Officials refuse, concerned non-lethal effects could be seen as torture.

Yeah, but they'll use it anyway, where better to test it than their War Zone?
Oh, and it's coming soon to America....the dreaded "crowd disperser".
Especially around protests.

>"Military leaders repeatedly and urgently requested — and were denied — the device, which uses energy beams instead of bullets and lets soldiers break up unruly crowds without firing a shot. It's a ray gun that neither kills nor maims, but the Pentagon has refused to deploy it out of concern that the weapon itself might be seen as a torture device.
Perched on a Humvee or a flatbed truck, the Active Denial System gives people hit by the invisible beam the sense that their their skin is on fire. They move out of the way quickly and without injury. "

Just think, they can offer this to the Blackwater armies.
Article <here.>