tangent4ronpaul
04-15-2011, 11:30 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/world/africa/16libya.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at a news conference in Berlin, said she was “not aware” of the specific use of cluster or other heavy weapons in Misurata, but said, “I’m not surprised by anything that Colonel Qadaffi and his forces do.”
The cluster munitions were visible in use late Thursday night, in the form of what appeared to be 120-millimeter mortar rounds that burst in the air over the city, scattering high-explosive bomblets below.
Remnants of expended shells, examined and photographed by The New York Times, show the rounds to be MAT-120 cargo mortar projectiles, each of which carries and distributes 21 smaller submunitions designed both to kill people and penetrate light armor.
Components from the 120-millimeter rounds, according to their markings, were manufactured in Spain in 2007 — one year before Spain signed the international Convention on Cluster Munitions and pledged to destroy its stocks. Libya is not a signatory to the convention, while the Spanish Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.
(The NYT's forgot to mention one inconvenient fact....)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Cluster_Munitions
The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is an international treaty that prohibits the use, transfer and stockpile of cluster bombs, a type of explosive weapon which scatters submunitions ("bomblets") over an area. The convention was adopted on 30 May 2008 in Dublin,[6] and was opened for signature on 3 December 2008 in Oslo. It entered into force on 1 August 2010, six months after it was ratified by 30 states.[2] As of 14 March 2011, 56 states have ratified it and another 52 have signed but not yet ratified it.[3] The UK, France, Germany and Japan are among the states that have ratified, whilst Brazil, India, Israel, Pakistan, China, Russia, and the United States have not signed the Convention.
And we use them often....
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at a news conference in Berlin, said she was “not aware” of the specific use of cluster or other heavy weapons in Misurata, but said, “I’m not surprised by anything that Colonel Qadaffi and his forces do.”
The cluster munitions were visible in use late Thursday night, in the form of what appeared to be 120-millimeter mortar rounds that burst in the air over the city, scattering high-explosive bomblets below.
Remnants of expended shells, examined and photographed by The New York Times, show the rounds to be MAT-120 cargo mortar projectiles, each of which carries and distributes 21 smaller submunitions designed both to kill people and penetrate light armor.
Components from the 120-millimeter rounds, according to their markings, were manufactured in Spain in 2007 — one year before Spain signed the international Convention on Cluster Munitions and pledged to destroy its stocks. Libya is not a signatory to the convention, while the Spanish Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.
(The NYT's forgot to mention one inconvenient fact....)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Cluster_Munitions
The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is an international treaty that prohibits the use, transfer and stockpile of cluster bombs, a type of explosive weapon which scatters submunitions ("bomblets") over an area. The convention was adopted on 30 May 2008 in Dublin,[6] and was opened for signature on 3 December 2008 in Oslo. It entered into force on 1 August 2010, six months after it was ratified by 30 states.[2] As of 14 March 2011, 56 states have ratified it and another 52 have signed but not yet ratified it.[3] The UK, France, Germany and Japan are among the states that have ratified, whilst Brazil, India, Israel, Pakistan, China, Russia, and the United States have not signed the Convention.
And we use them often....