« Are You a "Good American"? | Main | Kucinich and Paul Stand Alone »
June 21, 2007
Beware the Invisible Soldiers Bearing Gay Bombs
ABC News is taking a look at some of the really interesting things that the Pentagon is spending some of its $78 billion research budget studying. It's a list that raises questions, stimulates the imagination, frightens, and frustrates. And if one insider is to be believed, the projects are part of an enrichment scheme for the military industrial complex.
When it comes to inventing weapons, our country definitely rewards the most extreme forms of imagination and inventiveness. For instance, three years ago, the military funded a study of psychic teleportation by the Air Force Research Lab. DARPA is now spending $15 million to build self-healing shields that soldiers can shoot through, but which act somewhat like an invisibility cloak by bending light in the wrong way. Stanford and Columbia universities are researching the use of magnetic stimulation to keep soldiers awake and alert for days without sleep. DARPA is working on prosthetic limbs with sensory capabilities that communicate with the nervous system. MIT is developing an "exoskeleton" to diagnose and treat injuries. And drugs have already been developed to enhance aerobic function without harming the lungs.
Far and away the most odd research project ever considered is one that was proposed by the Ohio Air Force laboratory back in 1994, when it asked for $7.5 to build a "gay bomb" that would be filled with such powerful aphrodisiacs that the enemy soldiers would be compelled to lay down their bayonets and impale each other in a whole new way.
The scariest project, in my opinion, is the "low-frequency infrasound," which creates "nausea, loss of bowel control, disorientation, vomiting, potential internal organ damage and death." Or the pheromone marker that can be shot onto particular individuals, followed by the release of swarms of bees that will attack whomever has the marker.
My favorite is right out of Revelation. It's the projection of a giant hologram of God into the sky that will speak to the people.
All of this special weapon speculation is a lot of fun, but mixed into the ABC News story was something that actually was not fun at all. Dr. Alexis Debat, senior fellow for national security and terrorism at the Nixon Center in Washington, D.C. and former advisor to the French minister of Defense on Transatlantic Affairs, said that the military industrial complex is alive and well.
"It's an unwritten rule in the U.S. economy that defense companies play an important role in the stock market as anchors of stability," he said. "Living here in Washington, you have no idea how we are inventing enemies. Hundreds of people are trying to figure out how to make China our enemy because there is so much money and power in the Pentagon."
Keep in mind that our military is currently paying Debat to study how Muslims fight, Debat is a Senior Consultant to ABC News, and he is also writing a book on the history of the CIA. So he's not just some pundit. The reason this caught my eye is that I am a daily reader of WorldNet Daily, the right-wing news/propaganda outlet. I like to keep on top of what nonsense is being fed to my friends and family. And I've been noticing an increasing number of stories focused on how evil China is and implying that China is out to get us by poisoning us and our pets.
Which leads me to drift a little into another topic – the unfolding situation with Iran. If these sources are reliable, then we are looking down the barrel of a very big problem. It is being reported that the USS Enterprise CVN 65-Big E Strike Group, the US Navy’s largest air carrier, will join the USS Stennis and the USS Nimitz carriers in the Gulf, and Washington is considering deploying a fourth US carrier to the region in the Red Sea opposite Saudi Arabian western coast to secure the three US carriers in the Gulf from the rear as well as the Gulf of Aqaba and Suez Canal. One can only assume that air strikes are imminent.
In fact, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has just met with President Bush, purportedly to discuss plans for a joint attack on Iran. Olmert also met with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Pelosi's public comments welcoming the Prime Minister are being seen as an indication that she will lend her support to the planned attack. Specifically, she said, “With the Republican and Democratic leaders gathered here, you see how strong the bipartisanship is for a great U.S.-Israel relationship." Last week, Iran formally complained to the United Nations, saying, "various Israeli officials have unabatedly continued to publicly and contemptuously make unlawful and dangerous threats of resorting to force against the Islamic Republic of Iran."
And the Moonie Times published an editorial Tuesday by Arnaude de Borchgrave saying, "Israel is now boxed in between three pro-Iran entities (Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas) and two pro-al Qaeda terrorist groups… Extremists have displaced pragmatists. Moderation doesn't pay in today's Middle East; violence does. And the Bush administration's campaign for democratic reform in the region has petered out… Iran's radical assets in Iraq are biding their time. Benchmarks and timelines are not part of their vocabulary. Iranian parliamentarians are not threatening funding cuts for the mullahs' Iraqi operations — or for their nuclear ambitions."
Today, reports came out that the U.S. is expressing "deep concern" over China's cooperation with Iran in its oil and gas sectors. U.S. State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack warned Chinese companies to refrain from investing money in those sectors.
All of this may mean absolutely nothing. But if I was homophobic or afraid of bees and lived in China or the Middle East, I think I would be watching my back.
Posted by Becky at June 21, 2007 02:51 PM