THE WEAPONS OF TOMORROW

It was in the dark of night on 1 March 1995 when a Somali civilian walked onto the grounds of the Mogadishu airport. The last minutes of his life had arrived.
From the south end of the airstrip, a commando with U.S. Navy SEAL Team 5 aimed a laser device in his direction.
The laser, developed at the Air Force's Phillips Laboratory, is one of several advanced weapons under study by the U.S. military. It can be mounted on a conventional weapon like an M-16 rifle, and the high-intensity light it emits can stun or even burn delicate parts of the eyes, resulting in temporary or permanent blindness.
Officially, it is said that the laser beam was used only to 'illuminate' the man at the Mogadishu airport and to confirm that he carried a grenade. But that version of events might never be disputed because the Somali was promptly shot by a sniper from the same Navy SEAL group.
The laser is just one of a myriad of new high-technology weapons under development by the U.S. military. Indeed, even as American technology received a standing ovation for the Mars landing, the 'dark side' of America's new-age research made a brief appearance on the pages of a popular national news magazine. And the picture it paints of twenty-first century warfare is terrifying.
The feature, 'Wonder Weapons,' appears in the 7 July edition of U.S. News and World Report. And it describes a vast array of ultra-modern military technologies that might seem at first more like science fiction than reality.
One type is the laser that was used in Somalia. Weapons that cause permanent blindness are now banned under international law, but 'glare' lasers, which are thought to cause only temporarily loss of sight, are permissible and 'might be used in hostage situations, prisons riots and special operations,' the journal reports.
A second category is the acoustic weapon. This technology also exists in prototype form and was likewise recommended for testing in Somalia, according to the journal. Acoustic weapons emit sonic frequencies that cause such sensations as debilitating dizziness and motion sickness or nausea, and can also generate vibrations of body organs result in extreme pain, seizures, or death.
Acoustic weapons can penetrate buildings, and are also considered effective in crowd control situations, in clearing the way for military convoys, or for application against individuals or select groups. Acoustic fences can also be used to repel invaders, since people would become progressively sicker as they get closer to the device.
Still another class of advanced weaponry uses electromagnetic heat or microwaves. One example is the 'thermal gun' that has the capacity to create heat in the human body, generating very high fevers, acute illness, and even death. Another version of the same technology brings on convulsions similar to those suffered by epileptics.
The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland is working on additional variations of the device that can induce sleep and cause brain cells to release large amounts of histamine, giving victims flu-like symptoms. The U.S. News and World Report adds that an Air Force research team recently reviewed more than 1,000 existing and potential exotic weapons projects, including one whose description bore the chilling promise, 'put the enemy to sleep/keep the enemy from sleeping,' and another involving 'brain- wave manipulation' to alter the sleep process. The report also describes a vehicle-mounted microwave gun that can impact heart rates, cause burns and fevers, disturb brain waves, create memory loss, and induce a fatal heart attack.
Finally, there are 'vortex weapons.' These use an explosive charge to create a massive shock wave that travels at hundreds of miles per hour. Used alone, this instrument 'can knock down people or even aircraft,' according to the report, and it might also be used in combination with 'gases or chemical agents.'
Virtually all of these new military inventions exist in model form, and their usefulness for conventional warfare or as part of an 'unconventional' (covert) operation is fairly obvious. An assassination that leaves its victim dead of heart failure or a high fever might easily be seen by military strategists as the ideal tactic, assuming an autopsy would show only the immediate cause of death and not the use of the device. As part of a small-scale combat effort or an instrument to quell a popular uprising, sleep inducement and pain-causing equipment could see widespread application. And if the task is merely to repel anti-American demonstrators at a U.S. embassy somewhere, an acoustic fence would come in handy.
Besides their military use, these weapons would have an enormous psychological impact. Once the world learns of these instruments of torture, would-be revolutionaries may think twice about overthrowing a regime supported by the west. After all, even guerrillas willing to die for a cause might be less apt to take the risk if it involved extreme suffering, long-term confinement, and public humiliation.
And there is no doubt that the U.S. military is taking these issues very seriously. A lengthy report appearing in the quarterly Airpower Journal of 1 April 1995 argued that the deployment of non-lethal or 'sub-lethal' weapons like those described in the U.S. News and World Report would permit the United States to act more quickly than would be the case if conventional arms were the only option.
The use of such futuristic war machinery would also make decisive military action more palatable to the west, where the public is leery of high body counts. The journal notes, for instance, that western countries have acquired an 'intolerance of casualties when weighted against the casualty tolerance of the developing world.' Thus the writers demand that the west, 'and the United States as leader of the world community, must develop and be ready, willing and able to deploy decisive nonlethal weapons in situations where casualty-tolerance rogue states and sub-national or pan-national groups must be stopped by casualty-intolerant coalition forces.'
The Airpower Journal, a joint publication of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Air Force, and the Air University, also gives a laundry list of 'imperatives' facing the so-called 'world community' and the United States in the coming years: to enforce 'the international rule of law,' to protect 'human rights,' to 'ensure the national security of the United States,' to 'create a climate of safety for globalised U.S. trading interests,' to preserve 'the ecology and environment' and, above all, to 'maintain U.S. world leadership.'
In these and other cases, exotic weapons would give the U.S. a new means to 'act below the threshold of war ... without risking long-term involvement in a politically unsustainable ground war,' the Airpower Journal argues. Moreover, it continues, sub-lethal or disabling military technology is particularly satisfactory 'in an urban or complex environment,' allowing the U.S. to exert force 'while claiming the moral high ground under constant media scrutiny.' And finally, such technology is relatively inexpensive and would enhance the ability of the U.S. to threaten military action 'as a credible deterrent,' in the words of the authors.
In the end, the military report leaves readers no doubt as to who will be the intended targets of this post-modern warfare: 'rogues states and .. . civil warmongers ... and religious fundamentalists,' among others. But virtually no part of the developing world will be exempt.
'The greatest threat to the international rule of law in modern memory may be the spread of chaotic destablisation throughout the developing world,' the journal warns. 'Unable to see these disparate threats as part of a single class of threat with effects greater than the sum of its parts, the United States and the international community fail to act decisively. As in the mathematical model of chaos theory, the number of discrete destablising events, nondestructive to the status quo when taken singly, may mount until their frequency causes a catastrophic shift in the nature of things - in this case, the balance of power in the world.'
In other words, the important conflicts of the future are more likely to be ideologically- based than territorial. They can be expected to result more from popular sentiment than military decisions by heads of state. And this means that the 'enemies' of the twenty first century will consist of highly-committed people with a great deal to win or lose, as opposed to conscripted soldiers following orders.
This, combined with the fact that the western share of the world's population and labor-power falling rapidly, has produced what Singapore's Deputy Secretary of Foreign Ministry Kishore Mahbubani has called the 'siege mentality' of the west. 'Simple arithmetic demonstrates western folly,' says Mahbubani. 'The west has 800 million people; the rest make up almost 4.7 billion. [And] no western society would accept a situation where 15 percent of its population legislated for the remaining 85 percent.'
And so U.S. long-term planning has turned toward specialised weaponry - hardware that is equally well-suited for use against individuals and combat battalions, and as much at home in a non-military setting as in a military one.
But a reliance on these technologies to maintain a unipolar world order implies a presumption that the U.S. will be alone in producing the devices. In truth, however, the potential for proliferation is enormous. As secretive as the military research may be, the technologies generally have other applications and could be acquired by almost anyone. In fact, one piece of equipment coveted by the Pentagon actually originated in the U.S. private sector.
The "Pulse Wave Myotron," originally created as a crime security device to be used against assailants, consists of a small box about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Contact with Myotron scrambles the signals from the part of the brain that controls voluntary activity. The result is that a person falls to the ground in intense pain, unable to move, while vital functions such as heartbeat and breathing remain unaffected. Recovery takes several minutes.
William Gunby, chief executive of the company that makes the device, told the U.S. News and World Report that its effect is nothing short of 'horrible.'
More importantly, Gunby asserts that officials from the Defence Department contacted him during the gulf war. 'They asked me about bonding the Myotron's pulse wave to a laser beam so that everyone in the path of the laser would collapse," Gunby explains.
The concept was unworkable, he recalls, adding, 'I was told that these calls were totally confidential and that they would completely deny it if I ever mentioned it.'

How The US Promoted the Conflict in Congo

FORMER US President Bill Clinton's administration covertly promoted Uganda and Rwanda's involvement in regional wars while facilitating mining opportunities for American companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new report says.

In a case of "classical cronyism," a company led by a businessman from Mr Clinton's home state of Arkansas was the first to secure a $1billion mining deal from Congo's former president, Laurent Kabila.

The billion-dollar deal was negotiated between Mr Kabila and American Mineral Fields, then headed by Mr Mike McMurrough, a native of Bill Clinton's home town of Hope, Arkansas.

AMF secured the deal to mine cobalt and copper and had been in negotiations with Mr Kabila well before he became the president. Mr Kabila was assassinated this January.

Another company, Bechtel Corporation, worked closely with Kabila to draw up "the most complete mineralogical and geographical data of the former Zaire ever compiled, data worth a fortune to any prospective mining or oil firm."

An executive with Bechtel, Mr Robert Stewart, become Mr Kabila's constant companion, "travelling the country at his side to help him deal with ethnic uprisings," says the report.

Titled "The Clinton legacy: Uplifting rhetoric, grim realities," the report, dated March 22, is compiled by the World Policy Institute, and was last week made available to The EastAfrican.

Says the report: "Economic interests are a significant factor in the fighting in DRC. Much has been made of the economic exploitation of DRC by direct parties to the conflict, including Zimbabwe, Namibia, Unita, Angola and the various Congolese rebel groups.

"But little attention has been given to Western corporations continuing to exploit DRC's mineral wealth, even in the midst of civil war," the report says.

Mr Clinton's pro-democracy, pro-growth rhetoric in East Africa, it says, concealed a different policy that relied heavily on old policy instruments that had served as the linchpin of US-Africa policy during the Cold War the provision of US arms and training to favoured allies.

It further points out that while arms transfers declined markedly, military training programmes maintained a brisk pace.

"It is clear that US security policies towards Africa continued to do more harm than good, through a combination of sins of omission and commission," reads the report.

"From the Bush administration, we may expect many of the same tactics pursued by the Clinton administration, albeit cloaked in slightly different rhetoric," states the report.

The report says it is still difficult to predict the new Bush administration's policy under Walter Kansteiner III, recently appointed as Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs.

Kansteiner is yet another member of the new administration recycled from the first Bush administration, who held a position at the Department of Defence working on a strategic minerals task force and was formerly executive vice president of a commodity trading and manufacturing company that mainly worked with developing countries.

It is expected that Mr Kansteiner will most likely follow an economically-driven policy rather than one centred on humanitarian concerns, especially considering his background fits well with an administration heavily influenced by corporate ties to mineral resources.

Between 1989 and 1998, the US provided over $227 million (Ush398 trillion) in weapons and training to African military forces, of which over $111 million (Ush194 trillion) went to governments that have been directly or indirectly involved in the war in the DRC.

The other countries named as the beneficiaries of US military support include Angola, Burundi, Chad, DRC, Namibia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. The figures do not include the $75 million (Ush132 trillion) in emergency aid provided to Rwanda to help it recover from the 1994 genocide.

Of the $19.5 million (Ush33 trillion) in weapons and training that was delivered to African armed forces in 1999 alone, $4.8 million (Ush9 trillion) went to nations directly or indirectly involved in the war in the DRC.

The World Policy Institute noted that, participation by African nations in the Pentagon's Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) program dropped significantly in FY 1999, the most recent year for which full statistics are available.

JCET programs in Africa during 1999 were conducted in Chad (35 personnel trained), Namibia (39 students trained), Djibouti, Mali, and Malawi.