Category Archives: Resources

Tracking Tear Gas: by OWS Global Justice Working Group

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This was written by Allison Brown, Udi Pladott and Maia Ramnath for the OWS Global Justice Working Group.

One of the biggest clues to understanding the connections among grassroots democratic uprisings across the world may be found by tracking connections among methods of repression.

We know that tear gas canisters, stun grenades and other so-called non-lethal crowd control technologies manufactured by U.S. companies have been used not only against the Occupy movements in the United States, but also by peaceful pro-democracy mobilizations in Egypt, Bahrain, Palestine, Yemen and Tunisia, among many others. Corporations are reaping profit here and abroad from the repression of democracy.

We also know that the U.S. government knows about—and even promotes—these sales.  It is clear that there is deep collusion and moral complicity between government policy and corporate profit. What’s not so clear are the mechanisms by which this actually works. The relationship is convoluted, and this is no accident. Much effort is made to keep the process opaque by limiting our access to detailed information.

Below, we have focused on the use of tear gas in the Middle East.  We should note, however, that this is only one example of a much bigger phenomenon and a much longer history. It is emblematic of a pattern of militarized policing, corporate profiteering and governmental collusion that has been on the rise since at least the 1980s.

PROFILING THE COMPANIES

Here is an overview of some of the main tear gas manufacturers whose products have been documented in recent protest zones.

1. Defense Technology/Federal Laboratories/BAE

Defense Technology is headquartered in Casper, Wyoming.  Along with U.S. company Federal Laboratories, with which it shares a product line, it is linked to the U.K. arms giant BAE Systems through BAE’s ownership of U.S. arms company Armor Holdings. Defense Technology and Federal Laboratories tear gas has been used in Oakland, Palestine, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and Yemen.

The Yemeni government regularly uses Defense Technology and Federal Laboratories tear gas against pro-democracy protesters, who have been demonstrating since February. On October 25, 2011, police used massive amounts of Defense Technology product against Occupy Oakland. Iraq Veterans Against the War member Scott Olsen was critically injured when police fired tear gas  at close range, hitting him in the head. The police also fired tear gas directly onto the people who came to Olsen’s aid.

Defense Technology also provides tear gas to the Israeli police, and its canisters have been found in East Jerusalem. Previously, Federal Laboratories provided tear gas to the Israeli—this deal was the subject of protests and lawsuits during the first intifada.

2. NonLethal Technologies

Based in Homer City, Pennsylvania, NonLethal Technologies is the primary provider of tear gas to the government of Bahrain, a country which has just marked the first anniversary of its peaceful mass protests. Today, protests continue almost daily despite protesters having been jailed, tortured, killed, maligned, fired from work and expelled from school, according to Bahraini activist Fahud Desmukh (aka Chan’ad, in Jadaliyya, December 9, 2011).

In Sitra last August, fourteen-year-old Ali al-Shiekh was killed when police fired a tear gas canister at close range into the back of his neck. He died almost instantly. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times observed thatNonLethal Technologies canisters were regularly littered across the ground after pro-democacy demonstrations there.

3. Combined Systems, Inc.

Headquartered in Jamestown, Pennsylvania, Combined Systems Inc. (CSI)—often manufacturing under the brand name Combined Tactical Systems (CTS)—supplies Tunisia, Yemen, Germany, Netherlands, India, East Timor, Hong Kong, Argentina, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Cameroon, and Sierra Leone, as well as its most high-profile clients as of late— Egypt and Israel. They are owned by Point Lookout Capital and the Carlyle Group, with the former, whose offices are located in New York City, holding the controlling shares. On Point Lookout’s portfolio page, the section on CSI reads: “The company’s CTS branded product line is the premiere less-lethal line in the industry today.”

CSI is the primary supplier of tear gas to the Israeli military as well as a provider to Israel’s police (and border police) for use in occupied Palestine. (CSI even used to fly the Israeli flag at its Jamestown headquarters, but in advance of the Martin Luther King Day protest there, the company replaced it with a Pennsylvania state flag.) There is extensive written documentation of CSI sales and shipments to Israel; moreover CTS-brand canisters are ubiquitous at Palestinian protests, including the regularly recurrent nonviolent demonstrations at Bil’in, Ni’lin and Nabi Saleh.

Palestinian protesters recently killed by tear gas include Mustafa Tamimi, from the small village Nabi Saleh, on December 9, 2011. An Israeli soldier inside an armored jeep fired a tear gas canister at close range directly into his face. Jawaher Abu Rahma of Bil’in suffocated on tear gas at a protest in January of last year. His brother, Bassem Abu Rahma, died in April 2009 when an Israeli soldier fired a tear gas canister directly into his chest.

There have also been countless injuries. The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, a coordinating body for unarmed demonstrations in the West Bank, noted in a 2010 report: “According to Palestinian Red Crescent records in Bil’in and Ni’ilin, 18 people have been directly shot at and hit by the high velocity projectiles since their introduction, in these two villages alone.”

Photos and news reports have shown that CSI is a major tear gas provider for the Tunisian military. A Tunisian protester and a photographer from France were recently killed by impacts from tear gas canisters fired at close range.

The company’s tear gas is the primary one used by the Egyptian security forces in its attempt to crush demonstrations there, which still continue. Amnesty International documented three shipments of tear gas from CSI (in the U.S.) to Egypt in 2011 that were approved by the U.S. State Department, despite the Egyptian security forces’ record of using of tear gas to kill and injure protesters. In the months following Mubarak’s ouster, Human Rights Watch also reported excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrations, including illegally shooting tear gas into the crowd at shoulder height, on February 25, March 9, April 9, June 28 and 29, August 1 andOctober 9.

In the November protests around the election, tear gas was fired repeatedly—often into enclosed spaces, including into field hospitals. And again, canisters were fired directly at protesters. Egyptian human rights groups have reported that between November 19 and November 23, at least 40 protesters were killed and more than 2,000 injured. At least four people died from tear gas asphyxiation.

HOW DOES IT GET THERE?

How does tear gas get from American manufacturers to various governments overseas?  You could see it as a sort of triangular relationship between the U.S. government, U.S. corporations, and other governments. These three points are always involved. The fungible path of money and weaponry follows various routes and takes different forms at different points in the process. One thing to emphasize here is the complicity between state and corporate interests: government policies actively work in war profiteers’ favor. Even when it’s a commercial sale, tear gas (like any other weapon) is subject to export controls, so U.S.-made tear gas cannot be shipped abroad without government approval.

Here are some of the ways by which tear gas moves from manufacturers to clients in different countries. The U.S. government’s role usually consists of one or more of the following: authorizing a sale, arranging a sale, subsidizing it, or funding it directly with taxpayer money.

1. FMS (foreign military sales)

These are government-to-government transactions, administered by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency in the Pentagon. FMS requests are initiated by the purchasing country, and handled initially by the U.S. embassy in the client country. The Pentagon handles the entire transaction, but the State Department can also approve, reject or halt any purchase.

The military articles sold through this program can come from either Pentagon stocks or new production. In the latter case, the Defense Department contracts with U.S. arms manufacturers to actually build the weapons and, in some cases, provide related services. But the Pentagon takes care of all of the paperwork.

The top three buyers in FMS for fiscal year 2010 were Egypt ($2.45 billion); Israel ($3.95 billion); and Kuwait ($1.6 billion).

2. DCS (direct commercial sales)

These are purchases negotiated directly between the client country and the manufacturer. The U.S. State Department approves each and every DCS. Compared to FMS, this route is usually quicker, sometimes cheaper and always entails less government oversight. In addition, the State Department is much less transparent about DCS than the Pentagon is about FMS. Minimal information about price and quantity is classified as “confidential business information” and kept from the public. This secrecy undermines the ability of Congress and the interested press and public to exercise proper oversight on industry-direct arms transfers. The existence of these two separate programs also makes gaining an accurate count of arms exports in a given year exceedingly difficult. This is the best information we have:

The top DCS totals for fiscal 2009: Egypt ($458,000 for tear gas and other riot control agents, $101 million total); Israel ($1.05 million for tear gas and other riot control agents, $602.6 million total); and Kuwait ($1.24 million for tear gas and other riot control agents, $923 million total).

3. FMF (foreign military financing)

The U.S. government does more than just approve sales. American taxpayers directly finance foreign governments’ purchases of U.S. military products via “military aid”—essentially grants and loans to foreign governments for arms purchases. In most cases, financing is available only for the sale of U.S.-made products. So, in effect, these are taxpayer-financed subsidies of private weapons manufacturers and defense contractors. In some exceptions, such as those made for Israel, a recipient country can use the a limited portion of the aid to fund purchases of its own domestic products.

Foreign military financing is regularly applied to FMS purchases and is relatively well documented. But because transparency is lacking when it comes to DCS purchases, it’s harder to accurately associate FMF funds with these purchases.

In 2009 Egypt received $1.3 billion, Israel $2.55 billion. In 2011 Egypt requested $1.3 billion, Israel $3 billion. (A footnote in the available documentation suggests it’s assumed they will get the amount they ask for.)

How much of this applies to the militarized policing technologies, including tear gas, that are being used to suppress democratic movements? In other words, how much of our tax money is actually contributing to the use of tear gas by foreign governments against those with whom we feel affinity? That’s not easy to break down. But regardless of whether particular tear gas purchases are directly funded by taxpayer money, FMF contributes to the client countries’ military budgets, so even if it only funds fighter jets and tanks, it still frees up funds for them to purchase other weapons, including tear gas.

WHAT CAN PEOPLE DO?

On November 26, seven tons of CSI munitions arrived in Suez—the first of a three-part shipment, totaling 21 tons. Customs officials at the Adabiya port of Suez tried to prevent entry by refusing to complete paperwork.

This year, on Valentine’s Day, hackers associated with Anonymous claimed to have broken into CSI’s online systems and stolen personal information belonging to CSI employees and its clients. In a statement posted while the company’s website was down, Anonymous cited CSI’s sale of “mad chemical weapons to militaries and cop shops around the world,” and referenced the ongoing sale of tear gas and other weapons to Egypt during the repression of protest.

So what can we do here to support our comrades in Egypt, Bahrain, Palestine and elsewhere?

1. Contact the Ad Hoc Coalition to Defend the Egyptian Revolution, Witness Bahrain, and Adalah-NY to see what they’re up to and how you can get involved.

2. Target factories and headquarters of war profiteers.  Target their main investors.  There have already been several protests at Point Lookout Capital, including a die-in organized by the OWS direct action working group, the Ad Hoc Coalition and Adalah-NY.  There were also protests at CSI’s headquarters on December 11, 2011, and Martin Luther King Day this year. According to Nora Barrows-Friedman’s blog on Electronic Intifada, CSI’s security director added that the company’s CEO and other officials “were unavailable as they were to attend the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) in Las Vegas this week.”

Around the world, people are standing up for social and economic justice and political freedom. Meanwhile, those parties who are benefiting from the repression of protest are more or less the same ones who benefited from the conditions that sparked the protest in the first place. Quite simply, what the 99% want is diametrically opposed to the interests of the global military-industrial regime, both here and abroad. People-to-people solidarity will bring down and change that regime. And it’s within our power to do so.

 

Sign On: Solidarity with the Real Egyptian Revolution

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The Ad-Hoc Coalition to Defend the Egyptian Revolution endorses the following petition in solidarity with the Egyptian Revolution. To sign on and join thousands around the world, visit http://egyptsolidaritycampaign.org/.

Solidarity with the Real Egyptian Revolution

One year ago brave activists in Egypt electrified the world. Sweeping into Tahrir Square in Cairo, and similar sites in other cities and towns, protesting outside government offices, and striking for living wages, workers’ rights and against corrupt managers, they overturned a dictator and drove forward a process of mass democratic upheaval that has been dubbed “the Arab Spring.” In the process, Egypt’s revolution became an inspiration to millions around the world.

Every step of the way, millions of ordinary people struck blows for women’s rights, independent unions, democracy and social justice. But every step they were also brutalized by a military apparatus intent on blocking real change. Even after the dictator, President Mubarak, was toppled, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has continued to rule via “state of emergency” law, while responding to the revolutionary process with arrests, torture, beatings, and killings. Since Mubarak’s fall, as many as 14,000 people have been subjected to military tribunals and the beatings and torture associated with them. As a result, one year later, the revolution hangs in the balance.

In recent months, attacks by SCAF on youth, women, and workers have become more ominous. Ongoing violence against women protesters has intensified. The army has been clearly linked to assaults on Coptic Christians, twenty-four of whom were murdered in October of last year. Then, in December, an alarming escalation in army attacks on peaceful protesters created more martyrs of the revolution. Meanwhile, youth activists associated with the April 6th Movement have been arrested and charged with insulting the army and trying to overthrow the state – merely for distributing anti-SCAF posters. Simultaneously, SCAF and the Ministry of the Interior launched a threatening smear campaign against activists of the socialist left, and sent soldiers to raid the offices of seventeen NGOs. In these and many other ways, SCAF has made clear that it does not intend to give up power.

But courageous Egyptians are refusing to stand down in the face of these attacks. November and December saw huge popular mobilizations, teachers’ strikes, an inspiring 10,000 strong women’s march in Cairo, and a gathering of 50,000 in Tahrir Square to inaugurate the new year. These actions are a source of great hope for the future of Egypt’s popular revolution.

As writers, trade unionists, organizers, scholars, and activists who have supported Egypt’s democratic revolution we refuse to be silent in the face of these assaults, especially in light of the silence of our governments. We publicly condemn all attacks on freedom of speech, assembly, religion and association in Egypt. We call for the release of all political prisoners. We condemn the actions of foreign governments such as those of the US and Britain that hypocritically mouth support for the Egyptian revolution while supplying SCAF with arms and tear gas to crush protests. And we proclaim our solidarity with the democratic, trade union, women’s, youth and socialist groups who insist that the Egyptian Revolution must continue on the road to genuine democracy and social justice.

New comic on tear gas: “No More Tears” by Ethan Heitner

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Ethan Heitner of Freedom Funnies has created a new comic, working with the Occupy Wall Street Global Justice Working Group. Ethan writes:

I have spent the past two weeks working intensively with a new working group of the Occupy Wall Street movement, focused on issues of Global Justice. Our goal is to build stronger solidarity within OWS and NYC with international struggles for democracy. In addition to the poster image up top, part of that work was working on a presentation and comic that exposes the companies that profit from selling tear gas and how the U.S. government is complicit in the abuses of that tear gas by foreign governments. Link to the comic after the jump!

Click  right here to read the comic. It was created through the hard work and meticulous research of members of the WG and Adalah-NY, and the first image was done by the fabulous artist Greg Hurwitch. We premiered the comic, along with a detailed presentation that goes into greater depth, at a teach-in on January 19th.

Here it is as a printable pdf, which can be printed as a single two-sided page at 8.5 x 11

No More Tears! (PDF)

The full comic follows:

Page 1

Page 2

ANHRI: Authority’s campaign aims to silence human rights voices

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The following statement is republished from the website of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information:

Human Rights Movement Founded to Peacefully Struggle against Imperialism and Tyranny

Cairo- 8 January 2012

The undersigned Human Rights Organizations state that “the campaign launched presently against civil society organizations working in human rights field, by Egyptian authorities accompanied by some formal and state- linked independent media- in which authorities do their best starting with suing organizations in a case known as the foreign fund case, through raiding 17 offices of Egyptian and international human rights organizations, and finally attacking the whole of the civil society through some media channels to mislead public opinion about their being foreign funded entities intended to carry out external agendas- is nothing but attempts aim chiefly at silencing civil society organizations and averting them from continuing their relentless peaceful struggle against humiliating Egyptian citizens and discarding their human rights on the hands of the ruling authorities and their security services. Such campaign could also be seen as a punishment to the organizations for playing an active role during Egypt’s revolution in exposing the police state practices which dedicated all its powers to protect the head of state at the expense of Egyptians’ dignity and rights”

The undersigned human rights organization assert that the purpose of such prearranged campaign launched by the military ruling institution is to conceal the crimes it has committed against Egyptian citizens and its use of excessive force in facing peaceful protests, particularly as HROs were of the first voices to censure the Military Council and denounce the human rights violations committed in breaking up Tahrir square sit-in on 9 March 2011 by using excessive force, and have been holding that position since then.

In this context, the undersigned organizations like to point to the long history of peaceful struggle driven by the Arab Human Rights Movement with the Egyptian movement in its heart, which enabled organizations, through their practical stands in confronting assaults on freedoms and human rights, to face the aggressive campaigns launched several times previously by the state security services during Mubarak regime to defame HROs and depict them to the public as an American scheme. The present campaign launched by the current authority will definitely fail its purpose as did the previous ones.

The undersigned organizations also stress that they will never forget the origins of their foundation as part of the Arab Human Rights Movement founded in the beginning of the eighties to stand in the face of foreign imperialism as one of the consequences of Beirut’s fall under Zionist occupation and the significances of this to human rights, as well as its historical positions in denouncing Baghdad siege, rejecting the economic penalties imposed on it, backing the Palestinian uprising in 2000, in addition to the significant role it played in the World Conference against Racism in 2001 and condemning the American war on Iraq after Baghdad fall.

The Arab and Egyptian human rights movement as it continues to play its patriotic role in confronting American and Israeli assaults, is also persistent to continue facing political tyranny and defending citizens’ human dignity and rights no matter which entity commits the violations, and no matter whether the abusing government is Arab or non- Arab.

The organizations also assert on their relentlessness in continuing their peaceful and organized struggle towards the protection and respect of human dignity and human civil and political rights despite all the defamation campaigns and all the attempts to decline their role.

The signed organizations

- The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)

- Hisham Mubarak Law Center (HMLC)

- The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR)

- El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence (Al-Nadeem)

- Arab Penal Reform Organization (APRO)

- Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRAAP)

- Association of Freedom of Thinking and Expression (AFTE)

- Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)

- Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies (CCHRS)

 

Also available in:العربية

CSI: Merchant of Death and Servant of Tyranny

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The following information about CSI, the Pennsylvania-based tear gas manufacturer whose empty canisters have littered the streets of Egypt after being used against popular protests, was collected by Werner Lange:

“The severity has increased.  They are using a different type of gas which makes the patient go into convulsions and repeated vomiting”

-Dr. Osam Sadar, Field Clinic Doctor in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, talking about effects of CSI tear gas used on Egyptian protesters, Nov. 28, 2011

CSI Corporate Officers and Operations:

CSI (Combined Systems, Incorporated) was founded in 1981 by two Israelis, Jacob Kravel and Michael Brunn, who still function as its President and Vice President, respectively.  It was incorporated as a for-profit business on March 19, 1981 in the State of New York and has since been registered as a “foreign corporation” (i.e. out-of-state) to conduct business in Florida and Pennsylvania.  Its agent in Florida is SRT Supply, a major international weapons supply corporation, and its primary manufacturing facilities are located in a rural setting just outside of the small town of Jamestown, Pennsylvania.

Combined Systems (Israel) is the CSI subsidiary in Israel, which, on its corporate registration, lists Kravel and Brunn among its Directors along with their Israeli National ID.  CSI supplies its products to the Israeli army, police force, prison system and the Israeli Rafael Armament Development Authority.  CSI tear gas and high-velocity projectiles are routinely used by the Israeli army, occasionally with lethal effect, to disperse protesters against Israeli occupation and tyranny in the West Bank.

Combined Systems Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CTS-CSI Holdings Inc.  10% or more of CTS-CSI Holdings Inc. is owned by Carlyle Mezzaine Partners, L.P. and 10% or more of CTS-CSI Holdings Inc. is owned by Point Lookout Capital Partners L.P. (PLCP). Managing Partners of Point Lookout, Michael Monteleone and James Cesare, are both members of an advisory board for F.N.B. Capital Corp. of Pittsburgh.  In 2005, PLCP acquired a majority interest in CSI with the Carlyle Group and in 2008 it acquired Penn Arms, a weapons manufacturer based in Punxsutawney, PA.

CTS (Combined Tactical Systems) is a branch of CSI which specializes in so-called “less lethal” munitions and tear gas used for “crowd and riot control”, whereas the military branch of CSI produces weaponry for military forces such as the high explosive FRAG-12 ammunition and the VENOM munitions systems.  According to a CTS brochure, “products manufactured by Combined Tactical Systems are less-lethal force options.  Less-lethal options are intended to cause varying degrees of pain and injury…In rare circumstances, less-lethal options may cause death or serious bodily injury.” Indeed.

CSI/CTS product fatalities:

1.Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahmah, 30, was killed on April 17 (2009) when struck in his chest by a CSI 40mm model 4431 powder barricade-penetrating tear gas canister fired by an IDF soldier during protest in the Palestinian village of Bil’in.

2. Jawaher Abu Rahmah, 31, the sister of Bassem, was killed during another large protest in Bil’in against the Israeli apartheid wall on December 31 (2010).  Israeli soldiers shot scores of CSI tear gas canisters at the more than 1000 protesters unleashing large clouds of toxic CS gas into the air, one of which overcame Ms. Abu Rahmah , who collapsed and was taken to a Ramallah hospital for treatment.  She died from CS gas inhalation at 9am on January 1, 2011. Two manufacturers’ CS gas products were used, and one or both are responsible for Ms Abu Rahmah’s death.

3. A 32-year old photographer was killed in Tunisia after he was hit by a tear gas grenade at close range.

4. The Egyptian Health Ministry reported that seven people had died from asphyxiation caused by tear gas used against protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in November 2011.  The medicines used by field doctors to resuscitate earlier victims were ineffective at this time, suggesting a more lethal form of tear gas was being used against the demonstrators. The streets of Cairo (and other Egyptian cities) were littered with CTS 35/37mm CS smoke projectiles and canisters during these pro-democracy protests.  Non-governmental reports claim that at least two dozen persons were killed and hundreds more injured by this toxic gas in Egypt during November protests.

Ten Recent CSI Munitions Shipments to Tyrannies outside the USA:

 

 

Destination Date Purchase Price Munitions/Weapons Supplied by CSI
1.Israel

Israel Police
Chief Weapons Officer
Israel Prison System

 April, 2008 $5,000,000 50,000 cartridges (CS,Smoke,Baton)
50,000 Riot Control Grenades (CS)
25,000 Flash Bang Grenades
100,000 12-guage cartridges
$111,000 2,000 CS/OS Grenade cartridges
1,000 Rubber Ball CS Hand Grenade
1,000 Tactical Flash Bang Grenades
1,000 CS/OS Sting-Ball Grenades
1,000 Flash Bang Training
1,000 Super-Stock Bean Bags
note: during 2007-08, the US State Dept. authorized $1.85 million for “tear gas and riot control” to Israel; CSI is a primary provider of tear gas to the IDF.
Mubarak’s Egypt
Weapons and Ammunition Dept.
Cairo		 7/2008 $650,100 21,000 CS Smoke Hand Grenades with Fuze
21,000 CS Smoke Long Range Cartridges
4,000 CS Window Penetrating Cartridges
SCAF Egypt 4/2011
8/2011
10/2011		 unknown
unknown
unknown		 21 tons of ammunition to Port of Suez
17.9 tons of ammunition to Port Said
21 tons of ammunition to Port Ababiya
note: Egyptian dock workers initially refused to unload the third supply of munitions from CSI to Egyptian military rulers. The US government gave Egypt $1.2 million in 2009 for tear gas purchases with the congressionally imposed provision that purchase must be made from the USA; in 2010 the tear gas grant came to $1.7 million.
Guatemala
Policia Nacional Civil
Guatemala City 		    January 2010 $506,000 10,000 CS Grenade Canisters
5,000 Smoke Grenade Canisters
5,000 CS Long Range Cartridges
4,000 Flash Bang Cartridges
10,000 Launching Cartridges 
Argentina
Ministerio de Justicia		      January 2010 $312,265  10,000 CS Cartridges
7,100 CS Grenades
3,200 Aerosol Grenades 
India
Ministry of Defense		 January 2010 $129,276  25,200 electric minidenonators
East Timor 
Policia Nacional Timor Leste  		 January 2010   $13,080     5  40mm Grenade Launchers 
100  MK-4 Pepper Spray Canisters 
Thailand
Royal Thai Navy  		      Sept. 2008        $10,050       1,005 Hand Grenade Fuzes 
Trinidad & Tobago    May 2008  $5,022 4 Tactical Tear Gas Launchers
24 CN Gas Long Range Cartridges
24 CS Gas Long Range Cartridges
Hong Kong
Wan Chai, Hong Kong 		January 2010  $3,700 4 Single Shot 37mm Grenade Launchers
40 Foam Baton Cartridges
40 Muzzle Blast Cartridges
40 Flameless Expulsion CS Grenades 

 Litigation against CSI: 

1.Following a June 2007 inspection by EPA, CSI was cited for RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) violations that occurred between Oct. 2004 and June 2007  involving hazardous waste stored at the Jamestown facility, including: operating a hazardous waste closed storage facility without a permit; failure to keep containers of hazardous waste closed during storage; failure to conduct weekly inspections of central hazardous waste management; failure to document hazardous waste management training programs; failure to keep records of weekly storage facility inspections; failure to provide a containment system for hazardous waste; offering hazardous waste to unpermitted treatment,storage or disposal facilities; and failure to offer universal waste only to another universal waste handler.  CSI agreed to pay a $65,000 penalty in January 2010 to settle these numerous environmental law violations.

 2.In 2007 a lawsuit was filed against CSI for personal injury and product liability.  The plaintiff, Nels Cooper Brannan, was a decorated former US Marine who claimed that a defective CSI flash bang grenade cost him his finger/thumb and hearing loss. 3.Though not yet filed, evidence suggests that CSI may be in violation of the Foreign Appropriations Act, which, since 2001, carried the stipulation that no US funds are to go to any unit of a foreign country if there are gross violations of human rights. Note: A fire broke out in one of the CSI plants in Jamestown on November 15, 2011.  Although there were no reported injuries, the blaze was too much for the sprinkler system to handle and it took some 14 area fire departments several hours to extinguish this flame.“There have been a couple fires at the plant in the last ten years or so, including at least one that prompted officials to evacuate neighbors in the area because of the noxious fumes” (Tom Davidson, The Sharon Herald, 11/16/2011). 

Profile of CSI President and Founder, Jacob Kravel: 

Born on Jan. 16 (1950), likely in Israel;  married to Anat Kravel who was born in 1954 in Kibbutz Ramot Menasha, Israel; they have three children (Ori, Rony and Etie). According to an article about their 2009 lavish wedding in Chagigah Magazine, Etie and his bride (Michal Kollneshner) “both were born in NYC to Israeli parents”.  In July 2011, Jacob and Ori Kravel purchased a two-bedroom condo in Lincoln Square for $1.3 million.  The main NYC residence of Jacob Kravel is a luxury condo in The Saratoga; he also has residences in Great Neck, NY and elsewhere.   In 1981, he and his boyhood friend, Michael Brunn, founded CSI which currently employs about 130 low-paid workers; runs two shifts five days per week; and puts out about one million products per year for military and police forces. Kravel is also either the Chairman or CEO of ERO Holding LLC , a substantial owner of Pyrotechnic Specialties, which was charged with fraud by the DOJ in 2008.  He also has business ties to Racoe Holding LLC; Aero Parts, Inc; Aerojet Inc.; and Arco Holding LLC.  Not surprisingly, Kravel is viciously anti-union as this testimonial of his for a union-busing firm reveals: “Blankenship & Associates helps me keep my company union-free, and I will continue to turn to them for advice on any labor employment law matter, regardless of whether the union is involved or not”.  Teamsters Local 241 is currently engaged in a union organizing effort at CSI.

Alaa Abdel Fattah is free – the struggle continues

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The Ad-Hoc Coalition to Defend the Egyptian Revolution rejoices in the freedom of Alaa Abdel Fattah and stands in solidarity with his ongoing struggle and the struggle of all who resist oppression and military rule in Egypt. We celebrate that Alaa is able to hold his newborn son, Khaled, for longer than a half-hour at a time, and we celebrate the spirit of resistance with which he emerged from prison walls.

The struggle is not over. Now, more than ever, continue to call these numbers:
011-202-22916227 and 011-202-2793-5000 and demand the military government drop all charges against Alaa Abdel Fattah and other Egyptian revolutionaries and release all political prisoners:

“We go to the Midan [square] to discover that we love life outside it, and to discover that our love for life is resistance. We race towards the bullets because we love life, and we go into prison because we love freedom.

Love is immortal and sorrow is immortal and the Midan is immortal and the shaheed [martyr] is immortal and the country is immortal. As for their state it is for an hour. Just for an hour.” -Abu Khaled, Alaa Abdel Fatah

For more information about the new attacks being faced by Egyptian revolutionaries and why it is so crucial to keep up the campaigns and pressure, please see this link from the MENA Solidarity Network.

Video of Alaa’s release:

Point Lookout Capital Partners: Choking Democracy in Egypt

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POINT LOOKOUT CAPITAL PARTNERS: CHOKING DEMOCRACY IN EGYPT

Stop Sales of Tear Gas to the Egyptian Military!
End All US Military Aid to SCAF!
End Military Rule in Egypt!

Download handout as PDF

Private equity firm Point Lookout Capital Partners holds the majority of shares in Combined Systems Inc. (CSI), a US-based weapons manufacturer whose tear gas (often under brand name Combined Tactical Systems) is among the chemical weapons being used by the Egyptian military regime to suppress unarmed Egyptians calling for a democratic civilian government.

Between November 19 and the afternoon of November 23, Egyptian human rights groups have reported at least 40 protesters have been killed and more than 2,000 seriously wounded. At least four people have died from tear gas asphyxiation, including Dr. Rania Fouad, who fell into a coma when police shot tear gas directly at a field hospital and then prevented her colleagues from moving her away from the scene.

The use of toxic chemical weapons to suppress demonstrations is fundamentally a violation of basic freedoms and human rights. Numerous reports indicate that the Egyptian forces’ use of tear gas violates international law and conventions: forces have fired canisters at head level, used expired gas (which can become more toxic), and used it excessively and indiscriminately, including in enclosed areas, against unarmed protesters. Doctors in Cairo describe seizures and convulsions among those exposed to the gas.

Although CSI has been warned in the past by human rights activists that its products were used to target and kill unarmed protesters in Egypt, Palestine, and Tunisia, it continues to sell these chemical agents to governments who use them to violate human rights, and the US State Department continues to approve such sales.

CSI-made tear gas has also been used against Palestinian protesters, which resulted in the murder of Bassam Abu Rahma, who was killed when a tear gas projectile hit him in the chest, followed by the murder of his sister, Jawahar, who died by suffocation.

Despite our geographical boundaries, we are bound by our common struggles for social justice, dignity and better standards of living. Tahrir Square has inspired global movements, including the Occupy Movement in the USA. Around the world we have seen these uprisings suppressed by participants increasingly being victimized by beatings, pepper-spray and arrests (most recently at UC Davis and Baruch in New York) by politicians who show little regard for our lives and safety, than Egypt’s own military. Now it is our duty to defend the Egypt revolution, starting with forcing an end to CSI’s material support for murder!

TAKE ACTION:
Tell CSI and its majority shareholder, Point Lookout Capital, to stop profiteering from the violation of human rights: CSI must stop sending tear gas to the military junta in Egypt. Tell the US State Department to stop using $1.3 billion in US tax dollars annually to provide tear gas and other weapons, and to stop approving sales of military goods to SCAF.

Contact CSI:
Don Smith, CEO of CSI – Tel. 724-932-2177, press 0
Jim Marth, CSI international sales rep – jimmarth@combinedsystems.com
Paul Ford, CSI sales and marketing – paulford@combinedsystems.com

Contact CSI’s majority shareholder, Point Lookout Capital Partners:
Michael A. Monteleone – Tel: 917-322-6437; email: mm@pointlookoutcapital.com
James J. Cesare- Tel: 917-322-6438; email: jc@pointlookoutcapital.com

Contact Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:
Tel 202-647-4000; online contact form http://contact-us.state.gov/app/ask