US President Barack Obama
approved a secret exemption to the 2013 regulations he placed on
the use of drones, by not requiring Pakistan to adhere to the
standard placed on other countries that must show an "imminent
threat to the U.S.," The Wall Street Journal said.
In an article on Sunday, the US daily newspaper said the
2013 regulations were put into place to reduce the risk of
civilian deaths, but the CIA wasn't required to hold the same
standards in Pakistan as in other countries.
The newspaper cited "current and former U.S. officials" who
said Obama issued a waiver to allow "more flexibility in
Pakistan than anywhere else to strike suspected militants".
"If the exemption had not been in place for Pakistan, the
CIA might have been required to gather more intelligence before
that strike," The Wall Street Journal said, referring to the
U.S. government's admission on April 23 that U.S. and Italian
aid workers Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto were killed
on January 15 by a U.S. drone strike.
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