Using drones: principles, tactics and results (amended title)

[S-2]

"Plus the author and group doing the polling are not fully id'd."

You reference a survey conducted by Ms. Farhat Taj of the Univ. of Oslo and a non-profit group called AIRRA (Mod's note their webpage is:http://www.airra.org/home/). Ms. Taj is an pashtun womens rights specialist and researcher from FATAville whose work is rapidly morphing into a crusade for the use of drones. I've had numerous e-mail conversations with her and she's done some interesting op-eds in the Pakistani dailies. Here are some of them to include the original survey-

Drone Attacks: A Survey-The NEWS March 5, 2009

Analysis: Drone Attacks-Challenging Some Fabrications NEWS Jan. 2, 2010

ANALYSIS: Drone attacks and US reputation-DAILY TIMES Feb. 6, 2010

Her cry was picked up by one op-ed columnist of whom I'm aware in Pakistan named Irfan Husain. His editorial is also worth the read-

Howling At The Moon-DAWN Irfan Husain Jan. 9, 2010

Ms. Taj contends that she's access to FATA IDPs inside camps in NWFP as well as other sources via phone. It makes for interesting reading. Still, I appreciate her perspectives and find that some of our leading voices in military academia to lack certain knowledge of target effect and populace reaction. In short, the area is highly isolated so claims of collateral damage and threats to Pakistani sovereignty strike me as fallacious and somewhat skewed.

Only the taliban know for certain who's been killed. Our intel have some idea. I doubt anybody else lacking special access has a clue.

Thanks.