US Preps a Retaliatory Hit on Pakistan

Drone strike indicates again that drones are back in action in Pakistan.

(AP) - A US drone fired two missiles at a house in Pakistan's northwest tribal region today, killing five suspected militants, according to intelligence officials. The Taliban identified one of them as Badar Mansoor, a prominent commander who has served as a key link to al-Qaeda. Mansoor led a group of more than 200 Pakistani Taliban fighters in the North Waziristan tribal area, the main sanctuary for militants in Pakistan, said a fellow insurgent. More»

Strikes occurring every 4 days under Obama: report

(NEWSER) - A few days back, President Obama said that US drone attacks in Pakistan had "not caused a huge number of civilian casualties." But a Bureau of Investigative Journalism report finds that somewhere between 282 and 535 civilians, including 60 children, have been "credibly reported" killed in the campaign. Secondary strikes target groups of rescuers shortly after attacks, while other drones have killed dozens at funerals. Obama has drastically escalated the drone program; some 260 strikes have occurred an average of once every four days under his administration. More»

Also defends drone use in Google+ chat

(NEWSER) - President Obama sat down for an extended "interview" in a Google+ Hangout yesterday, and at one point, things got a little personal, Politico reports. When a woman confronted him over H-1B visas for skilled immigrants, saying that her husband, a semiconductor engineer, couldn't find a job, Obama turned the focus to her husband. "What industry tells me is that they don't have enough highly skilled engineers," he said. "If your husband's in that field, we should get his resume, and I'll forward it to some of these companies." She replied, "I'll have to take you up on that." More»

Defense chief also calls for release of doctor who helped catch him

(NEWSER) - Defense chief Leon Panetta talks about the capture of Osama bin Laden with CBS' 60 Minutes in an interview airing tomorrow, and two main points are generating headlines:

• Pakistan knew? He suspects government authorities knew bin Laden was in Abbottabad, notes the Hill . "I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound," he said. Why? Start with those 18-foot walls. "It was the largest compound in the area. So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, ‘What the hell's going on there?’” In fact, the US didn't tip off Pakistan about the raid because it feared word would get out to bin Laden, he added.

Officials insist there was no moratorium

(NEWSER) - The US' drone war in Pakistan is back on. The US launched its first strike last night since a November attack that killed 28 Pakistani soldiers and ratcheted the already fraught tensions between the two nations to a new high. The attack hit a North Waziristan home just before midnight, killing at least four, the AP reports. "It was an unusually big bang," one local college student says. "In the morning, we saw a modest mud house had been destroyed." More»