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http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms CLUSTER BOMBS IN LEBANON Being the world's sole superpower, largest weapons supplier, and biggest foreign humanitarian donor is no cake-walk. One day you are selling cluster bombs to Israel. Another day you're doling out aid to help Lebanon clean up cluster bombs that did not detonate. What happened on the days in between? Your cluster bomb customer used up most of his supply shelling Lebanon. The United States has put together a package of post-war aid for Lebanon totaling $230 million-including a $420,000 grant for the Mine Advisory Group so they can "quickly expand" their landmine and unexploded ordinance humanitarian clearing program to "help remove the newest explosive remnants of war"-most of which came from the United States. An Israeli military spokesman insists that "all of the weapons and munitions used by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) are legal under international law and their use conforms to international standards." But, the U.S. State Department is investigating Israel's use of American-made cluster bombs during the war in Lebanon-particularly looking at whether or not Israel broke a secret agreement with the United States not to use cluster bombs against civilians. This secret agreement seems to have created a loophole to the Arms Export Control Act which does not allow the United States to sell weapons to countries involved in aggression. There have not been any follow up news reports on the status of the investigation, or its conclusions and calls to the Office of Defense Compliance to get more information were not returned. An amendment that would have required the US and countries to which it sells weapons to avoid using cluster bombs in or near civilian areas, offered by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy on September 8th, was voted down 70/30. Jan Egeland, The United Nations' Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, was decidedly undiplomatic in his assessment: "what is shocking and (I would say to me) completely immoral is that 90% of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there would be a resolution." During those three days, Israel dumped an estimated 1.2 million bomblets throughout Lebanon- a country smaller than Connecticut. These bombs have a failure rate of up to 30%, which means that one of every three bombs may not immediately detonate- lying in wait for children, trucks, livestock and just about whoever or whatever else might set it off. The peace agreements were all signed by August 14th, but the cluster bombs have kept on killing. According to the UN Mine Action Coordination Center, since the war ended unexploded ordinance (or UXOs in the lingo) have killed 12 and wounded 39-two of the dead and 11 of the wounded have been children. The Seattle Times talked to one shepherd injured by a cluster bomb. "Lying in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Tyre with a broken and burned leg, 22-year-old shepherd Mohammed Hassan was recovering from stepping on a bomblet." He told the Seattle Times, "'All I remember is being catapulted several meters into the air,' he said. The bomblet was near a path between his family's farm and the chicken house where he had gone to fetch eggs. 'Just before fainting, I felt down to my leg and thought, Thank God, it's still there.' His other foot was also injured, as were both of his hands." At least two of cluster weapons and launch systems used by Israel are made by U.S. companies. Human Rights Watch discovered remnants of the "M483A1" 155mm artillery projectiles which have 88 U.S. manufactured M42 and M46 sub-munitions. They also found evidence of the Multiple Launch Rocket System, manufactured by Lockheed Martin and equipped with M26 rockets. Each MLRS can fire up to 12 rockets at once, and each rocket contains 644 M77 submunitions. A few of the U.S. manufacturers of cluster weapons and their products are described below. Aerojet SADARM 155mm DPICM (sense and destroy armor): a 155 mm artillery projectile can deliver two submunitions, while one of the MLRS rockets can deliver six. The munition can also be fired from aircraft. Raytheon JSOW (Joint Standoff Weapon): a precision-guided weapon developed by the US and its allies carrying submunitions or bomblets. The guidance system allows the pilot to launch the weapon from a safe distance. Textron Sensor Fuzed Weapon (CBU 97/B): an air-launched anti-armor weapon system. Each dispenser contains 10 BLU-108/B submunitions. Each submunition carries 4 SKEET anti-armor warheads. Wide Area Munitions (WAM) can be placed by hand, by ground vehicles, rocket, or aircraft. "WAM, designated XM93, is a derivative of the Skeet submunition that is used in the BLU-108/B submunition...it can be dispensed quickly above ground over a wide area." Companies are making and trying to market new cluster weapons all the time. In vivid military jargon, Textron's promotional flier describes the CLAW-Clean Lightweight Area Weapon, which they describe as "the next generation smart soft target munition." For those not familiar with the jargon, a soft target is a person. Textron boats that a "single 64 pound munition has the footprint and effectiveness of a 1,000lb legacy cluster bomb." According to Human Rights Watch, other manufacturers of cluster weapons and components include: General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. RESOURCES: Human Rights Watch, Overview of the Dirty Dozen Cluster Munitions http://hrw.org/arms/pdfs/munitionChart0806.pdf "Time to Take Stock: The U.S. Cluster Munitions Inventory and the FY 2006 Department of Defense Budget," Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, July 2005. http://hrw.org/backgrounder/arms/cluster0705/ Cluster Munition Coalition http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/ The Arms Trade Resource Center was established in 1993 to engage in public education and policy advocacy aimed at promoting restraint in the international arms trade. _____________________________ Note: This message comes from the peace-justice-news e-mail mailing list of articles and commentaries about peace and social justice issues, activism, etc. If you do not regularly receive mailings from this list or have received this message as a forward from someone else and would like to be added to the list, send a blank e-mail with the subject "subscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or you can visit: http://lists.enabled.com/mailman/listinfo/peace-justice-news Go to that same web address to view the list's archives or to unsubscribe. 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