Ms Fixit

Thanks to WikiLeaks we now have a first hand account of USrael's bitch down under, sucking up to, and running errands for, her man. (See my 26/2/08 post Israeli Cluster Bombs in Australian Arsenals?) Sick-making:

"Australia secretly worked with the United States to weaken a key international treaty to ban cluster bombs, leaked US diplomatic cables show. Despite taking a high-profile stance against cluster munitions - condemned as the cause of large numbers of civilian casualties - Australia was privately prepared to pull out of international negotiations on a global ban of the weapons if this threatened ties with US forces... Diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Canberra... reveal Kevin Rudd's newly elected government in 2007 immediately told the US it was prepared to withdraw from the negotiations if key 'red line' issues were not addressed - especially the inclusion of a loophole to allow signatories to the convention to co-operate with military forces using cluster bombs...

"The US embassy in Canberra expressed appreciation for Labor's position in February 2008, which was considered critical to efforts to defeat 'hardline' countries and non-government organisations seeking a comprehensive ban. The US diplomatic reports show Australia secretly lobbied Asian countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, on the issue and Canberra sought advice from Washington on which African countries engaged in military cooperation with the US might be recruited to vote with Australia on key parts of the treaty text... In April 2008, a Foreign Affairs arms control expert... told the US embassy that Australia 'shared US frustration and concern with Germany's obstinacy' on the issue of defence co-operation, and that Australia would make formal representations to Berlin once the US had provided Canberra with 'specific' points to raise." (Canberra lobbied secretly to dilute cluster bomb ban, Philip Dorling, Sydney Morning Herald, 2/5/11)

Israeli Cluster Bombs in Australian Arsenals?

I was born/ Between factory walls/ And I was conceived/ Amongst the ivory halls/ And in this world/ I knew my role/ I went to work/ With a single goal

I traveled the earth/ To far-off lands/ From the Asian jungles/ To the African sands/ I flew in planes/ Of camouflage green/ Before I settled/ Upon this scene

Like a shooting star/ I came to rest/ And this farmer's field/ Is where I nest/ Just watching the seasons/ Come and go/ Watching the long grass/ Grow and grow

Years go by/ And I lay here still/ For my purpose is clear/ For me to fulfill/ The sun was out/ It was the middle of May/ When the farmer's 3 children/ Came out to play

They ventured near/ I lay in wait/ One unknowing step/ Sealed their fate/ One thousand shards/ Of plastic rose/ From where I lay/ And through their clothes

Into their bodies/ The shrapnel sank/ Here in this field/ By a river bank/ The blood poured down/ Shone in the sun/ And one cluster bomblet's/ Job was done

David Rovics: Ballad of the Cluster Bomb

On 22/2/08 Australia signed the Wellington Declaration, a draft international agreement to ban the use of cluster bombs, which scatter deadly bomblets over a wide area. As singer/songwriter, David Rovics' poignant lyrics so graphically show, those little nasties which do not explode on impact can lie in wait, unexploded, for years after a conflict has ended, killing or maiming anyone who accidentally disturbs them.

But Australia, being Australia, just had to have reservations now, didn't it? Apparently, we tried to water down the proposed treaty on the grounds that a) it could get in the way of our working with countries who oppose the treaty, such as the US [China, India, Pakistan, Russia, and Israel also oppose the treaty]; b) we need our own supplies of the little bastards "for training and research purposes"; and c) something called a "sensor-fuse cluster munition" should be excluded from the definition of what constitutes a cluster bomb. (Aust signs anti-cluster bomb declaration, ABC News, 22/2/08)

So far, so good. If Howard had won last year's election, not only would we not have signed up, but the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) might have been buying cluster bombs... from Israel. That's right, the country whose army rained over 1.2 million cluster bomblets over south Lebanon in the final days of the 33-Day War in 2006, causing one Israeli 'Defence' Forces commander to comment: "What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs." (Israel fired more than a million cluster bombs in Lebanon, Meron Rappaport, Haaretz, 12/9/06)

A Senate committee last year had found a submission from Israel Military Industries (IMI), the government-owned corporation that is Israel's largest weapons manufacturer, sufficiently persuasive to open the way for the ADF's acquisition of Israel's M85 cluster weapon, which, according to IMI's sales pitch, "had a hazardous dud rate of 0.06%, compared with similar American cluster devices with dud rates between 2-23%." (Australian Army eyes controversial Israeli cluster bombs, The Australian Jewish News, 15/6/07)

The question arises: were any Israeli M85s purchased prior to the fall of the Howard regime, and, if so, would this not explain Australia's desire to retain supplies of same for "training and research purposes?" And is the M85 a "sensor-fuse cluster munition?"

The final treaty is to be negotiated in Dublin in May. It will be most interesting to see what Australia's position will be at that conference.