Islam Times - US clearly not tolerant of terror drone attacks critics: Report

Islam Times - The recent detention of chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) political party, Imran Khan by US immigration officials signals a “clear trend” by the Obama administration to target critics of its assassination drone attacks, a report says.

The detention of Pakistani politician by American officials at Toronto airport on Sunday is the US’ third intimidating action against its critics this year, which was acknowledged by the US State Department later, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

The 59-year-old cricketer-turned-politician had boarded an American Airlines plane from Toronto to New York to speak at a fundraising dinner in Long Island City, when he was pulled off at the Toronto Pearson International Airport on Friday.

They detained Khan in order to interrogate him about his views on the US assassination drone strikes in his country’s tribal regions.

Last May, Young Pakistani short film producer, Muhammad Danish Qasim, who made a film about the social, economical and psychological consequences of the assassination drone attacks on the lives of Pakistani civilians was denied visa following his attempt to travel to the US to receive his award for the best International Film at the 2012 National Film Festival For Talented Youth in Seattle, Washington.

The film titled “The Other Side”, takes the audience “very close to the damage caused by drone attacks" by humanizing the tragedy of civilian deaths and also revealing how terrorists take advantage of the attacks and recruit members affected by the offensives.

A month earlier, Washington denied visa to Pakistani lawyer, Shahzad Akbar, who defends drone victims’ lawsuits against the US. The Pakistani lawyer was set to deliver a lecture at a conference on drones in Washington.

Other critics of the US policies are no exception to American officials with the Oscar-nominated documentarian Laura Poitra, who challenged Washington’s policies in her two films on Iraq and Yemen.

She was detained every single time she reentered the US for four years, often having her reporters' notebook and laptop copied and even seized.

The US' harassment of its foreign policy critics was a tactic first adopted by the Bush administration, who equated its opponents with supporters of terrorists and the Obama administration following suit and regarding the drone critics as terrorists or sympathetic of the al-Qaeda group.

Despite Pakistani government’s repeated calls on Washington to end the drone attacks, the US government continues its strikes on the tribal regions of the country.

The aerial attacks were initiated by former US President George W. Bush, but have escalated under President Barack Obama.

The drone strikes have triggered massive anti-US demonstrations across Pakistan to condemn the United States’ violations of their national sovereignty.