US will continue drone strokes in Pakistan
He was speaking after officials in Washington claimed al-Qaeda’s number two, Abu Yahya al-Libi, had been killed in a drone strike in Pakistan’s lawless North Waziristan tribal area. Al-Libi had been involved in plotting international terrorist attacks and strikes on Nato forces in Afghanistan.
The former CIA director brushed aside criticism that the drone strikes were an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty and said they had been an effective way of destroying al-Qaeda’s control and command centres in Pakistan and preventing them launching new attacks on America.
“This is about our sovereignty as well, because there was a group of individuals who attacked the United States on 9/11 and killed 3,000 of our citizens. And we went to war against those who attacked the United States of America.
“The leadership of those that were involved in planning this attack are located in Pakistan, in the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas). And we have made clear to the Pakistanis that the United States of America is going to defend ourselves against those that would attack us. And we have done just that. We have gone after their leadership, and we have done it effectively, targeting at – targeting al-Qaida leadership and terrorists….. we have made very clear that we are going to continue to defend ourselves,” he said in a speech to the New Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
