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Troops to Use Laser Dazzlers on Afghan Civilians
But critics say Canada could be breaking international treaties
The Canadian military is spending more than $10 million on 500 laser dazzlers for troops in Afghanistan in what it calls an attempt to reduce civilian casualties.
The devices cause temporarily blindness and the army is hoping they can be used to ward off Afghans who drive or walk too closely to Canadian checkpoints or convoys. Troops -- worried about suicide bombers -- have killed or wounded civilians who ignored or didn't heed warnings to keep their distance.
The dazzlers, also called "laser-generated visual warning technology," could be in the hands of Canadian troops in Kandahar as early as next fall.
Project director Maj. Stephane Dufour says the devices are designed to protect both soldiers and Afghan civilians. He says being hit by a laser is like someone looking at the sun.
"It's fairly bright," Dufour explains. "It will not debilitate you so much that you will have an accident, but for sure you will know something is going on. If you keep coming, then the intent is determined that perhaps you are not a good guy." The devices will be mounted on troops' personal weapons.
If successful, the 500 initial dazzlers could be followed by an order for 250 more.
Demonstrations of the dazzlers were conducted in Ottawa in August 2007 and there have been various tests, with more planned for early next year.
But Anthony Salloum, program director of the Rideau Institute, an advocacy group that has raised concerns about the dazzlers, contends they are being put into the field without proper testing. That could mean Canada violating international treaties on the introduction of new weapons.
Salloum says Canada has also ratified a treaty that prevents the use of weapons that cause permanent blindness, all of which "begs the question about why the government is going full hog on purchasing 500 of these weapons when they haven't been fully tested."
An air force report on the dazzlers says injuries could range from "quite significant" to "virtually undetectable." The report says it will be important for soldiers to receive proper training so they do not use the dazzlers on people at too close range.
- Posted in
28 Comments so far
Show AllThe best way to reduce casualties would be to WITHDRAW from this criminal war launched by the U.S. and NATO! Maybe the six British troops killed within the past week will help to convince politicians who are not of the U.S. government, but who nonetheless are of rogue coalition ally governments, to start seriously thinking that it's certainly time to begin to move on with withdrawing.
For the article on the six British troops killed this week, there's an article at www.uruknet.info as of either this morning or yesterday, but was linked in the main index page a few hours ago and will likely be there all day, maybe into tomorrow.
I'm pretty sure that Afghanis are proud to be guinea pigs for this technology in wartime.
What the hell are we doing in Afghanistan?
Moving heroin.
If you don't follow orders, you will be painfully blinded, perhaps only temporarily. Disregarding this notice may get you shot.
OBEY, OBEY, OBEY!
Can you order those online, or maybe buy 'em at a gun show? Love to have one to compliment my pepper spray, stun gun, taser pistol, and blackjack.
LOL
And then the West always wonders why the Middle East hates us ! Leave those civilians alone already god damn it !
Causes Temporary Blindness -- to be used on civilians who may be DRIVING too close to...
What about the Military requires that they not have the use of logic?
We do not belong in Afghanistan any more than we belong in Iraq, Columbia, Haiti or any other country that we are attempting to control. The only reason the Canadians are there is that they also have a right wingnut government at this time. I'm sure most Canadian citizens do not appreciate them having to go fight the US's illegal wars.
"begs the question about why the government is going full hog on purchasing 500 of these weapons"
The answer to that is simple... the Canadian Government, under Stephen Harper, follows the neo-con line of thinking when it comes to it's obligations under international law... it doesn't apply to them.
Most of this, like all new "non-lethal" weapons development is probably purely experimentation on "people we don't care about" so that American and Canadian police forces can use them on protesters in our own country.
Hell, they're already tasering people.
"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow"
This is leading to something like the movies where they implant a device that controls people remotely and hurts or kills them if they don't obey.
Unfortunately, the New Democratic Party has abandoned their principled anti-war position to pursue pipelines and plunder in Afghanistan despite the majority (alas silent) that want Canada out of this US led war:
http://www.canadaeast.com/news/article/500862
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/afca-d13.shtml
If anybody thinks they can persuade the NDP (No Difference Party) to reverse this ill considered policy reversal and urge them to actively oppose the war - you're welcome to try. NDP Leader Jack Layton: layton.j@parl.gc.ca cc: Canadian Peace Alliance: cpa@web.ca
peace now!
jc
Does the US even use these, or are we trying to get them in use by other countries first as a precedent to useing them?
WTF it causes temporary blindness and its supposed to protect people??? Is that the spin on experimenting with weapons on poor people from developing countries??? So some poor Afghan farmer who makes the mistake of being on the road at the same time as the tankers as he tries to get to his fields to do work gets struck blind? This is sick sick sick.
I used to think so highly of the Canadians. They used to be our rational Northern Neighbors with better health care and cheerful attitudues...so sad to see it come to this!
There we go.
I knew we could join the 'George W. Bush War Crimes Club'.
Walk in peace.
Reciprocity holds. Won't your pilots have fun.
Hmmm... just imagine if one of these terror weapons (for that is what they are - think about it: being blinded at random from a distance. Scary, even terrifying, no?) being captured in combat by the Taliban or some other warlord in Afghanistan. And while it may not be recharged after the power pack is expended, think of the havoc that could be wreaked upon the now vital air resupply missions. Just blind the pilots of the cargo planes on final approach. Do that a few times, and you would be hard pressed to find any pilot to fly said resupply missions.
Walk in peace.
"Salloum says Canada has also ratified a treaty that prevents the use of weapons that cause permanent blindness, all of which "begs the question about why the government is going full hog on purchasing 500 of these weapons when they haven't been fully tested."
Makes you wonder exactly which family members of Canadien politicians are manufacturing these blindness weapons.
"When fascism comes to Amerika it will wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross"
Well when Fascism comes to Afghanistan it will come wrapped in a maple leaf.
Good job Canada- the line between you and the U$A is looking less and less blurred and more and more nonexistant. Sig Heil, eh hoser?
I have been accidentally hit in the eye with a laser level. All I could see was bright cherry red light. I immediatly had an excruciating headache, and when I went to have my vision examined, was told a small slice of my peripheral vision had been destroyed. And this was from a glancing fraction of a second exposure from one side.
I can imagine that a direct exposure aimed deliberatly at the eyes would result not in discomfort, but in sever pain and incapacitation, which would most likey be fatal if the victim were driving a vehicle at the time. And there is no guarantee that the blindness would be temporarty or minor. If the victim were walking, the sudden loss of vision would not be recieved calmly. If anything the cry in the local language of "The sons of dogs blinded me!" would probably cause even more trouble and violence than the military suspected/expected at the time of using the laser dazzler.
And like the Microwave Area Denial System, this terror technology is probably on it's way home to be used on peaceful demonstrators in the US, Europe and Canada.
Well said. I'm sorry about your eye!
I had a moment of discontinuity when I read the following:
"The devices cause temporarily [sic] blindness...."
"It's fairly bright," Dufour explains. "It will not debilitate you so much that you will have an accident, but for sure you will know something is going on."
The "something" that is most likely "going on" is that "you are having a car accident."
I love it when these military tough-guy types try to sound intellectual:
"If you keep coming, then the intent is determined that perhaps you are not a good guy."
"Good guys" aside, if I was driving along and someone blinded me with one of these things, my first instinct would be to slam on the accelerator and try to crush them into jelly.
The point of this ridiculous piece of hardware is not to "save lives," it is to let soldiers play "Buck Rogers." For years, military types have lusted after laser weapons, and I guess this is the closest they can get.
Sorry about your eye. I was thinking, ah, NYC peaceful demos won't be the same..........I'm sure Mayor Bloomberg will be first on the list of shoppers. The court cases for unlawful arrests at the Republican National Convention in NYC in 2004, and putting the folks "thru the system" instead of letting them go with desk appearance tickets, putting them in holding in an unhealthy warehouse...it's not done yet. Bloomberg was Mayor.
Battle zones are the preferred laboratories of the MIC.
I fail to understand how this has all been allowed to progress. We teach our children not to hit or call names or yell at each other, and then they see that our very government is in charge of sending people to kill. With the sole purpose of killing. Why in the world would anyone want to sign up for that? How in the world could a parent leave their child to become a murderer, somehow justified. WHERE IS CONSCIENCE? WHAT HORRIBLE ILLNESS HAS BEFALLEN HUMANITY WHEN WE KILL OR INJURE ONE ANOTHER ON THE COMMAND OF MADMEN, and then believe that somehow it is justified. I don't care who you are, if you sign up to go to someone else's country and invade and blow up their houses with their children sleeping (or rather cowering in terror waiting to see if the next bomb would bring THEIR turn to die...) inside, chalking it up as justifiable losses, or whatever bullshit you'd have to tell yourself to be able to not commit suicide, (which many troops are doing...)...then there is something fundamentally missing in your moral structure. Ignorance is no excuse for having a lack of morals, that is something completely different. We have to differentiate between serving our country and being mindless tools. We have to determine whether we would want our children bombed before we go bombing other people's children. There is an old saying, I think it goes something like, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I wonder if the people in charge of this whole thing are thinking about what will happen to our children after we are gone. Let's hope the children of the middle east are pretty darn forgiving, more forgiving than our government and our troops have been, or Bush's legacy could mean that our grandkids and great-grandkids could be the ones taking a turn being blown to unrecognizable shreds. This makes me sick. Humans need to EVOLVE.
RICHARD THIS JUST THE BEGINNING,http://www.infowars.net/articles/february2008/270208sound.htm
http://www.wanttoknow
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2001/010302-npr.htm