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COHEN'S COUNTER-COMMENTARY

	Is this the begining of Techno-Totalitarianism?Who is listening...what are the effects?
	Microwave Surveillance VS Health & Civil Rights Posted: Apr 03 2002 Robert Carl Cohen While the media has recently reported the development of microwave surveillance devices which can reveal concealed weapons, contraband, etc., there appears to be a reluctance to consider the health and civil rights issues involved. As a precocious science-fiction fan - I became fascinated with the stuff as a child back in the 1930s, and was accepted into the LASFAS (LA Science Fantasy Society) in 1943 at the age of 13 - where I associated with then-poor but aspiring writers such as Ray Bradbury - my initial response to this radar-type probe device is "great - another old science fiction concept becomes reality." Having acquired a few other attitudes during the past 59 years, however, it does raise substantial issues. Firstly there's the health consideration: The short term effects of exposure to high intensity microwaves has been well known ever since WWII, when US Navy sailors who climbed up on their ship's radar towers to use the radio energy to fry eggs were found to have fried themselves as well. And then there was the short order waitress who had the door of her microwave oven removed so that she could heat & serve food faster, and shortly thereafter lost her hand. Which is to say that powerful microwaves such as those used in radars and unshielded microwave ovens can be injurious to children, adults, cats, dogs, and other living things. The long term effects of low level microwave emanations, however, are not so well known. Can the exposure being inflicted on billions of people worldwide by ubiquitous microwave relay towers, cell phones, direct Broadcast satellites, etc., over a period of 20 or more years, cause subtle biological effects which could lead to cancer, sterility, etc? It's very expensive to conduct the long-term tests needed to know this. So having the police, military, et al, zapping people in airports, or even on the street to see if they're carrying some sort of concealed object could possibly have a bad biological effect. There have been press reports in recent years of traffic cops developing Brain cancer as a result of holding their radar guns next to their heads? While some habitual speeders might see this as a severe form of karmic justice, it's both tragic and avoidable. And there has more recently been serious speculation about the possibility of the far lower energy emanating from cell phones causing Brain tumors. So it seems logical that any microwave-based surveillance device would have to be tested for many years before we could be certain that it couldn't injure people. Also, of course, its power level would have to be strictly limited to insure that it couldn't inadvertently be putting out too much energy. I once read about the Nazis using a concealed x-ray generator so that when concentration camp prisoners were ordered to stand in front of the counter where it was hidden they were secretly sterilized, or worse. Also there's always the possibility of the output of such a surveillance device being accidently (or purposely) increased to a dangerous level. Then there's the civil rights question. Even before the heightened security requirements of 911 our plutocrat-protecting/public-be-damned Supreme Court was issuing rulings which weakened the publics right to be protected from unwarranted search and seizure, and since 911 the Constitution's Fourth Amendment's provisions have been even further compromised. But even before 911, the Courts ruled that a woman, having been arrested, handcuffed and jailed for not wearing her seat belt (recent Texas case), since she'd been "arrested," the cops could proceed to search her car even-though there wasn't the slightest indication that she'd been involved in any sort of criminal activity or was in possession of contraband. So what's to stop overly enthusiastic law enforcement agents from microwave scanning everyone walking down the street, then arresting whoever their scanner showed was carrying anything which could be interpreted (By who? A highly trained image interpreter? An inadequately trained, minimum wage, security guard? Or some glitch-less (?) pattern recognition software system?) as a weapon or contraband? Using such a scanner in all but the most critically necessary situations, such as a sensitive defense facility (And in such cases there should be specific notification) is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Finally, even a rocket surgeon such as yours truly doesn't have to strain to figure out how to thwart such a device: aluminum wrap to mask the shape of whatever is in your pocket or under your clothing is available at the local grocery supply store. Sure, the scanner's output can be increased to tell the difference between a steel gun or knife and its aluminum wrapper, (unless the weapon is made of plastic) but increasing the power in order to penetrate such reflective materials can also greatly increase the potential for causing biological injury. To sum up: If "Techno-Totalitarianism" (cute term - did I just invent it?) continues unchecked, in addition to gas masks required to filter out polluted air, filtering our drinking water, growing our own food to avoid pesticide residues, growth hormones and preservatives, scrambling our phone calls & encrypting our e-mail, we may soon be walking around in some sort of microwave reflective body armor to protect ourselves from having our privacy violated and/or being zapped by those we've empowered to protect us. Go Top