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Military wants to use energy beams in Iraq

Using a ray gun on crowds could save lives.

WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein had been gone just a few weeks, and U.S. forces in Fallujah were being called invaders. One of the first big anti-American protests escalated into shootouts that left 18 Iraqis dead and 78 wounded.

It would be a familiar scene in Iraq's next few years: Crowds gather, insurgents mingle with civilians. Troops open fire, and innocents die.

All the while, according to internal military correspondence obtained by the Associated Press, U.S. commanders were telling Washington that many civilian casualties could be avoided by using a weapon developed over the past decade.

Military leaders repeatedly and urgently requested - and were denied - the device, which uses energy beams instead of bullets.

It's a ray gun that neither kills nor maims, but the Pentagon has refused to deploy it out of concern that the weapon itself might be seen as a torture device.

Perched on a Humvee or a flatbed truck, the Active Denial System gives people hit by the invisible beam the sense that their skin is on fire. They move out of the way quickly and without injury.

On April 30, 2003, two days after the first Fallujah incident, Gene McCall, then the top scientist at Air Force Space Command in Colorado, sent an e-mail to Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"I am convinced that the tragedy at Fallujah would not have occurred if an Active Denial System had been there," McCall told Myers, according to the e-mail.

Myers referred McCall's message to his staff.

A few months after McCall's message, in August 2003, Richard Natonski, a Marine Corps brigadier general who had just returned from Iraq, filed an "urgent" request with officials in Washington for the device.

A year later, Natonski, by then promoted to major general, again asked for the system. Natonski, now a three-star general, is the Marine Corps' deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations.

In October 2004, the commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force "enthusiastically" endorsed Natonski's request. Lt. Gen. James Amos said it was "critical" for Marines in Iraq to have the system.

The main reason the tool has been missing in action is public perception. The Pentagon is reluctant to give troops a space-age device that could be misconstrued as a torture machine.

Reviews by military lawyers concluded it is a lawful weapon, but private organizations remain concerned because documentation that supports the testing and legal reviews is classified. There's no way to independently verify the Pentagon's claims, said Stephen Goose of Human Rights Watch in Washington.

Another issue is cost.

The Pentagon has spent $62-million developing and testing the system over the past decade, a scant amount compared to other high-profile, multibillion-dollar military programs.

Still, officials say the technology is too expensive, although they won't say what it costs to build. They cite engineering challenges as another obstacle, but one U.S. defense contractor says it has a model ready for production.

For now, there's no firm schedule for when the system might be made and delivered to troops.

The Active Denial System was developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico.

During more than 12 years of testing, only two injuries requiring medical attention have been reported; both were second-degree burns, according to the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate Web site.

[Last modified August 30, 2007, 01:40:38]