U.S.: Drones Can Hit Al Qaeda Without Pakistani Help

Eli Lake writes at The Washington Times:

U.S. military forces will still be able to target al Qaeda terrorists in mountainous Southwest Asia with remotely piloted drones based in Afghanistan should Pakistan’s government deny the use of its territory to launch attacks.

Col. Dean Bushey, deputy director of the Army’s Joint Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence, told an international-relations conference Wednesday that U.S. Reaper and Predator aircraft could still reach the “mountainous regions” of Pakistan without being based in that country.

“Our assets from Afghanistan have a long enough flight time to do it,” he told the conference, sponsored by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

In a subsequent interview with The Washington Times, he elaborated that “mountainous regions” referred to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, effectively a no man’s land and the place terrorism scholars think Osama bin Laden is likeliest to be.

Pakistan’s leadership last week demanded that the CIA provide more information on covert operations in their country and demanded that all military contractors leave, according to Pakistani and U.S. news reports.

The drone strikes have been controversial in Pakistan because some raids have inadvertently killed civilians. Al Qaeda, other terrorist groups and their political allies have used the casualties to put pressure on the Pakistani government to halt the attacks.

“We would like to put an end to drone missions in Pakistan in general,” a Pakistani military official told The Times. “If there is a compelling reason for a drone strike, Pakistan should be asked to do it themselves. We have the same enemy we are fighting.”

A senior U.S. official said in response Wednesday that “despite Pakistani rhetoric to the contrary, there are no significant changes to how either side does business.”

American officials said Pakistan’s leadership has not denied the U.S. the right to use the country’s airspace, though if airspace is denied, Col. Bushey said, the U.S. has other means of surveillance.

“If we were politically unable to fly over their airspace, then we would have to come up with other means of surveillance. Obviously, aircraft is not the only means of surveillance,” he said at the conference.

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