CROWD CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES - Omega Research Foundation

Therefore it does not come as a surprise that the search for suitable alternatives covered by Libby
included non-lethal anti-personnel land mines based on the bounding APERS Mine (volcano M16A2)
but with entanglement payload and including potential immobilization enhancers - adhesive net and
electric sting net; cannister-launched area denial systems. 359 Allegedly non-lethal versions of the
Claymore mine containing plastic rather than steel balls have been also been showcased. However,
little hard data has been presented on fragment kinetic energies to judge such assertions by the criteria
outlined in Section 4 and in Table 2 (below). Given the number of such mines which will need to be
replaced along borders such as that dividing North and South Korea, there is tremendous commercial
incentive to compete for these contracts. A recent addition has been by the electric stun weapon
manufacturer Tasertron, who recently announced two devices - a Taser Area denial device (TADD)
and a Volcano Launched Taser Munition, for border control and perimeter protection. Triggering the
TADD device leads to electric shock darts firing in a multi-directional pattern whereas the Volcans
darts go in one direction only. 360
Other second generation area denial technologies which are already available are malodorous
stench chemicals (which can be used to contaminate an area deemed to be off limits, the chemicals
can be chosen to be offensive to particular cultural or ethnic groups and sensibilities) 361 and aqueous
foam barriers (which are essentially a biodegradeable form of suds which can be piled as high as four
feet). 362
6.4 Designer Bio-Weapons For Selective Mass Control The rapid change in biotechnology including
genetic engineering is already revolutionizing medicine and agriculture. However relatively little
attention has been paid to its potential malign use as surgically targetable future technologies of
political control. This possibility of a malign breakthrough was recognised in the early Nineties when
important advances in the Human Genome Project (involving the mapping of some 3 billion pairs of
human DNA) and the human diversity project (which looked at the genetic basis for racial differences),
were already taking place. 363 Whilst the idea of genetic weapons is not new 364 , it was previously
thought such targeting was impossible because humans are so similar genetically. 365
However the Genome Diversity Project which stores genetic material from 500 populations around
the world has found significant differences in blood group proteins. These differences are now thought
to be sufficiently stable and large to be targeted either by using genetically modified organisms or
toxins which select a particular genetic marker. Given the heterogeneous nature of many populations
including those of the US, only certain political areas and borders could be targeted without the risk of
so called friendly fire. The biotechnology revolution will bring enormous benefits to our understanding
and our ability to intervene in life processes. Many commercial activities will be transformed by such
research such as tailor-making drugs more exactly for human receptor sites known to be linked to
particular metabolic pathways. One indicator of the awesome rate of change in this area is the meteoric
rise in the number of patent requests filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office for nucleic acid
sequences: 4,000 in 1991 and 500,000 in 1996. 366 Multinational drug companies are currently doing a
complete survey of each of the constituent nucleotides for each human genome group. A major driving
force is thwarting cancer: some genes force cell growth, some genes inhibit cell growth. The Holy Grail
of this research is to find a biochemical tool which can enter cancer cells, correct cell growth then stop.
However, the mirror image of this research is that it will yield knowledge on how to go the other way. As
the data on human receptor sites accumulates, the risk of breakthroughs in malign targeting of suitable
micro-organisms at either cell membrane level, or via viral vectors, grows correspondingly. 367
The development of such genetic based weapons is currently banned under the 1972 Biological &
Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), the 1925 Geneva Protocols and the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Alas, unlike the CWC, there are currently no verification procedures for the BTWC, it is a gentlemans
agreement 368 . The emergence of pepper-gas as a weapon for crowd control is a case in point - as a
plant toxin it is covered by the BTWC but has simply slipped through the net in terms of internal security
operations. Other natural and synthetic toxins used for such purposes may be even more hazardous,
particularly if they are re-engineered. Already the properties of saxitoxin, banned under the CWC and
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