Anti-drone protesters blocked from target, but still push message

Leaders of Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) or Movement for Justice party, watch as Imran Khan addresses supporters in Tank, Pakistan, Oct. 7, 2012. / Getty

ISLAMABAD A convoy of thousands of Pakistani protesters and a small but dedicated contingent of American and British anti-war activists calling for an end to U.S. drone strikes was blocked by the Pakistani military on Sunday from entering a lawless tribal region on the border with Afghanistan.

Led by opposition politician and former cricket star Imran Khan, the event dubbed a "peace march" drew about 30 activists from U.S. anti-war group CODEPINK, and a handful more from the British group Reprieve.

The protest convoy was blocked by Pakistani police at least four times during the day-long journey from the northern city of Dera Ismail Khan to the border of South Waziristan - a lawless tribal region where some of the drone strikes have taken place.

After the unscheduled turnaround, the protesters regrouped near Tank - the last large city before South Waziristan - where CBS News witnessed them push a truck hitched to a large cargo container out of the way to clear the road as helpless policemen watched nearby.

Khan told his supporters in Tank that the Pakistani army had turned them away at the border of South Waziristan over concerns that they might be attacked by militants under the cover of darkness later Sunday evening.

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"We want to give a message to America, that the more you carry out drone attacks, the more people will hate you," Khan told his supporters gathered in Tank.

His remarks immediately sparked cries of "Down with America" and "A friend of America is the traitor of the nation," from spectators gathered on the dusty terrain about 30 minutes drive from the South Waziristan border.

The American protesters were not seen at this gathering, but Clive Stafford Smith, a prominent American-British lawyer and human rights activist who coordinated British involvement in the protest, addressed the crowd briefly alongside Khan.

"I apologize as an American. Until America sees your children as they see my children, we will never get justice in the world."

"We are here with you to make sure you get justice and to make sure there are no more drones," he added amid enthusiastic applause. His remarks triggered a chant of "no more drones" from the audience.

The drone strikes, which are never confirmed by the U.S. government but widely known to be the work of the CIA, have helped to debilitate al Qaeda in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, and Western officials say they help keep pressure on militants in the area.

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Americans protest drone strikes in Pakistan

Organizers of the diverted "peace march" argue, however, that the strikes are terrorizing the 800,000-odd innocent residents of North and South Waziristan who are not linked to Islamic extremist militants. They also say the strikes are illegal under international law and are serving as valuable propaganda tools for the very militant groups they target - creating new enemies faster than the old ones can be killed, according to CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin.

Backing claims by the protest organizers that residents of Waziristan are subject to undue anxiety from the drones flying overhead, Abdul Haleem Mehsud, a truck driver whose 11-year-old nephew was injured in an alleged 2009 drone strike, told CBS News during the Sunday rally in Tank that, "Since the attack on my cousin's home, I have lived with a terrible sense of insecurity."

Senior members of Khan's PTI party said before the march that they hoped U.S. and British activists would return home and spread their anti-drone message after their visit to Pakistan.

The organizers of the protest may have been diverted from their intended target in Pakistan, but they will still be hoping to reach their intended targets thousands of miles away: American voters who elect the people that order the strikes in the first place.

[xdxdoom]

One of the reasons I want this war to end is that so much of what he american people hear regarding the affects of our attacks is all yellow journalism. It's very difficult to dispute something when most of the facts you have are skewed, people don't know what there governments true intentions are beyond what we are told.
People don't know that 9/11 was the first, major terrorist attack from a group outside of the nation, to date all other terrorist attacks that have happened within our nations border have been from domestic terrorists.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't aid our allies if they face a threat and we should definately keep security measures as tight as they are in international travel but having an army invade a country hardly any of us actually know just sounds silly to me.

[PourpaixPourpaix]

Isn't it obvious? America is the world's new aggressor state. We love to kill, and seek to do it as often as we can. It's our God-given right to kill whoever we want, wherever we want, whenever we want. After all, we are God's chosen, so everything we do is automatically God's will. I'm sure everyone we kill understands this entirely and agrees it's for the best. How can anybody fault us for pursuing our rights?

"Hey, Hoss! Is that a good thing?" "No, I don't think so, Pa!"

[hangout123]

ko

[quincytodd]

As an American, I feel strongly humiliated and angered at the fact that we're murdering people day after day with these ungodly planes and few people here in this country even care. It appears that human compassion and religion are both becoming things of the past in this country. I am more disgusted with those who boast about this obscene butchery. This is wrong, wrong and wrong!

[nonpolitico]

QUINCYTODD: Can I ask which Muslim Terrorist actually APOLOGISED FOR 9/11????
Which backward group of people,(claiming the instructions of their God), actually still in the 21st Century live with values common in the era of the Phonecians?? (That was BC by approx 500 years!)
Allowing that Mohammed only founded Islam in approx 400AD, that probably explains how it was founded as it was, subjugating women, even though if it were not for a (rich) woman who supported him, the religion would not now exist!
Gratitude eh?
One of the main tenets of Islam, (so I have heard), is that all Infidels should be killed!
Now, I don`t know about you, but limited drone action pales into insignificance beside a religion committed to Genocide, and backed by the largest and riches oil producer in the world!
After all the terror bombs around the globe, perhaps if they stopped the religious massacres, by "not so smart bombs" who target children, girls at school, women in hospitals and others just because they are THERE, the drones would stop too.
ME? I have no worries about this set of fanatics getting a bit of their own medicine.
You mention "obscene butchery" to describe the measured response of the USA!
What are you willing to Label 9/11???

[ahale123]

The following statement in the article is true but incomplete, it should also acknowledged for balanced journalism that hundreds of civilians including children have also perished in drone strikes.

"The drone strikes, which are never confirmed by the U.S. government but widely known to be the work of the CIA, have helped to debilitate al Qaeda in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, and Western officials say they help keep pressure on militants in the area."