Press for Conversion! (Issue # 66) Spring 201214

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This private US-based invest-ment club caters to the profit-making ambitions of some of

the world’s richest and most powerfulmen. With more than US$150 billionin assets, Carlyle is the world’s thirdlargest private equity firm. For sevenyears between 2000 and 2009, it wasone of the US military’s top contrac-tors. Having supplied over US$14 bil-lion worth of products to the Pentagonin that decade, Carlyle ranked 18th.

Carlyle advisors and executiveshave included President George BushSr., members of Osama Bin Laden’sfamily, James Baker III (Bush Sr.’sSecretary of State), Frank Carlucci III(Reagan’s Defense Secretary andformer CIA deputy director), JohnMajor (former British prime minister),Fidel Ramos (former Philippines presi-dent), and Frank McKenna (formerNew Brunswick Premier and CanadianAmbassador to the US).

DHS TechnologiesVenture Partners II (VPII), a Carlylefund that began in 2002, owns a majorstake in DHS. It makes “mobile tacti-cal operations centers” used by USforces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thefirm says its Deployable Rapid Assem-bly Shelter, sold under the catchy slo-gan “The warfighter’s choice,” “is de-ployed by the armed forces of …Israel.”

Actelis NetworksCarlyle’s VPII fund is also a majorshareholder in Actelis Networks, anIsraeli firm providing computer net-working solutions for American, NATOand other military forces. (AnotherActelis shareholder is “Vertex VentureCapital.” See pp.50-52.) Although theoperational headquarters of Actelis wasmoved to the US, the company’s “in-ternational sales office” is in Israel.

Actelis cofounder, Yuval Baron,is a former marketing director for Com-verse Technology, which owned Israelimass surveillance firm, Verint Systems.(See “Israeli Spy Companies,” p.43.)Other key Actelis figures include:

Director of Business Development,Adi Nativ, “held various team andproject management positions in anelite R&D unit of the Israeli Minis-try of Defense.”Sharon Peleg, “held senior techni-cal and management positions in theelite technical division of the IsraelDefence Forces.”Executive Chair, Tuvia Barlev, “helda top management position in theIsraeli Defense Forces, as the headof major communications projects.”Cofounder Gilad Rozen, “served inthe elite R&D unit of the IsraeliArmy,” and filled key positions atNICE Systems. (See table, “CPPInvestments,” p.53.)A “Team Leader” in AdvancedTechnologies at Actelis, Maya Bar-El, served for four years (1989-1993) as an electrical engineer withthe Israeli military’s unit 8200, anintelligence corps similar to the USNational Security Agency.

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PanasasAnother firm funded by VPII is Pana-sas. It provides “high performance par-allel storage solutions for technicalcomputing applications and big dataworkloads” used by “defense andhomeland security” agencies. Its prod-ucts are used by US military agenciessuch as the Army Research Lab., theAir Force Research Lab., the ArmyEngineer R&D Center, and the NavySupercomputing Resource Center.

Several other Panasas clients arecentral to America’s nuclear weaponsprograms, such as four National Labo-ratories: Lawrence Livermore, LosAlamos, Oak Ridge and Sandia. Pana-sas also lists the UK Atomic WeaponsEstablishment as a customer. Panasasis now working on a military contractwith Hewlett-Packard. (See pp.36-37.)

Panasas is also linked to Isra-el’s military-industrial complex throughties with Mellanox Technologies.

Mellanox TechnologiesThis Israeli company provides high-performance computer networkingtechnologies to the US Army, Navy, AirForce, FBI, Department of HomelandSecurity “and various intelligence agen-cies.” It also sells to the world’s lead-ing war industries, including the topfive: Lockheed Martin (#1), Boeing(#2), Northrop Grumman (#3), Ray-theon (#4) and General Dynamics (#5).

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Spring 2012 (Issue # 66) Press for Conversion! 15

occupied West Bank and East Jeru-salem.... The Israeli military suffo-cates entire villages with clouds oftear gas when they protest.”

Adalah-NY also reports sometragic examples of Palestinian deathscaused by CSI-made gas:

“[On] January 1, 2011, Jawaher AbuRahmah died after she was over-come by tear gas at a protest againstIsrael’s confiscation of land…in theWest Bank village of Bil’in. Tear gascanisters embossed with the lettersCTS, a CSI brand name, were foundlittering the village…. Jawaher’sbrother Bassem was killed in April2009 when he was hit in the chestwith an extended range CSI tear gascanister. US citizen Tristan Ander-son and Bil’in resident Khamis AbuRahmah were also gravely woundedwhen they were shot in [the] headby the Israeli military with the samekind of CSI canisters. The Israelimilitary directly shot at least 15other people in two villages alonewith these canisters.”

Indigo SystemsCarlyle’s VPII also owned Indigo Sys-tems, whose infrared cameras are usedto target various weapons, includingthose that will be aboard the F-35 “JointStrike Fighter,” which Israel has on or-der from the US. The prime contractorfor the F-35 is Lockheed Martin. (Seetable “CPP Investments,” p.53.)

ReferencesAnnual Report, 2010www.carlyle.com/Media%20Room/Annual%20Report%20Files/2010%20Annual%20Report%20-%20English.pdf

Carlyle Groupen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlyle_Group

Kurt Eichenwald, “Bin Laden Family LiquidatesHoldings With Carlyle Group,” New York Times,October 26, 2001.www.nytimes.com/2001/10/26/business/bin-laden-family-liquidates-holdings-with-carlyle-group.html

The Carlyle Group: Big Boys of Private Equitydefense-ventures.com/carlyle-group/

Top 100 Defense Contractors, Gov’ Executivewww.govexec.com

“NG, DHS Technologies to support SICPS/TMSS,” UPI, June 18, 2008.www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2008/

Mellanox systems are integratedinto the products of IBM, which hassold tens of thousands of computers toIsrael’s military. Silicon Graphics Inc.which has provided visual systems forflight simulators to train Israel’s F-15pilots, also uses Mellanox systems.Other Mellanox clients catering to Is-rael’s military are Dell, EMC, Fujitsuand Hewlett Packard. (See p.24, pp.30-31, p.35 and pp.36-37.) Other custom-ers include NetApp and Oracle. (Seetable “CPP Investments,” p.53.)

One Mellanox director, DovBaharav, also chairs Israel AerospaceIndustries, Israel’s second largest weap-ons maker. (See “State-owned IsraeliWar Industries,” pp.48-49.) Baharovworked for Amdocs between 1991 and2010, culminating in his posting asCEO and president of Amdocs Man-agement (2002-2010). (See pp.5-6.)

Other Mellanox executives,holding vice-president level positions,have served in Israel’s military. AviPrescher, served ten years “as an of-ficer in Israel’s Defense Forces Tech-nical Intelligence Unit.” He co-foundedMellanox subsidiary, Voltaire, whichmakes “grid backbone switching solu-tions” for “high performance super-computers” used in “advanced weap-ons system design research.”

And then there’s Dror Golden-berg, Mellanox’s vice president of Ar-chitecture, who “held various softwaredevelopment positions at an elite R&Dteam in the Israeli Defense Force.”

CombinedSystemsInc.The US Army Association says CSImakes “tactical munitions,...crowd con-trol products,...rocket components andpyrotechnics” for “military forces andlaw enforcement agencies worldwide.”Although Carlyle’s website mentionsCSI’s “less-lethal munitions” and “anti-riot products,” a grassroots alliance ofgroups and individuals in New York,called Adalah-NY, reveals that the:

“Israeli military is using CSI tear gasas lethal weapons to crush legitimateunarmed protest by Palestinians andtheir Israeli and international sup-porters, against Israeli efforts toseize...Palestinian land in the Israeli-

06/18/NG-DHS-Technologies-to-support-SICPSTMSS/UPI-57811213812923/#ixzz1YDCZCphC

DRASHwww.dhssystemsllc.com/products/DRASH.aspx

Actelis’ MetaLIGHT Solution Supports Opera-tional and Tactical Deployments, May 2005www.actelis.com/company/pr/pressarticle.php?article=05_2005-technet.shtml

Yuval Baroninvesting.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=431001

Adi Nativinvesting.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=36382509

Sharon Peleginvesting.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=1734356

Tuvia Barlevinvesting.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=431001

Gilad Rozeninvesting.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=431007

Maya Bar-Elil.linkedin.com/pub/maya-bar-el/8/521/9bb

“Panasas Chosen for US Department of DefenseHigh Performance Computing Initiative,” May3, 2011.www.panasas.com/news/press-releases/panasas-chosen-us-department-defense-high-performance-computing-initiative

Governmentwww.panasas.com/solutions/government

Federal Governmentwww.mellanox.com/content/pages.php?pg=federal

“IBM wins $20-30m Defense Ministry tender,”Globes, November 21, 2007.www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000277794

SGI to deliver Real-World Visual System for Is-raeli Air Force F-15 flight simulator, April 24, 2000.www.hoise.com/primeur/00/articles/monthly/AE-PR-05-00-44.html

Dov Baharavinvesting.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=228960

Amir Prescherinvesting.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=826702

Meet the Mellanox HPC Expertswww.mellanox.com/sc11/experts.php

Management Teamwww.mellanox.com/content/pages.php?pg=management

AUSA Sustaining Members, CSIausasustainingmembers.searchablelisting.com/viewDetails.php?id=556

Portfolio, Combined Systems, Inc.www.carlyle.com/portfolio/item7431.html

The NY Campaign for the Boycott of Israelcampaigns.adalahny.org/csi-submit

Department of Defense To Use Voltaire GridBackbone Solutions in HP Supercomputer forWeapons Systems Design, November 1, 2005.www.voltaire.com/NewsAndEvents/Press_Releases/press2005/November_1_2005

F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)www.airforce-technology.com/projects/jsf/