Two weeks ago, I reported upon the billions of dollars that the Department of Defense is spending upon new military techniques. I introduced the movement to stop the militarisation of space that has been put forth by Congressman Dennis Kuchinich and many scientists and activists. Part of the potential legislation speaks to the restriction of non-traditional weapons that utilize directed energy beams. While this might sound like science fiction, the reality is that our government and others has been quietly financing means to control population.

While incredulous, after putting myself in the shoes of a government, it would make perfect sense to continue to develop weapons. Guns only go so far, and the threats of bombs do not directly address the mostly behavioral problems faced by governments. After reading a giant report for the European Union written by the Omega Foundation (a human rights watch organization) I understood that nations are looking for new means for policing, not only their own people, but under the power of the United Nations, the world as well. Most of these “less than lethal” weapons are forms of tear gas, rubber or plastic bullets, blunt trauma crowd dispersal grenades, and sticky foam, but some are even scarier.

This week, we will explore this topic more, looking how non-lethal weapons (NLW) are not meant to kill but do perhaps even worse harm. One Army weapon, as presented in a1997 “Future of Non-Lethal Weapons” conference, used “mechanical pressure wave generation” to “provide the war fighter with a weapon capable of delivering incapacitating effects, from lethal to non-lethal.” These acoustic weapons can cause serious harm, according to expert Bill Arkin, causing cavities in human tissue and rupturing organs.

Additionally, as reported in an article by Hwaa Irfan, the States’ military complex is looking at the newest research in the Psychological Operations, PSYOP. One of the techniques being developed uses magneto encephalography, or MEG. This is the study of the human brain’s magnetic fields, pioneered by David Cohen at Massachusetts Information Technology in 1968. As quoted by Ifran, Captian Paul Tyler of the U.S. Air Force wrote in 1984 “The body is basically an electromagnetic system…over the past decade, researchers have devised many mathematical models to approximate the internal fields.”

In the Winter edition of Earth Island Journal, there is a large article about NLWs, and a list of some of the future weapons. Besides the sound generators, author Garth Smith outline microwave disabling systems, along with magnetosphere guns that deliver what feels like a blow to the head. Much of this research has been “undertaken in … Oak Ridge, Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos.”

When I spoke to Leuren Moret, a geoscientist who is currently campaigning in Japan about NLWs, she confirmed that report. Moret, who used to work at Lawrence Livermore, believes that these weapons are already being tested in the Gulf War and in riot prevention. “The Russians have tested this technology, and they discovered that at certain frequencies they can control all body functions. It can cause people to throw up, disorientation, massive headaches.” These types of psychological weapons in general can control balance, cause involuntary defecation, create epileptic fits, and make an individual hear voices in his head.

Already, Time magazine published sketches of a directed energy device that rides atop a Humvee. The Air Force Research Laboratory has already spent $40 million on just this device.

This trend partially came from the insistent, greedy hands of the military complex. Additionally, it is fueled by a nation that fears many. We need to question why we need to further laden taxpayers with debt for necessary, really non-lethal things like schools and homeless shelters, and yet we spend hundreds of billions a year on war toys.

Truth really has become stranger than fiction. This year, don’t pay half your taxes-you’ll cut out the amount that goes to new weapons. Such as these.