Pakistan Judge : Charge CIA Lawyer, Agent For Drone Strike

Long overdue; charge them, try them, execute them and eject the CIA murdering scum from Pakistan  

AP
By Zarar Kahn and Ken Dilanian

04/08/2015

ISLAMABAD (AP) — 

A Pakistani judge on Tuesday ordered criminal charges be filed against a former top CIA lawyer who oversaw its drone program and a former station chief in Islamabad over a 2009 strike that killed two people.

The handiwork of Obama and his murdering CIA

cowards

Former acting general counsel John A. Rizzo and ex-station chief Jonathan Bank must face charges including murder, conspiracy, waging war against Pakistan and terrorism, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court ruled. 

A court clerk and a lawyer involved the case, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, confirmed details of the judge's ruling.

Rizzo and Bank could not be immediately reached for comment. The CIA declined to immediately comment when reached by The Associated Press.

Bank fled Pakistan in 2010 after his cover was blown when a Pakistani man named Kareem Khan initially threatened to sue the CIA and others for $500 million over the deaths of his 18-year-old son, Zaenullah Khan, and his brother, Asif Iqbal, in a purported Dec. 31, 2009, strike on the North Waziristan tribal region.

The AP and other media organizations reported at the time that three people were killed in a missile attack that day in Mir Ali in North Waziristan. Pakistani intelligence officials said then that the men were militants, but offered no proof.

As the outrage over the lawsuit grew, protesters in Islamabad began carrying placards bearing Bank's name as listed in the lawsuit, urging him to leave the country. 

The CIA didn't move Bank, who had previously served in Baghdad, until he began receiving death threats.

The station chief's outing spurred questions at the time of whether Pakistan's spy service might have leaked the information, something the Pakistanis denied.

The disclosure didn't prevent Bank from landing another sensitive job: He became chief of the Iran operations division at CIA headquarters at Langley. He later was removed from that post after CIA officials concluded he created a hostile work environment in the division. He has since been detailed to the Pentagon's intelligence arm.

Children massacred by CIA drone strike

Rizzo was the CIA's acting general counsel overseeing its drone program. He later left the agency and wrote a book about his experiences at the agency.

The CIA's drone strike program killed Pakistani Taliban fighters and other militants hiding in its tribal regions, but caused major anger across Pakistan over civilian casualties from the strikes. Since 2004, the U.S. has carried out nearly 400 suspected drone strikes in the country, according to the New America Foundation's International Security Program, which tracks the American campaign. 

The foundation says the last U.S. drone strike in Pakistan happened on Jan. 29, which killed at least six suspected militants.

It's not clear how the judge's ruling will affect relations between Pakistan and the U.S., especially over the drone program. 

Disgraced, shitcanned traitor David Petraeus responsible 

for drone strikes

While Pakistan's government often decries the strikes, many believe it allows them in order to target the militants that threaten it. Massive protests against the drone program previously have blocked a land route used by NATO forces to resupply troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Any legal action stands no chance of success unless U.S. officials cooperate with the court, something highly unlikely given the secretive nature of the missile strike program. The CIA rarely publicly discusses its drone program.

Under the judge's order, Pakistan's federal police force must file the charges against the two former CIA officials, though they've so far refused over what lawyers describe as a reluctance to upset the country's diplomatic relations with the U.S. Pakistani police officials could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.

Pakistani lawyer Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, who is not involved in the case, said the government also could appeal the judge's order to a higher court to try and stop having to file the charges.

Individual drone operators must be held responsible, accountable

Dilanian reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Cairo contributed to this report.

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Posted in: "Mainstream Media" War Crimes Trials,Bush/Blair/Obama War Crimes Trials,CIA Black Ops,CIA Drone Murderers,Obama Criminal Regime,Pakistan War