Each year, the United States ships “military supplies” to Israel. This isn’t military aid but rather billions in primarily munitions that are designated as “offshore storage” for the US Department of Defense in order to replenish munitions used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each year, these munitions are sold without the “knowledge” of the United States, year after year, billions in munitions, much of it illegal technology transfer or designated “weapons of mass destruction.”
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
Today, the United States and Great Britain threatened Libya with direct military action if attacks using advanced and prohibited weapons continue. Special operations units of Britain’s SAS, supplemented groups from several American agencies and commands are currently assessing the situation “on the ground’ in Libya. Reports indicate the possible deployment of one tactical nuclear weapon against a rebel supply depot several days ago.
Sources in both Britain and the United States also report there is evidence of the deployment of chemical weapons and that Libya’s stock of illegal cluster munitions has been drawn upon in early fighting.
Of western leaders, British Prime Minister David Cameron has been the most outspoken, as reported in the UK Telegraph:
The Prime Minister disclosed that he would not rule out “the use of military assets” as Britain “must not tolerate this regime using military forces against its own people”.
Britain and America are also thought to be considering arming rebel forces in Libya. Adding to growing concern about the crumbling regime’s ability to commit last desperate acts of mass murder, British sources have disclosed that Libya still has stocks of mustard gas chemicals.Sir John Major (former Prime Minister) backed the stance and made clear that he believes the option of military force should not be removed from the table, if Qaddafi uses chemical weapons, such as mustard gas, on his own people. But he said that the use of armed force should be “the last resort” and should be backed by overwhelming international support through the United Nations.
Asked if the international community should toughen its stance towards Libya if Qaddafi unleashes chemical weapons against his people, Sir John said: “I think it would and I think it should.”
It was impossible to rule out Qaddafi resorting to the use of remaining stocks of mustard gas, he suggested: “One is concerned because some of the things he appears to be saying and doing suggest he is not perhaps fully aware of what is happening in his own country and some of his comments, frankly, seem deranged.
“But one would hope that it isn’t going to happen.”
The Telegraph goes further, citing the dangers of chemical warfare and indicating that Cameron is clearly behind the oft discussed and highly controversial “No-Fly Zone” requested by forces opposing Qaddafi:
Mr. Cameron told MPs that Britain and its allies were considering using fighter jets to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, patrolling and shooting down Libyan aircraft ordered to attack protesters.
The Pentagon announced that the Americans had begun “repositioning forces” around Libya to provide “flexibility”. The French also announced that they would back a possible military intervention with NATO partners.
The warnings were sounded after Qaddafi was accused of ordering Libyan aircraft to attack a radio station being used by rebels in the city of Benghazi. An arms depot being used by anti-government forces was also blown up in the town of Ajdabiya, 100 miles further south.
Despite a promise in 2003 to give up weapons of mass destruction, Qaddafi is thought to have retained as much as 14 tons of the chemicals required to create mustard gas.
The stocks are said to be stored in secret secure facilities in the Libyan desert. The chemicals would need to be mixed and loaded into shells before they could be used as weapons, but are “still a concern,” said a senior British government source. “We want to make sure they’re destroyed.”
Despite weeks of pleading by Libyan freedom fighters and the contradictory announcement by Prime Minister David Cameron, American Secretary of State Clinton announced today their request for a “No Fly Zone” over Libya is denied. As the Gaddafi “money machine” goes into gear, “renting” Israel’s public relation, media and lobbying stranglehold on America and Britain, the inevitability of a spiral into civil war and soaring oil prices takes hold. Reports indicate that one tactical nuclear weapon may have been used by Libya along with cluster bombs and, more recently, reports that supplies of poison gas and biological “materials” are being distributed to “special units” of forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi’s rule.
No mention is made of the role played by NATO or Israel in Qaddafi’s desperate last minute gamble to remain in power.
CLUSTER MUNITIONS
There is a reason forces fighting Qaddafi’s, forces that should be deeply suspicious of the United States and the wave of destruction her policies have left across the much of the world, now turn to such a dangerous and uncertain direction for help. “Rebels” in Libya are facing, not Mubarak’s thugs in Cairo but advanced weaponry, some of it banned by international convention, weapons now being used by Libya on her own people. The most devastating of these weapons is the cluster bomb.
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Cluster bombs are munitions that disperse “bomblets” across a wide area, not just killing everything but leaving behind a “zone of death” for years to come. “Bomblets” don’t all explode, some stay behind as land mines. These are weapons that are meant to deny an enemy use of runways, killing the personnel that come to repair damaging caused by craters left by iron bombs. Repair crews, medical first responders, these are the secondary “kills” of cluster bombs. These munitions remain a danger for decades, killing and maiming children, endangering farmers and leaving entire regions virtually uninhabitable. Laos and Iraq and cited publicly as the worst areas. Gaza and Lebanon are never mentioned though they continue to be under attack, even to this day, by these weapons. Now its Libya’s turn.
Libya has a large inventory of illegal cluster munitions, bombs made in the United States. One might ask how he got these and why the United States would have sold him weapons that are deemed illegal by the Convention on Cluster Munitions that came into effect on August 1, 2010.
One hundred and eight* countries have signed the treaty, 38* of which have ratified it.
The convention “bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions and calls for the destruction of stockpiles within eight years, clearance of cluster munitions-contaminated land within 10 years, and assistance to cluster munitions survivors and affected communities,” according to CMC.
With few countries capable of manufacturing these munitions and all but a very few respecting the international ban, how have rogue nations managed to acquire these American munitions for use against, what do we call them, dissidents? Palestinian terrorists? Rebels? Civilians?
THE REAL “LORDS OF WAR” ARMS “BLACK SUPER-MARKET”
Each year, the United States ships “military supplies” to Israel. This isn’t military aid but rather billions in primarily munitions that are designated as “offshore storage” for the US Department of Defense in order to replenish munitions used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each year, these munitions are sold without the “knowledge” of the United States, year after year, billions in munitions, much of it illegal technology transfer or designated “weapons of mass destruction.”
A giant loophole has been written into the storage agreement. Israel, the location of this “offshore arms depot” is allowed to “dip into” the inventory, not just for its own use but for “other purposes deemed applicable and consistent with the security of Israel.” Israel interprets this as a “green light” to sell this US stockpile on the open market. Each year, the American tax payer pays for billions in weapons, not just to see them “disappear.” That would be bad enough. Most, not some but most, go to nations known to supply terrorists or cited for egregious human rights violations.
The Americans involved in keeping this semi-covert policy “dark” are regular guests in Tel Aviv, whether members of Congress or military “brass.” Peddling these Weapons of Mass Destruction, cluster bombs are designated as such, on the “open market” is the way many Americans express their “solidarity” with Israel.
By “open market,” we mean to those who would otherwise be denied such things, generally because of blockades, sanctions and other international prohibitions. The buyers are generally involved in conflicts looked on unfavorably by the world community or considered “rogue states,” such as Sudan, North Korea and Libya.
Of those items the United States steers into this vague “black hole” inventory in Israel, the “rock star” of the munitions supermarket world is the cluster bomb.
Cluster bombs are “terrorism” incarnate. The largest user, of course, is the United States, followed by Israel. From the Israeli newspaper Haaretz:
“The forces that entered the Gaza Strip last night represented the largest ground operation in the coastal territory since Israel withdrew in the summer of 2005. Palestinian sources reported massive artillery shelling and air force strikes accompanying the advance of the infantry, armored and combat engineering corps.
The ground invasion was preceded by large-scale artillery shelling from around 4 P.M., intended to “soften” the targets as artillery batteries deployed along the Strip in recent days began bombarding Hamas targets and open areas near the border. Hundreds of shells were fired, including cluster bombs aimed at open areas.”
ROGUES AND WMD’S
Since the First Gulf War in 1991, the United States has set a rather schizophrenic standard for application of international law regarding intervention in the internal affairs of nations deemed a “threat.” The “first war,” ostensibly to roll back Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait Congressman Ron Paul cites America’s inconsistencies on the floor of the House of Representatives: [Congressional Record: January 26, 2011 (House)] [Page H503]
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, how did the 20-year war get started?
It had been long assumed that the United States Government, shortly before Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990, gave Saddam Hussein a green light to attack. A State Department cable recently published by WikiLeaks confirmed that U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie did indeed have a conversation with Saddam Hussein one week prior to Iraq’s August 1, 1990, invasion of Kuwait.
Amazingly, the released cable was entitled,
“Saddam’s Message of Friendship to President Bush.” (published below)
In it, Ambassador Glaspie affirmed to Saddam that “the President had instructed her to broaden and deepen our relations with Iraq.” As Saddam Hussein outlined Iraq’s ongoing border dispute with Kuwait, Ambassador Glaspie was quite clear that, “we took no position on these Arab affairs.”
There would have been no reason for Saddam Hussein not to take this assurance at face value.
Soon after Saddam’s defeat and despite a UN authorized “No-Fly Zone,” America stood by while Saddam slaughtered tens of thousands of Kurds using poison gas. Turkey sent a secret envoy to President Bush advocating an American “stand down” in direction contravention of, not only the UN accords to which America was both signatory and author but direct promises made by the United States to its Kurdish allies.
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America would see a similar “stand down” on 9/11, as cited by General Hamid Gul, former Chief of Pakistan’s intelligence services and co-editor of VT, immediately after the 9/11 attacks.
Israel has, in Gaza, continually used, not only white phosphorous munitions, designated as “chemical weapons” but has openly used illegal cluster munitions as well. Both illegal weapons have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan along with extensive use of “depleted uranium” (partially depleted uranium) and a series of uranium oxide based weapons with dangerous long term health consequences, “secret” weapons not covered by any convention.
Small and medium battlefield nukes have been used as well, used often and with impunity. Bob Nichols states, in VT:
Modern, very small, very powerful and efficient US Nuclear Weapons are meant to be used by American war fighters to kill, maim and sicken a whole lot of people efficiently and effectively; probably by an initial spray of deadly neutron and gamma radiation. These powerful and destructive weapons leave nothing behind as radiation except for a few Neutron Activation Products and dead or dying bodies behind. The dead bodies decompose or are disposed of according to local customs.
Where is the world when the only possible enforcement authority, the United States, is the prime violator? How can the world limit the spread of weapons of mass destruction when Israel, a nation that draws on reminders of the holocaust or charges of “Antisemitism” to mask its massive and illegal arms trade, is above the law?
How many will die in Libya because Qaddafi’s money has bought its way through the Pentagon and the halls of congress? How many will die in Libya because of the total lack of moral credibility on behalf of Britain and America?
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POST SCRIPT
Why do we need to fear sociopathic societies that base identity on genetics?
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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