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Reporter's Notebook: Stephen Peacock

Thousands of Smoke Grenades, M-16 Kits En Route to Colombia

Posted by Stephen Peacock - November 30, 2005 at 11:04 am
The U.S. State Dept. is soliciting proposals from manufacturers of smoke grenades, thousands of which the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) plans to send annually to the government of Colombia. The INL yesterday called on U.S.-only smoke-grenade makers to submit cost estimates by Dec. 7 for up to 3,000 red- and green-smoke grenades. The selected contractor will deliver the material to Robertson Freight Forwarding, State’s Miami-based export partner, “for onward shipment to Colombia,” according to the Nov. 29 bid request .

The INL on the same day issued a separate bid request for 13,000 M-16 cleaning kits, also for shipment to Colombia via Robertson Freight Forwarding.

About Stephen Peacock

Biography
I'm a former Washington, DC, journalist (1998-2003) who most recently worked for Communications Daily and Washington Internet Daily (WID), investigative newsletters that cover the telecommunications, broadcast and Internet industries. Following the 9/11 attacks, my news beat expanded beyond Capitol Hill telecom/TV/IT policy and began to include technology-policy coverage at the Pentagon and Dept. of Homeland Security. I've written over a thousand articles about government and industry affairs, and I'm pleased to say that I was the reporter who broke the story about the Total Information Awareness surveillance/data-collection initiative of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. I've written articles for publications including NACLA Report on the Americas, Drug Enforcement Report, Corrections Journal, SoJo Mail (Sojourners), and the Tampa Tribune. I've also written a memoir about my former career as a plainclothes security officer of the Helmsley Palace hotel in New York City, Hotel Dick: Harlots, Starlets, Thieves & Sleaze. I look forward to contributing to the fine work being done here at NarcoSphere.

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Smoke Munitions: Background, Additional Data

Submitted December 2, 2005 - 12:27 am by Stephen Peacock
The following links may be useful to some folks, moderately interesting to others.

Redstone Arsenal: early history as the United States' "sole manufacturer of colored smoke munitions."

CombatReform.com: Air & Ground Smokescreens.

Wikipedia: Smokescreens, including smoke grenades & ingredients.

Red Thrust Star (Army newsletter out of Ft. Leavenworth): Army Smoke Operations.

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