TheNews Insider
Frankensteinsin the Pentagon
DARPA'sCreepy Bioengineering Program
By Cheryl Seal
25August 2003
DARPABioengineering Program Seeks to Turn Soldiers Into Cyborgs
Notlong ago, the public was stunned by the practical and moral idiocy ofthePentagon researcher (and unprosecuted war criminal) John Poindexter,whoproposed a 'football pool' scheme for predicting terrorist attacks. Wealllaughed at such insanity and were relieved to see the scheme speedilydeep-sixed. However, this bit of lunacy was just the lightest ice inthe tip ofthe very large, very dark iceberg that the Pentagon's research program,betterknown as DARPA, has become.
Justa few weeks before the bizarro world 'terrorism gambling' project wasexposed,a DARPA (which stands for Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency)-sponsoredconference was held in Washington, DC, that showcased the latest lovechild ofthe Bush Pentagon: military bioengineering. The euphemisms being usedby thePentagon to disguise the true nature of this research are being spreadas thickas bondo and cheap paint at a used car lot. For example, the title oftheconference was: 'Harvesting Biology for Defense Technology,' while thesubheading of the section on human 'bioengineering' was entitled,ratherominously, in light of the military's history, 'Enhancing HumanPerformance.'
Sohow does the Bush DARPA seek to 'enhance' human performance? In akinder,gentler administration, the solution would be better training, betterfood,better pay, more leave time, and greater use of stress-reducing dutyrotations.But this is not a kinder, gentler -or even rational- administration.Bush andCompany plan to enhance soldier performance by squeezing the most thatcan behumanly -and not so humanly- squeezed from troops without having toresort toanything as primitive as decent pay. Their motto: Get the most humanoutput forthe least human input: After all, it's the corporate way!
Hereare some examples of DARPA 'Human-enhancing' schemes:
The 'BrainInterface Program' is the most lavishly funded of nearly all theDARPAbioengineering efforts (the project has been given $24 million for thenext twoyears). It is aimed at developing ways to 'integrate' soldiers intomachines-literally- by wiring them (remotely or directly) to their planes,tanks, orcomputers. An implantable brain chip is now under development in thissickprogram, which has already proudly demonstrated how rats can be turnedintoliving robots through the manipulation of stimulus-response signals inthebrain via electrodes. The Pentagon hopes to use these pathetic,'modified'creatures (you should see the photos -makes you want to join People fortheEthical Treatment of Animals!) in mine clearance.
"Theuse of animals in warfare is ugly enough without the further insult totheirdignity involved in turning them into involuntary cyborgs," writesJamesMeek in the Guardian. "And a military command committed to theuseof creatures which are part-animal, part-machine, is going to be thatbit lessreluctant to interfere in its soldiers in similar ways."
But,as the conference heading would have you believe, DARPA isn'tinterfering -itis merely 'enhancing.' After all, as an official at DARPA recentlyobserved,"The human is becoming the weakest link in defense systems."
Enhancementefforts at the Brain Interface Program are now progressing nicely. ThechiefFrankenstein of the project, one Alan S. Rudolph, now wants to be abletotransmit images or sound directly into the brains of rats -and ofcourse,later, soldiers...or prisoners of war (just imagine the torturepotentialhere!).
The 'MetabolicDominance and Engineered Tissue' program is aimed at being able toartificially pump upsoldier endurance and muscle strength.
The 'Persistencein Combat' program is a bizarre self-treatment scheme which wouldincludepain-reducing and blood-stopping devices and techniques soldiers wouldapply totheir own wounds -even moderately severe ones- thereby bypassing theneed for amedic and enabling a soldier to keep fighting, despite seriouswounds!Yep, just keep on runnin' through the jungle on that broken leg or withthatbullet in the gut! Once that pain-obliterating electrode in your brainisactivated, you won't feel a thing!
The 'ContinuousAssisted Perfomance' program hopes to find biotechnological ways(implants,metabolic manipulation, etc) to make it possible to push exhaustedsoldiers onwithout loss of performance for up to seven days without sleep.
Theabove technologies are referred to by DARPA under the subheading of'neuroengineering.' Neuroengineering was played around with back in theearly1990s (no doubt given the initial green light by Bush I), but became aratherminor and exotic 'side line' of research in the Clinton years. SinceBush IIcame on the scene, however, neuroengineering programs have been shovedinto aposition of major importance.
Thewording of the descriptions of all the 'human enhancement' programs isextremely deceptive -even deliberately misleading. For example, havingread theBrain Interface Program background in Nature magazine, I knowfor a factthat 'noninvasive' technologies (contrary to what is claimed in thedescription) are not currently the project priority and are consideredat besta remote goal. What is in the works right now is amicroprocessing chipthat can be implanted beneath the skull and remotely manipulated. In aJune 19 Naturearticle, Rudolph estimated that a usable chip that could befield-tested inrats is about two years away, while noninvasive technologies (whateverthatmeans -how can it not be when you are manipulating someone's neurons?)is onlyan aspired-to ideal.
Theresearchers also try to hide behind grandiose-sounding claims ofworking to thegreater good as a way to fool the public, and possibly themselves, intobelieving that these projects really do have some benign reasons forbeing, ifonly to promote the cause of 'science.' That is why nearly everyprogram in theconference guide comes with a 'suggested benign use' (my own flippantphrase).After all, whines Rudolph, today's soldier's brain chip may betomorrow's braindamage therapy. We should be impressed? After all, the same argumentwas usedby Hitler's researchers to justify their heartless 'medical'experiments onJews, gypsies, retarded children, enemy soldiers, prisoners, et al.).What is truly chilling is that these technologies, in essence, areseeking toturn our soldiers into human fighting machines, sacrificing theirautonomy and,very likely, long-term quality of life for short term military savings-savingsthat will go right into the pockets of the government's beloved defensecontractors. There is no way these technologies can be benign -thewholeconcept is totally against what America stands for and against anyotherreasonable code of ethics, for that matter. In addition, with the waythey arebeing rushed through the research gamut, there is no way they can beprovensafe, especially long-term. I can just imagine the residual tissuedamage,cancers, post-traumatic stress disorders, etc, that DARPA-style 'humanenhancement' will inflict on our guys and gals in uniform. RememberAgentOrange? Remember aboveground nuke testing? Remember submarine sailorsbeinggassed as a DARPA 'experiment,' or those soldiers, most of them blackor Hispanic,fed LSD? As it is, more than half of all Gulf War vets have now filedfordisability because of the devastating effects of Gulf War Syndrome.
Theonly variable that has been conclusively linked to the syndrome is theingestion by US Gulf War soldiers (and some British troops) of a'cocktail' ofanti-bacterial inoculations (including the anthrax vaccine) and ananti-nervegas agent. A clear pattern was shown: Soldiers who did not receive the'cocktail' (including all French soldiers) did not later report GulfWarsyndrome symptoms, even if exposed to depleted uranium (anothersuspectedcause). This finding came out in European journals way back in themid-1990s.French commanders and many British commanders seriously questioned thewisdomof the cocktail at the time. But not the Pentagon! After all, thecocktail was'human enhancing.' So now, will beneath-the-skull implants for soldiersbecomeas mandatory as anthrax vaccines? (for my theory of Gulf War syndrome,read theparagraph after this article).
Withthe insane Bush DARPA plunging forward with its Darth Vader research,thepossibilities for horrific misuse and long-term consequences arestaggering.For example, one of the DARPA Frankensteins, one Ted Berger of theUniversityof Southern California, envisions pilots who would be able to pilottheirplanes by thought alone, thanks to brain implants. This concept, likeso muchmilitary research, fails to consider realistic variables. To name justa few ofthese: what about the impact of fear, exhaustion, pain, or dizziness oneffective neural function? Whoops -didn't mean to crash into that busyhighway!Or how about ruthless generals turning their pilots into 'instantKamikazes' asa shortcut to winning a battle? Or, for that matter, who's to stop theenemy ora lone terrorist who has gained access to the technology from finding away torepeat 9/11 scenarios using our own pilots or soldiers? At the veryleast,there can be no benign consequence to pushing men and women beyondtheir'unassisted' endurance. The risk of brain damage, brain tumors,cancers,catastrophic immune responses similar to host-graft disease, heartattacks(from electronic signals triggering arrhythmias), and other assaults onthebody seem the most imminent dangers. But who knows what unforeseenconsequencesmay emerge? For example, the children conceived during and right afterthefirst above-ground nuclear tests are just now approaching 60 - whoknows whatsort of long smoldering cancers may yet erupt into 'epidemics.'
Onechief neuroethicist at the Center for Cognitive Neurosciences at theUniversityof Pennsylvania at Philadelphia has questioned not just the ethics ofsome ofDARPA's research, but the ethics of those researchers who accept DARPAmoney.If they do so knowing the research is questionable, she asserts, thenthey havecompromised their ethics.
And,I might add, our soldier's lives.
Afterword:My Gulf War Syndrome Theory
Basedon hundreds of readings I have done on the human immune system in thecourse ofmy abstracting job, I have formulated the following theory:
Allvaccines cause a temporary weakening of the immune system as they 'kickin,'including the common flu vaccine. This effect lasts from about 7-14days. Ifyou combine a mishmash of powerful and, let's face it, largely unprovenvaccines, along with an anti-nerve gas agent, you will be dealing aformidabletemporary blow to your natural immune system. Because the immune systemisresponsible not just for warding off viruses and bacteria, but forconfrontingall other sorts of foreign 'invaders' including irritants such as toxicparticles in the air, chemical sprays (bug spray, sun screen, etc.), aslammedimmune system (ask any AIDS patient) can leave you wide open to allsorts ofnasty stuff, from skin lesions to tumors. So, I believe the cocktailwas a secondaryagent of damage -primary elements of the soldiers' immune systems wereknockedout, then assaulted by carcinogens, irritants, and other elements thatordinarily could have been resisted, as they were by most troops whodid notreceive the vaccines. This would also explain why the symptoms of theSyndromeare so diverse. It all depended on what you happened to get exposed toout inthe field following the cocktail and how, specifically, your immunesystemresponded to the assault on it by the vaccine cocktail.
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Tohelp get you started, here's a list of names of DARPA 'humanenhancement'program research fund recipients and their universities. MiguelNicolelis,Duke University at Durham, North Carolina; Tomaso Poggio, JamesDiCarlo and Christof Koch, Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology; SamDeadwyler, Wake Forest University; Jon Kaas, VanderbiltUniversity,Nashville, Tennessee; Ted Berger, University of SouthernCalifornia.