Targeting `Al Qaeda'

THE ethnic Pashtun hamlet of Damadola Burkanday in the Bajaur Agency of Pakistan's Federally Administered Territories is inhabited by the Mamond tribe. Bajaur has a history of strong jehadi sentiments. U.S. aircraft (possibly Predator drones which carry four Hellfire AGM-114 missiles made by Boeing) flew in from Kunar Province and fired at least four missiles at homes in the hillside hamlet located 7 km inside Pakistan, at 3 a.m. on January 13, 2006. The U.S. "precision" onslaught killed 13-20 civilians, injured another five or six, destroyed the homes of Bacha (Badshah) Khan, Bakhtpoor Khan and Mohammad Sadiq (who survived the assault and is the younger brother of Bakhtpoor Khan), all jewellers with shops in the nearby town of Inayat Qala, and killed some two dozen cattle. Thirteen members of one family, that of Bakhtpoor Khan, a labourer, were killed. Bacha Khan, a flour mill worker whose home was destroyed, said: "We don't have anything to do with Al Qaeda and it was a cruel act of the Americans to attack my house without reason."

The known dead include four women, eight children and six men, all victims of another night-time "precision" air strike. The information is provided by independent journalists Behroz Khan (The News) and Anwarullah Khan (Dawn). A resident, Waheed Gul, said the three destroyed homes were owned by a jeweller, Abdul Ghafoor, whose nephew's children and female relatives were killed. Another survivor, Shah Zaman, a jeweller, lost two sons and a daughter in the attack. He escaped death by running towards a nearby mountain with his wife. Mohammad Noor lost two sons.

Characteristically, the U.S. corporate media led by Cable News Network (CNN) blathered on about this alleged Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-strike being aimed at Al Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, said to be an Id "dinner guest" in one of the destroyed homes. In typical fashion, no sources are named for such (dis)information. The dinner event seems to be a story made up after the deadly and opportunistic attack. Would Zawahiri really risk going to attend such a festivity in a region heavily patrolled by U.S. aerial craft? U.S. intelligence must think that both Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri have nothing better to do than "attend dinner parties". For days, no mention was made in the U.S. corporate press about innocent villagers being killed.

It continues to proclaim that three or four "top Al Qaeda leaders" were killed in the deadly attack. No evidence whatsoever is presented and vague references abound to "unnamed sources". The corporate press triumphantly proclaimed that nonetheless a major Al Qaeda figure in Pakistan, Abu Marwan al-Suri, wanted by the U.S., had been killed in the Damadola strike. Three months later, on April 20, 2006, the mainstream press reported that the same Abu Marwan al-Suri was killed (again) in the Bajaur region.

The Boston Globe

Such intended U.S. extrajudicial killings are strictly prohibited under international human rights law according to Amnesty International. Anyone accused of an offence, however serious, has the right to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty and to have their guilt or innocence established in a regular court of law in a fair trial. The media and political responses to this barbaric attack are analysed in Rev. William E. Albert's "Another Sign of America's Moral Decay. Remembering Damadola", Counterpunch (March 4/5, 2006).

(Source: Afghan Victim Memorial Project.)MARC W. HEROLD