Online Journal | Jan 22, 2010

By Jerry Mazza

On October 25, 2005, I wrote an article for Online Journal, headlined Is it the weather or government terror, detailing government manipulation of weather, including earthquakes, for terror and destruction, mentioning that “your local weatherman was surely not up to pointing this out,” and adding “let me help with the forecast, past, present and long-range. Well, déjà vu all over again seems to have struck in Haiti on January 12.

When I wrote that article, I was disturbed over the effects of Katrina, on August 25, 2005, not to mention the Indonesian tsunami preceding it on December 26, 2004. It seemed to me it would take a helluva lot more than the weatherman to explain such cosmic events within a year, four months and a day. Today, I ask you to read my first article to familiarize yourself with HAARP, the acronym for the government’s High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, which is about more than weather, but rather US Weapons of Meteorological Mass Destruction.

As I write that, I can hear the sirens of “conspiracy theory” going off on the airwaves as if a thief had broken into the dark hole of the Pentagon and was filling his pockets with all the secrets of these darker ops. Well, perhaps.

HAARP, as you will read in more detail, can shock the upper atmosphere with both a focused and navigable electromagnetic bolt. The ionosphere is the electrically charged sphere that surrounds the earth’s upper atmosphere, about 40 to 60 miles above the earth’s surface. Take a look also at the excellent Haiti Earthquake Raises HAARP Controversy at the phoenixaquua.blogspot, so you don’t think it’s just me thinking this. In fact, you can see filmed examples of how HAARP works, and how it has worked on Haiti.

You will particularly enjoy this article’s film clip of Pat Robertson’s analysis of the Haitian earthquake. Pat believes it’s due to the victory of the Haitians in their rebellion over Napoleon and the French in 1801. Their victory, he claims, was due to a pact the Haitians made with the Devil. And this pact, Pat iterates, haunts them to this day. This is a man who ran for president of the US, is the owner of a chain of TV and radio stations, and a leader of the Machiavellian Dominionists sect of Conservative Christianity. But I digress and I’m dizzy from this one.

HAARP has always been referred to by the US government as a tool for researching weather, but in fact has been developed and used by the military for Department of Defense purposes. This dark side of HAARP has been played down for obvious reasons, but Dr. Nick Begich and Jeane Manning have done an excellent expose of this “Military Pandora’s Box” in their book, Angel’s Don’t Play This Harp. There as an excellent summary of the book at this site. It debunks the notion that HAARP is no different than other ionospheric heaters operating safely through the world in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Tromso, Norway, and the former Soviet Union.

Yet a 1990 government document claims that the radio frequency (RF) power bolt can drive the ionosphere to “unnatural” activities. Quoting the authors . . .”at the highest HF powers available in the West, the instabilities commonly studied are approaching their maximum RF energy dissipative capability, beyond which the plasma process will ‘runaway’ until the next limiting factor is reached.” The program operates out the University of Alaska Fairbanks (in Sarah Palin-land), providing a ground-based “Star Wars” technology, offering a relatively inexpensive defense shield.

But the University also boasts about the most mind-boggling geophysical manipulations since nuclear bombs of which HAARP is capable. It’s based on the work of electrical genius Nicholas Tesla and the work and patents of Texas’ physicist Bernard Eastlund. The military has deliberately underestimated the deadly possibilities of this uber technology, most pointedly in this case to create earthquakes with the generation of bolts of electrical power aimed at specific targets.

In fact, HAARP’s potential for havoc drew the attention of none other than Zbigniew Brzezinski, former NSA adviser to Jimmy Carter, science advisor to President Johnson, and political advisor to President Obama.

More than 25 years ago, when Brzezinski was a professor at Columbia University, he wrote, “Political strategists are tempted to exploit research on the brain and human behavior [another strange purpose HAARP can be put to]. Geophysicist Gordon J.F. MacDonald, a specialist in problems of warfare, says accurately-timed, artificially-excited electronic strokes could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produce relatively high power levels over certain legions of the earth . . . in this way one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations in selected regions over an extended period.”

He capped this statement with “no matter how deeply disturbing the thought of using the environment to manipulate behavior for national advantages, to some, the technology permitting such use will very probably develop within the next few decades.” Let me tell you, dear readers, it’s here.

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chicagopressrelease.com | Jan 13, 2010

Boeing [NYSE: BA] announced today that it has accepted the Oshkosh Defense military truck that will carry a Boeing-built laser beam control system for the U.S. Army’s High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) program.

Boeing received the Oshkosh Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) on Dec. 17 at the Oshkosh facility in Oshkosh, Wis.

“This demonstration program has successfully transitioned from the design phase to the fabrication phase,” said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Missile Defense Systems’ Directed Energy Systems unit.

“This transformational, solid-state laser weapon capability will provide speed-of-light, ultra-precision capability that will dramatically improve warfighters’ ability to counter rocket, artillery and mortar projectiles.”

The eight-wheel, 500-horsepower HEMTT A4, a widely used military tactical vehicle, will be shipped to Boeing’s facility in Huntsville this spring for integration with the laser’s rugged beam control system (BCS).

The program has already begun receiving BCS components from suppliers.

“These hardware deliveries show that the program is making great progress and getting closer to demonstrating its revolutionary capability,” said Blaine Beardsley, Boeing HEL TD program manager.

The BCS will acquire, track and select an aimpoint on a target during the same time frame in which the system also will receive the laser beam from the laser device, reshape and align it, and focus it on the target. The system includes mirrors, high-speed processors and high-speed optical sensors.

HEL TD testing against real targets, but using a low-power surrogate for the high-energy laser, is scheduled for fiscal year 2011 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. HEL TD is a cornerstone of the Army’s high-energy laser program and will support the transition to a full-fledged Army acquisition program.

Boeing is developing laser systems for a variety of U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy warfighter applications. Besides HEL TD, these systems include the Airborne Laser, Free Electron Laser and Tactical Relay Mirror System.

Oshkosh Defense, a division of Oshkosh Corporation, is an industry-leading global designer and manufacturer of tactical military trucks and armored wheeled vehicles.

Haaretz | Dec 27, 2009

By Ora Coren

Elbit's Viper robot, capable of crawling through tunnels, entering buildings, turning around and broadcasting images.

With self-detonating grenades, thinking bullets and robot warriors, humans on the frontline could soon be a thing of the past.

When armies clash in the not-too-distant future, remotely-operated robotic weapons will fight the enemy on land, in the air and at sea, without a human soldier anywhere on the battlefield.

The first robotic systems are already being used by the Israel Defense Forces and other armies across the world, and only budgetary constraints seem to be keeping science fiction from becoming reality.

In places where there is no choice but to send in troops, constantly improving broadband technologies, developed from the civilian communications industry, will serve as an essential part of the infrastructure for all modern military forces.

A helicopter that spots suspicious movement on the ground will, for instance, be able to relay a command to a drone aircraft to photograph the site and transmit the picture in real time to troops on the ground and to the command posts in the rear.

Soldiers will be able to mark their target by its coordinates and with lasers, allowing missiles launched from dozens of kilometers away to be guided by global positioning systems, ensuring accuracy and destruction of the target.

The systems will be coded to prevent enemy interception of the operation. Spy satellites that today weigh several tons will be shrunk down to anything between one and 100 kilograms or less, with engines the size of postage stamps. Infantry rifles will be computerized and fire “smart” rounds telling them when and where to explode. New rockets will also be able to think by themselves to enhance their accuracy.

Israel’s military industries, already world leaders in arms technology, are hard at work developing weaponry for the 2020s. Development of new weapons for the IDF is generally carried out with assistance and in cooordination with the Defense Ministry?s research and development arm.

The Israeli military’s demands are the cornerstone of the local weapons industry, and they can be summed up in two words: miniaturization and accuracy. The former will enable the troops in the field to carry their weapons or communications equipment more easily, and the latter will help avoid civilian casualties.

Military censorship prevents disclosure of the Israeli arms industries? most exciting and futuristic devices, but a good picture of what can be expected can be compiled using what is already in the public domain.

Pin-point accuracy

“The Protector, which we are already marketing, is a vessel that sails all over in all kinds of places without a living soul on board,” says Roni Postman, vice president for R&D at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. “It can get close up to a terrorists’ boat, address it through a loudspeaker, and open fire at it. In the past, a thing like this required a boat with seven or eight crewmen who were in constant danger. This type of remote control is one of the clearest characteristics of the future battlefield. It will be a battlefield devoid of troops, with vehicles doing what soldiers have done until now.”

Unmanned boats, land vehicles and aircraft will be either controlled remotely or will function autonomously, pre-programmed to carry out a mission from start to finish, such as reaching an enemy bunker, transmitting a photograph back to a command post, launching a projectile at it, and returning, or blowing itself up to destroy the target and the people inside it.

Another characteristic of weapons now undergoing development is pin-point accuracy for urban warfare, especially in a world that has become less accepting of “collateral damage.”

“Whereas up to a decade ago, planes would drop bombs that destroy everything within a 20 or 30-meter radius without any restraints in order to hit a certain target, that’s all over today,” Postman says. “We are working on capabilities that will make it possible to place a missile launched 70 kilometers away through a specific window of a certain house. It is also a question of costs. Armies will pay a lot for a missile only if they are sure that it will hit the target head-on.”

On top of these requirements, the weapons of the future will also be more efficient in terms of the ordnance delivered to the target. No longer will the same bomb or missile be used to deal with a man on a bike and a three-story building.

Forces will be equipped with what they need to deal with certain objectives and not simply with “the lowest common denominator,” says Postman.

On the other hand, Rafael is also developing cross-platform systems for armies looking to cut down on costs. For example, one goal is a missile that can be fired from a helicopter, a fixed-wing plane, a boat, or a land vehicle and that can destroy tanks and above-ground structures and bunkers.

“The miniaturization trend that has taken hold of the civilian market enables the introduction into military systems of things we couldn’t even dream of before, because of their size, weight and volume,” says Postman. “This is a worldwide tendency and future battlefields will be full of weapons and other items that are much smaller than they have been until now. For example, something that is today a square meter will be reduced to five square centimeters. This is especially useful in unmanned air vehicles, whose weight-carrying capacity is limited by the size of their engines, the amount of fuel they must carry and the altitudes they have to attain. Every gram counts. If they are loaded down with heavy systems, they won’t be able to carry out their missions.”

Israel Aerospace Industries, for example, has developed the Mosquito, a UAV with a 40-centimeter wingspan and a silent engine, that can be launched from the shoulder of a single soldier. Even this device may be shrunken down, if the military so requires.

The soldier of the future

What will the next war look like? Will it be waged on land, tank against tank, like previous wars? Will it be waged against terrorist organizations? Or against the threat of long, medium and short-range missiles?

“From the point of view of Elbit Systems, life is complex and a response must be found for Iran, for terrorists in Gaza and also for Syria,” says Haim Rousso, vice president for technological and engineering excellence at Elbit. “Intelligence will always be necessary, in both peace and wartime, so we at Elbit are constantly working on developments in the sphere, from satellites to tactical systems on the ground.”

He says that the systems are evolving in the direction of giving real time information, with analysis and application capability, making it possible to respond immediately.

To cope with the challenges emanating from Iran, Syria and Lebanon, Elbit is working on perfecting its multispectral camera, Rousso says.

“In the security world what they look for is camouflaged targets; they want to be able to distinguish between what is real and what only looks like a target, to find things that are buried under the ground,” he says. “So we do not ask what the eye can see, but rather what is the color or the combination of colors that is being sought. The great challenge is to build a camera with a reasonable size and price tag that can be carried on an uncomplicated platform and which we can tell precisely which colors to find – first color A, then color B. Another challenge is to build a bank of targets, to understand what we are interested in, and what is the spectral signature of the target. This involves research, collection and construction of databases, because colors change in different weather conditions, for instance. This camera will be able to see things that no other instrument today can see. We expect this to be a key element of the future battlefield.”

The defense establishment’s demand for products that are light, small and not too expensive is a function of the nature of land warfare, which will continue to keep military forces occupied for years. It will require miniaturization in optics, electronics and power supply.

“We want to give every soldier the capability to identify targets and other objects, and to communicate with the whole world, and when such large quantities of equipment are involved, the price becomes a significant element,” says Rousso. “Everyone in the world – the United States, Europe, Australia – is busy working on the soldier of the future. In the war on terror, a low-intensity conflict, the individual soldier is given a great deal of weight. He needs the means of talking to the system, to get a picture and to transmit data. Technologically speaking, each soldier is a sensor and a platform.”

Rousso says nanotechnology is on its way.

“It was not developed for the military but the anticipated evolution of the next decade could cause a revolution. That’s why we are studying the technology and its military applications. Also of interest to us are the mini-robots that can get into tunnels or buildings and move around mapping the interior and transmitting pictures. It already exists, but in the long term it will be honed and use of it will increase. Elbit has developed the Viper robot, and we are already speaking of a family of smaller robots. In the sphere of unmanned aircraft we are also talking about ongoing upgrades in the construction materials, the aerodynamics, the ability to stay longer in the air at higher altitudes and better maneuverability.”

In addition to their UAVs, both Elbit and Rafael have developed sea-faring drones, and Elbit and IAI have developed unmanned land vehicles that carry out pre-programmed missions, as distinct from remotely-controlled robots.

The goal is to give the vehicles a degree of artificial intelligence that will enable them to react like human drivers in cases where they encounter unanticipated obstacles on the way, such as large puddles of water. These vehicles will also possess an attack capability.

“It will apparently take many years before these things are actually built,” says Rousso. “But today we already have intelligent systems that know how to identify dangers and to think what has to be done to cope with them. An investment in the technology of artificial intelligence, in computerized vision and accurate navigation is required.”

The threat from afar

IAI is currently aiming to give soldiers on the ground capabilities that are today available only to the air force, says the company’s vice president for R&D, Dan Peretz, adding that IAI has moved over from producing traditional weaponry to advanced comprehensive systems.

GPS is being used for the first time, through miniaturization, for the next generation of smart rockets, making them more accurate.

“Accuracy is no longer a function of range. The same degree of accuracy can be had at 250 kilometers as at 10 kilometers.” says Peretz. “And when I have an accurate system, I don’t need a large warhead anymore, because I hit the target right on the nail. There are already some accurate missiles, but they are expensive. The introduction of GPS into warfare has already begun in the United States in the sphere known as Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems. It enables forces under fire to return fire without calling in air support, as the Americans did in Iraq.”

The Tzayad (Hebrew for “hunter”) system in use in the Israeli army, developed by Elbit, enables a commander in the field today equipped with a handheld computer to get a picture from a UAV and to call in helicopter fire. The new IAI system will be able to mark the target’s coordinates, making it possible to hit it from the rear with smart rockets.

The system included GPS-guided or laser-homing rockets.

“I put a laser dot on a target, and a laser sensor in the rocket head can home in on it,” says Peretz. “There are systems today that work on laser detectors – the smart, accurate missiles. Now there will also be laser-guided rockets.”

Lev Tahor (“pure heart”) is a smart mortar shell. It carries a GPS computer and can do what until now only missiles could do, but it is 10 times smaller.

“We are the first in the world who have taken a laser detector system to rockets, the first in the world to fire mortar shells that are guided by GPS,” says Peretz. “We are developing the ability to hit targets with the first shell, without hitting the wrong target.”

Peretz says IAI is collaborating with the American company Raytheon to sell the systems to the U.S. military, with the first demonstrations due in 2010.

“In five years’ time, this technology will be taken for granted,” he says.

Another development that miniaturization has made possible is Refaim (“ghost”) which involves fitting a tank’s fire-control system onto a rifle, enabling it to gauge the range of a target and to order the projectile that it fires to explode where it will do the most damage.

For example, a grenade could be told to explode at a point above enemy personnel hiding behind a wall.

“The Refaim system will include a 40mm round that contains a computer and I can command to explode in the air at a certain range, to explode on contact, or to explode after contact. If I want to shoot into a room, I would tell it to explode three meters after going through the window, in order to kill the people inside. It can also self-destruct, so as not to leave dangerous explosives on the ground if it doesn?t hit its target.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu often mentions the threat facing Israel from afar, or the “third circle” of enemies not inside or bordering Israel, like Iran.

The IAI is continuing to develop unmanned aircraft and is going on to new tasks defined for it by the defense establishment, including handling the third circle.

Moreover, the unique radar that penetrates fog and dust will be miniaturized in the future so that it will have more applications and be more accurate and able to identify the sources of fire within the first and second circles, in all weather conditions.

Sources in the defense establishment say that the IAI is directing much of its resources to address the threats of the third circle, first and foremost an advanced Arrow system for the accurate interception of long-range missiles. The Arrow will leave the Earth’s atmosphere and enter outer space, employing innovative technologies to locate its target and destroy it.

In facing far-reaching enemies, the defense establishment must develop lightweight and accurate ordnance that can be carried by small aircraft or on the American F-35 jets now under development, which has outstanding stealth properties but is relatively small.

The Israel Navy is not being left out of planning for the future, and its vessels are to be equipped with a new anti-aircraft missile system that IAI is developing in collaboration with India, integrated with advanced radar and fire control systems. Submarines will also have a key role in future wars, and they will be equipped with technology enabling them to stay underwater for longer periods and with new attack capabilities.

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A US air force ‘predator’ (Peter Nicholls/The Times)

London Times | Dec 18, 2009

by Chris Ayres

Predator drones used by the CIA against Islamic militants have been hacked into by insurgents using nothing more sophisticated than a $25.95 (£16) off-the-shelf software, it was revealed last night.

Although the insurgents were not able to control the $20 million aircraft, typically armed with Hellfire missiles and flown over the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, they could watch live video feeds beamed back to US control stations through their electronic “eyeballs”.

The hackers’ success raises the disturbing possibility of the Predators being taken over and used to attack US or British forces, or perhaps even domestic targets. Although Predator aircraft are usually flown by remote control from thousands of miles away, some are kept for testing at US Airforce bases such as Creech, near Las Vegas.

Speaking off-the-record, senior American defence officials confirmed that the Predators had been compromised and admitted that the video feeds could give insurgents critical information about US targets overseas, including buildings, roads, and other facilities.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the hackers were Iranian-backed Shias in Iraq, who used easily downloadable software, such as SkyGrabber, to capture the video feeds, which had not been protected by military encryption.

It is thought that the US military has known about the vulnerability of Predators for more than a decade but assumed that insurgents would not be sophisticated enough to exploit it. Then in December 2008, the military apprehended a Shia militant in Iraq whose laptop contained files of intercepted video feeds. Seven months later they found pirated feeds on other computers in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon is now scrambling to encrypt all its Predator video from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Dale Meyerrose, a former chief information officer for US intelligence, compared the problem to criminals listening to police scanners. The Predator forms part of a growing arsenal of unmanned aircraft that includes the Reaper and the Raven. Some of the latest Reapers have been fitted with a new, high-tech video sensor system which provides a wide-angle view of the battlefield.

About 800 French Legionnaires backed by 200 US special forces and Afghan soldiers have begun an offensive in a valley in Afghanistan where the Taleban killed ten French soldiers last year. French officials said that several American soldiers were wounded in the in the battle in Uzbin Valley, east of Kabul.

presstv.ir | Dec 14, 2009

Senior US officials are pushing to expand CIA drone strikes beyond Pakistan's tribal region.

After confirmation that the CIA has been operating drone strikes in Pakistani territory, a new report says the US is seeking to expand the attacks into the country’s cities.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that top US officials were pushing to expand the air strikes beyond Pakistan’s tribal region and into the major city of Quetta to allegedly target the Taliban.

Although the US and Pakistan have long been denying that the drones were taking off from Pakistani soil, the CIA confirmed on Saturday that US security contractor Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater, has been helping the agency to launch the attacks from within Pakistan.

CIA spokesman George Little quoted spy agency Director Leon Panetta as saying that US has been launching the attacks from secret airfields in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The new revelations also contradicted earlier US assertions that the notorious private security company does not operate in Pakistan.

Beside that, the Islamabad government and Blackwater itself had denied that the company was operating in the country.

The US claims that main Taliban leaders including Mullah Mohammed Omar fled to Pakistan’s Quetta after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Last month, a Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas rejected the presence of the Taliban leadership in Quetta, saying that US officials are making such claims just to cover their failures in Afghanistan.

The administration of President Barack Obama who has intensified the attacks in Pakistan says the raids are to target militants but local Pakistani media say that civilians are the main victims.

New US aircraft strikes in Quetta city with population of 850,000 under the pretext of targeting the Taliban could sharply increase civilian fatalities.

If drone attacks, now confined to small villages, were to be mounted in a sizable city, the death rate of innocent bystanders would probably increase, the report concluded.

mail.live.com | Dec 2, 2009

by Akhtar Jamal

Islamabad—An American newsmagazine has revealed a detailed report on the secretive activities of Blackwater elements in Pakistan and claimed that they were working on a plan to kill suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives in Karachi.

Quoting a reliable source the magazine said that “the programme is so ‘compartmentalized’ that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.”

The Nation also claimed that “the previously unreported programme, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination programme that the agency’s director, Leon Panetta, announced he had cancelled in June 2009.”

The news report quoted a spokesman of Xe as saying that “Xe Services has only one employee in Pakistan performing construction oversight for the U.S. Government.” Blackwater spokesperson Mark Corallo was also quoted as saying in a statement to The Nation, adding that the company has “no other operations of any kind in Pakistan.”

However, a former senior executive at Blackwater was quoted as confirming the “military intelligence source’s claim that the company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier counter terrorism and covert operations force within the military.”

He said that Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids and border interdictions, in the North-West Frontier Province and elsewhere in Pakistan.

He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan. The former executive spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to the report the covert JSOC programme with Blackwater in Pakistan dates back to at least 2007, according to military intelligence source. The current head of JSOC is Vice Adm. William McRaven, who took over the post from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC from 2003 to 2008 before being named the top US commander in Afghanistan.

Blackwater’s operations in Pakistan, the source told the The Nation, are not done through State Department contracts or publicly identified Defense contracts. “It’s Blackwater via JSOC, and it’s a classified no-bid [contract] approved on a rolling basis.”

The report added that “the main JSOC/Blackwater facility in Karachi, according to the source, is nondescript: three trailers with various generators, satellite phones and computer systems are used as a makeshift operations centre.”

According to the military intelligence source quoted by The Nation “Blackwater’s work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task Force based at Bagramme Air Base in neighbouring Afghanistan,. While JSOC technically runs the operations in Karachi, he said, it is largely staffed by former US special operations soldiers working for a division of Blackwater, once known as Blackwater SELECT, and intelligence analysts working for a Blackwater affiliate, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS), which is owned by Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince.

The US military intelligence source was quoted that Blackwater’s classified contracts keep getting renewed at the request of JSOC. Blackwater, he said, is already so deeply entrenched that it has become a staple of the US military operations in Pakistan. According to the former Blackwater executive, “The politics that go with the brand of BW is somewhat set aside because what you’re doing is really one military guy to another.” Blackwater’s first known contract with the CIA for operations in Afghanistan was awarded in 2002 and was for work along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

According to the source, Blackwater has effectively marketed itself as a company whose operatives have “conducted lethal direct action missions and now, for a price, you can have your own planning cell. JSOC just ate that up,” he said, adding, “They have a sizable force in Pakistan—not for any nefarious purpose if you really want to look at it that way—but to support a legitimate contract that’s classified for JSOC.”

The Nation quoted the source that “Blackwater’s Pakistan JSOC contracts are secret and are therefore shielded from public oversight, he said. The source is not sure when the arrangement with JSOC began, but he says that a spin-off of Blackwater SELECT “was issued a no-bid contract for support to shooters for a JSOC Task Force and they kept extending it.”

It further added that “some of the Blackwater personnel work undercover as aid workers. “Nobody even gives them a second thought.”

The military intelligence source was quoted as adding that the Blackwater/JSOC Karachi operation is referred to as “Qatar cubed,” in reference to the US forward operating base in Qatar that served as the hub for the planning and implementation of the US invasion of Iraq.

Blackwater, according to the military intelligence source, is not doing the actual killing as part of its work in Pakistan. “The SELECT personnel are not going into places with private aircraft and going after targets,” he said. “It’s not like Blackwater SELECT people are running around assassinating people.”

The American news magazine claimed that “instead, US Special Forces teams carry out the plans developed in part by Blackwater.”

A former Blackwater executive was also quoted as saying that “Blackwater works on a subcontract for Kestral Logistics, a powerful Pakistani firm, which specializes in military logistical support, private security and intelligence consulting. “

The magazine also quoted federal lobbying records as saying that “Kestral recently hired former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, who served in that post from 2003 to 2005, to lobby the US government, including the State Department, USAID and Congress, on foreign affairs issues “regarding [Kestral’s] capabilities to carry out activities of interest to the United States.”

It added that “Noriega was hired through his firm, Vision Americas, which he runs with Christina Rocca, a former CIA operations official who served as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 2001 to 2006 and was deeply involved in shaping US policy toward Pakistan.”

The New York-based news magazine said “As part of their strategy, Rumsfeld and Cheney also created the Strategic Support Branch (SSB), which pulled intelligence resources from the Defence Intelligence Agency and the CIA for use in sensitive JSOC operations.”

The magazine quoted Washington Post as reporting that the SSB was created using “reprogrammemed” funds “without explicit congressional authority or appropriation.” The SSB operated outside the military chain of command and circumvented the CIA’s authority on clandestine operations. Rumsfeld created it as part of his war to end “near total dependence on CIA.”

The Nation quoted Christian Science Monitor as recently reporting that Blackwater “provides security for a US-backed aid project” in Peshawar, suggesting the company may be based out of the Pearl Continental, a luxury hotel the United States reportedly is considering purchasing to use as a consulate in the city. It also quoted the Blackwater spokesperson Stacey DeLuke as saying recently that “We have no contracts in Pakistan,” and “We’ve been blamed for all that has gone wrong in Peshawar, none of which is true, since we have absolutely no presence there.”

The comprehensive story on “Blackwater’s secret war in Pakistan” is written by The Nation’s Special Correspondent Jeremy Scahill who is also the author of the best selling novel Blackwater.

Phasers set to stun: Scientists have developed a Star Trek-like weapon that can both paralyse and revive worms

Daily Mail | Nov 20, 2009

Scientists have created a Star Trek style phaser that can be used to both stun and revive creatures.

However so far the weapon, which uses a special form of light, has only been used on tiny worms, not menacing Klingons.
star trek

Canadian researchers fed pinhead-sized worms with a solution containing the molecule dithienylethene.

This changed the molecular structure and colour of the worms when they were exposed to different light wavelengths.

When the scientists shone an ultraviolet light on the transparent creatures they turned blue and couldn’t move. A beam of normal light then revived most of the worms although a few did not survive the process.

It is reminiscent of the fictional phaser used in the TV series Star Trek that could stun or kill adversaries using a beam of light.

Lead author Neil Branda from Simon Fraser University in Canada said the technology was like that used in transitional glasses that darken in sunlight but revert to clear in normal light.

At present doctors use light-sensitive materials and photo-reactions in medicine to treat certain forms of cancer and the study authors hope their research can contribute.

Dr Branda said: ‘We aren’t trying to pretend that it’s important that we can turn on and off paralysis in worms. But it opens new opportunities for the use of light in medicine.’

The study has been published in the latest edition of Journal of the American Chemical Society.

4029tv.com | Nov 17, 2009

OZARK, Ark. — Ozark police said they were called to a home where a mother asked for help with her unruly child, but the 10-year-old’s father said he’s outraged at the force police used against his daughter.

“I would like to say Ozark police Tased this little girl right here. Ten years old and [they] shot electricity through her body, and I want to know how the heck in God’s green earth can they get away with this,” said the girl’s father, Anthony Medlock.

Medlock said his daughter was at her mother’s house when Ozark police Officer Dustin Bradshaw shocked her in the back with a Taser and arrested her.

“If you can’t pick the kid up and take her to your car, handcuff her, then I don’t think you need to be an officer,” Medlock said.

Medlock said his daughter does show signs of having emotional issues, but she “doesn’t deserve to be treated like a dog. She’s not a tiger.”

According to a police report, the officer was called to the home by the mother and witnessed the child kicking and screaming.

The officer’s statement said the girl’s mother, Kelly Hamlert, told him to use a Taser on her if he needed to.

The officer did shock the girl after he said she kicked him in the groin.

“He had no other choice. He had to get the child under control,” said Ozark police Chief Jim Noggle.

Noggle said the officer shocked the girl for about a second.

Ozark police said it is their policy to use a Taser on someone who is a threat to others, no matter their age.

Noggle said simply restraining the child could be harmful.

“Well, if he tried to restrain her, he might hurt her by restraining her. If you grab somebody, you can slip an arm out of joint. They can slip from you and fall on the ground,” Noggle said.

“I don’t know what kind of policy it is. I don’t think it’s right,” Medlock said.

Medlock said this is not the first time the girl’s mother has called police to take her daughter to a juvenile facility. He said he will now try to get custody of his daughter.

“She just wants somebody to love her, and I do,” he said.

40/29 News checked with several other police agencies about their taser policies. The Fort Smith Police Department said it will only uses a Taser on a person 14 years old or older if they are a threat to someone.

Fort Smith Police said it’s usually the discretion of each police department to make their own policies on using a Taser.

Noggle said no action is being taken against the Ozark officer who used the Taser on the girl, and he said her case will go before the juvenile court system.

Huge rise in birth defects in Falluja

Iraqi former battle zone sees abnormal clusters of infant tumours and deformities

guardian.co.uk  | Nov 13, 2009

by Martin Chulov in Falluja

Doctors in Iraq’s war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.

The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja’s over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.

Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems – are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.

A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi minister for women’s affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and the British doctors David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned the UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over decades of war – including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted.

“We are seeing a very significant increase in central nervous system anomalies,” said Falluja general hospital’s director and senior specialist, Dr Ayman Qais. “Before 2003 [the start of the war] I was seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of deformities has increased dramatically.”

The rise in frequency is stark – from two admissions a fortnight a year ago to two a day now. “Most are in the head and spinal cord, but there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs,” he said. “There is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of less than two years [old] with brain tumours. This is now a focus area of multiple tumours.”

After several years of speculation and anecdotal evidence, a picture of a highly disturbing phenomenon in one of Iraq’s most battered areas has now taken shape. Previously all miscarried babies, including those with birth defects or infants who were not given ongoing care, were not listed as abnormal cases.

The Guardian asked a paediatrician, Samira Abdul Ghani, to keep precise records over a three-week period. Her records reveal that 37 babies with anomalies, many of them neural tube defects, were born during that period at Falluja general hospital alone.

Dr Bassam Allah, the head of the hospital’s children’s ward, this week urged international experts to take soil samples across Falluja and for scientists to mount an investigation into the causes of so many ailments, most of which he said had been “acquired” by mothers before or during pregnancy.

Other health officials are also starting to focus on possible reasons, chief among them potential chemical or radiation poisonings. Abnormal clusters of infant tumours have also been repeatedly cited in Basra and Najaf – areas that have in the past also been intense battle zones where modern munitions have been heavily used.

Falluja’s frontline doctors are reluctant to draw a direct link with the fighting. They instead cite multiple factors that could be contributors.

“These include air pollution, radiation, chemicals, drug use during pregnancy, malnutrition, or the psychological status of the mother,” said Dr Qais. “We simply don’t have the answers yet.”

The anomalies are evident all through Falluja’s newly opened general hospital and in centres for disabled people across the city. On 2 November alone, there were four cases of neuro-tube defects in the neo-natal ward and several more were in the intensive care ward and an outpatient clinic.

Falluja was the scene of the only two setpiece battles that followed the US-led invasion. Twice in 2004, US marines and infantry units were engaged in heavy fighting with Sunni militia groups who had aligned with former Ba’athists and Iraqi army elements.

The first battle was fought to find those responsible for the deaths of four Blackwater private security contractors working for the US. The city was bombarded heavily by American artillery and fighter jets. Controversial weaponry was used, including white phosphorus, which the US government admitted deploying.

Statistics on infant tumours are not considered as reliable as new data about nervous system anomalies, which are usually evident immediately after birth. Dr Abdul Wahid Salah, a neurosurgeon, said: “With neuro-tube defects, their heads are often larger than normal, they can have deficiencies in hearts and eyes and their lower limbs are often listless. There has been no orderly registration here in the period after the war and we have suffered from that. But [in relation to the rise in tumours] I can say with certainty that we have noticed a sharp rise in malignancy of the blood and this is not a congenital anomaly – it is an acquired disease.”

Despite fully funding the construction of the new hospital, a well-equipped facility that opened in August, Iraq’s health ministry remains largely disfunctional and unable to co-ordinate a response to the city’s pressing needs.

The government’s lack of capacity has led Falluja officials, who have historically been wary of foreign intervention, to ask for help from the international community. “Even in the scientific field, there has been a reluctance to reach out to the exterior countries,” said Dr Salah. “But we have passed that point now. I am doing multiple surgeries every day. I have one assistant and I am obliged to do everything myself.”

The UK MoD’s ‘Novel Air Concept’ robot stealth jet/copter notion. Credit: Defence Science

You have to wonder just what urban areas in “defended air space” the MoD has in mind for its stealthy robot jet/chopper to penetrate.

Bids for droid tail-sitter with pop-out chopper

Register | Nov 10, 2009

UK to build robot stealth raygun jet/copter

By Lewis Page

Aerospace firms are competing for a “classified” UK MoD contract to build a robotic military stealth aircraft which would be able to hover like a helicopter or fold its rotors and fly as an aeroplane. The “novel air concept” would be able to operate “within urban canyons” and deploy radical new weapons such as microwave or laser rayguns.

News of the commercial bids comes from Aviation Week & Space Technology, which names UK-headquartered arms globocorp BAE Systems, Euro missile alliance MBDA (partly owned by BAE) and British uni spinout Cranfield Aerospace as competitors to build the Novel Air Concept prototype.

The MoD’s Defence Science organisation had already released some details on the Concept. Specifically, the military boffins would like to see:

A more cost-effective means of achieving the effects currently provided by manned aircraft and cruise missiles by using new concepts in unmanned air vehicles (UAVs)/unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs). The specific effects under consideration are the delivery of novel payloads over remote hostile territory and, specifically, within the urban environment.

Pop-chopper: Good for hovering in urban canyons as well as VTOL

This is seen as being delivered as “a flying demonstrator within 3 years” (that is by 2012), which is to have the following abilities:

A reusable uninhabited air system with a radius of action of 1000km and able to survive defended air space. Capable of being launched and recovered from land, sea and air with the emphasis on ship based operations. The vehicle is to be able to operate within the urban canyons inherent in the major city landscape.

The MoD’s graphic seems to indicate a sort of mini stealth jet able to deploy rotors from its nose and hang vertically from them, setting down perhaps on its back end like the “tail-sitter” VTOL prototypes of yesteryear. The concept of large rotors, rather than a small propellor or even narrower jetpipe, makes sense in the context of the “urban canyon” requirement. A large heli-style vertical-thrust disc is required for an aircraft which is going to hover for any length of time without burning up all its fuel and probably melting its engines to boot.

As to the “novel payloads”, again the graphic offers a clue. The mysterious green cabinets between the conventional missiles have something of the look of phased-array antennae, perhaps capable of emitting focused, directable beams of microwaves – most probably for “soft” electronic-warfare purposes, but conceivably as active weapons able to permanently fry enemy circuitry.

It’s all very shiny, but you have to wonder just what urban areas in “defended air space” the MoD has in mind for its stealthy robot jet/chopper to penetrate. And you definitely have to wonder whether it would really be more cost-effective than comparatively simple one-shot cruise missiles, whose price is now falling through the few-hundred-k$ range: and which on their own can eliminate most air-defence networks possessed by non-nuclear powers.

There’s a definite air of seed-money about this, rather than of something that will actually be much use. We’ll be hoping that Cranfield gets the pork in this case – BAE and MBDA have already had more than their share.

We asked for comment from the MoD – after all, they weren’t shy about unveiling the concept to begin with – but hadn’t heard back as of publication. If we hear any more we’ll let you know.

Associated Press | Oct 20, 2009

The Maryland scientist arrested this week on suspicion of attempted espionage had contributed to the Reagan administration’s “Star Wars” missile defense program, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 20).

Stewart Nozette, 52, is charged with two counts of trying to communicate, deliver and transmit classified secrets. He was arrested on Monday after he reportedly shared information on U.S. satellite technology with an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.

Nozette had knowledge of “some of our most guarded secrets,” so he could have caused significant harm to U.S. national security if successful in transferring the information, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Asuncion said yesterday in federal court.

Nozette was ordered jailed without bond. He is next scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 29. If convicted, the suspect could be sentenced to life in prison.

Former co-worker Scott Hubbard said Nozette had specialized in defense technology and had been involved in the 1980s Strategic Defense Initiative.

“This was leading edge, Department of Defense national security work,” said Hubbard, a former NASA staffer who is now at Standford University.

Nozette was based out of the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California while he worked on the Star Wars program, according to Hubbard. While working for the agency, Nozette carried a security clearance that allowed him access to “critical nuclear weapon design information”.

escapistmagazine.com | Oct 19, 2009

by Tom Goldman

iRobot’s flesh-like ChemBot will freak you out…

The ChemBot might look like something out of a bad dream, but it’s actually a multimillion dollar military project. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army Research Office contracted iRobot, creator of vacuum-robot Roomba, to design the soft, flexible, mechanical ooze last year. This video might be a little technical at first, but if you skip to the 2 minute mark you can see the results of iRobot’s work thus far.

iRobot is not a company that just makes house cleaning robots. It has been providing military and civil defense forces with helpful robots for a while now, including the iRobot Warrior, a “large and rugged robot designed to carry 150-pound payloads”, and the iRobot PackBot which has performed “thousands of dangerous search, reconnaissance and bomb-disposal missions” according to iRobot’s website.

DARPA’s main purpose for funding the ChemBot is to create something that can “traverse soft terrain and navigate through small openings, such as tiny wall cracks, during reconnaissance and search-and-rescue missions.” The ChemBot should be able to do just that through a mechanism called “Jamming,” which allows for the transition between solid-like and liquid-like states with only a small change in volume. The first half of this video explains how “Jamming” works.

The ChemBot feels like the first step towards the creation of actual human-like robots similar to Battlestar Galactica’s new Cylons. The creepy part about the ChemBot is how it looks as if it’s alive and breathing. Wars could probably be won just by rolling out a few dozen of these things in front of opposing forces to scare the bejeezus out of them. I definitely wouldn’t want to touch a one, they look all gross and sticky.
_________

The Blob (1958) – Theatrical Trailer

ANI | Oct 17, 2009

London, October 17 (ANI): A technology company has developed a new military robot that resembles an oozy blob, which has the ability to squeeze through all manner of cracks and crevices.

According to a report in The Sun, the ‘ChemBot’, made by technology company iRobot, can ooze and pulsate across the floor.

This little robot is not just a fun gimmick, as the company were in fact given military funding to build the blob.

The idea is that the palm-sized machine can assist in reconnaissance or search and rescue missions by transforming to fit through tiny spaces.

Its secret is a process called “jamming” which sees material changing between a semi-liquid and solid state by increasing and decreasing its density.

The ChemBot, short for chemical robot, features compartments filled with air and loosely packed particles within its flexible silicon skin.

When the air is removed, the decrease in pressure constricts the skin and the particles shift slightly to fill the void left by the air, resulting in the solidification of the compartment.

Beneath the skin is an incompressible fluid and an actuator that can vary its volume.

Still at an early stage of development, potential applications for ChemBots include space exploration, military operations and medical devices
that can be implanted in the human body.

They might also prove useful for rescue operations in hostile environments such as subterranean or undersea mines and caves. (ANI)

US Dept of Defense – DARPA Program Brings Sci-fi Capability to Warfighters

ISRIA | Oct 16, 2009

Moviegoers were captivated as they watched a metallic assassin morph before their eyes in “Terminator 2.” The villain turned to liquid before assuming new forms capable of squeezing through narrow openings and transforming its arms into bladed weapons and solid metal tools.

Scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency were wowed too. Now they’re working to deliver that same kind of technology to support the good guys: warfighters on the battlefield.

Mitchell R. Zakin, program manager for DARPA’s Programmable Matter division, said he’s convinced the concept depicted for decades in blockbuster movies and comic books has real-life applications.

He’s leading up the effort to develop “programmable matter,” which he calls “the ultimate adaptable material.” It will be capable of changing size and shape and taking on new properties for one use, he explained, then adapting to a whole different form for another use.

Zakin clarified that he’s not out to change warfighters themselves, just the equipment they use, the clothing they wear and the loads they carry.

“Warfighters carry an incredible amount of stuff and they don’t have any more room to carry more,” he said. “Yet they are facing much more complicated battle spaces. They’re going into caves and working in cities. They need more sophisticated tools to deal with these environments, yet they can’t carry them.”

The logistical challenge of getting equipment to remote areas such as Afghanistan exacerbates the problem, he said.

Enter the concept of programmable matter, a convergence of the fields of chemistry, information, mathematical theory and engineering.

Zakin envisions a day when warfighters will be able to reach into their kit, pull out a lump of programmable matter and form it into whatever they need.

Think of it as carrying a paint can with a bunch of particles inside, he advises anyone struggling to understand how it all would work. The particles could be different shapes and sizes, be made up of different materials and have different functions.

Depending on the requirement, the warfighter would instruct the particles to become whatever was needed at the moment — a wrench, a hammer, a spare part. The particles would then organize themselves to form it. After using the device, the warfighter would return it to the bucket, where it once again would become a bunch of particles until instructed to become something else.

The same principle would work for uniforms, which could change their thermal insulating properties according to the climate: the deep freeze of the Afghan mountains, the blast furnace of summertime in the Middle East.

Fantastic as this all sounds, it’s on its way to becoming a reality.

Five university-led teams are participating in DARPA’s Programmable Matter program, and by the middle of next year, at least one is expected to emerge with a demonstration project. Halfway through the program’s second and final phase, all five teams are making convincing progress that it’s all possible.

The teams began the first phase of the program doing computer modeling, but got so excited by the project that they jumped headfirst into the second phase and began building actual prototypes, Zakin said.

By the end of the second phase, they’re expected to demonstrate that they can take a single set of building blocks and create five different geometric shapes with the strength of engineering plastic.

“Everyone is making progress toward meeting these goals in a very meaningful way,” Zakin said. “I’m confident that most, if not all the teams, will succeed.”

The ultimate benefit to warfighters would be mind-boggling. “Imagine the possibilities: an entire toolbox originating from a single material form, or flexible clothing or equipment that can adapt to the immediate and changing needs of the warfighter, perhaps even ’smart’ bandages embedded with diagnostic sensing capabilities,” Zakin said. “The possibilities are endless.”

In the simplest terms, programmable matter would bring warfighters “maximum capabilities with minimum carry weight,” he said. “It would give them the ability to carry a little amount of stuff and do a lot with it. It creates a whole new paradigm in flexibility for the warfighter.”

But the implications go far beyond warfighting, Zakin said. Aircraft wings built of programmable matter could change in flight to provide the best aerodynamic properties. Everything from computers to televisions to cars could be programmed to automatically update themselves with the newest features and configurations. Clothing could morph into the latest fashion styles.

In a nutshell, nothing would ever have to become obsolete.

“This is not fantasy, actually,” Zakin said. “Aspects of this already are being done in this project.”

Programmable matter also has the potential of turning the entire manufacturing process on its head. No longer would one design and one manufacturing process be needed for every single consumer product.

“Personal manufacturing” could take over. Consumers could go online, buy a blueprint for whatever they need, download the instructions, then feed them into a personal assembler that makes the product before their eyes, he said.

In some ways, Zakin said he’s been preparing for the Programmable Matter program since he first saw as a young boy the concept depicted in the 1950s sci-fi movie, “The Blob.”

“Most of my programs come out of the movies or comic books,” he said. “It’s what I do for a living.”

Decades later, he said, it’s gratifying to be at DARPA, where he’s on the leading edge of helping bring fantasy to life.

“It allows us to do something very, very important, and something no one else has ever done before,” he said. “It’s very DARPA-like.”

Test of laser from C-130H melts hood of car

Air Force Times | Oct 2, 2009

By Bruce Rolfsen

New video released by the Air Force and Boeing Co. show what happens when a C-130H Hercules aims the Advanced Tactical Laser at the hood of car.

In the video recorded Aug. 30 during a test flight at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., the laser melts the hood and sparks a fire. A press statement from Boeing said the laser “killed the vehicle.”

Related

Portable pain weapon may end up in police hands

The weapon uses a chemical laser that fills the cargo hold of C-130 to produce a laser beam fired from a turret mounted in the belly of a C-130.

If the size of laser can be reduced, the Air Force could one day fly laser versions of the AC-130 gunships.

The future of the project is in doubt as it competes for funding with other weapons, but a Boeing official said he is optimistic.

“The bottom line is that ATL works, and works very well,” Gary Fitzmire, program director of Boeing Missile Defense Systems’ Directed Energy Systems unit, said in a release. “ATL’s components — the high-energy chemical laser, beam control system and battle manager — are performing as one integrated weapon system, delivering effective laser beam energy to ground targets.”

Working with Boeing on the $200 million project, which began in 2002, is the Air Force Research Lab’s Directed Energy Directorate.

___________

Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser In Action

This video shows the effect of the high-energy laser beam from the Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL), fired at a stationary truck from a US Air Force NC-130H flying over White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on August 30, 2009. The ATL is a chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL), and is a scaled-down version of the megawatt-class high-energy laser in the Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL).

After Downing Street | Sep 28, 2009.

By Mike Ferner

An arsenal of “crowd control munitions,” was deployed with a massive, overpowering police presence in Pittsburgh during last week’s G-20 protests.

No longer the stuff of disturbing futuristic fantasies, an arsenal of “crowd control munitions,” including one that reportedly made its debut in the U.S., was deployed with a massive, overpowering police presence in Pittsburgh during last week’s G-20 protests.

Nearly 200 arrests were made and civil liberties groups charged the many thousands of police (most transported on Port Authority buses displaying “PITTSBURGH WELCOMES THE WORLD”), from as far away as Arizona and Florida with overreactingand they had plenty of weaponry with which to do it.

Bean bags fired from shotguns, CS (tear) gas, OC (Oleoresin Capsicum) spray, flash-bang grenades, batons and, according to local news reports, for the first time on the streets of America, the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD).

Mounted in the turret of an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC), I saw the LRAD in action twice in the area of 25th, Penn and Liberty Streets of Lawrenceville, an old Pittsburgh neighborhood.  Blasting a shrill, piercing noise like a high-pitched police siren on steroids, it quickly swept streets and sidewalks of pedestrians, merchants and journalists and drove residents into their homes, but in neither case were any demonstrators present.  The APC, oversized and sinister for a city street, together with lines of police in full riot gear looking like darkly threatening Michelin Men, made for a scene out of a movie you didn’t want to be in.

As intimidating as this massive show of armed force and technology was, the good burghers of Pittsburgh and their fellow citizens in the Land of the Brave and Home of the Free ain’t seen nothin’ yet.  Tear gas and pepper spray are nothing to sniff at and, indeed, have proven fatal a surprising number of times, but they have now become the old standbys compared to the list below that’s already at or coming soon to a police station or National Guard headquarters near you.  Proving that “what goes around, comes around,” some of the new Property Protection Devices were developed by a network of federally-funded, university-based research institutes like one in Pittsburgh itself, Penn State’s Institute for Non-Lethal Defense Technologies.

Raytheon Corp.’s Active Denial System, designed for crowd control in combat zones, uses an energy beam to induce an intolerable heating sensation, like a hot iron placed on the skin.  It is effective beyond the range of small arms, in excess of 400 meters.  Company officials have been advised they could expand the market by selling a smaller, tripod-mounted version for police forces.

M5 Modular Crowd Control Munition, with a range of 30 meters “is similar in operation to a claymore mine, but it delivers…a strong, nonpenetrating blow to the body with multiple sub-munitions (600 rubber balls).”

Long Range Acoustic Device or “The Scream,” is a powerful megaphone the size of a satellite dish that can emit sound “50 times greater than the human threshold for pain” at close range, causing permanent hearing damage.  The L.A. Times wrote U.S. Marines in  Iraq used it in 2004.  It can deliver recorded warnings in Arabic and, on command, emit a piercing tone…”[For] most people, even if they plug their ears, [the device] will produce the equivalent of an instant migraine,” says Woody Norris, chairman of American Technology Corp., the San Diego firm that produces the weapon. “It will knock [some people] on their knees.”  CBS News reported in 2005 that the Israeli Army first used the device in the field to break up a protest against Israel’s separation wall.  “Protesters covered their ears and grabbed their heads, overcome by dizziness and nausea, after the vehicle-mounted device began sending out bursts of audible, but not loud, sound at intervals of about 10 seconds…A military official said the device emits a special frequency that targets the inner ear.”

Full Story

A disintegrating set of morals are allowing American cops to become the Gestapo and Stormtroopers of yesterday.

Salem-News.com | Oct 1, 2009

by Tim King

(SALEM, Ore.) – U.S. media outlets are writing about the new LRAD or “audio cannon” device used on demonstrators Thursday at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh in a way that only brain-dead sold out scoundrels can. LRAD stands for “Long Range Acoustic Device” and the name does not betray the weapon’s objective.

It is a “hands off” tool that blasts out an extremely high pitched sound. I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually has the ability to drive people stark raving mad. It’s a futuristic fascism device if described accurately.

Americans, especially journalists writing about this, should be horrified by this new form of police abuse. I predict that it will ultimately be the last straw in a society that has too high of a threshold for this type of torture. The device disburses crowds by emitting a high decibel sound so painful that it causes people to freeze and try to run. Apparently they can not always do this.

Picture your fellow Americans, they could be any age, in a state of pain that is “excruciating”, according to those who have experienced it. Like the Taser, which is frequently present when suspects die, (even though the company claims it is very safe), there is no way the LRAP is good for people, at minimum, how could it not cause permanent hearing loss?

It is only the latest weapon that police are drawing to use against us, our children, and theirs. Rogue cops all over the nation abuse people with Tasers on a regular basis, and that company profits and profits. Good thing, their team of lawyers is very busy wrestling with death-related claims, even if they beat most of them.

Then you have the American gestapo (translates to secret police) movement of unmarked police cars sneaking around, nailing the unsuspecting through trickery and deceit. California bans the practice, it is taking place every day in Oregon, and Washington’s fleet of poser police cars are everywhere in that state. Unmarked means, among other things, they can abuse people and not be identified. They want to keep you confused and guessing, that is the new police approach in the United States.

Unmarked traffic enforcement allows criminals to replicate police very easily and strike victims. The police don’t care, almost across the board, and they will tell you that. Why should they? They love using your tax money to sneak up and nab you in a spendy traffic violation.

Considering the hypocrisy of a nation that constantly lauds its supposed “freedoms” so damned often, especially while justifying wars like the one in Iraq, the U.S. government is as criminal, dangerous and immoral than any other in the world. Oh, but how we go on about our greatness, and we are so quick to criticize other nations when their police roll in and control crowds.

Full Story

Washington Times | Oct 2, 2009

BY JERRY SEPER and CHUCK NEUBAUER

With the help of Homeland Security grants, police departments nationwide looking to subdue unruly crowds and political protesters are purchasing a high-tech device originally used by the military to repelbattlefield insurgents and Somali pirates with piercing noise capable of damaging hearing.

Police acknowledge that they deployed the so-called Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) as a safeguard at recent political conventions,protest-plagued international summit meetings and this summer’s volatile town-hall meetings on health care.

Officers were captured last week on video using the devices against protesters at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, causing many tocover their ears or disperse to escape the shrieking sound.

San Diego-based American Technology Corp. insists the devices it manufactures and sells are not intended to be used as sonic weapons but rather to influence the behavior and gain compliance from people.

But the company stated in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in September 2008 that the device is capable of sufficient acoustic output to cause damage to human hearing or human health, expressing concern that its misuse could lead to lawsuits.

It is that fact that has health and civil rights advocates concerned that the devices could fall into untrained hands and cause physical harm.

Police should not be using military weapons that are likely to cause permanent hearing loss on demonstrators or anyone else, said Vic Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania who objected to the Pittsburgh police’s use of the device.

The dish-shaped device generate tones that are higher than the normal human threshold for pain, according to the device’s own data sheet. They can be aimed in a narrow beam at specific targets with what the company has described as extreme accuracy.

The American Tinnitus Association said Wednesday that protesters at the G-20 summit were acoustically assaulted with sound of over 140 decibels, which it described as like the kind of sound pressure members of the armed services might face from an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

The association said that at 130 to 140 decibels, damage to the ear can be instantaneous, adding that the 145 to 151 range of the LRADSis the kind of sound that can cause tinnitus and hearing damage immediately. Tinnitus is a condition that causes ringing in the ears, sometimes permanently.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has said permanent hearingloss can result from sounds at about 110 to 120 decibels in short bursts or at 75 decibels with long periods of exposure. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders said regular exposure of more than one minute of 110 decibels can result in permanent hearing loss.

The U.S. military has used the devices successfully since 2003 andthey have been available domestically since 2004.

The purchase of LRADs by police agencies in the U.S. is approved by the Homeland Security Department, making the departments eligible for millions of dollars in federal grants. Federal and state officialssaid the grant money is turned over to the states, which decide how to spend it.

Homeland Security officials said they don’t have a list of the lawenforcement agencies that have obtained LRADs through its grant programs because the money is administered by the states.

Authorities in California, where at least five police departments have acknowledged having the devices, said information about the locations of devices was not readily available and it would take several days to compile.

American Technology declined a request from The Washington Times to identify which police departments have purchased the devices, but its most recent SEC filings show sales are rising. In the first nine month of 2009, sales of the device generated $12.8 million, a 74 percent increase over the same period in the previous year, the filing stated.

The first acknowledged public use of the LRADs in the United States occurred at the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, during which police activated one of the devices to disperse what they said were protesters seeking to march without a permit on the city’s convention center.

The dish-shaped device was mounted atop a military-style police vehicle and the piercing sound it emitted caused the protesters to stop, cover their ears and back up, at which time they faced nonlethal tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades.

Other law enforcement agencies will be watching to see how it was used, Nate Harper, the Pittsburgh police bureau chief, told reportersat the time. It served its purpose well.

More than 190 people were arrested during the G-20 demonstrations.No serious injuries were reported.

American Technology spokesman Robert Putnam said the company’s LRAD system was successfully deployed by Pittsburgh law enforcement agencies to support their peacekeeping efforts at the G-20 summit, but hedenied that the devices are weapons.

There’s no truth to the claims that these devices are ‘death guns’or ’sonic cannons,’ and the only people saying that are those who have not experienced the LRAD themselves, Mr. Putnam said. They are communication devices and their point is to communicate with people who are not interested in complying with lawful orders.

He said the LRAD enabled law enforcement authorities in Pittsburghto communicate clearly with an unruly crowd at a safe distance to peacefully resolve an uncertain situation without injury or a loss of life on both sides of the device without resorting to the use of nonlethal or lethal weapons. He said the device was used to deliver critical information, instructions and warnings.

Mr. Putnam said LRADs can cause damage to hearing if used improperly or if you stand in front of it for several minutes, but he said American Technology trains those who purchase the devices.

He said law enforcement personnel have full control of the audio output through a prominently positioned volume control knob and that the broadcasts can be easily and quickly adjusted based on their intended use.

We give them instructions. We give them training. We give them a manual, he said. It needs to be properly used and we do what we can toeducate the people.

When pressed about guarding against potential harmful effects, he said, Put your fingers in your ears.

The company has said the devices are intended to be used for only a few seconds at a time, and that there should be no lasting effects from brief exposure. Mr. Putnam said the devices can broadcast up to 152 decibels at a distance of three feet.

Raymond DeMichiei, Pittsburgh’s deputy director of emergency management and homeland security, said he thought the devices worked well without hurting anyone.

Every police officer I talked to thought it worked famously, said Mr. DeMichiei, who ordered the devices for Pittsburgh. “The bottom line is we could maintain order with the protesters without hurting them.

It is designed to get people to do what police want. It makes themuncomfortable but does not hurt them, he said, noting that Pittsburgh police had been trained to use the devices properly.

Mr. DeMichiei said his office first began looking at the devices when it learned the G-20 was coming to Pittsburgh and the city wanted a less aggressive means to control protesters.

He said the city and Allegheny County each bought two – a large and a small device – for use by their SWAT teams. The devices were purchased with a $101,000 Homeland Security grant, approved by the state of Pennsylvania.

In addition to Pittsburgh, the devices previously were set up – but not used – by police in New York City during the 2004 Republican National Convention, put in place last month during at least two healthcare town-hall meetings in the San Diego area and were at the ready for police in Miami in 2003 for a free-trade conference in that city.

The devices, described by the company as nonlethal weapons, are now in the possession of police agencies across the country.

We think the use of the LRAD devices to gain control of the publicis inappropriate and excessive, said Kevin Keenan, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego. “They can cause severe damage to people’shearing but, as importantly, they represent a degree of police control that is borderline science fiction.

Do we want to live in a society where police use military-style weapons to stifle public dissent? Mr. Keenan said. The main effect of having those weapons at public events is to chill people and chill free speech and free association.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department had LRAD devices ready to control crowds at separate Republican and Democratic town-hall meetings last month – one in Spring Valley, Calif., hosted by Rep. Susan A. Davis, California Democrat, and at a later town-hall session in Vista, Calif., co-hosted by Reps. Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa, California Republicans.

The LRAD in San Diego was purchased for $31,000 by Sheriff WilliamB. Gore with a Homeland Security grant as a means to issue safety advisories, warnings and other emergency-related notifications, according to a department bulletin.

Joe Kasper, spokesman for Mr. Hunter, said the congressman was notaware of any type of technology being used at the event but, in thisparticular case and in similar situations, he said it was “entirely reasonable to question the practicality of LRADs.

Of course, the town halls that occurred across the country differ from the G-20 in size and scope, so there might be better reason to position LRADs, Mr. Kasper said. “Law enforcement always stands to benefit from more advanced equipment but, regardless of the system, these tools should be utilized in a manner that is both safe and responsible.

More importantly, there are certain systems that should only be used when absolutely necessary, he said. But in San Diego, where a couple hundred residents turned out to talk health care on a Saturday morning, it’s hard to understand why these resources would ever be needed.

The devices were initially developed for the U.S. Navy after the USS Cole was attacked in October 2000 in the Yemeni port of Aden – killing 17 U.S. sailors and injuring 39 others. LRADs are now deployed by the U.S. Navy, Army, Marines and Coast Guard. In addition to keeping operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships, they are being used to disperse hostile crowds and ward off or control potential enemy combatants with earsplitting noise in a directed beam.

Dubbed the Sound of Force Protection in a company brochure, the devices have been used by troops in Fallujah, a center of insurgency west of Baghdad, and other areas of central Iraq to deal with crowds inwhich lethal foes intermingle with civilians.

The devices can broadcast sound files containing warning messages or can be used with electronic translating devices for what amounts to narrowcasting, in which specific groups are targeted.

If crowds or potential foes don’t respond to the verbal messages, company records show that the LRADs can direct a high-pitched, piercing tone with a tight beam. Navy News has described the devices as being louder than a jet engine, saying they overwhelm their targets withsound so loud they hear it inside their heads.

LRADs also have been used by cruise ships and freighters to repel attacking pirates off the coast of Somalia, using narrow-beam sound waves with great clarity at 150 decibels – about 50 times the human threshold of pain – and short bursts of intense acoustic energy that can incapacitate people within 1,000 feet of the device.

The Department of Homeland Security also has put the LRAD technology to work in securing the nation’s borders, according to its Web page, providing the devices to the U.S. Border Patrol to give agents theability to communicate with persons at a long distance and to do so in any language.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Jenny L. Burke saidCBP has tested the LRAD but has not seen that the device is a highlyeffective tool for securing the border in most operational situations encountered. At this time, she said, the agency is not looking at expanding its use.

eastcountymagazine.org | Sep 16, 2009

By Miriam Raftery

September 16, 2009 (San Diego) – San Diego County Sheriff’s Department notified media today that it would hold a demonstration of its highly controversial “sonic weapon.” What was demonstrated, however, was only the loudspeaker capability of the device—a feature which has effectively been used in search-and-rescue operations and to broadcast messages during a sandcastle contest. The sonic weapons switch, capable of emitting tones loud enough to damage ear drums or worse, has now been “disabled,” Sheriff’s Lieutenant Ed Musgrove informed the media at the end of the event. (View our video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulkl5Lw5gm8) But concerns remain.

“If you accidentally flip that switch and someone is within a 30-foot range, they can have their eardrums burst, bleeding in the inner ear, and it can result in an aneurysm or death,” reporter Kim Dvorac from Examiner.com said in an interview on KCBQ radio’s Rick Amato show last night , citing a source in the Department of Defense http://www.amatotalk.com/podcasts/AMATO-09-15-09-HR1.mp3 .

“The officers shown at this town hall meeting (for Susan Davis) were using this within 30 feet of townhall attendees and other officers,” she added. Dvorac published two stories on the Sheriff’s deployment of LRADs (long-range acoustic devices) after East County Magazine) broke the story on Friday http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/?q=node/1874 , creating a firestorm of controversy.

As we reported, LRADs have been used to repel insurgents in Iraq and to prevent piracy of ships aboard the high seas. Dvorac, who said she has spoken to various sources who have served in the Middle East and who are familiar with the use of LRADs, added this clarification. “They are also using this over in Iraq and Afghanistan to target terrorists in crowds, to take them out and save people around them…This can be pointed directly at you and it will burst your eardrums, but the person on the right or left will not be harmed by this.” She added that she could find no support in her research or among experts interviewed for use of LRADs as crowd control devices—the use for which Sheriff Gore says he purchased the device.

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Military LRAD devices placed at San Diego town halls come under fire

Examiner | Sep 15, 2009

by Kimberly Dvorak

As town halls unfolded across the country without incident, San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore took it upon himself to place military equipment used in Iraq to repel terrorists, at two San Diego events. The device is also used by the U.S. Navy to repel terrorists from ships.

Gore, who is now under fire for his decision to place the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) at town hall events, went on record to explain his decision making.

At a Sheriff’s debate Gore was asked directly (by this writer) why he felt the need to place such heavy-handed piece of military equipment at two area town halls.

“The LRAD was purchased as a crowd dispersal unit,” Sheriff Gore explained. “It was held in reserve in both Susan Davis-D CA. and Darrell Issa-R CA/Duncan Hunter-R CA. events should there be any problems. We could use the LRAD in place of pepper spray.”

Although Gore said the LRAD was held in reserve, a photo taken at the town hall proves otherwise, said a Department of Defense Security Contractor source close to the story.

Gore continued to add that the device is a non-lethal piece of equipment.

However that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sheriff candidate Jay LaSuer said, “I dispute this answer. It’s a very, very lethal weapon and they (LRAD) have no place in law enforcement.”

“Why would you use a LRAD when members of Congress invited people to talk about health care? The majority of the attendees are probably on Medicare. Are we going after terrorists on walkers now?” LaSuer said.

Spokesperson, Joe Kasper from Congressman Hunter’s office had this to say.

“We were not aware of any type of technology being used to monitor the event at which the Congressman appeared. Law enforcement always stands to benefit from more advanced equipment but, regardless of the system, these tools should be utilized in a manner that is both safe and responsible. More importantly, there are certain systems that should only be used when absolutely necessary, so I think it’s reasonable to question the practicality of this particular technology in this situation.”

Numerous calls made to Congresswoman Davis’s office went unreturned.

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“I very much hope that this correct and brave decision will be followed by others,” Putin said.

sfgate.com | Sep 19, 2009

Clifford J. Levy, Peter Baker, New York Times

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin praised President Obama Friday for canceling a plan for an anti-ballistic missile system in Eastern Europe that Russia had deemed a threat, suggesting that the move would lead to improved relations between their countries.

“I very much hope that this correct and brave decision will be followed by others,” Putin said.

The Obama decision Thursday replaced the Bush administration anti-missile plan with a reconfigured system focused on short- and medium-range missiles. Putin and other Russian officials who spoke to reporters Friday did not say whether Russia would respond with concessions to the United States, particularly on the issue of Iran’s nuclear program and its overall military capabilities.

The Obama administration has indicated that it believes Iran has made significant strides in recent months in developing a nuclear weapon, but Russia, which has veto power in the U.N. Security Council, has resisted increasing sanctions against Iran.

Speaking in Washington Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton kept up the diplomatic pressure, saying that talks next month between Iran and major powers concerned over its nuclear strategy represented a choice for Tehran and that there would be consequences for choices made.

“There will be accompanying costs for Iran’s continued defiance: more isolation and economic pressure, less possibility of progress for the people of Iran,” Clinton told an audience at the Brookings Institution.

The Russian officials did indicate that the Kremlin would withdraw its threat to base short-range missiles on Russia’s western border, in Kaliningrad.

Also on Friday, in another sign of warming relations, NATO’s new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, called for new cooperation between the alliance and Moscow, including possible coordination between anti-missile systems.

Laser weapon goes through successful test

UPI | Sept. 3, 2009

ALBUQUERQUE, Sept. 3 (UPI) — A potential new laser weapon fired from the air to a ground target went through a successful test over White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Boeing said.

A Boeing spokesman told United Press International the first flight of the Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft was designed primarily as a learning test bed and to demonstrate its feasibility.

The test brings closer to reality fictional movie depictions of laser weapons incinerating or vaporizing targets, but no specifications of the target vehicle or the final outcome of the test were immediately available.

Boeing organized the test jointly with the U.S. Air Force on Aug. 30, the company said.

During the test flight of the ATL aircraft, a C-130H, the ground target was attacked from the air over the missile range. It was the first time that an ATL aircraft demonstrated the high-power laser engagement of a tactically representative target, Boeing said.

The C-130H aircraft took off from Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and fired the chemical laser through its beam control system while in flight.

The beam control system on board homed in on the unoccupied stationary vehicle and guided the laser beam onto it as directed by ATL’s battle management system. “The laser beam’s energy defeated the vehicle,” Boeing said. It offered no description of what happened to the vehicle.

The company called the test a “milestone,” adding deployment of a similar weapon could transform future battles and save lives.

Greg Hyslop, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems, said ATL would give fighters a “speed-of-light, ultra-precision engagement capability” that could dramatically reduce collateral damage.

The ATL flight follows a June 13 test in which a laser fired from the air for the first time hit a target board on the ground. Additional tests will now follow to further demonstrate the system’s military utility, but Boeing says the demonstrations have shown that “ATL works, and works very well.”

Research into laser applications in the defense industry has engaged major players and involved other key recent tests.

Northrop Grumman also announced it successfully completed testing of its global positioning system-guided weapons technology at the White Sands Missile Range.

The company’s Viper Strike system is equipped with GPS laser guidance accuracy capabilities and is designed to be integrated into Northrop Grumman’s Hunter unmanned aircraft system.

In August, Boeing and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced they moved closer to developing an airborne high-energy laser weapon that will shoot down an upcoming offensive missile. In the first test over the California High Desert, a high-energy laser was fired from a modified 747-400F into a calorimeter, also on board, to measure the power of the beam.

Once there and while still in flight the ABL Jumbo unleashed its laser striking the calorimeter, allowing experts to determine how much more power will be required to make the weapon effective in combat.

Unlike stealth technology, which began as a passive countermeasure against increasingly advanced detection technology, airborne laser offers both pre-emptive and offensive paths of development, analysts said.

Silent deathray in first blast from the skies

Register | Sep 2, 2009

By Lewis Page

American death-tech goliath Boeing has announced a long-delayed in-flight firing for the smaller of its two aeroplane raygun-cannon prototypes, the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL). The ATL blaster, mounted in a Hercules transport aircraft, apparently “defeated” an unoccupied stationary vehicle.

“This milestone demonstrates that directed energy weapon systems will transform the battlespace and save lives,” said Boeing exec Greg Hyslop. “The ATL team has earned a distinguished place in the history of weapon system development.”

“The bottom line is that ATL works, and works very well,” added corporate raygun honcho Gary Fitzmire.

The ATL is much smaller than Boeing’s headlining laser weapon, the jumbo-jet-mounted Airborne Laser (ABL), intended to blast enemy ICBMs as they soar upward from pad or silo. Rather the ATL is intended to pick off individual ground targets, somewhat in the fashion of existing Hercules-based side-firing AC-130 gunships. Indeed Boeing has referred to the ATL in the past as its “Laser Gunship”.

ATL does resemble the ABL in some important respects, however. Like the bigger weapon, it is a chemically-fuelled laser rather than a solid-state electrically powered one, meaning that it can fire only a limited number of blasts before its sealed, six-ton laser module must be maintained and refuelled with hazardous toxic chemicals.

Just how many shots the ATL can fire before being rearmed is unclear, but hints dropped by Pentagon sources suggest it could be as few as six. This compares poorly with the firepower available aboard a normal AC-130, leading some analysts to wonder what the point of the ATL really is.

Boeing say that it will offer “ultra-precision” and “dramatically reduce collateral damage”, though so far nothing of this sort has really been shown. A 40mm cannon aboard a normal AC-130 could “defeat” a stationary ground vehicle without damaging its surroundings: a .50-cal sniper rifle fired from a helicopter could do the same to a moving one.

It hasn’t escaped notice, however, that neither of those things could strike silently – perhaps from so far off that the carrying aircraft wouldn’t be noticed either – and without leaving any solid evidence of US military presence. Nor have observers failed to note that the US military agency in charge of ATL is the secretive Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

Boeing have evidently had some problems with the ATL – airborne test firings were expected last year, but this success didn’t happen until last Sunday. However it would seem that the system may soon be as ready for frontline use as it will ever be, at least until electric lasers without fuel limitations are weaponised.

In years to come, the secret supertroopers of SOCOM may be able to cause a cell tower to stop working, a vehicle’s fuel tank to suddenly explode, or a single person to inexplicably be incinerated – all completely silently and tracelessly, without anyone knowing they were ever there and not so much as a spent bullet left behind.

Neuroworld | Sep 3, 2009

by Ryan Sager

Imagine a future where the Iranian regime didn’t need to spend weeks in the streets beating, killing, and jailing protesters to put down the reform movement. Imagine in this future that the beatings would be replaced with something gentler, but ultimately more sinister: non-lethal, weaponized drugs designed to decrease aggression and increase trust.

That’s the future imagined and fretted over in an opinion piece (non-gated, samizdat version here) and editorial (PDF) in the current issue of Nature.

Currently, the Chemical Weapons Convention does not ban nonlethal, domestic uses of chemical agents for uses such as riot control. Likewise, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention states that biological agents may be used for “prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes.”

At present, chemical weapons intended to change behavior — as opposed to simply incapacitate — are fairly crude. The Nature opinion piece begins with a discussion of the 2002 Russian theater hostage standoff, in which the Russian government used an “incapacitating agent” to knock out the Chechen terrorists — clumsily, as it happens, ultimately killing 124 of the hostages with the gas.

However, a future is not too far away when much more sophisticated agents could be ready for deployment.

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Related

Marketing new chemical weapons

To market these weapons as somehow separate from the chemical and biological weapons that are banned by international treaties, they are being given new, obfuscating names. In this intentional narrative (.pdf), chemical weapons become “calmatives” or “advanced riot control agents.” And they are promoted as part of a group of so-called “nonlethal” weapons. Worse yet, the semantic confusions go farther. These weapons aren’t really weapons at all but “capabilities,” “technologies,” and “techniques.” Similarly, other weapons under this umbrella lose their descriptive edge: laser weapons become “optical distractors,” acoustic weapons become “acoustic hailing devices,” and electrical weapons become “electromuscular incapacitation devices.”

Artificial trees that suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere are one of the plans that need further research, according to the Royal Society. (Institution of Mechanical Engineers)

London Times | Sep 2, 2009

Royal Society warns climate engineering ‘could cause disaster’

by Ben Webster

Giant engineering schemes to reflect sunlight or suck carbon dioxide from the air could be the only way to save the Earth from runaway global warming, according to a group of leading scientists. But they say that these schemes could have their own catastrophic consequences, such as disrupting rainfall patterns, and should be deployed only as a last resort if attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions fail.

The Royal Society, a fellowship of 1,400 of the world’s most eminent scientists, published a report yesterday on the feasibility and possible dangers of technologies for cooling down the Earth, known as geoengineering. The ideas include artificial trees that draw CO2 from the air and mimicking volcanoes by spraying sulphate particles a few miles above the Earth to deflect the Sun’s rays. The most far-fetched would would be to launch trillions of small mirrors into space to act as a sunshield.

A far cheaper solution would be a fleet of 1,500 ships that would suck up seawater and spray it out of tall funnels to create sun-reflecting clouds. However, the report said that these clouds could disrupt rainfall patterns and result in mass starvation in countries dependent on the monsoon.

The panel of 12 scientists who produced the report concluded that all these approaches were theoretically possible and, despite the potential side-effects, should be explored with a view to holding trials.

They called for a £100 million annual global research fund to study geoengineering technologies and said that Britain should contribute £10 million a year, ten times the amount being spent now on such research.

Professor John Shepherd, who chaired the panel, said: “It is an unpalatable truth that unless we can succeed in greatly reducing carbon dioxide emissions we are heading for a very uncomfortable and challenging climate future, and geoengineering will be the only option left to limit further temperature increases.

“Our research found that some geoengineering techniques could have serious unintended and detrimental effects on many people and eco-systems — yet we are still failing to take the only action that will prevent us from having to rely on them. Geo- engineering and its consequences are the price we have to pay for failure to act on climate change.”

Professor Shepherd, Fellow in Earth System Science at the University of Southampton, admitted that there was a risk that the report would be exploited by fossil fuel companies, which might use it to argue that there was an alternative to cutting CO2 emissions.

But he said that it was better to start a thorough research programme now rather than wait until the start of rapid climate change, when the world would have no time to test solutions before deploying them.

Professor Shepherd added that he had no firm opinion on how likely it was that the world would need some form of geoengineering. “My opinion ranges from maybe to possibly to probably, depending on what I had for breakfast.”

Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution in the United States and a member of the panel, said: “We should spend 99 per cent of our effort on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and 1 per cent on this insurance policy \. We need to understand what our options are.”

The report said that an international body, possibly the United Nations, would need to oversee geoengineering projects because they would have impacts far beyond national boundaries. An international compensation scheme would also be needed to help those adversely affected by any project.

Professor John Beddington, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, endorsed the report’s call for more research into geoengineering. He said: “These are part of the armoury of dealing with what is an enormously difficult global problem.” But he added that it was “too early to say” whether trials should be approved.