Subject: Dept of Justice Providing Cover for Military's Domestic "Crowd Control" Programs

http://www.sunshine-project.org/incapacitants/jnlwdpdf/

 

Front End Analysis for Non-Lethal Chemicals
Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate
Early 2003

Comment: Despite JNLWD's oft-reiterated denials that it is developing any incapacitating chemical weapons, this brief item appeared on JNLWD's website in early 2003 (and was quickly removed). It describes the Directorate's program to categorize and assess drug weapons, in part by "identifying advances in the pharmaceutical industry." This work is conducted with the US Army's Soldier Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM, now called RDECOM), at Aberdeen/Edgewood, Maryland.

Also see:
The US Department of Defense Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program: Program Overview
The Advantages and Limitations of Calmatives for Use as a Non-Lethal Technique (Penn State's 'bid' for work on this contract.)

Multi-Shot Launcher with Advanced Less-Than-Lethal Ring Airfoil Projectiles
Proposal by Vanek Prototype Co. (2002-90-CA-IZ) to the US Department of Justice
March 2002

Comment: The ring airfoil projectile (RAP) is a "non-lethal" weapon with both kinetic and chemical variants in its original design. It is an aerodynamic, circular-shaped munition that can "sting" with blunt force, or discharge a chemical on impact - or both. The original RAP was produced by the US Army in response to domestic unrest in the 1970s, as an alternative to bullets, following the shootings at Kent State University in May, 1970. The original Army RAP, of which 500,000 were produced, was attached to the end of an M-16 barrel and fired much like a rifle grenade. The original RAP was probably never used and rapidly became obsolete due modifications to the M-16 barrel design.

Under this 2002 contract with the US Department of Justice, Vanek will manufacture protoypes of a new RAP launcher and projectile, concentrating on improvement of chemical delivery and manufacturing a launcher (gun) that can rapidly discharge up to 8 chemical rounds. According to the proposal, these will accurately deliver chemicals up to 50 meters, and the work will "concentrate on the delivery of a chemical payload on and about the target. Payloads of incapacitants, irritants, malodorants, and marking agents would be of first interest..." The proposal was approved in the amount of $339,000.

Assessment Report: US/UK Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW)/Urban Operations Executive Seminar
(Report apparently authored by JNLWD)
November 2000

Comment: The most interesting aspects of this report relate to a) United Kingdom's position that the "calmative" chemical weapons (see last page, and passages through the text) of interest to JNLWD violate the Chemical Weapons Convention and b) JNLWD's claim that it can do an end-around of treaty controls by contracting work out to the US Department of Justice and Department of Energy. Circumstances suggest JNLWD is proceding with the plan articulated here: The National Institute of Justice, a unit of the US Department of Justice, is currently funding calmatives research (a mix of OC and drug agents) by the Marine Corps Research University at Pennsylvania State University. (Also see The Advantages and Limitations of Calmatives for Use as a Non-Lethal Technique, below, a report which predates current DOJ-funded calmatives development.)

The Advantages and Limitations of Calmatives for Use as a Non-Lethal Technique

Available in Two Formats:
1) Original Document as Released to the Sunshine Project from the National Academies of Science
2) Penn State's PDF Version of this report (omits chemical diagram of fentanyl on the cover.)

Marine Corps Research University (Applied Research Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University)
October 2000

Comment: The biochemical weapons proposed in this shocking report are of major concern. They violate the federal Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, and the Chemical Weapons Convention. The lead author of this report recently left Penn State to become a Dean at the University of Pittsburgh. The other authors, including a medical doctor, remain at Penn State and continue to work in the development of "non-lethal" weapons, for example, in the October 2002 report (above) on the OICW non-lethal airburst munition.

As indicated in the report, the Penn State team prepared a database on calmative agents which it submitted to JNLWD in electonic format (a zip disk). Under FOIA, JNLWD initially claimed that this database is exempt from release because it constitutes part of a commercial offer to the government. After more intense questioning, JNLWD then decided that the database is not exempt from disclosure; but now claims that the database cannot be located and, therefore, cannot be released.

Why two versions? Months after the Sunshine Project scanned and placed this document on its website, the authors released an altered version of the report. That version deleted the chemical diagram of fentanyl (the agent reportedly used by Russian Special Forces in October 2002 in the Moscow Theater) found on the original report's cover. The text of the Penn State version is searchable within Adobe Acrobat.

Overhead Liquid Dispersal System (OLDS) Non-Lethal Demonstration Program (Final Report)
Primex Aerospace Company (WA), a subsidiary of General Dynamics (FL)
Now doing business as General Dynamics Aerospace Solid Propellant Systems Group
April 2000

Comment: This document is the final report of the company's initial effort to develop an aerosol device for crowd control weapons. The report notes that the "OLDS" system can be adapted for a mortar round and that initial experiments to do this were conducted. This report includes photographs of field tests. In 2001, JNLWD asked General Dynamics to continue this work, by developing a "gas dispersion generator"

Mobile Non-Lethal Disseminator (redacted)
US Army Aberdeen Proving Ground
June 1998

Comment: This proposal calls for formulating "non-lethal" chemicals so that they can be released by a battlefield smoke generator. This document was redacted prior to release by the Marine Corps. Click here for more information on the M-56 smoke generator .

Commercial Backpack Blower / Sprayer System
US Army CBDCOM (MD)
June 1998

Delivery of chemicals by microcapsules
Advanced Polymer Laboratory, University of New Hampshire
1998

Comment: UNH is also a participant in JNLWD's mortar development efforts.

Dose Safety Margin Enhancement for Chemical Incapacitation and Less-Than-Lethal Targeting
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (CA)
January 1997

Comment: This is the final report of a contract with the US Department of Justice. This report discusses testing of small arms ammunition delivering an opiate/DMSO mixture and the researchers' discussions with a pharmaceutical company concerning design of a further combination with naloxone (narcan). The report's Executive Summary mentions that the LLNL research team has conducted similar research for "special military operations and low intensity conflict". The report calls for testing on animals, human skin, and human subjects.

Page 21 of this document contains a notable passage concerning use of a fentanyl-based agent: "The dry powder could be dispersed as a smoke during a hostage situation. Terrorists would be incapacitated by breathing anesthetic smoke injected into an air duct or office building air conditioning system." The idea bears a striking resemblance the disastrous events of 2002 in the Moscow theater, where more than 100 innocent hostages died.

This document is all the more notable when read alongside of Assessment Report: US/UK Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW)/Urban Operations Executive Seminar (see above), in which JNLWD officials admit that development of "calmative" chemical weapons violates US Department of Defense regulations; but indicate that they will nonetheless develop such weapons through their relationship with the US Department of Justice.

Harassing, Annoying, and "Bad Guy" Identifying Chemicals (redacted)
US Air Force Wright Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB (OH)
June 1994

Comment: This "non-lethal" chemical weapons proposal from the US Air Force proposes development of a variety of chemical weapons, such as: "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs [causing] homosexual behaviour". Other chemicals proposed includes ones that "made personnel very sensitive to sunlight", and that "attract stinging and biting bugs and rodents" to enemy positions. This document was redacted prior to release by the Marine Corps.