<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br clear="all"></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><font size="4"><b><a href="http://fair.org/home/action-alert-nyt-gives-a-false-pass-to-us-on-cluster-bomb-sales/">FAIR</a></b></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Sept. 3, 2015</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><h1 class="" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'PT Sans',san-serif;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;line-height:28px"><font size="6">Action Alert: NYT Gives a False Pass to US on Cluster Bomb Sales</font></h1><div id="fair-byline" style="padding-bottom:10px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:24px">By <a href="http://fair.org/?s=Jim%20Naureckas" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">Jim Naureckas</a></div><div class="" style="clear:both;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:24px"><div class="" style="padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:2px;clear:both;min-height:33px"><div class="" style="float:left;padding-left:10px;width:110px"></div></div><div class="" style="clear:both"></div><div class=""><div id="attachment_5574782" class="" style="float:right;margin:0px 0px 0px 10px;text-align:center;padding:5px 0px 0px 1px;border:1px solid rgb(221,221,221);width:361px;background:rgb(244,244,244)"><a href="http://fair.org/new/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ClusterBomb.jpg" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none"><img class="" src="http://fair.org/new/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ClusterBomb.jpg" alt="Part of a US-made cluster bomb found in Yemen. (photo: Human Rights Watch)" width="351" height="263" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></a><p class="" style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px;font-size:11px;line-height:12px"><em>Part of a US-made cluster bomb found in Yemen. (photo: Human Rights Watch)</em></p></div><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px"><em>See “Update” below.</em></p><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">The <strong>New York Times</strong>‘ Rick Gladstone (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/world/banned-cluster-bombs-were-used-in-five-countries-report-says.html" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">9/3/15</a>) has an article on the use of cluster bombs—aptly described as the “widely outlawed munitions that kill and maim indiscriminately”—in conflicts in Libya, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen, five countries that have not signed the <a href="http://www.clusterconvention.org/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">Convention on Cluster Munitions</a>, which banned the production, sale and use of these weapons in 2010.</p><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">Writes Gladstone:</p><blockquote style="font-size:15px;margin:0px;padding:0px 28px 20px 38px;background-image:url(http://fair.org/blog/wp-content/themes/lexicon/images/blockquote.png);background-repeat:no-repeat"><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">The use of these weapons was criticized by all 117 countries that have joined the treaty, which took effect five years ago. Their use was also criticized by a number of others, including the United States, that have not yet joined the treaty but have abided by its provisions.</p></blockquote><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">This is just wrong: The Convention not only bans the use of cluster bombs—which the US military used against Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq before the treaty went into effect, but <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/15/united-states-aims-low-cluster-munitions" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">did not use</a> subsequently in its air attacks on Libya—it also mandates that signatories are “never under any circumstances to…develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, cluster munitions.”</p><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">As Human Rights Watch (<a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/03/yemen-saudi-led-airstrikes-used-cluster-munitions" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">5/3/15</a>) recently reported, “Credible evidence indicates that the Saudi-led coalition used banned cluster munitions supplied by the United States in airstrikes against Houthi forces in Yemen” this year. The weapon in question is the CBU-105, manufactured in Wilmington, Massachusetts–and “banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” HRW notes. The report specifies:</p><blockquote style="font-size:15px;margin:0px;padding:0px 28px 20px 38px;background-image:url(http://fair.org/blog/wp-content/themes/lexicon/images/blockquote.png);background-repeat:no-repeat"><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">In August 2013, the US Department of Defense concluded a <a href="http://www.defense.gov/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=5116" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">contract</a> for the manufacture of 1,300 CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons for Saudi Arabia by Textron. The contract stipulated that delivery of the weapons should be completed by December 2015. Human Rights Watch does not know when deliveries began, or if they have finished.</p><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">Additionally, the UAE received an unknown number of CBU-105 from Textron Defense Systems in June 2010, fulfilling a contract <a href="http://investor.textron.com/newsroom/news-releases/press-release-details/2007/Textron-Defense-Systems-and-UAE-Armed-Forces-Sign-Sensor-Fuzed-Weapon-Contract/default.aspx" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">announced</a> in November 2007.</p></blockquote><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">Even were the Saudis (or the United Arab Emirates) not using the cluster bombs, the US simply making and transferring them (and stockpiling them in its own arsenal) clearly violates the Convention. Their use by the US’s allies presumably puts Washington in conflict with another provision forbidding parties to “assist” others in activities contrary to the treaty.</p><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">Aside from the inaccuracy of claiming that the US has abided by the provisions of the Convention, the <strong>Times</strong> article fails to follow the principles of newsworthiness. For a US-based paper like the <strong>Times</strong> with a largely American audience, the fact that the United States is making and selling some of the deadly weapons whose use is the subject of the article ought to be a central point. Instead, the <strong>Times</strong>‘ willingness to <a href="http://fair.org/home/missing-from-reports-of-yemeni-carnage-washingtons-responsibility/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">play down</a> Washington’s role in conflicts it reports on has led it to publish certifiable falsehoods.</p><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px"><strong>ACTION:</strong> Please write to the <strong>New York Times</strong> and ask them to correct the false claim that the US is abiding by the provisions of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.</p><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px"><strong>CONTACT:</strong> The <strong>New York Times</strong> accepts requests for corrections at<a href="mailto:nytnews@nytimes.com" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">nytnews@nytimes.com</a>. Remember that respectful communication is the most effective.</p><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px"><strong>UPDATE:</strong> A few hours after FAIR issued this Action Alert, the <strong>New York Times</strong> appended a correction to its <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/world/banned-cluster-bombs-were-used-in-five-countries-report-says.html?_r=0" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">piece</a>:</p><blockquote style="font-size:15px;margin:0px;padding:0px 28px 20px 38px;background-image:url(http://fair.org/blog/wp-content/themes/lexicon/images/blockquote.png);background-repeat:no-repeat"><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">An earlier version of this article misstated the position of the United States regarding the treaty banning cluster munitions. According to the Cluster Munition Coalition, while the United States has reduced its supply of cluster munitions, it reserves the right to use, transfer and stockpile them. The United States is not among the countries that abide by the treaty’s provisions even though they have not joine<span class="">d the treaty.</span></p></blockquote><div class=""><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">Perhaps more importantly, the story has been rewritten to include the fact that US-made cluster bombs continue to be used:</p><blockquote style="font-size:15px;margin:0px;padding:0px 28px 20px 38px;background-image:url(http://fair.org/blog/wp-content/themes/lexicon/images/blockquote.png);background-repeat:no-repeat"><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">The United States, which is among the countries that have not signed the treaty, still produces and exports cluster munitions. In a telephone interview, Ms. Wareham said that although the United States had sharply reduced its supply of cluster munitions, at least three different types of American-made cluster munitions had been used by Saudi-led forces this year in the Yemen conflict.</p><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">“The United States reserves the right to use, transfer and stockpile the munitions, unfortunately, so we cannot say they abide by its provisions,” she said.</p></blockquote><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">FAIR appreciates the correction and the expanded story. Thanks to all those who participated by writing to the <strong>Times</strong> or helping to spread the word.</p></div><hr><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px"><em>Jim Naureckas is the editor of <strong><a href="http://www.fair.org/" style="color:rgb(89,109,159);text-decoration:none">FAIR.org</a></strong>.</em></p></div></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><b style="font-size:10px;color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">=========================================</b><br></div><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>CHUCK SEARCY</b></span></font><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>International Advisor, Project RENEW</b></span></font></div><div><b style="font-size:10px;color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">Vice President, Veterans For Peace Chapter 160</b><br></div><div><b style="font-size:10px;color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">Co-Chair, NGO Agent Orange Working Group</b><br></div><div><b style="font-size:10px;color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">VN +8 490 342 0769</b><br></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>E <a href="mailto:chuckusvn@gmail.com" target="_blank">chuckusvn@gmail.com</a></b></span></font></div><div><b style="font-size:10px;color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">Sk chucksearcy</b><br></div><div><b style="color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10px">=========================================</b><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b><br></b></span></font></div></div></div></div></div>
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