• alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      doesn’t apply here, unfortunately. that law was waived by Biden as part of the process here, and has previously been waived by Trump in other circumstances:

      A 2009 U.S. law bans exports of American cluster munitions with bomblet failure rates higher than 1%, which covers virtually all of the U.S. military stockpile. Biden waived prohibitions around the munitions, just as his predecessor Donald Trump did in 2021 to allow the export of cluster munitions technology to South Korea.

      • black_mouflon@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Is that even a legitimate thing to do? Shouldn’t he seek congress aproval for that? It is a law after all. It reminds me when Trump said he declassified all these documents he cought with just becaus he said so, but in reality he didn’t go thought the official process to do so. I might also be wrong but currently it seems to me Biden is breaking a US law.

        • Aurailious@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          If I recall the law itself allows the President to waive the restriction. So in effect exporting cluster munitions requires Presidential approval. Whereas the approval for export of weapons is generally delegated to others in the State Department.

          • black_mouflon@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Ok. If that is correct then my mistake. I guess I didn’t get that detail from my initial source. That makes me curious thought, who is being granted the approval from the president? Isn’t the executive branch of the goverment who desides for the export in the first place?