State department orders LASERS to "dazzle" suspect Iraqi drivers.

[Bluebear]

The State Department plans to equip its motorcade security details in Iraq with lasers to "dazzle" suspect motorists and helmet cameras to record it all...

Security experts say the lasers, emitting a green beam and already in use at some U.S. military checkpoints in Baghdad, overload the optic nerve but, if used from at least 10 feet away, will not cause any permanent eye damage.

Lasers designed to cause permanent blindness have been banned by international law since 1995.

The lasers being sent to Iraq, experts say, are intended only to dazzle or temporarily blind vehicle drivers and alert them to stop. "I've had them tested on me, and while it is certainly uncomfortable, like a flashbulb going off in front of your face, there is no permanent damage whatsoever," said Tony Diebler, a former State Department security official who now works at Cohort, International, the company providing the lasers and helmet cameras to the State Department. The lasers, with a pistol grip, are about the size of a three-battery flashlight. They sell for around $9,000 each.

The State Department has ordered 26 of the lasers for full field testing in Iraq. ($234,000.00)

"They are proving great so far, and State wants them like yesterday," Diebler said.

While there is some risk that a temporarily blinded driver might crash into another vehicle, that is considered by the State Department to be a better alternative than the deadly attacks that have killed hundreds of innocent civilians in Iraq.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/11/lasers-helmet-c.html

[Captain Angry]

1. The technology exists to slow down cars without damaging the driver.

But what fun is that, when you can assume that everybody is a bad guy and just potentially blind them into driving into a wall or something?

Ack.

[gratuitous]

2. Take heart

Apparently you can shine it right into someone's eyes from close range and still blind them. How long do you suppose it will be before we get reports of this out of Iraq? Some poor schmuck gets taken into custody, and some guy frazzled from being over there too long decides that he can relieve some of his own stress by blinding the schmuck?

[DCKit]

3. Or crashing into the soldier with the laser, or the motorcade.....

Just another toy that will be abused and cause further deaths of innocent civilians.

You can't give something like this to a kid and expect them not to screw around with it.

[tanyev]

4. So they think losing eyeballs will help them win hearts and minds?

[TommyO]

5. A $9000 weapon that can be defeated with a simple pair of mirrored sunglasses.

[Sabriel]

6. Maybe they should have tried one of these first:

They'd be so busy blinging their jeans that they wouldn't have time to ram checkpoints.

[Bluebear]

8. ...

:rofl:

[TheCentepedeShoes]

7. Putting the occupation

on a level the Blivet can understand, like that of a video game.