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Beware the Bug-eyed Assassins!
Remote controlled cyborg insect hit teams might be the next method of choice for covert assassination.
01/21/2012 04:33 AM CST (STARpod.org) -- In the event of an all out global nuclear war, it is fabled that the lowly (but rugged!) cockroach will inherit the Earth. This point might be debatable (see this article in Slate for more information) but there is a new bug on the block: the cyborg-insect robo-warrior. The idea of using biologically based machines, like remote controllable insects, in the effort to stop nuclear proliferation, is hardly new. The Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute has proposed using remote controlled cyborg cockroaches as sensor platforms to seek out nuclear weapons and materials. They cite the advantages of the American cockroach: "Roaches typically live for more than a year after reaching adulthood and they unusually tolerant to noxious environments. Roaches have a somehow large specific payload capacity compared to other insects. A particular advantage of the long life span of the American roaches could even allow us early adult surgery in case that some insect hardware interfaces are needed throughout the platform lifetime." Remote controlled insects come in a variety of forms.
In the United States, research into cyborg machine-insect hybrids has been sponsored by DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (also known as the home of some of America's top "mad scientists," due to the exotic nature of the research). ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW KNOWING THE FUTURE: THE UFO SPY GAMES DARPA's Hybrid Insect project, called HI-MEMS, is focused on improved control of insect locomotion. MEMS are "micro-electro-mechanical-systems," the hardware used to control the insect's motion. To create a viable technology for covert action, the DARPA program looked at placing the micro-mechanical control systems inside of the insects. Safely protected inside of biological tissue growth, the MEMS device navigates and controls the motion of the insect using Global Positioning Satellite and radio frequencies, as well as visual and ultrasonic cues. There are several methods to affect the insect's mechanical behavior. Muscles and neurons may be electrically stimulated. Biological responses may be induced to affect behavior, by simulating various optical, auditory, or olfactory cues.
According to DARPA, "The realization of cyborgs with most of
the machine component inside the insect body will provide stealthy robots that
use muscle actuators which have been developed over millions of years of
evolution." The advertised intention for the creation of remote controlled insects is to provide a new method of covert detection.
There is a darker use for these new living machines. In addition to carrying electronic detection equipment, remote controlled insects could be designed to act as tiny, inconspicuous assassins, by delivering a deadly toxin to an intended victim, in the ultimate covert assassination scenario. One source familiar with the cyborg bugs, who must remain unnamed for personal safety, suggested using the robotic insects as lethal delivery systems, to bypass conventional methods of protection afforded to high-level individuals at the command and control level of an adversary's government. The idea is to equip the insects to deliver a stinging blow, while under the remote control of an operator at a distance (perhaps even on the other side of the world, similar to the deadly strikes now conducted by Predator drones). It has been reported that scientists in Israel have expressed an interest in the cyborg technology. The recent assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai by an unknown covert-action hit squad, has resulted in a flurry of accusations and counter claims. It is widely suspected that the Israeli secret service -- the Mossad -- orchestrated the assassination, which involved identity theft for cover. The team of assassins were caught on camera, and their photographs have been made public. It is possible that members of the hit squad may be eventually be arrested and revealed as the operatives of a state sponsored assassination plot. As explained by the Washington Post, spy technologies have "foiled old school political killings": "The practice of secretly assassinating purported enemies of the state -- an age-old tool of foreign policy -- has run up against steadily improving international police collaboration and the global proliferation of surveillance technologies that make it harder for anyone anywhere to surreptitiously conduct a high-profile killing on foreign soil." The ability to attack a target using insects as weapons would allow assassinations to take place outside of the spotlight of overt violence -- it might even allow for privately contracted "cut-out" operations used to insulate the authorizing powers under plausible deniability, if the technology inside of a toxic cyborg insect was detected. Going beyond the simplest assassination scenarios, is the idea of a "swarming attack": using a cloud of cyborg-insects to descend upon their victims like locusts. An army of deadly insect warriors could organize in the air above a target, then swiftly descend without warning, to deliver a chemical or biological toxin in a controlled manner.
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