the gorton fisherman had better watch out

[Guest guest]

wasn't this a simpsons episode?

sheesh..the world is as crazy as cartoons...

 

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1577753,00.html

 

Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina

 

Mark Townsend in Houston

Sunday September 25, 2005

The Observer

 

 

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint

spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36

mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack,

they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US

navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused

to confirm that any are missing.

 

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The

US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists

attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the

storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial

use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught

quickly.

 

Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for

government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to

the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.

 

'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have

simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a

spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic

darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to

sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not

found for hours?'

 

Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness.

'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?' said

Sheridan.

 

The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed from a

commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eight were found

with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returned until US navy

scientists had examined them.

 

Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphins were not

the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in a sound in Louisiana,

close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose waters devastated New Orleans.

 

The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in

1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and small electrodes planted under

their skin, were taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbour and

stationary warships at sea.

 

Criticism from animal rights groups ensured the use of dolphins became more

secretive. But the project gained impetus after the Yemen terror attack on the

USS Cole in 2000. Dolphins have also been used to detect mines near an Iraqi

port.

 

 

Emotional appeals about working families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour [the

minimum wage in 1996] are hard to resist. Fortunately, such families do not

exist.

Tom Delay 4/23/96