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Riot Control Ray-Gun for Use in Iraq
team99parody writes "An 'Active Denial System' weapon that 'fires a 95GHz microwave beam at rioters to cause heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds'
is scheduled for service in Iraq in 2006
according to CNET and the print version of New Scientist. It was recently tested on people playing the part of rioters at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico where they asked the subjects to remove glass and contact lenses to protect their eyes. Hopefully real rioters will get the same courtesy. Police and the Marines are working on portable versions. Sandia Labs also has a nice writeup on this system with pictures of smaller versions of the weapon."
do they run Linux??? Or is something like this only ran by a M$ OS??
Obviously. However, they were trying to avoid making the experience worse for the subjects than it needed to be. I'd suggest that you take a moment to think things through before posting, but of course, this is Slashdot.
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that is "Not in My Country", this will CERTAINLY be put to use here in the US. I was in NYC for the RNC '04 - while the local police were mostly sympathetic, the Government At Large is becoming increasingly concerned with controlling an increasingly concerned populace, and it showed.
To those who say that "rioters" deserve to be "put down", I thought we chased your type out back in 1776. I see you've crept back in.
There are 11 types of people in the world: those who understand unary, and those who don't.
Good point. These weapons are designed to have a negative impact on their target(s) that will also present a fairly high chance of survivability. But they are still weapons. And they still present a danger. It is disingenuous to present these weapons to the public in a manner that hides this danger. And it is outright dangerous to arm people with these weapons who don't have the appropriate training and respect for the danger these weapons present.
Incidently, you might have missed that the Pentagon apparently classifies these as "less lethal", not "nonlethal".
Queue the politics.
Who the hell said anything about terrorists? I didn't see the word even used in the entire article - I even did a text search.
No - the use for this is to "manage" crowds. Specifically, rioters. You might be interested to note that riots happen in other locations around the world other than the US. And it might also interest you to note that it doesn't take a major US sporting event to bring one about.
The real issue here is whether agencies like the US Department of Defense who choose to deploy this (and simular) technology properly understand the capabilities and dangers of the weapons they use. And, more importantly, whether they choose to use them in appropriate situations.
Only cowards hold a distinction between a riot and a protest. If you're not physically asserting yourself, you're not doing anything significant - there's no point in your physical presence. Do you actually think holding a sign is going to change things?
Ok children, let's see you put your hands up if you know what the depleted in depleted uranium means? Depleted uranium is unhealthy, in the same way lead is (don't eat the shit) but don't pretend you're going to get keel over handling it or being around it.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Thank god for santity! What the fuck is wrong with you Americans? Do you actually believe that anything you have done in Iraq has made the USA (or the world) safer? Do you think experimenting with NEW forms of weapons is going to win you any favour? Are their not enough Gulf victims/veterans with cancer thanks to prior tests already?
Use ANYTHING like this on me or my family, I'll fly the plane into the tower myself.
The USA does not give a fuck about the war on terror. The terror is entirely of their own making. Back when the USSR was still around, Rumsfeld did the EXACT same thing; created an enemy that was fabricated. We could have had ended the cold war in the 70/80's if it wasn't for that prick telling Regan etc that the USSR claims on their WMD are lies, and that they were ignoring the treaties and had the intention of attacking. So, he's been ENTRIELY wrong on WMD TWICE. When the USSR fell appart, they then switched to the Middle East as their bogeyman. And now they are working on crowd-control systems. Are you going to sleep through this one as well? At the very least, install a dynamo to generate power from all the spinning that the founding fathers are doing.
While this little microwave ray gun is a neat trick, here's my take on the whole Iraq problem: nuke them. I say we put out an announcement that from here on out, every suicide bomber will result in the complete vaporization of an Iraqi village. Even better if we could determine where the bomber's family lives.
Fucking animals, all they understand is violence. Let's give them a dose of violence they won't believe, instead of constantly worrying about hurting somebody's feelings. All of you whining liberal hippies can suck my balls.
"And now, Frank N. Furter, your time has come. Say 'goodbye' to all of this, and 'hello'... to oblivion!"
After 500 years of European Imperialism screwing up the world (read the history of the Balkans, Iraq/Iran, Southeast Asia or anywhere else the US has had to mop up after the Europeans), the US suddenly found itself center stage after WWII with the USSR.
Anyway, self-centered and uncaring, the Europeans had left the world a real mess and the USSR was a new and real enemy of the time. As a result, the US had many difficult decisions to make and had to take a long term and pragmatic view of things. Sometimes it was strategically better to tolerate a totalitarian dictator if that meant the greater struggle with the USSR could be won.
As it turns out, the decisions the US made were correct, the USSR collapsed, and the world was spared a global Stalinist state.
However, rather than being grateful for the US having made the hard decisions and putting its money where its mouth was, the Europeans continue their self-centered and uncaring approach to life (which caused the problems to begin with) and are now in the process of tearing down the US one tiny cut at a time so one or more European powers can resume European Imperialism.
Why do the non-European portions of the world follow the European line? They are still used to taking orders from their former masters and haven't yet learned to be intellectually independent. It's a form of Stockholm Syndrome.
Today the US is at the forefront of resolving yet another European problem for them: the Ottoman Empire II. However, again, rather than being thankful for the help, the Europeans have nothing much to contribute except to whine. If it weren't contrary to the strategic long-term objective of protecting freedom in the world I would say the US should stay out of the whole mess.
The police already have numerous, non-lethal ways of dispersing crowds, why would this one suddenly turn us into a fascist state?
Second, the Democrats have had their fair share of rioting at conventions, so why single out Republicans?
Third, our right to peaceable assembly is not being eviscerated. There was plenty of protesting going on outside both party conventions last year.
Fuck me, what does it take to penetrate with you peaceniks? Its a fucking LESS THAN LETHAL WEAPON. Anything used on a crowd for any reason which is less than lethal is a GOOD thing.
Because in Iraq at the moment there's lots of dedicated Islamonazis running around blowing up innocent men, women, children and little babies. They are too cowardly to take on the US Army or the British Army, but they are quite happy to blow up their fellow Iraqi Muslims.
The crowd control problem comes in when the slightly less dedicated assholes who support the bombers decide to rush a road block, embassy, guard post or what have you. Some of them inevitably use the crowd as cover to fire on US troops, Brit troops, even the new Iraqi Army troops.
So now you've got a bunch of American teenagers in a Bradley or a Humvee, under fire from ten assholes in a crowd of two hundred. You want them to use the fancy ray-gun to flatten the crowd and pick up the ten armed assholes, or would you prefer that they just open fire on the crowd?
Because no matter how much YOU might prefer that the American teenagers take a bullet from the noble freedom fighters, they are not going to do it. Humans are funny that way.
So, superficial burn or bullet to the head? Those are your two choices. Pick one. Idiot.
Go read the history of Egypt you delusional twat. This problem is ENTIRELY of the USA's making. If you hadn't tried to conqueor their culture with your own (which they believe is as reprehensible as to how you view kiddie porn), they would not be hating you right now. This was entirely backed by the CIA and western bankers. ALL of the roots of the current terrorism come from there. It PREDATES Iran becoming a fundamentalist state, which could be argued that Egypt was a catylist as they saw the corruption (fiscal, not moral) and wanted NO part of it.
You fucked their country 30/40 years ago. Then you moved onto the others. They ain't going to forget! Have you never wondered why they hate the USA and not "the west" in general?
Have you noticed that this brand of genocidal dictatorship has spread across southeast asia through the same approach?
He he, I love how the US types like to view ALL enemies as being one global, co-ordinated anti-USA front. You guys are unreal!! NOTHING in South-East Asia has ANYTHING to do with the Middle East. The only connection is that your leaders mislead you into thinking there is, causing you to unite as a country against a common enemy. Keeps the public busy and well-behaved.
Of course, it's easier to bury your head in the sand then realize what's happening in western Europe. You're doomed.
We are doomed only because we joined your cultural war.
1. Enact provocative policy designed to inflame certain groups.
2. Wait for protest.
3. Infiltrate protest group with operatives who toss a brick through a window, or incite a group to overturn a car.
4. Send in the riot cops armed with whatever makes their corporate masters happy.
5. Profit!!!
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.