Incapacitating agent
[2] The use of chemicals to induce altered states of mind in an adversary dates back to antiquity and includes the use of plants of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), such as the thornapple (Datura stramonium), that contain various combinations of anticholinergic alkaloids.
[6] In 1881, members of a French railway surveying expedition crossing Tuareg territory in North Africa ate dried dates that tribesmen had apparently deliberately contaminated with Egyptian henbane (Hyoscyamus muticus, or H. falezlez), to devastating effect.
Following World War II, the United States military investigated a wide range of possible nonlethal, psychobehavioral, chemical incapacitating agents to include psychedelic indoles such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) and the tetrahydrocannabinol derivative DMHP, certain tranquilizers, as well as several glycolate anticholinergics.
(Although BZ figured prominently in the plot of the 1990 movie, Jacob's Ladder, as the compound responsible for hallucinations and violent deaths in a fictitious American battalion in Vietnam, this agent never saw operational use.)
[8] A Central Intelligence Agency Project Artichoke document reads: "Not all viruses have to be lethal ... the objective includes those that act as short-term and long-term incapacitants.
[citation needed] Pine Bluff Arsenal was a rickittsiae and virus production center and biological agents against wheat and rice fields were tested in several locations the southern U.S. as well as in Okinawa.
[10] The concept of "humane warfare" with widespread use of incapacitating or deliriant drugs such as LSD or Agent BZ to stun an enemy, capture them alive, or separate friend from foe had been available in locations such as Berlin since the 1950s, an initial focus of US CBW development was the offensive use of diseases, drugs, and substances that could completely incapacitate an enemy for several days with some lesser possibility of death using a variety of chemical, biological, radiological, or toxin agents.
The second series of field tests, Project DERBY HAT, were conducted by an Army Special Purpose Team in the Far East during August to November 1962.
[13] Sampling of native migratory organisms with a focus on birds provided to researchers the natural habitat of disease causing fungus, viruses, and bacteria as well as the established (or potential) vectors for them.
[14][15][16] A U.S. War Departments report notes that "in addition to the results of human experimentation much data is available from the Japanese experiments on animals and food crops.
"[17] German researchers have found that records of the Entomology Institute at the Dachau concentration camp show that under orders of Schutzstaffel (SS) leader Heinrich Himmler, the Nazis began studying mosquitoes as an offensive biological warfare vector against humans in 1942.
"[20] Several CIA documents, and a 1975 Congressional committee, revealed that several locations in Florida, as well as Avon Park, hosted experiments with mosquito-borne viruses and other biological substances.
Examples of modern volatile anaesthetics that may be considered sleeping gases are BZ,[21] halothane vapour (Fluothane),[22] methyl propyl ether (Neothyl), methoxyflurane (Penthrane),[23] and the undisclosed fentanyl derivative delivery system used by the FSB in the Moscow theater hostage crisis.
[24] Possible side effects might not prevent use of sleeping gas by criminals willing to murder, or carefully control the dose on a single already sleepy individual.
[28] In a Mennonite community in Bolivia, eight men were convicted of raping 130 women in Manitoba Colony over a four-year period from 2005 to 2009, by spraying "a chemical used to anesthetize cows" through the victims' open bedroom windows.
Eventually nine Manitoba men, ages 19 to 43, were charged with using a spray adapted from an anesthetic by a veterinarian from a neighboring Mennonite colony to subdue their victims, then raping them.
It is presented in various forms, but generally is supposed to be a gas or aerosol that affords a harmless method of rendering characters quickly and temporarily unconscious without physical contact.
A number of notable fictional characters created in the early 20th century, both villains and heroes, were associated with the use of knockout gas: Fu Manchu, Dr. Mabuse, Doc Savage, Batman, and The Avenger.
