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FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq, June 26, 2006 – As the nature of the war on terror in Iraq has changed, so have the targets sought by coalition and Iraqi forces. When Operation Iraqi Freedom began, typical targets were military formations and vehicles of the former Iraqi army, Republican Guard formations, and state-sponsored terrorists. After Saddam Hussein fell, common targets became Saddamist loyalists and foreign fighters. Since then, Iraq has become a battleground of ideas, as extremists have come to the country to challenge the coalition, and a homegrown insurgency has arisen. Coalition forces are not targeting military hardware, but...

The US government has unveiled a "non-lethal" laser rifle designed to dazzle enemy personnel without causing them permanent harm. But the device will require close scrutiny to ensure compliance with a United Nations protocol on blinding laser weapons. The Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHASR) rifle was developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, US, and two prototypes have been delivered to military bases in Texas and Virginia for further testing. The US Department of Defense (DoD) believes the weapon could be used, for example, to temporarily blind suspects who drive through a roadblock. However, the DoD...

Non-Lethal Laser Weapon Halts Aggressors By Eva D. Blaylock / Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate Public Affairs KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M., Nov. 1, 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 deterrrent 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...

This is an an excerpt from an article on the Pentagon's use of nonlethal weapons. www.washingtonpost.com Xtreme Defense Lightning guns, heat rays, weapons that can make you hear the voice of God. This is what happens when the war on terror meets the entrepreneurial spirit By Sharon Weinberger Sunday, August 28, 2005; W18 "This is very clandestine," Pete Bitar whispered, as his red Dodge Caravan idled in the parking lot of a Burger King near Fort Belvoir. "They called last week, and they wanted delivery this week." It did feel a little clandestine, if a bit unlikely. Yet there, in...

Buying a stun gun in Illinois will soon require the same background checks and 24-hour waiting period as buying a handgun or rifle. Governor Rod Blagojevich signed legislation that approves the restrictions, which go into effect January First. In addition, stun gun owners in Illinois will be required to have a state firearm owners identification card. The governor says the 50,000 volts a stun gun puts out can be lethal, so the weapons should be treated as seriously as the state treats firearms. While law enforcement officials will be exempt from the stun gun rules, much of the debate over...

How One Tasing Unfolded in Boynton Beach The Aug. 6, 2004 incident began as a normal traffic stop but took an ominous turn when the driver refused to get out of her SUV. It ended with a Boynton Beach Police officer hitting the 22-year-old woman twice with his Taser during her arrest.

Next Summer, the U.S. Army and Marines are sending to Iraq a number of wheeled armored vehicles (Stryker, Armored Security Vehicle and marine LAV) equipped with a number of electronic non-lethal weapons. The three most likely weapons to be used are; * Active Denial System (ADS). This one looks like a small, flat, radar dish. It transmits, a 92 gigahertz signal which will penetrate human flesh to less than half a millimeter, and in less than a second make people feel like their skin is on fire. But people would require the beam to stay on them for over four...

Police To Investigate Death POSTED: 5:22 pm EDT May 31, 2005 COLUMBUS -- Coroners in Columbus are trying to figure out why a man died after being maced by police Monday, NewsChannel5 reported. The suspect attacked an officer who was responding to a break-in. Investigators said the officer was forced to use his mace. The spray is not lethal. NewsChannel5 partner Ohio News Network reported the suspect had problems breathing after being arrested. “At some point, I don't know if he was placed in the back of the cruiser and we did notice he was going into some respiratory problems....

A "NONLETHAL" weapon that has proved deadly in the hands of trained police officers does not belong on the streets of California. State legislators are considering two distinct responses to plans by Taser International to make a big sales push for civilians to buy a lightweight stun gun that can deliver a 50,000-volt jolt of electricity up to 15 feet. The company claims its 7-ounce stun gun -- slightly heavier than a cell phone -- can flatten and temporarily incapacitate a target with a hit anywhere on the body. Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, responding to concerns about the deaths...

Jacksonville deputy suspended after using stun gun on girl The Associated Press JACKSONVILLE, Fla. An officer has been suspended for zapping a 13-year-old girl at least twice with a stun gun while she was handcuffed in his caged patrol car. An internal report by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said Llahsmin Lynn Kallead was handcuffed and in the back seat of the patrol car when Officer G.A. Nelson stunned her, the Florida Times-Union reported for Tuesday editions. Nelson and his partner had been called to the apartment Kallead shares with her mother Rosie Vaughan because they were fighting Feb. 7. Vaughan...

She was rushing her son to school. She was eight months pregnant. And she was about to get a speeding ticket she didn't think she deserved. So when a Seattle police officer presented the ticket to Malaika Brooks, she refused to sign it. In the ensuing confrontation, she suffered burns from a police Taser, an electric stun device that delivers 50,000 volts. "Probably the worst thing that ever happened to me," Brooks said, in describing that morning during her criminal trial last week on charges of refusing to obey an officer and resisting arrest. She was found guilty of the...

Tuesday, May 10, 2005Police used Taser on pregnant driverWoman convicted of refusing to obey Seattle officersBy HECTOR CASTRO SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERShe was rushing her son to school. She was eight months pregnant. And she was about to get a speeding ticket she didn't think she deserved.So when a Seattle police officer presented the ticket to Malaika Brooks, she refused to sign it. In the ensuing confrontation, she suffered burns from a police Taser, an electric stun device that delivers 50,000 volts."Probably the worst thing that ever happened to me," Brooks said, in describing that morning during her criminal trial...

Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems will build a second version of a nonlethal "directed energy" weapon, designed to disperse enemy combatants or rioting crowds with a painful beam of radio waves. The company recently was awarded a $7.5 million contract for development of the Active Denial System 2. It's a portable, unmounted version of a system delivered to the military for field testing last year that was mounted to Humvees. The contract was awarded by the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscomb Air Force Base in Massachusetts. The development work will be performed at Missile Systems facilities in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Though...

Posted on Wed, May. 04, 2005 Drug overdose killed man who died after Taser shock Associated Press MIDLAND, Texas - The wife of a Midland architect who died after he was repeatedly shocked with a Fort Worth police officer's Taser gun has commissioned her own investigation. Eric Hammock, 43, died April 3 of cocaine intoxication, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office. His death has been ruled accidental. The incident happened after a struggle capped a car chase by an off-duty officer. Kathi Hammock said she has talked with the Fort Worth man in whose backyard the struggle happened....

Darion Barker didn't respond well to the prodding when he was asked twice to move his truck blocking a warehouse loading dock. Instead of leaving, Barker pulled a 50,000-volt electric cattle prod out of his rig and chased the warehouse worker across the parking lot, Aurora police said Wednesday. As Barker ran after the man Tuesday night, he repeatedly flicked the trigger of the device, sending bursts of electricity between electrodes at the tip, police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said. The 26-year-old worker escaped without injury after another worker at the Kraft Foods warehouse called police, Ferrelli said. Barker, 42, of...

Officer accepts penalty, keeps job By Deanna Boyd Star-Telegram Staff Writer FORT WORTH - A Fort Worth police officer has been suspended without pay for 16 days on accusations that he illegally entered and searched an apartment and then violated department policy by using a Taser gun on a man who later died. Officer P.R. Genualdo had faced termination had he refused the 16-day suspension, which went into effect April 14, according to civil-service documents released Tuesday by the city. Police had begun a routine administrative investigation into Genualdo's actions after the Nov. 2 in-custody death of Robert Guerrero, 21....

Former Centerville school officer has 10 days to appeal WARNER ROBINS - A former school resource officer who discharged a Taser stun gun to get the attention of a sleeping student may be placed on a three-day suspension, according to city of Centerville documents. Centerville police Maj. Ron Coley has recommended the suspension without pay for Jason Spielman after the April 6 incident involving a 13-year-old seventh-grader at Thomson Middle School. Spielman has 10 days from Monday, when the disciplinary action was recommended, to appeal the proposed disciplinary action. The suspension would be effective May 2-4. Centerville Police Chief Ernie...

Long Island NORTH BELLPORT Man dies after struggle with police BY CHRISTIAN MURRAY AND SAMUEL BRUCHEY STAFF WRITERS April 24, 2005 A Ronkonkoma man died Friday night after a violent encounter with nine Suffolk police officers, during which he was shocked five times with a Taser gun, Suffolk police said. Yesterday, as the Suffolk County medical examiner's office found evidence of cocaine and alcohol in John Cox's blood and began an examination to determine exactly how he died, police and witnesses on the outside offered differing accounts of what transpired inside the battered home on Taylor Avenue in Bellport. "The...

MIAMI (AP) A woman who allegedly overstayed her welcome at a motel was zapped nine times with a stun gun as police arrested her. Patricia Skelly's attorney said there was little evidence that the 110-pound woman posed such a danger that repeated use of the Taser was needed. But authorities Wednesday defended the use of force, saying Skelly was extremely combative. Skelly, 47, was arrested Easter Sunday at a motel in Valparaiso in the Florida Panhandle when the owners were unable to determine whether she would leave or stay another night. ``It's just not right what happened to me,'' Skelly...

PLEASANTON - A Union City man sought by police on warrants for felony assault and stalking fatally shot himself Saturday morning at a local motel as police were trying to take him into custody. About 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Pleasanton police went to the Motel 6 on Hopyard Road, where they found 36-year-old Malvin Bell. Police found him there doing a routine license plate check of vehicles at the motel. Police discovered a guest at the motel had a restraining order against Bell, said police Lt. Joe Buckovic. Pleasanton officers also learned the Hayward Police Department had notified law enforcement agencies...