WIKI LEAKS:Britain Allowed BANNED U.S. Cluster Bombs to be Stored on British Soil in Secret!

[KoKo]

(Princess Diana is looking down from her place in the sky. She worked so hard to ban these bombs that kill innocents...but she didn't live long enough to stop it...still she brought the world's attention to it!)



Cables: Britain Allowed U.S. Cluster Bombs

The WikiLeaks released embassy cables also show Britain has allowed the United States to store banned cluster bombs on British soil. Britain signed the international convention barring cluster munitions in December 2008. But six months later, a U.S. embassy cable said Britain had agreed to keep silent about a dealing allowing the United States to store cluster bombs until 2013.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/3/headlines#2

[Arctic Dave]

1. Obviously more "gossip".

[jpgray]

2. Big deal! Armchair diplomacy experts on DU have known this for months

Right? :silly:

[Better Believe It]

3. Gossip or yet another embarassing official United States Embassy cable?

Gossip.

That's all the cables are .... meaningless gossip.

And that's why there is an international character assasination campaign against Assange and effort to destroy WikiLeaks.

Just a bunch of meaningless gossip that doesn't amount to spit.

Right.

That's the ticket.

[Better Believe It]

4. What the cable actually says.

Just gossip people, nothing to see here .... move along now. BBB

BBC News
December 2, 2010

In April this year, the then minister for international defence and security, Baroness Taylor of Bolton, assured Parliament: "I can confirm that the US has identified its cluster munitions on UK territory as exceeding its worldwide operational planning requirements. Therefore, these cluster munitions will be removed from sites in the UK in 2010 and from all UK territories by 2013."

But one of the cables released by Wikileaks shows the Foreign Office suggested a loophole to allow the US to keep cluster bombs on British soil should be kept from Parliament.
The cable reveals that the UK offered the Americans "temporary storage exception for specific missions".

A Foreign Office spokesman responded to the publication of the cable by saying: "We reject any allegation that the FCO deliberately misled or failed in our obligation to inform Parliament."

The cable quotes a senior Foreign Office official as noting: "It would be better for the USG and HMG not to reach final agreement on this temporary agreement understanding until after the CCM ratification process is completed in Parliament, so that they can tell parliamentarians that they have requested the USG to remove its cluster munitions by 2013, without complicating/muddying the debate by having to indicate that this request is open to exceptions."

The cable also reveals that most of the US cluster munitions are being stored on US vessels off Diego Garcia, apparently to circumvent the ban on the weapons remaining on British soil after 2013.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11897980