Free Republic

Sgt. Casey Day was skeptical. The chief of his rural Northern California police department wanted him to find out if an ancient martial arts weapon made famous in 1970s Bruce Lee movies could be used to subdue unruly suspects. But it only took a few days of training with nunchucks to win over Day. The weapon—two solid sticks of plastic attached by a foot-long nylon cord—was recently added to the Anderson Police Department’s arsenal. The department of 20 sworn officers about 200 miles north of San Francisco joined several other U.S. law enforcement agencies that use nunchucks as “less than...

Panetta being questioned by Congress regarding Benghzi.

The Pokémon Plot: How One Cartoon Inspired the Army to Dream Up a Seizure Gun In 1998, a secret Army intelligence analysis suggested a new way to take out enemies: blast them with electromagnetic energy until their brains overload and they start to convulse. Amazingly, it was an idea inspired by a Pokemon episode. Application of "electromagnetic pulses" could force neurons to all fire at once, causing a "disruption of voluntary muscle control," reads a description of a proposed seizure weapon, contained in a declassified document from the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center. "It is thought by using a method...

Despite 50 years of research on high-power microwaves, the US military has yet to produce a usable weapon. For some Pentagon officials, the demonstration in October 2007 must have seemed like a dream come true — an opportunity to blast reporters with a beam of energy that causes searing pain. The event in Quantico, Virginia, was to be a rare public showing for the US Air Force's Active Denial System: a prototype non-lethal crowd-control weapon that emits a beam of microwaves at 95 gigahertz. Radiation at that frequency penetrates less than half a millimetre into the skin, so the beam...

Shanbo Heinemann, a pro-Palestinian activist from San Francisco, California, sits on the ground after being shot in the head with a rubber bullet fired by Israeli troops during a violent protest against Israel's security fence in the West Bank village of Bilin, February 22, 2008.Slideshow (graphic): http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1604&galleryName=All%20Collections#a=1

TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Stinger Systems, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: STIY), a leader in electro-stun technology today announced that highly-decorated former New York City detective, Richard "Bo" Dietl, has joined Stinger Systems as a member of Stinger Systems' Board of Directors. Mr. Dietl is a former New York Police City Department detective who made more than 1,500 arrests and became one of the most highly decorated detectives in the history of the department ... ...Bo Dietl commented, "In my opinion, the Stinger S-200 projectile stun gun is the best product on the market.

Saddam Hussein had been gone just a few weeks, and U.S. forces in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, were already being called unwelcome invaders. One of the first big anti-American protests of the war escalated into shootouts that left 18 Iraqis dead and 78 wounded. It would be a familiar scene in Iraq's next few years: Crowds gather, insurgents mingle with civilians. Troops open fire, and innocents die. All the while, according to internal military correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, U.S. commanders were telling Washington that many civilian casualties could be avoided by using a new non-lethal weapon developed over...

WASHINGTON - Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before they are used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions in the international community over any possible safety concerns, said Air Force 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...

Next Summer, the U.S. Army and Marines are sending to Iraq a number of wheeled armored vehicles (Stryker, Armored Security Vehicle and marine LAV) equipped with a number of electronic non-lethal weapons. The three most likely weapons to be used are; * Active Denial System (ADS). This one looks like a small, flat, radar dish. It transmits, a 92 gigahertz signal which will penetrate human flesh to less than half a millimeter, and in less than a second make people feel like their skin is on fire. But people would require the beam to stay on them for over four...

Report: Raytheon 'heat beam' weapon ready for Iraq Boston Business Journal Government defense giant Raytheon Co. has developed the first nonlethal weapon that fires a heat beam to repel enemies and reduces the chance of innocent civilians being shot, a Pentagon official said. Raytheon, the world's largest missile maker, delivered a prototype to the U.S. military last month. The product is expected to be evaluated from February through June to determine whether to equip U.S. forces with it, Colonel David Karcher, director of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, told Bloomberg Business News. With U.S. casualties in Iraq rising, expectations are...

Associated Press BOSTON - A bill to allow police to use high-voltage stun guns in Massachusetts appears to be picking up support in the wake of two fatal police shootings in Boston. Final passage of the bill was expected as early as Tuesday. ``I think if the police officers had a tool like this, those deaths could have been prevented,'' said state Rep. Timothy J. Toomey Jr., a Democrat who is the House chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Safety. ``The persons hopefully would have been kept alive, rather than using deadly force. Clearly, I think it's a mechanism...

BRADENTON, Fla., April 1, 2004 -- The United States has decided to deploy a $40-million, futuristic non-lethal microwave weapons system that can burn but not blind crowds and combatants at several hundred yards, according to official notice given to retired U.S. Army Col. John Alexander, a consultant to U.S. military forces who is credited with developing the modern concept of non-lethal defense, The American Reporter has learned. Asked on "Joe Shea at Noon" on WWPR-AM 1490 in Bradenton, Fla., what non-lethal weapons might be in the hands of armies in the future, Col. Alexander unexpectedly revealed new information about one...

US troops are to be armed with a stun gun that uses a baby's high-pitched scream to bring the enemy to its knees. The gun, which will be issued to marines in Iraq this month, fires "sonic bullets" that can be targeted like a torch beam. Anyone hit with a full blast would suffer excruciating pain, permanent deafness and some form of cellular damage. A prolonged blast could kill. The "Secret Scream" gun as it is called, could revolutionise the way US troops deal with snipers, suicide bombers and riots in the turmoil of post-war Iraq. The actual sound used...

The Pentagon's Secret Scream: Sonic devices that can inflict pain--or even permanent deafness—are being deployed. (Source: Los Angeles Times; published March 7, 2004) (Reproduced courtesy of William B. Arkin) SOUTH POMFRET, Vt. - Marines arriving in Iraq this month as part of a massive troop rotation will bring with them a high-tech weapon never before used in combat - or in peacekeeping. The device is a powerful megaphone the size of a satellite dish that can deliver recorded warnings in Arabic and, on command, emit a piercing tone so excruciating to humans, its boosters say, that it causes crowds to...

SOUTH POMFRET, Vt. - Marines arriving in Iraq this month as part of a massive troop rotation will bring with them a high-tech weapon never before used in combat - or in peacekeeping. The device is a powerful megaphone the size of a satellite dish that can deliver recorded warnings in Arabic and, on command, emit a piercing tone so excruciating to humans, its boosters say, that it causes crowds to disperse, clears buildings and repels intruders. "[For] most people, even if they plug their ears, [the device] will produce the equivalent of an instant migraine," says Woody Norris, chairman...

NEW YORK - U.S. soldiers in Iraq have new gear for dispersing hostile crowds and warding off potential enemy combatants. It blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam. The equipment, called a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, is a so-called "non-lethal weapon" developed after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole off Yemen as a way to keep operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships. The devices have been used on some U.S. ships since last summer as part of a suite of protection measures. Now, the Army and Marines have added this auditory barrage dispenser to their...

Tear Gas May Violate Treaties Associated Press March 02, 2003 SAN FRANCISCO - Army Maj. Gen. David Grange is proud to have ordered his troops to use tear gas on hostile Serb crowds in Bosnia six years ago. "We didn't kill anyone," said the now-retired Grange. "It saved lives." His only complaint was that red tape prevented him from using tear gas more often. The Pentagon is drafting guidelines under which American solders could use riot control agents such as tear gas and pepper spray in Iraq to control unruly prisoners and separate enemy soldiers from civilians, Defense Secretary Donald...

OLYMPIA (AP) - A man who had just been arrested for investigation of shoplifting died after he was hit with a jolt with a Taser stun gun and wrestled into submission by police. Officers Jeff Jordan and Paul Bakala were placed on paid leave following the episode Thursday afternoon at Bayview Thriftway, and the investigation has been turned over to the Thurston County sheriff's office, police said. An autopsy was pending. ``It's frustrating because we don't know why the man died,'' city police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said. ``He could have had a pre-existing medical condition, or there could have been...

Bugs that eat roads and buildings. Biocatalysts that break down fuel and plastics. Devices that stealthily corrode aluminium and other metals. These are just a few of the non-lethal weapons that the US has tried to develop, or is trying to develop. Titles of some of the non-lethal weapon reports But quite how close such weapons are to reality we may never know. The US National Academy of Sciences is refusing to release dozens of reports proposing or describing their development, even though the documents are supposed to be public records. The academy is justifying its unprecedented reticence by citing...