25 January 2009

TIMELINE / WAR ON PAKISTANIS / OBAMA IS *NOT* A PEACEMAKER Obama wants air strikes into Fata to continue {1/25/09 4:38am pst} [news story]

Article: "Obama wants air strikes into Fata to continue: NYT"
Source: Dawn.net
Excerpt(s): WASHINGTON: Hours after US missiles killed 20 people in Fata, President Barack Obama convened a meeting of his top national security advisers and endorsed the decision to continue drone strikes into Pakistan. The US media, quoting unidentified official sources, reported that the first meeting of Mr Obama’s National Security Council focused on Pakistan and Afghanistan. The New York Times reported on Saturday that the decision to attack alleged terrorist targets in Fata on Friday 'dispelled for the moment any notion that Mr Obama would rein in the Predator attacks.' The Washington Post noted that the strikes 'offered the first tangible sign of President Obama's commitment to sustained military pressure on the terrorist groups' in Fata. At his daily White House briefing, press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to answer questions about the strikes, saying, 'I'm not going to get into these matters.' Remotely piloted Predator drones operated by the Central Intelligence Agency have carried out 28 missile attacks in Fata since last summer, killing at least 132 people. The NYT, quoting Pakistani officials, reported that as many as 100 of them were civilians.
Link to Full Story: http://www.dawn.net/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/news/world/obama+wants+air+strikes+into+fata+to+continue-rs
Picture from , originally captioned: US President Barack Obama is introduced to speak by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department in Washington. -Reuters

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