Egypt imports 21 tons of tear gas from the US, port staff refuses to

[kas125]

Egypt imports 21 tons of tear gas from the US, port staff refuses to sign for it

CAIRO: The arrival of 7 and half tons of tear gas to Egypt’s Suez port created conflict after the responsible officials at the port refused to sign and accept it for fear it would be used to crackeddown on Egyptian protesters.

Local news sites published documents regarding the shipment that shows that the cargo, which arrived in 479 barrels from the United States and was scheduled to be delivered to the ministry of interior.

The reports also mentioned in the documents that a second shipment of 14 tons of tear gas was expected, making the total 21 tons, in one week.

The importing of tear gas comes after thousands of tear gas canisters were fired at Egyptian protesters last week as clashes raged in downtown Cairo, just off from the iconic Tahrir Square, where thousands of protesters had gathered.

continued at: http://bikyamasr.com/49799/egypt-import-tear-gas-from-us/#.TtR--SCH7aQ.facebook

[EFerrari]

1. Omfg.

[kas125]

3. I know. I can't even begin to put my disgust at this into words...

[woo me with science]

20. +1000000 Horrifying. nt

[G_j]

2. just Wow!

This is an important story, that will get little to no coverage here in the states.

[midnight]

4. K&R

[knowbody0]

5. we need to find out what corporation

IN ameriKKKa makes this stuff. I googled it, no info.

[sabrina 1]

7. I think they did find out who the manufacturer was. It was on Twitter

as they were picking up the canisters. I'll see if I can find it, they had photos also. Shameful that any US company would be helping the brutal Egyptian police, who killed so many innocent people last week, as I said below, many died as a result of some kind of gas.

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. Well, at least we are still making something in this country.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

27. I was wondering last week, when there were reports of "different"

tear gas and reports of blank cannisters, if the stocks were low. I guess we have an answer.

[valerief]

53. We only make weapons. We are the death merchants. nt

[quakerboy]

46. You got the cash

(that we gave you) then we got the goods to suppress your people.

[sabrina 1]

6. Disgusting, the protesters were gathering the evidence

as they were being attacked by the police last week and holding up for all the world to see.

Many people died in Egypt this past week, at least 40 and many of the deaths were caused by some kind of gas according to doctors. I absolutely hope that was not sent there from here.

They had the name of the manufacturers found on the cannisters. Protesters were reporting that the gas was 'very strong' and 'different'.

I cannot believe the US is doing this. Need to find out the manufacturers, sick, war-profiteers. All we can export these days it seems, are weapons.

[AntiFascist]

8. K&R, Obama has plenty of words of support for the people over the military...

but can he back this up with action?

[kas125]

9. I'm surely not going to hold my breath waiting for him to actually

DO something about it. He won't back up his words with action anymore than he's backed OUR right to protest without sustaining brain damage from being shot in the head with tear gas canisters.

[Juneboarder]

29. Egypt and US

Kinda appear to be the same. More violence there, but same tactics. We "support" their protestors' rights to be in the street but ship tear gas over.

How does the US treat OWS? I don't see much support for the protestors, but lots of tear gas.

It will be interesting to see if Obama comes out with a response to this or if we continue to hear the crickets chirping.

[gateley]

36. I don't think he could stop a for-profit company from selling

its wares overseas, though.

[Vincardog]

49. There are export licenses that can be denied. Try shipping a cutting edge microchip to China

[Prometheus Bound]

10. 21 tons...21 tons...21 fucking tons!

I'm having trouble putting that into pictures. How many people or how big a space can be covered with 21 tons of tear gas?

21 fucking tons!

[EFerrari]

13. I want to know who the fucking shipper is. Badly.

[Prometheus Bound]

16. The pic shows: Combined Tactical System, Jamestown, PA

But it doesn't say whether this is the same supplier.

http://www.combinedsystems.com/

[EFerrari]

23. I read earlier in the week that the TG is made in PA

so it probably is. Here is one article:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/11/21-5

[dixiegrrrrl]

31. Reading about CSI is chilling:

They put the profit in war, that's for sure!

CSI is well known in the defense industry as a customer centric engineering and manufacturing firm that has proven to be an excellent development partner for its customers. Management believes that CSI's distinct engineering capabilities separate it from all other players in the industry and allows CSI to provide each and every customer with products tailored to support their requirements and missions. CSI has recently developed and deployed 40mm anti-personnel munitions, 12 gauge and 40mm Flare-Bang™ warning signal munitions, rapid dispersion irritant grenades, and thermite incendiary grenades.

CSI holds numerous long-term U.S. military contracts for tactical munitions and pyrotechnic products such as
the Venom™ multiple launch system, various caliber warning signal rounds, rocket components, 40mm impact rounds, the Sting-Ball grenade system and three separate fuze contracts for a variety of hand grenade products.

CSI's military customers and development partners include the U.S. Army, USMC, U.S. Navy, USSOCOM, the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, U.S. Customs & Border Protection, U.S. Department of State, General Dynamics, L3 Communications, Rafael Armament Development Authority, Israeli Military Industries and many other top tier defense industry supporters.

What the hell are:
thermite incendiary grenades
and
The "Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate"?

[hootinholler]

34. Thermite

Burns real hot, like hot enough to cut steel. I would expect a thermite incendiary grenade to fling a radius of burning thermite which would ignite almost anything flammable in the area pretty quickly. If it was purely thermite with no real bang, then setting it on something or dropping it in the barrel of a cannon would cut a hole through it rendering it useless.

[seeviewonder]

57. It takes a lot of activation energy to

ignite thermite. A magnesium ribbon fuse it usually used because it burns extremely hot. Noeet sure how a thermite grenade would work, though. It would be difficult from an engineering standpoint.

[JoeyT]

63. It just takes burning metal.

If it's powdered finely enough, you can light it with the sparks from a lighter or a sparkler. (It should go without saying, but doing so is pretty dangerous)

Most of the military stuff is actually thermate. It's easier to light and burns faster/hotter. According to Wikipedia: The composition by weight of Thermate-TH3 (in military use) is 68.7% thermite, 29.0% barium nitrate, 2.0% sulfur and 0.3% binder (such as PBAN).

[seeviewonder]

64. Oh I didn't know they used the "ate"

version for military grade.

[dixiegrrrrl]

33. Guess who owns CSI, the weapons maker?

The Carlyle Group.
Guess who is/has been involved with the Carlyle Group, which is the third largest private equity firm in the world?
bin Laden family, the Bush family, a whole herd of former world political figures.

The group has its hands in almost everything across the globe.

Good outline of it for those who are interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carlyle_Group

[Remember Me]

50. The Carlyle Group was associated with GHW Bush during the time

when GWB was getting ready for and implementing those wars of his -- and Carlyle invests primarily in defense companies. Edited to add: I don't think there's any reason to believe GHW and GW Bush aren't still involved with Carlyle. And also, this business of "private equity firms" is dangerous business. They're almost beyond the reach of the law, for one thing.

There was a reallly interesting little bit of magic that went on around that time too. Carlyle acquired a company called (I think), United -- something or other. United whatever was going to make this big ole bad ass tank that they'd use a LOT of in the upcoming war. So Carlyle held an IPO for them. And then they cancelled the tank because it wasn't all that good to start with. Nobody ever got spoken of badly over this, but it sure as heck seemed like a really nasty conflict of interest given the fact that the old man and all his rowdy war-lovin' friends stood to gain so much financially.

[Kaleko]

14. 21 tons should be enough to keep gassing the Egyptians

for the next few months or years with American-made chemical weapons.

Is this fascism on a rampage or what?

[woo me with science]

22. Mouthing support on one hand, while....

Good god.

[Juneboarder]

30. 42,000 pounds....

That's like 5 elephants. :)

[inna]

58. that's... just in one week. 21 tons in one week.

US foreign policy in a nutshell, indeed.

Hell, at least we still manufacture *something*. :sarcasm:


Infuriating and disgusting beyond words.

[blkmusclmachine]

11. Tear gas, pepper spray. The only difference: location.

[canuckledragger]

12. Glad to see someone standing up against this kind of thing

...& hope that when the company supplying the gas is discovered Anonymous tears them a new one..

Wouldn't be surprised if the same company also supplies the the various police departments cracking down on the OWS protests. At all.

[Starry Messenger]

15. k&r

[Mojeoux]

17. K and effing R

:grr:

[AndyTiedye]

18. We Still Make Tear Gas Here?

Who knew?

Perhaps all these protests (including OWS) are helping to put Americans to work after all.

[polly7]

19. Doctors treating the victims of it are saying it is different, much more

powerful. They have sent it to be examined to try to find better treatments for those it is used against. People saying it's dangerous just to handle ... breathing difficulties, etc. just removing it from the plastic bag. Companies mentioned are Federal Laboratories - less-lethal.com, Combined Tactical Systems ... I wish I had a transcript of this video.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/11/28/131532/video-egypt-uses-us-made-tear.html

Egypt's pro-democracy demonstrators say the CS gas being used to disperse them seems more powerful than that used by Cairo police during the popular uprising in February. At one of Tahrir Square's makeshift hospitals, patients show signs of asphyxiation and experience seizures. Dr Ahmad Sa'ad says he has never seen such symptoms caused by 'teargas'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/nov/23/tahrir-square-protesters-asphyxiation-video

[woo me with science]

21. Good god.

For SHAME.

[WinkyDink]

24. Gee, did "Operation: Paperclip" bring IG Farben over, too?

[backtoblue]

25. K & R ... WTF???

[EFerrari]

28. So, where would a company in Jamestown ship from?

What port would they use? Does it go out of New York?

[dreamnightwind]

72. Excellent question

Stopping those shipments would make a good action for Occupy in solidarity with Egypt. Not that I'm advocating such action, it's probably illegal.

[blindpig]

32. American foreign policy in a nutshell. n/t

[progressoid]

35. See how much we support Democracy!

[BadgerKid]

37. "Bringing democracy" to countries one at a time. n/t

[Sanity Claws]

38. DId they need an export license to send this stuff out of the country?

If they did, the US government is complicit.

[Blue Owl]

39. Jesus Fucking Christ

What the fuck is wrong with this country?

[Aaria]

54. Greed

[Liberal_in_LA]

40. !!

[Uncle Joe]

41. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kas.

[truebrit71]

42. So at the same time that the Prez is asking the authorities to chill out...

...(ignoring the fact that the polite intelligent gentlemen are doing the same thing here without so much as a peep from the WH) we're shipping the stuff out that they use against the protesters...??


Am I the only one that thinks that is :crazy:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

43. But, we do have an embargo on medicine to Cuba.

[Cali_Democrat]

48. American stupidity knows no bounds

:banghead:

[woo me with science]

44. Kick

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

45. Ahh, can you smell it, the smell of freedom, USA's most important export.

[fascisthunter]

47. what an evil way of making money and doing business

just sickening...

[ghurley]

51. DUers scare me... so i don't post here a whole lot...

not sure if I can say this, but... fuckity fuck fuck fuck. I hate this story.

Please let me know if I need to edit, kindly :)

[EFerrari]

66. Don't worry. We don't eat much.

:)

[valerief]

52. Bravo, Egyptian port staff! nt

[McCamy Taylor]

55. US is the arms supplier of the world. How dare they interfere with our right to make $$$

off the suffering of other?

[Enthusiast]

56. But it's making jobs!

:sarcasm: :banghead:

[benld74]

59. This is SO MUCH worse than backing Hussein's fight with Iran!!

THIS MUST BE DEALT WITH immediately!! Hillary! Get that damn State Department on the ball!!!!!

[russspeakeasy]

60. War profiteers...arms dealers....a lot of money to be made.

makes me sick.

[Betsy Ross]

61. K&R n/t

[slipslidingaway]

62. State Department Approved Export of U.S.-Made Tear Gas to Egyptian Gov’t

http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/state-department-approved-export-of-u.s.-made-tear-gas-to-egyptian-govt

by Marian Wang
ProPublica, Feb. 4, 2011

"Feb. 5: This post has been corrected.

The American-made tear gas used to disperse pro-democracy protesters in Egypt earlier this week was sold to the country after government review, a State Department spokeswoman told us.

So, why did the State Department license the sale of American-made tear gas to be used by the Egyptian police, when the State Department itself has documented the police’s history of brutality <6>? When I asked this question, I received the following response, in full:

The US government licensed the sale of certain crowd dispersal articles to the government of Egypt. That license was granted after a thorough vetting process and after a multi-agency review of the articles that were requested.
Noticeably absent in that answer was anything about the Egyptian police. When I pressed further and mentioned this WikiLeaks cable <7>—written by U.S. Ambassador Margaret Scobey describing “routine and pervasive” police brutality and torture in Egypt—the response was immediate.

“I cannot provide any authentication of anything that has been published by the website WikiLeaks,” Thompson said..."


http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2011/11/177861.htm

Mark C. Toner

Deputy Spokesperson
Daily Press Briefing

Washington, DC

November 29, 2011


"Index for Today's Briefing

EGYPT
Tear Gas / U.S. Security Assistance Funds / Licenses for Export / Condemn Any Misuse
Elections / American Election Experts"


http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2011/11/177861.htm#EGYPT

"QUESTION: Can we talk about Egypt?

...QUESTION: But Mark, considering with the violence we saw last week and the fact that you’ve got – what, a 21-ton shipment, three part, arriving now, some of it in Suez right now – doesn’t that kind of send a mixed message from the U.S. Government? I mean, I know on one hand the U.S. Embassy in Cairo this morning tweeted, “U.S. security assistance funds were not being used for tear gas. That’s a genuine fact.” Another tweet said the U.S. is providing humanitarian assistance to victims, but has condemned excessive force.

But what does that say then, when you’ve got tear gas shipments arriving in the Port of Suez with “Made in the USA” on the side of them?

MR. TONER: Well, it’s – again, as I said, these are – this tear gas is approved for export to many countries around the world. It’s used by police forces in many countries around the world including our own --

QUESTION: But you’ve seen instances, haven’t you, in the past week or so, where it’s been misused?

MR. TONER: Right. And let me just finish what – my last point, which was saying that we certainly condemn the misuse of tear gas that would result in death or injury. And any kind of misuse to that extent would certainly cause us to – give us pause, I think, and has the potential to jeopardize future exports..."


http://www.alternet.org/rss/breaking_news/464688/state_dept_approved__sale_of_u.s.-made_tear_gas_to_egypt/

"...The chemical compounds in the tear gas determine whether it's State or Commerce that's responsible for licensing the product. In general, the State Department licenses the export of defense items -- including military-grade tear gas -- as spelled out on its Munitions List. The Commerce Department licenses the export of tear gas formulations that are considered "dual use" -- that is,..."

[izquierdista]

65. Hey, Obama's working hard on that export business.

Expect a free trade deal with Egypt soon.

[EC]

67. Is this being shipped by the U.S. Government

or the manufacturer?


And Good for Them for refusing to accept the shipment.

[ZombieHorde]

68. The Egyptians who refused the shipment are awesome!

I am very impressed.

[woo me with science]

70. +10000

[peacetalksforall]

69. Last week's gas? CS gas – 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile –

"The chemical compound used in CS gas – 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile – was "perfectly legitimate"",

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/11/21-5

From Wiki:

"Although described as a non-lethal weapon for crowd control, many studies have raised doubts about this classification. As well as creating severe pulmonary damage, CS can also significantly damage the heart and liver.<10>

On September 28, 2000, Prof. Dr. Uwe Heinrich released a study commissioned by John C. Danforth, of the United States Office of Special Counsel, to investigate the use of CS by the FBI at the Branch Davidians' Mount Carmel compound. He concluded that the lethality of CS used would have been determined mainly by two factors: whether gas masks were used and whether the occupants were trapped in a room. He suggests that if no gas masks were used and the occupants were trapped, then, "...there is a distinct possibility that this kind of CS exposure can significantly contribute to or even cause lethal effects."<1>

Many reports have associated CS exposure with miscarriages.<10> This is consistent with its reported clastogenic effect (abnormal chromosome change) on mammalian cells."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_gas

[hulka38]

71. It makes total sense

when you realize that U.S. policy (Dem or Repub makes no difference) and Israeli policy is to not lose a critical ally in the region. The Egyptian military being fully under a democratic civilian government would be to lose that ally. Obama/Clinton wanted to retard, protract and dilute any democratic reforms demanded of the rulers of Egypt. The playbook is to promise Egyptians that democratic reform is just around the corner and deliver enough reform supported by propaganda to take the energy out of the movement. It looks like a lot of Egyptians are wise and having none of it. They understood that Mubarak = Suleiman. Now they understand that Mubarak = Suleiman = the Egyptian military. So the U.S. is going to work with the rulers to try to keep them in power. The U.S. does not want a true democracy in Egypt. It wants to maintain the dependent client state it took decades to build.

[inna]

73. k