Some strange things have been occurring lately.

The FBI, concerned that terrorists could use lasers as weapons, is investigating why laser beams were directed into the cockpits of seven airplanes in flight since Christmas.

Laser beams can temporarily blind or disorient pilots and possibly cause a plane to crash.

The FBI is looking into two incidents in Colorado Springs, Colo., and one each in Cleveland, Washington, Houston, Teterboro, N.J., and Medford, Ore., according to federal and local law enforcement and transportation officials, some of whom spoke only on condition of anonymity.

A federal law enforcement official, who declined to be identified by name, said Thursday there is no evidence of a plot or terrorist activity. But pilots are troubled by the incidents, and the FBI earlier this month warned of the possibility that terrorists might use the devices as weapons.

“It’s not some kid,” said Paul Rancatore, a pilot who serves as deputy chairman of the security committee for the Allied Pilots Association. “It’s too organized.“

And,

The debate over the project leaked into the open on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, when Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, publicly complained that an unnamed spy project was “totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security.” He called the program “stunningly expensive.”

Well, first of all, I don’t think Rockefeller has made much of an effort to keep it a secret, everyone’s speculating exactly the same thing as to what it is:

Both assessments were wrong. The payload was a stealth imaging satellite code-named MISTY, which had been developed under the supervision of the DS&T’s development and engineering office.

MISTY was one of at least two satellites developed in exceptional secrecy subsequent to the 1983 Reagan administration decision to establish a stealth satellite program. The idea for MISTY came from OD&E engineers, some of whom had been enamored of the idea of a stealth satellite since the 1970s–having rediscovered the concept first suggested in the 1960s. The objective was to reduce the threat to U.S. satellites from the Soviet Union–whose antisatellite program was of significant concern during the early 1980s.

Now, something else has been brewing as well:

The U.S. military is gearing up to test what might be the ultimate version of laser tag.

With a successful ground test in the bag, the Missile Defense Agency is pushing forward with plans for an Airborne Laser (ABL), a Boeing 747 freighter aircraft with a laser-tipped nose designed to destroy ballistic missiles as they rocket through the sky.

The defense system’s primary weapon — a megawatt-class chemical laser beam — passed an initial ground-based test last week and a number subsystems have been integrated into the ABL aircraft, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) officials told SPACE.com. If all goes well, a integrated prototype of the Airborne Laser will soon be shooting down missiles in tests over the Pacific Ocean.

Now, first of all, I don’t buy the kid sitting on the ground pointing his toy laser at an airplane and having the laser dance around the cockpit. To wit, this is how MSNBC diagrams what is happening:

Now, in order for that to work, it has to go through not only one sheet of metal, but several. That’s just not possible. Look at the cone of that plane closely. It is very similar to most all commercial jets. There is no way that a laser is going to cause a pilot problems from anywhere on the ground, period. It is either level with them, or coming down at them. Secondly, stealth satellites are not a new idea at all. The have been tested since the early 80′s. The patent for the technology is public record. There is no reason for Congress to keep that hush-hush.

What do I think is going on? I’ll tell you what I think:

Almost to the day I posted the story on that pic, November 17, 2004, the laser stories started. This bug-eyed gadget is next greatest military weapon, the megawatt-class chemical laser beam. Now, that would do some serious damage. However, the way it works is it uses a guiding laser beam to hone in on it’s target.

You gotta test things in real time dontcha?