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liberal N proud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:17 AM
Original message
The police state has arrived...
Air Force chief: Test weapons on testy U.S. mobs
POSTED: 7:56 p.m. EDT, September 12, 2006


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.

The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."

The Air Force has paid for research into nonlethal weapons, but he said the service is unlikely to spend more money on development until injury problems are reviewed by medical experts and resolved.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/12/usaf.weapons.ap/index.html

Just what any police state needs, a means to control its people from protests.


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Cobalt Violet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:21 AM
Response to Original message
1. So we won't step out side of the free speech zones....
At the republican conventions.
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sam sarrha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:34 AM
Response to Reply #1
5. Free speech containment zones.. they just see it coming.. public outrage.
at the insanity of this government.. and the vote stealing.. people could end up in the streets
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bdamomma Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 09:23 AM
Response to Reply #5
24. oh they definitely see it coming, they already know
they have pushed our buttons a little too much now. I would love to use their own inventions on them.
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tuvor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:22 AM
Response to Original message
2. So, by that logic...
If he's not willing to use it against himself, then he should not be willing to use it on his fellow citizens.
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meegbear Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:49 AM
Response to Reply #2
11. DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!
My feelings exactly. When police get trained on those weapons, be it pepper spray, those bean bag guns, or whatever, it should be used on them so they know what it can do.
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Boomer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:25 AM
Response to Original message
3. Protests today, riots tomorrow
Pure speculation on my part, but I've long thought that these measures to rob us of civil liberties and to increase crowd control measures are a pre-emptive buildup to contain civil disorder when people begin the Resource Riots.

The average American may not believe in global climate change or be alarmed at the consequences, but the government and military know that we're heading for very hard times. Not enough potable water to sustain high populations in the west and southwest, resulting in climate refugees from area. Increased hurricane activity which will send another flood of refugees from the southeast. Falling crop yields that will eventully lead to food shortages. Rising gas prices that will collapse the economy. And endless wars to scrabble to secure the Middle East.

The perfect storm is coming, and our government is prepared to keep the rabble from protesting their spiral into destitution.
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Kolesar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:29 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. The US military is building alternative energy generation for their bases
...so that a cut off of fuel or electricity does not leave them in the dark.
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midnight Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:42 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. There is a bit of a conflict for me.
All these ribbons to support the troops, and now the troops will be using weapons on us. Very hard to support the troops when this is going on.
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brokensymmetry Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 07:19 AM
Response to Reply #3
13. I agree with your scenario.
I don't know when, but I think we'll see it soon.

Katrina may have been a bigger warning than we
yet realize. Crank a little famine and panic into
the equation, and the mobs might well take to
the streets.

The future won't be pretty, I think.
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Kolesar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 08:10 AM
Response to Reply #13
17. Riots in Cincinnati, riots in Toledo in the last few years...eom
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jedr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:41 AM
Response to Original message
6. I felt the same way about napalm during Vietnam!.....n/t
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Jcrowley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:42 AM
Response to Original message
8. Do Microwave Weapons Kill?
Do Microwave Weapons Kill?

Although high-powered microwave weapons are designed to destroy the electronic equipment used by enemy command centers, their effect on humans in the vicinity is less clear. The U.S. military says HPM weapons are non-lethal, but that doesn't mean free from harm. The U.S Marines Corp. is currently developing a microwave-based weapon that inflicts a brief, intense burning sensation on the target's skin similar to touching a hot light bulb. Mounted on Humvee, the weapon is designed for crowd dispersal. The temperature settings are variable, however, and can be set as high as 130 degrees F. Given that temperature variability, it's p ossible that someone in the path of a HPM burst might be cooked like a meal readied by a microwave oven. Meanwhile, scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have proposed building an electromagnetic pulse weapon that would disrupt a person's short term memory and cause him to lose control of involuntary body functions. So whereas a HPM weapon's lethality is uncertain, it's definitely going to hurt, leaving the victim incapacitated for a short period of time.

Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000CBC91-B6FD-1E51-A98A809EC5880105





"Possibly the best known case of microwave harassment in the UK was the plight of the Greenham Common peace protesters. Female activists, concerned by the deployment of US nuclear weapons on British soil, staged a non-violent protest around the perimeter fences of the Greenham USAF base beginning in 1981. During 1984, the first Cruise tactical nuclear missiles arrived at the base and the situation heated up in more ways than one. Protesters complained of severe headaches, temporary paralysis, nausea, palpitations and other classic symptoms of microwave poisoning. Tests revealed microwave radiation up to one hundred times greater than background readings taken around the base.

Zapping peace campaigners at Greenham Common the height of the deployment of Cruise Missiles in the American bases in the U.K., women peace campaigners staged a series of peaceful protests outside the American bases. In late 1985 the women living in the peace camps at Greenham Common began to experience unusual patterns of illness, ranging from severe headaches, drowsiness, menstrual bleeding at abnormal times, or after the onset of menopause, to bouts of temporary paralysis and faulty speech coordination. There were also two late in the second trimester spontaneous abortions, suspicious of the possible use of electromagnetic biological weapons, they looked for help."

http://www.geocities.com/adrian9999999999/greenham.htm

No doubt the usual suspects will say, "If you're not doing anything wrong you don't have anything to worry about."
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acmejack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:43 AM
Response to Original message
9. The question is how long shall it take?
The rush to convert food into fuel is the most alarming news I have seen in a while. Ethanol is not a good thing diverting surplus grain (not really, people are hungry everywhere, even in this Country-but who cares?) into fuel is folly, but Carlyle needs to make more money!

I hope I am fortunate enough to die before it gets too bad. I am afraid that the ever accelerating time table for catastrophe may not allow that to happen.
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soothsayer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:49 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. Feh, don't we still pay farmers NOT to grow things? There's
plenty of room here to grow stuff for food AND fuel.
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darkmaestro019 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 06:50 AM
Response to Reply #10
12. Man, I didn't grow any corn in my whole life. I want back pay. eom
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acmejack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 08:15 AM
Response to Reply #10
18. You're kidding yourself.
This is the first year that the earth will not produce surplus food. If you examine the current weather conditions you will discover the flaw in your argument.
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unpossibles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 09:18 AM
Response to Reply #18
22. looked at another way, there are biofuel "crops" from non food sources
such as algae and hemp.

While I agree we will be seeing actual food shortages, I think the major problem in the past and the future is not lack of food, but distribution of food even when we do have it.

While biofuels are definitely not a good long-term answer, they sure are a start.
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acmejack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 10:41 AM
Response to Reply #22
25. I'm all for biomass fuels.
Just not ethanol made from grain. Not when that grain could prevent the starvation of literally a million people. They anticipate eventually converting 10% of America's corn crop into ethanol.
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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 07:36 AM
Response to Original message
14. And you laughed at our tinfoil hats...
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annabanana Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 07:41 AM
Response to Original message
15. Is the Air Force compromised?
I keep hearing of Dominionists in the Air Force command and problems of coercion and discrimination at the Air Force Academy. Just how bad has it gotten?
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City Lights Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 07:50 AM
Response to Original message
16. I say we use the "trickle down" method to test these.
If it's good enough for their economic policy, it's good enough for their weapons testing. Start at the top!

This really sickens me...how did it come to this? :-(
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cap Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 08:16 AM
Response to Original message
19. I think that they can feel the anger
and they fear that violence will follow.
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dogday Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 08:16 AM
Response to Original message
20. So we get to be zapped and tested
while our enemies see if it works on us??? :wtf:
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woodsprite Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 08:17 AM
Response to Original message
21. Sounds like they're planning on using force to stay in control. n/t
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mnhtnbb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-13-06 09:22 AM
Response to Reply #21
23. Just waiting for their opportunity.
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