MCP wrote:

> http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7077
>
> 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 of expanding plasma when it hits something
> solid, like a person (New Scientist print edition, 12 October 2002). The
> weapon, destined for use in 2007, could literally knock rioters off their
> feet.

What if they happen to be *looking* in the
direction of the weapon being fired at the time
it is fired?

Will it still be harmless.

When that other crazy gadget: the tazar, first
came out I said: what if the target person has a
weak heart? Numerous people have now died as a
result of the twisted shite in blue using this
weapon of torture and terror.

D.

> Pain trigger
> According to a 2003 review of non-lethal weapons by the US Naval Studies
> Board, which advises the navy and marine corps, PEPs produced "pain and
> temporary paralysis" in tests on animals. This appears to be the result of
> an electromagnetic pulse produced by the expanding plasma which triggers
> impulses in nerve cells.
>
> The new study, which runs until July and will be carried out with
> researchers at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, aims to
> optimise this effect. The idea is to work out how to generate a pulse which
> triggers pain neurons without damaging tissue.
>
> The contract, heavily censored before release, asks researchers to look for
> "optimal pulse parameters to evoke peak nociceptor
activation" - in other
> words, cause the maximum pain possible. Studies on cells grown in the lab
> will identify how much pain can be inflicted on someone before causing
> injury or death.

They did similar reseqarch at Oak Ridge in
relation to human resistance to radiation.
People died.

D.

> Long-term risk
> New Scientist contacted two researchers working on the project. Martin
> Richardson, a laser expert at the University of Central Florida, US, refused
> to comment. Brian Cooper, an expert in dental pain at the University of
> Florida, distanced himself from the work, saying "I don't have anything
> interesting to convey. I was just providing some background for the group."
> His name appears on a public list of the university's research projects next
> to the $500,000-plus grant.
>
> John Wood of University College London, UK, an expert in how the brain
> perceives pain, says the researchers involved in the project should face
> censure. "It could be used for torture," he says, "the
[researchers] must be
> aware of this."

It WILL be used for torture. You can't uninvent
the bomb you can't uninvent this. If it can be
done it will be done - somewhere.

D.


> Amanda Williams, a clinical psychologist at University College London, fears
> that victims risk long-term harm. "Persistent pain can result from a range
> of supposedly non-destructive stimuli which nevertheless change the
> functioning of the nervous system," she says. She is concerned that studies
> of cultured cells will fall short of demonstrating a safe level for a plasma
> burst. "They cannot tell us about the pain and psychological
consequences of
> such a painful experience."
>
>


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