Drone attacks are legal, ethical and wise : US
Washington: The US has defended its drone strikes saying that the use of unmanned aircraft is “legal, ethical and wise” to prevent future terror attacks and save American lives.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) regularly conducts drone strikes against terrorists in countries like Yemen and Pakistan, where five suspected militants were killed and several others injured when a US drone targeted a compound in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region.
Carney said the Congress has authorised the use of all necessary military force in the fight against al-Qaeda.
Carney argued that someone who takes up arms against the United States is an enemy, and therefore could be targeted accordingly.
US drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere have been facing increasing scrutiny and questions from human rights groups.
“That’s I think established in a number of cases. So having said that, the issues here are important and the President recognises that. That’s why he has authorized various senior administration officials to discuss publicly these issues the way that they have, and why I believe that process will continue,” said the White House Press Secretary.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States on blasted the Obama administration for continued drone strikes in Fata, calling the violation a “red line” that should not be crossed.
At a meeting with the Christian Science Monitor staff, Sherry Rehman said that drones strikes were “a clear violation of our sovereignty and a violation of international law” that threatened stable relations between the two governments.
She rejected persistent media reports that Pakistan tacitly approved the strikes while denouncing them publicly as untrue.
“Let me assure you that since we have been in government, there has been no quiet complicity, no question of wink and nod,” she said.
Rehman argued that the drone strategy “creates more potential terrorists on the ground and militants on the ground instead of taking them out”.
“We need to drain the swamp, but instead it is radicalising people,” she said.
