Klobuchar to back limits on cluster-bomb use, activists say
Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 7:04 pm
- 9 Comments
Parachutes and packaging from BLU-97 cluster munitions dropped by the U.S. lie in a MAG clearance area near Deebaga in northern Iraq, February, 2004. Photo: MCC
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar has vowed to co-sponsor a bill that would restrict the United States’ use of cluster bombs, rendering as many as a half billion stockpiled weapons off-limits. That’s according to activists who say the announcement — at a meeting with her Wednesday, after months of pressure by Minnesota citizens and peace groups — came as a surprise.
Klobuchar’s staffs in Minnesota and Washington, D.C., were on retreats Thursday and didn’t respond to requests for confirmation.
At the meeting Klobuchar seemed impatient with a presentation on the issue, says Virgil Wiebe, a University of St. Thomas law professor who advises the Mennonite Central Committee, a leader in the worldwide campaign to ban the weapons, by virtue of being one of only two United States aid groups working in Laos after the Vietnam War.
Wiebe says he took a couple minutes to tell stories Southeast Asian and Croatian victims of the so-called submunitions — bomblets packed into a larger missile container that, if unexploded, pose risks similar to land mines when people come into contact with them later.
The reason for Klobuchar’s impatience became clear after Roxanne Abbas of the Minnesota Peace Project posed the question to which activists had long sought a firm answer: What is the senator’s position on the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2009? Klobuchar had already made her mind up.
“I will co-sponsor it,” was the senator’s reply.
There was a pause in the room as activists realized they had achieved their goal.
Klobuchar, they said, had been waiting for the Obama Administration to complete a policy review on cluster bombs, all the while hearing from constituents who want them banned. Her staff had been attentive at earlier meetings, appearing to take copious notes on the issue.
Her decision to act came the day after the Senate lost its leading liberal, Ted Kennedy, whose death Tuesday also meant the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2009 had lost a co-sponsor. The timing of Klobuchar signing on was “purely coincidental,” Wiebe reckons, “but nonetheless fortuitous. In a sense she’s stepping into that gap.”
The bill, authored by Diane Feinstein of California (pdf), is not a complete ban. It prohibits the United States from using the weapons, unless unexploded bombs go off less than 1 percent of the time. That figure depends on how it is measured — for example, in actual war environments or more favorable testing situations. Manufacturers have tried to mollify an increasingly skeptical world market by adding devices meant to de-activate the explosives that don’t fire as planned.
The bill also authorizes the president to lift the ban on use of cluster bombs if “it is vital to protect the security of the United States.”
And it doesn’t tell the military it must dispose of its stockpiles.
Feinstein’s bill represents progress, Wiebe says, but it’s “still behind the curve” when compared to other countries’ efforts. The United States hasn’t signed the Oslo Treaty, an international agreement banning the production, use or trade of cluster munitions that goes into effect at the end of the year.
Klobuchar’s support carries extra significance because Minnesota is home to ATK (formerly Alliant Techsystems), which holds licenses to manufacture cluster bombs, according to Wiebe and as reported by the Minnesota Independent’s Tom Elko last year.
Sen. Al Franken’s staff didn’t return messages for this story. An ATK spokesman didn’t have immediate comment.
9 Comments
Comment posted August 28, 2009 @ 1:47 am
I wonder if Senator Klobuchar has decided to support a public health insurance plan option … or not. That’s a more pressing issue than those nasty cluster bombs.
Comment posted August 28, 2009 @ 1:52 am
Mill, at the State Fair Thursday on MPR she said she was open to a public option but only if she could be convinced the government could control costs. So it sounds like no, she hasn’t decided, but she didn’t sound too enthused about it.
Comment posted August 29, 2009 @ 8:04 am
This is a positive move, but nowhere near so positive as would be the US signing and ratification of the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
There treaties do far more for the survivors and communities affected by land mines and cluster munitions than does Senate Bill S416.
Comment posted August 31, 2009 @ 12:52 am
“attentive at earlier meetings”…”stepping in to fill the gap”:
I certainly hope Klobucher is ready to close down Alliant’s production of cluster bombs as a first sign of her dedication… starting on home turf to define her serious commitment, rather than merely a timely political move to “fill the gap.” at Kennedy’s passing.
And the bill is still not strong enough to end the production of such weapons so poorly conceived.
Comment posted August 31, 2009 @ 11:41 am
It was apparent to all those who met with Senator Klobuchar last week that her decision to co-sponsor the Cluster Munitions bill on the day after Senator Kennedy died was purely coincidental. Robert & Beryle make very good points regarding our need to ratify treaties outlawing these weapons and continuing to work to make Minnesota a WMD-free zone. Senate Bill 416 is a just small, but significant, step in the right direction.
Comment posted August 31, 2009 @ 2:58 pm
Limits? Limits? What the heck?
OUTLAW them in total. Sen K better get her priorities straightened out or she is no better than a Republi-thug.
How soon for the election? 2 years and 2 months. Not very long Ms. Amy. You either are with us or we will bury you like we did with Normie.
Comment posted September 2, 2009 @ 8:37 pm
Another amazingly brave stand from our senior senator.
Comment posted September 3, 2009 @ 9:06 am
I am happy the Senator has agreed to step forward. No one wants the United States to be responsible for (and known for) maiming children and other innocent civilians, especially long after the conflict is done.
Comment posted November 28, 2009 @ 8:45 pm
Whatever about the cluster bombs.
Let’s get back to the real cluster bomb: Health care reform. “Amy” certainly will sign onto the health care bill–especially if it has the public plan. She has said as much.
Don’t you know that the public plan is the only reason “health care reform” is taking place? If there is no public option there is no use going forward; the whole point is to drive insurance companies out of business with unreasonable and unsustainable requirements/premiums that businesses cannot afford so that people go to the subsidized govt “option.” Besides, if you study the bill you see that insurance companies will not exist within a generation–everything resort to the govt running the industry: hence a slow but inevitable slide to govt control.
This is a necessary move, since unions can’t honor their commitment to their members–and they know that these promises with the corporations has been an unsustainable promise that is driving them out of work. Yet Union leaders are selling out their own members, since they are siding with dems that this is a terrific idea. But the workers are gonna scream when they find out that they have two options: settle for the cheap-ass govt option or, if they want to keep their promised policies, get ready to pay out big-time in annual taxes. AND, of course, there is no option to opt out of insurance–do it or get fined 2% of your annual income, and/or get prison time for evading your “civic responsibility.”
Tell Amy and her clone Franken to oppose the cluster bombs on us Americans.
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