Who Is On The CIA Hit List In The AfghanPak War

Where The Flying Death Squad Gets Its Information -- Strategy Page

The American flying death squad of Predator and Reaper UAVs over Pakistan and Afghanistan have a target list of about 420 Taliban and drug gang leaders. The CIA handles most of the data collection, and actual hits on the targets. Finding these targets is a much larger operation than the effort to keep twenty or so armed UAVs in the air.

The CIA and Department of Defense have enormous databases of people, including basic information like names, physical descriptions, family connections and so. But there is much more, like video and still images of the subjects, their vehicles, hideouts and work places.

Read more ....

My Comment: The media focuses on renditions, torture, and Guantanamo, but ignores the interestingly little fact that the CIA has put together death squads whose sole occupation is to track and target 420 al Qaeda members, Taliban leaders, and drug traffickers for "termination". Kudos to the Strategy Page for at least reporting this small bit of information.

But ignoring the legality of all of this, the technology that makes this all possible is fascinating .... and Strategy Page has compiled an excellent summary of what is now capable with the technology that is available. For those who are interested in this aspect of military intelligence, this article is a must read.