Pentagon reveals rejected chemical weapons

* 15 January 2005
* From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

THE Pentagon considered developing a host of non-lethal chemical weapons that would disrupt discipline and morale among enemy troops, newly declassified documents reveal.

Most bizarre among the plans was one for the development of an "aphrodisiac" chemical weapon that would make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other. Provoking widespread homosexual behaviour among troops would cause a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale, the proposal says.

Other ideas included chemical weapons that attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats to troop positions, making them uninhabitable. Another was to develop a chemical that caused "severe and lasting halitosis", making it easy to identify guerrillas trying to blend in with civilians. There was also the idea of making troops' skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight.

The proposals, from the US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, date from 1994. The lab sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called "harassing, annoying and 'bad guy'-identifying chemicals". The plans have been posted online by the Sunshine Project, an organisation that exposes research into chemical and biological weapons.

Spokesman Edward Hammond says it was not known if the proposed $7.5 million, six-year research plan was ever pursued.

Surely gives new meaning to "all is fair in love and war".

Did anyone ever see the video of the troops in Vietnam that were given LSD to test as a chemical weapon? They were all bug-eyed while at attention, and then would fall apart when given basic commands. It's hilarious. Meanwhile, the "scientists" are looking on, grinning like they've discovered something amazing. I wonder if they ever used it on the Vietcong.

Wow, great find Tsunami. Absolutely disturbing.

Kinda funny too...

Could you post a link??

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns? ... print=true

Come on, tsunami gets 98% of her articles from Drudge, look there

Or BBC World News...so I would say 50/50

You know stuff like this has been getting locked over in general discussion

I can't imagine War movies in the decades that followed its use intepreting that weapon. Can you imagine Apocalypse Now with lines like "It reeks of gay in the morning, smells like...victory."

I think the line is, "I love the smell of Santorum in the morning. It smells like ... victory."

--PunkDavid

Until today that line would have been relatively sterile.

Here's what I was going to post in the other thread, I figured it still needs be said:


Its funny...and I'm not trying to make a generalized statement here (even though it is), but many people who support spending so much money on "new" weapons such as this, war, and defense, are probably also homophobic and are against gay marriage, or homosexuality in general. There is some truth to that statement, as evident by the military's very own "don't ask don't tell policy." Fucking sad.

i didnt even see this thread, im a dumbass

They have a pill that makes dudes like dudes?

...

Sooooo... that cure for cancer, how's that one coming?

Would you believe...

... the super secret weapon, "The Nude Bomb".



--PunkDavid