The State Department has dropped its effort to stop a Pakistani lawyer who represents victims of CIA drone strikes from entering the United States. Shahzad Akbar is scheduled to speak later this month at an International Drone Summit in Washington, D.C. His trip had remained in limbo after the U.S. government failed to grant him a visa. While he has traveled to the United States in the past, he had not been granted permission to return since becoming an outspoken critic of the drone strikes and filing the first case in Pakistan on behalf of the families of civilian victims. But on Tuesday, after months of public protest, the State Department backed down and granted Akbar a travel visa. In a statement, Akbar said: “I will be speaking to American people about the loss of so many innocent Pakistani lives in their name. I believe the American people are good people and will want to do something to stop this unjust, counterproductive war.”