From Just Security In these night raids, the forces involved are Afghan strike force units trained and equipped by the CIA, and often accompanied by CIA operatives or U.S. Special Forces. They operate outside normal U.S. and Afghan military command structures, and target suspected Taliban or Islamic State fighters mainly in rural areas where the...
Tag: civilian casualties
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Endless War Recipe: Shroud the Toll of CIA Drone Strikes
Former CIA analyst Paul Pillar explains the cost of the Trump administration’s decision to discontinue reporting on civilian casualties of CIA drone strikes. The cost is not only humanitarian, Pillar writes in LobeLog. A report dedicated to civilian casualties outside war zones can help, marginally, make the public more conscious of this dimension of the...
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How Many Civilians Die in CIA Drone Strikes? It Just Got Harder to Say
The reliable Katie Bo Williams reports from the bowels of the U.S. intelligence community (That’s “IC” to some; the “deep state” to others). In Defense One Williams has an update on U.S. drone wars. The Trump administration has breathed new life into the CIA’s covert drone program, which Obama sought to suffocate by shifting control...
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Bellingcat Aims to Document Yemen Airstrikes
To end secret wars, you have to start with ending secrecy. A shroud of official secrecy has long enabled the Saudi coalition’s criminal war in Yemen, which has killed thousands of civilians and deliberately starved millions. It has enabled the coalition to avoid compensating the U.S. government for $331 million in refueling costs. The gratis...