WASHINGTON - Amid a growing debate over US policies for using drones, the Air Force has stopped sharing information on the number of drone strikes carried out by unmanned planes in Afghanistan, and even removed those statistics from prior reports on its website.
The Air Force’s Central Command said in a statement the data had been removed because it was ‘disproportionately focused’ on the use of weapons by the remotely piloted aircraft as it was published only when strikes were carried out - which happened during only three per cent of sorties. Most missions were for reconnaissance, it said.
The Air Force Times reports that the Air Force began publishing monthly data on airstrikes launched from remotely piloted aircraft in Afghanistan in October and made the statistics available in November, December and January.
The statistics report for February contained an ‘empty space’ where the data on drone strikes had previously been and reports from previous months had been scrubbed of drone strike data, according to the paper.
Pentagon spokesman commodore Bill Speaks told the Air Force Times the Defence Department was not involved in the policy change. Air Force’s Central Command did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the last decade of war, remotely piloted drone Predators and Reapers have become a critical weapon to gather intelligence and conduct airstrikes against terrorists or insurgents around the world. They have been used extensively on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and northern Africa.
The White House on Thursday said President Barack Obama does not have the authority to use a drone to kill a US citizen on American soil if the citizen is not engaged in combat.
Attorney General Eric Holder made the assertion in a letter to Republican Senator Rand Paul, who held up the nomination of John Brennan as CIA director amid claims that the administration could use drones to target Americans suspected of terrorism.
Paul’s filibuster challenging US drone policies was met with criticism from fellow Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who chided Paul and defended the administration’s drone policies on the Senate floor Thursday.
Their critiques of Paul’s actions were acidic at times. McCain read approvingly from a Wall Street Journal editorial titled ‘Rand Paul’s Drone Rant’. McCain said Paul’s reasoning did not match his ‘showmanship’.
AFP adds: The head of the Nato-led force in Afghanistan has vowed that the long-delayed transfer of detainees from US to Afghan control will not take place if they pose a threat to international troops.
The transfer of a final group of detainees at Bagram Jail has been a cause of friction between President Hamid Karzai and the coalition, and a handover ceremony was abruptly cancelled on Saturday.
“There’s probably a difference of opinion. We certainly don’t have anyone in the detention facility that we think doesn’t deserve to be there,” General Joseph Dunford, commander of NATO forces, said.
“If there’s a threat to the force, we will not conduct the transfer,” he said in a pool interview late Saturday. “If there are people that need to be detained, we will make sure they are detained.” Dunford’s stance is likely to anger Karzai, who on Saturday insisted that the controversial Bagram Jail, 50 kilometres north of Kabul, was put in Afghan control within days.
“President Karzai stressed that all efforts must be made to make sure the handover happens this week and that Afghanistan’s sovereignty comes into full exercise,” a statement from his office said.
Last September, the United States passed the Afghan authorities control of more than 3,000 detainees at Bagram.
But the Americans continued to guard 50 foreigners not covered by the agreement and hundreds of Afghans arrested since the transfer deal was signed in March 2012.
Kabul made control of the prison a condition for signing a long-term agreement and a possible legal immunity deal that would allow some US troops to remain in the country after foreign combat forces withdraw next year.
US officials suggest that some released detainees have returned to the battlefield, and there are fears that the government is freeing suspected militants to help kick-start peace talks with the Taliban.
Karzai said this week that after the transfer he would order the release of all innocent detainees, even though he expected to face criticism for his actions. Saturday’s ceremony was cancelled on the same day that a suicide bomber killed nine people in Kabul during a visit by new US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.