Weapons

US Military Withdraws ‘Pain Ray’ From Afghan War Zone

by

The Active Denial System will soon be needed in the US.

Related article:

– The ‘Active Denial System’: The ‘Pain Ray’ Weapon That’s A Hot Topic

active-denial-system_pain-ray
Pulled out: The Active Denial System, or ‘Pain Ray’ has been withdrawn from Afghanistan by the US military

A ‘pain ray’ that blasts the enemy with unbearable heat waves hasbeen pulled out of Afghanistan by the US military.

The Active Denial System (ADS), which cost about £42?million to develop, was on the brink of being deployed to disperse members of the Taliban as they attacked US forces.

The weapon, which causes immense pain to subjects but no lasting physical damage, was pulled from the war zone last week but US army chiefs in Afghanistan have stayed silent about the reason for the U-turn.

The ADS, which has been in development for almost 20 years, works by firing a beam of high-frequency waves at the speed of light.

Read moreUS Military Withdraws ‘Pain Ray’ From Afghan War Zone

The ‘Active Denial System’: The ‘Pain Ray’ Weapon That’s A Hot Topic

by

See also:

– Pentagon’s portable ‘thermal laser’ pain weapon may end up in police hands (New Scientist)

–  Pentagon microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky (New Scientist)

Weapons like ADS are not safe and destroy people’s health.

And weapons like ADS have already been used against Americans.

The New World Order freaks are really pushing hard:

– Big Brother DHS And DOD Want To Open US Skies To Spy Drones

– Obama Administration Plans Secret Big Brother ‘Perfect Citizen’ Net Surveillance

– Dylan Ratigan Show: President Obama ‘Has A Hit List Of American Citizens Like YOU targeted For Assassination’

– Obama Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Approved By Senate Committee

– President Obama’s New World Order: ‘We have to shape an international order that can meet the challenges of our generation’

The US army says its new ‘pain ray’ hurts but does no lasting damage. Its critics would beg to differ.

pain-ray_active-denial-system-ads
The Active Denial System or ADS, recently deployed for the first time in Afghanistan.

‘It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them… I saw them staggering and falling, and their supporters turning to run.” Since the first appearance of the “heat-ray” in H G Wells’s The War of the Worlds, ray guns have been a staple feature of science fiction: the classic sign of overwhelming technological superiority. But they are no longer fiction. Last month, Lt Col John Dorrian admitted that the US military’s brand-new Active Denial System (ADS) had been shipped to Afghanistan, the first time it has been present in an active theatre of war. According to the top brass, it is a “non-lethal, directed-energy, counter-personnel weapon”. Among the troops, however, its favoured description is rather shorter: “the pain ray”.

Compared with most military vehicles, the device looks relatively harmless – like one of the broadcasting trucks you see outside big sporting events: an anonymous-looking military transport with what appears to be a square satellite dish mounted on top. But it contains an extraordinary new weapon, capable of causing immense discomfort from half a mile away without – its makers claim – doing any lasting damage.

The ADS works by projecting a focused beam of 3.2mm wave electromagnetic radiation at a human target. This heats the water and fat molecules on the skin, causing their temperature to rise by up to 50C. Philip Sherwell, a Sunday Telegraph reporter who tried out the ADS in 2007, describes it as “unbearably uncomfortable, like opening a roasting hot oven door”. The immediate instinct is to escape the beam and seek cover – at which point the effect subsides.

Read moreThe ‘Active Denial System’: The ‘Pain Ray’ Weapon That’s A Hot Topic

Laser beams used for the first time in naval warfare to shoot down planes

by

Laser beams have been used for the first time in naval warfare to shoot down aircraft, it can be disclosed.

The weapon, mounted on a warship’s missile, shot down four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in secret testing carried out off the California coast, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

In a joint enterprise between US Navy and Raytheon Missile Systems the technology has now got to the stage where lasers will be deployed on warships as part of their short-range defence.

For the first time a ‘solid state’ 32 mega watt laser beam of directed energy has been fired from a warship to a distance of more than two miles burning into a drone travelling at about 300mph.

The laser is mounted on a Phalanx close in weapons system that has a radar detection system. The targeting system was used in Iraq, to train fire from a Gatling onto rockets and mortars raining down on British bases.

Raytheon developed the system after buying six off-the-shelf commercial lasers from the car industry and joining them to make a single, powerful beam guided by the Phalanx’s radars. Unlike other tests which have been conducted on aircraft it uses a solid state laser rather than a chemical generated beam.

Mike Booen, vice president of Directed Energy Weapons at Raytheon, said the tests off San Nicolas Island were “a great day for the laser”.

“This is more real than Star Wars,” he said, speaking at the Farnborough Air Show. “Our lasers destroyed the UAVs lighting them on fire.

“This is the first successful shoot down over water. We are now on the path to deliver the first battlefield lasers integrated into real weapons systems.

Read moreLaser beams used for the first time in naval warfare to shoot down planes

Worldwide annual military budget rose 5.9%, arms spending unaffected by financial crisis

by

Why? Because ‘they’ are spending your money, not theirs!!!

Worldwide annual military budget rose 5.9% in real terms according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

F35 Joint Strike Fighters
The US’s decision to increase its F35 Joint Strike Fighters programme is in keeping with a wider global pattern that bucks the trend towards austerity. (AP)

Governments around the world might be heralding an age of austerity, and warning citizens that they will need to cut public services, but the aftershocks of the global financial crisis have had little impact on military budgets, a leading thinktank says.

Last year, $1.5 trillion (£1tn)was spent on weapons, an annual increase in real terms of 5.9%, according to the latest report by Sipri, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The US accounted for more than half of the total increase, though arms spending increased fastest in Asian countries, with China raising its military expenditure most, followed by India. Global spending has risen by nearly 50% over the past decade, said Sipri.

The US headed the list of the world’s top 10 arms buyers last year, spending $661bn on military equipment. It was followed by China (spending an estimated $100bn), France ($63.9bn), Britain ($58.3bn), Russia (an estimated $53.3bn) and Japan ($51.8bn), according to the report.

Read moreWorldwide annual military budget rose 5.9%, arms spending unaffected by financial crisis

Britain Has To Pay Back Nearly £400 Million To Iran’s Defence Ministry

by

In the 1970s Iran paid Britain for thousands of tanks, but when the Shah fell they were sold on to Iraq. Now Tehran wants its money back.

tank
Trigger for a bitter dispute: the then state-of-the-art Chieftain tank

For Britain’s hard-pressed armaments industry, it was a lucrative deal with a trusted ally. Between 1971 and 1976, the increasingly despotic Shah of Iran had signed on the dotted line for 1,500 state-of-the-art Chieftain battle tanks and 250 repair vehicles costing £650 million. Even better, Persia’s King of Kings paid the British government for his new weaponry up front.

The problem came in 1979 when, with just 185 tanks delivered to Tehran, the Iranian Revolution deposed Shah Pahlavi and installed an Islamic Republic with a somewhat less warm stance towards the United Kingdom. The massive deal, fully sanctioned by the Ministry of Defence, foundered and the Iranians, perhaps understandably, asked for their money back.

London refused and – after flogging a number of its suddenly surplus tanks to Iran’s most bitter enemy in the shape of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq – the British government has for 30 years fought a little-noticed but bitter legal wrangle in an obscure international trade court based in the Netherlands to hold onto what remains of the Shah’s money.

Until now.

The Independent can reveal that Britain is to pay back nearly £400m to Iran’s defence ministry after finally admitting defeat in the dispute in a move that will be heralded by Tehran as a major diplomatic triumph while it continues its international brinkmanship with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

Financial restrictions imposed by the European Union on Iranian banks, which freeze any of Tehran’s assets held abroad, mean that Iran will not be able to access the funds. They will instead be held in a trust account overseen by independent trustees. The money will join £976m of Iranian assets already frozen in Britain.

Read moreBritain Has To Pay Back Nearly £400 Million To Iran’s Defence Ministry

US Gun Owners Buy 14 Million Plus Guns In 2009 – More Than 21 of the Worlds Standing Armies Combined

by

gun-factory
Firearms Manufactures Working Hard To Keep Up

Washington, DC –(AmmoLand.com)- Data released by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) for the year reported 14,033,824 NICS Checks for the year of 2009, a 10 percent increase in gun purchases from the 12,709,023 reported in 2008.

So far that is roughly 14,000,000+ guns bought last year!

The total is probably more as many NICS background checks cover the purchase of more than one gun at a time by individuals.

To put it in perspective that is more guns than the combined active armies of the top 21 countries in the world. countries by number of troops

Of the NICS background checks preformed less than and average .005% were denied, showing, overwhelmingly, that law abiding American citizens are the ones buying guns and that criminals are getting their guns elsewhere.

14,033,824,000 billions rounds of Ammo

Assuming each gun buyer bought 1000 rounds of ammo for each purchase, and you and I know that it is way, way more than that, that would be easily 14,033,824,000+ billions rounds of ammo fired by USA gun owners.

Read moreUS Gun Owners Buy 14 Million Plus Guns In 2009 – More Than 21 of the Worlds Standing Armies Combined

Iraq: Fallujah Doctors Report Dramatic Rise In Birth Defects (BBC)

by

Don’t tell me that DU can be shielded by a piece of paper and is therefore no danger to health.

How long can you hold your breath or live without food and water?

– What Depleted Uranium Does to Children in Iraq: Japanese Journalist

– Depleted Uranium Shells Worse Than Nuclear Weapons:

Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.
“More than ten times the amount of radiation released during atmospheric testing [of nuclear bombs] has been released from DU weaponry since 1991,” said Leuren Moret, a U.S. nuclear scientist. “The genetic future of the Iraqi people, for the most part, is destroyed. The environment now is completely radioactive.”
“Because DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the Middle East will, for all practical purposes, be radioactive forever.”

– The Weapon of Mass Destruction Is Cancer

– War-related birth defects in Fallujah

– IRAQ: ‘Special Weapons’ Have a Fallout on Babies

– Over 70,000 deaths, and over 1 million disabilities among American soldiers attributed to Iraq Wars says U.S. government data

– Beyond Treason (Documentary):

Beyond Treason investigates causes of Gulf War Illness and continuing deaths of gulf war veterans. Beyond Treason outlines: – exposure to depleted uranium munitions used on the battlefield. – chemical and biological exposures. – experimental vaccines given.

The US have destroyed Iraq forever. Even Hitler, Stalin and Mao begin to pale against such a crime against humanity.

Fallujah doctors report rise in birth defects


John Simpson talks about the children with birth defects he saw in Fallujah

Doctors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are reporting a high level of birth defects, with some blaming weapons used by the US after the Iraq invasion.

The city witnessed fierce fighting in 2004 as US forces carried out a major offensive against insurgents.

Now, the level of heart defects among newborn babies is said to be 13 times higher than in Europe.

The US military says it is not aware of any official reports showing an increase in birth defects in the area.

BBC world affairs editor John Simpson visited a new, US-funded hospital in Fallujah where paediatrician Samira al-Ani told him that she was seeing as many as two or three cases a day, mainly cardiac defects.

iraq_falluja

– 40 miles (64km) west of the capital Baghdad

– Major city in the predominantly Sunni province of Anbar, a hotbed of insurgency following US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003

– Burned corpses of four ambushed US contractors dragged through the streets of the city in March 2004

– Scene of major US-led offensive against insurgents in November 2004, when thousands of marines stormed the city

– US military’s use of white phosphorus munitions in that offensive widely condemned

– Situation in Anbar as a whole calmer since 2006, when tribal “Awakening Councils” turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq
Disturbing tale of birth defects

Our correspondent also saw children in the city who were suffering from paralysis or brain damage – and a photograph of one baby who was born with three heads.

He adds that he heard many times that officials in Fallujah had warned women that they should not have children.

Doctors and parents believe the problem is the highly sophisticated weapons the US troops used in Fallujah six years ago.

British-based Iraqi researcher Malik Hamdan told the BBC’s World Today programme that doctors in Fallujah were witnessing a “massive unprecedented number” of heart defects, and an increase in the number of nervous system defects.

She said that one doctor in the city had compared data about birth defects from before 2003 – when she saw about one case every two months – with the situation now, when, she saw cases every day.

Ms Hamdan said that based on data from January this year, the rate of congenital heart defects was 95 per 1,000 births – 13 times the rate found in Europe.

“I’ve seen footage of babies born with an eye in the middle of the forehead, the nose on the forehead,” she added.

Read moreIraq: Fallujah Doctors Report Dramatic Rise In Birth Defects (BBC)

US Supreme Court justices signal they’re ready to make gun ownership a national right

by

A high court majority reviewing a handgun ban in Chicago indicates that it sees the right to bear arms as national in scope, and can be used to strike down some state and local gun regulations.

plaintiff-otis-mcdonald-participates-in-a-news-conference-at-the-supreme-court
Plaintiff Otis McDonald participates in a news conference at the Supreme Court. (Haraz N. Ghanbari / Associated Press / March 2, 2010)

Reporting from Washington – The Supreme Court justices, hearing a 2nd Amendment challenge to Chicago’s ban on handguns, signaled Tuesday that they were ready to extend gun rights nationwide, clearing the way for legal attacks on state and local gun restrictions.

The court’s majority appears almost certain to strike down a Chicago ordinance and rule that residents have a right to a handgun at home. Of U.S. cities, only Chicago and its Oak Park suburb have total bans on handguns. But many cities and states have laws regulating who can have a gun and where they can take it.

Gun rights advocates have said they’ve been waiting for the court’s ruling in this case to begin challenging gun regulations nationwide.

At one point in Tuesday’s argument, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. noted the city’s lawyers doubted that people had a right to carry concealed weapons in public.

“Well, maybe that’s right,” Roberts said. But he quickly added that the question could be left for a future case, indicating that the court was not likely to sweep away additional gun regulations in this ruling.

But the clear message from the argument is that a five-member majority on the court thinks the right “to bear arms” is a fundamental right, like the freedom of speech, that cannot be unduly restricted by federal regulations, state laws or city ordinances.

Read moreUS Supreme Court justices signal they’re ready to make gun ownership a national right

Pentagon: US forces in Haiti to number 33,000; Hugo Chavez: US weapon test caused Haiti earthquake

by

33,000 US troops! Can we call it a invasion now?

– Haitians Receive Little Help Despite Promises From World Leaders; US Doctors Are Desperate

– French minister criticizes US aid role in Haiti: ‘This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti.’

– Ex-minister warns of US ‘takeover’ of Haiti

I am not saying that Hugo Chavez is right, but I know that the US and the Russians have weapons that could easily cause such an earthquake.

Chavez: US weapon test caused Haiti earthquake


Added: 20. Januar 2010

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has once again accused the United States of playing God. But this time it’s Haiti’s disastrous earthquake that he thinks the U.S. was behind. Spanish newspaper ABC quotes Chavez as saying that the U.S. navy launched a weapon capable of inducing a powerful earthquake off the shore of Haiti. He adds that this time it was only a drill and the final target is … destroying and taking over Iran.

I also know that the elite plans to invade Iran within the next 3 years to cause WW III. The elite constantly changes their plans and adapts them to the ‘environment’ very quickly. Call me a conspiracy nutcase, I don’t care. I know it. So maybe Chavez is right.


resized_haiti_quake
A major part of the Haitian disaster operation is providing security for victims and rescuers.

About 20,000 U.S. troops are expected to support relief efforts in Haiti by next week in addition to the 13,000 American military personnel already there, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kruzel.

Those men and women to be deployed are members of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade and other units. Thousands of other troops are operating afloat off the Haitian coast and on shore, distributing provisions, assisting in medical operations and helping to maintain security. Some 2,200 Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit are slated to arrive within 48 hours, Kruzel reports.

“The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit is a huge part of enabling us to extend our reach to places around the country that may need our assistance but we just haven’t been there yet,” Army Lieutenant General P.K. Keen, the top U.S. commander in Haiti, said on Thursday during a segment aired on The Pentagon Channel.

The additional forces come as international aid continues pouring into Haiti following a magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Jan. 12, creating what an official called one of the greatest humanitarian emergencies in the history of the Americas, reports Kruzel, in a statement obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

Read morePentagon: US forces in Haiti to number 33,000; Hugo Chavez: US weapon test caused Haiti earthquake

US Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes. Is The Pentagon Fighting A Religious Crusade?

by

If the soldiers know this, then the Pentagon most certainly knows this.


January 18, 2010 ABC News


Added: 19. Januar 2010

– US Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes (ABC News Investigation)

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

US Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes (ABC News Investigation)

by

Pentagon Supplier for Rifle Sights Says It Has ‘Always’ Added New Testament References

us-military-weapons-inscribed-with-secret-jesus-bible-codes
At the end of the serial number on Trijicon’s ACOG gun sight, you can read “JN8:12”, a reference to the New Testament book of John, Chapter 8, Verse 12, which reads: “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” The ACOG is widely used by the U.S. military. (ABC News)

(ABC NEWS) — Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.

The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.

U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious “Crusade” in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Other references include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as “the light of the world.” John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions “have always been there” and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is “not Christian.” The company has said the practice began under its founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian from South Africa who was killed in a 2003 plane crash.

‘It violates the Constitution’

The company’s vision is described on its Web site: “Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom.”

“We believe that America is great when its people are good,” says the Web site. “This goodness has been based on Biblical standards throughout our history, and we will strive to follow those morals.”

Spokespeople for the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps both said their services were unaware of the biblical markings. They said officials were discussing what steps, if any, to take in the wake of the ABCNews.com report. It is not known how many Trijicon sights are currently in use by the U.S. military.

The biblical references appear in the same type font and size as the model numbers on the company’s Advanced Combat Optical Guides, called the ACOG.

A photo on a Department of Defense Web site shows Iraqi soldiers being trained by U.S. troops with a rifle equipped with the bible-coded sights.

“It’s wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws,” said Michael “Mikey” Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group that seeks to preserve the separation of church and state in the military.

Read moreUS Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes (ABC News Investigation)

US Air Force Zaps Drones in Laser Test

by

air-force-zaps-drones-in-laser-test
In a recent series of tests at the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif., a trailer-mounted laser was able to knock five unmanned aircraft out of the sky.

The demo, sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory, was a test of the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX), an experimental system developed by Boeing Directed Energy Systems. According to a company news release, the test showed the ability to take down a hostile unmanned aircraft with a “relatively low laser power” weapon. According to AFRL, MATRIX uses a two and a half kilowatt-class high energy laser.

While ballistic missile defense may get all of the press, some homeland-security experts worry about a more low-tech threat: drone technology. Bill Baker, chief scientist of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Directed Energy Directorate, said in a statement that the shootdowns “validate the use of directed energy to negate potential hostile threats against the homeland.”

It’s not clear, exactly, how the lasers shot down the drones: Whether they disrupted the aircraft controls, or burned a big hole in them. (An AFRL news release said the drones were “acquired, tracked and negated at significant ranges” but offered few additional details.)

Read moreUS Air Force Zaps Drones in Laser Test

The Newest In Taser Technology: Taser X3 – Firing Up The Newest Tasers

by

taser-x3-the-newest-tasers
Taser X3 Photo credit: James Martin/CNET

On Friday, Taser International held a demo day at the Alameda Sheriff’s Office Regional Training Center in Dublin, Calif., to show off some of the latest in electronic control devices.

The Taser X3, the newest device with multishot technology, goes beyond the single-shot capabilities of first-generation tasers and provides the ability to deploy a second and third cartridge immediately. Also, it can simultaneously zap three bad guys at once.

Taser International:
“The X3 is a revolutionary new multi-shot ECD that can engage multiple targets, display Warning Arcs™ while loaded, and deliver a calibrated Neuro Muscular Incapacitation (NMI) pulse that results in improved safety characteristics. While the X3 offers enhanced firepower over existing ECDs, it also represents a quantum leap in sensor and computation power – making it by far the most intelligent hand-held force option ever developed.” Source: Taser International

October 24, 2009 9:10 AM PDT
By: James Martin

taser-xrep
Taser International says its XREP (Extended Range Electronic Projectile) is the most technologically advanced projectile ever deployed from a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. The self-contained, wireless electronic control device fires accurately up to 100 feet and attaches itself to the target before deploying its charge. Photo by James Martin/CNET

DUBLIN, Calif.–Don’t tase me, bro. Really.

CNET News took a trip to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Regional Training Center on Friday to have a look at some of the newest equipment from Taser, which was among the companies showing off weaponry at the UrbanShield 2009 training event. The electric-shock gadgets are controversial and have drummed up some bad press over the years for causing the occasional serious injury or even fatality. But the company has maintained its insistence that they are significantly safer than the alternative (i.e. guns).

We didn’t get to tase anybody. But we did get to see the Shockwave, a big Taser device that can incapacitate five or six people at a time, which company representatives told us is designed for crowd-control situations and can be triggered remotely via a 100-foot firing wire.

There are also two recently released handheld Tasers: the X3, which unlike its single-shot predecessors can fire off a total of three shots at once; and the XREP, a Taser projectile that’s fired out of a modified 12-gauge shotgun (the modifications ensure that regular cartridges can’t be used instead). Both devices are bright yellow, which representatives told us means they’re easily identified as non-lethal weapons.

You can’t go to your local sporting goods store and buy these Tasers–unlike the smaller, consumer-grade C2 devices, the X3 and XREP lines are only sold to police, military, and sometimes animal-control professionals. Taser International’s vice president of training, Rick Guilbault, told us that a Taser was once used to pry off a rogue python that had wrapped itself around a woman’s arm and wouldn’t let go.

Read moreThe Newest In Taser Technology: Taser X3 – Firing Up The Newest Tasers

Report: China detects deadly Sarin nerve gas at border with North Korea

by

north-korean-soldier
A North Korean soldier points as he is photographed from the Chinese border in May

TOKYO — China has detected deadly nerve gas at its border with North Korea and suspects an accidental release inside the secretive state, a Japanese news report said Friday.

The Chinese military is strengthening its surveillance activities after detecting the highly virulent sarin gas in November last year and in February in Liaoning province, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported, citing anonymous sources from the Chinese military.

Sarin gas, which was developed in Germany before World War I, was used in the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway by a doomsday cult.

Read moreReport: China detects deadly Sarin nerve gas at border with North Korea

Pentagon: US ‘bunker buster’ bomb to be ready soon

by

gps-guided-bunker-buster-bomb
The 30,000-pound MOP is designed to knock out fortified sites buried deep underground

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said a giant “bunker buster” bomb will be ready within months, adding a powerful weapon to the US arsenal amid tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.

The 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrator (MOP) is designed to knock out fortified sites buried deep underground, like those used by Iran and North Korea to protect its nuclear work.

“It is under development right now and should be deployable in the coming months,” press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.

The Defense Department had said in August it wanted to speed up production plans for the super bomb, asking Congress to shift funds to the project.

Congress approved the request and the Pentagon announced Friday it awarded McDonnell Douglas Corporation a 51.9-million-dollar contract to enable B-2 aircraft to carry the enormous MOP.

The bomb, which holds 5,300 pounds of explosives, is designed “to defeat hardened facilities used by hostile states to protect weapons of mass destruction,” Morrell said.

Read morePentagon: US ‘bunker buster’ bomb to be ready soon

Pentagon’s portable ‘thermal laser’ pain weapon may end up in police hands

by

thermal-laser-department-of-defense
The latest version of the Department of Defence’s Thermal Laser System (Image: US Department of Defence)

The Pentagon’s efforts to develop a beam weapon that can deter an adversary by causing a burning sensation on their skin has taken a step forward with the development of a small, potentially hand-held, version. The weapon, which is claimed to cause no permanent harm, could also end up being used by police to control civilians.

riot-police
(Image: Saul Loeb/Getty)

The idea of the weapon is to “create a heating sensation that repels individual adversaries”, according to the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) in Quantico, Virginia, which develops less-lethal weapons for the US military and coastguard.

Tests with a rifle-mounted infrared laser, carried out at a US air force lab near Dayton, Ohio, have determined a combination of laser pulse power and wavelength that causes an alarming, hot sensation on the skin, but which stops short of causing a burn, says JNLWD project engineer Wesley Burgei.

“We have established the minimum irradiance to cause a sensation and have characterised where thermal injury begins,” he says. “But the exact operating irradiance which balances a useful military effect with a conservative margin of safety has not been nailed down yet.”

That’s something that will have to be done before the weapon is deployed, as too powerful a laser beam could permanently blind someone if fired at their eyes. Weapons that do this are banned under the UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons.

Read morePentagon’s portable ‘thermal laser’ pain weapon may end up in police hands

Sonic Weapons Used in Iraq Are Now Positioned at Congressional Townhall Meetings

by

A Joint Investigative Report by East County Magazine and Liberty One Radio

sonic-weapons
(Photo: Mike Russell)

September 11, 2009 (San Diego) – “Long-range acoustic devices [LRADs] for crowd control can be extremely dangerous. These are used in Iraq to control insurgents. They can cause serious and lasting harm to humans…We want to know WHY our Sheriff Dept has this weapon,” Sal Magallanez of San Diego-based Liberty One Radio said in an e-mail sent to East County Magazine, prompting a joint investigation.

The device was stationed by San Diego County Sheriff deputies at a recent town hall forum hosted by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) in Spring Valley and at a subsequent town hall with Congressman Darrell Issa (R-San Diego). The Davis Rally drew an estimated 1,300-1,500 people, including vocal conservative and liberal protest groups. 
A public records search conducted by East County Magazine has confirmed that the device is an LRAD 500-x manufactured by San Diego-based American Technology Corporation (ATC). Capable of use as an effective loudspeaker, the LRAD also has the ability to emit a deafening tone aimed at incapacitating and dispersing a crowd without use of lethal force.

“It’s very concerning,” Kevin Keenan, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said. ” It is fine for the Sheriff’s Department to have new less-than-lethal weapons, but for their interactions with individuals these still-dangerous weapons need to be used only as substitutes for firearms. They can’t be used as just another tool on the tool belt. As we’ve seen with tasers and pepper spray, these types of weapons are being used to subdue people even though they pose the risk of serious physical harm.”

He added, “Even more concerning is having these weapons for public order policing. I can imagine no situation, or am not aware of any situation that’s ever happened in San Diego County or is likely to happen that would justify using these weapons for public order policing to control a crowd. The main effect of having those weapons at public events is to chill people and chill free speech and free association.”

LRADs were developed by ATC at the request of the U.S. Navy after the attack on the U.S.S. Cole as a means of dissuading hostile invaders. ATC founder Elwood “Woody” Norris is a pioneer in sound technology who has also been instrumental in development of ultra-sound and ground penetrating radar.

Read moreSonic Weapons Used in Iraq Are Now Positioned at Congressional Townhall Meetings

U.S. responsible for 68.4 % of all global arms sales

by

WASHINGTON — Despite a recession that knocked down global arms sales last year, the United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new Congressional study.

The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before.

Italy was a distant second, with $3.7 billion in worldwide weapons sales in 2008, while Russia was third with $3.5 billion in arms sales last year — down considerably from the $10.8 billion in weapons deals signed by Moscow in 2007.

The growth in weapons sales by the United States last year was particularly noticeable against worldwide trends. The value of global arms sales in 2008 was $55.2 billion, a drop of 7.6 percent from 2007 and the lowest total for international weapons agreements since 2005.

Read moreU.S. responsible for 68.4 % of all global arms sales

Long-range Taser found to be a health risk on ‘the receiving end’

by

Related articles:
– Wireless Tasers extend the long arm of the law
– Sold as non-lethal, Tasers killed 400 in US, Canada since 2001
– Cops raise Taser safety claims; Metro officers hurt during training sue company(!)

Taser applications:
– Police State: Cops pepperspray, taser mentally challenged, deaf man, while using the toilet
– Police State: Cops Taser Child 19 Times Leaving Him in a Coma
– Police State: Cop Tasers Mom In Front of Her Children
– Unedited Dash Cam Footage of Grandmother Being Tased
– Taser use to obtain DNA not unconstitutional: NIAGARA COURTS RULING
– Prison officer zaps children with 50,000-volt stun gun ‘to show them what a day at work is like’
– Top cop fired for allegedly using Taser on wife
– Ex-NFL Player Tasered For Pointing At Cop

taser-shotgun

THE manufacturer of the Taser stun gun is sparking new controversy with the commercial launch of a long-range version that can be fired from a 12-bore shotgun.

Government-funded tests on initial versions of the new Extended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP) have revealed possible health risks to people on the receiving end, New Scientist has learned. The manufacturer, Taser International of Scottsdale, Arizona, says the issue has been addressed in redesigned devices, but these have yet to be independently tested.

Unlike the current Taser X26, which fires darts attached to short wires, the XREP is wire-free. Its projectile, the size of a shotgun cartridge, is designed to pierce the target’s skin and contains battery-powered circuits that deliver a debilitating shock. It has a range of 20 metres or more, compared with 5 metres for previous Tasers.

A team led by Cynthia Bir, a trauma injury specialist at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, found that some of the 275 XREP cartridges that Taser supplied for testing last year were capable of delivering an electric shock for more than 5 minutes, rather than the 20 seconds of shocking current they are supposed to generate. Previous Taser stun guns shock for only 5 seconds per discharge, though that can be repeated.

Read moreLong-range Taser found to be a health risk on ‘the receiving end’

Pentagon microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky

by

microwave-weapon

THE Pentagon’s enthusiasm for non-lethal crowd-control weapons appears to have stepped up a gear with its decision to develop a microwave pain-infliction system that can be fired from an aircraft.

The device is an extension of its controversial Active Denial System, which uses microwaves to heat the surface of the skin, creating a painful sensation without burning that strongly motivates the target to flee. The ADS was unveiled in 2001, but it has not been deployed owing to legal issues and safety fears.

Nevertheless, the Pentagon’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) in Quantico, Virginia, has now called for it to be upgraded. The US air force, whose radar technology the ADS is based on, is increasing its annual funding of the system from $2 million to $10 million.

The transmitting antenna on the current system is 2 metres across, produces a single beam of similar width and is steered mechanically, making it cumbersome. At the heart of the new weapon will be a compact airborne antenna, which will be steered electronically and be capable of generating multiple beams, each of which can be aimed while on the move.

The new antenna will be steered electronically and is capable of generating multiple heat beams.

The ADS has been dogged by controversy. Jürgen Altmann, a physicist at Dortmund University in Germany, showed that the microwave beams can cause serious burns at levels not far above those required to repel people. This was verified when a US airman was hospitalised with second-degree burns during testing in April 2007.

Read morePentagon microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky

Air France crash killed two of the world’s “most prominent” illegal arms trade and international drug trafficking foes

by
pablo_dreyfus
Pablo Dreyfus

The puzzling crash of Air France’s Flight 447 killed two of the world’s “most prominent” illegal arms trade and international drug trafficking foes, according to a little-noticed report.

In a revelation sure to fuel conspiracy theories over the plane’s demise, the report reveals that two key figures in the neverending internecine battle against global arms and drug trafficking perished when the plane abruptly fell out of the sky. Both were particularly active in efforts to stem illegal arms trading in Latin America.

A 39-year Argentinian man, Pablo Dreyfus, was said to be a major player in an effort by Brazilian authorities to stop flow of arms to drug gangs in Rio. He was a consultant for Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based thinktank.

Another consultant for Small Arms Survey also died in the crash, “Ronald Dreyer, a Swiss diplomat and co-ordinator of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence who had worked with UN missions in El Salvador, Mozambique, Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Angola,” according to Scotland’s Sunday Herald.

“Both men were consultants at the Small Arms Survey, an independent think tank based at Geneva’s Graduate Institute of International Studies,” the Herald reported. “The Survey said on its website that Dryer had helped mobilise the support of more than 100 countries to the cause of disarmament and development.”

Dreyfus and Dreyer were reportedly traveling to Switzerland to “present the latest edition of the Small Arms Survey handbook, of which Dreyfus was a joint editor.”

Dreyfus advocated for “stringent labeling” of ammunition produced by weapons companies, the paper said. He averred that such labeling would greatly aid the tracking of arms acquired by criminals.

Read moreAir France crash killed two of the world’s “most prominent” illegal arms trade and international drug trafficking foes

US is a weapons supermarket for terrorists, inquiry finds

by

Undercover inspectors manage to buy high-grade gear including nuclear triggers and evade export bans

The US is a virtual supermarket for terrorists and foreign governments seeking high-end military technology, including components that can be used to build nuclear weapons and equip militants fighting US and British troops, the American government has found.

Over the past year, government investigators posing as private buyers purchased military-grade body armour, technology to stabilise and steer guided missiles, a device that can be used to detonate nuclear weapons, and other munitions through legal means in the US. They evaded export controls and posted dummy versions of the gear to countries known as trans-shipment points for terrorist groups and foreign governments seeking arms and weapons components.

The investigation shows lax sales restrictions and export controls could allow terrorists and hostile foreign governments to buy equipment to use against US and British troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries, US officials say. Foreign governments and terrorist groups have sought to purchase military technology from the US, according to officials, and in 2008 more than 145 people were charged with violating export control laws, with 43% of those attempting illegally to ship gear to Iran and China.

The private US companies that provided the equipment – in some cases from government surplus – said they were not required to check buyers’ backgrounds or obtain government licences for the sales. The US commerce department found that the companies selling the equipment had not violated any laws or regulations. The problem, investigators said, was that sensitive military equipment barred from export was often legal to sell within the US, with little restriction, and buyers need only establish a plausible front company.

Read moreUS is a weapons supermarket for terrorists, inquiry finds