Next year

Poodunk
Times Examiner
on March 21, 2010                      Read Spanish Version

(Unified
Press Global — UPG) FBI Agents yesterday arrested Perverz Omit, a
36-year-old resident of Arlington, Virginia. He was charged with
several counts of murder and attempted murder for allegedly directing
a bomb-laden drone into Washington DC’s Studwell Friends School.
Eight children and one teacher died when the device collided with the
school’s roof; and twenty more were wounded, two seriously. Omit is
also suspected of having navigated a similar flying explosive craft
into Vice President Joseph Biden’s home at the Washington Naval
Observatory.

Two
naval officers and one secret service official perished at the Biden
home, three others were wounded. The Vice President and his family
were not at home when the drone hit the house.

FBI
officials led the handcuffed Omit from his suburban Virginia home. He
screamed at reporters. “This is vengeance for what they did to my
family.”

White
House spokesman Gibbs Phooney stated that the drone attack “had no
justification. How can you claim family vengeance for exploding a
bomb aimed at innocent people?” He
told a
press conference that only “uncivilized and murderous people would
think of sending an explosive laden drone into civilian targets.”

Omit’s
wife, Perveen, said Perverz had been despondent for a year since a
U.S. military drone had landed in his native village of Barjo, in
Pakistan, killing his brother and sister, their five children and his
parents. A CIA spokesman denied any civilians were killed in that
bombing. “The house destroyed by the drone belonged to foreign
extremists suspected of planning attacks against U.S. forces in
Afghanistan.” Twenty-two people died in that strike, U.S.
intelligence officials said. The drones have become a favored weapon
of the CIA. Since 2007, dozens of these unmanned planes loaded with
explosive charges have hit Afghan and Pakistani villages. American
officials praised these attacks for having killed scores of
militants, including ranking members of Al-Qaida, the terror group
blamed for the September 11 attacks. The drone operations have
reduced U.S. casualties to zero. Until the recent drone attack in
Washington no retaliatory attacks had occurred in the United States.

Mrs.
Omit insisted that her husband’s relatives were “not terrorists,
but hard working farmers.” The Pakistan government did not comment
on the occupations of the victims, but it again protested the raids
as violations of its sovereignty. Sources inside the Pentagon,
however, assured UPG that Pakistani officials had struck a deal with
Washington allowing drone strikes.

U.S.
intelligence officials claim the southern Pakistan region
has
become home to hordes of Afghan militants and suspicious nationals
from other Muslim countries. They insist the region around Borja had
become both a staging area for attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in
Afghanistan as well as the place where Osama bin Laden, leader of
Al-Qaida, has been hiding.

Former
colleagues praised Omit, pointing out he had graduated with honors
from Rentseller Polytechnic Institute in Sparta, New York, with a
degree in Aerospace Engineering. He did post-graduate work at MIT
before joining All American Weapons Inc., a company that has security
clearance from the Pentagon to do research on Air Force projects. The
company would not discuss the nature of Omit’s work with them. His
wife thought he built model airplanes to be used as tests for drones.

The
devices that hit the school and the Biden residence were thought to
be advanced models of radio operated toy planes. Observers saw the
miniature craft en route to the school. “I thought some people who
have these hobby airplanes that you direct from the ground and can
make fly in all directions,”
said
Yves Drooper, a janitor at the school.

The
FBI called Omit a “vicious terrorist.” “What this guy did,”
said an FBI spokesman, “shows how dangerous life has become. There
is no conceivable reason for a sane man to try to assassinate the
Vice President’s children.”

Julius
Naiver, a neighbor of the Omits
in
suburban Virginia, said he could not believe that the mild-mannered
man he had come to know and respect could have perpetrated such a
horrendous act. “I mean what kind of man would send a plane with a
bomb to hit a civilian target?” asked Naiver.

“When
we send in the drones, we always target bad guys,” said Brig.
General Christine Flippant. Last week, the Pentagon estimated that 18
U.S. drones fired rockets on Afghan and Pakistani villages which
terrorists used for training. The explosives killed an estimated 51
members of the Taliban and Al-Qaida. “They can’t keep sustaining
these losses,” declared Gen. Flippant.

U.S.
and NATO casualties in Afghanistan since 2001, have reached 8,409.
Some 23,000 have been wounded. In 2008, civilian
deaths
increased 40% from 2007, according to UN figures. In addition, the
Pentagon has faced an increased suicide rate among service men and
women, “a problem we must face squarely,” Gen. Flippant told UPG.

General
Flippant added that the Omit arrest showed the nation now faces “a
threat of more ‘enemy’ drones targeting the U.S. population in
supposed retaliation. Omit may be just the first of many who use some
bogus revenge pretext for their unbridled barbaric terrorism.”

The
general also referred to a February 2010 arrest by the FBI in Seattle
of Yoo
Can Too, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Malaysia for attempted
murder. On February 5, Mr. Too allegedly tried to shoot John Whine, a
former U.S. Special Forces sniper. He claimed Mr. Whine had
assassinated his twin brother in Malaysia.

Apparently,
Mr. Whine had belonged to an “executive assassination ring” that
purportedly functioned during the Bush years and reported directly to
former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Pulitzer
Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh first broke the story in a March
13, 2009, speech at the University of Minnesota. Hersh described
these extra-legal operations of the Joint Special Operations Command
as “a special wing of our special operations community that is set
up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the
Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. . .
Congress has no oversight of it.”

Hersh
said the assassins entered foreign countries, did not consult with
the U.S. ambassador or CIA station chief. They hunted people on a
list, executed them and left. “That’s been going on, in the name
of all of us,” said Hersh.

The
White House denied any knowledge of this program. UPG discovered that
Mr. Too’s brother, Notme Too, was mysteriously shot as he left his
house in Kuala Lumpur. Maylay police called the crime a robbery, but
CIA sources speculated that the sniper may have mistaken the victim
for an Al-Qaida operative, I Can Too, who also lived in Kuala
Lumpur.

The
Obama Administration has been debating for a year whether or not to
continue some of the anti-terrorist programs begun under the Bush
Administration. Thus far, the drones continue to operate and Obama
has not addressed the issue of secret
assassination
squads. The CIA refers to events like the Omit and Too cases as
“blowback,” the unexpected consequences of covert U.S. policies.

“When
you fight a war against terrorists,” said a CIA source who wanted
to remain anonymous, “you sometimes have to use the tactics of the
terrorists. That leads to collateral damage. But, hey, we know we’re
the good guys.”

Saul
Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies Fellow, author of A BUSH
AND BOTOX WORLD and the maker of films available on DVD from
roundworldproductions.