Drone Truths: Shamsi Airbase
Filed under: Blog on Tuesday, September 6th, 2011 by Wasim | No CommentsThis post is a continuation of sorts of August 2011′s B-side here which was dominated by a discussion on drone attacks in Pakistan. This is the first of three posts that continues the drone debate which has a singular aim that of bringing the truth about drone attacks to the fore.
This first post looks at the controversy around Shamsi air base in Balochistan from which predator drones were until recently unleashed on the people of Pakistan in FATA. One must begin by bemoaning the fact as disclosed by Pakistan’s Air Force Chief Rao Qamar Suleman that Shamsi airbase was under UAE control although he did not have the guts to speak the truth that it has subsequently been sub-let to the US by the state of Pakistan in khakis and in suits so that the US can kill the Pakistani people.
The Shamsi airbase controversy is not new, indeed many images have been published from as far back as 2006, collected via Google Earth that have shown drones at the airbase as shown in the video below:
However, the PPP government via its part-time Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar has said that drones are allowed to only land in Shamsi airbase one can suppose after their killing missions have finished. Such a statement is implausiable as it raises one central question; if drones can arrive in Shamsi at the end of their journey, surely the drone journey must therefore begin from the same venue and thus begin and end at the same Shamsi airbase.
The role of the US at Shamsi airbase has been made clear by secret Wukileaks cables shared by Dawn here which proved that a dirty deal was at work between the UAE, US and Pakistan as shared in the self-explanatory Wikileaks cable shared below:

The fact that Tommy Franks a senior US retired general has admitted to US use of Shamsi airbase as far back as 2005 proves my case. However more proof of direct US involvement at Shamsi if any was needed has come to light thanks to a post in the blog of Omar R Quraishi, a respected Pakistani journalist and op-editor of the Express Tribune.
In his blog, Omar Quraishi writes about a story he did for The News when he worked for the newspaper that included photos of US personnel with drones at Shamsi airbase and are as far as I know the first photos of US boots on the ground of Shamsi airbase and are shared below as are the words of explanation in Omar Quraishi’s blog thereafter:

The photos above say it all, however the explanation is necessary and thus I repeat verbatim what Omar Quraishi wrote on his blog here the explanation as below:
With all the hullabaloo about Shamsi airbase I remembered that when I did this story for The News (http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=163174&Cat=2&dt=2/18/2009) (and The Times of London picked it up the next day), I had at least a couple of pictures which clearly showed that Pakistani military (army and airforce) officers had been the airbase and American officers had shown them around — the pictures (see for yourselves) show them being shown one of the parked drones — this picture must be circa 2007 so it was under the government of Pervez Musharraf — and in one of them the American military official is partly shielded — his upper torso. Another shows a Pakistan army and airforce officer from behind — and to their left can be seen two US soldiers — side-on. In two of these pictures, Pakistani military officials can be clearly seen.
What it clear from all the evidence shared in this extensive post and what is a drone truth is that the US, UAE and the state of Pakistan are working together and in my view complicit in the drone attacks that murder the civilian population in FATA. The next post of this 3-part special will provide proof of my statement in the form of photo evidence of civilian casulaties hurt or killed by the drone attacks in Pakistan.








