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Title: Revealed: police's new supergun will blast rioters off their feet
Source:
The Independent UK
URL Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article318241.ece
Published: Oct 9, 2005
Author: Severin Carrell
Post Date: 2005-10-10 16:28:06 by Zipporah
Keywords: Revealed:, polices, supergun
Views: 212
Comments: 19
New generation of microwave and laser weapons set to transform crowd control techniques British defence scientists are working on a new generation of weapons which includes microwaves, lasers and chemical guns that could be used to quell riots, The Independent on Sunday has found. One highly classified project is to develop a "vortex gun", for use in riots, which fires a powerful, doughnut-shaped pulse of air at supersonic speed. Experts say the weapon could fire riot-control gas or other chemicals to disperse mobs or disable enemy troops. Scientific Applications & Research Associates, a US firm that has made such a gun, said it could fire shock waves that hit people "with enough force to knock them off balance. [It] feels like having a bucket of cold water thrown on to your chest". The research involves putting high-powered lasers and micro- wave weapons on cruise missiles and planes to "kill" an enemy's own weapons, although these new arms could be banned under international treaties. A major British defence firm, Qinetiq, formed when the Government privatised its military testing agency, is understood to be investigating weapons that use lasers to "dazzle" the enemy, a technique the US military is now said to be using in Iraq. British defence laboratories are also understood to have tested crowd-control foams including a much thicker version of the foam used to fight aircraft fires and another "sticky" foam that immobilises people caught in it. These weapons are part of a taxpayer-funded, fast-expanding, secret programme of research by military laboratories and private defence firms into so-called non-lethal weapons. The drive to find such weaponry sprang from attempts to replace the baton rounds, known as plastic bullets, which were heavily criticised in Chris Patten's report into policing in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s. Police now have a far wider range of "non-lethal weapons", including safer baton rounds, CS gas, Taser stun guns, pepper spray and, in Northern Ireland, water cannon. Modern technologies have also made it much easier to create new arms, and Britain has a joint programme to develop military non-lethal weapons with the US, which is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into research. The high-powered microwave weapon is part of a British programme code-named Virus, run by a little-known department of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) called the Deep Target Attack directorate. The weapon fires a powerful pulse of microwaves to completely or temporarily knock out equipment such as computers, radar or guidance systems. The lasers, which could be fitted on aircraft or unmanned aircraft called drones, would be aimed at an enemy's electronic sensors and disable radar-guided anti-aircraft batteries. A report by Canada's defence research agency, released by the Sunshine Project, a US-based group that investigates military research, says the UK is "one of the main players" in the world in investigating weapons using high-powered micro-waves, along with the US, France and Russia. This revelation surprised Neil Davison, head of a research programme into non-lethal weapons at Bradford University. He said the MoD had a track record of secrecy over its research programme. "We know the British armed forces have an active programme to find new non-lethal weapons and the UK is working closely with the United States, but the details of that collaborative arrangement are not openly available," he said. Many of these techniques could be highly controversial, particularly the use of lasers to temporarily blind an opponent. Britain was forced to abandon high-powered lasers to dazzle jet pilots, a technique allegedly used during the Falklands War, because it contravened new global rules outlawing devices designed to permanently disable combatants or cause someone to crash a plane. Mark Fulop, head of the bio-medical sciences department at the MoD's main defence research agency, confirmed that there is an extensive programme to find new non-lethal weapons. That included the vortex gun, which tests showed could be effective fired up to 48m from a target. "But it is a long way from being practical," he said. "We're watching to see what others are doing." British defence scientists are working on a new generation of weapons which includes microwaves, lasers and chemical guns that could be used to quell riots, The Independent on Sunday has found. One highly classified project is to develop a "vortex gun", for use in riots, which fires a powerful, doughnut-shaped pulse of air at supersonic speed. Experts say the weapon could fire riot-control gas or other chemicals to disperse mobs or disable enemy troops. Scientific Applications & Research Associates, a US firm that has made such a gun, said it could fire shock waves that hit people "with enough force to knock them off balance. [It] feels like having a bucket of cold water thrown on to your chest". The research involves putting high-powered lasers and micro- wave weapons on cruise missiles and planes to "kill" an enemy's own weapons, although these new arms could be banned under international treaties. A major British defence firm, Qinetiq, formed when the Government privatised its military testing agency, is understood to be investigating weapons that use lasers to "dazzle" the enemy, a technique the US military is now said to be using in Iraq. British defence laboratories are also understood to have tested crowd-control foams including a much thicker version of the foam used to fight aircraft fires and another "sticky" foam that immobilises people caught in it. These weapons are part of a taxpayer-funded, fast-expanding, secret programme of research by military laboratories and private defence firms into so-called non-lethal weapons. The drive to find such weaponry sprang from attempts to replace the baton rounds, known as plastic bullets, which were heavily criticised in Chris Patten's report into policing in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s. Police now have a far wider range of "non-lethal weapons", including safer baton rounds, CS gas, Taser stun guns, pepper spray and, in Northern Ireland, water cannon. Modern technologies have also made it much easier to create new arms, and Britain has a joint programme to develop military non-lethal weapons with the US, which is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into research. The high-powered microwave weapon is part of a British programme code-named Virus, run by a little-known department of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) called the Deep Target Attack directorate. The weapon fires a powerful pulse of microwaves to completely or temporarily knock out equipment such as computers, radar or guidance systems. The lasers, which could be fitted on aircraft or unmanned aircraft called drones, would be aimed at an enemy's electronic sensors and disable radar-guided anti-aircraft batteries. A report by Canada's defence research agency, released by the Sunshine Project, a US-based group that investigates military research, says the UK is "one of the main players" in the world in investigating weapons using high-powered micro-waves, along with the US, France and Russia. This revelation surprised Neil Davison, head of a research programme into non-lethal weapons at Bradford University. He said the MoD had a track record of secrecy over its research programme. "We know the British armed forces have an active programme to find new non-lethal weapons and the UK is working closely with the United States, but the details of that collaborative arrangement are not openly available," he said. Many of these techniques could be highly controversial, particularly the use of lasers to temporarily blind an opponent. Britain was forced to abandon high-powered lasers to dazzle jet pilots, a technique allegedly used during the Falklands War, because it contravened new global rules outlawing devices designed to permanently disable combatants or cause someone to crash a plane. Mark Fulop, head of the bio-medical sciences department at the MoD's main defence research agency, confirmed that there is an extensive programme to find new non-lethal weapons. That included the vortex gun, which tests showed could be effective fired up to 48m from a target. "But it is a long way from being practical," he said. "We're watching to see what others are doing."
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#1. To: Zipporah (#0)
Now they'll have to come up with new, improved ways of starting riots. The Agents Provocatuers ala Seattle WTO riots just aren't gonna cut it.
"A functioning police state needs no police." - William S. Burroughs
A citizen would be justified to use deadly force against anyone that deploys this against them.
Citizen? Where do you think you are, Switzerland?
"A functioning police state needs no police." - William S. Burroughs
Isnt that the truth? If you saw the film Miami Model re the FTAA those people weren't rioting they were protesting in a very peaceful manner and the police were treating them as if they were rioters.. it was disgusting. They used tear gas and rubber bullets on them.. God only knows what they'll now to anyone protesting.. immediately they'll be depicted as 'rioters'..
Well.. give it your best shot and write me from your cellblock .. :P
It must cause a few migraines too. And, which is it anyway, "to disperse mobs or disable enemy troops"? Notice how political protestors have been reduced to "mobs" and equated with "enemy troops"?
Yeah...did you see the old man they beat up and hog tied because he was waiting for his bus? Then there was the camera man they almost killed when they shot him in the temple with a bean bag.
I dont know if you're aware of Thomas Friedman.. a NY Times reporter... seems he is of that mind.. : From John Pilger on Friedman: "Friedman's latest bark is about free speech, which his country's constitution is said to safeguard. He wants the State Department to draw up a blacklist of those who make "wrong" political statements. He is referring not only to those who advocate violence, but those who believe American actions are the root cause of the current terrorism. The latter group, which he describes as "just one notch less despicable than the terrorists", includes most Americans and Britons, according to the latest polls. Friedman wants a "War of Ideas report" that names those who try to understand and explain, for example, why London was bombed. These are "excuse makers" who "deserve to be exposed". He borrows the term "excuse makers" from James Rubin, who was Madeleine Albright's chief apologist at the State Department. Albright, who rose to secretary of state under President Clinton, said that the death of half a million Iraqi infants as a result of an American-driven blockade was a "price" that was "worth it". Of all the interviews I have filmed in official Washington, Rubin's defence of this mass killing is unforgettable." Friedman has been among the most outspoken critics of the new social movements which have arisen to challenge neoliberal globalization, and which had their coming out party in Seattle in November-December, 1999. In a column entitled Senseless in Seattle (NYT 12/1/1999), Friedman called the protesters "ridiculous," "crazy," "a Noah's ark of flat-earth advocates, protectionist trade unions and yuppies looking for their 1960's fix", who if they only "stopped yapping" long enough to think "would realize that they have been duped by knaves like Pat Buchanan". Friedman who is touted as an authority on globalizaton is a neocon wolf in academic clothing...
Thanks for the background.
Then there was the camera man they almost killed when they shot him in the temple with a bean bag. yes, it was totally unreal.. they tried to depict the protestors as leftist whackos but many were just average citizens such as the businesswoman who was looked as if she was in 40s dressed in a business attire and as the police hid behind shields and shot her with rubber bullets blooding her .. I thought what losers the woman was alone and not at all threatening.. the mindset of the cops revealed that they saw the all protestors as a threat and potential rioters.
Fuck you Mr. Friedman!...Make that a double...Fascist bastard.
There was a special on the MSM about it,believe it or not. I think it was Moyer's show on PBS. The Police Chief sat there and justified all of it even when presented with the taped evidence.
OH it gets worse re Friedman!! "The hidden hand of the market will never work without the hidden fist ... And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies to flourish is called the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps." "this anti-globalization movement is largely the well intentioned but ill informed being led around by the ill intentioned and well informed (protectionist unions and anarchists)" (NYT, 4/24/2001) "The economic quacks peddling conspiracy theories about globalization; the anti-free-trade extremists, such as Ralph Nader's group, Public Citizen; the protectionist trade unions; and the anarchists. These groups deserve to be called by their real name: 'The Coalition to Keep the World's Poor People Poor.' " (NYT, 4/14/2000). "they offer the third world no coherent plan for how to develop and preserve the environment. Their only plan is that developing countries stop developing." (NYT 4/14/2000)
The Police Chief sat there and justified all of it even when presented with the taped evidence. That is surprising the only one on MSM that has dared to address any of this is Lou Dobbs..
And we can call Freidman's pals "The Coalition to Destroy America's Middle Class." Those dumb bastards are basing all the trade deals on 19th century economic condtions. They want us to go backwards to mercantilism.
Thanks for the link, this tells the story as to the 'why': orporate America backs it, too. Among private donors helping pay for the Miami conference were Fortune 500 companies including General Motors, PepsiCo, AOL-Time Warner, and Federal Express. With all that power behind the agreement, why were the police out in such force? In part because of what has happened at previous world trade meetings. In the weeks before the FTAA events, Miami newscasters, using footage from protests in other cities, were hyping the potential for chaos.
Didn't say I would do it. Just said you would be justified. You know morally.
They'll love this in New Orleans. Just in time for Mardi Gras.
#2. To: Zipporah (#0)
#3. To: A K A Stone (#2)
#4. To: Dakmar (#1)
Now they'll have to come up with new, improved ways of starting riots. The Agents Provocatuers ala Seattle WTO riots just aren't gonna cut it.
#5. To: A K A Stone (#2)
A citizen would be justified to use deadly force against anyone that deploys this against them.
#6. To: Zipporah (#0)
One highly classified project is to develop a "vortex gun", for use in riots, which fires a powerful, doughnut-shaped pulse of air at supersonic speed. Experts say the weapon could fire riot-control gas or other chemicals to disperse mobs or disable enemy troops.
One if by land, two if by sea...how many if they are already here?
#7. To: Zipporah (#4)
film Miami Model re the FTAA those people weren't rioting they were protesting in a very peaceful manner and the police were treating them as if they were rioters.. it was disgusting.
#8. To: robin (#6)
#9. To: Zipporah (#8)
One if by land, two if by sea...how many if they are already here?
#10. To: Grumble Jones (#7)
Yeah...did you see the old man they beat up and hog tied because he was waiting for his bus?
#11. To: All (#10)
#12. To: Zipporah (#10)
yes, it was totally unreal..
#13. To: Grumble Jones (#11)
Fuck you Mr. Friedman!...Make that a double...Fascist bastard.
#14. To: Grumble Jones (#12)
There was a special on the MSM about it,believe it or not. I think it was Moyer's show on PBS.
#15. To: Zipporah (#14)
#16. To: Zipporah (#13)
#17. To: Grumble Jones (#16)
#18. To: Zipporah (#5)
Well.. give it your best shot and write me from your cellblock .. :P
#19. To: Zipporah (#0)
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