Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Rain Delays US Drone Delivery

After a little-noticed, weeks long disruption caused by the monsoons that devastated Pakistan, the CIA in recent days has picked up the pace of its missile strikes against Islamic militants with back-to-back attacks against terror targets that have killed at least 11 people in the country’s northwest region.

The sharp drop off in the CIA pilot-less drone attacks this month was never publicly confirmed by U.S officials mainly because the program — considered by Obama administration officials as their most effective counter-terrorism weapon — remains officially classified.

But the ferocity of the monsoons that hit Pakistan in late July at first made it all but impossible to keep the drones in the air, a U.S. official confirmed to NBC. “You can’t fly in a monsoon,” said the official. For a 20 day period, between July 25 and Aug. 13, the CIA failed to launch any missile strikes at all, the longest such period this year, according to an analysis by the Long War Journal, a publication that closely tracks the drone campaign. Before the hiatus, the CIA had mounted 49 attacks in 2010, amounting to an average of about two a week.

But in recent days, the CIA has stepped up the momentum of the drone campaign to its pre-flood intensity.

“The United States is focused both on humanitarian relief and on counter terrorism. Those aren’t competing priorities,” said the official. “When nothing was flying in Pakistan, nothing flew. But that rather brief period is past, and during that time, the terrorists weren’t doing much on the ground. They weren’t out and about. The key is that our aggressive counter terrorism operations continue.”

The story involving America's leading-edge drone delivery technology was found here.

P.S. Americans, pray for mercy. Justice won't be kept away forever.

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