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Some tools for their personal defense

Unspeaking weapons

The Iranian government has been using Basij militia forces to quell opposition demonstrations. But don’t worry, they’re not armed:

“Since Basij forces entered the scene on June 16, they never used any weapon in the missions entrusted on them and they were just equipped with some tools for their personal defense in their missions,” General Abdullah Araqi, an IRGC Commander in charge of Tehran Province, said today. ((Thanks to Karin Kosina.))

“Some tools for their personal defense”? Would that be the clubs or the razorblades?

4 comments
  1. 1  Hey Zeus  September 9, 2009, 12:19 am 

    i’ve missed you, man.

  2. 2  Gregor  September 9, 2009, 9:08 pm 

    Some interesting unspeak here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less-lethal_weapon

    Tasers are mentioned as ‘less lethal weapons’, though I suppose a machine gun is a less-lethal weapon if atom bombs are included.

  3. 3  Steven  September 10, 2009, 11:02 am 

    Hey Zeus: I’ve missed you too! (And each and every one of you, readers!)

    Gregor: nice. I knew about non-lethal weapons (cf around here sometime in the past), but “less lethal” is wonderfully more sinister.

  4. 4  Gregor  September 10, 2009, 5:38 pm 

    This has really been my week, internet wise. Unspeak has started up again and I found Incubus (Shatner and Esperanto, what geek could ask for more?) on youtube whilst it is sadly unavailable on DVD.

    On a weaponry note (I have been following the taser debate, which is interesting because it uses promotional language to market a dangerous weapon) this is an interesting article:

    http://www.cbc.ca/canada/briti.....video.html

    Apparently, the investigation into a taser death would be ‘compromised’ if film footage were revealed.



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