Those of us on alt.lasers are having several discussions of this same
topic. Our take is that this is a lot of nonsense, possibly with some
ulterior motive on the part of the government. One person wrote a
letter to one of the government agencies involved, and posted the
reply. The government stands by their story that a doctor (notice, one
doctor) found retinal burns on the pilots he examined (laser source
unknown). We still think it's a bunch of nonsense (several of us have
worked around a lot of lasers, and I, for one, have a degree in Laser
Electro-Optic Technology).