Funds for Laser Weapons: Your Senate Okays More $: But Are LasersDestined to Control Domestic Dissenters?

"The Senate Armed Services Committee, in its report on the fiscal 2009
authorization bill, asked about the progress of lasers. 'Years of
investment have not resulted in any current operational high-energy
laser capability.' "

"But medium- and low-power lasers -- hold great potential and should
be developed as soon as possible, your Senators say."

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"Senate Boosts Funding for Laser Weapons"

By Walter Pincus
Monday, September 22, 2008; A13


The Senate has embraced last year's Defense Science Board conclusion
that directed-energy weapons -- such as high-, medium- and low-power
lasers -- hold great potential and should be developed as soon as
possible.

In the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill, which was approved
Wednesday, the Senate included additional funds for laser programs and
a provision requiring Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to accelerate
work that would make directed-energy weapons operational in the near
future.

Low-power lasers known as "dazzlers" are being used in Iraq, mounted
on M-4 rifles, "to warn or temporarily incapacitate individuals,"
according to the Defense Science Board's report. Army, Special Forces
and more recently Marine units are using them to warn or deter drivers
approaching checkpoints and to "defuse potential escalation of force
incidents," according to the report.

Marines were given approval to use a green laser whose beam can
temporarily reduce a person's vision when aimed from a distance of
1,000 yards, according to the report. These "laser optical
incapacitation devices" were being procured on a case-by-case basis.

Laser use remains controversial because a protocol of the Geneva
Conventions bans their use in combat when they are designed to cause
permanent blindness.

Two years ago, when the lasers were introduced in Iraq, Army Lt. Col.
Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said the devices were legal.
"They don't blind people," he told reporters. "It's like shining a big
light in your eyes," he said, adding that he did not know how long the
"optical incapacitation" lasted.

The Senate Armed Services Committee, in its report on the fiscal 2009
authorization bill, asked about the progress of lasers. "Years of
investment have not resulted in any current operational high-energy
laser capability," the committee noted in its report.

The science board said tactical laser systems could be developed for
broader use because they "enable precision ground attack to minimize
collateral damage in urban conflicts." The report suggested, for
example, that "future gunships could provide extended precision
lethality and sensing."

The board also proposed using lasers to protect against rockets,
artillery, mortars and unmanned airborne vehicles by blasting them out
of the sky. Last month, the Army awarded Boeing $36 million to
continue development of a high-energy laser mounted on a truck that
could hit overhead targets. But deployment is not expected until 2016,
even if all goes well.

The Senate committee was critical of the "airborne laser" program, a
first-generation missile defense system. It held back $30 million from
next year's budget and said funds for a second version would not be
authorized until the first shoot-down test from a 747 aircraft is
conducted at the end of 2009. More information is needed to determine
whether the system "could eventually provide a militarily useful,
operationally effective and affordable missile defense capability,"
the panel's report said.

Past Defense Science Board studies have had impact. A 2004 report
recommended a "Manhattan Project" approach to take "available and
emerging technologies . . . to identify objects or people of interest
from surveillance data and to verify a specific individual's
identification." It suggested that "biometrics, tags, object
recognition and identification tokens" be harnessed with sensors and
databases "to overcome the shortcomings of conventional intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance systems."

Tags allow distant tracking or detection. Some tags are active,
emitting radio waves that can be collected. Others are passive,
including chemicals that give off a color when hit by an infrared
beam. The board said these "represent a very important area for
research and technology development."

Four years later, Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob
Woodward, discussing his new book, "The War Within," on CBS's "60
Minutes," attributed part of the success of the troop buildup in Iraq
to "secret operational capabilities that have been developed by the
military to locate, target and kill leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq,
insurgent leaders, renegade militia leaders. That is one of the true
breakthroughs."

A recent congressional report said Special Forces in Iraq are using
newly developed "sophisticated capabilities to identify, find, track,
and kill or capture high-value individuals."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...092102432.html

[National security and intelligence reporter Walter Pincus pores over
the speeches, reports, transcripts and other documents that flood
Washington and every week uncovers the fine print that rarely makes
headlines -- but should. If you have any items that fit the bill,
please send them to ]

Low-power lasers known as "dazzlers" are being used in Iraq, mounted
on M-4 rifles, "to warn or temporarily incapacitate individuals,"
according to the Defense Science Board's report. Army, Special Forces
and more recently Marine units are using them to warn or deter drivers
approaching checkpoints and to "defuse potential escalation of force
incidents," according to the report.

It's funny how you can get these things in gas stations and novelty
shops totally unrestricted but stick them on an appropriation and
suddenly people get very concerned. I should go vigilante and start
using my office laser pointer to slow traffic down around the local
playground.