Saturday, September 8, 2012

Drones Photograph Wives


http://www.economist.com/node/21561927

The Economist [UK]
1 September 2012

Yemen and the United States
It is uncertain whether America's drones have their intended effect

SANA'A -- [...] If these tribesmen are anything to go by, the Americans' increasingly active deployment of drones is far from winning Yemeni hearts and minds in the battle against jihadism.

"Our people ask how these foreign planes have a right to come here and kill them, even if some of the people they kill are al-Qaeda," says a friend of the sheikh, a smuggler. "The other thing is that they think the drones are taking photos of them and spying on them. Because of this, our people have finished with America. They see America as this," he adds, making the letter X with his fingers. All the men on the cushions are convinced that drones photograph their wives, a vile insult in conservative Yemen. [...]