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issue addressed at the meeting was the drone attacks. By then more than 2,300 people in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border zone had been killed by
bombs dropped by the angels of death.
Tariq and his 12-year-old cousin Waheed were on the way to Miranshah to pick up an aunt from her wedding when their car was hit by a drone.
The two children were dead on the spot. The number of children killed by drones thus rose from 173 to 175. Today, in 2014, well over 2,500
people are thought to have been killed by drones in Waziristan alone. And this number does not even include the casualties in Afghanistan,
Somalia and Yemen, which still remain unknown.
Im really good at killing people
Journalists have very limited possibilities for investigating the subject of drones, particularly as very few are present on the ground in affected
regions. The TBIJ is one of the few organisations that works in Waziristan and other tribal areas and conducts regular research. Recently, TBIJ
journalists came to the conclusion that only 12 per cent of all drone victims in Pakistan and Afghanistan were extremist fighters, while only four
per cent of all victims could be described as members of Al Qaeda and associates.
The facts and figures, including the fact that children like Tariq are regularly killed by the US drones, call into question the whole of White
House policy in this area, says the journalist Murtaza Hussein, who works for the investigative platform The Intercept. Barack Obama once
said that dozens of Al Qaeda members had been eliminated by drones in this region. He probably meant that quite literally, adds Hussein.
Every Tuesday, Barack Obama personally approves the names of those to be targeted in the next round of drone attacks. The secret kill list is
getting longer and longer. Murder by signature has become routine for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and family man.
The whole thing seems even more macabre considering how Obama supposedly joked once with regard to his drone policy: Im really good at
killing people. One wonders whether he would say this to Aishas face.
Qantara.de, November 10.