Last year the White House imposed some of those sanctions: It banned exports of munitions and military-related technology to Syria, as well as exports of U.S. products other than food and medicine, and prohibited any Syria-related aircraft from flying over, taking off from or landing in the U.S. As Syria supports anti-U.S. fanatics in Iraq, those sanctions were the least we could have done.
The last exports of cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia are thought to have been made in the late 1980s.
The US should immediately reexamine its exports of cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia given its apparent willingness to use the weapon in civilian areas".
In contrast to innocent civilians who wish to lead a peaceful life, one has to recognise that the international arms market results in enormous profits for key companies involved in the development, manufacture and export of weapons and munitions.
The program was better than pretty good; it fell afoul of munitions export rules of the day that classified sufficiently strong scrambling as a weapon, leading to a three-year investigation by American authorities.
The revelation is likely to increase calls on the government to reconsider exports of arms to Saudi Arabia, which have already grown since the US suspended a planned sale of precision-guided munitions last week.
That law put communications satellites on Washington's list of export-controlled munitions: tools of war like tanks, bombs, missiles and equipment for making nuclear arms.
Ms. Fermanova has pleaded guilty to the unlicensed export of an item on the United States Munitions List, military defense items subject to government control.
I wish every official with authority over arms exports -- especially those in Washington, Beijing and Moscow -- could experience the human cost of the irresponsible flow of munitions into the hands of dictators, war lords, murderous drug armies, and militias the way I experienced it; one or two deaths at a time, up close and personal.
Blue meant other kinds of munitions.
