THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Radiation scientists say the portable X-ray weapon two upstate New York men are accused of trying to build to secretly sicken Muslims and enemies of Israel isn't feasible.
An indictment unsealed this week charges 49-year-old Glendon Scott Crawford and 54-year-old Eric J. Feight with conspiracy to support terrorism. Authorities allege they built a remote-control switch they planned to attach to a truck-mounted, industrial X-ray machine to secretly radiate people who would get sick or die days later.
However, radiation safety experts at the University of Rochester and University of New Mexico said victims would have to face prolonged exposure from radiation at close range.
"There is no instant death ray. ... It's not feasible. It's the stuff of comic books," said Dr. Frederic Mis, radiation safety officer at the University of Rochester Medical Center, after reading the criminal complaint describing their alleged plan. "That's going to be the interesting thing for the court to face because their designs would not have worked."
Mis said prolonged X-ray exposure does kill tissue, with skin ulcerations appearing from a week to months later. "What we worry about in radiology primarily is skin damage," he said.
For safety, they advise staff to limit entering or performing diagnostics in an X-ray area, Mis said. There are accounts of Russians fatally injecting or feeding radiation to victims, and even planting it in a chair a victim repeatedly sat in, he said, noting the possibility the designers here could have hurt themselves or accidentally someone else.
"What if they find someone sleeping on a park bench? What if they backed up the van, opened the door, and turned the device on for eight hours?" Mis said. "Even these guys might stumble upon somebody and hurt somebody."
Dr. Fred Mettler, former chairman of the Department of Radiology at the University of New Mexico, was unfamiliar with the specifics of Crawford's plans but said it's unlikely such a device could work. Radiation can be narrowly beamed, as it is in some cancer treatments, but the accelerators require huge amounts of electricity, are not easily portable and any target would have to remain still for a long time, he said.
"I don't know of any of these that you can use like a gun to aim at someone on the street," said Mettler, also U.S. representative on the United Nations' Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation,
Crawford and Feight face detention hearings Thursday. Prosecutors want them held until trial, saying they might flee and still pose a danger to the community. Court-appointed defense attorneys have declined to comment.
The investigation by the FBI in Albany and police agencies began in April 2012 after authorities received information that Crawford had approached local Jewish organizations to help fund a weapon to use against enemies of Israel, authorities said.
Crawford, an industrial mechanic for General Electric in Schenectady, knew Feight, an outside GE contractor with mechanical and engineering skills, through work, they said. Feight designed, built and tested the remote control, which they planned to use to operate an industrial X-ray system mounted on a truck.
Undercover investigators gave Feight $1,000 to build the control device and showed the men pictures of industrial X-ray machines they said they could obtain. They planned to provide access to an actual X-ray system to assembly with the remote control Tuesday, the day they were arrested.
Gosh, looks like these boards were the first to bring you you the story of DEATH RAY -- several years ago, it came out of Schenectady and the death started downtown.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Dr. Fred Mettler, former chairman of the Department of Radiology at the University of New Mexico, was unfamiliar with the specifics of Crawford's plans but said it's unlikely such a device could work. He's unfamiliar with the machine but he doubts it will work.
It IS unlikely to work... so was Thomas Eidson's light bulb but he did eventually stumble on the right formula to succeed.
Glad these two Right Wing TeaBagger Domestic Terrorists won't have the opportunity to continue their project.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
When I first heard about the death ray, I thought finally somebody was coming to help us do something about the travesty that is downtown. No such luck. Okay, so there is a local lunatic bothering local jews about his crazy plan to fight muslims. Instead of picking him up and holding him for a psych eval, they egg him on to make a big terrorist case out of it. Notice how they didn't learn of this through collecting everybody's phone records, somebody madeone phone call to the cops. Anybody who believes anyone was ever able to foil any kind of plot by collecting all the phone records there are, belongs in a secure facility on 72 hour hold as well.
So not only did they supply the parts they actually funded the project financially . And as me and a few others posted the death ray was nothing but a dream, they were going to try to power this thing (which wouldn't work anyway) from a car lighter socket. I can see my battery gauge drop when I use my lighter and they were going to try to power a full size x-ray machine off of it lmao.
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."
When I first heard about the death ray, I thought finally somebody was coming to help us do something about the travesty that is downtown. No such luck. Okay, so there is a local lunatic bothering local jews about his crazy plan to fight muslims. Instead of picking him up and holding him for a psych eval, they egg him on to make a big terrorist case out of it. Notice how they didn't learn of this through collecting everybody's phone records, somebody madeone phone call to the cops. Anybody who believes anyone was ever able to foil any kind of plot by collecting all the phone records there are, belongs in a secure facility on 72 hour hold as well.
Yup but that is for a purpose, this big foiled plot makes them look good and also relevant at the same time. Them letting these people walk the streets put everyone in danger.
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."
Dr. Fred Mettler, former chairman of the Department of Radiology at the University of New Mexico, was unfamiliar with the specifics of Crawford's plans but said it's unlikely such a device could work. He's unfamiliar with the machine but he doubts it will work.
It IS unlikely to work... so was Thomas Eidson's light bulb but he did eventually stumble on the right formula to succeed.
Glad these two Right Wing TeaBagger Domestic Terrorists won't have the opportunity to continue their project.
You're embarrassing yourself. You might want to stop.
Thomas Edison was self-taught. He went to school for only three months. His teacher thought he could not learn because he had a mental problem. But young Tom Edison could learn. He learned from books and he experimented.
At the age of ten, he built his own chemical laboratory. He experimented with chemicals and electricity. He built a telegraph machine and quickly learned to send and receive telegraph messages. At the time, sending electric signals over wires was the fastest method of sending information long distances. At the age of sixteen, he went to work as a telegraph operator.
Imagine if he was that young man now, first they'd have his parents locked up for not keeping him in school, doctors would have him on Ritalin or an anti psychotic med, and OMG he had a chemical Lab and experimented with electricity, he would have been on the front page for being a right wing domestic terrorist.
So the FBI should have looked at this Terrorist TeaBaggers and said: "This weapon will never work... lets forget about them"
Just as they could have said: "Extremist Muslims tried to take down the WTC in 1993 and failed... Lets forget about them!"
Once again, those Right Wingers who wailed in the streets that they were being singled out as terrorists when Homeland Security in 2008 said the next generation of terrorists will come from the Rabid Right who need to strike back at their government... Their Government headed by a Black Barack Obama...
Homeland Security was right.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
in order for this device to travel....it would have to be put in an 18 wheeler to be hauled .......it would have been a humungous piece of equipment for it to do what they are claiming....
Logged
. And as me and a few others posted the death ray was nothing but a dream, they were going to try to power this thing (which wouldn't work anyway) from a car lighter socket. I can see my battery gauge drop when I use my lighter and they were going to try to power a full size x-ray machine off of it lmao. 
