Has this chick ever heard of OPSEC?

[Buffa1oso1di3r]

Diane Feinstein's comment on U.S. drones likely to embarrass Pakistan The Predator planes that launch missile strikes against militants are based in Pakistan, the senator says. That suggests a much deeper relationship with the U.S. than Islamabad would like to admit.

Reporting from Washington -- A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an air base in that country, a revelation likely to embarrass the Pakistani government and complicate its counter-terrorism collaboration with the United States.

The disclosure by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land.

At a hearing, Feinstein expressed surprise over Pakistani opposition to the campaign of Predator-launched CIA missile strikes against Islamic extremist targets along Pakistan's northwestern border.

"As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base," she said.

The basing of the pilotless aircraft in Pakistan suggests a much deeper relationship with the United States on counter-terrorism matters than has been publicly acknowledged. Such an arrangement would be at odds with protests lodged by officials in Islamabad, the capital, and could inflame anti-American sentiment in the country.

The CIA declined to comment, but former U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, confirmed that Feinstein's account was accurate.

Philip J. LaVelle, a spokesman for Feinstein, said her comment was based solely on previous news reports that Predators were operated from bases near Islamabad.

"We strongly object to Sen. Feinstein's remarks being characterized as anything other than a reference" to an article that appeared last March in the Washington Post, LaVelle said. Feinstein did not refer to newspaper accounts during the hearing.

Many counter-terrorism experts have assumed that the aircraft take off from U.S. military installations in Afghanistan and are remotely piloted from locations in the United States. Experts said the disclosure could create political problems for the government in Islamabad, which is considered relatively weak.

The attacks are extremely unpopular in Pakistan, in part because of the high number of civilian casualties inflicted in dozens of strikes.

The use of Predators armed with Hellfire antitank missiles has emerged as perhaps the most important tool of the U.S. in its effort to attack Al Qaeda in its sanctuaries along the Pakistani-Afghan border. A New Year's Day strike killed two senior Al Qaeda operatives who were suspected of involvement in the bombing of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel.

They were among at least eight senior Al Qaeda figures reportedly killed in Predator strikes over the last seven months as part of a stepped-up missile campaign.

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, said Feinstein's comments put Pakistan's government on the spot.

"If accurate, what this says is that Pakistani involvement, or at least acquiescence, has been much more extensive than has previously been known," he said. "It puts the Pakistani government in a far more difficult position [in terms of] its credibility with its own people. Unfortunately it also has the potential to threaten Pakistani-American relations."

As chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Feinstein is privy to classified details of U.S. counter-terrorism efforts. The CIA does not publicly acknowledge a campaign against Pakistan-based extremists using remotely piloted planes, making Feinstein's comment all the more unusual.

Feinstein's disclosure came during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee by U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair on the nation's security threats. Blair did not respond directly to Feinstein's remark, except to say that Pakistan was "sorting out" its cooperation with the United States.

Pakistani officials have long denied that they have even granted the U.S. permission to fly the Predator planes over Pakistani territory, let alone to operate the aircraft from within the country.

The civilian leadership that took over from an unpopular former general, Pervez Musharraf, last year, has gone to significant lengths to distance itself from the Predator strikes.

The Pakistani government regularly lodges diplomatic protests against the strikes as a violation of its sovereignty, and officials said the subject was raised with Richard C. Holbrooke, a newly appointed U.S. envoy to the region, who completed his first visit to the country Thursday.

But a former CIA official familiar with the Predator operations said Pakistan's government secretly approves of the flights because of the growing militant threat.

Feinstein prefaced her comment about the Predator basing Thursday by noting that Holbrooke "ran into considerable concern about the use of the Predator strikes in the FATA areas," a reference to what Pakistan calls its Federally Administered Tribal Area along the border with Afghanistan.

Many Pakistanis believe that the civilian leadership, despite public anger, has continued Musharraf's policy of giving the United States tacit permission to carry out the strikes.

The CIA has been working to step up its presence in Pakistan in recent years. It has deployed as many as 200 people to the country, one of its largest overseas operations besides Iraq, current and former agency officials have estimated. That contingent works alongside other U.S. operatives who specialize in electronic communications and spy satellites.

In his prepared testimony Thursday, Blair said that Al Qaeda had "lost significant parts of its command structure since 2008."

Let's just give them the locations of all of our SSBNs while we're at it.

I know that I'm only sixteen, and that I've never been in war, however, in my mind, I don't think it's a good idea to broadcast to terrorists where we're launching our reconnaissance drones from, as well as broadcasting the fact that Pakistan has even let us use their country as a staging post, as well... Pakistan is full of terrorists who hate their Government!

I think Ms. Feinstein (Frankenstein) should be executed for treason. <_<

[reddog]

Buffa1,
Your thoughts mirror mine and sadly have too much truth in them. There are times when we do the thinking for our enemy and broadcast it on the 6 o'clock news.
Reddog...

[Woody]

While I am sure al queda and the taliban know exactly where the drones were coming from anyway .All it needs is someone to sit by airfield with binos and a cell phone .Once its airborne nothing they can do about it apart from wait for the bang .
Letting something that is embrassing to the pakistian government out in the open is dumb .Even though it must be annoying have the people who gave you permission to use the predators .whineing about their use.

[TruBlu]

Man Blue Team is pulling out all the stops in the attempt to compromise all of our security. CIA business is CIA business, not part of Blue Team's agenda, no matter what committee you belong to. And as of last night (with the passing of the spendulous package) the Senate "Intelligence" has shown... This lady should be silenced quickly, and this SIA quickly dissolved seeing as though all it is proving right now is it's ineffectiveness to keep sensitive material under wraps.

I just don't understand...

Originally Posted by A former CIA official familiar with the Predator operations

Pakistan's government secretly approves of the flights because of the growing militant threat.

Isn't that classified? Why would you ever confirm that? Not so secret now...

[Buffa1oso1di3r]

Reddog: Thank you, sir, for your thoughts.

Tim: Yes, although practically everyone with an ounce of intelligence probably figured out where the Drones were coming from, no way that was going to be confirmed without some hard-on intelligence. If you have the chance to deny something, you deny it, and no one knows the truth. It's like High School and your teacher suspects you of doing something; if there's a chance that you can deny it, do so.

TruBlu: And that CIA member... if ever found... again, executed for treason. But, you must admit, it happens all the time...

Discipline, is the key word in my mind about this situation... and these people don't seem to have it.

[ingbda01]

It's not terribly surprising that we have a base in Pakistan for Predator Drones, and I think the people that we wouldn't want to know (Al Qaeda) would already know about it. I'm just waiting to hear Pakistan is demanding the base close, this would be the most politically viable move in that country right now. But still, putting Pakistan in that position, especially when the country is a nuclear power teetering on the brink of civil war and collapse is not particularly responsible treatment of sensitive information. She's abusing her privileged information However Feinstein is held responsible not by the federal government, but by her own constituents in California, who will likely do nothing. This is position taking at its worst. Its jeopardizing the future of an allied nation. As for ruining the missions, the drones could likely still function if they were based somewhere else, though they may not have the same amount of airtime over their targets, weakening the mission.

[TruBlu]

Pakistan isn't about to call for anything that we will take seriously unless its our expedition into their country to eliminate the actual threats to world security. Last night I was pleasantly surprised with something that PBHO said, which was that he will strike Pakistan if necessary. The Pakis better shape up their border security and start actually policing for terrorists, or they may find the troops to be pulled out of Iraq in their villages, towns, and cities, doing what needs to be done.

[NightRunner]

Originally Posted by ingbda01

It's not terribly surprising that we have a base in Pakistan for Predator Drones, and I think the people that we wouldn't want to know (Al Qaeda) would already know about it.

IMO the real "people that we wouldn't want to know" are journalists and media, the Pakistani public, and (as usual) the American public.

It seems to me that the strongest defense and the greatest weapon any terrorist organization can ever wield is the sympathy and cooperation of the common people: hearts and minds.

Unless this information was leaked intentionally for the purpose of misdirection, I hope this woman is promptly removed from that committee and her security-clearance suspended pending investigation, if it hasn't been already.

The CIA declined to comment, but former U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, confirmed that Feinstein's account was accurate.

Yeah, anonymity had damn well better be a condition of speaking if you are going to blatantly flap your lips to the press about information you KNOW is sensitive! I hope the FBI hunts them down and locks them up.
I wonder how much it was to bribe them.
Sick.