Ex-CIA Official Says Drone Attacks Create Terrorists and Safe Havens

The ex-CIA man has stature in his work. He “headed the CIA’s counter-terrorism center from 2004 to 2006 and was previously a CIA station chief in Pakistan.”

He (Robert Grenier) said “We have gone a long way down the road of creating a situation where we are creating more enemies than we are removing from the battlefield. We are already there with regards to Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

The article states “recent media revelations about Obama’s programme have revealed a more widespread use of the strike capability, including the categorising of all military-age males in a strike zone of a target as militants.” This, which was news to me, is beyond unacceptable.

Grenier explained: “That brings you to a place where young men, who are typically armed, are in the same area and may hold these militants in a certain form of high regard. If you strike them indiscriminately you are running the risk of creating a terrific amount of popular anger. They have tribes and clans and large families. Now all of a sudden you have a big problem … I am very concerned about the creation of a larger terrorist safe haven in Yemen.”

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9:29 am on June 8, 2012