Takin
I would be remiss not to mention what will, hopefully, be the Mother Of All peace marches in Washington DC this weekend … at least for this century. United for Peace and Justice, American Friends Service Committee, ACLU, and just about everybody else with a dog in this fight will meet up and make the nations position on Bush’s War known … details at the link.
Here are the good reads — the first one’s a real pep talk, the second by Medea Benjamin of Code Pink tells the government they better take a good look. On Saturday, we’ll use the Bush Plan for Freedom Loving People Everywhere to promote our vision of democracy — we’ll “take the fight to the enemy” — we’ll “fight them there so we don’t have to do it here.”
The turn-out is expected to be excellent — MSM rarely [if ever, these days] reports on marches past a listless mention; it will be interesting, now that they’ve acknowledged Bush’s failed war and political situation, to see who reports what.
A word of caution — not to frighten, but to make you aware. Yesterday there were a flurry of articles out on Dubby’s newest “ray gun” disruptor — I told you about it months ago; it cooks the top of your skin with microwaves.
Provocatively, the Bushies held a test [on willing victims] and issued a report just when the public decided to take to the streets — Wayne Madsen thought the timing suspect, as well. I don’t believe this will be a factor this weekend — but … and especially if the protest turns out to be as big as we wish it to … this may be an issue in the future, which is why I include Madsen’s information, last.
Jude
Huddle Up!
David Swanson
Jan 22 2007
Team, huddle up. Huddle UP! Now, listen. I’m not going to even tell you what to do in the second half unless you understand what you did in the first half. Do you?
You think you’re tired and worn down and you got beat bad, right? Is that what you think? When you pulled off the most powerful offensive attack in league history on February 15, 2003, putting millions of people in the streets against this war, you think no points went up on the board, right?
You need to understand that you sidelined three-quarters of their lineup. They’ve been using the same players without a break ever since. You sent most of the nations on the globe and the United Nations out of the stadium. You left them with a couple of skinny Brits and a fat Italian as substitutes, and that’s it. Now, do you think you’re the ones who are dog tired? Their uniforms look bright and clean, but they’re hurting bad.
And what about your defense? Have you seen them move into North Korea or Iran or Syria yet?
You’re holding them to the little stuff. They’re losing the ability to think and adjust. And when you thumped them in the November 7, 2006, elections in the final seconds of the half, you could see the fear in their eyes. They’re running on rubber legs, they’re spitting blood, and they’re scared. And look at your bench! You could each play a half a minute and go home. You’ve recruited two-thirds of the stands onto the team. You’ve also put the refs on your side by calmly and relentlessly exposing their cheating. The cards are in your hands, and this is your game to lose.
Now, I’m going to talk about the second half and we’re going to go out there and finish this thing right. But first you’re going to give me 100 pushups. Now! You think you’re tired? You think you’re ready and wasting energy? The more energy you use the more you’re going to have. We’re playing for the world here, and we have the world to work with. Don’t think about saving resources. We’ve got resources you can’t drill for in any wilderness. You can only find them in a crowd. You can only find them on a team. There you go! Faster! 2 – 3 – 4! Push it! Don’t stop! It’s making you stronger! Strong enough to walk out there and win this thing with a look.
Stand up! If you think you’ve struggled, you don’t know your history. And you don’t know the misery of your opponents’ victims. Pain is not the worst thing you can face. Pain together for the better good of all is a pleasure you should value. You’re not going to win a field full of virgins in paradise. But nobody else is either. You’re going to win something that actually exists. You’re going to win peace and life and freedom – and before any of that you’re going to find solidarity. Did you know that protesting is good for your health? It is the brotherhood and sisterhood. It nourishes your soul. It brings you in from your masochistic exurban mansions of isolated media intake and puts you into action with others. You will get stronger the longer you struggle. And it’s going to be a struggle. They haven’t exhausted their playbook yet. They’re going to open the second half with a defensive formation called the Democrats.
Pay attention. This is when you strike hard and long. This defense is misleading. You move into it and it gives way, but it cushions your blow and then moves you to the side, to the side, to the side, and endlessly out of bounds. You start out right up the middle demanding an end to funding the war. They are going to counter with a claim that bringing our men and women safely home is an attack on those troops. You’ll think you’ve heard them wrong, but you cannot pause. They’re just throwing sand in your eyes. They’re about to hit you with an escalation and an opposition to the escalation, and they’ll have the fans getting into the opposition too. And you’ll find yourself sliding out of bounds unless you stay in the middle and cut off the funding for the war. If you do that, you’ll slowly gain traction, and if you hit them hard with articles of impeachment they’ll be on their backs wondering which way up is.
Their offense is still going to look like a standard corporate media assault on free thought, but it’s going to overreach and commit more errors. Your best defense is a good offense. Turn to the independent media and build it, and play tough with the corporate corrupters of communication. You can shut them down and turn them around. They need you much more than you need them.
Our opening drive is January 27th in Washington, D.C. If you are not there you are letting down the team. If you are not there you will feel shame when your grandchildren ask you about your life. If you are not there you are not in solidarity with the people of the world who do not know what Americans think because not enough of us are there. Get up! There are no excuses. No, not even that one. No, not that noble one. Not that personal one. Not that strategic one. NO excuses. You need to be in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, January 27th. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts you could just go buy a trophy and put it on your television. You’ve got to EARN IT, my friends.
You’ve got to get your ass to Washington, D.C., this Saturday, or you can join the other team. We don’t need you. We’ll win without you. Have a nice glass of oil with your steak. Or come and eat and march and sing and share and laugh with us as we turn this world on its axis.
We’re going to march past the U.S. Capitol, and it’s surrounded by Capitol Police, but they are on our team and they know we’re marching for them too. We’re marching to tell Congress what it has to do. But we’re also going to march past Fox News, and this is where we throw a screen pass and go long. We’re going to hit Fox News with a protest so loud that deep within their studios a guest will seize his throat and some truth will come out. We’re going to rock the opposition’s two key players, Fox News and the U.S. Senate, to the ground. We’re going to demand an end to this war now: http://www.unitedforpeace.org
And then we’re really going to start. Then we’re going to reach way back into our playbook and drag out of our memory what really happened in Washington, D.C., the last time it was run by a man named Dick. The antiwar movement last time around built the momentum for an impeachment movement, which gave Congress the nerve to end the war, and then the threat of impeachment stopped Nixon from vetoing the bill that cut off the war funding, and the exhilaration of doing the decent thing and cutting off the war funding drove impeachment to the goal line.
You can come to Washington on Saturday and march, but you can’t go back home. We need you on Sunday as we train and prepare: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/january27
And we need you on Monday as we lobby Congress to cut off the money and start the investigations: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/16562
We need you for three days. Three key days. Then you can climb back on any cross you choose. This game is within our reach, but they’re tough and determined and devilishly slippery. They can’t beat you, but they can and will drive this into overtime.
On February 5th you will hit them hard all over the country with nonviolent and creative occupations of congressional offices: http://vcnv.org/project/the-occupation-project
When you walk out of those offices it will be because you have won, and you will walk out with a smile, a handshake, a hug, and friendship for our newest teammates: your congress members.
Now, put your hands together here! Who’s going to win this game? The people! Are we going to win it for the Gipper? Hell no! Are we going to win it for Halliburton? Hell no! Are we going to win it for Hillary Clinton? Hell no! Are we going to win it for our grandchildren’s grandchildren and their loved ones? Hell yes! Are we going to win it for the people? Hell yes! Get out there!
The Peace Movement to Congress on Eve of Mobilization
Medea Benjamin
Friday, January 26, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
The January 27 anti-war rally in Washington DC could have become yet another symbolic peace march in the freezing cold through a city where no one was listening. But then two things happened: On November 7, the voters gave Congress an unmistakable mandate to end the war.
And George Bush, ignoring the will of the voters, the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, and the advice of his own generals, announced an escalation of the war.
People who had planned to watch this protest on C-Span from the comfort of their homes are now cramming onto buses, planes and trains to converge on the nation’s capitol. Thanks to George Bush’s latest blunder, we’re now expecting the biggest march in Washington DC since the war began.
It was easy for politicians to ignore us when we represented a small, but all-too-prescient minority trying to stop this war before it started. Now that we represent the majority of Americans, politicians of all stripes best take heed. Here’s our message to Congress:
To the Democrats, remember who put you into office on November 7. It’s thanks to growing anti-war sentiment among voters that you now control the House and the Senate. We’re delighted you’re introducing resolutions to oppose President BBush’s call to send more troops to Iraq.
Certainly this repudiation of the Bush administration’s “surge” will send a strong message to the administration. But those resolutions are mostly symbolic and would still leave us back at square one with 132,000 of our sons and daughters fighting a senseless war.
Opposing Bush’s escalation of the war is a good first step, but it’s not enough. We want you to bring our troops home.
We know—and you know–that the only real power Congress has to end war is the power of the purse. George Bush will soon be requesting another $100 billion of our tax dollars for this disastrous war. Democratic Party leaders Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have said that ending the war is a priority, but cutting money for the war is “off the table” because they don’t want to endanger the troops. But what could endanger the troops more than keeping them in Iraq? The money that has already been appropriated is more than enough to provide for the safe and orderly withdrawal of our troops. More money will be funding the continuing occupation and carnage.
If you want to support the troops, listen to them. Last year a Zogby poll showed that 72% of the troops thought the U.S. should exit Iraq within a year. Just this month 1,000 active duty military personnel filed an Appeal for Redress, a petition asking Congress to “support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq.” The majority of our soldiers want to come home not because they fear for their safety but because they no longer believe in the mission. The best way to support them is to follow the lead of courageous Democrats such as Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, Dennis Kucinich, Jim McGovern, and Maxine Waters in saying NO to more money for George Bush’s war.
We also have a message for Republicans. This war is tearing your party apart. It cost you the House and Senate in the last election, and if you continue to support this quagmire, it will cost you the presidential election in 2008. All polls show that the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose sending more troops to Iraq. While most Republicans are reluctant to join us peaceniks demonstrating in the streets, they have lost faith in this mission.
Senator McCain, your call for escalating this war shows you to be out of touch with the American people. Not a good move for someone aspiring to lead this nation.
For Republicans who have been speaking out against the war, you may not want the praise from us, but we can’t help ourselves. Walter Jones, we were appalled when you called for French fries to be rechristened “freedom fries.” But when you joined hands across the aisle to cosponsor legislation to bring the troops home, our hearts went out to you. When you said there should be no military attacks on Iran without Congressional authorization, we had to applaud. We are also grateful for the growing list of Republican senators, such as Chuck Hagel and Olympia Snowe, who recognize the need for a political rather than a military solution to the Iraq war and are posing alternatives to the Bush administration’s escalation.
The people who will surge onto the streets of the nation’s capitol this weekend will be speaking loud and clear, and reflecting the sentiments of the general public: Bring our troops home and don’t drag us into more unprovoked wars. It’s too bad that most of our elected officials refused to listen to us before invading Iraq. Let’s hope they’re listening now.
Medea Benjamin (medea@globalexchange.org) is cofounder of the anti-war group CODEPINK and Global Exchange, and is on the steering committee of United for Peace and Justice, the coalition organizing the January 27 march.
“Perfect Storm” for Peace Movement
Matt Renner
t r u t h o u t | Report
Thursday 25 January 2007
On the heels of the president’s State of the Union address, Judith LeBlanc, co-chair for the United for Peace and Justice coalition, described the situation as a “Perfect Storm” for the peace movement.
“We have majority opinion and very vocal opposition across many sectors of the people,” LeBlanc said. “We also see an incredible spiral of crisis and dying in Iraq, and we have a president who is pushing us into a constitutional crisis because he refuses to listen to the will of the American people. We have a Congress that is listening, with many members who were elected because the war is a critical issue for their constituents. We must act; we must be in the streets; we must make real the mandate for peace.”
United for Peace and Justice is a coalition of over 1,300 advocacy groups that share a common goal. According to their web site www.UnitedForPeace.org, they plan to work on local, state and national levels “to turn the tide; to overwhelm war with peace.”
According to LeBlanc, UFPJ has been holding briefing sessions with the new Democratic majority since the midterm elections. “What the congressmen say, without qualification, is ’stay in the streets, keep it loud, keep it vocal, keep it visible, because that is the wind at our backs,’” LeBlanc said.
What organizers claim will be a massive rally, with numbers in the hundreds of thousands, will be held in Washington, DC, on Saturday, January 27. Dubbed the “Peace Surge” by organizers, the rally is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. EST with speeches, followed by a march around the Capitol. Speakers and participants will include Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, Representative (and presidential candidate) Dennis Kucinich, Representatives Maxine Waters and Lynn Woolsey, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and actors Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.
“A long [presidential] campaign is a very good thing for the peace movement because it will give candidates time to travel across the country and hear what the people want them to do about Iraq,” LeBlanc said. “The debates and the statements made by many of the candidates will be seen in sharp relief against the statements that President Bush continues to make. We want a national discussion; we want all the candidates to respond to the urgent need for a plan to end this war and to help the Iraqis rebuild their nation. You are going to see a very different Republican primary contest. Every candidate has to respond to this central issue.”
According to UFPJ, the action is meant to send a message: “Congress, end the war.” The group has embraced the Bring Our Troops Home and Sovereignty of Iraq Restoration Act of 2007 - legislation that would bring all US Forces out of Iraq in six months.
Representative Woolsey, one of the bill’s co-authors, said: “The Congress has already appropriated funding that will support our troops and keep this occupation going for at least another six months. That funding instead should be used to finance an aggressive withdrawal plan that brings our troops home to their families. Our bill would do exactly that.”
Nothing is More Important Than This Moment in History
SOTUS Quo
RON JACOBS, CounterPunch
George Bush’s State of the Union speech provided every single US resident that opposes the war in Iraq with a reason to take that opposition into the streets. His argument that ending the US military involvement in that nation would lead to extremists running the world is nothing new, but his insistence that this would create an environment that provided “an emboldened enemy with new safe havens, new recruits, new resources and an even greater determination to harm America” is certainly a step up in his rhetoric. According to MR. Bush and his advisers, the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq would spell the end of the world for all freedom-loving Americans and place them in a never-seen-before danger.
To put it as bluntly as possible and without obscenities, let me say HOGWASH! The withdrawal of US troops from Iraq would not spell the beginning of the end of the world as we know it. Nor would it mean the eventual rule of Osama bin Laden and his band of zealots. Instead, it would provide the Iraqi people of all political stripes an opportunity to take control of their nation. No longer would there be US troops staging military operations in their cities and villages. No longer would there be US military commanders and spies running a war to suit Washington’s ends while creating a climate that killed 34,000 Iraqis last year alone. No longer would there be Washington’s economic experts trying to force the IMF neoliberal economic formula down the throat of Iraq’s sickly economic system. no longer would there be sham elections that the people stand in line to proudly vote only to have their votes mean less than the votes for Al Gore did in the 2000 Florida presidential balloting.
Indeed, a US withdrawal might even spell the end of the ability of Salafist and Wahabbi networks in Iraq to maintain their battle against the United States. After all, it is to the benefit of these Islamist cells for the US troops to stay, since it is the presence of the US troops that fuels their sectarian war on everyone with whom they disagree. In fact, a US withdrawal would certainly increase the chances that the truly nationalist forces currently fighting in the resistance would be willing to engage in political battles more than military ones since their primary goal of making the invader and occupier leave would have been achieved.
If I were an Iraqi, I would be quite insulted by Mr. Bush’s speech. His supposition that there would be a “contagion of violence” if US troops were to leave because extremists from all sides would battle sounds a hell of a lot like he is calling most Iraqis extremists bent on battling until their country is destroyed. ignoring the obvious fact that there has been a contagion of violence in Iraq since the US/UK brought it there in March of 2003, Mr. Bush’s implication is a crude interpretation of the Orientalist fantasy that all Arabic people are violent and bloodthirsty. Of course, this fantasy was developed by European invaders who came intent on conquering Arab lands and took great pride in the spilling of Arab blood. Now, if someone invaded where you live, don’t you think you might take up arms against them, especially if they killed you women and children without remorse?
But this piece isn’t really about Mr. Bush. It’s about Congress. You know, the folks we in the United States elected in November to get us out of the war in Iraq. Well, they’re backsliding already. Mr. Bush’s little burst of the same old 911, terrorism, Al-Queda rhetoric the night of January 23rd might fog up their politician brains even more. Our job is to not let that happen. Our job is to make sure it doesn’t happen. Out job is to insist that those men and women in Congress end the war in Iraq immediately. Not in June. Not in August. Not in 2008 or later, but immediately.
The first big step in this process was the election. The next big step comes this Saturday, January 27th in Washington, DC, San Francisco and elsewhere. Those cities are hosting antiwar protests on that day with the demand Troops Out Now. If you weren’t planning on going to one of these protests, then you need to reconsider. Put aside your personal plans and get on a bus, a train, a plane or in a car and head to a protest. This is not a time to backslide for us as citizens against the war or for the legislators we elected to end the war. If we allow Messrs. Bush and Cheney to get away unchallenged with their escalation, then we will most likely see these men and their fellow extremists expand their war and destroy the freedoms we cherish.
Groups Head to Capital to Step Up Antiwar Drive
Jeff Zeleny and Carl Hulse
Friday, January 26, 2007 by the New York Times
WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of demonstrators are set to arrive in the capital this weekend for a major antiwar march, staging the first of several protests intended to persuade the new Democratic-controlled Congress to do more than simply speak against President Bush’s Iraq policy.
But do not look for senators to be standing among the protesters on the Mall on Saturday.
Despite a consensus building around a Senate resolution to oppose sending more troops to Iraq, even the most liberal Democratic senators do not appear eager to align themselves with a traditional antiwar protest.
So the groups that are organizing the demonstrations against the president’s strategy are also carrying out a sophisticated, well-financed lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill. Their behind-the-scenes efforts are intensifying, relying on tactics deployed in a cutthroat political race.
Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, a coalition of labor unions, MoveOn.org and other groups that have traditionally rallied against wars, has raised $1.5 million since it was formed two weeks ago. The group is singling out Republicans and Democrats who have spoken out against the war, but who have so far declined to pledge support for a resolution denouncing Mr. Bush’s plan to increase the number of troops.
Next week, the group intends to fly Iraq veterans to the home states of Republican senators who serve on the Foreign Relations Committee and voted Wednesday against the resolution condemning the administration plan, including Senators Norm Coleman of Minnesota and John E. Sununu of New Hampshire. Television advertisements are scheduled to be shown in some of the same states in an effort to apply pressure before the Senate vote on the resolution in early February.
“The face of antiwar is not what it was in the ’70s,” said Jon Soltz, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who is the chairman of a group called VoteVets.
If members of Congress are slowly finding their voice opposing the administration’s Iraq plan, aides to lawmakers say, it is in no small part because of the face-to-face lobbying campaign that is a central piece of the strategy employed by Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. The group plans to spend up to $9 million, said its spokesman, Brad Woodhouse, which they expect to raise through Internet solicitations and individual donations.
Mr. Soltz and nearly a dozen other veterans have been walking the halls of Congress, and they have had no problems getting appointments. One day last week, they held back-to-back meetings with Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, Democrats who are running for president in 2008.
“This battle to oppose the escalation is as important as the original battle in Iraq,” said Jonathan Powers, who spent 14 months serving in Iraq as a captain with the First Armored Division. He laced up his beige combat boots and put on a blue suit as he went to Congress on a recent day of lobbying.
Senate leaders said Thursday that it appeared unlikely that any vote on an Iraq resolution would occur until the week of Feb. 5. Efforts to meld differing resolutions opposing the troop buildup faltered Thursday when Senators John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, chose not to negotiate with those behind a competing plan approved by the Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Delaware Democrat who is the chairman of the panel, and his allies had offered to try to merge the resolutions, saying the differences could be overcome, clearing the way for a consensus measure.
But Mr. Warner has been reluctant to consider the idea of merging the two, a move that could bring a strong bipartisan vote against the president. In a written response to Mr. Biden, Senators Warner and Nelson said they would rather work out any disagreements on the floor “as a consequence of the will of the Senate.”
In an interview on Thursday evening, Mr. Biden expressed disappointment that Mr. Warner did not agree to negotiate, but he added that a full-fledged debate on the Senate floor would be “healthy.”
Mr. Coleman said he saw the Warner approach as less partisan than the plan offered by Mr. Biden and allies who included Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska.
“The Warner resolution, I think, offers an opportunity for a lot of us to express a concern about an aspect of the policy without taking a shot at the president,” Mr. Coleman said.
The White House spokesman, Tony Snow, acknowledged the administration had been talking with Mr. Warner about his initiative. “We’re trying to take his temperature on what he intends,” Mr. Snow said.
Supporters of the president’s policy were developing resolutions of their own. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said he would propose giving the Iraqis a series of benchmarks to demonstrate progress. A draft proposal from Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, declares that “the United States military leadership in Iraq should be given a reasonable chance to execute the new plan for Iraq.”
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, began trying to frame what could be a muddled procedural fight in the Senate by emphasizing that in the end, there is likely to be a bipartisan majority of senators going on record in opposition to Mr. Bush’s approach in Iraq.
“For the first time in an intractable war,” Mr. Reid said, “a bipartisan group of senators is going to tell the president that ‘what you are doing is wrong.”
But it remained an open question whether critics of the war would wait patiently for Democrats and Republicans to reach agreement.
“The country has told us they don’t like what’s happening, and they want us to do something about it,” said Representative Lynn Woolsey, a California Democrat who is one of four members of Congress (none of them senators) scheduled to attend the rally on Saturday. “Congress has yet to keep up with the public.”
Americans Against Escalation in Iraq receives its organizational and financial muscle, at least in part, from the Service Employees International Union, the largest labor organization in the country, which wields significant influence in Democratic politics. For the first time, the union is speaking out against the plan to increase troops in Iraq.
“There was an election that showed clear consequences,” said Andrew L. Stern, the president of the union. “It’s incumbent on Democrats to express their disagreement with the president.”
While Democrats have shown little reticence speaking against the president’s plan, there is little agreement on the next step. Next week, Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, is convening a hearing to discuss the ways in which Congress can begin blocking the financing for the war, an idea that remains deeply controversial inside the party.
“It’s a walk in the park right now to oppose the idea of this war. It’s also very easy to oppose the escalation,” Mr. Feingold said. “They are once again being too timid and too cautious.”
January 25, 2007
Pentagon PSYOPs directed against Saturday DC anti-war marchers. First, the corporate media attempted to ignore the January 27 anti-war march on Washington. As the Internet and progressive talk radio spread the word about the march and groups around the nation began to mobilize their members to participate in it, the Bush administration — now armed with all sorts of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) “non-lethal” toys — decided to stage a test of an anti-crowd microwave weapon, code named “Sheriff,” in a demonstration for the media at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia.
On January 24, the military demonstrated its Active Denial System (ADS) millimeter wave directed energy beam in a test designed for the media, and hence, the public. Using enlisted airman, acting as “rioters,” as “guinea pigs,” a beam was directed at them from a parabolic antenna located 500 yards away atop a Humvee. The wave heated the skin of the “rioters” to 130 degrees, creating the feeling in the targets that they were being burned alive, scattering them in the process. The military pointed out that the beam can penetrate winter clothing (which will be worn by those participating in Saturday’s march) and 1/64th of an inch under the skin. As with any electronic weapon, it is clear that the “juice” can be turned up on Sheriff to cause more than a nasty skin burn, including internal organ damage, blindness, and death.
The weapon was developed under a contract awarded by the Pentagon’s non-lethal weapons program office at the Quantico, Virginia Marine Corps Base to Raytheon.
The public testing of such a weapon by the military just prior to what may be the largest anti-war march in Washington since the Vietnam War is a clear message by the Pentagon to marchers that the millimeter wave technology exists and is deployable. Psychologically, most people find the idea of being burned alive frightening and this Pentagon “show and tell” was an obvious ploy to scare away marchers, especially those planning to bring their families.
However, marchers should keep in mind that a Humvee is no match against hundreds of thousands of marchers and that any attempt to use such a weapon would have one shot before an angry crowd descended on the vehicle and rendered it useless as both a weapon and a vehicle.
Updated January 26, 2007
Save your aluminum foil “hats.” According to a technology expert who is familiar with the Raytheon Active Denial System (ADS), tested January 24 at Moody Air Force base in Georgia, the millimeter microwave directed beam weapon can be defeated by a crowd of people using aluminum- or gold-coated Mylar to conduct the beam to ground or even direct it back to the Humvee housing the ADS system. Although the Humvee is shielded, any law enforcement or military personnel standing near the Humvee would get a burning taste of their own medicine if the directed beam were reflected back to its source or to a crowd of police. In addition to aluminum or gold coated Mylar, Mylar reflective space blankets, aluminum coated windshield heat protective screens, and more sophisticated and precise corner cube retro-reflectors or Luneburg spheres can all be used to reflect the millimeter wave beam back to its source.
The source we spoke to also revealed that the ADS technology has already been used in Iraq against civilian rioters even though the Pentagon claims it will not be deployable until 2010. The source added that even if the ADS Humvee is present at the anti-war march in Washington tomorrow, Raytheon would not permit its use because of liability issues stemming from potential eye damage and human rights violations. However, WMR has learned that Raytheon is offering the ADS technology to police departments and as a component of home security alarm systems.
What’s right and good doesn’t come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of Democracy will never go out as long as there’s one candle in your hand.
~ Bill Moyers
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