China Jumps Off the Iran Sanctions Merry-Go-Round

 

 

China’s response to the new UN Security Council sanctions on Iran provide a useful perspective on Chinese policy and its movement toward a new, post-Bush and post-terror alternative doctrine for managing international crises.

The story of the Iran nuclear crisis can be summed up with the acronym SSDD:

Same Sanctions Different Day

There is certainly a feeling of deja vu as months of concerted flailing by the United States have only served to produce another inconclusive Iran sanction.

It’s a reflection of what might be called the post-Cold War, post-veto United Nations environment.

The United States might be willing to go on the record with a veto when, particularly in matters of Israel, the sense of the UN is against it.

But it looks China has a stronger interest in upholding the image of the UN as a valid arena for crisis resolution and compromise.

Therefore, when an undesirable resolution is coming down the pipe, China concentrates on diluting and muddling it, make sure there are no onerous interpretative or enforcement elements, voting for it, then hurrying to the spin room to explain what its vote really meant.

Case in point: Resolution 1803, the third round of sanctions on Iran.

There have been some attempts in the Western press to present the vote (14-0 with Indonesia abstaining) as a sign of world resolve to pressure the Iranians for refusing to give the IAEA the answers it wants about its allegedly abandoned weapons program, or suspend uranium enrichment.

Courtesy of Xinhua, let’s see what Chinese-language coverage had to say (all translations by China Matters):

The resolution emphasized diplomatic efforts, resumed dialogue and negotiations with Iran…balance between sanctions and encouragement of negotiations

There are strict limits on targets of sanctions…sanctions are “reversible”, temporarily or even permanently if Iran takes positive steps to implement the Security Council resolution…

Different countries have different interpretations of the resolution…roots of deadlock are in the severe lack of mutual trust between the United States and Iran. If this problem is not resolved, then there will be no breakthrough on the Iran nuclear question.

To increase mutual trust, the concerned parties all have to pay attention to the positive content of the resolution—promoting discussions.

As China’s permanent representative to the United Nations said…the purpose of the resolution is not to punish Iran, it is to encourage the revival of a new round of diplomatic efforts…only relying on sanctions will not resolve the problem, military action is an even less productive route.

…neither the United States nor Iran closed the door on negotiations for good !!!—ed.

To summarize for those unwilling to wrestle with Xinhua-speak:

The root cause of the Iran problem is distrust between the United States and Iran. The problem can only be solved by discussions between Washington and Teheran. These sanctions are face-saving bullsh*t.

Wang Guangya, the PRC ambassador to the UN, helpfully laid out the Chinese position in Xinhua’s English-language coverage as well.

Just in case anybody didn’t get the message, the article is entitled Chinese envoy: New UN resolution aims to reactivate diplomatic efforts on Iran :

On the issue of sanctions, Wang stated:

These sanctions “are not targeted at the Iranian people and will not affect the normal economic and financial activities between Iran and other countries,” Wang said after the vote. “All the sanction measures are reversible.”

Emphasis, as they say, added.

I might point out that sanctions that “do not affect the normal economic and financial activities between Iran and other countries” are not particularly effective or intimidating.

In this context, it should be noted that Stuart Levey, head of Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, has been crisscrossing the world working to convince the world’s governments and banks to tighten up financial sanctions on Iran…just as Treasury attempted, with a spectacular and, at least in China Matters, well-documented lack of success, to suffocate North Korea financially.

The North Korean sanctions failed because China refused to be intimidated by the threat of sanctions against Chinese banks—despite the demonstration project on Macao’s Banco Delta Asia—and declined to cut off North Korea’s international financial dealings.

Wang Guangya just made the announcement that China will do the same for Iran.

Business as usual, no matter what Washington says.

Big-picture-wise, I’ve asserted frequently that Iran recapitulates North Korea, not Iraq.

In other words, the Chinese, the Russians, and enough Europeans rejected the U.S. strategy of escalating pressure on, and progressive concessions by, North Korea, so the United States finally had to abandon zero-sum and switch to win-win negotiations.

Same thing with Iran.

The other powers don’t care enough about our goals to kick Teheran’s ass on our behalf.

Just the opposite, maybe.

In its Chinese-language coverage, Xinhua made the interesting choice of bookending its lead article on the UNSC vote with a piece of think-tankage by Tian Wenlin of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations entitled What the Iran Nuclear Crisis Tells Us :

Tian argues that the lesson of the Iran nuclear standoff is that imbalance in military strength is a root cause of international instability.

Looking at the four conflicts First Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq War, the bigger the discrepancy between US and opposing forces, the easier it is to provoke an American desire to attack…Saddam Hussein voluntarily destroyed his weapons of mass destruction, thereby allowing America to attack without worry. In the opposite example, North Korea…

On the Iranian nuclear issue, the top Iranian leadership has been completely unyielding, since they are completely clear that if they showed weakness, the United States would take an inch and want a mile, demand further concessions without end at Iran’s expense.

Ahmadinejad said, “If this question is resolved, the United States would bring up human rights. If human rights were resolved, they’d bring up animal rights.”

Faced with Iran’s unyielding determination, the United States unwillingly abandoned its intent to attack.

China rising paranoiacs will find a goodly amount to chew on in Tian’s conclusion that military strength—specifically naval strength and aircraft carriers, lots of them!—are necessary to secure China’s economic progress.

Non-proliferation types, of course, will find interesting the unstated premise of Tian’s article–that it might be OK, or even desirable, for Iran to have the bomb so it can continue to resist US pressure.

But on Iran matters, I think the selection of the piece is more significant in that it once again places the onus for the Iran nuclear crisis on the United States.

Tian eschews the ‘nutty mullah’ narrative in favor of blaming the United States for its destabilizing overreliance on coercion backed by its military superiority.

His piece reinforces the theme in the main article that it will take U.S. engagement and concessions, and not a campaign of ostracization orchestrated by the United States and imposed through its allies to come up with a solution.

Especially, of course, since China has signaled its resolve to deploy its diplomatic and financial good offices to break any attempt to construct a meaningful U.S.-led economic blockade of Iran.

America’s dubious takeaway from this round of sanctions can be assessed by exploring the key subtext to the UN jibber-jabber–the US attempt to task the IAEA with a brief to investigate discrepancies in the Iranian account of its weapons-related activities more forcefully.

Bush administration gamesmanship with the IAEA was perhaps crucial in stiffening Chinese resolve that the sanctions be meaningless.

The Bush administration, keen to orchestrate another round of sanctions and obviously unhappy with its own intelligence agencies NIE discounting Iranian nuclear weapons-related activity, had worked successfully to put Iran’s alleged weapons-related activity and intentions back on the table at the IAEA working level using the so-called Laptop of Death–purportedly smuggled out of Iran in 2004 and containing evidence of illicit nuclear weaponization activity.

The last minute presentation at the end of February by the IAEA to the international diplomatic community before the UN vote, employed Laptop material and some additional videos provided to the IAEA by the US or our friends.

It showed purported Iranian activities in the area of nuclear tipped missiles, and triggered a door-slamming fury by the Iranians.

Just when the Iranians thought that the discussion could be defined to the manageable issue of what they were or weren’t doing with their uranium enrichment program, the whole amorphous and open-ended issue of what the Iranians might have done, thought about, or intended to do with weaponized nuclear material was reopened by the United States.

The IAEA was compelled to keep the allegations on the front burner.

There was some talk that the presentation was an effort by the IAEA chief verification guy, Olli Heinonen, to undercut El Baradei and express distaste for his grandstanding, Iran-friendly diplomacy.

But I think it’s more likely that the IAEA felt it had an obligation to assess the credibility of the allegations, and also to co-opt the accusations and make sure that it kept control over the whole Iranian nuclear portfolio and out of the hands of the US even though the alleged issues—about missiles and triggers—would seem to be beyond its conventional non-proliferation brief and expertise.

The United States perhaps came out of the episode feeling rather smug that it had paved the way for the third round of sanctions.

The US had also been able to put the NIE behind it, drive the IAEA into a corner, control the public debate on Iran’s program, prevent the IAEA from ever closing the Iran case by turning the debate to virtually unprovable questions of intent, and provide an opening for the U.S. to monitor and second-guess the IAEA’s work inside Iran.

But our gains look pretty minimal.

The Russians (with Chinese support) briskly 86’ed the US plan to build on the UN Security Council vote by obtaining a get-tough-on-Iran resolution from the IAEA board of directors under the pretext that the new (toothless) sanctions under UNSCR 1803 were sufficient.

So what did the Bush administration really get from this most recent round of Iran diplomacy?

It looks like what it got was a meaningless UNSC resolution that the Chinese have already pledged to undercut; continued IAEA independence and control over the Iran portfolio; a frustrated Iranian sense that the U.S. is still committed to confrontation; growing international awareness that trying to accommodate the US through the mechanisms of the IAEA is probably futile; and, I expect, an emerging global consensus that a united front is needed not against Iran but against the United States in order to pressure it to engage in meaningful direct negotiations.

For good measure, we elicit the assertion of a Chinese doctrine that it is US employment of military power—and not terrorism—that is the root cause of global instability, and that increased military investment by China is the necessary, inevitable, and justified response.

http://chinamatters.blogspot.com/2008/03/china-jumps-off-iran-sanctions-merry-go.html

Situation Géopolitique et financière 2008 et à venir :

Une agence de renseignements parle !!!

 

 

La France connaîtra au cours des mois à venir, une situation économique et financière similaire à celle vécue par l'Argentine en 2002...L'arche de noé végétale sur l'île de Spitzberg,...les grandes famines à venir,...

 http://revelations4.blogs.fr/

Baghdad bomb kills 8 US troops

 

 

Eight American soldiers have been killed by a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad, witnesses said.
The suicide bomber, wearing an explosive vest, approached the soldiers on a Baghdad street and blew himself up, Iraqi police told Reuters.

An Iraqi interpreter was also injured in the attack, reports said.

While the US confirmed an attack had taken place, it refused to confirm the death toll from the blast, which hit the soldiers while on foot patrol.

The attack comes days after 68 people were killed in twin bomb attacks on a shopping area in central Baghdad, which the US blamed on al-Qaeda in Iraq.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7287917.stm

US Navy strike group responds to increasing Lebanon, Syria tension

 

A US Navy (USN) expeditionary strike group has been deployed to the eastern Mediterranean in the wake of increasing tensions between Lebanon and Syria.

The strike group is led by the Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship USS Nassau and includes the Austin-class amphibious transport dock USS Nashville, the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Ashland, the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Bulkeley and USS Ross. The six vessels left the United States on 19 and 20 February, the navy said.

The destroyer USS Cole – which was seriously damaged in a terrorist attack in Aden in 2000 – is already in international waters off the coast of Lebanon, accompanied by two refuelling ships.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the United States’ Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Nassau group would operate in the region “for a while” and that the deployment signals the navy “is engaged” in “a very important part of the world”.

http://www.janes.com/news/defence/naval/jdw/jdw080307_1_n.shtml

warning of french-israeli false-flag

Vague d’attentats en France

Attention :

Nous recevons la confirmation de plusieurs sources dans les milieux du renseignement crédibles que la ville de Paris sera le théâtre d’attaques terroristes sous fausse bannière organisées par le gouvernement français et son agent israélien Sarkozy, lors de la visite du criminel de guerre Shimon Peres.

Plusieurs attaques sont au programme, elles doivent permettre a Sarkozy de déclarer l’état d’urgence, reporter les élections prévues pour dimanche prochain et déclarer officiellement l’entrée de la France dans la guerre au Moyen Orient aux cotes d’Israël, la France participera aux massacres de Gaza, du Liban, d’Egypte et aux opérations du Soudan.

Selon nos sources, Al Qaeda Maghreb sera accusé et Sarkozy en profitera pour accuser Bouteflika des opérations, avant que celui-ci ne soit finalement parvenu a publier un rapport secret de l’ONU qui accuse la DST et Sarkozy d’être derrière les attentats du 11 Décembre 2007 a Alger, contre les bâtiments de l’ONU. Dans le même temps, nous recevons des menaces du général de la DST Tawfiq, qui participe visiblement à ces opérations sur Paris… ?

Celui-ci nous accuse entre autre d’avoir touche 150 000 euros pour le faire tomber… bien évidement sans preuves… Selon nos sources la nouvelle vague d’agression sur le Moyen Orient aura lieu juste pour le début du pourim, soit le 19 Mars 2008…

 A bon entendeur Salam,

http://islamic-intelligence.blogspot.com/2008/03/warning-of-french-israeli-false-flag.html 

_______________________________________________________________________

English version :

We receive confirmation from several sources in the intelligence credible that the city of Paris will be the scene of the crisis under false banner held by the french government and its agent Israeli Sarkozy, during a visit to the war criminal Shimon Peres.

Several attacks are planned, they should allow Sarkozy to declare a state of emergency, postpone the elections scheduled for next Sunday and formally declare France’s entry into the war in the Middle East ratings Israel, France participate in the massacres of Gaza, Lebanon, Egypt and the Sudan operations. Several are on the agenda of the crisis, they Must allow Sarkozy to declare a state of emergency, postpone the elections scheduled for next Sunday and formally declare France’s entry into the war in the Middle East to the coast of Israel, France to attend the massacres in Gaza, Lebanon, Egypt and the Sudan operations.

According to our sources, Al Qaeda and the Maghreb will be accused Sarkozy will take the opportunity to accuse Bouteflika of operations, until it was finally reached a publish a secret report of the United Nations accusing the DST and Sarkozy to be behind the attacks of December 11, 2007 in Algiers, against the United Nations buildings.

At the same time, we receive threats from CSD General Tawfiq, who is participating in these operations visibly on… Paris? According to our sources, Al Qaeda Maghreb serums and accused Sarkozy will also accusing Bouteflika of operations, until it was finally reached a publish a secret report of the United Nations reflecting the DST and Sarkozy to be behind the attacks on December 11, 2007, Alger, against the United Nations buildings. At the same time, we receive threats from CSD General Tawfiq, who is participating in these operations visibly on… Paris?

It accuses us of having among other key 150,000 euros for breaking down… obviously without evidence… According to our sources the new wave of aggression in the Middle East will be just for the beginning of pourim, March 19 … 2008, which among other things accuse us of having key 150000 euros for the drop… obviously without evidence… According to our sources of the new wave of aggression on the Middle East will be just for the beginning of pourim or March 19, 2008…

Link

Peace

New Instruments of Surveillance and Social Control:

Wireless Technologies which Target the Neuronal Functioning of the Brain
 

 

By: Dr. Kingsley Dennis

on: 09.03.2008

Increasingly there are indications that the uses of wireless technologies have been developed to target an individual’s biological body, with specific focus upon the neuronal functioning of the brain. In this paper I examine how some of these uses have had detrimental effects, and what this implies for both present and upcoming developments for particular wireless/sensor technologies. I consider whether this is not shifting dangerously towards a psycho–civilised society, where greater emphasis is placed upon social control and pre–emptive strategies.

Introduction

The rate of technological innovation in some fields is developing exponentially with new advances in wireless sensor networks, ubiquitous and pervasive computing, motes, nodes, grids, and media platforms. Information flows are increasing not only in their quantity and density, but also in their immersive quality.

The historical developments of information communication systems can be said to have traced a similar path to how nation states have organised their global power base and dominance. First, power over the land and dominance in waging war on one’s neighbours through ground battle, the domesticated horse and the infantry soldier. Second, domination of the seas and the strongest Navy gave advantage to sea–faring Empires, such as Portugal, Spain, and Britain.

The end of naval dominance then gave rise to the advent of the railroad and the dynamic change in transport technology, both in routes and in speed. The transcontinental scope of the railroads finally gave out to air power, winning the World Wars through dominance in the skies. And now, finally, the ‘final frontier’ is space, for ‘the vast potential resource base of outer space is presumably so enormous, effectively inexhaustible, that any state that can control it will ultimately dominate the earth’ 1. Likewise, modern communication technologies have moved from the land (the telegraph); to the sea (wireless radio; radar); back to land (cables; fibre optics); and to the intermediate land/air stage (masts/antenna); to the outer frontier of space (satellites); and finally now even beyond these frontiers towards a solar system Internet (Turner, 2007). Whoever controls these channels for communication can, in some degree, to be said to ‘dominate the earth’. And the possible uses of wireless communications for the dissemination, targeting, and receiving of clandestine ‘communications’ is an active industry.

The aim of this paper is to examine some of the examples and instances where the use of wireless technologies have been developed to target an individual’s biological body, with specific focus upon the neuronal functioning of the brain.

I also show how some of these uses have had detrimental effects, and what this implies for both present and upcoming developments in particular wireless/sensor technologies. This paper shows that an upcoming area of importance is neurotechnology, a discipline that places brain functioning and knowledge of the human brain as primary.

Technologies are now being researched and trialled that seek to penetrate and, to a degree, intervene in neural functioning. Whilst some have termed this positively as a coming ‘neural society’ (Lynch, 2004), I consider whether this is not shifting dangerously towards a psycho–civilised society, where greater emphasis is placed upon social control and pre–emptive strategies.

I trace a timeline that follows developments from a historical context to the present; and finally to future scenarios and implications. It may be that the social pursuit of increasingly connective and immersive technologies has the potential to open up a Pandora’s box of problematics.

Opening Pandora’s box

The background to this narrative begins with the story of a true Pandora’s box — a U.S. project titled Project Pandora that was organized and administered by the psychology division of the psychiatry research section of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR).

This project was set–up to specifically research programs on the health effects of microwave exposure following the ‘Moscow Embassy’ incident. From 1953 to 1976, the Soviets directed microwave radiation at the U.S. embassy in Moscow from the roof of an adjacent building. Whilst this clandestine microwave targeting was allegedly known for some time by U.S. officials, the event was not made public until 1976 when the U.S. State Department finally accused the Soviet Union of bombarding the U.S. embassy in Moscow with microwave radiation for illicit purposes.

It was initially reported as a harmless procedure for charging Soviet spy–bugs: ‘Soviet antennas, which are beaming the waves in both to charge up the batteries of their listening devices and to jam embassy–based U.S. electronic monitoring of Russian communications’ (Time, 1976a; 1976b).

However, the State Department soon indicated that, in addition to interference mechanisms, the microwave radiation could have serious adverse effects on the health of the occupants of the embassy (O’Connor, 1993). This was supported by Soviet data in which Soviet non–ionising electromagnetic energy (NIEM) ‘research literature reported adverse health effects in laboratory animals and in Soviet radar workers at levels well below the 10 mW/cm2 U.S. ANSI safety recommendations’ [2. Despite this being below the U.S. recommended levels the Soviet standards excluded military personnel whilst the U.S. did not, according to the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP), 1986 (O’Connor, 1993).

Soviet studies in the area of electromagnetic microwave radiation reported psychological symptoms in human subjects that included lethargy, lack of concentration, headaches, depression, and impotence [3. O’Connor notes how the Soviet medical journals termed these collective symptoms microwave sickness whilst the U.S. literature referred to the symptoms as neurasthenia (1993). Time magazine reported in March 1976 that the State Department launched

a medical investigation of the thousands of U.S. diplomats and their families who served in Moscow since the early 1960s. In the wake of the microwave disclosures, former embassy employees and their families have recalled suffering strange ailments during their tenure in Moscow, ranging from eye tics and headaches to heavy menstrual flows. Some point out that former Ambassadors to Moscow Charles Bohlen and Llewellyn Thompson both died of cancer, within the last two years one other Moscow diplomat died of cancer, and five women who lived there have undergone cancer–related mastectomies — although no medical authorities attribute these deaths and illnesses to radiation. (Time, 1976b)

U.S. officials and military, long before the public exposure, were aware and concerned about the consequences of microwave bombardment of civilian and military targets. In 1972 the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) released an internal report (later declassified through the Freedom Of Information Act FOIA Program [4) that had been previously prepared by the U.S. Army Office of the Surgeon General Medical Intelligence Office titled ‘Controlled Offensive Behaviour — USSR’ (initially released in July 1972).

The report states that
 

This report summarizes the information available on Soviet research on human vulnerability as it relates to incapacitating individuals or small groups.

The information contained in this study is a review and evaluation of Soviet research in this field of revolutionary methods of influencing human behavior and is intended as an aid in the development of countermeasures for the protection of U.S. or allied personnel.

Due to the nature of the Soviet research in the area of reorientation or incapacitation of human behavior, this report emphasises the individual as opposed to groups. (LaMothe, 1972)It is interesting to note that the Report authors believed the Soviet research to be in the area of ‘reorientation’; suggesting that the U.S. were worried over concerns that the Soviets may be planning a mass zapping of U.S. citizens with the hope of ‘brainwashing’ them into a newly orientated ideological outlook.

The 174–page Report is extensive, with much material extended upon various forms of beamed energies and wireless strategies. On the opening section on Electromagnetic Energy the report concludes that Super–high frequency electromagnetic oscillations (SHF) may have potential use as a technique for altering human behavior. Soviet Union and other foreign literature sources contain over 500 studies devoted to the biological effect of SHF. Lethal and non–lethal aspects have been shown to exist. In certain non–lethal exposures, definite behavioural changes have occurred. [5

During this time the U.S. establishment was not naïve to the potential of conducting neurological at–a–distance effects upon human behaviour.

In the 1970s José Manuel Rodríguez Delgado was a controversial figure in neuroscience; a professor of physiology at Yale University, he was an acclaimed neuroscientist.

In 1970 “the New York Times Magazine hailed him in a cover story as the impassioned prophet of a new ‘psychocivilized society’ whose members would influence and alter their own mental functions” [6. Yet two decades earlier, in 1952, Delgado co–authored the first peer–reviewed paper describing long–term implantation of electrodes in humans (Horgan, 2005). As an example of the achievement into wireless–neurological devices Delgado’s most famous experiment took place in 1963 at a bull–breeding ranch in Cordoba, Spain.

Delgado implanted radio equipped electrodes, which he termed ‘stimoceivers’, into the brains of several ‘fighting’ bulls and stood in a bullring with one bull at a time and attempted to control the actions of the bull by pressing buttons on a handheld transmitter.

In one instance Delgado was able to stop a charging bull in its tracks only a few feet away from him by the press of a button. The New York Times published a front page story on the event, “calling it ‘the most spectacular demonstration ever performed of the deliberate modification of animal behavior through external control of the brain’” [7. In 1969 Delgado described wireless brain–behaviour modification and its implications in his book Physical Control of the Mind: Toward a Psychocivilized Society (1969). Delgado’s research during this time was supported not only by academic grants but also by the U.S. Office of Naval Research. This research is now over forty years old, and much has happened in the intervening four decades.

Technologies that can wirelessly transmit information from and to the body is an area of research that has attracted various interested parties post–World War II. Such energy–information distribution and targeting within the electromagnetic spectrum can variously be used for medical, industrial, military, and telecommunications purposes. I now turn to examine some of the military–industrial research and uses of wireless technologies.

Beams, firewalls and brain scanning: Inside the military–industrial complex

Researcher Igor Smirnov of the Russian Academy of Sciences is by all accounts an odd person, referred to by a Newsweek article as ‘A Subliminal Dr. Strangelove’ (Elliott and Barry, 1994). Smirnov was apparently contacted by the FBI during the Davidian sect siege in Waco, Texas in 1993.

Experts from the FBI Counter–Terrorism Center met with Smirnov in Arlington, Virginia to discuss ways of affecting the behaviour of Davidian sect leader David Koresh. Smirnov’s plan was to send subliminal messages through the phone lines during negotiations; and for targeting David Koresh the plan was to use the voice of Charlton Heston to subliminally play God (Elliott and Barry, 1994).

Smirnov’s strategies, whilst sounding eccentric, are closely tied with military research into behaviour modification via wireless transmissions. Smirnov’s laboratory in Moscow is named the Institute of Psycho–Correction and using electroencephalograph scanning (EEG) he measures brain waves which he then computes to create a map of various human impulses–brain waves correlation.

This data can then be used for experimenting upon affecting brain–body modification at–a–distance. Asked in a 2004 interview whether it was possible to defeat terrorism Smirnov replied that

Only informational war is capable of defeating terrorism completely. And we possess this weapon. Peoples’ actions can in fact be controlled by unnoticed acoustic influence. Look — it’s easy. All I have to do is record my voice, apply special coding, which converts my voice to mere noise and afterwards, all we have to do is record some music on top of that. The words are indistinguishable to your conscious; however, your unconscious can hear them clearly. If we were to play this music over and over again on the radio for instance, people will soon start developing paranoia. This is the simplest weapon. (Pravda, 2004)

Smirnov’s capabilities were demonstrated to U.S. observers as far back as 1991 when infra–sound — a very low frequency transmission — was shown to be able to transmit acoustic messages via bone conduction [8.

Military strategist Timothy Thomas examined these implications in his paper ‘The Mind Has No Firewall’ in which he states that ‘We are on the threshold of an era in which these data processors of the human body may be manipulated or debilitated.

Examples of unplanned attacks on the body’s data–processing capability are well–documented’ [9. He references a Russian military article on the same subject which declared that “‘humanity stands on the brink of a psychotronic war’ with the mind and body as the focus” [10. The context here is that the human body is a complex communication system that is constantly receiving signal inputs, both external and internal. Thus,

The “data” the body receives from external sources — such as electromagnetic, vortex, or acoustic energy waves — or creates through its own electrical or chemical stimuli can be manipulated or changed just as the data (information) in any hardware system can be altered. [11

Military thinking in this area is beginning to shift towards a systemic viewpoint which considers the human as an open system rather than as a closed, bounded system.

In this new systemic approach the human communicates with, and can be communicated by, the environment through information flows and communications media.

By this understanding military thinking has begun to openly declare that ‘one’s physical environment, whether through electromagnetic, gravitational, acoustic, or other effects, can cause a change in the psycho–physiological condition of an organism’ [12. Simpson’s investigations into the sociological discipline of communication research, which crystallised in the U.S. in the early 1950s, shows that it was financed and mentored by governmental psychological warfare programs:

Government psychological warfare programs helped shape mass communication research into a distinct scholarly field, strongly influencing the choice of leaders and determining which of the competing scientific paradigms of communication would be funded, elaborated, and encouraged to prosper. [13]

Dominance over the airwaves, and the capability to exert coercive control over information communications is a vital area in military planning.

Documented and declassified evidence shows that what may have begun as a program in standardized propaganda and psychological warfare has now developed into research on wireless information targeting and ‘psychocivilized’ control practices.

To this effect the term ‘psycho–terrorism’ was coined by Anisimov of the Moscow Anti–Psychotronic Center and Anisimov admits to testing such devices as are said to ‘take away a part of the information which is stored in a man’s brain.

It is sent to a computer, which reworks it to the level needed for those who need to control the man, and the modified information is then reinserted into the brain’ [14. In such cases there is concern that the ‘mind has no firewall’ and may be vulnerable to accidental, unwanted and/or rogue interventions.

Thomas’s paper concludes by stating that ‘In reality, the game is about protecting or affecting signals, waves, and impulses that can influence the data–processing elements of systems, computers, or people. We are potentially the biggest victims of information warfare, because we have neglected to protect ourselves’ [15.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) brief on this subject titled ‘Controlled Effects’ also noted the power to use the electromagnetic spectrum for wirelessly interfering into human subjects’ thinking and behaviour. By this stage the strategy had been dubbed ‘non–lethal weapons’, as explored more fully in the work of non–lethal defence at Los Alamos by retired Army Colonel John B. Alexander (Alexander, 1999). The AFRL report states that

the panel investigated the potential for using electromagnetic and other nonconventional force capabilities to achieve strategic, tactical, lethal, and nonlethal force projection ... . For the Controlled Personnel Effects capability, the S&T panel explored the potential for targeting individuals with nonlethal force, from a militarily useful range, to make selected adversaries think or act according to our needs. (AFRL, 2004)

These theories and concerns to affect command and control at–a–distance were echoing the conclusions from a much larger and significant military report that was published and made available in 1996 titled ‘New World Vistas’. ‘New World Vistas’ was a major undertaking by the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board to examine future developments in weapons, and totalled 14 volumes of studies.

The fifteenth ‘ancillary’ volume concluded by putting forth some potential developments for a possible future man–machine integration. In a section dealing with ‘Biological Process Control’ the Report states that

One can envision the development of electromagnetic energy sources, the output of which can be pulsed, shaped, and focused, that can couple with the human body in a fashion that will allow one to prevent voluntary muscular movements, control emotions (and thus actions), produce sleep, transmit suggestions, interfere with both short–term and long–term memory, produce an experience set, and delete an experience set. (USAF Scientific Advisory Board, 1995)

In military–speak the term ‘experience set’ implies a person’s stored memories and life experiences; thus suggesting that such a technology could delete and then replace a person’s memories, or ‘experience set’. Research and development along these lines have so far materialised a technology dubbed by the military as active denial system (ADS).

The Active Denial System is a non–lethal, directed–energy weapon system recently unveiled by the U.S. military and which directs, or pulses, electromagnetic radiation at a frequency of 95 Gigahertz (GHz) towards the target subjects.

The radiated beam of millimetre–wave energy can travel over a range of 500m and heats the water molecules in the epidermis skin up to 54C (130F) (BBC, 2007).

The result can be an intensely painful burning sensation. Such a system was designed for such uses as crowd control. A fully operational and mounted system was demonstrated to journalists by U.S. military personnel at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, on 24 January 2007.

A Reuters correspondent who volunteered to be shot with the beam during the demonstration described it as ‘similar to a blast from a very hot oven — too painful to bear without diving for cover’ (BBC, 2007).

The diagram below illustrates the active denial system (ADS).

Figure 1: The active denial system (ADS).
Figure 1: The active denial system (ADS).
Source:

http://www.specialsol.com/electr5.gif

These technologies show uses of wireless–to–body communication and directed energy weapons for possible military attack or defence purposes. Another area for research and development is in both military and industrial uses for operator enhancement.Real–time brain scanning of pilots and similar operators under stress is an increasingly active area for research involving military and industrial partnerships.

Since the early 1990s research has been made into detecting and interpreting brain and body signals, especially brainwaves, for computerized monitoring of pilots.

This information can be used to measure pilot fatigue and to compensate for this with increased automation of the airplane in order to avoid pilot error. Initially this was conducted by measuring the pilot’s brain waves through unobtrusive sponge sensors in the flight helmet:

By measuring the amplitude of the brain waves generated, fatigue of the pilot can be recognized. By increasing the brightness of the instrumental panel lights, the amplitude of the brain waves can be returned to their normal height, thus compensating for fatigue. To get the “evoked response” from the pilot’s brain, the instrument panel lights could be made to flash so fast that the pilot would not be aware of the flashes. [16

Researchers have said that the brain can ‘register’ up to 145 flickers per second, which can then be followed up by beaming a near infrared light into the subject’s eye, causing a spot of light to be reflected off the cornea in order to track eye movement and measure the degree of pilot concentration. This type of research, which is still ongoing, has been referred to by at least one current R&D laboratory as ‘Real–Time EEG for Operator State’ [17. Brain monitoring of people in situations where fatigue could be fatal now involves real–time analysis and observation of motorists. A technology now being considered is one called ‘Sensation’.

sensors This technology is non–intrusive and includes a small camera that monitors a driver’s eye movements, looking out for repeated blinking, which can be evidence of tiredness. To compliment this the driver’s seat is also lined with a material which monitors changes in body temperature. The steering wheel too checks for handling pressure. Finally, other sensors, if needed, can be fitted to the finger and ear to send out measurements of pressure to indicate fatigue and levels of concentration. The driver is now wirelessly monitored, both by camera and wireless sensors, to create a more extensive immersive driving experience (Millward, 2006).

This research and these innovations indicate that a shift is occurring in how the human is enmeshed into an increasingly information saturated environment. These developments recognise that the human body is itself becoming the most capable data–processing subject. The rest of this paper explores how these trends to envelop the body–brain into an environment of information flows are being developed into social and commercial applications.

Emotional gaming and dangerous intentions: Inside the social–civil sphere

The use of EEG brain scanning has now moved into the gaming industry with up–to–date developments in sensory gaming. Recently Emotiv publicly released information on their upcoming ‘Project Epoc’, a developmental technology that interprets electrical signals emitted by the brain and converts them into actions on a computer. In this way the user/gamer is able to direct actions via their thoughts in the online environment. Below are pictures of two prototypes which the company expects to market some time in 2008 [18.

head gear head gear

The company Web site claims that they provide the ultimate human–computer interface and that they are pioneers in brain computer interface technology. In their press release of 7 March 2007 they state that

Emotiv has created the first brain computer interface technology that can detect and process both human conscious thoughts and non–conscious emotions. The technology, which comprises a headset and a suite of applications, allows computers to differentiate between particular thoughts such as lifting an object or rotating it; detect and mimic a user’s expressions, such as a smile or wink; and respond to emotions such as excitement or calmness. [19]

In the same press release the company foresees in the future that ‘Emotiv’s technology has the potential to be applied to numerous industries, including interactive television, accessibility design, market research, medicine, and security’ [20. A similar corporate gaming company, NeuroSky, claims to have gone even further than Emotiv and reduced ‘the brainwave pickup to the minimum specification imaginable — a single electrode. Existing versions of this electrode are small enough to fit into a mobile phone and ... they will soon be shrunk to the size of a thumbnail, enabling people to wear them without noticing’ (Economist, 2007). The company Web site claims its ‘bio sensor and signal processing system for the consumer market’ will unlock ‘worlds of new applications such as consumer electronics, health, wellness, education and training’ [21.

Clearly there is a potential commercial market envisioned here for wireless–brain technology that goes beyond the sphere of gaming. Somewhat on the extreme to this, wireless acoustic transmissions have now been developed to ‘stop’ people from over–gaming; in other words, as a treatment for gaming addiction. In highly technologised Asian countries such as South Korea teenagers are spending an unhealthy amount of time at their computers in gaming environments. There have even been instances where gamers have died after extensively long sessions in front of a computer without a break, such as in MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role–Playing Game). South Korean company Xtive, established in 2005, spent a year of research to develop a system of acoustic sound waves that act as subliminal transmissions during the gaming experience:

We incorporated messages into an acoustic sound wave telling gamers to stop playing. The messages are told 10,000 to 20,000 times per second ... . Game users can’t recognize the sounds. But their subconscious is aware of them and the chances are high they will quit playing ... . Game companies can install a system, which delivers the inaudible sounds after it recognizes a young user has kept playing after a preset period of time. (Tae–gyu, 2007)

This emphasises that research into techno–information flows are increasingly being developed that wirelessly interact with a person as a biological construct, utilising the already present bio–neural functioning. And this is a trend that is attracting more corporate players wishing to enter the field.

Gaming giant Sony Corporation has submitted and been granted a patent on a device for transmitting sensory data directly into the human brain. Sony’s patent describes the device as firing “pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain, creating ‘sensory experiences’ ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds” (Hogan and Fox, 2005). This is based upon a technique known as transcranial magnetic stimulation that activates the nerves by using rapidly changing magnetic fields to induce currents in brain tissue. The patent also claims that this technology could give blind or deaf people the chance to see or hear. Niels Birbaumer, a neuroscientist at the University of Tübingen in Germany who has himself developed similar devices, examined the Sony patent and commented that ‘I looked at it and found it plausible’ (Hogan and Fox, 2005). Since Sony’s initial patent application in 2000 (granted in March 2003), a series of further patents have been applied for. However, this line of research is not totally new.

For several years there has been research conducted into decoding thoughts from the brain for sending signals to an external device such as manipulating cursors on a screen, which has been developed for disabled people, as in the case of Matthew Nagle (Pollack, 2006). In recent years several other companies have emerged claiming to offer brain–computer wireless interaction for either gaming purposes or for various health impairment benefits.

One example is S.M.A.R.T. BrainGames, a company based in California that offers EEG caps designed to treat people with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. The company claims to offer superior neurofeedback technology at what it calls ‘affordable prices’ [22. The body–brain is increasingly shifting towards becoming a biologically–enhanced data processor for wireless reception and transmission. Computer software giant Microsoft is aware of this and already ahead of the game.

In 2004 Microsoft was awarded U.S. Patent 6,754,472, titled ‘Method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body’ [23. In this patent Microsoft is granted exclusive rights to a technology that uses the electrical capacity of the human body to act as a computer network (Adam, 2004).

Microsoft envisages ‘using the human skin’s conductive properties to link a host of electronic devices around the body, from pagers and personal data assistants (PDA) to mobile phones and microphones, although the company is uncharacteristically coy about exactly what it may have in mind’ (Adam, 2004).

This supports what Bill Gates himself has said about the computer finally disappearing into the environment and the world around us (Gibson, 2005). This may be the ultimate wireless network, using the complete skin of the body, from fingers to toes, receiving and transmitting flows of information.

The patent also proposes that an area of skin could even act as a keypad making a person capable of typing by tapping on their arm (Adam, 2004).

This is a powerful example of how technologies and technological thinking is shifting away from external hardware devices towards using the natural bio-properties of the human body for integration into a global informational environment.

As way of some examples, here are just two from many of the patents filed that claim to develop wireless transmission technologies: patents 4,395,600 and 5,507,291. Patent No. 4,395,600 is titled ‘Auditory subliminal message system and method’ and is geared towards subliminal messaging to influence consumer shoppers:

Ambient audio signals from the customer shopping area within a store are sensed and fed to a signal processing circuit that produces a control signal which varies with variations in the amplitude of the sensed audio signals.

A control circuit adjusts the amplitude of an auditory subliminal anti–shoplifting message to increase with increasing amplitudes of sensed audio signals and decrease with decreasing amplitudes of sensed audio signals. This amplitude controlled subliminal message may be mixed with background music and transmitted to the shopping area. [24

In a similar manner for affecting an individual’s mental state is patent no. 5,507,291 — ‘Method and an associated apparatus for remotely determining information as to person’s emotional state’ — which comes very close to what has been discussed on military uses of information warfare:

In a method for remotely determining information relating to a person’s emotional state, a waveform energy having a predetermined frequency and a predetermined intensity is generated and wirelessly transmitted towards a remotely located subject. Waveform energy emitted from the subject is detected and automatically analyzed to derive information relating to the individual’s emotional state. [25

In this scenario information flows are two-way with the body-brain emitting as well as receiving. Yet with the human body–brain becoming a site for data transfer and reception, there are concerns that it is increasingly becoming a target for various corporate interests. And not only corporate interests are involved in these developments, however, for there are also recent innovative technologies in this area that offer serious implications for social privacy and liberty at a state level.

At first the idea sounds like nothing more than science fiction. Indeed, it even appeared as a central feature in the film ‘Minority Report’.

This is the notion of pre–cognition: to be able to know a person’s actions before those actions are committed. Yet now a team of neuroscientists have developed a technique that can scan a brain and learn from the patterns of neuronal activity what a person is thinking or intending to do.

This research is the culmination of recent studies where brain imaging has been used to identify particular brain patterns pertaining to such behaviour as violence, lying, and racial prejudice (Sample, 2007).

To achieve this the team ‘used high–resolution brain scans to identify patterns of activity before translating them into meaningful thoughts, revealing what a person planned to do in the near future’ (Sample, 2007).

This is the first acknowledged instance of having the technical capacity to judge whether people have the intention to commit a criminal act regardless of actual hard physical evidence of the crime. According to Prof Haynes: ‘We see the danger that this might become compulsory one day, but we have to be aware that if we prohibit it, we are also denying people who aren’t going to commit any crime the possibility of proving their innocence’ (Sample, 2007).

Since this technology is so new there are no current ethical or moral debates on this issue and the implications for its civil use are worrying. If developed these ‘techniques may eventually have wide–ranging implications for everything from criminal interrogations to airline security checks. And that alarms some ethicists who fear the technology could one day be abused by authorities, marketers or employers’ (Cheng, 2007).

A hypothetical situation in the future might place these scanning devices within regular x–ray scanning machines at airports.

On passing through to the passenger lounge all travellers will be scanned not only for potentially dangerous physical objects but also for dangerous intentions. Yet who has not had a ‘dangerous intention’?

Or rather, to quote a more familiar phrase: ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone’ [26. In this manner all travellers will have to safeguard their thoughts at all times;

who is to know whether such scanning devices are embedded into the walls of the airport lounge and corridors?

Or in the toilets; on board the airplane?

This uncertain and somewhat dystopian scenario is one that could shift technologised states into psycho–civilised societies where thoughts and intentions become part of terrorist discourse.

This could be seen as an extreme case of convergence between the social compromises required to facilitate efficient physical–digital infrastructures and the need for securitised mobilities (Wood and Graham, 2006). It also resembles the extremity of constructing an all–inclusive technological web of complex information flows that bypasses traditional forms of interface.

This sees a shift away from earlier prototypes of the hardware–heavy cyborg, such as the early ‘wearcam’ work of Steve Mann [27, towards people actively engaging with their informational environments both in terms of security and surveillance. In some ways these developments have contributed to a rise in acts of self–surveillance, or sousveillance.

(In)Securities, self–sensoring and sousveillance: Inside the social panopticon

Fears over security and safety have reached new levels in the opening decade of the twenty–first century. It is, in all respects, a post–millennium state of insecurity. The older and more familiar paradigms of warfare and security were based upon binaries (e.g., Democracy vs.Communism; friend vs. foe).

To some degree this binary distinction is still maintained and played out in media and cultural discourse as Freedom vs. Anti–Freedom, or West vs. Islam. Yet upon deeper scrutiny this manifests as an asymmetrical arrangement: order/authority vs. guerrilla non–compliance.

A terror suspect can therefore no longer be easily identified as ‘the enemy’ which requires that all civilians be categorised in a state of ‘potential terrorist’. This is especially so since the notion of ‘home–grown terrorist’ is playing out the role of insurgency and resistance from within.

This subtle shift in categorisation has seen a parallel move in the increase of the militarization of the civil sphere.

By this I argue that civil space is increasingly becoming a ‘censor/sensored zone’ where security issues — surveillance, tracking, identification — are played out.

This zone, which mobile bodies pass through and negotiate, is characterised by a pervasive field of information, code, and signifiers that increasingly constructs the ‘social’. Such a coded environment has the potential to be extremely intrusive and goes beyond the normal ken of so–called civil liberties.

Under the sway of a post September 11 scenario and amid an orchestrated ‘war on terror’ many of these intrusive technologies are in rapid development, so much so that the U.K. Government’s Information Commissioner himself states that we live in a surveillance society (Information Commissioner, 2006) [28. These systems of tracking and tracing surveillance involve step changes that are taking place gradually in many industrialised societies, especially in the U.S. and the U.K. [29.

Developments in sensor technologies and ubiquitous computing often focus on the interfaces between person and environment such that interconnectivity is likely to become more pervasive, intrusive, and ‘everywhere’.

In a seminal essay from 1996 computer engineers Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown coined the term ‘ubiquitous computing’ and envisioned the ‘social impact of imbedded computers may be analogous to ... electricity, which surges invisibly through the walls of every home, office, and car’ (Weiser and Brown, 1996).

True to form, within a decade from this pronouncement computing interfaces developed from fixed locations of access to increased wireless connectivity. And it is predicted to become ever more ubiquitous in a manner that will dissolve connectivity into embedded environments (Greenfield, 2006).

Greenfield considers this to be, in one form or another, an inevitability, and refers to this ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) paradigm as ‘everyware’: “Everyware is information processing embedded in the objects and surfaces of everyday life ...

the extension of information–sensing, –processing, and –networking capabilities to entire classes of things we‘ve never before thought of as ‘technology’” [30].

This in turn is likely to trigger the ‘always–on’ surveillance of people in both public life and in private affairs. This inevitably blurs the boundaries between what is external and what is internal, and leads to forms of surveillance that turn inwards and emanates from the ‘self’ — an idea somewhat akin to that of sousveillance.

Sousveillance was coined by Mann (1998) who describes it as form of ‘reflectionism’ or as a ‘watchful vigilance from underneath’, which is a form of inverse surveillance.

Yet it more than inverses the notion; it embellishes it with a self–reflective responsibility. For Mann, reflectionism “holds up the mirror and asks the question: ‘Do you like what you see?’” (Mann, et al., 2003).

Also, in this form, it requires that surveillance is enacted as a form of self–control, as self–maintenance. It is the discipline of being inwardly secure; firstly vigilant towards the self; secondly towards other people/selves.

This form of discipline seems to suggest that there is little room for negligence when watchfulness is the order of the day. Yet it also prompts the ‘user’ of sousveillance to be active and participate in the surrounding environment.

Sousveillance, whilst it can encourage social responsibility, also suggests the need for the person to be guarded against unwanted intrusions and possible violations.

Mann went on to transmit, in the mid ’90s, his daily life experiences for others to experience and interact with.

This created opportunities for establishing a sousveillance network between Mann and his ‘readers’, or rather social network.

This participatory/social panopticon into human–environment interactions was a forerunner to how ‘wearable computing’ might one day emerge as a form of modern ‘intelligent image processing’ (Mann, 2002). Mann’s performance constructs a lived experience where the observation, recording, and dissemination of civic events have shifted towards a social panopticon, infiltrating daily physical encounters.

It is a communal watchfulness of civil responsibility merged with a technical mandate for collective commentary, social analysis, and security of the self. It is also an enactment of performance ethnography, at the same time playful with notions of socialisation and breaching norms (Mann, et al., 2003).

However, the question this raises, I argue, is whether social domains might not be in danger of becoming over–sensory realms, and what may emerge as the most convenient and/or efficient strategy for coping with this. Stross’s (2002) essay ‘The Panopticon Singularity’ considers this trend in a dystopian fashion as ‘the emergence of a situation in which human behaviour is deterministically governed by processes outside human control’. Stross argues, reminiscent of Foucault, that while the effectiveness of societal surveillance is dependent on the number of people involved ‘systems of mechanised surveillance may well increase in efficiency as a power function of the number of deployed monitoring points’ (Stross, 2002). In other words, as more people join the social panopticon, or sousveillant society, this will have a knock–on effect that encourages more people to join the securitisation of the self, rather than being left vulnerable and un–sensored.

There is no denying that such panopticon devices are proliferating — they are carried around with us, increasingly as our own willing appendages. The debates at present are largely centred on surveillance, as state practices of pervasive and ubiquitous top–down monitoring of civil space, rather than forms of self–monitoring, as in sousveillance. Perhaps the next step will be further towards practices of immersive surveillance and control, as indicated in this paper as a psycho–civilized society.

The current surge in research and development of wireless sensor networks is likely to have a significant future impact upon not only how the human body is configured in terms of medical applications but, perhaps more importantly, how the human is cognitively configured in terms of the information–rich environment. One of the scenarios of ubiquitous, pervasive computing is to embed the environment with non–invasive informational systems that merge physical–digital infrastructures. Already much of our atmosphere is saturated with informational flows in various spectrum bandwidths — we are constantly walking through TV programs, mobile phone conversations, and even military broadcasts. Yet we are not decoding these transmissions. The transformation that these various scenarios in this paper suggest is that the human body is becoming re–configured — or re–wired — into a biological antenna. Not only will this greatly facilitate our access onto the Net but will also re–form the human presence, or identity, into a coded wavelength. A wavelength that is more readily readable to various technologies. This may seem far–fetched yet such a future may not be a far leap away.
Conclusion: The future a quantum leap too far?

Socio–technical evolutionary trends predict a future that is wholly immersed in and conversant with an integral informational–digitised environment. Informational flows are envisioned to go beyond the bits and bytes of present computing into the qubits (quantum bits) and subatomic circuitry of quantum computing (Schwartz, et al., 2006). Researchers into quantum computing are working with subatomic spins for exponential and staggering computational capacity. A possible future may look a little like this:

Inside the hatband is Sharon’s communication center and intelligent assistant, which has scanned and sorted the 500,000 e–mails she received overnight. By the time she reaches the car, it has beamed the 10 most urgent ones and her travel schedule to her visual cortex. The text scrolls down in the bottom of her field of vision … . At the airport there is no ticket check–in or security line. Sharon simply walks through the revolving door, which scans her for dangerous items, picks up her identity, confirms her reservation, and delivers her gate number, all in the space of a second. (Schwartz, et al., 2006)

Perhaps the most common prediction prevalent amongst computer engineers is that computers — pervasive and non–perceptible — will be seeded and woven throughout the environment. They will be painted onto walls, on furniture and objects, inside the body, ‘communicating with one another constantly and requiring no more power than that which they can glean from radio frequencies in the air’ (Schwartz, et al., 2006). Quantum researcher and physicist Stuart Wolf anticipates that the next two decades will usher in a type of communications he calls ‘network–enabled telepathy’. Despite the fanciful name the method basically involves wearable devices (such as a ‘quantum headband’) sharing identity and downloaded information with others in the person’s social network; and all driven by the power of thought alone. However, as Wolf points out, ‘it will probably take a new generation raised to think of quantum headbands as normal for its potential to be truly realized’ (Schwartz, et al., 2006). Yet Wolf isn’t alone in his thinking.

Princeton physicist Freeman Dyson has speculated upon the possibility of what he calls radioneurology. Radioneurology refers to a hypothetical future technology of observing neural processes inside a brain by means of locally deployed radio transmitters (Dyson, 1997). For this to be feasible, speculates Dyson, requires a technology to allow for the building and deployment of small transmitters inside a living brain similar to integrated circuit technology on a silicon chip:

We know that high–frequency electromagnetic signals can be propagated through brain tissue for distances of the order of centimeters. We know that microscopic generators and receivers of electromagnetic radiation are possible. We know that modern digital data–handling technology is capable of recording and analyzing the signals emerging from millions of tiny transmitters simultaneaously. All that is lacking in order to transform these possibilities into an effective observational tool is the neurological equivalent of integrated–circuit technology. [31

Given these speculations, and what has been discussed in this paper, it is likely that the major technology for the future is neurotechnology. The information age that emerged out of post–war technologies, and which has guided most of the technologies of the early twenty–first century, has made it possible to collect, utilize, and transfer information/data at unparalleled speeds. Communication, information, and data have been flowing at exponential rates. However, they are yet to merge into a systemic environment.

Neurotechnologies are set to change this with the rise of ‘nanobiochips’ and brain imaging and scanning technologies that will eventually lower the cost of neurological techniques and analysis as well as making the procedures efficient and profitable. Neurotechnologies, combined with wireless sensors, may possibly usher in a communications revolution greater than that caused by the arrival of the transistor and the microchip. Zack Lynch, executive director of the Neurotechnology Industry Organization (NIO), writes that ‘When data from advanced biochips and brain imaging are combined they will accelerate the development of neurotechnology, the set of tools that can influence the human central nervous system, especially the brain’ (Lynch, 2004). Although neurotechnologies are likely to be put to therapeutic and medical uses, such as for improving emotional stability and mental clarity, they also open opportunities for intrusive strategies of control and manipulation.

Part of this paper has been focused on the dangers of an increasingly wireless world. These dangers may include the potential for invasive technologies, based upon transmitted/received signals and wavelengths, to shift social order towards a psycho–civilized society. By psycho–civilised I mean a society that manages and controls social behaviour predominantly through non–obvious methods of psychological manipulations, yet at a level far beyond that of the ‘normalised’ social manipulations of propaganda and social institutions. What I refer to are the technologised methods of psychological interference and privacy intrusions in the manner of creating a docile and constrained society. And here this brings us back to the problematics involved in opening a Pandora’s box.

In this paper I have asked whether innovations in wireless and neuro–technologies are not in danger of shifting human behaviour towards a psycho–civilised society, where greater emphasis is placed upon forms of social control and pre–emptive strategies. What are the moral and ethical implications of using wireless scanning surveillance technologies for evaluating pre–emptive behaviour based on thoughts and intentions alone? Is this not a dangerous path towards psycho–terrorising the social public? As Thomas (1998) reminds us, the mind has no firewall, and is thus vulnerable to viruses, Trojan horses, and spam. It is also vulnerable to hackers, cyber–terrorists, and state surveillance. Whilst this may sound a little too far out, they are reasonable questions to ask if technologies are racing ahead of us in order to better get into our heads.

Becoming wireless also means becoming increasingly immersed within an information–saturated environment. From the evidence of present trends and developments it seems likely that a greater systemic interconnectedness and interdependence is being formed between human–object–environment facilitated through and by information flows. This may herald the coming of a ‘wonderful wireless world’, yet it may also signal unforeseen dangers in protection, privacy, and security of the human biological body within these new relationships. It is the suggestion of this paper that such issues and concerns need to become more public, visible, and open; the very opposite of these technologies. End of article

Kingsley Dennis is a Research Associate in the Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe) based at the Sociology Department at Lancaster University, U.K. His doctoral work focused on complexity theory and information communication technologies. Post–doctoral research now involves examining physical–digital convergences and how these might impact upon social processes. He is concerned with the digital rendition of identity and the implications of surveillance technologies.

Web: http://www.kingsleydennis.com

Blog: http://www.new-mobilities.co.uk

Notes1. Dolman, 2002, p. 41.

2. O’Connor, 1993, p. 35.

3. Ibid.

4. See http://www.dia.mil/publicaffairs
/Foia/foia.htm for list of declassified reports, accessed 11 November 2007.

5. LaMothe, 1972, p. 18.

6. Horgan, 2005, p. 67.

7. Horgan, 2005, p. 70.

8. Thomas, 1998, p. 84.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Thomas, 1998, p. 85.

12. Thomas, 1998, p. 86.

13. Simpson, 1994, p. 3.

14. Thomas, 1998, p. 87.

15. Thomas, 1998, p. 89.

16. Welsh, 1998, p. 37.

17. Part of ongoing research at the QinetiQ Group — see http://www.qinetiq.com/.

18. See http://crunchgear.com/2007/03/08/
emotiv-project-epoc-sensory-gaming-for-the-masses/, accessed 15 January 2008.

19. http://emotiv.com/3_0/pr/pr022607a.htm, accessed 5 November 2007.

20. http://emotiv.com/3_0/pr/pr022607a.htm, accessed 5 November 2007.

21. See http://www.neurosky.com/, accessed 5 November 2007.

22. http://www.smartbraingames.com/, accessed 5 November 2007.

23. For patent, see http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT6754472&id=30YSAAAAEBAJ&dq=6,754,472.

24. See Google patents http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT4395600&id=V_ItAAAAEBAJ&dq=4,395,600.

25. See Google patents http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT5507291&id=940lAAAAEBAJ&dq=5,507,291.

26. John 8:1–9.

27. See http://wearcam.org/mann.html, accessed 17 January 2008.

28. See also BBC Report — http://news.bbc.co.uk/
1/hi/uk/6108496.stm, accessed 5 November 2007. For general information see the journal Surveillance and Society, at http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/index.htm, accessed 5 November 2007.

29. There are up to 4.2m CCTV cameras in Britain — about one for every 14 people — more than other industrialised Western states.

30. Greenfield, 2006, p. 18.

31. Dyson, 1997, pp. 133–134.

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First Monday, Volume 13, Number 2 – 4 February 2008

http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin

/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2084/1940

Zimbabwe Under Siege… 

what they don’t want you to know

 

As usual you cannot trust the Western media. A racist media at the service of racist and evil masters.

The Zimbabwe ambassador to the US reported on the true facts of the situation concerning all the brouhaha concerning Zimbabwe.

I urge you to read it to gain an understanding of the reality in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe has recently announced that the elections will be held on March 29,2008.

The Western monitors were barred from ‘observing’ (read rigging the election in favor of the MDC).

So you will probably hear a lot of noise from the same racist Western Media claiming unfair and rigged elections in Zimbabwe.

Pay no attention to these racist media outlets.

Zimbabwe has asked foreign observers from all parts of the world such as Russia, China, Iran, and elsewhere to monitor the election and witness for the world that no cheating is going on in Zimbabwean elections unlike places like Ohio in the USA.

 

__________________________________

 

by Dr. Simbi Mubako With Zimbabwe’s

March 9

Scheduled Presidential elections three weeks away, Dr. Mubako, the Ambassador of Zimbabwe to the United States, gave this report of the country’s fight for sovereignty against an ongoing, global British campaign. The speech was given to the Presidents’ Day (Feb. 16-18) national conference of the Schiller Institute, on the Feb. 16 panel keynoted by U.S. Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

These days Zimbabwe is always in the news, but rarely to you ever get news about anything positive. A wise person has said bad news is better than no news at all. However, as Ambassador for Zimbabwe these days, I would gladly swap anybody’s “no news at all,” if he will accept my “bad news.”

There has been a veritable media blitz on Zimbabwe by the Western powers in the last three years. Yet for the previous 19 years, the West showered endless praises on Zimbabwe and its President, as a beacon of stability and democracy in Africa. Zimbabwe won many international awards for its advanced agriculture and economic management. American universities awarded President Mugabe several doctorates, adding to his own six very good degrees in education, economics, law and international relations. Now, suddenly, the West condemns the country, and portrays Mugabe as a leader who has developed the horns of a demon, and a tail. He is called a tyrant, a thief, and a corrupt monster, with all the epithets that the West heaps upon Third World leaders.
Why This Sudden Assault on Mugabe

What are the reasons for this sudden turn of events? The reasons are not far to seek. They are mainly two.

a)The first one was the intervention of Zimbabwe troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In 1998, the DRC was invaded by Uganda and Rwanda, with the tacit support of the United States of America and Britain. The declared aim was to overthrow the young government of President Laurent Kabila. The DRC appealed to SADC for help; SADC agreed to send troops from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. The invading forces were checkmated, and the plan to overthrow the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was foiled. The invading forces are still occupying, and exploiting the diamond and other mineral resources of the DRC, on behalf of the West. Two and one half million people have died in the process, in the occupied territories, as a result of war, starvation, and diseases. There has been no outcry in the West about the occupation, exploitation, and atrocities committed by the occupying forces, and the deaths of so many millions of people. The West singles out Zimbabwe for vilification, because of their own failure to plant a puppet regime in DRC capital of Kinshasa.Zimbabwe’s presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was a SADC decision, aimed at saving the people of the DRC from imminent danger and genocide; and this was part of the wider SADC goal, to assist the African people everywhere. Zimbabwe is proud of its role in the DRC, and we know that the Congolese people are happy and grateful for the assistance they receive from the government and people of Zimbabwe. Zimnbabwe will continue to stand ready to assist, and to defend and consolidate the independence and territorial integrity of the DRC, as long as it is necessary to do so.

b)Land Reclamation. The second and even more important reason for the West’s assault on Zimbabwe, is that the Zimbabwe government decided to take control of its land; of the land which remained the monopoly of a small racial monopoly from the days of British colonialism. Land was one of the principal objectives of the war of liberation, through which Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980. Yet, 19 years after independence, that land was still in the hands of British settlers. The colonial racial division of the land left the white farmers owning 65% of the best farmland of the country, while over 9 million blacks were crowded on small, infertile, sandy plots, or were made landless and jobless.

Moreover, Tony Blair’s Labour government decided to abrogate the pledge, which the previous government had made before independence at the 1980 Lancaster House Conference, that they would fund a resettlement program, a land reform in Zimbabwe. Tony Blair’s government unilaterally announced, that they had stopped funding the land reform and resettlement program in Zimbabwe.The Zimbabwe government, therefore, was left with no choice, but to announce its own plan of land reclamation, at an accelerated pace. They embarked on that; and, as of now, 7000 farms—or about 90% of the land which was formerly occupied by the white farmers—has now been acquired for African settlers. Most of the people who are being resettled, had been landless, or jobless. And by the end of December 2001, over 360,000 families had been resettled on new land.

The government of President Mugabe acted with determination. This is the reason, why the West is punishing Zimbabwe. This is why the West is demonizing President Mugabe. The campaign against my country has nothing to do with democracy, the rul of law, or elections, as they tend to allege. Zimbabwe has always practiced these things, and is committed to democracy and good government.

In reality, the West itself does not care about these matters in Third World countries. If you look, their closest allies are the greatest offenders against democracy and human rights. I shall not name names, but you know the military regimes, and the one-party states, and theocracies, and so on, with whom they are in bed.
Escalation of the Vilification Campaign

President Mugabe has repeatedly said that there is no going back on the land reforms. Zimbabweans know that Mugabe is a man of his words. The British know this as well. So, they have decided to escalate their campaign of vilification against the people and the economy of Zimbabwe. The object is to make the people disaffected against their government, and to make the country ungovernable. This was all in preparation for the elections, which they knew were coming. They imposed informal sanctions on the country, including attempts to prevent oil deliveries reaching Zimbabwe. We had gasoline queues, and closures of some factories, leaving thousands of people unemployed. They withheld spare parts for our machinery and aircraft bought in Britain, including parts for incubators and respirators for newborn babies.

They called on their cousins in Canada, the United States, Australia, and some European countries, to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe. As you know, the right wing in the United States jumped at the opportunity to punish an African country, whom they saw as being a “cheeky” one. They introduced the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy Bill, which was passed by Congress last year. In so doing, they ignored the protests and advice from Zimbabwe itself, from all states of the whole of the SADC region, and from all the African states. All the African states were united against any form of sanctions.

In particular, they keep trying to divide Africans, to get some Africans to break off from opposition to the line they are taking. They keep on blaming President Mbeki, for example, of South Africa, for refusing to be used against a friendly African government, which has impeccable pan-Africanist credentials.

Last week, President Mbeki voiced his exasperation with the West, for treating African states like little children, who were either ignorant, or did not know what was good for them. He said that in Zimbabwe, the West’s interest is clearly not about democracy, but about their wish to control the country.

Africa has decided that there is no case whatsoever, for sanctions of any kind against Zimbabwe; rather, there is a case for economic assistance, if anyone is inclined to assist.

Within Zimbabwe itself, Britain and its allies are trying to destabilize the elected Government of President Mugabe, in any way they can think of, in order to install a puppet government that will dance to their tune. They have now admitted, that through organizations like the Westminister Foundation, the Amani Trust, and others, they—together with the white farmers, and white interests in South Africa—bankrolled the main opposition party in Zimbabwe, for a long time now.

You have, today, an opposition party, led by people who were formerly poor trades union leaders, which has now, arguably, more resources than the party in government. The leaders have become instant millionaires. They have managed to establish short-wave radio stations in Britain and the Netherlands, that nightly beam propaganda to Zimbabwe, in favor of the opposition and against the government.

However, all this does not seem to be working, at least in the estimation of the British government. The British fear that their three-year-old Zimbabwean baby might fail to win the election; hence, they have decided to interfere directly in the elections themselves. They demanded that the European Union monitor Zimbabwe’s elections. This arrogant demand was made under threat of economic sanctions, and in complete disregard of Zimbabwe’s laws and its sovereignty. They saw in this, an opportunity for them to be able to rig the elections, in favor of their favority party.

The Zimbabwe government had no choice, but to reject this diktat out of hand. Next—I have said they funded pirate radio stations in Britain and the Netherlands, with a daily propaganda campaign for the opposition, that vilify the elected government—the European Union is trying to impose a Swedish election observer, who was not invited by the Zimbabwe government. He just took the plane from New York, the United Nations, and flew into Zimbabwe, and said, “Here, I’ve come to observe your elections, on behalf of the European Union.”

All these tactics will not succeed. They will not succeed in their attempt to break the resolve of the people of Zimbabwe, to be masters in their own house.
Continued British Colonialism

What emerges here, is that the British have not abandoned their old ideas of imperial domination over their old colonies. They now want to dominate by economic manipulation, and by installing puppet regimes, all in the name of democracy, human rights, and good governance. If they cannot do it alone, they summon the Americans and fellow Europeans, to subjue the disobedient developing country.

At the Berlin Conference of 1895, European powers signed a treaty, to partition and colonize Africa. They did so. We are now witnessing a process whereby Britain, a former colonial power, is turning the European Union into an instrument of neo-colonialism. The British regard the Commonwealth—their own Commonwealth of nations—as their same old British Empire, only by another name. Hence, their attempt (which failed) to use the Commonwealth to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, even during the current Presidential election campaign itself.

No other country would tolerate a situation, where a foreign power would come and threaten sanctions against a party or government which is taking part in an election—clearly, they are showing that they are not an impartial group.

In all this, the public in the West is told, that their governments are intervening in the name of democracy. The British cannot now come back to Africa to teach us democracy, which they, themselves, in 100 years of their own colonial rule.

What lies behind this continued arrogance and bullying, is the continued belief by the West in their inherent superiority over the developing nations. That belief is reinforced by the undemocratic and unfair economic order in which the young nations find themselves.
Unjust Economic Order

We are members of a United Nations in which nations are declared equal, but which is dominated by only a handful of powers, that won the Second World War. Hence, the United Nations serves the interest of those powers first, before the rest of humanity. That is the system, which condemsn and punished aggression in Kuwait, very swiftly, but condones aggression in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That is the system, which intervenes to stop wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, but did nothing to stop genocide in Rwanda; and now, does little to end the ongoing atrocities and genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The injustice of the international political order, rests on the injustice of the international economic order, represneted by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Zimbabwe is a long-standing member of both organizations, and had come to rely on them for its vital development projects. We thought that we had rights in these institutions, provided that we followed the rules and paid our dues. However, we have since discovered, to our costs, that we were deluding ourselves. We are only insignificant pawns, that can be cast away at the whim of the great powers.

In 1999, after our diplomatic quarrels with Britain had started, our annual application to the IMF was vetoed by Britain and the United States. The reason given, was that Zimbabwe—which had sent troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo—was too poor to involve itself in the war in the DRC; and therefore, they should be denied any further funds, so that they could not indulge in those kind of adventures.

Yet, at the same time—in fact, on the same day—Rwanda and Uganda had their applications approved by the IMF. These two countries also have troops in the DRC; they are the aggressors; and both countries are actually poorer than Zimbabwe. Yet, they received, and continue to receive, loans and grants from the Bretton Woods institutions, while Zimbabwe is quarantined. That is the effect of the big-power monopoly of these institutions.
Life After the IMF

The lessons to be learnt are two, for us:

1. First of all, that even if you are a member of the IMF and the World Bank, you should not build your economy on the IMF prescriptions. Young and poor nations should rely on their own meager resources. Then you will not be blackmailed politically. This is a surer way to steady economic development, even if it is slower economic development.

2. Secondly, we have learned that we should encourage everybody to join the movement for the establishment of a New International Economic Order. That movement is already afoot. And it is in our interests as developing countries, to join these progressive forces, which already exist. We should join hands with the progressive forces of thinkers and policy-makers here in the United States—such as Mr. LaRouche; I have read some of his works. And we should join those in other countries, as in Russia, Italy, Malaysia, who have all shown that they are willing to embrace the establishment of a new international order. There is no long-term solution in the present system of international order.

Zimbabwe values its independence and sovereignty above all else. There is no going back on our land reform program, which is now almost complete.

Our economy has been under seige for about three years now. But now, there are signs of recovery and stability. We have learned a bitter lesson. We have learned that, after all, there is life after the IMF. We are beginning to realize, that the threatened sanctions against Zimbabwe, may actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

As for our Presidential elections, to take place on the 9th and 10th of next month: I am confident that they will proceed well, despite the threatened interference by our former colonial “masters.” The elections will be held freely and fairly, just as they have been held before.

I thank you all for listening to me.

Drugs in US’ Drinking Water

(antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones)

That would explain a lot of things!

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas — from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.

Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public “doesn’t know how to interpret the information” and might be unduly alarmed.

How do the drugs get into the water?

People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies — which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public — have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

“We recognize it is a growing concern and we’re taking it very seriously,” said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Members of the AP National Investigative Team reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed federal drinking water databases, visited environmental study sites and treatment plants and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics and scientists. They also surveyed the nation’s 50 largest cities and a dozen other major water providers, as well as smaller community water providers in all 50 states.

Here are some of the key test results obtained by the AP:

_Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city’s watersheds.

_Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.

_Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.

_A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco’s drinking water.

_The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.

_Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.

The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP.

The federal government doesn’t require any testing and hasn’t set safety limits for drugs in water. Of the 62 major water providers contacted, the drinking water for only 28 was tested. Among the 34 that haven’t: Houston, Chicago, Miami, Baltimore, Phoenix, Boston and New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, which delivers water to 9 million people.

Some providers screen only for one or two pharmaceuticals, leaving open the possibility that others are present.

The AP’s investigation also indicates that watersheds, the natural sources of most of the nation’s water supply, also are contaminated. Tests were conducted in the watersheds of 35 of the 62 major providers surveyed by the AP, and pharmaceuticals were detected in 28.

Yet officials in six of those 28 metropolitan areas said they did not go on to test their drinking water — Fairfax, Va.; Montgomery County in Maryland; Omaha, Neb.; Oklahoma City; Santa Clara, Calif., and New York City.

The New York state health department and the USGS tested the source of the city’s water, upstate. They found trace concentrations of heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood stabilizer and a tranquilizer.

City water officials declined repeated requests for an interview. In a statement, they insisted that “New York City’s drinking water continues to meet all federal and state regulations regarding drinking water quality in the watershed and the distribution system” — regulations that do not address trace pharmaceuticals.

In several cases, officials at municipal or regional water providers told the AP that pharmaceuticals had not been detected, but the AP obtained the results of tests conducted by independent researchers that showed otherwise. For example, water department officials in New Orleans said their water had not been tested for pharmaceuticals, but a Tulane University researcher and his students have published a study that found the pain reliever naproxen, the sex hormone estrone and the anti-cholesterol drug byproduct clofibric acid in treated drinking water.

Of the 28 major metropolitan areas where tests were performed on drinking water supplies, only Albuquerque; Austin, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Va.; said tests were negative. The drinking water in Dallas has been tested, but officials are awaiting results. Arlington, Texas, acknowledged that traces of a pharmaceutical were detected in its drinking water but cited post-9/11 security concerns in refusing to identify the drug.

The AP also contacted 52 small water providers — one in each state, and two each in Missouri and Texas — that serve communities with populations around 25,000. All but one said their drinking water had not been screened for pharmaceuticals; officials in Emporia, Kan., refused to answer AP’s questions, also citing post-9/11 issues.

Rural consumers who draw water from their own wells aren’t in the clear either, experts say.

The Stroud Water Research Center, in Avondale, Pa., has measured water samples from New York City’s upstate watershed for caffeine, a common contaminant that scientists often look for as a possible signal for the presence of other pharmaceuticals. Though more caffeine was detected at suburban sites, researcher Anthony Aufdenkampe was struck by the relatively high levels even in less populated areas.

He suspects it escapes from failed septic tanks, maybe with other drugs. “Septic systems are essentially small treatment plants that are essentially unmanaged and therefore tend to fail,” Aufdenkampe said.

Even users of bottled water and home filtration systems don’t necessarily avoid exposure. Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water, do not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry’s main trade group. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems.

Contamination is not confined to the United States. More than 100 different pharmaceuticals have been detected in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams throughout the world. Studies have detected pharmaceuticals in waters throughout Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe — even in Swiss lakes and the North Sea.

For example, in Canada, a study of 20 Ontario drinking water treatment plants by a national research institute found nine different drugs in water samples. Japanese health officials in December called for human health impact studies after detecting prescription drugs in drinking water at seven different sites.

In the United States, the problem isn’t confined to surface waters. Pharmaceuticals also permeate aquifers deep underground, source of 40 percent of the nation’s water supply. Federal scientists who drew water in 24 states from aquifers near contaminant sources such as landfills and animal feed lots found minuscule levels of hormones, antibiotics and other drugs.

Perhaps it’s because Americans have been taking drugs — and flushing them unmetabolized or unused — in growing amounts. Over the past five years, the number of U.S. prescriptions rose 12 percent to a record 3.7 billion, while nonprescription drug purchases held steady around 3.3 billion, according to IMS Health and The Nielsen Co.

“People think that if they take a medication, their body absorbs it and it disappears, but of course that’s not the case,” said EPA scientist Christian Daughton, one of the first to draw attention to the issue of pharmaceuticals in water in the United States.

Some drugs, including widely used cholesterol fighters, tranquilizers and anti-epileptic medications, resist modern drinking water and wastewater treatment processes. Plus, the EPA says there are no sewage treatment systems specifically engineered to remove pharmaceuticals.

One technology, reverse osmosis, removes virtually all pharmaceutical contaminants but is very expensive for large-scale use and leaves several gallons of polluted water for every one that is made drinkable.

Another issue: There’s evidence that adding chlorine, a common process in conventional drinking water treatment plants, makes some pharmaceuticals more toxic.

Human waste isn’t the only source of contamination. Cattle, for example, are given ear implants that provide a slow release of trenbolone, an anabolic steroid used by some bodybuilders, which causes cattle to bulk up. But not all the trenbolone circulating in a steer is metabolized. A German study showed 10 percent of the steroid passed right through the animals.

Water sampled downstream of a Nebraska feedlot had steroid levels four times as high as the water taken upstream. Male fathead minnows living in that downstream area had low testosterone levels and small heads.

Other veterinary drugs also play a role. Pets are now treated for arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies, dementia, and even obesity — sometimes with the same drugs as humans. The inflation-adjusted value of veterinary drugs rose by 8 percent, to $5.2 billion, over the past five years, according to an analysis of data from the Animal Health Institute.

Ask the pharmaceutical industry whether the contamination of water supplies is a problem, and officials will tell you no. “Based on what we now know, I would say we find there’s little or no risk from pharmaceuticals in the environment to human health,” said microbiologist Thomas White, a consultant for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

But at a conference last summer, Mary Buzby — director of environmental technology for drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. — said: “There’s no doubt about it, pharmaceuticals are being detected in the environment and there is genuine concern that these compounds, in the small concentrations that they’re at, could be causing impacts to human health or to aquatic organisms.”

Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation.

Also, pharmaceuticals in waterways are damaging wildlife across the nation and around the globe, research shows. Notably, male fish are being feminized, creating egg yolk proteins, a process usually restricted to females. Pharmaceuticals also are affecting sentinel species at the foundation of the pyramid of life — such as earth worms in the wild and zooplankton in the laboratory, studies show.

Some scientists stress that the research is extremely limited, and there are too many unknowns. They say, though, that the documented health problems in wildlife are disconcerting.

“It brings a question to people’s minds that if the fish were affected … might there be a potential problem for humans?” EPA research biologist Vickie Wilson told the AP. “It could be that the fish are just exquisitely sensitive because of their physiology or something. We haven’t gotten far enough along.”

With limited research funds, said Shane Snyder, research and development project manager at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, a greater emphasis should be put on studying the effects of drugs in water.

“I think it’s a shame that so much money is going into monitoring to figure out if these things are out there, and so little is being spent on human health,” said Snyder. “They need to just accept that these things are everywhere — every chemical and pharmaceutical could be there. It’s time for the EPA to step up to the plate and make a statement about the need to study effects, both human and environmental.”

To the degree that the EPA is focused on the issue, it appears to be looking at detection. Grumbles acknowledged that just late last year the agency developed three new methods to “detect and quantify pharmaceuticals” in wastewater. “We realize that we have a limited amount of data on the concentrations,” he said. “We’re going to be able to learn a lot more.”

While Grumbles said the EPA had analyzed 287 pharmaceuticals for possible inclusion on a draft list of candidates for regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, he said only one, nitroglycerin, was on the list. Nitroglycerin can be used as a drug for heart problems, but the key reason it’s being considered is its widespread use in making explosives.

So much is unknown. Many independent scientists are skeptical that trace concentrations will ultimately prove to be harmful to humans. Confidence about human safety is based largely on studies that poison lab animals with much higher amounts.

There’s growing concern in the scientific community, meanwhile, that certain drugs — or combinations of drugs — may harm humans over decades because water, unlike most specific foods, is consumed in sizable amounts every day.

Our bodies may shrug off a relatively big one-time dose, yet suffer from a smaller amount delivered continuously over a half century, perhaps subtly stirring allergies or nerve damage. Pregnant women, the elderly and the very ill might be more sensitive.

Many concerns about chronic low-level exposure focus on certain drug classes: chemotherapy that can act as a powerful poison; hormones that can hamper reproduction or development; medicines for depression and epilepsy that can damage the brain or change behavior; antibiotics that can allow human germs to mutate into more dangerous forms; pain relievers and blood-pressure diuretics.

For several decades, federal environmental officials and nonprofit watchdog environmental groups have focused on regulated contaminants — pesticides, lead, PCBs — which are present in higher concentrations and clearly pose a health risk.

However, some experts say medications may pose a unique danger because, unlike most pollutants, they were crafted to act on the human body.

“These are chemicals that are designed to have very specific effects at very low concentrations. That’s what pharmaceuticals do. So when they get out to the environment, it should not be a shock to people that they have effects,” says zoologist John Sumpter at Brunel University in London, who has studied trace hormones, heart medicine and other drugs.

And while drugs are tested to be safe for humans, the timeframe is usually over a matter of months, not a lifetime. Pharmaceuticals also can produce side effects and interact with other drugs at normal medical doses. That’s why — aside from therapeutic doses of fluoride injected into potable water supplies — pharmaceuticals are prescribed to people who need them, not delivered to everyone in their drinking water.

“We know we are being exposed to other people’s drugs through our drinking water, and that can’t be good,” says Dr. David Carpenter, who directs the Institute for Health and the Environment of the State University of New York at Albany.

The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate (at) ap.org