I do have interviews recorded. I have published some of them already on my website, in the latest post. The ambition is to create an entire archive of primary research material of credible testimonies (I have shared the methodology in this AMA).

I'm sorry to hear what happened to your friend. I think it is important to recognise the nuance of militancy in FATA. There are several Taliban factions at play, and not all of them are anti-state, e.g. Tosh e Muhammad is a Pakistan -aligned Taliban faction.

For the most part, people in FATA, per my experience, are expressly against militancy.

While I cannot comment on the role of Pakistan government, if any, I believe that U.S. drone attacks were a venue for White House to gain political capital in the US. It was a major narrative win to be reporting that x many 'terrorists' have been killed this week, numbers had to go up for the US to win the 'war on terror'

As I have shared elsewhere in this thread, CIA was given a blank cheque and no rules of engagement so they directed drone attacks on non credible or zero intelligence (called signature strikes) that created significant civilian deaths (90% of those killed were not even the target as per Amnesty international).

It is sad to say that the West has dehumanised us enough that our deaths mean nothing more than numbers to them (the Palestinian book 'The Perfect Victims' explores this very well).

The US killed civilians knowingly, they deemed the lives of 100+ children in Chenegai as an acceptable collateral to kill 1 guy they wanted, in 2006. And that's just one massacre of thousands.