Monday, August 5, 2013

John Kerry: "The Drone War is Ending"; Rest of U.S. Government: "Um . . . No, It Isn't, Actually"

Last Thursday Secretary of State John Kerry declared in an interview on Pakistani TV that the Drone War "will end as we have eliminated most of the threat." He added "The President has a very real timeline and we hope it's going to be very, very soon."

Of course, that same day at least three suspected al-Qa'ida militants were killed in east Yemen in a drone strike, the third such strike in Yemen in the past week. On Saturday at least four AQAP members were killed in a drone strike in Abyan province, and on Tuesday three more were killed.

Maybe Secretary Kerry was narrowly referring to Pakistan, right? Well, on Wednesday Reuters reported that a drone strike there had killed three al-Qa'ida operatives who ran a training camp in Afghanistan, and the day earlier another drone strike had killed six militants in North Waziristan.

Consequently, just hours after Secretary Kerry's interview, the State Department issued a statement directly contradicting him, saying there was no definite timetable to end the targeted killing program in Pakistan, and that "In no way would we ever deprive ourselves of a tool to fight a threat if it arises."

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