Maximum Pain is Aim of New US Weapon

[G_j]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7077
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0303-08.htm

Published on Thursday, March 3, 2005 by the New Scientist Magazine

Maximum Pain is Aim of New US Weapon

by David Hambling

The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometers away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture.

"I am deeply concerned about the ethical aspects of this research," says Andrew Rice, a consultant in pain medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, UK. "Even if the use of temporary severe pain can be justified as a restraining measure, which I do not believe it can, the long-term physical and psychological effects are unknown."

The research came to light in documents unearthed by the Sunshine Project, an organization based in Texas and in Hamburg, Germany, that exposes biological weapons research. The papers were released under the US's Freedom of Information Act.


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[no_hypocrisy]

1. Victims are NOT unharmed by maximizing pain even temporarily.

The experience of excruciating pain can damage the pathways and receptors of the brain permanently and alter it in terms of future pain distribution and even electrical circuitry (read, potential tremor and epilepsy).

[LynnTheDem]

2. Maximum pain = torture.

And it's indiscriminate torture; the radius is up to 2 miles, so anyone & everyone (including pregnant women, infants, elderly) who happen to be within the radius can be hit.

Now how do we explain to our children why when they were playing on the swings that suddenly they were on the ground screaming from "maximum pain" that hit them out of the blue when they'd been doing nothing wrong?

How do we reassure our children that they have nothing to fear every minute of every day of their lives that it can happen again with no warning?

How do we convince our children to ever willingly step outside the house again?

[G_j]

3. absolutely n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. In a democracy the people rule. What does this say about our people?

Just like the "good" Germans, they claim ignorance, or approve of all this.