The Guardian 22 February, 2006
New weapon to inflict pain
Albert Einstein was extremely apprehensive of the horrific consequences the research into nuclear power could cause. He was an active member of the World Peace Council and never failed to speak out for the use of scientific research for the good of the human race.
The question of scientific research in general and its potential application for military purposes has be-devilled many scientists. How does it affect the scientists involved in useful and necessary work when they find out that the results of their work may be used to maim and kill?
One such research that was publicised last year involves work designed to relieve pain.
Nociceptors, nerve cells that convey pain in the body were the subject of their studies. To their horror, the researchers have learnt that a group working for the Pentagon used their results to develop a weapon to inflict pain on human beings. Called a Pulsed Energy Projectile (PEP), this new weapon is to be used against "rioters" to immobilise them with pain. It is classified as a "non-lethal" weapon.
The Pentagon research came to light through documents obtained by the Sunshine Project, an organisation that exposes biological weapons research. It is based in Texas and Germany and it obtained the papers under the Freedom of Information Act. PEPs fire a laser pulse which generates a burst of expanding plasma when it hits a person.
This weapon can literally knock a person down and may be in use as early as 2007. Experiments on some animals have resulted in paralysis.
The original researchers are stunned and point out that long-term effects are unknown.
The New Scientist article "Maximum pain is aim of navy study" (March 2005) quotes John Wood, an expert on how the brain perceives pain saying the researchers involved in the (military) project should face censure. "It could be used for torture", John Wood says, "the [researchers] must be aware of this".
The development of this weapon adds to the ongoing erosion of international laws that were put in place to curb cruelty, torture, and acts of aggression. The proposed use of electric shock taser guns by police in NSW hardly caused a stir and the use of capsicum spray is taken for granted.
PEPs adds a new and far more frightening element, with its potential for torture and the ASIO and other "anti-terror" legislation that allows for people to be held incommunicado for unlimited periods of time. Its use against "rioters" — read trade unionists on picket lines and other protestors — is just as barbaric. It has a range of up to two kilometres. It is hard to imagine how this barbaric method of dealing with people could pick and choose the "bad ones" in a crowd from such a distance.
The victims of the weapon are very likely to suffer long-term neurological and psychological effects. This kind of barbaric and medieval torture should be banned.