Thought Police

The 2007 International Privacy Ranking

Brain Loop Reads Your Mind : PaulTech Network

“the self-paced 3-class Graz brain-computer interface (BCI) which is based on the detection of sensorimotor electroencephalogram (EEG) rhythms induced by motor imagery. Self-paced operation means that the BCI is able to determine whether the ongoing brain activity is intended as control signal (intentional control) or not (non-control state). The presented system is able to automatically reduce electrooculogram (EOG) artifacts, to detect electromyographic (EMG) activity, and uses only three bipolar EEG channels. Two applications are presented: the freeSpace virtual environment (VE) and the Brainloop interface. The freeSpace is a computer-game-like application where subjects have to navigate through the environment and collect coins by autonomously selecting navigation commands. Three subjects participated in these feedback experiments and each learned to navigate through the VE and collect coins. Two out of the three succeeded in collecting all three coins. The Brainloop interface provides an interface between the Graz-BCI and Google Earth.”

From the Irish Independent - Diplomat’s Cold War panic over microwave ‘attacks’:

Ireland’s ambassador to Moscow sent his children for medical tests during a Cold War panic over an alleged Soviet microwave attack on foreign diplomats, state papers show. High levels of radiation were detected in the US Embassy in the then Soviet Union in 1976 sparking fears that officials were being deliberately targeted with a secret radioactive weapon.

The Irish ambassador, Edward Brennan, sent two of his children for blood tests with a US doctor who was examining the American community in Moscow at the height of the scare. Both were given the all-clear but other ambassadors, meeting in a special bug-free bunker in the Russian capital, continued to express concern, according to the just-released files.

FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics

Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.

From Cryptome: Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience: Dual Use Discipline for Understanding & Managing Complexity and Altering Warfare

The Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience (ECN) discipline, and its associated fields, may produce tools that advance humanity’s ability to understand and manage itself. Simultaneously, ECN may also yield brain-centric weaponry that drastically alters human warfare. The United States Department of Defense (DOD) may marshal significant resources–as it did during the 1941 to 1946 Manhattan Project—to drive ECN research, development and testing. DOD is the only entity in the United States with the capability to fully fund ECN programs. The DOD’s Defense Science Board and the United States’ Intelligence Community has recently suggested research thrusts into ECN and the merging of data-heavy sciences and social sciences. Success will ultimately depend on program directors and researchers’ acceptance of general Evolutionary Theory and, in particular, Evolutionary Psychology. Failure to do this will result in a mosh-pit of studies based on dated science and methodology

American Chronicle: Mind Control, MK ULTRA and A Course in Miracles

He states, “The participation of psychiatrists and medical schools in mind control research was not a matter of a few scattered doctors pursuing questionable lines of investigation. Rather, the mind control experimentation was systematic, organized, and involved many leading psychiatrists and medical schools. The mind control experiments were interwoven with radiation experiments, and research on chemical and biological weapons. They were funded by the CIA, Army, Navy, Air Force, and by other agencies including the Public Health Service and the Scottish Rite Foundation. The psychiatrists, psychologists, neurosurgeons, and other contractors conducting the work were imbedded in a broad network of doctors, and much of the research was published in medical journals. The climate was permissive, supportive, and approving of mind control experimentation.”

Device for Disabled Converts Brain Signals into Spoken Words

The device, called the Audeo, translates thoughts — or, more precisely, brain signals sent to the vocal cords — into synthesized speech. Using the same technology, inventors Michael Callahan and Thomas Coleman also have created a mechanized wheelchair that moves, turns and stops in response to intercepted brain signals.

The Voice of God Weapon Returns | Danger Room from Wired.com

At a government workshop some time ago I head someone describe a new tool that was described as the “voice of Allah.” This was said to be a device that would operate at a distance and would deliver a message that only a single person could hear. The story was that it was tested in a conflict situation in Iraq and pointed at one insurgent in a group, who whipped around looking in all directions, and began a heated conversation with his compatriots, who did not hear the message. At the time I greeted this story with some skepticism.

The Future of Things has a good article on Brain Computer Interfaces for prosthetic devices.

Already, primates have been trained to feed themselves using a robotic arm merely by thinking about it, while brain sensors have been picking up their brain-signal patterns since 2003. The time has come for implementing this technology on paralyzed human patients and amputees. This article will provide a brief explanation of the technology, its current status, and the potential future it holds.

The  World Technology Evaluation Center(WTEC) has published a report on the state of Brain Computer Interface(BCI) research and development around the world. The large report(230 pages) , sponsored by the NSF and others, provides a survey of the sensor technology and applications mainly in medicine. It does not cover miltary applications.

December 10th – 12th was the 2007 Directed Energy & Non-Lethal Weapons Conference hosted by the IDGA (Institute for Defense and Government Advancement) and held at Georgetown University in Washington DC. I haven’t been able to find much detail yet but Sharon Weinberger has a couple of articles in her Wired blog.

First is the DSLAD or Distributed Sound and Light Array Debilitator which uses a combination of light and sound to produce effects like dizziness, loss of balance and nausea.

The other article is about the quest for sonic weapons -

At least for sound weapons, that now may be changing. A military-funded lab is pushing to get approval to conduct human testing at 130Db to see if, in that range, sound could have a “deterrent effect” (beyond just being loud and annoying). As Nicholas C. Nicholas, the Chief Scientist at Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, said today at a nonlethal weapons conference. “Behavior modification is next logical step [in testing],” he said.

Another weapon featured at the conference is the Pulsed Energy Projectile -

Pulsed Energy Projectile or PEP is a technology of non-lethal weaponry currently under development by the U.S. military. It involves the emission of an invisible laser pulse which, upon contact with the target, evaporates the surface and creates a small amount of exploding plasma; this results in a sound and shock wave that stuns the target as well as in electromagnetic radiation that affects nerve cells and causes a painful sensation. The technology can also be used as a lethal weapon, and indeed an early name was Pulsed Impulsive Kill Laser (PIKL).

Adversising Age is reporting on the use of hypersonic sound by advertisers to deliver sound direct to the cranium -

New Yorker Alison Wilson was walking down Prince Street in SoHo last week when she heard a woman’s voice right in her ear asking, “Who’s there? Who’s there?” She looked around to find no one in her immediate surroundings. Then the voice said, “It’s not your imagination.”

Indeed it isn’t. It’s an ad for “Paranormal State,” a ghost-themed series premiering on A&E this week. The billboard uses technology manufactured by Holosonic that transmits an “audio spotlight” from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium.

From Holosonic’c website

The technique of using a nonlinear interaction of high-frequency waves to generate low-frequency waves was originally pioneered by researchers developing underwater sonar techniques dating back to the 1960’s . These early acoustics researchers successfully derived the formal mathematical basis for this effect and developed innovative sonar systems with more directivity and bandwidth than would otherwise be available. They called this device a parametric array.

The ultrasound, whose wavelengths are only a few millimeters long, are much smaller than the source, and consequently travel in an extremely narrow beam.

Of course, the ultrasound, which contains frequencies far outside our range of hearing, is completely inaudible. But as the ultrasonic beam travels through the air, the inherent properties of the air cause the ultrasound to distort (change shape) in a predictable way. This distortion gives rise to frequency components in the audible bandwidth, which can be accurately predicted, and therefore precisely controlled. By generating the correct ultrasonic signal, we can create, within the air itself, essentially any sound desired.

Thanks to the Neurophilosophy blog for alerting me to this topic.

Neurosky has announced a partnership with Sega to develop mind-controlled products for the computer games market:

NeuroSky, Inc., the leading innovator in cost-effective and “wearable” bio-sensor and signal processing systems, and SEGA TOYS Co., Ltd., a unique toy maker and part of the SEGA SAMMY GROUP of Tokyo, a global entertainment organization, are announcing a strategic partnership for developing innovative, next generation consumer entertainment products. Their goal is to join forces to take ‘play’ to the next level by pioneering toys which allow players to use brainwaves and other bio-signals to control them.

The core piece of this will be Neurosky’s  Think-Gear module which captures EEG signals, eye movements, and other bio-signals via their patented Dry-Active Sensor technology. The signal processing unit then runs proprietary interpretation software to translate biosignals into useful logic commands.

NeuroSky face competition from a number of other companies racing to develop mind control interfaces such as Emotiv and IMEC. A video of the controller in action can be found here.

Today (December 10th) is Human Rights Day which marks the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly. Once again the most heinous violations of human rights are taking place right under the noses of those that celebrate this day.

Organized stalking and electromagnetic harassment go largely unreported in the United States and many other countries throughout the world. I say largely unreported because 2007 finally saw a major newspaper tackling this subject. While drawing some much needed attention it served more to illustrate by the response how many victims are out there. Hopefully more press attention will come in 2008 and maybe human rights groups will start to address this very serious problem.

Make no mistake this conspiracy IS REAL, it is huge and its effect on the lives of the victims is appalling. People are rightly concerned about the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping of US citizens but that pales in significance to what is really going on. The technologies to pry into the most private of human thoughts, to deliver voices to the head and to attack the body with directed energy weapons are all real. THEY EXIST and what is worse they are in the hands of people willing to use them to torture and harass innocent people throughtout the world. Let us hope that by the time the next human rights day rolls around that these issues will start to be addressed by governements and human rights groups alike.

Anthropology Today might seems an unlikely source of information on MKULTRA but a recent two part article by David Price  describes the role of anthropologists in the MKULTRA project. Both of these articles are now available on WikiLeaks:

In this first part of a two-part article, David Price looks at one of several research programmes funded in the 1950s and 1960s by the Central Intelligence Agency under the MK-Ultra programme in which social scientists, including anthropologists, were led (mostly unwittingly) to provide input into interrogation techniques still in use today. The second part will examine more concretely how this research found its way into the Kubark manual used by US intelligence at detention facilities abroad and through its programme of ‘extreme renditions’.