If Pakistan had any interest in doing this sort of work, I'm sure the US gov't would be more than happy to let them.
As it is they need to just STFU.
There are people there that need to caught or killed. (Personal choice: killed.)

DEBKAfile: only slightly less credible than the New York Times.

We have no idea what happened yet. Don't forget that this is hostile terrirtory that the Pakistani gov't doesn't even have the slightest bit of access to.

The CIA is clearly a mess, but I'm not ready to hand this one to the bad guys yet.

Remember that al-Qaeda is pretty schrewd with manipulating the media, and that the American people haven't ever passed up on a potential "we effed up" story. I'm not buying anything coming out of there until Zawahiri is speaking on tape or putting his mug before a camera.

The stories that have been coming out stink of something rotten, but we'll see. I need more than the a Guardian story and a DEBKA report.

Has Debka (or World Tribune, for that matter) ever been right about anything?

I think TF6S has it right. We can and do screw up on occaision, but a 3 Predator/10 Hellfire mistake? Hard for me to believe.

Too early to know, and we'll probably never know much of the story.

But DEBKA has been right about some non-obvious slants in the past.

I understand there is precedent in Iraq for rival forces to try to get the US forces to take out rivals as "insurgents", so ... all kinds of tricks are possible, and sometimes work.

In this case, however it happened, it's not good PR for the US. Duh.

Bill Roggio at ThreatWatch is reporting that:

American intelligence officials are still eager to see the results of the DNA tests, and are unusually optimistic on the possibility Zawahiri was indeed killed in the strike. The fact that a team was able to gather remains indicates a certain level of sophistication and coordination in the strike, as Bajaur is a hostile and remote environment unfriendly to American forces and the central Pakistani government.

FWIW, I think this might have been a black propaganda job on the part of some elements of the Pakistani government who are not pleased with our earthquake relief efforts in that area. A lot of the local Mullahs and their supporters are seeing several years worth of propaganda washed out by the sight of US troops helping the locals. This might have been their way of poisoning the well against us by making us look bad.

The ready for camera civilians complete with evil American air-dropped artillery shells make me think this is more than targeting error on our part. Someone slipped us false information, the only question is who.

All of the news (sic) being put out on the airstrike is guess work (made up) or the information came from a terrorists. No other way the so called news reporters could have gotten it.
It's always 'civilians' that are killed according to the reporters unnamed 'sources'. WOW, what a revelation. I don't know who is the more stupid, the people putting it out or the suckers eating it up, or maybe they're equals.
Tonight news flash was that maybe 12 + mid/high lever terrorists leaders were whacked. This is also from unnamed sources., so which unnamed source do you believe? I don't believe either of them, they lie or the reporters make up the lies to get a pat on the back from the boss.. The news media is in a sorry state.

I doubt the Pakistanis set us up. The first people to respond to the earthquake were Kashmiri terrorists. Muslim charities have been prominent. People whined incessantly about how the US isn't doing anything (or not doing enough) for the victims. Things could have changed since then, but at least initially it looked like the US was in trouble no matter what they did. In any case, if this was a set-up, it lets us find out which (f any) of our sources are set up. Wouldn't want to be that guy right now.

I am still finding it amazing that a large majority of what I am reading about this is that it was a blundered strike orchestrated under faulty intelligence. Even the comments on here (clearly not all), no matter how well intentioned, are focusing on the fact that the CIA was duped.

Sorry, I don't understand how you can come to this conclusion....yet.

The facts coming out of, um Western frickin' Pakistan, which is not exactly the most hospitible and accessable place for "crime investigation," let alone investigative reporting, are specious and dubious so far. We have NO idea yet what really happened yet, and the fact that so many are running away with this story with such unsubstantiated claims to the contrary right now is rather stunning to me.

I'm not defending the CIA either. I don't know what happened, yet, and I am not going to take some second hand reports or interviews of the local population who have been harboring al-Qaeda for years as proof positive that, even if we didn't get Zawahiri, that we didn't knock off a few bad bastards who had it coming just the same.

Patience people, patience...

Could somebody have just smoked out a mole in their government/organisation/theocracy?

Hope we have more than just that guy. He's gone.