakistan’s tribal regions are attacked by US assassination drones almost regularly with Washington claiming that militants are the targets. However, casualty figures clearly indicate that civilians are the main victims. The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism said in a report released in February that the United States has carried out more than 360 assassination drone attacks in Pakistan since 2004, killing nearly 3,500 people.

Webster Tarpley/PressTV: US seeks to divide Pakistan through drones, Afghan war - Video

Jason Ditz: US Drone Strike Kills Five in North Waziristan (Pakistan) - Six drones were involved in the attack, according to locals, and they fired either two or three missiles in the attack, depending on the accounts. The missiles set the house on fire, and the bodies were burned beyond recognition within. It is the latest in a long line of US drone strikes against North Waziristan, and the latest in which the victims have been dubbed “suspected militants” without any apparent idea who any of them are.

CIA's drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens
of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or
were attending funerals (All Hail the Assassin in Chief!)

A media report reveals that the administration of President Barack Obama has fabricated lies and misled the American public about its ongoing controversial drone war.

Leaked intelligence files uncovered by McClatchy Newspapers showed that during 2006-2008 and 2010-2011, the CIA’s Predator and Reaper assassination drones targeted and killed senior leaders of al-Qaeda and allied groups, as well as hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghani, Pakistani and unidentified militants who posed no immediate threat to the US. The US newspaper noted that Washington secretly conducted drone strikes on suspected insurgents who were not listed on any US terrorist list, on alleged organizations that did not exist at the time of 9/11, and on unidentified individuals described as “other militants” and “foreign fighters”. The report also added that many civilians including women and children were also killed in the deadly strikes.

A report by the Washington-based New America Foundation said that there have been 350 US drone strikes since 2004, most of them during President Obama's terms in office. The foundation has put the death toll between 1,963 and 3,293, with 261 to 305 civilians killed. According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, between 2,627 and 3,457 people have been killed by US drones in Pakistan since 2004, including between 475 and nearly 900 civilians.

Daily Mail: Pentagon officials 'don't know MOST of the people who are killed in their drone strikes'

Ben Emmerson, UN special rapporteur, says they violate Pakistani sovereignty. - The US drone war in Pakistan is illegal because it violates Pakistani sovereignty, according to the head of a United Nations team investigating civilian casualties from drone strikes. Ben Emmerson, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, secretly visited Pakistan with a team of investigators and found that Pakistani authorities do not consent to drone strikes on their territory, contrary to claims made by US officials.

Alex Lantier: UN says US drone war in Pakistan violates international law

Amid US threats to impose sanctions on his country, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari joined Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a ceremony breaking ground on construction of the Pakistani portion of a planned Iran-Pakistan pipeline on Monday. With national elections due in May, Zardari and his ruling Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) will seek to gain electoral advantage by using the pipeline to posture as being independent from Washington. Iran sees the project as a way to counter the crippling economic sanctions the US has imposed on it, based on unsubstantiated allegations that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Pakistan faces a shortfall of 2 billion cubic of natural gas feet per day and a serious energy crisis, which has seen mass electricity riots in Lahore and other cities. Pakistan is in the dark for up to six hours a day—resulting in the loss of export revenue, the closure of tens of thousands of factories, and the loss of millions of jobs.

PressTV: Pakistan’s FM downplays US threats over gas project with Iran - Addressing a press conference on Thursday, the Pakistani minister expressed confidence that the United States would never impose sanctions on Pakistan because of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project. Khar pointed to the importance of Pakistan’s relations with Iran and added that the completion of the gas pipeline project would be a harbinger of good news for peace and cooperation. The remarks came after the US Department of State on March 11 threatened Pakistan with sanctions if Islamabad went through with its multi-billion-dollar project with Iran.

[Via: LandDestroyerReport] - Quetta, the capital of Pakistanfs southwest Baluchistan province, bordering both US-occupied Afghanistan as well as Iran, was the site of a grisly market bombing that has killed over 80 people. According to reports, the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the attack. Billed as a gSunni extremist group,h it instead fits the pattern of global terrorism sponsored by the US, Israel, and their Arab partners Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The terrorist Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group was in fact created, according to the BBC, to counter Iranfs Islamic Revolution in the 1980Œs, and is still active today. Considering the openly admitted US-Israeli-Saudi plot to use Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups across the Middle East to counter Iranfs influence, it begs the question whether these same interests are funding terrorism in Pakistan to not only counter Iranian-sympathetic Pakistani communities, but to undermine and destabilize Pakistan itself.

As the US military continues to court scrutiny regarding drone use, the Air Force has stopped sharing information on the number of drone strikes in Afghanistan. Going one step further, it has removed those statistics from prior reports on its website. - The Air Force's Central Command began keeping track of drone weapon releases in October 2012, according to the Air Force Times. The move was described at that time as a bid to “provide more detailed information on [drone] ops in Afghanistan,” said Central Command spokeswoman Capt. Kim Bender, the magazine reports. Statistics were recorded as part of the policy for November, December and January. But when February's numbers were published on March 7, there was only a blank space where the drone statistics were normally placed.

China took over management on Monday of Pakistan's Gwadar port, en route to key Hormuz Straits oil shipping lanes, in a move which has prompted nerves in India about its fellow Asian giant's growing strategic clout. - China financed more than 80 percent of the $248 million development cost of the port on the Arabian Sea, as part of a plan to open up an energy and trade corridor from the Gulf, across Pakistan to western China. When complete, the port could be used by the Chinese Navy, analysts say, and Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony told reporters on February 6 that Chinese control of the port was "a matter of concern." Indian policy-makers are wary of a string of strategically located ports being built by Chinese companies in its neighborhood, as India beefs up its military clout to compete. China has also funded ports in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, and Chittagong in Bangladesh, both India's neighbors.

Sampath Perera: Pakistan transfers strategic Gwadar port to China
The Nation/AWIP: Take note CIA: Gwadar Port control transferred to China!

US War Criminal Obama awarded the "Presidential Medal of Freedom" to Jewish War Criminal Peres last June. Now Obama will receive a medal of "presidential honor" on his upcoming visit to the Zionist entity. Peres received his medal for Cast Lead and Pillar of Cloud and Obama will receive his for helping Peres murder people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. - Very honorable indeed!

Barack Obama will become the first serving U.S. president to receive Israel's presidential medal, from his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres on a visit to the Jewish state next month, Peres's office said on Monday.

"President Obama has made a unique and meaningful contribution to strengthening the state of Israel and the security of its people," it said in a statement. "Barack Obama is a true friend of the state of Israel and has been since the beginning of his public life. As president of the United States he has stood beside Israel in times of crisis," it added. Israel's presidential medal of distinction is awarded to individuals or organizations who have contributed to "Israeli society" and "Israel's image" in the world. The White House has not announced specific dates for the Obama visit, his first to Zionist entity Occupying Palestine, as president. [Zionist] media reports and a Palestinian official have said that it will run from March 20-22 and take in talks with both [Zionist] and Palestinian leaders [stooges] in Jerusalem and Ramallah. The White House has kept expectations deliberately low, saying Obama has no plans to use the trip to push new proposals to break the more than two-year deadlock in [the so-called] peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his talks with Obama would focus on Iran's nuclear program [not on Israel's], the conflict in [war on] Syria and long-stalled "peace talks" with the Palestinians.

Facing growing pressure to lift the secrecy around targeted killings overseas, the Obama administration is considering shifting more of the CIA’s covert drone program to the Pentagon, which operates under legal guidelines that could allow more public disclosure in some cases. John Brennan, whom President Barack Obama has nominated to run the CIA, favors moving most drone killing operations to the military, current and former U.S. officials say. As White House counterterrorism adviser for the last four years, Brennan has overseen the steady increase in targeted killings of suspected militants and [CIA's] al-Qaida operatives.

The Bureau: Naming the Dead: Bureau announces new drones project
The Bureau: Obama terror drones: CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuers and funerals

More than 300 Hazaras including labors and students were killed in today’s terrorist attack, a witness from Quetta city of Pakistan said.

Kabul Press: Bloody attack on Hazaras in Quetta: at least 50 killed and more than 200 injured
The Frontier Post: Karzai condemn deadly bombing in Quetta city of Pakistan
The Nation: Hazaras hold off mass burial till military acts
Pakistan Daily Times: Shias refuse to bury dead; demand military takeover
Jason Ditz: At Least 84 Killed in Quetta Bombing Targeting Pakistan’s Shi’ites

The US-Saudi Global Terror Network. Baluchistan, Pakistan - long target of Western geopolitical interests, terror wave coincides with Gwadar Port handover to China. - Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's southwest Baluchistan province, bordering both US-occupied Afghanistan as well as Iran, was the site of a grisly market bombing that has killed over 80 people. According to reports, the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the attack. Billed as a "Sunni extremist group," it instead fits the pattern of global terrorism sponsored by the US, Israel, and their Arab partners Saudi Arabia and Qatar. ■ The terrorist Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group was in fact created, according to the BBC, to counter Iran's Islamic Revolution in the 1980's, and is still active today. Considering the openly admitted US-Israeli-Saudi plot to use Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups across the Middle East to counter Iran's influence, it begs the question whether these same interests are funding terrorism in Pakistan to not only counter Iranian-sympathetic Pakistani communities, but to undermine and destabilize Pakistan itself. ■ While the United States is close allies with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, it is well established that the chief financier of extremist militant groups for the past 3 decades, including Al Qaeda, are in fact Saudi Arabia and Qatar. While Qatari state-owned propaganda like Al Jazeera apply a veneer of progressive pro-democracy to its narratives, Qatar itself is involved in arming, funding, and even providing direct military support for sectarian extremists from northern Mali, to Libya, to Syria and beyond.

The Nation: Gwadar Port control goes to China today
The Nation/AWIP: Take note CIA: Gwadar Port control transferred to China!