Drone Casualties Less Than Believed?

An interesting report by the Associated Press claiming that the number of civilians killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan is much lower than claimed by Pakistani opponents of the campaign, as well as other media reporting, a subject I've discussed previously.
Although the AP's methodology is still somewhat inexact, they come up with the same figure for total casualties as reported by Pakistani intelligence.  Yet the AP reporters find that, excluding one attack that allegedly killed 38 civilians on March 17, 2011, Pakistani villagers interviewed say 90 percent of the victims of all other people killed were militants.  Conversely, the London-based "Bureau of Investigative Journalism" has claimed the percentage of militants killed is roughly 70 to 80 percent. 

What Did Pakistan Know About Bin Laden?

Fresh on the heels of former ISI chief Ziauddin Butt's charge that former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf knew Osama bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad, David Ignatius reports that the architect who worked on the Abbottabad compound was regularly employed by the ISI.  Ignatius goes on to propose an interesting set of questions regarding how bin Laden came to be living in Abbottabad in a large house one mile from Pakistan's premier military academy, to be investigated by a special civilian commission in Pakistan.

Separately, Jeffrey Goldberg comments in the Atlantic as to why the Pakistani military's commission examining this exact question has yet to determine an answer, suggesting the commission has devoted more time investigating Pakistanis accused of helping U.S. intelligence prepare for the SEALs' raid than finding out who was hiding bin Laden.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan (January 2012 edition)

An interesting report from Reuters claiming how a network of Pakistani "spotters" are assisting in U.S. drone strikes in Waziristan.  Two major caveats to this story:

1. First, the headline is misleading, as stating "How Pakistan Helps the U.S. Drone Campaign" implies this cooperation is officially sanctioned by the ISI or other senior elements of the Pakistani army.  Although the story alludes to Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officers meeting to determine whom to target, this does not imply similar Pakistani control over the spotters who locate these targets.  In other words, it is entirely possible that these may be operatives recruited by our intelligence agencies for observation/targeting purposes wholly outside the Pakistani military's chain of command, as was the case with the local agents who assisted in intelligence collection leading up to SEAL Team Six's Abbottabad raid (and whom were subsequently arrested by the ISI).  They could be officially sanctioned, but I don't think the case made by the reporter's sole Pakistani source support the certainty of the headline.
2. Second, in the bottom half of the story, the reporter notes: "It was impossible to verify the [Pakistani] source's claims and American experts, who decline to discuss the drone program, say the Pakistanis' cooperation has been less helpful in the past."  In other words, the entire report should be taken with a grain of salt.

Yet even if the reporting here may be dubious, clearly our targeting efforts are reliant on some indigenous support, as it is highly improbable to think that U.S. personnel could travel in Pakistan's tribal areas with the freedom of movement necessary to execute this campaign.

In the meantime, last Thursday it was announced that Aslam Awan, a "senior operations organizer" for al-Qa'ida was killed in a drone strike on January 10.  This was a separate operation from the January 12 strike that was intially alleged to have killed Hakimullah Mehsud, a claim that Pakistani officials have stepped away from since the early reports.

My apologies if my lag in posting created any confusion on this point.