The first target of a CIA drone strike in Pakistan was not a top al-Qaida operative. Rather, as noted in the New York Times this weekend, a Pakistani ally of the Taliban who led a tribal rebellion and was marked by Pakistan as an enemy of the state. " In June 2004, Nek Muhammed was killed by a missile from a Predator Drone (as well several others, including two boys, ages 10 and 16). Although the Pakistani military claimed the strike -- revealed as a lie by Mark Mazzetti in his new book, adapted in the Times article.

Following his recent visit to Pakistan, Ben Emmerson, U.N. special rapporteur monitoring human rights in counterterrorism programs, reported that the Pakistani government had given no tacit consent for U.S. drones to enter Pakistani air space. However, Mazzetti reports that such a secret deal was made, at least with the Pakistani military, signed in blood with Muhammed's death. Via the Times:

Advertisement: