Dear friends,
A sophisticated
non-lethal crowd control weapon has been successfully used against demonstrators,
as reported by one of Canada's leading newspapers, the Toronto Star
(article & link provided below). Most people have not heard of an important
category of weapons which have been under secret development for decades,
called non-lethal weapons. In top secret projects, a wide range of these
high-tech weapons have been tested and refined. For a brief summary of the
history and development of non-lethal weapons with footnotes for verification,
see www.WantToKnow.info/mindcontrol10pg#nonlethal
The military
has a vast arsenal of top secret weapons which are rarely ever reported in
the mainstream media. In fact, for reasons of "national security,"
the military can prevent the media from reporting on these weapons. For other
concise information on this important subject, click here,
here,
and here. For reliable,
verifiable information on other secret government programs which have flourished
since the 1950s, see our Mind
Control Information Center. By educating ourselves and our friends and
colleagues, we can join in calling for greater transparency in government
and working together for a brighter
future.
With best
wishes,
Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info
Team
http://www.torstarreports.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1118009416402&call_pageid=970599119419
Israelis
unleash Scream at protest
New weapon knocks crowds off feet
Sound blast triggers nausea, dizziness
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU
JERUSALEM—The
knees buckle, the brain aches, the stomach turns. And suddenly, nobody feels
like protesting anymore.
Such is the impact of the Scream, the latest weapon in the Israeli army's
high-technology toolkit.
Launched Friday afternoon near the West Bank village of Bil'in, after another
in the almost daily demonstrations against Israel's controversial security
barrier turned violent, Israel's secret weapon lived up to its billing, by
most accounts.
Witnesses
describe a minute-long blast of sound emanating from a white Israeli military
vehicle. Within seconds, protestors began falling to their knees, unable to
maintain their balance.
An Israeli military source, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity,
confirmed the existence of the Scream, or Tze'aka in Hebrew, in an interview
yesterday.
"The
intention is to disperse crowds with sound pulses that create nausea and dizziness,"
the Israel Defence Force spokesperson told the Toronto Star.
"It is probably the cleanest device we have ever had, when you compare
it to rubber bullets or tear gas. It is completely non-lethal. It has no adverse
effects, unless someone is exposed to the sound for hours and hours."
IDF officials said the technology was researched and developed over a span
of five years as a result of "lessons learned" during the Israeli
army's withdrawal from Lebanon.
"We had a situation during the Lebanon withdrawal where we had hundreds
of people storming IDF positions," a military source said. "As a
direct result, it was decided we needed the means for a more benign way to
control crowds."
Army officials said the Scream might become an element in its strategy against
Jewish settlers and their supporters in August, when the Israeli government
begins uprooting 25 settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.
"We will use what we need to use during the disengagement, depending
on the circumstances on the ground," the official said. "Nobody
can foretell the future."
The IDF
is saying little about the science behind the Scream, citing classified information.
But the technology is believed to be similar to the LRAD — Long-Range Acoustic
Device — used by U.S. forces in Iraq as a means of crowd control.
Hillel Pratt, a professor of neurobiology specializing in human auditory
response at Israel's Technion Institute, likens the effect of such technologies
to "simulated seasickness."
"It
doesn't necessarily have to be a loud sound. The combination of low frequencies
at high intensities, for example, can create discrepancies in the inputs to
the brain," said Pratt.
"Basically, the brain receives a signal that your body has lost balance.
You feel like you are tilting even when you are not. The discrepancies can
cause headaches and nausea."
Pratt said such phenomena sometimes occur by accident. He remembers one instance
in which office staff at an Israeli bank building fell ill after the installation
of an industrial air conditioning unit.
"When everyone became nauseous, tests were conducted to find a contaminant.
But nothing was found. Finally, acoustic tests were conducted, and a certain
low-frequency sound was discovered," said Pratt. "It made people
sick, all because of the way the noise of the new air conditioner resonated
in that particular space."
Israeli and Palestinian activists are unsure what to make of the IDF's new
machine. Some who were witness to the deployment on Friday said Palestinians
have already learned to neutralize the Scream by stuffing cotton in their
ears.
"Just before the sounds began, a Palestinian man I know from Bil'in
gave me cotton for my ears. He said, `The Israelis are going to make a noise.
This will help,'" said Lisa Nessan, an International Solidarity Movement
activist from Ramallah.
"How did he know to do that? Obviously it must have been used at a previous
demonstration. Or the Palestinians wouldn't have been prepared for it this
time.
"I was lucky because the cotton seemed to filter out the problem. But
I saw other people around me sit down because they couldn't keep their balance.
I really don't know what to make of it. I've never seen anything like it before."
Arik Asherman, a leader of Rabbis For Human Rights, was cautiously optimistic
the Scream could make a positive difference.
"We've been arguing for years that Israel should engage non-lethal approaches
to crowd control. If this thing actually works without doing any permanent
damage, that's a step forward."
But Asherman
said Israeli officials would be wise to use the Scream sparingly, lest it
become a tool to "sanitize dissent."
"We need to remind ourselves the problem is not the demonstrations,
but what the demonstrations are about," he said.
"If
this makes it any more difficult for Palestinians to express themselves in
a non-violent way, that is problematic. The best way to disperse demonstrations
is to deal with the actual issues.
