[http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2011/12/04/prior-to-violent-occupy-oakland-raid-oakland-police-trained-alongside-bahrain-military-and-israeli-border-forces/]
A month before Occupy Oakland was violently raided by riot police using chemical weapons, rubber bullets and flash grenades – a raid which critically injured Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen – the Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department trained alongside a military unit from Bahrain and an Israeli Border Police unit.
The occasion was Urban Shield 2011 [http://www.urbanshield.org/index.php/about/swat], an annual training competition which gathers heavily militarized police from the United States and across the globe to explore the latest in tactical responses and to promote collaboration. It’s a training that northern California police departments credited for their “effective teamwork” in dealing repressively with Occupy Oakland [http://www.policemag.com/Blog/SWAT/Story/2011/11/Urban-Shield-2011-Behind-the-Scenes.aspx].
Max Blumenthal, who broke this story in al-Akhbar [http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/occupation-“occupy”-israelification-american-domestic-security] in an exhaustive piece on the militarization of U.S. police, describes the units alongside which multiple California departments trained before violently crushing Occupy Oakland:
[begin excerpt]
Training alongside the American police departments at Urban Shield was the Yamam, an Israeli Border Police unit that claims to specialize in “counter-terror” operations but is better known for its extra-judicial assassinations of Palestinian militant leaders and long record of repression and abuses in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Urban Shield also featured a unit from the military of Bahrain, which had just crushed a largely non-violent democratic uprising by opening fire on protest camps and arresting wounded demonstrators when they attempted to enter hospitals. While the involvement of Bahraini soldiers in the drills was a novel phenomenon, the presence of quasi-military Israeli police – whose participation in Urban Shield was not reported anywhere in US media – reflected a disturbing but all-too-common feature of the post-9/11 American security landscape.
[end excerpt]
That landscape is being revealed in full relief as militarized SWAT police across America continuously crack down on nonviolent, peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters. Indeed, excessive, coordinated force – unparallelled in contemporary American history – is being used against both protesters merely assembling to air their grievances and against journalists attempting to merely chronicle such protests.
One needs to look no further than Urban Shield 2011 to see why police departments across the country are beginning to resemble repressive forces in countries such as, say, Bahrain.
Indeed, Urban Shield 2011 was held on the University of California, Berkeley’s campus weeks before university police used excessive force on students occupying a campus green. One of the departments that participated in Urban Shield 2011 was the University of California Police Department, Berkeley [http://www.urbanshield.org/index.php/about/teams]. Is it any wonder, then, why campus police brutally beat and arrested students in early November in a crackdown on its Occupy Cal encampment? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_f06VQOkI4]
Occupy Wall Street is not going anywhere. Even as groups are evicted from their encampments, protest actions are creatively expanding – from reclaiming foreclosed-upon homes to flash occupations of commercial districts.
As these nonviolent protests expand, it will be telling how long Americans will tolerate militarized police responses to what is becoming one of this generation’s civil rights movements.
Militarized riot police stand against Occupy Oakland on October 29, 2011. Photo by Soozarty1.
2011-10-27 "ISRAELI trained Police Shot US Marine Scott Olsen + Hells Angels join OWS" by Rivero
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H444jVBMqbM]
Watch Entire 2011-10-27 Broadcast here: [http://www.justin.tv/michaelrivero/b/298532002]
Keep an eye on [http://www.whatreallyhappened.com]
---
We are hoping that Scott is going to recover fully from this assault on him but there is no question he has galvanized the attention and focus of the entire Military... we are hearing from every branch of the service that Veterans and serving rank and file are going to be joining with the occupy protesters in the streets of America because they realize they are being attacked, and they are watching as this super committee is savaging their veterans benefits... they are cutting of their medical care and Scott walked his talk, he put on the uniform of the USA and served two tours in Iraq and he comes home and this is how the government he fought for treats him when he dares to stand up and stay "I disagree with how the nation is being run." So they shoot him in the head.
The Oakland Police Department, who shot and critically injured an unarmed 24 year old U.S. Marine with a tear gas canister last night, has placed 2nd only to Israel in "terrorism" training exercises two years in a row.
[http://libertyfight.com/oakland_israel.html]
The tactical similarities to Israel's treatment of nonviolent Palestinian protesters were obvious to many, but they go deeper than that. Max Blumenthal writes the Oakland police used many of the same weapons:
Same weapons of mass suppression used by Israelis and Oakland police: [http://warincontext.org/2011/10/26/same-weapons-of-mass-suppression-used-by-israelis-and-oakland-police/]
The police repression on display in Oakland reminded me of tactics I witnessed the Israeli army employ against Palestinian popular struggle demonstrations in occupied West Bank villages like Nabi Saleh, Ni'lin and Bilin. So I was not surprised when I learned that the same company that supplies the Israeli army with teargas rounds and other weapons of mass suppression is selling its dangerous wares to the Oakland police. The company is Defense Technology, a Casper, Wyoming based arms firm that claims to "specialize in less lethal technology" and other "crowd management products." Defense Tech sells everything from rubber-coated teargas rounds that bounce in order to maximize gas dispersal to 40 millimeter "direct impact" sponge rounds to "specialty impact" 12 gauge rubber bullets.
2011-10-26 "Police who nearly killed Iraq vet at OCCUPY protests trained by Israeli military" by Martin Hill from "LibertyFight.com"
[http://libertyfight.com/oakland_israel.html]
Martin Hill is a Catholic paleoconservative and civil rights advocate. His work has been featured on LewRockwell.com, WhatReallyHappened, Infowars, PrisonPlanet, Rense, National Motorists Association, WorldNetDaily, The Orange County Register, KNBC4 Los Angeles, Los Angeles Catholic Mission Newspaper, and many others. You can view a full archive of his work at LibertyFight.com.
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The Oakland Police Department, who shot and critically injured an unarmed 24 year old U.S. Marine with a tear gas cannister last night, has placed 2nd only to Israel in "terrorism" training exersizes two years in a row.
Scott Olsen, 24, suffered a fractured skull and brain swelling and is in critical condition as a result of Tuesday's shooting.
Participating in operation Urban Shield for several years, Oakland PD has come in second place for the last 2 years and won first place in 2009 [http://www.policeone.com/SWAT/articles/2833018-Oakland-SWAT-team-takes-second-at-Urban-Shield/]. In a press release issued a week prior to Tuesdays shooting, Oakland PD boasted: "OPD Excels in SWAT Competition- "The Oakland Police Department placed 2nd among SWAT teams in the recently completed Urban Shield 2011 Training Exercise. In its 5th year, Urban Shield is the nation�s premiere tactical training exercise competition that tests the capabilities of first responders. The event is hosted by the Alameda County Sheriffï's Office and has obtained international recognition with representatives coming as far away as Israel and Jordan."
The full press release can be found here [http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca/groups/police/documents/pressrelease/oak031729.pdf], and reads in part: "The 48 hour event consisted of 30 SWAT teams that competed in sustained exercises that involved 26 realistic training scenarios based on real world threats that were spread across the Bay Area. The scenarios included hostage rescue, maritime/train interdiction, weapons of mass destruction, infrastructure sabotage, and a SWAT fitness assessment. Teams were required to successfully respond to each of the staged scenarios with proper tactics using specialized weapons and equipment. ....Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan, who attended the closing ceremony, stated "I am extremely proud of the Oakland Police Department's Tactical Team. They consistently rank among the best performing Tactical Teams in the region."
In a more subdued statement [http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca/groups/police/documents/pressrelease/oak031915.pdf] in wake of criticism over his departments handling of "Occupy" protests, Chief Jordan assured the public that "The City is committed to facilitating peaceful protests and constitutional policing".
The 2011 police press release also states "The Oakland Police team was made up of eight SWAT team members who where led by Sergeants Roland Holmgren and Chris Sansone". On youtube is an interesting video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05c7IqDKbS0] titled "Roland Holmgren Instigates Oakland Police Brawl. Watch Here, and GET MILITANT COMMERCIAL"
In October 2010, The Oakland Tribune reported [http://www.policeone.com/SWAT/articles/2833018-Oakland-SWAT-team-takes-second-at-Urban-Shield/] "An Oakland police SWAT team finished second in a prestigious, internationally known training competition this past weekend, losing out to a group of Israeli police but beating more than two dozen other Bay Area law enforcement agencies that participated."
The year prior, Indybay.org reported "URBAN SHIELD 2009 Terrorizing Oakland & Bay Area This Weekend at Invite of Alameda Sheriff" [http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/10/24/18626594.php], noting "The exercises include "competitions" between various departments and is funded in large part by ever-flowing Department of Homeland Security dollars that blur whatever lines might have existed between domestic police and national armies."
Among those listed on the drill's official website, urbanshield.org, under 2010 Supporting International Agencies / Organizations [http://www.urbanshield.org/index.php/about/supporting-agencies] are "State of Israel National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA)", "State of Israel National EMS System, Magen David Adom", and "State of Israel National Police".
The ADL participated in the first annual Urban Shield Training Exercise in California [http://republicbroadcasting.org/?p=12640].
Max Blumenthal, in his article 'The arms firm behind the suppression of #OccupyOakland and Palestine's popular struggle' [http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/gadfly/arms-firm-behind-suppression-occupyoakland-and-palestines-popular-struggle] notes "the same company that supplies the Israeli army with teargas rounds and other weapons of mass suppression is selling its dangerous wares to the Oakland police. The company is Defense Technology, a Casper, Wyoming based arms firm..."
See also 'Palestine in Oakland' by Adam Horowitz [http://mondoweiss.net/2011/10/palestine-in-oakland.html].
Johannes Mehserle, a former Oakland area BART officer who shot and killed an unarmed subdued man in the back on New Years day 2009, spent only 365 days in jail before he was released.
2011-10-26 "The arms firm behind the suppression of #OccupyOakland and Palestine's popular struggle" by Max Blumenthal
[http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/gadfly/arms-firm-behind-suppression-occupyoakland-and-palestines-popular-struggle]
With the rise of the Occupy Wall Street, a new generation of mostly middle class Americans is learning for the first time about the militarization of their local police forces. And they are learning the hard way, through confrontations with phalanxes of riot cops armed with the latest in “non-lethal” crowd control weaponry. Yesterday’s protests in Oakland, California were the site of perhaps the harshest police violence leveled against the Occupy movement so far. Members of the Oakland Police Department and the California Sheriff’s Department attacked unarmed protesters [http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/police-crack-down-occupy-oakland] with teargas canisters, beanbag rounds, percussion grenades, and allegedly with rubber bullets, leaving a number of demonstrators with deep contusions and bloody head wounds. It is not difficult to imagine such scenes becoming commonplace as the Occupy protests intensify across the country.
The police repression on display in Oakland reminded me of tactics I witnessed the Israeli army employ against Palestinian popular struggle demonstrations in occupied West Bank villages like Nabi Saleh, Ni’lin and Bilin. So I was not surprised when I learned that the same company that supplies the Israeli army with teargas rounds and other weapons of mass suppression is selling its dangerous wares to the Oakland police. The company is Defense Technology, a Casper, Wyoming based arms firm that claims to “specialize in less lethal technology” and other “crowd management products.” Defense Tech sells everything from rubber-coated teargas rounds that bounce in order to maximize gas dispersal to 40 millimeter “direct impact” sponge rounds to “specialty impact” 12 gauge rubber bullets.
A teargas round fired at Occupy Oakland was manufactured in Casper, Wyoming, the home of Defense Technology:
Defense Tech’s literature concedes that “information is somewhat difficult to obtain” on the damage its weapons can do to the human body [http://www.defense-technology.com/pdfs/resources/kinetic%20impact%20analysis.pdf]. However, company researchers were able to determine that a beanbag round fired from a 12 gauge shotgun exerts the same kinetic impact as a .22 caliber bullet. “The result is blunt trauma with no penetration,” Defense Tech researchers wrote. Wounds suffered yesterday by protesters in Oakland provided vivid confirmation of the conclusion.
Defense Tech products have injured numerous protesters attending the weekly demonstrations in Bilin, an occupied Palestinian village waging an unarmed struggle against Israel's confiscation of its farmland in order to build its separation wall. Jawaher Abu Rahme, a 36-year-old resident of Bilin, died this year of asphyxiation from Israeli tear gas rounds. Her brother, Bassem, was killed two years earlier when he was struck in the chest by a high velocity teargas shell (see video of his killing here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yM9U2y-op4]). Activists arriving on the scene after Jawaher Abu Rahme's death found spent teargas shells marked with the Defense Tech label (Correction: The label was for another USA weapons company named "Combined Tactical Systems, Inc", based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania [http://mondoweiss.net/2011/01/the-teargas-grenades-that-killed-jawaher-abu-rahmah-were-most-likely-made-in-the-usa.html]).
Occupy Oakland demonstrators retrieved a shotgun shell used to propel beanbag rounds and an alleged rubber bullet:
Some Occupy Wall Street activists have argued that Palestine must remain segregated from the movement's agenda. It is a distraction from the essential economic issues that drive the protests, they say, and turns the majority of Americans off. But the issue is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid now that the protesters are confronted with the very same weapons Israel uses to crush unarmed Palestinian resistance.
Defense Tech is owned by BAE Systems [http://www.armorholdings.com/productsgroup/brands/defense_technology.aspx], a global weapons manufacturer with customers in more than 100 countries. BAE is currently trading at 280 pounds a share on the London Stock Exchange [http://bae-systems-investor-relations.production.investis.com/].
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