Feinstein Didn't Give Away a Secret

by: Brandon Friedman

Sun Feb 15, 2009 at 06:44:49 AM EST

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.

I'm not sure if Miller doesn't know how to use The Google or how to properly source stories, or if this is just a hit on Feinstein.  But either way, it's an example of a manufactured story where there is none.  Nevertheless, blogs picked up on it, each trying desperately to compare Feinstein's statement to legitimately dangerous OPSEC violations committed in the last year by Republican Congressmen like Patrick McHenry and Pete Hoekstra.

More from Miller's piece in the Los Angeles Times:  

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.

Okay, this one sentence might be true.  But then Miller goes off the rails:

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.

This part is hilarious.  "Former U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information?"  Really?  It's a sensitive secret that Predator drones are being flown out of Pakistan?  Please.  Okay, let's bring up The Google Machine and see just how well-kept this secret actually is.

New York Times, 6 November 2002

In any offensive against Iraq, the Air Force would probably use a combination of armed and unarmed Predators flying from Ali al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, military officials said today. The Predators flying over Afghanistan have operated from an air base in Jacobabad, Pakistan.

CNN, 1 January 2003

In a separate development, an unmanned U.S. surveillance plane crashed Wednesday in southern Pakistan, shortly after takeoff.  There were no injuries or damage on the ground.

Jacobabad police chief Rana Sateh Sher said the medium-sized drone crashed about seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from Jacobabad because of technical reasons.  Flames were extinguished quickly and the wreckage was cleared by local police.

RAND Corporation (via Princeton University), 2004

Pakistan provided the U.S. access to numerous military bases and helped establish a number of facilities including Intermediate Staging Bases at Jacobabad, Pasni, Dalbandin and Shamsi; Predator basing at Jacobabad and Shamsi, and access to other bases used by over 50 aircraft and 2,000 coalition military personnel that bedded down at these locals.

Washington Post, 27 March 2008

Musharraf, who controls the country's military forces, has long approved U.S. military strikes on his own. But senior officials in Pakistan's leading parties are now warning that such unilateral attacks -- including the Predator strikes launched from bases near Islamabad and Jacobabad in Pakistan -- could be curtailed.

News International (Pakistan), 27 October 2008

Certainly, in the early days of our entering the US-led "war on terror," we offered certain strategic bases of which Jacobabad has since been returned apparently over two years ago . . . As for the Shamsi base in Balochistan where there are Predators, one can safely assume that the US would find it tempting to target Iran from this prime location (westward of Khuzdar).

And of course:

Wikipedia, Jacobabad, Pakistan

Pakistan agreed to an American request for a long-term, logistics and support base presence at the Shahbaz Air Base in Jacobabad following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The US forces, mainly from the United States Air Force, were stationed there from Oct 2001 to Nov 2004. Units active during this period included a Predator UAV squadron, a C-130 airlift squadron, a CSAR detachment, and associated support units.

Finding all these media pieces that specifically mention U.S. Predator drones flying out of Jacobabad and Shamsi, Pakistan took all of five minutes.  I'm sure there's much more out there.

So, while I know for a fact that the Pakistani government likes to play down this little arrangement, the fact of the matter is that this hasn't been a secret since 2002.  Thus, trying to peg Senator Feinstein as having spilled the beans is completely disingenuous on the part of the Los Angeles Times.

But lastly, this passage in Miller's piece is great:  

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.

Ha ha.  Experts said that, huh?  Maybe try getting some experts who actually know what goes on in Pakistan next time.