News of the Day for Sunday, April 7, 2013

Bomb attack on a convoy in southern Afghanistan kills 3 U.S. service members, a U.S. diplomat, and a civilian DoD employee. There are conflicting reports on the nationality of the civilian. This most recent report says he was an Afghan physician. However, most reports refer to 6 Americans killed. The group was on its way to donate books to a school. A convoy carrying the governor of Zabul province to the same event was nearby. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement saying "“She tragically gave her young life working to give young Afghans the opportunity to have a better future. We also honor the U.S. troops and Department of Defense civilian who lost their lives, and the Afghan civilians who were killed today as they worked to improve the nation they love.” This suggest there were additional Afghan casualties, which this report appears to affirm, without giving any number. It also says four state department staffers were injured, one critically. The Telegraph identifies the deceased U.S. diplomat as Anne Smedinghoff, age 25, of Illinois, who served as John Kerry's "control officer" when he visited Afghanistan two weeks ago.

In a separate incident, an American civilian "advisor" is killed fighting in fighting in Kunar province. (I put the word "advisor" in quotation marks because in Iraq, this meant a mercenary. But we have heard much less about the U.S. privatizing military functions in Afghanistan. It is not clear what role this person was playing. -- C)

An Afghan policeman is killed and 3 civilians injured by a bomb attached to a donkey  in Lagham province.

Mirza Ali, Council Chief for eastern Paktia province, is assassinated.

Department of "Well duhhh": Pakistan approved U.S. drone strikes in secret deal struck in 2004, according to a report in the New York Times. (I've linked to Khaama press.) According to the report, the Pakistani intelligence service first agreed to the deal in order to achieve the targeted killing of Taliban leader Nek Muhammad. 

Under the agreement, ISI and CIA agreed that US would never acknowledge the missile strikes under the “covert action authority” and that Pakistan would either take credit for the individual killings or remain silent. This comes as Pakistani officials have long been criticized US for violating its sovereignty through drone strikes however New York Times stated that it was Muhammad’s rise to power that forced them to reconsider their line of thought and eventually allow Predator drones. The covert drone war begun under the Bush administration and was further expanded during president Barack Obama’s leadership under the ISI-CIA “back-room bargain”. CIA changed its focus from capturing terrorists to killing under the deal which helped transform an agency that began as a cold war espionage service into a paramilitary organization, The New York Times added in its report.

I will just add that it has been obvious all along to everyone with one brain cell to rub against another that the ISI knew about, authorized and supported the U.S. drone campaign, and pretended to be outraged for the sake of public opinion. What ought to be most disturbing to Americans, however, is that the U.S. has entered into a secret war with essentially no congressional approval or oversight, or public debate. Few people seem to care. -- C Here is the NYT report.