The US Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate released a paper in 2004 which presents “Crowd Control Modeling and Simulation.” This report discusses behavioral changes human populations. That the Department of Defense calls for new weapons systems designed to work on the psychological underpinnings of a population should give human rights activists great cause for alarm.
The use of electromagnetic weapons to alter the emotional state, hamper the ability of an enemy or US citizens, to think clearly, and result in chaos and pain are morally problematic for a number of reasons:
1.
Creating fear, anxiety confusion and irrational behavior within an individual or a population is counterproductive to the operations of a free society and to the execution of warfare. Chaos only breeds the need for greater and greater means of physical repression; irrational behavior is by definition unpredictable and as such provides significant difficulty when the task is to secure an area.
2.
These weapons leave no tell tale clues. There are no bullet holes or gross damage (with the exception of those designed to maim, burn or explode targets).
3.
They are operated from a great distance, meaning that the operator has no feedback as to the effects of his or her actions. This provides us with a very dangerous circumstance very similar to Millgram's experiment where we can predict with certainty gross abuses of power.
4. Any device that invades a persons mind, either through induction of “evoked potentials” through electromagnetic means or through the various “crazy-making” tactics employed in both information warfare and psychological operations is a violation of human rights and cognitive liberty.
Loss of bodily control, such as twitching or jerking of
an arm or leg suddenly and without control.
• Deutsches Forum •