Sadly and truthfully,the weapons of mass destruction ( WMDs) belong to the US and Israel and not Iraq nor Palestine
Last update - 03:50 10/01/2009
U.S. seeks to ship hundreds of tons of arms to Israel : By Reuters
The United States is seeking to hire a merchant ship to deliver hundreds of tons of arms to Israel from Greece later this month, tender documents seen by Reuters show.
The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command said the ship was to carry 325 standard 20-foot containers of what is listed as "ammunition" on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January.
A "hazardous material" designation on the manifest mentions explosive substances and detonators, but no other details were given.
"Shipping 3,000-odd tons of ammunition in one go is a lot," one broker said, on condition of anonymity.
"This (kind of request) is pretty rare and we haven't seen much of it quoted in the market over the years," he added.
The U.S. Defense Department, contacted by Reuters on Friday in Washington, had no immediate comment.
The MSC transports armor and military supplies for the U.S. armed forces aboard its own fleet, but regularly hires merchant ships if logistics so require.
The request for the ship was made on Dec. 31, with the first leg of the charter to arrive no later than January 25 and the second at the end of the month.
The tender for the vessel follows the hiring of a commercial ship to carry a much larger consignment of ordnance in December from the United States to Israel ahead of air strikes in the Gaza Strip.
A German shipping firm which won that tender confirmed the order when contacted by Reuters but declined to comment further.
Shipping brokers: Charters are 'rare'
Shipping brokers in London who have specialized in moving arms for the British and U.S. military in the past said such ship charters to Israel were rare.
Israel is one of America's closest allies and both nations regularly sell arms to each other.
A senior military analyst in London who declined to be named said that, because of the timing, the shipments could be "irregular" and linked to the Gaza offensive.
The ship hired by the MSC in December was for a much larger cargo of arms, tender documents showed.
That stipulated a ship to be chartered for 42 days capable of carrying 989 standard 20-foot containers from Sunny Point, North Carolina to Ashdod.
The tender document said the vessel had to be capable of "carrying 5.8 million pounds (2.6 million kg) of net explosive weight", which specialist brokers said was a very large quantity.
The ship was requested early last month to load on December 15.
In September, the U.S. Congress approved the sale of 1,000 bunker-buster missiles to Israel. The GPS-guided GBU-39 is said to be one of the most accurate bombs in the world.
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U.S. House passes landslide vote backing Israel in fight against Hamas : By Reuters
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a resolution "recognizing Israel's right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza" by a majority of 390-5.
Lawmakers in Washington routinely pass nonbinding resolutions supporting Israel during Middle East crises.
The Senate on Thursday backed Israel's battle against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and the House of Representatives followed on Friday.
Even U.S. lawmakers who express sympathy for the Palestinians have hesitated to call themselves pro-Palestinian and voice strong support for the security of Israel as well, hewing to decades of close U.S.-Israeli ties.
"When these events occur, there's almost a knee-jerk reaction of Congress that endorses 1,000 percent what Israel is doing," said Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat and Lebanese-American who has voted against some of the measures and did so again on Friday.
"Israel is our ally.... It always has been, with which I perfectly agree. But I don't believe in allowing that to blind us to what is in our best interests, or giving knee-jerk approval to anything Israel does. We don't do that with any other ally," he told Reuters.
Washington has been Israel's closest ally since 1948, when President Harry Truman made the United States the first country to recognize Israel.
Harry Reid, who leads the Democratic majority in the Senate, gave voice to the depth of the relationship when he said on Thursday, "Our resolution reflects the will of the State of Israel and the will of the American people."
The Senate measure offered "unwavering commitment" to Israel. It recognized "its right to act in self-defense to protect its citizens against acts of terrorism" and urged a ceasefire that would keep Hamas from firing rockets at Israel.
That closely tracked Republican President George W. Bush's comments on the crisis, said Ric Stoll, professor of political science at Rice University, who questioned whether it helped U.S. diplomats trying to broker a cease-fire.
Landslide votes
"You don't have to say Hamas are nice folks," Stoll said.
"(But) how do you convince supporters of the Palestinians to pressure Hamas to go for a cease-fire, if your statements look like you are tilting heavily towards Israel?"
The measure which the House passed Friday noted that the humanitarian situation in Gaza "is becoming more acute" but did not rebuke Israel.
The House has passed similar measures in recent years by landslides.
In 2006, the House voted 410-8 to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah for "unprovoked and reprehensible armed attacks against Israel" and supported Israel's incursion into Lebanon.
In 2004, the vote was 407-9 to support a statement by Bush that it was "unrealistic" to expect Israel to return completely to pre-1967 borders. In 2003, it was 399-5 to support Israel's forceful response to Palestinian attacks as justified
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Pressure for Ban on Cluster Bombs as Israel Is Accused of Targeting Civilians
Saturday, 2 September, 2006 @ 6:14 PM
By Ben Russell, The Independent
Pressure for an international ban on cluster bombs has intensified as Israel stands accused of littering southern Lebanon with thousands of unexploded bombs in the final hours of its war against Hizbollah.
Campaigners yesterday accused the Israel Defence Force of leaving a "minefield" of deadly bomblets in villages and fields after firing hundreds of cluster shells, rockets and bombs across its northern border in the three days before hostilities ended earlier this month.
United Nations officials said that 12 people had been killed, and another 49 injured by such bombs since the war ended and that the casualty rate was likely to rise.
The Israeli government insists that it did not target civilians during the conflict and says all weaponry used was in accordance with international law.
Israel insists its use of weaponry is legal. However, anti-landmine campaigners have been pressing for an international ban on their use, arguing that cluster bombs are indiscriminate and their use in populated areas may contravene international law.
Mine-clearance specialists said densely populated southern Lebanon was blighted by thousands of unexploded bomblets, which can kill or maim if they are moved or touched. In one case this week 35 bomblets were cleared from in and around one house, while in another a woman lost her hands when a bomblet apparently became tangled in her tobacco crop.
Yesterday the United Nations official in charge of bomb disposal in southern Lebanon said his staff had identified 390 strikes by cluster munitions, and had disposed of more than 2,000 bomblets since the ceasefire.
Chris Clarke, head of the UN mine action service in southern Lebanon, said: "This is without a doubt the worst post-conflict cluster bomb contamination I have ever seen."
In a presentation at the international conference on conventional weapons in Geneva yesterday, he said that the "vast majority" of cluster bombs had been fired by the Israeli Defence Force in the final three days of the conflict, prompting campaigners to accuse the Israeli government of targeting civilian populations.
Mr Clarke, who has worked in bomb clearance in Sudan, Kosovo, Kuwait and Bosnia, said the number of confirmed strikes was "climbing every day". He said: "They are everywhere in south Lebanon. We are still looking. Pretty much the whole of south Lebanon is carpeted with these things." He predicted that specialists would take up to six months to remove the worst threat from unexploded weaponry and said full clearance could take a further year.
Speaking from Lebanon yesterday Sean Sutton, of the Mines Action Group, which has 80 staff clearing the unexploded bombs, said: "This is pretty widespread across the whole of southern Lebanon. There are literally thousands of unexploded munitions in and around the remains of people's homes and on the roads and streets."
Simon Conway, director of the British charity Landmine Action, condemned Israel's "cynical" use of the weapons. He said: "The premeditated targeting of residential areas with high failure-rate cluster munitions in the final days of the conflict means that the rubble-filled villages of southern Lebanon have been deliberately turned into minefields that will indiscriminately kill civilians for years to come."
Yesterday the charity published a report highlighting the use of cluster bombs in Lebanon and calling for an immediate international ban on their use.
Frank Cook, Labour chairman of the Commons all-party Landmine Group, added: "These weapons are totally indiscriminate. For them to be used by Israel among a civilian population is quite outrageously inexcusable."
Susan Kramer, the Liberal Democrat international development spokesman, said: "Cluster munitions need to be outlawed once and for all. Lebanon is still suffering from their use by the Israelis in 1978 and 1982."
A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London insisted the country's armed forces did not target civilians. He said: "Israel does not use any weaponry that is forbidden under international law or conventions."
Unexploded hazards
Cluster bombs are designed to deliver a devastating blitz on military vehicles and troop emplacements, each device scattering hundreds of explosive "bomblets" over a wide area.
However, their use has become highly controversial, with campaigners likening them to landmines, warning that strikes can leave hundreds of deadly unexploded weapons strewn across a battlefield decades after the troops have left.
The individual devices, about the size of a tin can, can inflict severe or even fatal injuries if they are moved or handled by unsuspecting civilians returning to an affected area.
UN mine clearance experts have identified 390 strikes by Israeli cluster bombs in its recent war in Lebanon. Munitions include American-made M42 and M47 shells which each contain about 80 bomblets. UN staff have also found the remains of Israeli-manufactured M85 weapons, which are fired by rocket and contain 644 bomblets. They say that American-made cluster bombs dropped from aircraft have also been used.
Bomblets are designed to explode on impact. However, campaigners say that a high proportion fail to detonate and remain as a hazard for civilians. Experts in Lebanon say that up to half of the bomblets dropped during the recent conflict remain unexploded.
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