U.S. Shipping Thousands of Cluster Bombs to Saudis, Despite Global Ban - Foreign Policy

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

No doubt a humanitarian act.

http://killerapps.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/08/22/us_shipping_thousands_of_cluster_bombs_to_saudi_arabia_despite_international_ban


Cluster bombs are banned by 83 nations. The world recoiled in horror when it learned that Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad's forces have killed children with such weapons.

But that isn't stopping the U.S. military from selling $640 million worth of American-made cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, despite the near-universal revulsion at such weapons, and despite the fact that relations between the two countries haven't been entirely copacetic of late.

Cluster bombs spit out dozens, even hundreds, of micro-munitions in order cover a wide area with death and destruction. These weapons are used for killing large groups of people, destroying thinly-skinned vehicles and dispensing landmines or poison gas. Some of the Soviet-made incendiary cluster bombs used by Assad's forces during Syria's civil war are even designed to light buildings on fire and then explode after sitting on the ground for a while -- thereby killing anyone who gets close enough to try to extinguish the flames.

The irony of the U.S. selling one authoritarian Middle East country 1,300 cluster bombs while criticising the use of indiscriminate weapons by another isn't lost on the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international group dedicated to ending the use of such weapons.

"This transfer announcement comes at a time when Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have joined international condemnations of Syria's cluster bomb use," said Sarah Blakemore, director of the Cluster Munition Coalition, in a statement about the sale.

[NuclearDem]

1. Man, time for some surgical strikes.

[polly7]

2. That red line must be made of chalk that disappears in the wind. nt.

[warrant46]

3. The Irony of it all

[malaise]

4. One more act of peace

We'll bomb the world into peace - fugging NOT

[Supersedeas]

56. peace and profit

[Harmony Blue]

5. Why would the Saudi's need cluster bombs?

Is any conventional army planning to invade them any time soon?

[NuclearDem]

6. Just gearing up for the inevitable shooting war with Iran.

[Comrade Grumpy]

24. They could come in handy against their own restive Shia population.

[Harmony Blue]

25. That Shia population works at the oil fields (in a way keeps them semi-pacified)

and I doubt cluster bombs would be of use against a Shia revolt just like last time.

[sabrina 1]

33. Well, we can't ship weapons to our proxy armies, but the Saudis can, if needed. So it could be a

kind 'weapons laundering'.

According to reports, the Saudis have been supplying weapons of all kinds to the Al Queda extremists who have inserted themselves into Syria, as they did in Libya.

Must be big money in the arms deals business these days. We're only our fourth ME country targeted for 'regime change' by the PNAC gang. At least three more to go. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, all nearly ticked off. So that leaves, Lebanon, and the big prize, Iran. There is one more, which escapes me at the moment, but that's quite a lot of business for the Arms Dealing Corps.

[ConcernedCanuk]

45. 'weapons laundering' - exactly what crossed my mind.

.
.
.

USA spreading peace and democracy,

one bomb at a time.

(sigh)

CC

[grahamhgreen]

65. Israel. They fear Israel

[Scootaloo]

67. No they don't

Dude. Okay, look, I know it's "common knowledge" for some here that all Arabs reflexively hate Israel... Buuuuut... No. The saudis sure don't. Oh, they wag their finger, but the other hand is busy under the table helping Israel rub one off - which Israel reciprocates. Two US client states, united by a general loathing of the nations around them.

Saudi Arabia doesn't fear Israel - what the fuck is Israel ever going to do to Saudi Arabia? it comes pre-flattened, it's like Kansas with better taste in architecture (fuck Kansas, really ) Nor does Israel fear Saudi Arabia - the Sauds themselves are busy dying of syphilis and wasting hteir nation's money in Monaco, and even if they should topple, then what? The Sauds are so paranoid of an uprising that only members of the family receive flight training - they have three times as many jets as pilots! What, are they going to throw the planes at Israel? "Haha, nasty Jews, take our beater American fighters! They're worse than the ones you have already, MWAHAHAHA!"

Naw, Saudi Arabia is buying these for the reasons mentioned upthread - weapons laundering. problem is? The Saudis like to sell the weapons we sell them to wahabbist milita... you know, the guys we don't like? Or.. .the ones we say we don't like?

[leftstreet]

7. Is this to protect the children?

[Zorra]

8. You have to ask yourself~why would the US ship cluster bombs to a radical RW authoritarian monarchy

whose repressive laws persecute and oppress women, lgbt, and people of other cultures and faiths.

A monarchy where human trafficking is designated at the Tier 3 level.

WTF is our government doing in our name?

[pscot]

17. WTF is our government doing in our name?

Embarrassing us in public?

[L0oniX]

62. Isn't it obvious? They don't give a fuck what we think ...and never really will give a fuck. n/t

[woo me with science]

20. How many of the 9/11 hijackers were we told came from Saudi Arabia?

Which side is Al Qaeda fighting on in Syria?

Perhaps the goal is just to render us so disoriented that we won't even attempt to comment on their slaughter industry anymore.

[Divernan]

49. 15 of 19 9/11 hijackers had Saudi passports;new special travel benefits 4 Saudis a Slap in the Face

We can just start calling Prince Bandar Bush, Prince Bandar Obama.

http://patdollard.com/2013/03/obama-grants-saudia-arabia-who-produced-911s-15-of-the-19-hijackers-special-travel-benefits/
This link has photos and names of each of the 15 Saudi hijackers. "Obama drops passport control requirements for Saudi Arabians entering U.S. Despite Fact Country Produced Most 9-11 Hijackers."

Back in 2002, the Saudi government admitted the 15 were Saudi citizens.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/02/06/saudi.htm

Official: 15 of 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia acknowledged for the first time that 15 of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers were Saudi citizens, but said Wednesday that the oil-rich kingdom bears no responsibility for their actions.
Previously, Saudi Arabia had said the citizenship of 15 of the 19 hijackers was in doubt despite U.S. insistence they were Saudis. But Interior Minister Prince Nayef told The Associated Press that Saudi leaders were shocked to learn 15 of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

"The names that we got confirmed that," Nayef said in an interview. "Their families have been notified."

Now flash forward to last January, when Obama's DHS announced special priority/reduced security for Saudis entering the US.
http://www.investigativeproject.org/3947/special-travel-benefit-for-saudis-a-slap-in

Saudi Arabia, the nation which produced 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks, is about to become one of a handful of countries whose travelers can bypass normal passport controls at major U.S. airports. Sources tell the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) that this will mark the first time that the Saudi government will have a direct role in vetting who is eligible for getting fast-tracked for entry into the United States.

An agreement to accept Saudi Arabian applicants into the Global Entry trusted traveler program drew little notice when it was announced in January. Now, some officials question why the country merits such a benefit – which is similar to a theme park "fast pass" to avoid long lines – when other allies like Germany and France are not yet included. A program for Israeli travelers was reached last May but has not been implemented.

Travelers approved for the program can skip the normal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lines starting next year and enter the country after providing their passports and fingerprints at a kiosk. Only Canada, Mexico, South Korea and the Netherlands currently enjoy the benefit, although pilot programs could expand it to a handful of others.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the agreement in January after meeting with Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. It "marks another major step forward in our partnership," Napolitano said at the time. "By enhancing collaboration with the Government of Saudi Arabia, we reaffirm our commitment to more effectively secure our two countries against evolving threats while facilitating legitimate trade and travel."

[woo me with science]

64. I keep running out of adequate words for the sick feeling.

Thank you for this post.

[progressoid]

9. But that doesn't cross a red line.

Its more of a purple, perhaps a mauve.

[newfie11]

10. Hypocrisy rules in this country

Anything to feed the bomb makers. The hell with everything else. Military complex businesses must make lots and lots of money.😡

[City Lights]

13. !

[woo me with science]

57. +1 Blood for money.

[enough]

11. Adding a link to another article about this arms sale, with video of cluster bomb.

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-to-sell-cluster-bombs-to-saudi-arabia-2013-8

This is from Business Insider. I have not been able to access the Foreign Policy link.

Thank you for posting this appalling story, Tierra_y_Libertad.

[snooper2]

12. Nice website you found and like, cool they support NewsMax

They think Condasleazy Rice is one of the 100 greatest thinkers too

[morningfog]

14. So the US isn't shipping cluster bombs to SA?

[snooper2]

16. I'll wait for a legitimate news organization instead of this trash and

"business insider"


I know the rules for sources is less stringent in GD than in LBN but come on!

[Solly Mack]

18. ...

http://www.defense.gov/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=5116

Textron Defense Systems, Wilmington, Mass., has been awarded a $640,786,442 modification (PZ00001) to a firm-fixed-price contract (FA8213-12-C-0064) for 1,300 cluster bomb units. Work will be performed at Wilmington, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2015. This contract involves foreign military sales (FMS) for Saudi Arabia. FMS funds in the amount of $410,218,248 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/OO-ALC/EBHKA, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/20/us-textron-bombs-idUSBRE97J0ZF20130820

The contract, which runs through the end of 2015, formalizes the sale of Textron's CBU-105 cluster bombers to Saudi Arabia, a deal that was first notified to Congress in December 2010.


http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/08/23/2505681/cluster-bombs-saudi-arabia/

The U.S. Department of Defense this week awarded a multi-million dollar contract to provide more than a thousand cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, despite a growing international pressure to halt their use.


Still laughing?

[snooper2]

19. At the original source, yes that place is a fucking joke...

Now that the story has legitimacy we can discuss the fact that we shouldn't be selling any weapons to the House of Saud-

[Go Vols]

37. Thanks for posting

the link that was contained in the Business Insider article.Facts are facts wherever they come from.

[Comrade Grumpy]

29. Interesting how "legitimate news organizations" have not run with this.

But Reuters has: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/20/us-textron-bombs-idUSBRE97J0ZF20130820

And so have the people who don't like cluster bombs:

http://aoav.org.uk/2013/sale-of-us-cluster-bombs-to-saudi-arabia/

And leftists and liberals like Z, Think Progress, and Common Dreams

And, of course, pro-Iranian media ran with it.

But no "legitimate news organizations" except for Reuters could be bothered.

[sabrina 1]

36. Nice, but off the mark, attempt to deflect. Don't deal with the issue, look for something, anything

to avoid the actual topic.

And as you can see, it was a dud. Did the US use Cluster Bombs in Iraq? Answer, to pre-empt next expected diversion and to save time:

Yes, yes they did. Our War Criminals Cluster Bombed a Market place in Iraq blowing to bits men women and children.

And we decided that we DO TOLERATE THESE THINGS so rather than NOT TOLERATE the killing of innocent victims, we exonerate them, we 'move forward' so we don't bother our extremely sensitive minds with such things.

Until we need an excuse for yet another invasion of yet another country on the PNAC list. Then, we find out 'conscience' all of a sudden. We talk about 'victims' as if we cared, btw, do you know the names of any of the victims that we care about 'today'? How about the Libya victims we left behind to fend for themselves despite their cries for help AFTER WE ACCOMPLISHED the REAL GOAL, transparent as it was then, and still is? Do you know what happened to THOSE victims? Does anyone who supported that crime, care?

I keep waiting to see something human regarding these victims, the Iraqi Victims, the Afghanistan Victims, the Libyan Victims and now the Syrian Victims, that we claime we care so much about.

I KNOW what happened to all the others. We talk about them in 'numbers'. But not as human beings, especially AFTER we invade their countries at which point we never mention them again.

[delrem]

47. +1 well said.

[LongTomH]

54. OK, try these......

Aljazeera: Critics decry US cluster bomb sales to Saudi Arabia

Business Insider: US To Sell Cluster Bombs To Saudi Arabia

Cluster Munitions Coalition: US Export of Cluster Munitons at Odds with International Ban Treaty

Reuters: Textron wins $641 million deal to build Saudi cluster bombs

The Motley Fool: Textron's Cluster Bombs Are Anything But Ordinary. This article has some interesting tech details about the cluster munitions we're selling and details of the record deal Textron is getting!

You could just do a news.google.com search on cluster bombs or cluster munitions yourself. There's plenty out there!

[KG]

15. climbing on up on to that moral high-ground

[pnwmom]

21. It isn't a global ban if the US, Russia, and China didn't sign onto it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Cluster_Munitions

In the map shown at the link, the purple areas show countries that ratified the convention. The blue areas show countries that signed the convention but whose legislatures haven't ratified it.

[woo me with science]

22. And Syria didn't sign the chemical weapons ban.

Syria is not a signatory to the CWC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3594133

[Celefin]

28. Yeah, but that's different...

We signed it, therefore we get to enforce it even in countries that didn't.
We could of course use the Geneva Convention as a legitimate reason - but then we might have to bomb ourselves as well or at least couldn't look as righteous.

An interesting thought: if we get to enforce the CW ban by bombing Syria on moral grounds, do the 80+ signatories to the cluster bomb ban get to enforce it by lobbing missiles at the US on moral grounds?

[woo me with science]

34. Ouch.

Now that's called cutting through the horseshit.

Thank you.

[Celefin]

42. You're welcome!

I've got three beautiful kids of my own and I'm so sick of the whole 'won't you think of the children' thing used to peddle acts of war (or terrorism, if it's not war) and atrocities as response to atrocities. On moral grounds, no less. The hypocrisy borders on insanity on this one.

[City Lights]

35. And remember, if any of the 80+ signatories to the cluster bomb ban enforce it by lobbing

missiles at the US on moral grounds, it won't be an act of war! A few missiles lobbed our way are nothing to get worked up over!

[Celefin]

46. Yep, the US will then repent, promise to never do it again and the President will step down

Then all the cluster bomb manufacturers and the bankers that supported them will go to prison.
And then... the worldwide carnage will continue almost exactly the way it did before (minus cluster munitions) and everybody will rejoice because civilians not killed or maimed by cluster munitions somehow are less dead than those killed and maimed by cluster munitions. We'd still have landmines for kids to step on years after the conflict ends, so that would still be provided for.
And they waged war happily ever after.

[Supersedeas]

59. remember how quaint the Geneva Convention is

[sabrina 1]

40. Well, there goes that argument. .

Unless you are of the opinion that there is only one country in the world that matters.

[woo me with science]

55. +1

[lsewpershad]

23. Where is the international outrage

[Dragonfli]

30. I know! Someone should "send a message" to the exporter of these indiscriminate WMD

Is it legal under the War Powers Act to execute punitive strikes against the USA by the USA

Maybe if we just lob missiles from ships off the coast it won't even be war and thus won't even count as aggression

[Iggo]

26. Crossin' one o' them there red lines, ain't we.

[polichick]

27. MIC! MIC! MIC!

[indepat]

31. But the production of weapons of mass carnage is such a profitable venture

for capitalists and the bidness of 'Murika is lucrative bidness for capitalists.

[indepat]

32. In Secretary Kerry's words: a moral obscenity

America is selling its soul to enable the capitalists' lucrative business of death creation for, after all, the bidness of America is bidness.

[atreides1]

38. Doesn't count!

The US didn't sign the agreement...like Syria didn't sign the CWC!

[GeorgeGist]

39. So much more discriminate that Sarin ... they leave blood and visible wounds.

Well if they leave anything at all.

[sabrina 1]

41. They didn't leave much when Bush used them in Iraq airc.

[L0oniX]

63. I hear that children love them ...they think they are toys and go to pick them up ....BOOM!

[blkmusclmachine]

43. !

[Wolf Frankula]

44. But It's OK if WE use them

Or sell them to a good customer. After all we're the GOOD Guys.

Wolf

[DeSwiss]

48. HEADLINE: ''Peace Prize Winner Sells Cluster Bombs To Arabs''

- Damn. Just damn.

K&R

[Divernan]

52. This thread wins the prize for today's Fresh Hell; what could be worse than cluster bombs.

Although the day is still young so knock on wood that Obama & his crew don't reveal even worse news. I don't think the article mentioned how some cluster bombs used by the Israelis in Palestine were designed like bright colored balls, to encourage children to pick them up.

http://mondoweiss.net/2011/04/on-a-lebanese-girl-who-lost-her-ability-to-speak.html

On a Lebanese girl who lost her ability to speak
Philip Weiss on April 21, 2011 17

The Arab spring is exposing the cruel double standard in the Middle East. Last night we posted a piece on the international condemnation of Gaddafi’s use of cluster bombs in Libya. Well as Abdelnasser Rashid points out, “Let’s also not forget that Israel indiscriminately used cluster bombs in Lebanon in 2006.” He pointed me to Haaretz: “We fired more than a million cluster bombs in Lebanon.”

“What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs,” the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war.

I have a story to tell on this subject. Last month my coeditor and I spoke to the U.N. Correspondents Association about the Goldstone Report. I had to kill some time in the U.N. lobby, and there is a small exhibit in the U.N.’s main hall of photographs from Lebanon of people maimed by cluster bombs. The pictures and stories are too much to take in. You see a boy who was playing soccer and kicked an object, and it blew up his leg. You see a farmer who was clearing land of stones, and lost a hand. Large black and white images of rural people, in their homes.

And then you see a picture of a girl with a sweet face, about 10, holding up her left hand. She is missing the digit of a finger. She reached for something in the yard, it was a cluster bomb, it blew up and destroyed a digit of her finger. Why am I dwelling on this little girl? Because the caption for her photograph said that she has not spoken since she was 7 years old, that this injury, just the loss of one digit, so traumatized her that she abandoned the world of speech.

[avaistheone1]

50. Spreading the love.

[xchrom]

51. 'moral high grounds' are where other wise smart people go to make spectacularly failed swan dives. n

[felix_numinous]

53. The Saudis never dirty themselves in direct war

but they'll just fund, supply and direct other nations and groups to do their bidding, like , uh, um...

[DirkGently]

58. And we refuse to ban landmines.

United States' shameful land mine policy
By refusing to join the Mine Ban Treaty, Obama shows disregard for international humanitarian law.

Last Tuesday, just before the Thanksgiving holiday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly revealed that President Obama would follow in President George W. Bush's footsteps and not sign the international Mine Ban Treaty. Many of us had hoped he would embrace President Clinton's pledge that the U.S. would join.

The 1997 treaty was a landmark accomplishment. For the first time in history, a group of governments and civil institutions joined together to ban a conventional weapon that had been used by virtually every fighting force in the world for decades.

Today, 156 nations are party to the treaty -- including Afghanistan, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, all of Europe except Finland (Poland has signed but not yet ratified), all of sub-Saharan Africa except Somalia, almost half of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (including Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and Algeria), and the entire Western Hemisphere, except for the United States and Cuba.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/01/opinion/la-oe-williams1-2009dec01

Apparently we have no trouble ignoring the log in our own eyes.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

60. kick

[kenny blankenship]

61. Uh Oh. Sounds like somebody can't obey the law and needs an ass whoopin!

Oh... right.

[uponit7771]

66. +1

[woo me with science]

68. kick

[EX500rider]

69. Actually Saudi Arabia has joined....

......South Korea, India, Oman, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates as purchasers of CBU-105 sensor fuzed weapons.

[EX500rider]

70. More info on the CBU-105

Really a anti-armor weapon then anti-civilian and the munitions are designed to go off right away if they don't acquire a target.

"First used during the 2003 Iraq war, the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon is a cluster type bomb that releases 10 29.6 kg (65 pound) BLU-108 submunitions that in turn ejects 4 smaller hockey puck shaped “skeet” robots that seek out and attack armored vehicles. Each computer controlled and radar equipped skeet is 95mm (3.75 inches) high, 127mm (5 inches) in diameter, and weights 3.4 kg (7.5 lb) and contains laser and heat (infrared) sensors. The CBU-105 can be used to attack formations of tanks, giving most of the submunitions an opportunity to destroy a vehicle.

CBU-105 is a 450 kg (1,000 pound), GPS guided bomb. The 40 skeet submunitions use their sensors to seek out armored vehicles. If a skeet spots one, the guidance system maneuvers the submunition towards the vehicle and fires a shaped charge that generates a self-forging warhead that is basically a bolt of molten metal travelling at high speed. This penetrates the thinner top armor of the vehicle and messes up the insides. This is similar to the Iranian shaped charge IEDs used in Iraq. If the submunition radar does not spot (via its internal computer and library of vehicle types) a tank or other armored vehicle, it attacks any vehicle within a hundred meters or so. If there are no vehicles, the submunition detonates on the ground so that it does not lay around the battlefield causing a hazard to civilians or friendly troops.

http://strategypage.com/htmw/htairw/20130913.aspx