Rumsfeld's Ray Gun, bound for Iraq

[G_j]

RUMSFELD'S RAY GUN

Kelly Hearn, AlterNet

A non-lethal -- but potentially harmful -- crowd control
weapon that heats human skin is bound for Iraq, and
possibly to a police department near you.

~~
http://www.alternet.org/story/24044/

A tough-talking Texan named Edward Hammond has to be a key element of any accurate study of the spooky history of what the military calls the "Active Denial System."

The head of The Sunshine Project, a Texas-based group opposing biological weapons, Hammond shows his disdain for military excesses through swear words and federal disclosure suits that seek to lift a window on military science projects. Two times now, he says, Marine Corp staff handling his Freedom of Information Act claims have mailed him the wrong envelope, mistakenly sending him materials meant for another military office, envelopes that contained classified information.

One of those times, he says, was in May when he received 112 pages of files on the Active Denial System, or ADS, a crowd control weapon built by Raytheon Corporation and slated for military deployment in Iraq in 2006. The documents included descriptions of tests conducted on volunteer subjects at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Hammond, who had requested the documents, noticed something odd. "I saw some of the documents that were marked classified should have been redacted," he said in a telephone interview.

The Secrets of 'Active Denial'

The Active Denial System is a Pentagon-funded, $51 million crowd control device that rides atop a Humvee, looks like a TV dish, and shoots energy waves 1/64 of an inch deep into human skin. It dispenses brief but intolerable bursts of pain, sending bad guys fleeing but supposedly leaving no lasting damage. (During a Pentagon press briefing in 2001, this reporter felt a zap from an ADS prototype on his fingertip and can attest to the brief but fleeting sensation that a hot light bulb was pressing against the skin). ADS works outside the range of small arms fire.

..more..

[G_j]

1. if the pic below is an ADS weapon

it has already been deployed 'at home'.

the experimental version is square

but the description in the article, "rides atop a Humvee, looks like a TV dish" sort of looks like this picture from the Anti-FTAA protests in Miami:

[wli]

3. it's strange to see this

Why do "cops" at anti-FTAA/WTO demonstrations have better gear than the "real military" in Iraq? It's not as if peaceful demonstrators are carrying weapons at all.

In any event, Bushler's priorities are clear.

[leftchick]

2. "sending the bad guys fleeing"

so it only hits bad guys? :eyes:

[wli]

4. their definition of "bad guys" = Democrats n/t

[leftchick]

5. and brown people with oil

:(

[donkeyotay]

6. Another smart weapon

It will only hurt "insurgents," while leaving unharmed Iraqi citizens exercising their democratic rights to protest an occupation.

This weapon is so smart that recipients of this burning sensation will not panic, but know exactly where to run.

Edited to add that this ought to come in handy in that large and growing prison (concentration camp?) that we're helping run.

[G_j]

8. just heard they are building another

ran out of space... :shrug:

[leftchick]

7. kick

.

[Massacure]

9. Lasers can be reflected...