The BBC have been running this story all day. It concerns an airstrike on the Pakistan/Afghan border.
The gist of of it is that coalition forces using a CIA unmanned drone fired a rocket at a building killing two of the most wanted Al Qaeda terrorists: Usama al-Kini and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan.
Twenty-two paragraphs into the story, we learn from a single line:
“There have been few civilian casualties, officials say. “
Isn’t it an appalling dereliction of their duty as reporters that they haven’t given Al Qaeda spokespeople live telephone links to rail against British and American aggression; done human interest stories on the troubles the neighbours are having living in fear of further attacks; shown images of the bombed out building on 24 hour rotation; condemned the ‘proportionality’ of this attack; questioned whether it was the wisest strategy in dealing with Al Qaeda; fretted over how this will lead to the radicalisation of young Muslims in the UK and questioned how this strike could have been authorised if civilians were put at risk?
No chattering pundits, no in-depth on-the-spot reporting, no interviews with revolutionary Maoist doctors, or ticker-taping unverified and uncorroborated AQ claims as fact…
These are all legitimate lines of enquiry. But all we get is a one line nod to the civilian casualties, 22 paragraphs into the story.
Perhaps it is because Al Qaeda sets off its bombs in Britain: and so this sort of operation elicits little sympathy in this country. By contrast, Hamas , merely kills Jews.
