Winning the Hearts and Minds

But why do they hate us?

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- A U.S. drone mistakenly targeted a wedding convoy in Yemen's al-Baitha province after intelligence reports identified the vehicles as carrying al Qaeda militants, two Yemeni national security officials told CNN on Thursday.

The officials said that 14 people were killed and 22 others injured, nine in critical condition. The vehicles were traveling near the town of Radda when they were attacked.

"This was a tragic mistake and comes at a very critical time. None of the killed was a wanted suspect by the Yemeni government," said a top Yemeni national security official who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to talk to media.

U.S. officials declined to comment on the report.

The convoy consisted of 11 vehicles, and the officials said that four of the vehicles were targeted in the strikes. Two of the vehicles were completely damaged. Among the killed were two prominent tribal leaders within the province.

Residents in Radda were outraged about the attack and called on the Yemeni government to put an end of drone strikes in their region.

"More than 50 innocent civilians in our town have been killed by drones," said Abdullah al-Kabra, an eyewitness to the drone strike.

"All those who were killed were supportive of the governments anti-terror campaign. That will surely not be the case of their tribes and families if the government does not strongly intervene," he added.

Yemeni security experts have argued that drones have on numerous occasions have directly played into al Qaeda's favor, turning peaceful tribal communities into vengeful killers.

We just killed 14 innocent people attending a wedding. In your and my name.

Dirty Wars, Part 2

Listening to this interview with Scahill on Citizen Radio is a legitimately radicalizing experience, in the non-becoming-a-terrorist sense of the word. It's super long, but I can't recommend it enough.

Dirty Wars

The much anticipated book/movie combo from Jeremy Scahill is coming out, and his interview on up with Chris last night was really interesting.



In this video with the nation, he elaborates on some of the same themes:



Can't wait to see this movie in theaters, if anyone wants to have a train get together for it I'm down.

Out of Sight/Out of Mind

Check out this incredible graphic on US drone strikes over the past 10 years. Chilling and powerful.

Monsters

Fuck Lindsay Graham.

“We don't have any troops in that area,” he said. “So that's where Al-Qaeda and terrorists groups like the Akani Network and Al-Shabaab are residing, very remote regions. These drones can stay in the air for up to 24 hours and we can monitor people's movement on the grounds.”

He said the idea of judicial oversight of drone strikes and targets is “crazy to me.”

“I can't imagine in World War II for Roosevelt to have gone to a bunch of judges and said, 'I need your permission before we can attack the enemy,'” Graham said.

He said the drone program “has been very effective.”

“We've killed 4,700,” Graham said. “Sometimes you hit innocent people, and I hate that, but we're at war, and we've taken out some very senior members of Al-Qaeda.”

He spoke of Anwar Al-awlaki.

“He's a guy that was born in the United States, he radicalized Major Hasan, the guy at Fort Hood,” Graham said. “He helped plan the underwear bomber attack that failed. He's been actively involved in recruiting and prosecuting the war for Al-Qaeda He was found in Yemen and we blew him up with a drone. Good.

“I didn't want him to have a trial,” he continued. “We're not fighting a crime, we're fighting a war. I support the president's ability to make a determination as to who an enemy combatant is. It's never been done by judges before. I support the drone program.”

This would be less depressing if it was just Lindsay Graham, rather than most of congress, President Obama and most of the our political media that feels this way.

Our choices are war via massive land invasion or war via drone strike. Anyone who believes there is another choice is unserious.

Winning the Hearts and Minds

This is the problem with our ever expanding use of drones, in a nutshell: (via Glenn Greenwald)

SANA, Yemen — Late last August, a 40-year-old cleric named Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber stood up to deliver a speech denouncing Al Qaeda in a village mosque in far eastern Yemen.

It was a brave gesture by a father of seven who commanded great respect in the community, and it did not go unnoticed. Two days later, three members of Al Qaeda came to the mosque in the tiny village of Khashamir after 9 p.m., saying they merely wanted to talk. Mr. Jaber agreed to meet them, bringing his cousin Waleed Abdullah, a police officer, for protection.

As the five men stood arguing by a cluster of palm trees, a volley of remotely operated American missiles shot down from the night sky and incinerated them all, along with a camel that was tied up nearby.

The killing of Mr. Jaber, just the kind of leader most crucial to American efforts to eradicate Al Qaeda, was a reminder of the inherent hazards of the quasi-secret campaign of targeted killings that the United States is waging against suspected militants not just in Yemen but also in Pakistan and Somalia. Individual strikes by the Predator and Reaper drones are almost never discussed publicly by Obama administration officials. But the clandestine war will receive a rare moment of public scrutiny on Thursday, when its chief architect, John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism adviser, faces a Senate confirmation hearing as President Obama’s nominee for C.I.A. director.

While I appreciate people who tell me this is a way to avoid full scale invasions like Iraq, if our only choices are drone war and land war, we've basically already lost.