Richard Engel, On The Ground In Egypt, Shows Tear Gas Canister Stamped 'Made In The USA'

It's pretty difficult to boil down the entirety of the complications that exist between the United States and Egypt into sixty seconds, but this segment offered by MSNBC's Richard Engel possibly comes the closest.

[WATCH]

ENGEL: You talked earlier about anti-American sentiment and a lot of that has been because the United States while today the Press Secretary is saying how they've been talking about Egypt and the need for reform and bringing up this at every meeting that's not the way many Egyptians see it. Most Egyptians see the United States as having stood solidly by President Mubarak while the government here grew more and more corrupt. And they see the Americans as complicit in it. And just today, for example, when we were out on streets this is what a lot of people were showing us about American involvement. If you can see in my hands this is one of the tear gas canisters and very clearly written in English on it, it says "Made in the USA by Combined Tactical Systems from Jamestown, Pennsylvania. And they say this is the kind of support that the United States has been giving to the Egyptian government and bears some responsibility, although today it it trying to say that it never backed Mubarak so much, it has been calling for reforms for a long time, Egyptians don't see it that way.

The primary reason the United States is allied with Hosni Mubarak's regime is that Mubarak has been a key player in the Israel-Palestine peace process ... such as it is, I mean -- the release of the "Palestine Papers" has revealed that there may not be as much of a "process" going on as many of us were led to believe. It's perhaps an unfortunate, though entirely fitting, coincidence, that the last time these very same tear gas canisters made news, it was in the West Bank, with a fatal outcome.

RELATED:
Egyptian Police Using U.S.-Made Tear Gas Against Demonstrators [The Blotter @ ABC News]

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Comments

[Bradley Scarbrough]

07:50 AM on 02/02/2011

Breaking News: Thousands are involved in factional fighting on the streets of Cairo. Hundreds are injured, many may have been killed.

Where is that American made tear gas when you need it?

[proudtohaveserved]

04:31 PM on 01/30/2011

there it goes, another of our nice dictators going down

[bascombe]

02:24 PM on 01/30/2011

why was this muted?

[WhoU Crapn]

02:14 PM on 01/30/2011

Engel, "Egyptians consider the United States to be a staunch supporter of Mubarak, complicit in his corruption and pointed to tear gas canisters exported from the U.S. as an example of that support"

What do they have to say about other made in USA things, like Facebook and Twitter?

[tlgeiger62]

02:29 PM on 01/30/2011

Seriously?!

[WhoU Crapn]

02:39 PM on 01/30/2011

Ah, yes seriously! Did Engel stand in Iraq or Afghanistan holding IED's that said made in Iran? You know the ones that blow off body parts and then your eyes water!

[Gronkie]

02:07 PM on 01/30/2011

It's nice to see that something is still being manufactured in America.

[proudtohaveserved]

05:06 PM on 01/30/2011

but then try to get instructions from the philipines? it't hell, your phone could go up alot

[proudtohaveserved]

05:07 PM on 01/30/2011

may be we can get them translate them in mississippy, I think they speak broken english, don't they?

[ElGuybrush]

01:46 PM on 01/30/2011

Wait, so they're mad because we didn't play the world police nation-builder card?
Awesome. Awesome.

[TexasMike]

12:32 PM on 01/30/2011

I can understand all the different reports out of Egypt but this headline and storyline is ridiculous. I suppose Japan should feel guilty because Mubarak has a 60 inch Sony flatscreen? Richard Engel shouldn't be tarnishing his name with this kindergarten stuff.

[killamenjarro]

12:22 PM on 01/30/2011

As Americans, the only thing we make anymore is weaponry, and we're damn good at it, don't blame us for how other people use our products. Especially if they use it as designed.
(message not approved by NRA, but I'm sure it would be)

[Bradley Scarbrough]

03:08 PM on 01/30/2011

"As Americans, the only thing we make anymore is weaponry."

Do you honestly believe that this is a true statement? You must have gone to the Richard Engel school of journalism.

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

11:28 AM on 01/30/2011

Wow...at least we still make somethin

[pecosdog]

10:12 AM on 01/30/2011

We outsource everything else, but somehow crowd control device manufacturing still employs people here. Hmmm.

[rustybell]

10:53 AM on 01/30/2011

Look for the UNION label.

[TexasMike]

11:54 AM on 01/30/2011

Probably sold to them by a republican, though. Jeez, union label is pathetically weak. Now unions are arms dealers? Weak.

[rsaillant1]

10:08 AM on 01/30/2011

Aw, c'mon folks, get real.

There's USA stamped on the bottom of a gas cannister?

There's CHINA marked on damn near everything we buy, here in the USA.

My tableware, dishes and stainless utensils, purchased through
Willams-Sonoma have CHINA mark on them. Weak point,
even though it shows we as a nation are still exporting goods.

[Eris23]

11:26 AM on 01/30/2011

Odd right? Authoritarian sing-party regimes supply us with clothing and other useful items that don't harm anyone which we used to, and should still, make here. Yet, the so-called beacon of liberty manufactures and supplies weapons to authoritarian regimes in order to oppress people. Then, we urge those subjected to our weapons to practice "restraint."

[rsaillant1]

08:02 AM on 01/31/2011

...with the insertion of the word, "intentionally" into your response, so that
it reads; "......supply us with clothing and other useful items that don't "intentionally"
harm anyone," etc.

Lets not forget the lead paint in children's furniture, the PVC in pet food, and
God-knows-what in drywall that China exported around the world.

[AZreb]

09:38 AM on 01/30/2011

We are seeing that the military tank troops are not firing on the protestors and are, in most instances, supporting them/

However, yesterday on CNN or MSNBC (sorry, can't remember which one) there was a report that ground troops are being called to Cairo and other cities. If these troops are given orders to shoot or gas the protestors, there will be more stories of the weaponry and canisters "made in the USA".

When military aid was made the predominant aid to Egypt, and economic, education and health aid was cut, it did not help the average Egyptian - it only increased the control of Mubarak over the people. Poverty and hunger increased and the government and military elite were the beneficiaries of our aid.

[Schoolgirl666]

08:44 AM on 01/30/2011

The United States pays Egypt to keep the peace in the region. Egypt receives $1.3Billion in Military Aid and $250Million in Economic Aid annually from the United States.....

[Michael Shanahan]

03:55 AM on 01/30/2011

We can do this all day. They are sitting on top of Vietnam era M-60 A3 and M-119 armored personell carriers carriers both made in America. Egypt makes almost nothing of it's own besides textiles. The grain for their bread likely came from America. Egyptians should be pretty used to seeing stuff stamped made somewhere else.

[UncleSquinky]

03:28 AM on 01/30/2011

The bulldozer that an IDF member used to run over Rachel Corrie was a John Deer -- also made in America. And since we give $3 billion a year to Israel, said bulldozer used to kill a US peace activist was also subsidized by the US -- as no doubt were the machine gun bullets used by the Israeli AF to strafe the USS Liberty, killing 30+ US naval personnel.

So the US-made tear gas used by Egypt, which also gets $1billion + per year in military aid from the US is no big surprise. Richard Engel might want to pull his head out of his butt and acknowledge this US military aid to a dictatorship that doesn't believe in human rights.

[Bradley Scarbrough]

07:18 AM on 01/30/2011

The guns in the soldier's hands protecting the National Museum were also made in the USA.

[rustybell]

10:54 AM on 01/30/2011

The internet that the protesters use was also made in the US. Al Gore invented it, I believe.