US: Pentagon officials are debating whether to use a highly-classified weapon known as the E-Bomb in any war against Iraq, with the aim of producing what military planners call "shock and awe", according to reports in the US.
The reports coincide with evidence this week that the US is secretly moving towards the construction of a new generation of mini-nuclear weapons.
Delivered by a cruise missile, the E-Bomb can unleash a high velocity electro-magnetic pulse as it nears its target. This can short-circuit electrical connections, knock out lights and telephones and crash computers.
The use of the revolutionary weapon, designed to incapacitate equipment rather than humans, would give the US a decisive initial advantage in the first day of an attack by disabling Baghdad's command and control systems.
The man-made lightning bolts could, however, kill anyone with heart pacemakers, cripple hospital equipment and put emergency services out of action. It has also proved temperamental in tests and commanders reportedly fear US military systems might be affected.
The E-Bomb is an advance on the use of carbon filaments showered onto electric generators in Serbia to cause massive short-circuits.
The Pentagon is also said to be considering the use of a new microwave device mounted on a Humvee that could scatter civilians by inflicting intense heat on to their skins.
The leaking of details of potent new weapons is likely aimed at demoralising Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his forces in advance of an attack. More alarming for the Iraqi generals, however, are reports, initially in the Los Angeles Times, that the US is keeping open the option of using nuclear weapons if Iraq uses chemical or biological agents against US troops.
In January 1991 the then-US secretary of state, Mr James Baker, warned Iraq that any use of weapons of mass destruction by Baghdad could provoke a nuclear reaction.
Separately, evidence came to light this week that the Pentagon was exploring the possibility of constructing, deploying and and promoting a new generation of mini-nuclear weapons, called "bunker-busters" and neutron bombs that would destroy chemical or biological stocks.
On January 10th, 32 senior officials dealing with US nuclear weapons met in the Pentagon to plan a secret conference at US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) headquarters in Nebraska in August.
The minutes were obtained by the Los Alamos Study Group, a nuclear watchdog organisation and the Defence Department said they were genuine.
The agenda for the August meeting revealed that "the brakes are off" in planning for new nuclear weapons, the director of the Los Alamos Study Group, Greg Mallo, told The Irish Times.
"What is really breath-taking is the very explicit connection with nuclear testing requirements," he said. "We are supposed to be negotiating the end of the arms race. This is a restart of the arms race, and it is nuclear armament rather than nuclear disarmament."
The January meeting arose from an internal Pentagon memo last October by Mr Pete Aldridge, Under-secretary of Defence, requesting that nuclear weapons laboratories examine the benefits of low-yield nuclear testing. It was chaired by Dr Dale Klein, former vice chancellor of the University of Texas and a friend of President George Bush, and who is now an assistant to Mr Rumsfeld.
"Many of the people at this meeting have held ideas like this for a number of years and they have been waiting for their opportunity to advance those ideas," Mr Mello said.
It was impossible to overstate the challenge to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the existing nuclear test moratorium, and US compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, he said. The last nuclear test in the US was in September, 1992.
"These plans deserve outrage - first in the United States, and throughout the world. It may or may not be obvious that if allowed to proceed further - especially in the present jingoistic atmosphere now prevailing in Washington - the process outlined here will be quite hard to stop."