[The following is a post started back in March that I'm posting for the first time now that I've figured out how to embed Google Maps correctly]
Blurred Boundaries
One of the most contentious issues surrounding the US-Pakistan alliance against the Taliban has been the US strikes against targets in Pakistan. The Pakistani government has consistently played both sides, publicly condemning the attacks to assure its citizens while unnofficially condoning them. This came to a head in February when it was discovered that the US was using Pakistan’s own airbases to hit Pakistani targets, and the Times of London acquired a Google Earth aerial photograph from 2006 clearly depicting Predator drones parked on the runway at Pakistan’s Shamsi air base.
Shamsi Airfield in Balochistan, updated to exclude the Predator drones:
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A few days earlier, Senator Diane Feinstein had let slip that drone strikes against Pakistani targets were in fact launched from air bases in Pakistan with the permission of the Pakistani government. Following a drone strike on February 14th, the Washington Post reports:
While the Pakistani government publicly denounces CIA-launched Predator strikes, which are highly unpopular among the Pakistani public, it has privately agreed to them. Senior Pakistani officials have said that the government’s intelligence service provides targeting information to the CIA and has requested direct participation in U.S. targeting and launch decisions.
While many of the strikes are launched from U.S. installations inside Afghanistan, Pakistani news media on Saturday highlighted a comment Thursday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who said the Predators, “as I understand it . . . are flown out of a Pakistani base.”
According to the New York Times, the strike occurred near the town of Makeen in South Waziristan, killing more than 30 people. The strike occurred in the regional stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who the Pakistani government have accused of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister and wife of the current president Asif Ali Zardari.
What other Pakistani bases does the US use?
While we have documentary proof that drones were stationed Shamsi airbase, no other direct evidence has surfaced implicating other Pakistani bases. Fortunately, there is other information available to indicate where else US drones may be stationed. The London times article also reports:
Major-General Athar Abbas, Pakistan’s chief military spokesman… admitted on Tuesday that US forces were using Shamsi, but only for logistics.
He also said that the Americans were using another air base in the city of Jacobabad for logistics and military operations. Pakistan gave the US permission to use Shamsi, Jacobabad and two other bases — Pasni and Dalbadin [sic] — for the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.
After 2001 the US retained sole use of Shamsi and Dalbandin air bases. Pakistan began sharing the Pasni base with the US after tensions with India began to head up. The Jacobabad airport is directly adjacent to the city of Jacobabad, and is used for both military and civilian purposes. (For more information, see globalsecurity.org) Of the other bases known to be used by the US, it seems most likely that Dalbandin would be the first choice to station Predator drones because the US retains sole use. Pasni, if it’s still being shared with the Pakistani military, would be a less desireable choice but not entirely unlikely given the complicity of the Pakistani government. Jacobabad would be a highly improbably choice because it’s also used for civilian purposes.
Pasni Air Base in Balochistan:
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Dalbandin in Balochistan:
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Jacobabad Airport in Sindh:
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