AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Pakistan, where outrage continues to mount over the US military’s first act of war approved by President Obama. Last Friday, unmanned US Predator drones fired missiles at houses in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, killing as many as twenty-two people, including at least three children.


The United States has carried out thirty such drone attacks on alleged al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistani territory since last summer, killing some 250 people, according to a tally by Reuters.


The Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday that US drone attacks were “counterproductive” and ended up uniting local communities with militants. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates indicated Tuesday at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that such strikes will continue and that Pakistani officials are aware of US policy on this matter.


ROBERT GATES: Both President Bush and President Obama have made clear that we will go after al-Qaeda wherever al-Qaeda is, and we will continue to pursue them.


SEN. CARL LEVIN: Has that decision been transmitted to the Pakistan government?


ROBERT GATES: Yes, sir.



AMY GOODMAN: Pakistani officials, however, deny there’s any agreement with the United States to secretly allow drone attacks inside Pakistan. Defense Secretary Gates’s comments on the missile attacks were the first to publicly acknowledge the strikes since last Friday. This is an excerpt of last Friday’s White House press briefing with, well, the new press secretary, Robert Gibbs.


REPORTER: And other US officials have confirmed these Predator drone air strikes, Pakistan. What is it about cannot confirming whether the President was consulted—


ROBERT GIBBS: I’m not going to get into these matters.


REPORTER: How does that compromise operational security?


ROBERT GIBBS: I’m not going to get into these matters.


REPORTER: Don’t you think it’s justifiable curiosity, Robert, about the President’s first military action—


ROBERT GIBBS: I think there are many things that you should be justifiably curious about, but I’m not going to get into talking about—


REPORTER: If other members of the US government are confirming this, why is it that you can’t comment?


ROBERT GIBBS: I’m not going to get into these matters.



AMY GOODMAN: Vice President Joseph Biden also refused to comment Sunday as to whether the United States would notify Pakistan before sending forces into their territory. He was on CBS’s Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer.


BOB SCHIEFFER: Last week, an American drone apparently attacked an al-Qaeda force, or what they thought was an al-Qaeda force, in the territorial part of Pakistan, a cross-border operation. It’s my understanding that the President, the previous president, gave our US forces and the CIA permission to go across that border, to go after al-Qaeda if it became necessary on the ground. Does President Obama—will he continue that policy?


VICE PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN: Bob, as you know, I can’t speak to any particular attack. I can’t speak to any particular action. It’s not appropriate for me to do that.


But I can say that the President of the United States said during his campaign and in the debates that if there is an actionable target of a high-level al-Qaeda personnel, that he would not hesitate to use action to deal with that.


But here’s the good news. The good news is that in my last trip—and I’ve been to Pakistan many times and that region many times—there is a great deal more cooperation going on now between the Pakistan military in an area called the FATA, the Federally Administered Territory—Waziristan, North Waziristan—all that area we hear about, that is really sort of ungovernable—not sort of, it’s been ungovernable for the Pakistani government. That’s where the bad guys are hiding. That’s where the al-Qaeda folks are, and some other malcontents.


And so, what we’re doing is we’re in the process of working with the Pakistanis to help train up their counterinsurgency capability of their military, and we’re getting new agreements with them about how to deal with cross-border movements of these folks. So we’re making progress.


BOB SCHIEFFER: Would you have notified them before any of these cross-border movements, because, as you well know, there is a fear that there would be leaks on something like that, and there might be a temptation not to? Exactly what is our policy on that?


VICE PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN: I always try to be completely candid with you, but I can’t respond to that question. I’m not going to respond to that question.


BOB SCHIEFFER: You’re not going to respond to that question.



i find these exchanges and interviews instructive. dig the press secretary..."i'm not going to get into these matters." didn't the liberals just spend eight years complaining that secrecy in government is a grave matter? well, it doesn't get more secretive than the above remark. the liberal left spent years mocking bush's various press secretaries. who among them will now belittle robert gibbs? of course, they will remain silent on the issue like the true believers they are. for, in america, politics is akin to religion, where we mindlessly repeat certain passages and texts, and conveniently leave out anything that doesn't fit with our preexisting doctrines and beliefs.

and dig biden..."that's where the bad guys are hiding. that's where the al queda folks are, and some other malcontents." what is this guy, 5? "that's where the bad guys are hiding? did he steal a bush and cheney speech book? again, various liberals have mocked the level of discourse eminating from the bush white house over the last 8 years. who among them will now condemn the semi-literacy displayed by biden? and, of course, it isn't merely the way he says what he is saying; it is what he is saying, and what they are doing, that is the problem. and it these similarities with the bush administration that should give us all cause for concern.

the question is a simple one; if it was a crime for bush to use brutal militarism, is it not also a crime when obama does the same? who are the "liberals" among us who will speak to the humanity of the 22 people killed? are their deaths made more explainable and justifiable because obama saw to it that they would no longer exist? once again, the limits of liberalism shine through, for it is not who is doing the killing, but the fact that killing is being done, that needs to be challenged. where is the victory in a democratic press secretary, as opposed to a republican press secretary, saying he can not comment? where is the victory in a democratic vp, as opposed to a republican vp, speaking of various bad guys? where is the victory in a democratic president, of whatever pigmentation, as opposed to a republican president, ordering the killing of innocent people?

recently, we heard a lot of conjecture about how dr king would have felt about obama becoming president. well, how would king feel about the murder of 22 pakistanis, called for by the same obama king would supposedly have wept tears of joy for? perhaps he would have reminded us that the u.s government remains the most violent nation on earth. in fact, he surely would have.

so yeah, listen to these guys. watch them. follow the trail of crimes, and count the deaths.

and then tell me if change has come to america.