H01283
Headlines : Civil LibertiesMaximum Pain is Aim of New US Weapon
The US military is developing a new “plasma weapon” designed to inflict non-lethal but excruciating pain from long distances. The weapon is being designed with rioters/demonstrators in mind, and seems to be the logical extension of the mentality that relegates all public expressions of dissent to free-speech cages. I also wonder whether its development is any indication of the government’s expectation of more widespread dissent in the near future.
[Posted By Gregoire]Republished from New Scientist
The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture.
“I am deeply concerned about the ethical aspects of this research,” says Andrew Rice, a consultant in pain medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, UK. “Even if the use of temporary severe pain can be justified as a restraining measure, which I do not believe it can, the long-term physical and psychological effects are unknown.”
The research came to light in documents unearthed by the Sunshine Project, an organisation based in Texas and in Hamburg, Germany, that exposes biological weapons research. The papers were released under the US’s Freedom of Information Act.
One document, a research contract between the Office of Naval Research and the University of Florida in Gainesville, US, is entitled “Sensory consequences of electromagnetic pulses emitted by laser induced plasmas”.
It concerns so-called Pulsed Energy Projectiles (PEPs), which fire a laser pulse that generates a burst…
Posted by Gregoire
I was born in NYC, raised in Palo Alto CA, attended university at UC Santa Cruz. I spent the better part of a decade traveling in Asia and working in restaurants before entering graduate school in Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at UVA in Charlottesville VA,...
This stuff makes me angery, and scared. As a survivor of abuse, this type of weapon can only be seen as a “WMA” (Weapon of Mass Abuse). I remember that Hitler’s people were very good at thinking of new ways to torture people. Also my wife suffers from nerve pain
and it is very difficult to treat her condition. No way can you subject someone to this weapon and not suffer permanent damage. “If you educate a thief, you increase his capacity to steal”. If you educate a Neo-Con, you increase his capacity to harm the human family.
Hamster1 :(
I am beginning to lose faith in the ‘justice’ that our government is supposed to provide. I have attended numerous protests, hell, my family has a history of protesting (WWI, then apartheid, now Bush). What this weapon, and it is a weapon, is intended to do is break up that legacy of democracy. The government does not realize that however many times they try to destroy us and disrupt us, we will only resurge with greater force. THey fail to realize that:
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable”
Could the goverment really show a more caring side? Seriously they are doing the right thing but you want to whine, you get out of control so they pump a couple bean-bag bullets into your non showering asses, a few people die, you whine some more. Because God forbid anyone should ever have to actually sacrifice for something they believe in. So you whine some more. Now the goverment comes up with a non lethal but still kick ass form of dealing with you worthless jobless no-good-nicks and what do you do… you whine some more. Quit your damn bitching already. Bunch of cowards… you want a war without casualites, stryfe without suffering. Join the real world.
Magnum – What are you talking about? The government is doing the right thing, therefore the above posters are unemployed cowards?
I heard this weapon was under consideration for ‘test deployment’ in our upcoming foray into Iran this Summer.
Nuclear Reactors don’t hold up well against cannon fire and smart bombing it would seem.
Imobilize the bad guy, seize the reactor.
Dear magnum: It seems obvious that you have never fought in “REAL” combat, if you had you would not be so blood thirsty, and cold. Your thinking is flawed.“a few people die, you whine some more”. What if one of those “few people” was your wife or daughter?. If you are so trigger happy to try this weapon, why not agree to be a “human test subject”.
Surely you are very brave, and would not fear permanent brain or nerve damage, or a stroke or coma induced by systemic overload of the nervous system. Also…...
1. I am employed.
What a sick world, but I have to admit that maximum pain sounds better than this
Unfortunately, it’s probably not an either/or proposition.
this weapon is fucked up… that kind can do you in mentally, i mean, nothing, absolutely nothing can relieve that…. hamster, i’m sorry to hear about your wife, that’s a tough situation… now can you imagine people being subjected to this in the street? this would literally level entire crowds like dominos…. better than mind control….
I read this in the New Scientist. The weapon strikes your body, heats the surrounding air to plasma and milliseconds later a second pulse causes the plasma ball to explode. This is supposed to burn off the outer layer of clothing (or skin) and knock down the target.
The laser was orignally intended to be like a phaser from star trek. The military wanted to burn holes in targets. But lasers weren’t powerful enough and we now have this.
What is most concerning about this weapon is its range and accuracy. It could be fired from a helicopter a couple of k’s away before anyone is aware of what’s happening. It would also be extremely difficult to determine where the attack is coming from.
I doubt PEP would be used against peaceful protestors, the government is already very successful in breaking up protests, otherwise there would be no need for campaigns such as “Turn Your Back On Bush”. Though the ethics of using such a violent “non lethal” weapon against rioters are still questionable.
Another non lethal weapon in development is a tank mounted scanner that flashes UV light in all directions and scans for reflections from soldiers eyeballs or goggles. When the system detects a relection, it sends back a “temporarily” blinding flash.
The two systems could be used in combination.
we need portable force-fields
I like the way youre thinking Roq.
“The weapon, destined for use in 2007, could literally knock rioters off their feet.”
It seems like the shit will have really gotten bad by 07. They seem to expect riots that they cant really control traditionally.
It seems that all one needs to render this weapon painless is some sort of magnetic barrier. If we can know the specs on it we can reduce it. Anyone out there know any specs on it. What EXACTLY does it shoot? positive ions? microwaves?
Have you all noticed that wrapping a cellphone in aluminum foil blocks the signals? Perhaps those foil heads are on to something…