Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for Skunk
| Submitted | April 4, 2024 |
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Communications
From: Matthew Petti
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for Skunk, a crowd control spray marketed by the company Mistral. DefenseOne has reported that Mistral has demonstrated Skunk at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in the past: https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2015/04/americas-police-will-fight-next-riot-these-stink-bombs/111430/
If any part of these documents are exempt from disclosure, please be sure to review and release all reasonably segregable nonexempt portions of responsive documents, as the FOIA requires.
I request that I be properly classified as a media requester. I am an associate editor at Reason Magazine who has written numerous articles on topics of public interest for the Daily Beast, the Asia Times, Responsible Statecraft, the National Interest, America Magazine and the Armenian Weekly, and I am requesting these documents in an editorial capacity. Please contact me if you have any questions about my media status.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Matthew Petti
From: U.S. ARMY Fort Liberty
Good afternoon,
As written, your request is considered too broad, and requires additional information to either narrow the scope or conduct a reasonable search. Further, we cannot determine if the record you requested, Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for Skunk, is an agency record. We ask that you clarify whether you seek a Mistral record or an Army record. In addition, provide a timeframe that the record may have been created and the originator.
As such, your request is currently unperfected as you are seeking data and not specific Army documents. Absent a request for specific Army documents, we regret we will be unable to assist you. Please advise what specific Army documents you are seeking, as well as a time frame. Keep in mind, the FOIA only provides the means by which the public can request specific documents from the Army. The FOIA does not require Federal agencies to respond to questions, render opinions, do legal research, compile or analyze data, or conduct surveys for members of the public.
We ask that you respond back to this e-mail within the next 7 calendar days with the requested clarification. If we do not hear back from you, we will assume you are no longer interested in your FOIA request, and your request will be administratively closed.
Respectfully,
FOIA/Privacy Act Office
Fort Liberty
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~WRD0002
From: Matthew Petti
To whom this may concern,
I hope this message finds you well. Thank you for your prompt response to my request regarding the MSDS for Skunk spray. As I understand it, Army facilities are required by OSHA and other regulations to maintain a safety data sheet on hazardous materials. I believe that the Army possesses a data sheet on Skunk because Mistral demonstrated the spray at Fort Liberty (then Fort Bragg) around 2015, per media reporting. Of course, it's possible that Mistral never gave the Army data sheet for that demo or that it was destroyed because the demo was so long ago; I am simply asking for the MSDS if it does exist already.
Sincerely,
Matthew Petti
From: U.S. ARMY Fort Liberty
Good afternoon,
Thank you for your response. We cannot determine based on the information you provided whether the record you requested is a U.S. Army record that exists. Additionally, the information necessary to conduct a reasonable search has not been provided.
Unfortunately, as you did not provide the requested clarification, we regret we will be unable to assist you. This is not a denial of your request, nor does it prohibit you from submitting a request in the future.
Respectfully,
FOIA/Privacy Act Office
Fort Liberty
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~WRD0003