The furor in Pakistan over the CIA drone-launched missile attack on suspected al-Qaida figures in Damadola is largely fueled by local propaganda.

A photo was featured in several news magazines showing an old man in a turban and a bare-headed young boy standing beside what is purported to be a U.S. weapon found in the wreckage at the Damadola site. Close inspection of the photo reveals that the object is an artillery shell which though fired failed to explode.

Look at the rifling grooves in the rotating band near the base of the shell. Obviously, the shell had been fired and failed to detonate. But who fired it at whom and when? Are the news media so uninformed that they have not caught this canard?

John F. Battick

Dover-Foxcroft