#ATTENTION #Tahrir #Ammo INFO Tree Hugging Hoolah:

Tree Hugging Hoolah: Tahrir ammo

clipped from article:
Tahrir ammo
UPDATE II 23/11/2011: More Arabic-marked shotgun shells; new tear gas grenades (including unmarked); and rifle-calibre ammunition round.

UPDATE I 22/11/2011: Brazilian and US owners of arms firms whose kit is being used in Tahrir Square

Apologies, this post is really just a place to dump a load of stuff - following a couple of requests, I thought it might be useful to post somewhere a round-up of arms and ammunition being used against protestors in Tahrir right now.

There seem to be a growing number people in and around the Square angry at being fired on by weapons supplied from countries making nice noises about democracy and restraint in Egypt, and are starting to document markings and specifications of what's being used. It won't help stop any violence, but I'm generally in favour of causing a modicum of embarrassment to those governments and companies which continue to supply tools of repression, usually for profit, to those who they well know will use them to violate human rights and repress their own citizens.

There are lots of good ID resources around - for the real afficionado of "less-lethal technologies", you can't beat Mispo (subscription only), which also has a live update stream of identified military/security equipment being used images from around the world.

All the usual caveats, of course, apply below: the provenance of most of these photos can't be definitively verified; and a given country of manufacture doesn't indicate that that country's government supplied the weapons to Egypt. I'll try to update this as more info becomes available.

9x19mm ammunition

9mm Parabellum/Luger ammunition is designed for use by 9mm pistols (either single-shot or semi-automatic), or semi-automatic/automatic sub-machine guns like the MP5-series submachine guns with which some Egyptian security forces were photographed back in February.[ read more at link]