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Selected partial excerpts from the information packet I was handing out during October 2002
“The
Development of New Antipersonnel Weapons”, Louise Doswald-Beck and Gerald C.
Cauderay, International Review of the Red Cross 279, November 1, 1990.
“Directed
Energy Weapons … Research work in this field has been carried out in almost all
industrialized countries, and especially by the great powers, with a view to
using these phenomena for anti-material or anti-personnel purposes. …It is possible today to generate a very
powerful microwave pulse (e.g., between 150 and 3,000 megahertz), with an energy
level of several hundreds of megawatts.
Using specially adapted antenna systems, these generators could in
principle transmit over hundreds of meters sufficient energy to cook a
meal. However, it is important to
mention that the lethal and incapacitating effects which can be expected from weapons
systems using this technology can be produced with much lower energy
levels. Using the principle of magnetic
field concentration, which permits the control of the geometry on the target,
by means of antenna systems especially designed for the purpose, the radiated
energy can be concentrated on very small surfaces of the human body, for
example the base of the brain where relatively low energy can produce lethal
effects … In spite of the rarity of publications on this subject, and the fact
that it is usually strictly classified information, research undertaken in this
fields sems to have demonstrated that very small amounts of electromagnetic
radiation could appreciably alter the functions of living cells. Research work has also revealed that patholgoical
effects close to those induced by highly toxic substances could be produced by
eletromagnetic radiation even at very low power, especially those using a pulse shape containing a large number of
different frequencies … Some research seems to have confirmed that low-level
electromagnetic fields, modulated to be simlar to normal brainwaves, could
seriously affect brain function.
Experiments with pulsed magnetic fields carried out in animals have
reportedly produced specific effects such as inducing sleep and triggering
anxiety or aggressiveness, depending on the modulation of the frequency
used. It is, on the other hand, well
known that lethal effects can also be produced by using higher power levels
than those used for the experiments on behaviour modification. An anti-personnel weapon based on such
biophysical principles could produce similar effects to those of a nerve gas,
but would have no secondary effects and leave no lasting trace.”
“Wonder
Weapons: The Pentagon’s quest for
nonlethal arms is amazing. But is it
smart?”, Douglas Pasternak, US News and World Report, July 7, 1997.
“Scores of
new contracts have been let, and scientists, aided by government research on
the “bioeffects” of beamed energy, are searching the electromagnetic and sonic spectrums
for wavelengths that can affect human behavior …
From 1980
to 1983, a man named Eldon Byrd ran the Marine Crops Non-lethal Electromagnetic
Weapons project … “We were looking at electrical activiy in the brain and how
to influence it,” he says. Byrd, a
specialist in medical engineering and bioeffects, funded small research
projects … He conducted experiments on
animals – and even himself – to see if
brain waves would move in sync with waves impinging on them from the
outside. (He found that they woud, but
the effect was short lived.)
By using
very low frequency electromagnetic radiation – the waves way below radio
frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum – he found he could induce the
brain to release behavior-regulating chemicals. “We could put animals into a stupor,” he says, by hitting them