2005-10-28

Man-Portable Laser Weapon - Cool Idea, Gay Acronym (PHaSR)

New technology dazzles aggressors: "New technology dazzles aggressors

Capt. Drew F. Goettler, of the Air Force Research Laboratory' Directed Energy Directorate, demonstrates the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response, or PHaSR, a non-lethal illumination technology developed by the laboratory's ScorpWorks team. The technology is the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon intended for protecting troops and controlling hostile crowds. The laser light used in the weapon temporarily impairs aggressors by illuminating or 'dazzling' individuals, removing their ability to see the laser source. (AF photo)
Blackanthem.com, KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M., October 27, 2005

A laser technology being developed by Air Force Research Laboratory employees at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. will be the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon intended for protecting troops and controlling hostile crowds.

The weapon, developed by the laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, employs a two-wavelength laser system and is the first of its kind as a hand-held, single-operator system for troop and perimeter defense. The laser light used in the weapon temporarily impairs aggressors by illuminating or 'dazzling' individuals, removing their ability to see the laser source.

The first two prototypes of the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response, or PHaSR, were built at Kirtland last month and delivered to the laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate at Brooks City Base, Texas, and the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate at Quantico, Va. for testing.

'The future is here with PHaSR,' said program manager Capt. Thomas Wegner. Wegner is also the ScorpWorks flight commander within the Laser Division of the directorate. ScorpWorks is a unit of military scientists and engineers tha"

Iran Down on Israel - Who Knew?

FrontPage magazine.com :: Iran Calls for a New Holocaust by Robert Spencer: "Iran Calls for a New Holocaust
By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com October 28, 2005
The same day that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared at a conference in Tehran entitled "The World without Zionism" that Israel should be destroyed, an Islamic Jihad suicide attacker murdered at least five people in the Israeli city of Hadera. No doubt Ahmadinejad had this kind of thing in mind when he stated that "there is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world": if he condemns attacks against civilian non-combatants, he has kept it to himself.
Imagine if George W. Bush had announced that he intended to wipe Iraq, or any other nation, off the map: the domestic and international outcry that would follow would effectively end his presidency. But in the context of Israel the world has always had a higher tolerance for such talk. The Hamas Charter states that its goal is to "raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine," and quotes Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan Al-Banna: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." Hamas attacked Israel with 113 suicide bombers from 1993 to 2005 in pursuit of this end. Yet some Western analysts have actually advocated Hamas" inclusion in the political process in the Palestinian Authority, as long as the group renounces violence. Is the obliteration of Israel more acceptable if it takes place without violence?
And of course, Ahmadinejad wasn�t saying anything new, as he himself made plain by invoking the Ayatollah Khomeini: "As the Imam said," the President reminded his hearers, "Israel must be wiped off the map." In 1979"