Hmm...Air Force erases drone strike data amid criticisms

[Wehrwolfen]

John Hudson @ Foreign Policy:


Quietly and without much notice, the Air Force has reversed its policy of publishing statistics on drone strikes in Afghanistan as the debate about drone warfare hits a fever pitch in Washington. In addition, it has erased previously published drone strike statistics from its website.

Since October, the Air Force had been providing monthly updates on drone strikes — or in its words “weapons releases from remotely piloted aircraft (RPA).” But today, Air Force Times reportersBrian Everstine and Aaron Mehta discovered something was amiss: The statistics published for February “contained empty space where the box of RPA statistics had previously been.” In other words: The drone strike data was gone. But that’s not all. The Air Force had also scrubbed drone strike data from earlier monthly reports. In the graphic below, we’ve provided a before and after of the Air Force reports:



[Excerpt]

Read more
Air Force erases drone strike data amid criticisms | FP Passport

 

[g5000]

I doubt the data has been "erased". It has been removed from a publicly available web site, which is different.

Perhaps the enemy was using the numbers as propaganda.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Aww - dat gonna take alla fun outta killin' terrorists...

Pakistan court directs government to shoot down US drones
May 9, 2013 – The Pakistani government has the right to shoot down US drones if Washington ignores warnings to halt the "illegal" aerial attacks, a Pakistani court ruled Thursday.

“The government of Pakistan and its security forces shall ensure that in future such drone strikes are not conducted and carried out within the sovereign territory of Pakistan,” said a two-judge panel led by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan. Khan said in the 22-page judgment that the drone attacks carried out against “a handful of alleged militants who are not engaged in combat with the US authorities or forces” breached international laws so those were “absolutely illegal and blatant violations” of national sovereignty.

The court also declared the drone strikes “a war crime” and directed the Pakistani government to request the United Nations form a tribunal to investigate and render a final verdict on whether the airstrikes constitute war crimes. The judgment decided a set of identical petitions challenging the drone campaign against Islamist militants entrenched in Pakistan’s tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The judges said the United States committed a “serial killing” of civilians in the North and South Waziristan tribal districts that began in 2008. They cited local administration as saying 1,449 civilians had been killed and 335 critically injured through the end of 2012. “The civilian casualties ... [are] an uncondonable crime on the part of US authorities, including the CIA, and it is held so,” said the judgment, which described US President Barack Obama, the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency as the “decision-making troika” behind the drone campaign.

Pakistan publicly condemns the drone campaign in its territory, describing it as illegal and counterproductive to the country’s own fight against militants. But many analysts and observers said they believe the strikes are carried out with Islamabad’s tacit approval. Last month, Pakistan’s former military strongman Pervez Musharraf told the US broadcaster CNN that his country secretly approved a few US drone strikes. No definitive death toll from the strikes is available, but hundreds of Islamist rebels as well as civilians have been reported killed since the first US drone strike in 2004.

Source

See also:

Iran says it has built new drone
May 9,`13 -- Iran's defense minister says Iran has built a new, radar-evading drone that can do surveillance and fire on enemy targets.

The semi-official Fars news agency on Thursday quoted Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as saying that the new aircraft - dubbed Epic, or Hemaseh in Farsi - can fly at high altitudes.

He did not elaborate on its capabilities.

In recent years, Iran has been pursuing a drone program alongside its military program, which has aimed to produce missiles, jet fighters, destroyers, light submarines and torpedoes.

Iran claims it has captured an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel CIA spy drone and at least three ScanEagle aircraft in recent months.

Source