Mohammed Farah Wins Muslim Gold For Team GB - Passion Islam

16 I WORLD NEWS Passion Islam I August 2012
CNN runs bogus data on US
drone attacks’ casualties: Analysis
necessarily limited just to these.
Uncertain reports sometimes refer
to those killed as ‘people’ or ‘local
tribesmen’ killed.
The US has so far been able
to name just 13 individuals of the
remaining alleged militants killed
thus rendering Bergen’s claim of
zero reported civilian casualties this
year as “factually inaccurate”.
Speaking with such certainty is
also illogical. The Bureau’s own data
shows that the identities of merely
around 500 of the at least 2,500
people killed by the CIA in Pakistan
since 2004 are known, whilst most
of the others have been reported
The false statistics of US media
reports on civilian drone deaths,
including those of CNN, have misled
Americans about such deaths caused
by Washington’s use of drones, study
reveals.
The revelation comes as many
US journalists have started to
reassess how they report on deaths
in drone strikes after the New York
Times recently disclosed that the
CIA considers all military-aged males
in Pakistan’s Waziristan to be ‘fair
game’ in its drone attacks.
CNN’s national security analyst
Peter Bergen’s views were therefore
the subject of strong criticism when
he produced a graph claiming that
‘no civilians have been killed in
Pakistan this year by US drones’.
Among Bergen’s critics was a
columnist for the American magazine
The UAE has established a joint
commission with Switzerland to
investigate whether hand grenades
exported to the UAE were sent to
Syria.
The Swiss government
The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf, who
accused CNN and Bergen of running
‘bogus data’.
The accuracy of Bergen’s drone
killings data is of great importance
as he is the director of the New
America Foundation (NAF) - the most
common source of statistics for the
US media, including CNN.
The New America Foundation has
run a database on CIA drone strikes
in Pakistan for more than three
years and provides estimates of the
causalities.
For example, out of 148 - 220
deaths in Pakistan this year until
July 16 between three and 27
civilians have been reported killed,
some of whom were clearly defined
as civilians by news organizations
including Reuters and AFP.
Yet the civilian deaths are not
UAE, Switzerland set up grenade sales probe
temporarily halted arms shipments
to the UAE after a newspaper
published a photograph of Syrian
rebels handling a grenade made by
Swiss firm RUAG, originally sold to
the Gulf state in 2003.
Swiss authorities say they have
not sold arms to Syria since 1997-
1998.
Officials in Switzerland
described the ban as a “provisional
measure” pending the outcome of
an investigation which is already
underway.
Switzerland said the joint panel
by local and international media as
being ‘alleged militants’.
This inconsistency is not limited
to NAF’s 2012 data, in which reliable
reports of civilian deaths have been
either missed or ignored. There are
also factual errors in NAF’s Pakistan
data, wherein confirmed strikes are
left out and the estimated numbers
of people killed are considerably
lower than even that of the CIA’s
own accounts.
Pakistan contends that the
drone strikes against suspected
Taliban militants are ‘unlawful’ and
‘counterproductive.’
The US claims the airstrikes
target Taliban militants. But locals
say civilians are the main victims.
The aerial attacks, initiated by
former President George W. Bush,
have escalated under President
Obama.
had started work and it has lifted a
block on licenses for arms shipments
that were already issued.
“Pending license applications are
to remain suspended until further
notice,” said the government
The photograph raised concerns
about the final destination of
Switzerland’s arms exports.
The grenade reportedly came
from a shipment of 225, 216
grenades sold to the UAE, which
signed a declaration pledging not to
“re-export” the weapons.
www.passionislam.com