Reports detail CIA war crimes in Pakistan
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.”