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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (8347)	12/7/2001 5:21:45 PM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

Essentially, crowd control devices: rubber bullets, tear gas grenades, stun guns, police batons, along those lines..... Thanks. Just found this link that expanded on a "future" of non-lethal. That's what's so great about this world. Find a subject that you haven't followed and there's interesting stuff going on... cryptome.org The National Institute of Justice in the US is now actively soliciting new ideas for such [non-lethal] weapons from corporate bodies, and corporate US has responded with bodies like SPIE (The International Society For Optical Engineering), which have enthusiastically responded with a special conference on 'Enabling Technologies for Law Enforcement and Security' at the Hynes Convention centre in Boston, Nov 19-21, 1996. The panel on less than lethal technologies has experts talking on subjects such as: The non-lethal laser baton; design of a variable velocity gun system for law enforcement applications; sticky shocker; definition of lethality thresholds for KE less-lethal projectiles; violence reduction and assailant control with laser sighted police pistols; directed energy technologies: weaponisation and barrier applications; pepper spray projectile for countering hostage and barricade situations; aqueous foam as a less than lethal technology for prison applications etc. A formal Pentagon policy on the use of non-lethal weapons was prepared last year in response to Congressional instructions to initiate a joint acquisitions programme. Whilst there are practical problems regarding whether it is preferable to leave an enemy or a citizen dead rather than permanently maimed, and whether or not hallucinogenic or other psychotropic 'calmative' agents fall foul of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the spending call was for $15 million annually over the next three years, to fund new and existing projects. Critics of such projects suggest that non-lethal war is a contradiction in terms. Many of the so called non-lethal weapons are in reality are far from non-lethal. They can and have killed, maimed, blinded and scalped innocent bystanders. There is a real danger that they will make conflicts more lethal by enraging crowds and by paralysing people making them more vulnerable to other operations by the military and security forces. In that sense these weapons could be considered pre-lethal and actually lead to higher casualty rates. (See above) In fact the US proponents of these weapons are under no illusions. Their focus is 'not to replace lethal munitions but to augment existing and future capabilities which will provide a spectrum of force response options. The area most commentators have not addressed is the extent that such weapons will help the military create new roles for themselves as part of internal policing operations. jttmab