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Egypt's Military-Industrial Complex: Washington's Role in Arming Egypt
With US-made tear gas canisters fired on protesters in Cairo, Washington's role in arming Egypt is under the spotlight
In early January 2010, Bob Livingston, a former chairman of the appropriations committee in the US House of Representatives, flew to Cairo accompanied by William Miner, one of his staff. The two men were granted meetings with US Ambassador Margaret Scobey, as well as Major General FC "Pink" Williams, the defence attaché and director of the US Office of Military Cooperation in Egypt. Livingston and Miner were lobbyists employed by the government of Egypt, helping them to open doors to senior officers in the US government. Records of their meetings, required under law, were recently published by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington, DC watchdog group.
Although the names of those who attended the meetings have to be made public, the details of what was discussed are confidential. I called Miner to ask him about their meetings, but he referred me to Karim Haggag, the spokesman for the Egyptian embassy in Washington, who did not respond. Miner did confirm that he was a retired Navy pilot who had worked for clients like the Egyptian government, as well as several military contractors.
The cozy relationship between the lobbyists, members of the US Congress, Pentagon officials and the Egyptian government is easily explained: much is at stake. Egypt has received over $70bn in economic and military aid approved by the US Congress in the past 60 years, according to numbers compiled by the Congressional Research Service. Maj Gen Williams is the man in charge of the $1.3bn in annual US military aid supplied to the country.
Specifically, the aid money pays for US-designed Abrams tanks assembled in suburban Cairo under contract with General Dynamics. Boeing sells Egypt CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters, Lockheed Martin sells F-16s, Sikorsky Aircraft sells Black Hawk helicopters. Lockheed Martin has taken in $3.8bn from Egypt in the last few years; General Dynamics $2.5bn; Boeing $1.7bn; among many others.
In addition, hundreds of Egyptian military officers come for short training courses to the US each year. Two days after Livingston and Miner met with the US officials in Cairo, the embassy sent a cable to Washington with a list of Egyptian officials approved to take a three-week military training course in the US in February 2010. Under the "Leahy law" – a human rights requirement named after Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont that prohibits US military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights – the embassy must, as a matter of routine, vouch for the prospective trainees.
One of the training courses listed in the cable made public by WikiLeaks was listed as one in how to handle explosives. The WikiLeaks cables show that numerous officials working for "state security", aged between 30 and 50 with ranks from major to lieutenant colonel, were given clean bills of health to take a variety of such specialised military training programmes.
After the US lobbyists returned to their offices in Washington, DC, Miner kept in touch with "Pink" Williams, corresponding via email. A little over three months later, an Egyptian military delegation led by Major General Mohamed Said Elassar, assistant to Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the Egyptian minister of defence, came to Washington. Livingstone and Miner were on hand once again to take the Egyptian officials to meet with a number of members of Congress, as well to visit the office of the secretary of defence to discuss "US/Egyptian security issues".
So, when protesters in Cairo last week were struck by tear gas canisters fired by Egyptian security officials, it was not surprising that pictures taken by ABC TV would show that the canisters were manufactured in the US. Nor does it seem that surprising that a journalist from the Sydney Morning Herald would find 12-gauge shotgun shells with ''MADE IN USA'' stamped on their brass heads when he visited the wounded in a makeshift casualty ward in a tiny mosque behind Tahrir (Liberation) Square.
The photographs show that the tear gas comes from a company named Combined Systems Inc (CSI), which describes itself as a "tactical weapons company" and is based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. A similar picture from the protests in Egypt was posted on Twitter of a "Outdoor 52 Series Large Grenade" grenade made by CSI, which is designed to discharge "a high volume of smoke and chemical agent through multiple emission ports". (CSI did not return calls for comment.)
Although CSI markets these products as "less-than-lethal", several incidents indicate that they can cause injury and death. Bassem Abu Rahmah, a Palestinian man, was reportedly killed on 17 April 2009, when a CSI 40mm model 4431 powder barricade penetrating tear gas grenade struck him in the chest, according to a report by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Nels Cooper Brannan , a US marine deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, unsuccessfully sued CSI for injuries caused by an allegedly defective MK 141 flashbang grenade that caused serious damage to his left hand when it exploded accidently.
While the Egyptian protesters were facing tear gas grenades fired by security forces in Cairo, another delegation of Egyptian senior military officials led by Lieutenant General Sami Hafez Enan, the chief of staff of Egypt's armed forces, was back in Washington to meet with Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (No public records have been filed yet, so it is unclear if Miner and Livingstone were escorting them again.)
Within hours of the news of the huge protests, Enan cut short his trip and dashed back to Cairo last Friday, but his boss, Minister Tantawi, has kept in touch with Washington, making daily phone calls to US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. Both men – together with Egypt's spy chief, Omar Suleiman – are among President Hosni Mubarak's closest allies and enjoy close ties with Washington, according to the diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks. And it was these men that Thomas E Donilon, the US national security adviser, was frantically phoning last weekend to try to gauge how to prevent the collapse of the Mubarak regime.
It could days, maybe even weeks, before the future of the Egyptian government is decided, and with it, the relationship with the US. But one thing is clear: the Egyptian protesters are well aware of the close ties between officials in Cairo and Washington and not happy about the US training and tear gas shells supplied to the Egyptian military. Crowds gathered in Liberation Square last week chanted: "Hosni Mubarak, Omar Suleiman, both of you are agents of the Americans." The protesters believe that the billions in military aid that kept Mubarak in power have helped him keep democracy from flowering in Egypt.
Two years after Obama's famous speech in Cairo, in which he called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims", it might be a little late for his administration to heed the words of Mostafa Amin, Egypt's most famous columnist and journalist:
Maybe America gains a lot when it exports to us arms and cars or planes, but it loses more when it does not export the best that its civilisation has produced, which is freedom and democracy and human rights. The value of America is that it should defend this product, not only in its country but throughout the world! It may harm some of its interests, but it will make gains that will live hundreds of years, for the friendship of peoples live forever, because the peoples do not die, but governments change like the winter weather.
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39 Comments so far
Show AllDo we have members here specialized in Constitutional Law?
Here's my question: How can a group of citizens file a law suit against top members of the US Government for misrepresentation of their solemn duty to defend and protect the Constitution of the US? By that I mean, for example, the handing over of our tax dollars to the Military Industrial Complex and others who then turn around and use part of it to buy Congress. Then the Pentagon goes and buys tons of equipment from them perhaps with more funding from the Fed on borrowed money we end up paying.
This has been an invitation for these Corporations to create "war opportunities" everywhere. I believe it has gotten even worse! I suspect the Office of the President may have have been fully engaged in finding these "war opportunities" for them, also paid with our tax dollars!
I don't know how could we approach this. Right now, I am basically putting the question: is it possible to do it with a reasonable chance of success taking into account the Supreme Court we currently have?
Love to hear your feedback.
J.
Interesting question Josh, but I see at least two big looming obstacles to any such lawsuit.
First is the issue of standing. "A group of citizens" is going to sue "top officials of the US government for misrepresentation" and violation of their Constitutional duties, essentially accusing them of funneling US tax dollars through the Pentagon appropriation process to military contractors - huge private weapons manufacturing corporations which then recycle some of those dollars back through hired lobbyists to influence US war policies even more, again and again and again.
What "group of citizens" has legal standing to bring such a test case? The federal courts have pretty decisively rejected so-called "taxpayer standing" as inadequate. Environmental groups trying to enforce the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act have encountered similar hurdles. Who has standing to sue on behalf of the trees in a forest? Should a "group of citizens" like the Koch brothers or your local Tea Bagger caucus have standing to sue top officials of Obama's Justice Department for violating their perceived Constitutional duty to protect the rights of unborn fetuses, or to promote unfettered free enterprize?
A marvelous group of citizens initially won a great ruling at the US District Court level here in Michigan. They successfully challenged the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program on constitutinal grounds, only to have that ruling reversed in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals because they lacked standing to sue in the first place. Just because the group of plaintiffs included American Muslims, Muslim clerics, and attorneys representing Muslims in immigration and other matters - folks who were almost certainly the targets of the unlawful surveillance program - was not enough. Because the plaintiffs had sketchy proof they'd actually had their personal phone, email, and other electronic communications unlawfully intercepted, they lacked proof they'd suffered sufficient harm or injury to entitle them to sue the government's clandestine eavesdroppers. (The proof, of course, was all highly classified and not discoverable by the plaintiffs for national security reasons, of course of course). No particularized harm, therefore no standing to sue, the Appeals' Court basically ruled.
As a fellow taxpayer who favors butter over guns, I'd love to be a member of your group, but we're going to have a big problem with standing to sue from the get-go. Not to mention the reality that your tax dollars and mine not only pay for nukes and Predator drones, but we also pay for the bed pan cleaners at Walter Reed hospital and toilet paper for the Pentagon. Not all Defense Department appropriations are inherently evil.
The second huge problem is indeed "taking into account the Supreme Court we currently have." This is the Court that gave us the Citizens United decision. What about the "free speech" rights of Lockheed, GE, Boeing, and General Dynamics? Why can't those prominent corporate citizens hire lobbyists to advance their political views the same way that unions, farmers, Goldman Sachs, and small business owners have a right to?
Personally, I don't see a reasonable chance of success. On broad political issues like this, the court system is a badly tilted playing field, and I don't think our team would even be considered entitled to step forward and stand in the batter's box.
Bill from Saginaw
My point exactly vwhy the HELL do other countries get our tax dollars while Americans starve and die. This shit has been going on for so long. 60 yrs for Egypt. How many for Isreal, Columbia, mexico and all other countries. There must be a law against that. We are being screwed. Money laundering for THE MIC. We give them money to buy our planes. I hope they all rot in hell for every American that has died because of their fraud. I am so sick of finding out thst the US is behind every corrupt regime. Fuck them!!!
"foreign aid" is another name for "investment" for multiplied return.
AKA Bribery
'Not all Defense Department appropriations are inherently evil.'
But mostly unnecessary.
Excellent post Bill, thanks. You solved a lot of nagging questions I've had.
Ditto, WTF. Thank you, Bill, for your weighty, cogent answer that filled in quite a few gaps in "The Great War GAME."
/cm
Thank you for your excellent analysis, Bill. how do you see us finally evolve out of this real prison we seem to be locked into? Certainly, this is not a representative democracy, is it? It seems to me that our Constitution is flawed as it is without a way to get out of what seems to be a check-mate by some bad corporations! If Vermont is able to get a revision of the 16th Amendment with respect to "corporate personhood" it will be extremely important but I do not believe it will go anywhere because of the tendencies shown by this Supreme Court. We would have to impeach the Roberts court, also pretty difficult to happen,
Bill from Saginaw February 4th, 2011 7:29 pm
Thanks. Very informative and lucid post. I am curious, though, where does the concept of "standing" derive from. Is it from English Common Law as most American coomon law traces roots back to this source, which is my little understanding of it, or is this something peculiarly American?
The US Govt. is the wal mart of horror.
Visiting Prof -
I agree this is an excellent piece of journalism by Chatterjee and the UK/Guardian. In particular, I appreciated the links about the ties between Sulieman (the career Egyptian spy Mubarak recently elevated to the position of vice president) and Robert Gates (the career American spy George W. Bush named Secretary of Defense and whom Barack Obama kept in place).
The idea that Sulieman and Gates and their respective associates are the real policymakers in daily dialogue between Cairo and Washington over the ebb and flow of events in the popular uprising against Mubarak by the people of Egypt speaks volumes, and the unrevealed message is ominous. The spooks have become the major players in charge of both the soldiers and the civilians when the fat is in the fire.
Bill from Saginaw
I think Obama, Hillary and Israel already have a very clear plan. Mubarak is gone already. It's just his "ghost" there for a little bit more to tire the protesters to a point where they will be willing to accept Suleiman for 6 months until "democratic" elections can be held. This is of course a typical delay tactics so these players can examine other possibilities in case the new dictator Suleiman proves to be another liability.
All of this game paid with our tax dollars, of course. And this and many others like this, is the reason why we cannot evolve as a nation and feel proud and happy with our lives. We are responsible for a good deal of the suffering on this planet and it will be up to us to stop this. It is our tax dollars doing all this everywhere, never forget this.
Oh, I forgot to mention we also have the banks preying on us because even our tax dollars aren't enough to keep all this up plus how many real war fronts? 4,5,6? So more and more debt gets created daily which is the main function of the Federal Reserve: keep the government well funded which is what banks love to do. Just think about all the interests we will have to pay them FOREVER and completely under the rug! It is a huge scam!!! How to get out of this?
I have been amazed and moved by the coverage I have seen on Democracy Now and Al Jazeera, thank you Commondreams for the easy links. The statements I can't get out of my head are multiple people I've heard who explain they are in this until Mubarak is out, and their reason, beyond for the sake of the country is that now that they have gone public, their faces on TV and names in print, their lives are literally on the line. It is actual, personal life and death. They will be hunted down if the 6 month window is accepted. I am in awe of their bravery and commitment.
Also, let me add Rachel Maddow has had some excellent overviews of the situation in Egypt as well.
Thank you, Pratap Chatterjee.... and so much for all the Obama apologists!
"Lockheed Martin has taken in $3.8bn from Egypt in the last few years; General Dynamics $2.5bn; Boeing $1.7bn; among many others."
All of it, US tax-payer money.
The US MIC is our largest welfare program. Not health care. Not social security.
Where is a Tea Partier or other "small government" conservative when we need them?
These three War Corporations plus Goldman Sachs are at the very top of this pyramid scam. Goldman Sachs have a deal with the Fed and Treasury. They sell Treasury Bills with a good margin to cover the IOU's created by the government to cover all these "exceptional" Pentagon expenses which are not part of the official federal budget. Their CEO just got his salary TRIPLED this last week! Yeah, baldy with those beady eyes. A psychopath like the rest of them. These are what I call the "Enemies Within". The way I see it, they are the real "Al Qaeda".
The Al Qaeda operatives might be insulted by that. Not that I would know, but it seems to be that this Golem-Achs behavior might be the very thing they set out to destroy. I could be wrong, though.
Another observation. We give tax-payer money to both Egypt *and* Israel. Lots of money.
If the Egyptian gift is in question, I hope that the gifts to Israel also become questionable.
Because otherwise, there would be a huge imbalance and perceived "favoritism" towards the Israelis. Which would further upset the delicate balance that is the Middle East.
The USA must ensure balance in the ME. Withdraw all financing of Israel and it's cronies, now.
Israel is in charge of the United States. "We" (our corrupt Congress Representatives) give 'aid' to Israel, some of which Israel sends back to the United States to buy our Congressional Representatives. Some of our money to Israel goes to Egypt to maintain the dictator who will aid Israel in imprisoning the Palestinians and stealing their land. On top of that we send more money to Egypt to control their citizens who are now standing up and saying, "Games over!"
People in Tunisia and Egypt are demanding regime change. We sure need that here in the U.S. of A. Our problems are the same as those in Tunisia and Egypt--no democracy, no jobs, living in a police state and austerity for the working people as the rich get richer.
Bingo! Absolutely correct! Why all this protectionism towards Israel? Why can't they take care of themselves? My answer to that is that they surely could if this animosity with all their neighbors had not been created and stimulated over the years!
I believe Israel is also part of the scam on us and most tax payers on the planet. Israelis have problems with their government like we do. They may be among the various "test sites" used to improve the pyramid scam, like Canada has been, particularly after Trudeau.
I believe that this is the beginning of a "facebook revolution"
The "powers that be", the network of the top 5% will not have control of the world agenda any more.
A shift from a consumer based economy to a conservation based economy would simply solve the worlds problems. Egypt's struggle is our own struggle. The 5% must not be supported anymore. World wide boycotts are in order.
As we pull out one thread the whole works should unravel!
Mubarack is an aparachik of the U.S.- based empire (so is our president). He's a regional consul. The way that works is the local consuls are given power over their home region just as long as they carry water for the Empire plus being given whole lots of weaponry. The Empire is heavily invested in keeping Israel as a going concern, and Egypt is a big part of that.
I wonder how long this now ten or more day old standoff can continue. A consul like Big Mub doesn't want to give it up if he doesn't have to and our president, who really is not an emperor, is just a public face -- obviously. He told Big Mub that change had to start happening now, but he's still there.
What the Empire is looking to have happen is something like what went down in the Philippines when the crowds demanded that Ferdinand and Imelda go, Corazon Aquino, a card carrying member of the ruling elite, was right there to step in and be purportedly in charge. No real changes happened. The same Ruling Elite was still in charge. No economic or classist changes were made. A less embarrassing figurehead was there for appearances.
So it goes, for you K.V. fans.
You may be perceived as a "paranoid pessimist". In reality you can see it all very clearly and your eyes are wide open and you are alert.
If we only had a lot more people like you. We need the critical mass and our numbers are growing. Perhaps the world will see its first global rebellion with the internet as sword. Wikileaks and similar sites will also be part of this rebellion.
J/
i love learning new words and i latched onto "aparachik" from your intro sentence. my spell czek (spelling's not my strong point) came up with
apparatchik: a subordinate who is unquestioningly loyal to a powerful political leader or organization.
thanks, paranoid! i'll add this to my word of the day list.
note to bill from saginaw:
i've forwarded your "standing citizens" analysis to a friend who often poses the same question as josh. THANKS!
p.s. those wondering about the "official" 9-11 report might enjoy this
FBI: Kamikaze Pilots File
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2011/02/01/the-fbi-%e2%80%9ckamikaze-pilots%e2%80%9d-case/
thank you for the names, products, places, timeline, and straight forward plain talk.
Explosion and fire on gas pipeline to Israel. Who has to gain and who has to lose and this was contained and no injuries reported. Interesting this getting in focus now. So now we all know Egypt has a continuous supply of gas to Israel. We now also know what other dirty games may be at play here. Blame falling on poor bedouin tribes although no one knows for sure at this point so the media spin has begun! Much more spin to come. The old fear tactics in place, it seems.
We need to put the Greens in charge for a few terms - it's like pushing "RESET"
1. Why do I have to log in almost every day? Am I that "dangerous"?
2. I find this to be a seminal article, one that hopefully will lead to a study and book on this pernicious relationship. Egypt is an almost carbon copy of Germany after 1870 until about 1936-sans Kaiser-a state whose policies are controlled by the Armed Forces. Why that is "good" as almost every idiotic journalist covering Egypt avers escapes me. It is terrible and a gigantic roadblock to a genuine democratization of Egypt as demanded by the insurgents.
After the fog lifts in Egypt there is likely to be another economic and social "shock treatment" as described by Naomi Klein. Egypt will need loans and the conditions will be devastating for Egypt's small middle class which is already suffering.
I can see no "democratic" future for Egypt as long as its Armed Forces are calling the political shots.
3. This article also explains what the Obama administration's Egypt policy is now about: Protect the interests of Boeing, Lockheed, et al, our "Krupp's".
Capitalism requires slavery and death.
Capitalism requires for-sale religion and for-sale media to mislead and misinform.
I really like this article, especially the quoted words of the writer, Mostafa Amin.
I'm also sorry that this government doesn't see its own entangling alliances.
What Mostafa Amin said is true. The best thing we have to export is REAL democracy, but corporations and governments prefer guns and coercion.
That really is too bad, because the best thing this government could have done early on would have been to support the protestors. I don't know why they didn't. Being on the U.S. payroll has never stopped this government from screwing over leaders once they lost their use. Most recently, Suddam could have attested to that, and what are you waiting for with Mubarak? Lose him or lose ALL your credibiity.
I wish that the government realized too, that for a long time, a lot of the good will that was done to help damamged nations after WW II , was the best PR that any nation could have, and that good will lasted a long time, but it's over now. We bomb everyone now, and the name "America" has kind of lost its charm. We, as a nation, can't be trusted.
What's good for Israel is becoming more and more bad for this nation and the world. this nation doesn't have any friends, just dependents. South American countries see this and are questioning our UNWISE ways Even the leaders of Israel diss this nation, although they have fewer nation friends than we do. Isn't this a clue that AMERICA that you have NO clue? Living in the past kind of makes getting to the future a real impossibility. The bridge to the 21st century is "virtual" and we're falling into the real abyss!
Mostafa Amin is right, because the PEOPLE do remember, long after the despots are gone. The new generations of Egyptians will remember what we didn't do to help them. The old ways are going as the emerging new leaders of the Egyptian world stand up to take their place, and it's not beneath the foot of this nation.
How will it end? I don't know, but nobody does. Instead of worrying about Islamic terorists, why not worry about Christian fundamentalists terrorizing their own citizens? WE as a nation are a problem to the world, so stop relying on old PR, and a foreign policy that keeps shooting everyone in the foot,including your own citizens.
I really do wish that the western nations would just sit down and be quiet, because really, what have YOU all done for the World lately? Lots of world wide destruction in bankrupting it, polluting it and kiling the nations of people, along with deserting their own citizens.
The world has changed and I wish we were all Buddhists, and kept in mind that letting go of loss is the only way to free ourselves amd move on. It is a brave new world, America, and nobody can entrust their hope to any government that looks and acts like Ozymandias.
Yes, indeed, very nice post.
"Lose him or lose all your credibility".
Unfortunately, they don't care much for credibility; only power and money.
We must all accept the reality that war is ALWAYS wrong. All of us must chose not to participate in any way we can. The war industry is the primary source of earth pollution and global warming. War is the principal pasttime of the top 1% of world's wealth holders. They are as addicted to violence and war as a heroin addict is to his drug.
Is self-defense wrong?
If a community of people is attacked and threatened with enslavement or genocide, should they not resist?
If the US leaders paid heed to the wise words of Mostafa Amin (end of article) there would be so much less trouble in the world.
I wonder what will happen when most of the Arab countries plus Palestine start their revolution. Perhaps it will put the WH in such an overload their heads will spin so much they may actually fall off! Oh, crap! Then we will have Boner for president!