Israel's cluster bombs found in Lebanese towns:

The world reported on Thursday that in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiya the Lebanese army was trying to clean up over 2000 bomblets left by Israeli cluster bombs. The local hospital has reported several serious injuries already from these anti-personel weapons. The NYT reports 16 civilians have been harmed by bomblets so far in the south. The Boston Globe reported 4 days ago that "villages in the south are littered with Israeli shells and cluster bombs." HRW says, "United Nations deminers beginning emergency survey and clearance work in the south of Lebanon have identified 10 locations where Israel used artillery-delivered cluster munitions during the recent hostilities."

Didn't I read somewhere that as a condition of our providing Israel these cluster bombs that they were forbidden from using them in populated areas? It seems pretty clear to me that they have violated this agreement -- again. As I noted on the 11th, the NYT reports that David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, says: "As a rule, we obviously don’t fire into populated areas." But rules are made to be broken, right Dave?

It's not like they haven't used cluster bombs on Lebanese civilians in the past. In fact, every time they've gone into Lebanon they've used these deadly weapons. This time around, even the US State Department was seriously debating even sending them more cluster bombs. As the war came to an end the decision hadn't been made. I don't know where the issue stands at the moment.

I'm sure someone from Cheney's office has already made the trip over to Foggy Bottom to read them the riot act. As I write this there's probably a plane load of shiny new cluster bombs sitting on a runway in Scotland on their way to Israel along with a new supply of Willy Pete.