General

8/2: Demonstrate Against Cluster Bombs, Ratheon

Thursday, 02 August 2007
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Thursday, August 2nd from 5:00 to 7:00 pm
in downtown Waltham Mass. at Waltham Common in front of commuter
rail station (Carter St.).to protest cluster bombs made
by Ratheon.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2007
Contact: Marilyn Levin
crisismiddleeast@yahoo.com
http://www.middleeastcrisiscoalition.org

RESIDENTS TAKE ON CLUSTER BOMB MANUFACTURER ON WAR ANNIVERSARY

The Middle East Crisis Coalition announced today that it will hold a
demonstration on Thursday, August 2nd from 5:00 to 7:00 pm
in downtown Waltham at Waltham Common in front of commuter
rail station (Carter St.).to protest
Raytheon's manufacturing of weapons designed to indiscriminately kill
all living things in a wide area.

Raytheon, headquartered in Waltham, is the biggest missile
manufacturer in the world, one of the world's leading manufacturers of
cluster bombs, and ranks fourth in terms of military sales.

Cluster bombs, scatter "bomblets" that frequently do not
explode (like landmines) and remain lethal when moved. One bomb can
strike carpet an area as large as 250 acres. Many children have been
killed or severely injured by the shiny battery-sized bomblets long
after the fighting has ended. They are designed to kill and maim
people, not to destroy enemy targets.

Weapons that target civilians, like cluster munitions and landmines,
meet the criteria for being banned by international law and the Geneva
Conventions and their use can be called a "war crime". The United
States won't support international efforts to ban their use, and is
one of the primary users, suppliers, and stockpilers of these
horrendous weapons. They have been exported to at least 27 countries.
They were used in Afghanistan and Iraq. American bombs were sent to
Israel and used in Southern Lebanon in 2006, where millions of
unexploded ordinances make much of the area uninhabitable. American
tax dollars pay for them.

Protesters will gather in downtown Waltham on Thursday August 2nd
from 5-7:00 pm to protest the government's use of cluster bombs and
Raytheon's immoral profits from weapons of civilian death, not
defense. The group will meet at Waltham Common in front of commuter
rail station (Carter St.). The station is one block south of Main St.
(Rte 20), just east of Moody St.

Organizers say they are also calling for the US to: sign an
international treaty to ban the production and use of cluster bombs;
stop investment in cluster bomb manufacturers by US banks and
investors; halt Raytheon's manufacturing of cluster bombs; and support
legislation to prevent the use and export of these inhumane weapons.

The group is supporting the legislation introduced by Senators Dianne
Feinstein (CA) and Patrick Leahy (VT) and passed 6/28 by the Senate
Appropriations Committee and S594, the Cluster Munitions Civilian
Protection Act of 2007 and referred to the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives.

MIDDLE EAST CRISIS COALITION
www.middleeastcrisiscoalition.org
crisismiddleeast@yahoo.com

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