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February 16th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda A US drone fired missiles at a vehicle in Mir Ali tehsil area of North Waziristan, killing at least 10 people. This happens several hours after another drone strike which killed 7 people in the same region. Several more were also injured.
US drone attacks have killed more than 60 Pakistanis since January.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Navid Ahmad, a security analyst from Islamabad, to shed more light on the issue. What follows is the text of the interview:
Press TV: Since the beginning of 2012, over 60 Pakistanis have been killed in US drone attacks. Over 20 of them were killed just today. The figures are staggering as if the US is at war with Pakistan. How do you assess the US incessant drone war in Pakistan?
Ahmad: Well, definitely it is a war and Pakistan’s parliament, Pakistan’s public and Pakistani politicians do not carry any weight in the eyes of the American government which is of course an elected government. However, in the case of the fresh drone attacks, I would not forgive Pakistani government for being part of it.
For some time after the Salala attack on Pakistani military post, there was a lull in the strikes and for the reason that Pakistani military had very clear posture to shoot down or retaliate in case of any such aggression.
But then as time passed by, there were different kind of mediatory, some are based in Pakistan and some in the United States and things got sort of adjusted and Pakistani government agreed once again to soften its position.
And taking advantage of that, the Americans started doing it again. Pakistani prime minister said in an interview with an international news channel that it is not with his permission that it is carrying on but actually that is not the case. The permission was granted by Pervez Musharraf and there was a time when Pervez Musharraf and People’s Party government were overlapping. The assurances were formed during that time and they are still continuing.
The problem is not for the United States at the moment. The problem is for the Pakistani government which loses credibility by every single violation of its territorial integrity and it does not have any face to deal with the public anger which eventually is going to show up in elections and soon on the street. We are already seeing people protesting and Americans do not really care as to what Pakistani public thinks.
For the US president, the next elections are important and he has to show a strong US military and NATO against so-called militants who are not identified, who are not allowed to appear and defend themselves and they are killed without any due process.
Press TV: It is interesting that you say the stance of the Pakistani government has somewhat softened and we see today’s attacks as somewhat perhaps, as you indicated, with the consent of the Pakistani government.
Tell us what the consequences of that are going to be? We already see the demonstrations but more so if the upcoming elections prove Zardari not to be the leader of Pakistan, how is the US going to continue with this especially given the fact that the US president has come out and said it is not so secret of a campaign anymore, admitting to the use of the drones which he had in the past?
Ahmad: Mr. Barack Obama clearly says that the drone attacks are being carried out in Pakistan. So as you know, it is not a secret anymore. Officially Washington admits; Islamabad does admit as well. But the irony is there is no condemnation from the foreign ministry of Pakistan; there is no statement from the prime minister of Pakistan who is sitting with president of Iran and president of Afghanistan and it comes as a huge embarrassment for Pakistan when its neighboring countries including Afghanistan is discussing peace in the region.
And of course this is a tripartite meeting which involves other regional players like Iran and that really comes as a message for the regional players that without the US consent, nothing is going to go ahead. Pakistan cannot change its direction. It has to follow what it has been following during Musharraf regime and unfortunately, Pakistan is faced with a very corrupt extremely incompetent and totally irresponsible regime in Islamabad which does not really care.
For them, it is more important to fight the cases in the Supreme Court, against the Supreme Court and in the public arena and in the media instead of safeguarding whatever the national interest is. Pakistani troops have been killed and there were Pakistani troops who died in clashes with these militants in the same tribal areas. So on the one hand, these people are being dealt with the army, on the other hand, the same aggression of those people is being fueled by these drones which are basically being agreed upon by the political government which was initially agreed upon by Musharraf regime.
So this is going to put the entire political process in a strange situation. Drones, to correct some of the perceptions, are not going to make a bigger political issue across the country except for Punjab as well as northwestern frontier province which is now called PKP. This is how it really plays up. And since Asif Ali Zardari does not have to go to tribal areas to seek words, he does not care. If the same drones were unfortunately God forbid attacking people in Sindh, he must have been really worried.
MSK/JR
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