Join activists on Monday in Bethesda to protest at the corporate headquarters of war profiteer Lockheed Martin, a leading manufacturer of cluster munitions. We'll assemble at noon at the Davis Library, 6400 Democracy Blvd.

The demonstration comes a few days after the Bush administration defended its use of cluster bombs at a United Nations conference in Geneva. Nearly 100 countries support the so-called "Oslo Process" - a U.N. initiative launched by the Norwegian government in 2007 which aims to produce a legally binding treaty banning cluster munitions by the end of 2008. U.S. officials testified in support of the use of cluster bombs "if used and defused properly," and say efforts should focus on ensuring countries know how to use the weapons in a way that is in full accordance with international humanitarian law.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which supports a ban, estimates that 400 million people in countries and regions like Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Chechnya live in areas affected by cluster bombs - effectively minefields.

An example of recent use of cluster bombs was in the 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel. The UN says about four million cluster bomblets were dropped on Lebanon during the 34-day conflict. As many as 5-10 percent of the bomblets did not explode on impact and continue to kill civilians.

At least two of Israel's cluster bomb and launch systems are U.S.-manufactured. Human Rights Watch discovered remnants of the "M483A1" 155mm-artillery projectiles, which each contain 88 M42 AND M46 submunitions. The researchers found M26 rockets fired from Lockheed Martin's Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS). Each MLRS can fire up to 12 rockets at once, and each rocket contains 644 M77 submunitions.

Shame on Lockheed! Join us.