NON-LETHALITY:
JOHN B. ALEXANDER, THE PENTAGON'S PENGUIN

(Lobster Magazine, which specialises in intelligence and conspiracy matters, is published twice yearly.)

On April 22, 1993, both BBC1 and BBC2 showed on their main evening news bulletins a rather lengthy piece concerning America's latest development in weaponry - the non-lethal weapons concept. David Shukman, BBC Defence Correspondent interviewed (Retired) U.S. Army Colonel John B. Alexander and Janet Morris, two of the main proponents of the concept (1). The concept of non-lethal weapons is not new. Non-lethal weapons have been used by the intelligence, police and defence establishments in the past (2). Several western governments have used a variety of non-lethal weapons in a more discreet and covert manner. It seems that the U.S. government is about to take the first step towards their open use.

The current interest in the concept of non-lethal weapons began about a decade ago with John Alexander. In December 1980 he published an article in the U.S. Army's journal, MILITARY REVIEW, "The New Mental Battlefield," referring to claims that telepathy could be used to interfere with the brain's electrical activity. This caught the attention of senior Army generals who encouraged him to pursue what they termed "soft option kill" technologies.

After retiring from the Army in 1988, Alexander joined the Los Alamos National Laboratories and began working with Janet Morris, the Research Director of the U.S. Global Strategy Council (USGSC), chaired by Dr. Ray Cline, former Deputy Director of the CIA (3). I examine the background of Janet Morris and John Alexander in more detail below.

Throughout 1990 the USGSC lobbied the main national laboratories, major defence contractors and industries, retired senior military and intelligence officers. The result was the creation of a Non-lethality Policy Review Group, led by Major General Chris S. Adams, USAF (retd.) former Chief of Staff, Strategic Air Command (4). They already have the support of Senator Sam Nunn, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. According to Janet Morris, the military attache at the Russian Embassy has contacted USGSC about the possibility of converting military hardware to a non-lethal capability.

In 1991 Janet Morris issued a number of papers giving more detailed information about USGSC's concept of non-lethal weapons (5). Shortly after, the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, VA, published a detailed draft report on the subject titled "Operations Concept for Disabling Measures." The report included over twenty projects in which John Alexander is currently involved at the Los Alamos National Laboratories.

In a memorandum dated April 10, 1991, titled "Do we need a Non-lethal Defense initiative?" Paul Wolfwitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, wrote to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, "A U.S. lead in non-lethal technologies will increase our options and reinforce our position in the postCold War world. Our Research and Development efforts must be increased."

HOW LETHAL IS NON-LETHAL?

• Hand-held lasers which are meant "to dazzle," could also cause the eyeball to explode and to blind the target.
• Isotropic radiators - explosively driven munitions, capable of generating very bright omni-directional light, with similar effects to laser guns.
• High-power microwaves (HPM) - U.S. Special Operations command already has that capability within their grasp as a portable microwave weapon (16). As Myron L. Wolbarsht, a Duke University opthalamist and expert in laser weapons stated: "U.S. Special Forces can quietly cut enemy communications but also can cook internal organs (17)."
• Another candidate is Infrasound - acoustic beams. In conjunction with the Scientific Applications and Research Associates (SARA) of Huntingdon, California, ARDEC and Los Alamos laboratories are busy "developing a high power, very low frequency acoustic beam weapons." They are also looking into methods of projecting non-diffracting (i.e. nonpenetrating) high frequency acoustic bullets. ARDEC scientists are also looking into methods of using pulsed chemical lasers. This class of lasers could project "a hot, high pressure plasma in the air in front of a target surface, creating a blast wave that will result in variable but controlled effects on material and personnel."
• Infrasound. Alrady some governments have used it as a means of crowd control - e.g. France.
• Very low frequency (VLF) sound (20-35 KHz), or lowfrequency RF modulations can cause nausea, vomiting and abdominal pains. "Some very low frequency sound generators, in certain frequency ranges, can cause the disruption of human organs and, at high power levels, can crumble masonry (18)." The CIA had a similar program in 1978 called Operation Pique, which included bouncing radio or microwave signals off the ionosphere to affect mental functions of people in selected areas, including Eastern European nuclear installations (19).

Alexander obtained a BaS from the University of Nebraska and an MA from Pepperdine University. In 1980 he was awarded a PhD from Walden University (20) for his thesis "To determine whether or not significant changes in spirituality occur in persons who attended a Kubler-Ross life/death transition workshop during the period June through February 1979." His dissertation committee was chaired by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.

He has long been interested in what used to be regarded as "fringe" areas. In 1971, while a Captain in the infantry at Schofield Barracks, Honolulu, he was diving in the Bimini Islands looking for the lost continent of Atlantis. He was an official representative for the Silva mind control organisation and a lecturer on Precataclysmic Civilisations (21). Alexander is also a past President and a Board member of the International Association for Near Death Studies; and, with his former wife, Jan Northup, he helped Dr. C.B. Scott Jones perform ESP experiments with dolphins (22).

PSI-TECH

Alexander is a friend of Vice President Al Gore Jnr, their relationship dating back to 1983 when Gore was in Alexander's NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP) class. NLP "presented to selected general officers and Senior Executive Service members (27)" a set of techniques to modify behaviour patterns (28). Among the first generals to take the course was the then Lieutenant General Maxwell Thurman, who later went on to receive his fourth star and become Vice-Chief of Staff at the Army and Commander Southern Command (29). Among other senior participants were Tom Downey and Major General Stubblebine, former Director of the Army Intelligence Security Command.

"In 1983, the Jedi master (from the Star Wars movie - author) provided an image and a name for the Jedi Project (30)." Jedi Project's aim was to seek and "construct teachable models of behaviorable/physical excellence using unconventional means." (31) According to Alexander the Jedi Project was to be a follow-up to Neuro-Linguistic Programming skills. By using the influence of friends such as Major General Stubblebine, who was then head of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, he managed to fund Jedi. In reality the concept was old hat, re-christened by Alexander. The original idea which was to show how "human will power and human concentration affect performance more than any other single factor (32)" using NLP skills, was the brainchild of three independent people; Fritz Erikson, a Gestalt therapist, Virginia Satir, a family therapist and Erick Erickson, a hypnotist.

On to Part 4 of the Penguinian Series

NOTES:

1. Letter dated 2 April, 1993, to author from Mrs Victoria Alexander.

2. The U.S. Army Chemical and Military Police used "Novel Effect Weapons" against the women protesters at the Greenham Common Base.

3. The United States Global Strategy Council is an independent think tank, incorporated in 1981. It focuses on long-range strategic issues. The founding members were Clare Boothe Luce, General Maxwell Taylor, General Albert Wedemeyer, Dr Ray Cline (Co-chair), Jeane Kirkpatrick (Co-chair), Morris Leibman, Henry luce III, J. William Middendorf II, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer USN (retd), General Richard Stillwell (retd), Dr Michael A. Daniles (President), Dr Dalton A. West (Executive Vice President). Its Research Directors were Dr Yona Alexander, Dr Roger Fontaine, Robert L. Katula and Janet Morris.

4. NONLETHAlITY: DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONAL POLICY AND EMPLOYING NONLETHAL MEANS IN A NEW STATEGIC ERA -- a Project of the U.S. Global Strategy Council, 1991, p.4. Other staff members of the USGSC are Steve Trevino, Dr John B. Alexander and Chris Morris.

5. The USGSC has issued a wide variety of papers on the Nonlethal Weapons Concept. For example, IN SEARCH OF NONLETHAL STRATEGY (Janet Morris); NONLETHALITY: A GLOBAL STRATEGY -- WHITE PAPER; NONLETHALITY BRIEFING SUPPLEMENT No.1; and NONLETHALITY IN THE OPERATIONAL CONTIUNUUM.

6. IN SEARCH OF A NONLETHAL STRATEGY, Janet Morris, p.1.

7. NONLETHALITY: A GLOBAL STRATEGY - WHITE PAPER, p.3.

8. IN SEARCH OF... P.3.

9. In the recent cult siege in Waco, Texas, a "nonlethal" technique, projecting sublimal messages, was used to influence David Koresh - without effect.

10. NONLETHALITY: A GLOBAL STRATEGY - WHITE PAPER, p.2.

11. The computer data base compiled during the CIA/Army's Project OFTEN, examining several thousand chemical compounds, during 1976-1973, is a most likely candidate for any chemical agents for nonlethal weapons.

12. The British MoD is already developing a "microwave bomb." Work on the weapon is going on at the Defence Research Agency at Farnborough, Hampshire. See SUNDAY TELEGRAPH September 27, 1992, partly reproduced in LOBSTER 24, p.14. The Royal Navy is already in possession of laser weapons which dazzle aircraft pilots. The Red Cross has called for them to be banned under the Geneva Convention because could permanently blind.

13. IN SEARCH OF A NONLETHAL STRATEGY, p.13.

14. Ibid.

15. The U.S. Navy, through its Project SEA SHADOW, has already developed a stealth boat. Like the Lockheed F117A, stealth fighter, it leaves no radar signature -- BBC, Newsround, April 28, 1993.

16. Taped conversation with Janet Morris, March 1, 1993.

17. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, January 4, 1993.

18. IN SEARCH OF A NONLETHAL STRATEGY, p. 14.

19. REMOTE CONTROL TECHNOLOGY, Anna Keeler (FULL DISCLOSURE, Ann Arbor, U.S.A., 1989) p.11.

20. Walden University, 801 Anchor Road Drive, Naples, Fl. 33904, U.S.A. Walden University considers itself a non-traditional university and does not offer any undergraduate courses to its students.

21. Brad Steiger, MYSTERIES OF SPACE AND TIME (Prentice Hall, Engelwood Cliffs, New Jersey) pp.72 and 3. The U.S. Army Command and General College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, issued this on Alexander's career: "Colonel John B. Alexander, U.S. Army Retired, manages Antimateriel Technology at Los Alamos National Laboratories, Los Alamos, New Mexico. His military assignments included; Advanced Systems Concepts Office, Laboratory Command; manager, Technology Integration Office, Army Material Command; assistant deputy chief of staff, Technology Planning and Management, Army Material Command; and chief, Advanced Human Technology, Intelligence and Security Command."

22. Taped telephone conversation with Dr Scott Jones, August 17, 1992.

23. Taped telephone converstaion with Maj. Edward Dames, June 27, 1992; and THE BULLETIN OF ATOMIC SCIENTISTS, December 1992, p.6.

24. THE WARRIOR'S EDGE, Col. John B. Alexander, Maj. Richard Groller and Janet Morris, (William Morrow Inc., New York, 1990).

25. Ibid. p.9.

26. Ibid. pp.9 and 10.

27. Ibid p.47.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid. pp.72 and 3.

31. Ibid. p.12.

32. Ibid. p. 13.

On to Part 4 of the Penguinian Series