Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Directed energy weapons in Iraq?

Turns out the accounts of radioactive shrapnel in Gaza were but the begninning. Thanks to Covert History and Professor Hex, I've been getting up to speed on the claims that unusual "directed energy" weapons have been used in Iraq. The primary collator and publicist of these reports is The California Center for Strategic Studies, whose president, Brett Wagner, claims that here:
...the California Center for Strategic Studies (CCSS) has been gathering additional evidence that the U.S. government has deployed a very dangerous new form of weapon in Iraq, apparently without congressional approval.
Wagner has even set up a petition calling for the banning of such weaponry -- which, he believes, could become a major campaign issue.

Wagner's main findings can be found here, which in turn directs us to an Italian documentary available in English. The film would not load for me, but the link given above offers a summary.

The descriptions of the bodies allegedly affected by such weaponry fit what we know of white phosphorus. However, the film apparently describes more inexplicable phenomena, including laser-like holes in armored vehicles.

No less an authority than the United States Air Force has revealed that "pain rays" may play a role in the Iraq occupation. The cynical reader will be forgiven for suspecting that the USAF's text constitutes a "limited hangout," describing in theoretical terms a program actually underway:
A one-second burst heats the skin and triggers the human-pain reflex to recoil. The discomfort stops instantly when the beam is shut off or the person moves out of its way.

To burn flesh, according to the weapon’s designers, someone would have to endure the beam for 250 seconds. During 6,500 test applications on human volunteers, no one was able to tough out the stinging for longer than three seconds, according to the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland. In all those tests, just one person was hurt, suffering a coin-sized burn on his back after the device had been incorrectly programmed.

Support for the system is far from universal. Some human-rights groups say they are unconvinced that the weapon is as benign as it has been touted, and are concerned that such a “pain ray” could cause side effects not yet apparent. Its potential use as an instrument of torture also troubles them.
Rumors of such weaponry have swirled around Kirtland AFB since the 1980s.

Proponents of so-called non-lethal weaponry tend to ask if you'd rather be hit with a bullet than with a microwave. But the problem with such arms is the lowered threshold for use and the likelihood -- the certainty -- that governments will employ them for crowd control. Of course, controlling crowds in an occupied country would be but the first step; domestic use would follow. Revolution is always the last, worst option -- yet the threat of revolution is the only thing that has ever kept any government honest. If the people lose both their right to protest and their ability to rebel, democracy will cease.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The microwave weapon is not a rumor. I don't believe there's any controversy over whether it actually exists (it does). The thing works by exciting the molecules of the skin, to produce heat. Essentially the same principle as a microwave oven.

Offensive lasers capable of piercing armor are another matter. The technology exists, but (last I heard) its too unwieldy for the battlefield. Of course, high energy beams will eventually be directed from satellites, so any area of the world can be instantly targetted...

Your government, bringing you better living through technology.

If public demonstrations are no longer tenable, people will just have to go on work strike. Of course, they could still find a way to attack us in our houses and apts.

Then again, you have to wonder what it would take to get Americans into the strike (per Mexico). A stolen election won't do it, that's for sure.

Anonymous said...

Aren't Tasers a form of this kind of weaponary? I mean, I don't know the exact technology behind each of these weapons, but the end result seems to be to incapacitate a person. Are we not already allowing the use of such weapons by our Police force? And is it not conceivable that we are going to be sold on this by marketing it as a "more humane" weapon than guns. Long live Orwellian newspeak. We don't want you dead, just incapacitated to think, move, protest, or demand.

Anonymous said...

See also David McGowan's last post 'It can't happen here' http://davesweb.cnchost.com/nwsltr81.html

Anonymous said...

Tasers are a different technology. It's a powerful electrical charge, which short-circuits the nervous system. People instantly collapse, lose control of their bowels, etc. In theory, such a charge could also be propagated over a large area.

And, of course, electromagnetic pulse weapons, which some people believe brought down airplanes in which electable progressive democrats were travelling. Wellstone, to be precise, and the guy from Missouri who originally faced John Ashcroft (can't remember the name).

It's odd: you have to be progressive Democrat, an likely to win your race, to die in one of these unexplained crashes.

Anonymous said...

How very funny that right after I posted the last comment I came across this article by Jeff Cohen called "Can AL Gore be Trusted"
www.commondreams.org

Anonymous said...

To Anon 3:30,

add JFK Jr. to your list of progressive dems that died in plane crashes using EMF pulse technology. He was going to announce making a run for office August 1st, had just finished talking it over with his uncle Ted and he was completely setup.

They have even figured out a way to mask radar from planes so they can fly invisibly. JFK Jr.'s plane was chased by no less than 3 different planes. Bastards blinded him with a searchbeam from one of the planes, and used a EMF pulse beam to basically shut off the fuel valve and and "freeze up" his electrical system. They had to make it look like pilot error so that the propellers were still running.

Yes, Wellstone's plane was definitely a hit.

Senators Boxer and Feinstein both have to be extremely careful, boxer is at the top of their "hit" list after Wellstone.

Anonymous said...

Per Beeta 6:28,

It's astonishing to see the shameless pro-Israeli proselytyzing on sites like TPM.

Our friend Josh at TPM thinks "she" (i.e., Israel) is perfectly justified is doing what "she" is doing, and refers to correspondents who argued that the Lebanese are entitled to reparations as "sickos".

The embargo in this country on any sane discussion of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, fully supported by many "progressives", is astonishing. In Israel, they have these debates. In Israel, they have historians who publish accurate histories of what happened and when. But not here. Say and a word against Israeli policy, and name it what it is, and you're an anti-Semite, a terrorist sympathesizer or a self-hating Jew.

The Israeli lobby may powerful, but this triumph of information control trumps reality so completely that you have to wonder if anyone really believes it. How is it people have the face to insist that Israel is the real victim and Palestine the perpetrator?

This phenomenon recalls those American revisionists who claim that the real victims of slavery were the owners (somehow it brutalized their delicate sensibilities). There's apparently no limit to what people can believe....