Pakistan Says No More Drones

Reuters
Eric Randall 1,653 Views Jan 20, 2012

An anonymous official in Pakistan said the country may allow U.S. military trainers back into the country this spring, but won't ever allow drones to operate there again, reports Fox News"They will never be allowed back, at Shamsi or anywhere else," the official tells Fox.

The U.S. took a hiatus in its secret targeting of militants with unmanned drones after a NATO aerial attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November and relations between the two countries took a turn. Who knows how Pakistan's demand that the drones never return will be received by the U.S., especially after reports that the hiatus was actually broken last week (something the Fox News report weirdly doesn't mention.) As Wired's Spencer Ackerman wrote at the time, "that suggests little will actually stop the drone war." Also, as Jeffrey Goldberg and Marc Ambinder's recent cover story  in The Atlantic made clear, Pakistan's military needs access to our trainers and weapons. So, it seems unlikely this would really end the drone war. 

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