Trump administration considered using 'heat ray' weapon against American citizens: whistleblower

A DC national guard official-turned-whistleblower, Major Adam D. DeMarco, was asked by federal officials if his unit had a 'heat ray' and other weapons to use against American citizens who gathered during an infamous protest outside the White House where President Donald Trump held a Bible on June 1, 2020.

Experts say the 'heat ray' devices cause a burning sensation on victims' skin.

According to New York Magazine's Matt Steib:

Major Adam D. DeMarco, the senior-most D.C. National Guard officer on the ground that day, provided his account to the House Natural Resources Committee earlier this summer. In his depiction of the crackdown on protestors, he claimed that federal officials had transferred close to 7,000 rounds of ammunition to the D.C. Armory during the first week of protests following the police killing of George Floyd. Other, less conventional weapons were considered as well.

In his sworn testimony, whistleblower DeMarco recounted the incident:

Just before noon on June 1, the Defense Department’s top military police officer in the Washington region sent an email to officers in the D.C. National Guard. It asked whether the unit had a Long Range Acoustic Device, also known as an LRAD, or a microwave-like weapon called the Active Denial System, which was designed by the military to make people feel like their skin is burning when in range of its invisible rays.

The technology, also called a “heat ray,” was developed to disperse large crowds in the early 2000s but was shelved amid concerns about its effectiveness, safety and the ethics of using it on human beings.

… In the email, on which DeMarco was copied, the lead military police officer in the National Capital Region wrote the ADS device “can provide our troops a capacity they currently do not have, the ability to reach out and engage potential adversaries at distances well beyond small arms range, and in a safe, effective, and nonlethal manner.”

The email continued: “The ADS can immediately compel an individual to cease threatening behavior or depart through application of a directed energy beam that provides a sensation of intense heat on the surface of the skin. The effect is overwhelming, causing an immediate repel response by the targeted individual.”