Weapons

U.N. investigator warns U.S. on use of drones

A U.N. human rights investigator warned the United States October 27 that its use of unmanned warplanes to carry out targeted executions may violate international law. Philip Alston said that unless the Obama administration explains the legal basis for targeting particular individuals and the measures it is taking to comply with international humanitarian law which prohibits arbitrary executions, “it will increasingly be perceived as carrying out indiscriminate killings in violation of international law.”

Alston, the U.N. Human Rights Council’s investigator on extra-judicial, summary and arbitrary executions, raised the issue of U.S. Predator drones in a report to the General Assembly’s human rights committee, saying he has become increasingly concerned at the dramatic increase in their use since June, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Alston said the U.S. response — that the Geneva-based council and the General Assembly have no role in regard to killings during an armed conflict — “is simply untenable.”

“That would remove the great majority of issues that come before these bodies right now,” Alston said. “The onus is really on the government of the United States to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary executions, extrajudicial executions are not, in fact, being carried out through the use of these weapons.”

Alston, a law professor at New York University, said that while there may be circumstances where the use of drones “to carry out targeted executions” is consistent with international law, this can only be determined in light of information on the legal basis for selecting certain individuals.

Alston said the U.S. should provide details on its use of drones, what precautions it takes to ensure the unmanned aircraft are used strictly for purposes consistent with international humanitarian law, and what measures exist to evaluate the outcome when their weapons have been used. “Otherwise, you have the really problematic bottom line — which is that the Central Intelligence Agency is running a program which is killing significant numbers of people, and there is absolutely no accountability in terms of the relevant international laws,” he said.

– edited from The Associated Press, 27 October 2009
PeaceMeal, Nov/December 2009

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, articles in this publication are distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

U.S. is odd man out of cluster bomb ban

When representatives of 111 nations agreed May 28 on a new international treaty to ban the production, use, stockpiling and export of all existing cluster bombs, the United States was absent. The U.S. government did not attend the negotiations in Dublin, Ireland, and actively worked to undermine them. Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan, all leading cluster bomb makers like the United States, also boycotted the May talks. But in the end, all other major NATO countries joined with the majority in committing their governments to stop using these weapons and to destroy their existing stockpiles within eight years.

In a major diplomatic defeat for the United States, Britain broke ranks and joined the other 110 nations. Though many U.S. and British military officials consider cluster bombs valuable weapons, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown overruled elements of his own military and threw his support behind the ban. The new Convention on Cluster Munitions, which international leaders expect to sign in December, also requires governments to clear existing cluster munition minefields and to provide adequate assistance to individuals and communities affected by cluster munitions.

A cluster bomb is a large bomb that is dropped from high altitude, descends toward the earth, and explodes at low altitude dispersing hundreds of tiny bomblets. The bomblets descend further and explode when they detect proximity to the earth, shooting tiny pellets of steel in every direction. When the pellets strike people, they tear them apart.

Cluster bombs are designed to kill or maim every living thing in an area as large as two or three football fields. The vast majority of victims of cluster bombs have been civilians rather than combatants. Moreover, some bomblets fail to explode, resulting in a widely dispersed minefield that threatens civilians for years after the fighting stops. In Vietnam, people are still being killed as a result of cluster bombs and other ordnance left from the war there. The brightly colored, butterfly shaped bomblets are especially attractive to children, who think they are a toy.

According to a June report by the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. dropped more than 1,200 cluster bombs — containing nearly 250,000 submunitions — in Afghanistan from 2001-2002. And U.S. and British forces used about 13,000 of the bombs — with more than 1.8 million bomblets — during the first three weeks of the “shock and awe” invasion of Iraq.

Cluster bombs were also used by the U.S. in the 2004 siege of Fallujah, a city of 350,000 people. A group of Iraqi doctors, belonging to the humanitarian organization Doctors For Iraq, went into Fallujah to provide emergency medical aid to civilians. One said, “In the third day of the siege, they used the cluster bomb. And in that day we didn’t work as doctors. We just collected the heads of children and women — heads and limbs. And I remember our duty was just to find the appropriate limb with the appropriate body and head so we can put it in one bag, so we can prepare it for being buried. That night was six hours. It was so long, six hours!”

The Pentagon announced on July 7 that it would continue to use and export even the most unreliable cluster bombs for the next decade. A three-page memo signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates would require more than 99 percent of the bomblets in a cluster bomb to detonate, but not until after 2018. The memo states that “blanket elimination of cluster munitions is unacceptable.”

The new policy represents a real step backward. Since 2005 it has been Pentagon policy to only buy new cluster bombs with a dud rate of less than 1 percent.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, who has led efforts to outlaw cluster munitions, said a defense policy issued in early 2001 by then- Defense Secretary William Cohen called for a similar reduction in submunitions from the cluster bombs by 2005. “Now the Bush administration’s ‘new’ policy is to wait another 10 years,” said Leahy, calling it “another squandered opportunity for U.S. leadership.”

A bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate last year to limit the use, sale, and transfer of cluster munitions. The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007 (S 594) was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations and no action has been taken on it since. Please urge your senators to sign on as co-sponsors.

– edited from the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines, National Catholic Reporter, The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times
PeaceMeal, Sept/October 2008

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

IED - ‘Made in the USA’

Roadside bombings of American troops in Iraq were occurring with unnerving regularity when military investigators made a disturbing discovery: American-made computer circuits sold to a trading company in the United Arab Emirates had turned up in the bomb detonators.

American officials have been increasingly alarmed about trade in the U.A.E. since 2002, when Commerce Department spot checks of factories and freight forwarders made it clear that dual-use American products subject to export controls, including computer equipment, aircraft parts and specialized metals that have a potential military use, were being diverted on a wide scale to Iran, Syria and Pakistan.

Although the U.A.E. government has taken some superficial action, executives at several of the companies suspected of violating American export controls said they had faced no increased scrutiny.

– The New York Times, April 2, 2008
PeaceMeal, March/April 2008

Many leave firearms loaded

About 1.7 million U.S. children live in homes that have loaded and unlocked guns, according to what is described as the first comprehensive survey of gun storage in homes across the country. The study, published Sept. 6 in the journal Pediatrics, found that 2.5 percent of children live in homes with loaded and unsecured firearms. Estimates from the early 1990s had put the percentage at 10 percent.

The new results suggest a decline, but that doesn't mean there's cause for celebration, said Catherine Okoro, a study author. "That's still too many children to be put at risk," said Okoro, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The study is based on a 2002 telephone survey of about 241,000 adults and is the first to provide data on gun storage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, its authors said.

Nationally, 33 percent of adults said they kept firearms in or around their home. The highest percentage was in Wyoming, where 63 percent said they had firearms. The lowest percentage was reported in the District of Columbia, where 5 percent reported having guns at home. The district has long-standing bans on handguns and semiautomatic weapons.

A little more than 4 percent of the respondents nationally said they keep guns loaded and unlocked, and 2.5 percent reported having loaded, unlocked firearms in homes where children lived. Alabama had the highest proportion of homes in which children lived and guns were kept loaded and unlocked.

– The Associated Press, Sept. 7, 2005
PeaceMeal, Sept/October 2005