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Jack Reed supports selling cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia


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amos house reedCongress is coming under increasing pressure to stop supplying cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, but Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed doesn’t seem to be feeling it. He said the weapons, which are made by Rhode Island-based Textron and banned by 119 nations but not the US and Saudi Arabia, “should still be provided under strict conditions,” he told RI Future.

An amendment to the House military spending bill narrowly failed last week that would have stopped the sale of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia. It was supported by congressmen David Cicilline and Jim Langevin, both of whom notably declined to comment on the vote. I asked Reed about the issue when I saw him on Friday.

“I think we should still be selling those weapon systems that comply with the law,” said Reed, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees.

Providence-based Textron is the last North American producer of cluster bombs, and the only source of cluster bombs for the US military. They’ve become a hot button issue as evidence mounts that Saudi Arabia has used cluster bombs it procured from the US in civilian-populated areas of Yemen.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have each independently found evidence that Textron’s cluster bombs have malfunctioned more than 1 percent of the time in Yemen and have been used in civilian-populated areas. Both allegations would be violations of US law concerning cluster bombs.

“That is something we have to look at very closely because the threshold is 1 percent or less,” Reed said. “That’s the way they are designed, that’s the way they’re tested and that’s the way they are maintained. We have strict protocols in design and the systems need to perform to very high standards and that as a result those and only those systems are sold.”

He added, “I think you do look at all the data that is being submitted. I think we are looking at it, and we are testing it.”

Reed said the US military still has cluster bombs in its arsenal, as well. “We have them in our own inventory so we’re very conscience of trying to make sure they are tested properly,” he said.

He seemed confident in their efficacy. “The systems we provide, technically, are designed so that if a cluster does not detonate it will be deactivated. They are the only ones authorized to be sold.”

Textron’s political action committee has been a long-time financial supporter of Reed, according to campaign finance reports. In 2015, Textron donated $1,000 to Reed’s campaign war chest, and in 2013 Textron made six donations for a total of $10,000 – of which $5,000 was given on June 30. In 2010, Reed got $1,000 from Textron  , as he did in 2006 as well. In 2007 Textron gave Reed $9,000.

Read RI Future’s full coverage of Textron’s cluster bombs here:

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Textron CEO responds to cluster bomb protests via ProJo op/ed


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2016-05-19 Textron 06Textron CEO Scott Donnelly wrote an op/ed in today’s Providence Journal taking issue with the tactics of activists who are targeting Textron for making cluster bombs.

“It’s clear that we live in dangerous times,” Donnelly’s op/ed begins, citing concerns against “enemies such as ISIS, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and others.”

Donnelly, the $12.2 million-a-year president and CEO of Textron, continues:

“Many American companies, including Textron, provide defense products that are often the only barrier between a peaceful population and an invading force. Recently, one Textron-manufactured system has inspired anti-military activists to protest at the company’s headquarters in Providence — chaining themselves to our front doors and carrying banners that accuse us of “killing and maiming civilians.” Such tactics get news coverage — even in the absence of facts. While we respect the protesters’ rights to free speech, we also feel the need to set the record straight.

Donnelly_ScottDonnelly says anti-cluster bomb peace activists in Rhode Island who are holding weekly protests in front of Textron are wrong to confuse the modern Sensor Fuzed Weapon-style cluster bomb Textron manufactures with the older, less computerized, models.

“They claim the SFW indiscriminately scatters small bombs into a battle area, leaving unexploded bombs on the ground to later detonate like land mines,” he writes. “This is incorrect.”

Peace activist Pia Ward brought an exploded landmine from Beirut in the 1980s to a recent protest in front of Textron to illustrate the indiscriminate damage such weapons can cause. She explains the prop in this video.

This is a common Textron response to information about civilian damage caused by their cluster bombs. Textron spokesman David Sylvestre told me roughly the same thing the first time I asked him about alleged civilian casualties in Yemen caused by cluster bombs. On Feb. 24, I wrote:

Sylvestre made a point to differentiate the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons from what he called “Vietnam-era cluster bombs.” The modern version are “intelligent” and only target tanks, he said. “They are not intended to target human beings at all,” he said. “They are made to target armored-vehicles.”

Donnelly did not address in his op/ed recent reports from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that documented dozens of civilian casualties in Yemen caused by cluster bombs.

Textron is the last North American manufacturer of cluster bombs, which have been banned by 119 nations and the United Nations but not by the United States. The US sells Textron-made cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has led a protracted military campaign in Yemen over the past year. Evidence of modern-made Textron cluster bombs has been found in civilian areas of Yemen. Humanitarian groups say Textron’s cluster bombs violate US trade law by malfunctioning more than 1 percent of the time and by being used too close to civilians.

Donnelly’s op/ed, featured prominently with a photo at the top of the op/ed section jump page, does not address these allegations which have recently been covered by media organizations like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the BBC but not by the Providence Journal.

Prior to the CEO writing an op/ed, the Journal’s only coverage of Textron’s controversial cluster bombs came when three activists were arrested for chaining themselves to Textron’s front doors. In the print edition the same day, it covered Textron’s first quarter profits but did not mention that Textron makes cluster bombs. “The company also makes unmanned aircraft systems, weapons and sensors,” was the only mention to defense sector profits in the piece that carried the bi-line Journal Staff Reports.

Donnelly did not offer his op/ed to RI Future despite RI Future formally requesting an interview with him on Friday.

While RI Future has referred to Textron protesters as “peace activists” Donnelly referred to the same protesters as “anti-military activists.”

Donnelly’s op/ed comes on the heels of a report in Foreign Policy magazine’s website alleging the US is slated to halt cluster bomb sales to Saudi Arabia. If true, it’s unclear how that would affect Textron’s cluster bomb business. It sells cluster bombs to some other foreign countries, such as the United Arab Emerites. It has been several years since the US military has bought cluster bombs for its own use.

 

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Textron plays leading role in Middle East violence


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BOMB-CLUSTERS-630x400Last week, former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden told MSNBC’s Morning Joe panel that Americans “are not tolerant enough of collateral damage.” Hayden feels the American War Machine is too constrained by the conscience of ordinary Americans. His disgusting statement apparently does not apply to the Providence, Rhode Island-based Textron Corporation, who continue to manufacture and sell cluster munitions to other governments, who in turn use them indiscriminately in places like Yemen, Ukraine, Syria, and Sudan, to name a few.

Despite the American government’s claims that they no longer use cluster bombs, hard evidence suggests otherwise. Yemeni journalist Haider Shaye found “irrefutable proof” that a 2009 missile strike in Yemen was conducted by Americans. The American strike came shortly after Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It killed 35 Yemeni women and children, and left behind at least one unexploded cluster bomb. Not long after Shaye reported on his findings, he was jailed by the Yemeni puppet regime and held past his anticipated release date at Barack Obama’s direct behest.

Even if the American military’s use of cluster bombs had gone undiscovered by Shaye, their complicity in other governments’ use of cluster bombs indicts them all the same. The Pentagon spoon-feeds overseas arms contracts to firms like Textron, who are equally culpable in the death and destruction.

When cluster bombs are dropped, they open mid-air, releasing many hundreds of smaller bombs which blanket large swaths of targeted territories. Because many of these “submunitions” do not detonate even after landing, they remain a danger to local populations where children often pick them up and farmers step on them or drive over them. Sometimes, the clusters lie dormant for years, even decades, before being stumbled upon by unsuspecting victims who have limbs blown off or are seriously crippled or disfigured. That is, assuming they are lucky enough to survive the blasts at all.

Even with the well-known minefield that is now Laos, where locals still fall victim to cluster bombs some forty years after America’s Vietnam War, Textron seems unable to pass up the lucrative arms deals. One of Textron’s justifications for the continued production and sale of cluster bombs is that their new and improved technology has become so refined that only a mere one percent or less of all cluster bombs deployed will remain unexploded. This “one percent rule” is in keeping with Pentagon requirements on cluster munition production, under which Textron appears to take moral cover.

Textron’s Vice President of Business Development Mark Rafferty called the advances in cluster bomb technology “extremely sophisticated” and added, “knowing that we are in no way, shape or form contributing to [civilian suffering] is really a very satisfying place to be.” Despite these protestations, it’s hard to imagine Rafferty would volunteer his own children to play minesweeper in places like Yemen, where the local population aren’t exactly reassured by Textron’s one-percent-unexploded estimate.

The hypocrisy of the American government on this issue is thick enough to cut with a knife. In 2011, Hilary Clinton admonished the now-deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi for his use of cluster bombs while her own soldiers covertly dropped them in the Middle East. It was one of the many human rights violations that Clinton cited as support for her tunnel-brained rampage in Libya. Clinton also failed to mention that the United States, like Libya, is one of the few countries to refuse to sign onto the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.

On April 18, 2016 the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC-SENE) will stage a 4:30 PM protest outside of Textron’s world headquarters in downtown Providence. While the profits are likely too good for Textron to pay any regard to the protesters, perhaps a hit to their stock price will help them see more clearly the carnage they cause beyond America’s borders. If investors are comfortable continuing to finance Textron’s deadly operations, they should be aware that they are inviting blowback against themselves and other innocent Americans.

This post originally appeared on the website of the Center for a Stateless Society, a “left market anarchist think tank and media center.” Chad Nelson is a Providence resident and a senior editor with the Center for a Stateless Society.

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Human Rights Watch condemns use of Textron-made cluster bombs


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cluster bombRhode Island-based Textron sold to Saudi Arabia cluster bombs that, according to a new Human Rights Watch report, “are being used in civilian areas contrary to US export requirements and also appear to be failing to meet the reliability standard required for US export of the weapons.”

The CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons produced by Textron, according to HRW, have been deployed dangerously close to civilian populations as Saudi-led military strikes have targeted Yemen in 2015 and 2016. According to a recent New York Times story, “If confirmed, the report could put new pressure on the United States over support for its ally Saudi Arabia in the Yemen conflict.”

The report alleges several Yemeni civilians have been injured by malfunctioning cluster bombs. HRW and 118 nations oppose any use of cluster bombs in general, but the report says these weapons in particular are malfunctioning.

“While any use of any type of cluster munition should be condemned, there are two additional disturbing aspects to the use of CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons in Yemen,” says the report. “First, US export law prohibits recipients of cluster munitions from using them in populated areas, as the Saudi coalition has clearly been doing. Second, US export law only allows the transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of less than 1 percent. But it appears that Sensor Fuzed Weapons used in Yemen are not functioning in ways that meet that reliability standard.”

Textron spokesman David Sylvestre confirmed that Textron produced the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons.

The bombs passed rigorous inspection before being handed over to the US military for delivery to Saudi Arabia. “No company can put that on a boat and deliver it to a foreign government,” he said, noting that Textron can’t be held liable if the weapon was misused. “We’re not in the plane dropping the bomb. If it was dropped in an area that is perhaps too close to a civilian population, that is not supposed to happen.”

Sylvestre made a point to differentiate the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons from what he called “Vietnam-era cluster bombs.” The modern version are “intelligent” and only target tanks, he said. “They are not intended to target human beings at all,” he said. “They are made to target armored-vehicles.”

About half of the weapons Textron produces are sold to governments other than the United States, said Sylvestre. He did not know how much business Textron does with Saudi Arabia, or how much it paid for the Sensor Fuzed Weapons. A recent report from the Congressional Research Service says Saudi Arabia spent more than $100 billion since 2010 on US military equipment and training.

“It’s an important program for us,” Sylvestre said.

Headquartered in Providence, Textron employs about 300 people in Rhode Island and has more than 34,000 employees across the globe. The cluster bombs were most likely assembled in Oklahoma while individual parts might be manufactured elsewhere, according to Sylvestre. Textron Systems, a division of Textron Inc. headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts, is responsible for the military products, which represent about 11 percent of Textron’s total revenue, Sylvestre said. The company also makes Cessna airplanes, Bell helicopters, golf carts, gas tanks and power tools, among other products. At one time, it owned Gorham, Speidel and A.T. Cross – themselves iconic Rhode Island companies.

Textron started as the Special Yarns Company in Boston in 1923 and the current name is an amalgamation of two early subsidiaries. Sylvestre said Textron first got into the defense industry by manufacturing rip cords used on US military parachutes.

Company founder Royal Little, who lived in a mansion near the town beach in Narragansett, was “the inventor of the modern conglomerate,” according to his obituary in the New York Times.

“Mr. Little made industrial history by taking Textron Inc., which was deeply rooted in the textile industry, and grafting onto it a thicket of small companies that turned out diverse products like ball bearings, gas meters, golf carts, helicopters, metal-working machines, radar antennas, screws and snowmobiles,” says his obituary. “Mr. Little’s skill at acquisitions so outshone those of his competitors that he became famous, as Dun’s Review put it, as ‘the man who started the whole conglomerate movement.'”