Chapter
24:
DEATH
RAYS
In the
twentieth century a new technology
has been developed that is
startling in its
power and implications.
This is focused electromagnetic broadcasting,
one application of
which is in weaponry.
These weapons are part of
the new "non-lethal" arsenal—a misnomer,
since this weaponry
might just as
well be called a
death ray—touted by the military
as a humane
way for conducting war
in the years
to come. It
may also be a
way of conducting "peace"—of the
1984 and Brave
New World mind- controlled variety.
Certainly this
possibility has not
been overlooked, as evidenced by the
following quote from
Zbigniew Brzezinski, in his
Between Two Ages:
America's Role in
the Technetronic Era: "It
may be possible—and
tempting—to exploit for
strategic- political
purposes the fruits
of research on the brain and on human behavior.
Gordon J.F. MacDonald,
a geophysicist specializing
in problems of
warfare, has written
that artificially excited electronic strokes
'could lead to a pattern
of oscillations that produce
relatively high power
levels over certain
regions of the earth...
In this way,
one could develop
a system that
would seriously impair the
brain performance of
very large populations in selected
regions over an
extended period.' No
matter how deeply disturbing
the thought of
using the environment
to manipulate behavior for
national advantages to
some, the technology permitting
such use will
very probably develop within the next few decades."
[1]
Early electromagnetic weapons
experiments were conducted by
the Japanese during
World War II.
Information on these "death rays"
was revealed when
Japanese scientists were interrogated. According
to reports of the scientists
the death ray was never used on humans, but was tested
on animals. [2]
In 1960
there were rumors
of a fantastic
new Soviet super weapon employing
Nikola Tesla electromagnetic technology. With subsequent
revelations about Soviet
research in these areas, it seems that these rumors were
true. [3]
During the
1960s high levels
of electromagnetic radiation were detected at the American
embassy in Moscow. It was de-201
termined that the
face of the
embassy was being
systematically swept with electromagnetic emissions by
the Soviets. One
guess was that a
microwave beam was used to
activate electronic equipment hidden
within the building;
another guess was more macabre:
that the beam
was being used
to disrupt the
nervous systems of American
workers in the
embassy. Giving weight
to the latter supposition,
many of the
employees of the
embassy became ill. Ambassador
Walter Stoessel suffered
a rare blood disease
likened to leukemia,
and experienced headaches
and bleeding from the
eyes. At least
two other employees contracted cancer.
According to researcher
Alex Constantine, rather than
informing embassy personnel
of what was going
on, the CIA chose to study the effects of the irradiation.
Dr. Milton
Zaret, called in to investigate
what was termed "the Moscow
Signal," reported that
the CIA wondered "whether I thought
the electromagnetic radiation
beamed at the
brain from a distance
could affect the
way a person
might act," and, "could microwaves
be used to
facilitate brainwashing or
to break down prisoners
under investigation." Zaret's
conclusion about the Moscow
Signal was that, "Whatever
other reasons the Russians may
have had, they believed the beam wouldmodify the behavior of personnel."
[4]
Author Len
Bracken, who was
present in Moscow
at the time, has
stated to the
author in correspondence that
the microwave radiation was beamed from a shack on a building across
from the embassy. In 1977
the microwave shack
caught fire and
burned. Bracken says, "It
was a Friday
night and the
Marine House Bar was playing
'Burn, Baby, Burn'
[i.e. "Disco Inferno"]." Bracken also relates that "in
'79 a strange box was installed
in the wall in my room [in
Moscow], supposedly relating
to the heating system." [5]
Irradiation of
the American embassy
reportedly prompted a response
from the Americans:
the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency's Project
PANDORA, conducted at the
Walter Reed Army Institute
of Research from
1965 to 1970.
One aspect of the
project involved bombarding
chimpanzees with microwave radiation.
Referencing a reported
statement by the head
of the project,
"the potential for
exerting a degree
of control on human
behavior by low
level microwave radiation seems to
exist and he
urged that the
effects of microwaves
be studied for possible weapons applications."
Within three
years, Dr. Gordon
J.F. McDonald, a
scientific advisor to the
president at the
time, indicated that "Perturbation of the environment
can produce changes in behavioral
patterns." The perturbation
that McDonald was alluding
to was EM
waves, and the
changes in behavior
were altered brain wave patterns. [6]
In 1965
the McFarlane Corporation
in America came
up with the Buck
Rogers-sounding "modulated electron
gun X-ray nuclear booster," a
breakthrough in the
"death ray" technology.
Reports indicate that
the device could
also be used in communications, telemetry,
and remote controlled
guidance systems. McFarlane later
claimed that the
system was stolen from
him by NASA,
and that the
principles of the acknowledged
death ray were
employed in MIROS,
an orbital "communications system"; at least
that is the way it was described by NASA. [7]
In 1972
the army admitted
extensive research into
the effects of irradiation on life forms, and the technology of electromagnetic weaponry.
One of the
byproducts of this
research led to the
invention of a
powerful "electronic flame
thrower." This may have been
the weapon described in a study of the U.S. Army Mobility Equipment
Research and Development
Center,"Analysis of Microwaves for Barrier Warfare,"
describing the use of
electromagnetic energy for an anti-personnel and vehicle weapon. The
weapon discussed in this study
was stated to be capable
of producing third-degree burns on human skin. [8]
Dr. Dietrich
Beischer, a German
scientist employed by the
American government, irradiated
7,000 naval crewmen with potentially harmful
levels of microwave
energy at the
Naval Aerospace Research Laboratory
in Pensacola, Florida,
and talked about it
at a symposium
in 1973. Dr.
Beischer disappeared soon after
the experiment. According
to PANDORA alumnus
Robert O. Becker, he
was to spend
some time with
Beischer but, "Just before the
meeting, I got
a call from
him. With no
preamble or explanation, he
blurted out: 'I'm
at a pay
phone. I can't talk long.
They are watching
me. I can't
come to the
meeting or ever communicate with
you again. I'm sorry. You've been a good
friend. Goodby.' Soon
afterward I called
his office at Pensacola and
was told, 'I'm
sorry, there is
no one here
by that name,'
just as in the
movies. A guy
who had done
important research there for decades just disappeared." [9]
According to
Eldon Byrd, of
the Naval Surface
Weapons Center in Silver
Springs, Maryland, "Between
1981 and September 1982,
the Navy commissioned
me to investigate
the potential of developing
electromagnetic devices that
could be used as
non-lethal weapons by the Marine
Corps for the
purpose of 'riot control,'
hostage removal, embassy
and ship security, clandestine operations, and so
on." Byrd wrote ofexperimentsin
irradiating animals with
low level electromagnetic fields, mentioning changes
in brain function,
and stating that
the animals "exhibited a
drastic degradation of
intelligence later in life...
couldn't learn easy
tasks... indicating a
very definite and irreversible damage
to the central
nervous system of
the fetus."
The experiments
went farther. Byrd wrote
that, "At a
certain frequency and power
intensity, they could
make the animal purr, lay down and roll over."
[10]
By the
early 1970s, according
to Robert C.
Beck, "Anecdotal data amassed
suggesting that a pocket-sized
transmitter at power levels
of under 100
milliwatts could drastically
alter the moods of
unsuspecting persons, and that vast
geographical areas could be
surreptitiously mood manipulated
by invisible and remote transmissions of EM [electromagnetic]
energy." [11]
In the
late 1970s Russian
negotiators at the
Strategic Arms Limitation talks
(SALT II), proposed
banning "a new generation of weapons
of mass destruction" employing
electromagnetic pulses. It has
been suggested that
the Russians, in proposing the ban,
were attempting to
feel out the
Americans as to the
current state of
their electromagnetic weapons
research. The Americans did
not seem to
have a clue
as to what
the Russians were talking about,
and the proposal was tabled.
In fact,
some Americans knew
exactly what the
Russians were talking about,
although the Reds
had a significant
head start on several
fronts. In 1959
Russian scientists Gaponov, Schneider, and Pantell
had conceived of what was
called a cyclotron resonance maser,
essentially an industrial
strength tunable ray gun. Beginning
about 1966, the
Russians launched into
a heavily funded crash
project to develop
the gyrotron, another
form of electromagnetic "gun," and
in 1971 they
were engaged in
their first field tests with the gyrotron.
In 1975,
physicists M.S. Rabinovich
and A.A. Rukhadze
and others active in
Russian strategic defense
at the Lebedev
Physics Institute in Moscow
announced that using
a cyclotron resonance maser, they
had produced microwave
bursts that far
outstripped anything the Americans
were even theoretically
proposing and that, according
to the analysis
of the American
military, were powerful enough to
be used in weapons applications.
A report
from the American
Rand Corporation at
the time concluded that
the Russian experiments were
part of a larger Russian program
designed for the production of
electromagnetic weaponry,
centered at the
Institute of Applied
Physics in Gor'kiy, Lebedev
Physics Institute in Moscow, and another group of research institutes in Tomsk.
By the 1980s, itwas reported, Russian
gyrotron weapons had
been reduced in
size so that
they would fit into
a regular military
truck, and had
the capability of wiping
out large military
implacements or, at
lower frequencies, irradiating whole towns. [12]
In 1982
the Air Force
released a review
of the use of
electromagnetics on life
forms, saying "Currently available
data allow the projection
that specially generated
radio frequency radiation
(RFR) fields may
pose powerful and
revolutionary antipersonnel
military threats. Electroshock
therapy indicates the ability
of induced electric
current to completely
interrupt mental functioning for
short periods of
time, to obtain
cognition for longer periods
and to restructure emotional
response over prolonged
intervals.
"...impressed electromagnetic fields
can be disruptive
to purposeful behavior and
may be capable
of directing and/or interrogating such
behavior. Further, the
passage of approximately 100
milliamperes through the
myocardium can lead to
cardiac standstill and
death, again pointing
to aspeed-of- light weapons
effect. A rapidly
scanning RFR system could provide an effective stun or
kill capability over alarge area." [13]
In 1984
the program researching
the creation of
pulsed microwaves was stepped
up at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratories.
[14]
According to
the Oregon Journal,
in March, 1978,
in a story titled "Mysterious Radio
Signals Causing Concern," the
city of Eugene was
irradiated by microwaves
possibly beamed from a Navy
transmitter, located several
hundred miles away
in California. According to
an FCC report,
"microwaves were the likely cause
of several sudden
illnesses among faculty researchers at
Oregon State University." Numerous
residents also complained of
headaches, insomnia, fatigue,
skin redness, and hearing clicks
and buzzes in the head.
A study
conducted by the
Pacific Northwest Center
for Non- Ionizing Radiation
attributed the radiation
instead to the Soviets, stating that
it was "psychoactive" and
"very strongly suggesting of achieving the objective of
brain control." [15]
In September
1985, members of
the Greenham Commons Women's Peace
Camp in Great
Britain, a global
militarization protest camp located
outside the U.S.
Air Force Base
at Greenham Commons, began
experiencing a wide
range of unpleasant physical
symptoms including headache,
depression, disorientation,
memory loss, vertigo,
and changes in their
menstrual cycles. According
to Dr. Rosalie
Bertell and others who researched what was going on, the
symptoms wereof the type associated with
exposure to radiation,
and they began shortly
after security at
the base was switched from
human guards to primarily electronic surveillance—this would have been a perfect
opportunity to install electromagnetic broadcasting units disguised as surveillance
equipment.
Dr. Bertell,
former radar engineer
Kim Besly, and others
took readings of electromagnetic levels
in the area,
and found that they were
as much as
100 times as strong as
other nearby areas. [16]
That the
electromagnetic arsenal is
being used against citizenry in
the new Russia
is quite apparent
from a statement published at the end of 1991 by
SovData DiaLine:
"Psychological warfare
is still being
used by state security agents against
people in Russia,
even after the
abortive August coup," said
Emilia Chirkova, a
Deputy of the
Zelenograd Soviet and member
of the Human
Rights Commission. She
recalls the scandal surrounding
the alleged bugging
equipment installed close to
Boris Yeltsin's office.
KGB agents admitted
then that the directional
aerial in the equipment
was designed for transmission, not
for reception. She believes it
was part of an attempt to
affect the health
of the Russian
president using high- frequency electromagnetic radiation.
"The Human Rights Committee," Chirkova
said, "had warned
Yeltsin about such a
possibility."
Substantiation for
Chirkova's allegations is
provided by Victor Sedleckij, design
engineer-in-chief for the
center Forma and vice
president of the
League of Independent
Soviet Scientists. Sedleckij stated,
"As an expert...
I declare, in
Kiev was launched a
mass production of
psychotronic biogenerators and their
tests.
I cannot
assert that during
the [Moscow] coup
d'etat those used were
the Kiev generators...
All the same,
that [psychotronic generators] were
used is evident
to me. What
are the psychotronic generators?
They are electronic
equipment which produces the
effect of guided
control in human
organisms. It affects especially
the left and
right hemisphere of the
cortex.
This is also the technology
of the U.S. Project Zombie 5... I draw on
my personal experience
since I am
myself the designer
of such a generator." [17]
Emilia Chirkova
cited several instances
of the use
of similar devices. Microwave
equipment had been
used in 1989
and 1990 in Vladivostok and Moscow prisons, in a mentalhospital in Oryol, and
in the Serbsky
Institute in Moscow
[also a mental hospital], she
said. During his
exile in Gorky,
Andrei Sakharov noticed the presence
of a high-tension electromagnetic field in his
flat. It was
reported recently in
the press that
Ruslan Khasbulatov, Speaker of
the Russian Parliament,
had to move from his
flat to another
district of Moscow.
High-level electromagnetic
radiation has been
included among the
possible causes of the discomfort he felt in his flat.
Purported victims
of psychological warfare
have written to the
Russian paper. From
Voronezh: "They controlled
my laughter, my thoughts,
and caused pain
in various parts
of my body... It
all started in
October 1985, after
I had openly criticized the
first secretary of the
City Committee of the
Communist Party."
"Sometimes voices
can be heard
in the head
from the effect of microwave
pulse radiation which causes acoustic
oscillations in the brain,"
explained Gennady Shchelkunov,
a radio electronics researcher
from the Istok
Association. In June 1991,
a group of
Zelenograd deputies sent
an appeal signed by 150
people to President
Yeltsin, demanding an
investigation into the use of bio-electronic weapons.
An experiment
conducted on Cable
News Network in the
mid-1980s demonstrated the
reality of electronic
devices that can project
images into the
mind from a
distance. Physicist Dr. Elizabeth
Rausher and electrical
engineer Bill VanBise
built a radio frequency
"mind interference machine"
using information in the
open Soviet scientific
literature. According to CNN,
"The machine was inexpensive
and easy to
construct using parts from a
consumer electronics store.
It emits a
weak magnetic field pulsed at extremely low
frequency."
The network
commentator, a Mr.
DeCaro, said, "As
the subject of the
test I was
blindfolded and my
ears were blocked to
prevent inadvertent clues
as to what
was happening. A magnetic
probe was placed
about 18 inches
from my head.
As the experiment began,
two signal generators
produced waveform patterns that
were transmitted by
the magnetic probe at about one one-thousandth of the
earth's magneticfield."
Here is
a partial transcript
of the exchange
between VanBise, Rausher, and
DeCaro during the experiment:
VanBise: Describe anything that you see. DeCaro: I
could see waveforms
changing shape in
my mind...
A parabola just went by...
VanBise: Oh, yeah, I did. I just flipped the switch.
Parabola?
Rausher: Uh-huh.
VanBise: All right,
let's see. Check
this out. That's
what
happened, I flipped the switch.
Rausher: Yeah!
DeCaro: OK, a spike right there!
Rausher: A spike there.
DeCaro: A tight spike.
VanBise: I dramatically
changed the generator.
I stepped it
by ten right
here, and the
intermix from the
two generators was
right where you said that you saw a spike.
After the
experiment, DeCaro interviewed
VanBise, who said that
the technology could
"induce basically what
would be considered hallucinations in
people; direct them
to do things against their
so-called better judgment."
DeCaro wondered,
"How easy would
it be to
assemble a weapon from existing
off-the-shelf parts?"
"Three weeks,"
VanBise responded, "I
could put together
a weapon that would take care of a whole town." [18]
Portable electronic
mind control weapons,
small enough to be
transported by truck,
are now reported
to be used
routinely in offensive actions
by the American
military, and were employed
in Grenada, Panama,
and in the
Gulf War. Although officially denied,
it is reported
that electromagnetic mind control
weapons were used
in Waco, Texas,
in 1993, during
the 51-day siege on
David Koresh and his followers.
Video footage taken during
the siege by the British
Broadcasting Company (BBC) shows
the deployment of
several advanced weapons systems, including a Soviet psychotronic
weapon designed by Dr. Igor Smirnov of the Moscow Medical Academy.
Although it
is denied that
such weapons were
used in the Waco
massacre, the government
does admit that
Federal officials "considered" using
Smirnov's acoustic psycho-correction projector on
the Branch Davidians.
It is also
admitted that a series
of closed meetings
regarding the Branch
Davidians took place beginning
March 17, in
northern Virginia between Smirnov and officials of the FBI,
CIA, DIA, and DARPA.
According to
one participant in
the talks, "There
was a strong interest
among the intelligence
agencies because they had
been tracking Smirnov
for years, and because we know there
is evidence the
Soviet Army's Special
Forces used the technology during the conflict in
Afghanistan."
An account
of the meetings
was issued in
a memorandum of Psychotechnologies Corp
of Richmond, Virginia.
In the memo
it was noted that
unspecified attendees of
the meeting wondered whether "psycho-correction detection,
decoding and counter- measures programs should be
undertaken by the U.S."[19]
A recent
news release provides
information on a newprogram by
the National Institute
of Justice, to
develop "friendly force" electromagnetic weapons
for use in
the U.S. According to
Microwave News, Oak
Ridge National Laboratory
is looking into the possibility
of "thermal guns"
that would disable
an individual by causing
his body to overheat, "seizure
guns" that would induce
epileptic fits, and
"magnetosphere
guns" that would cause a
person to "see stars." [20]
In recent
years, the heavy
cost of research
into electronic weaponry has
been subsumed into
the Strategic Defense Initiative, also
known—to the chagrin
of George Lucas—as
the Star Wars program.
In 1993, Aldric
Saucier, a scientist
with the Army's program
of ballistic defense,
spoke up to
the House Government Operations
Committee about Star
Wars funds being channelled off
into undocumented black
operations. Saucier said that
as much as
half of the
budget intended for
SDI research, literally hundreds
of millions of
dollars, was unaccounted for.
NOTES:
1.
Brzezinski, Zbigniew, Between
Two Ages: America's
Role in the Technetronic Era. (New York: The Viking
Press, 1970)
2.
Strategic Bombing Survey,
Imperial War Museum,
London. Cited in Wall,
Judy, "Synthetic Telepathy," Paranoid
Women Collect Their
Thoughts, ed. Joan d'Arc. (Providence, Rhode Island: Paranoia
Publishing, 1996)
3.
"Krushchev Says Soviets
Will Cut Forces
a Third, Sees 'Fantastic Weapon,'" New York Times,
Jan. 15, 1960, cited in Wall
4.
Keeler, Anna, "Remote
Mind Control Technology," Secret
and Suppressed, Jim Keith,
ed. (Portland, Oregon:
Feral House, 1993); Brodeur,
Paul, The Zapping of
America; Microwaves, Their
Deadly Risk and
the Cover-Up. (Norton. New
York: 1977), cited
in Constantine, Alex,
Psychic Dictatorship in the
U.S.A. (Portland, Oregon:
Feral House, 1995);
Jameson, Donald F.B.,
Robot Spies of the KGB, undated clipping.
5.
Bracken, Len, correspondence with the author, September 6, 1997
6. Wall;
Constantine
7. Ibid.
8.
Besly, Kim, Electromagnetic Pollution, cited in Wall
9.
Becker, Robert O.
and Selden, Gary,
The Body Electric: Electromagnetic and the Foundation
of Life. (New York: William Morrow, 1985)
10.
Besly, Kim. Cited in Wall; Keeler
11.
Beck, Robert C.
"Extreme Low Frequency
Magnetic Fields and
EEG Entrainment: A Psychotronic
Warfare Possibility?", Bio-Medical
Research Associates, 1977
12.
"The Russian lead
in radio frequency
weapons," Executive Intelligence
Review, July 3, 1987
13.
Final Report on
Biotechnology Research Requirements for Aeronautical Systems
Through the Year
2000. AFOSR-TR-82-0643, vols.
1 and 2, July 3, 1982, cited in
Wall
14.
"How Russia's radio
frequency weapons can
kill," Executive Intelligence
Review, July 17, 1987
15.
Smith, Jerry. HAARP:
Ultimate Weapon of
the Conspiracy, (1997: AUP, Kempton, Illinois.
16.
Bolman, Betsy, and
members of the
Ad Hoc Committee on Electromagnetic Radiation,
"The 'Zapping' of
Greenham and Seneca,"
Peace and Freedom, January/February 1989
17.
Komsomolskaya Pravda, August 27, 1991
18. CNN,
"Special Assignment", undated transcript about1985
19.
Wall; Tapscott, Mark,
"DOD, Intel Agencies
Look at Russian
Mind Control Technology, Claims
FBI Considered Testing
on Koresh", Defense Electronics, July
1993; Moore, Jim.
Operation Mind Control
1994:The History of Mind Control.
(Nashville, Tennessee: The PhoenixFoundation)
20.
Schaefer, Paul, "The
Politics of Control", Exotic
Research Report, undated
