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 President Barack Obama apologized and took "full responsibility"
for all counterterrorism operations, including this one.
The deaths were a setback for the long-running U.S. drone strike
program that has targeted Islamist militants in Pakistan,
Afghanistan and elsewhere, and has often drawn criticism in those
countries and from civil liberties groups in the United States.
Killed in the January drone strike were aid workers Warren
Weinstein, an American held by al Qaeda since 2011, and Giovanni Lo
Porto, an Italian who went missing in Pakistan in 2012, as well as
Ahmed Farouq, an American who was an al Qaeda leader, U.S. officials
said.
Adam Gadahn, an American al Qaeda member who was charged with
treason in the United States, was also killed in a separate strike
on another al Qaeda camp five days later, the officials said.
Obama said he had ordered a full review of the matter to ensure such
mistakes are not repeated.
 "I profoundly regret what happened. On behalf of the United States
government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families," Obama
told reporters at the White House.
Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and other
lawmakers called such a review appropriate but steered clear of
criticizing the drone program. Senator Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina, a Republican who is often a fierce critic of the
Democratic president, said Gadahn and Farouq "got what they
deserved."
U.S. officials said the drone strikes occurred inside Pakistan in
the conflict-torn border region near Afghanistan. One official said
the CIA had observed the compounds over some time but had no idea
hostages were present.
Use of unmanned drones, which enable the United States to carry out
counterterrorism operations without putting U.S. personnel directly
in harm's way, has prompted criticism because of the deaths of
civilians and because on occasion they have involved killing
Americans abroad without judicial process.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the government should better
follow its own standards before launching drone strikes. "In each of
the operations acknowledged today, the U.S. quite literally didn’t
know who it was killing," said Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy
legal director.
Lo Porto's mother told reporters in Palermo, Sicily: "I don't want
to talk, leave me alone in my grief."
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, speaking in Brussels, said, "I
have much appreciated the transparency of the United States in
taking their responsibilities for what happened and the way Obama
communicated what happened."
U.S. TREATMENT OF HOSTAGES
Weinstein's wife, Elaine, said her family was devastated by his
death. She criticized the U.S. government for "inconsistent and
disappointing" assistance during her husband's years in captivity.
Obama said he spoke with her on Wednesday.
Like some other American families whose relatives have been killed
over the past year after being held hostage by militants in the
Middle East, Elaine Weinstein called for a better U.S. government
policy for relaying information to hostages' families.
"We hope that my husband’s death and the others who have faced
similar tragedies in recent months will finally prompt the U.S.
Government to take its responsibilities seriously and establish a
coordinated and consistent approach to supporting hostages and their
families," she said in a statement.
U.S. congressman John Delaney of Maryland, who has helped the
Weinstein family, and other lawmakers said the United States needs
to do a better job handling American hostage cases.
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Weinstein, 73, was abducted in Lahore, Pakistan, while working as a
contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Al
Qaeda had asked to trade him for members of the group held by the
United States. Weinstein, who lived in Rockville, Maryland, was
seen in videos released in May 2012 and December 2013 asking for
Obama to intervene on his behalf and saying he was suffering from
heart problems and asthma.
On Thursday, yellow ribbons were tied on many trees in his Rockville
neighborhood near Washington, D.C. Outside his home, there were
vases and bouquets of flowers and clippings of cherry blossoms.
Italian media said Lo Porto, who was from Palermo, was kidnapped
three days after arriving in Pakistan to work for a German
organization building houses for victims of a 2010 flood. Another
man was kidnapped with him but later freed in October 2014 by German
special forces.
The White House said the Weinstein and Lo Porto families would
receive compensation from the U.S. government.
TREASON CHARGE
An al Qaeda spokesman has said Farouq was the deputy head of al
Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which tried unsuccessfully
last year to hijack a Pakistan warship.
Farouq died in a Jan. 15 drone strike in the Shawwal area of North
Waziristan, AQIS said in a video on Twitter on April 12, reported by
the SITE monitoring group.
Gadahn was born in Oregon, grew up in California, converted to Islam
at 17 and became a spokesman and translator for al Qaeda. He was
charged by the United States with treason in 2006, becoming the
first person to face such U.S. charges since the World War Two era,
according to the Justice Department.
The deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto were the latest involving
Western hostages held by Islamist militants. Islamic State has
beheaded journalists and aid workers, while an American woman aid
worker it held died in unclear circumstances in February. An
American and a South African held by an al Qaeda unit in Yemen died
in December in a failed rescue bid by U.S. special forces.
CIA drone strikes in Pakistan have steeply declined from a peak of
around 128 in 2010, according to the Bureau of Investigative
Journalism, which tracks the strikes. There have been seven drone
strikes in Pakistan this year, the group said.
(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, John Clarke, Bill Trott,
Roberta Rampton, Susan Heavey, Patricia Zengerle, David Lawder and
Emily Stephenson in Washington, Wladimiro Pantaleone in Palermo,
Katharine Houreld in Islamabad and Isla Binnie in Rome; Editing by
Frances Kerry)
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