One of Biden’s Afghanistan drone strikes apparently killed the wrong people
Even when the Biden administration is trying to seem tough on terrorists they can’t quite pull it off with competence. I’m actually surprised that the left is reporting this story:
The U.S. drone strike that military officials said targeted a suspected ISIS-K car bomb in Kabul during the final days of the U.S. evacuation effort may have mistakenly targeted an innocent civilian, according to extensive investigations by the New York Times and Washington Post. Ten civilians, including seven children, were reportedly killed in the August 29 airstrike. All were members of the same extended family.
…On August 29, U.S. Central Command announced that it had conducted a drone strike on a suspected terrorist driving a car that seemed to be filled with explosives and was believed to pose an imminent threat to the airport. Military officials suggested that the driver, whom they were not able to identify, had acted suspiciously in the hours before the strike, including a stop at a possible ISIS-K safe house, and loading the car with heavy packages that may have been explosives. The U.S. said that a larger secondary explosion occurred after the drone strike, which would suggest the presence of explosive cargo and seemingly justified targeting the vehicle.
But the Times investigation found no evidence of a large secondary blast, and the Post’s investigation suggests that if a second blast was seen, the most likely explanation would be that it was from the ignition of the vehicle’s fuel…
Both publications have identified the driver as Zemari Ahmadi, a 43-year-old electrical engineer who had long worked for Nutrition and Education International, a California-based aid organization operating in Afghanistan. According to relatives who spoke with the Times, Ahmadi and another member of his extended family in Afghanistan who had once worked as a U.S. military contractor had both applied for refugee resettlement in the U.S. for them and their families.
According to Ahmadi’s family members and colleagues, the white sedan he drove belonged to NEI, and his various stops on the 29th were just a normal day on the job, including picking up his boss’s laptop and transporting co-workers…
…[P]er the Times report, “according to his relatives, as Mr. Ahmadi pulled into his courtyard, several of his children and his brothers’ children came out, excited to see him, and sat in the car as he backed it inside.”
What a nightmare this administration is. They sent a drone to kill someone based on evidence that flimsy? They were apparently desperate to appear tough.
Again, I wonder why the left is reporting this. I can speculate – for example, is it a sign that Biden is going to be removed? But I really have no idea.
“Collateral damage”. ‘Mistakes happen’. Shit happens.
Besides, “at this point, what difference does it make”?
I saw this being reported on conservative sites within a day or two after the event. Like you, Neo, I am surprised to see it being reported in the propaganda media.
We failed to unleash the drone which was locked onto the actual bomber who killed thirteen of our military members and many other people, but we pulled the trigger on a man bringing water home to his family, and on his children. A shameful ending to a shameful operation.
Kate:
If I were in a particularly conspiracy-theory-minded mood I’d say maybe they did it on purpose, just to drive home the message that no one should ever trust or ally with the US again.
After all, this story is from New York magazine, the NYTimes and the WashPost: why credit it as true or complete until enough time has passed to give it a thorough shakeout?
Just because they have altered course and printed something discreditable of the Biden administration, doesn’t exempt them from suspicion of deviousness up to and including outright lies. Not that we should prefer the official White House version: they could both be wrong or falsified, just in opposite ways. One of the versions might be closer to the truth, by a little or a lot; for now, whatever story we deem more probable can only be believed *provisionally*. A helping of Keatsian “negative capability” is what I’m suggesting.
“Analysts”
“Best and Brightest”
Start hoarding water and canned beef.
For those who wonder why the NYTimes and WashPost would report a story that makes the Biden administration look bad, my take on it is that they decided it particularly besmirched the military and intelligence agencies, whom they despise more (except when they’re leaking juicy tid bits about Matt Gaetz) than they like Biden.
On another note, some of you might be wondering why intelligence agencies would have picked this white car to surveil. There was public reporting last year that we now have the capability of surveilling large areas and identifying suspicious patterns. This makes extensive use of artificial intelligence to map repetitious behavior and flag things that somehow stands out as worth a closer look. My theory is that some analyst saw this white car flagged by AI, and took a closer look. For some reason — perhaps because he knew they had the bomber’s car flagged from the earlier deadly car bombing and hadn’t acted on it — he decided to act on this intelligence. Bad luck for the guy who was hit and his family. Seriously bad luck.