Fearsome Weapons of Future Wars
Source: 20/20 Wednesday
February 10, 1999
(This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript.)
SAM DONALDSON, ABCNEWS Good evening, and welcome to
20/20 Wednesday. Tonight, we’re going to take you to a future already
here. We’ll show you strange and astonishing weapons that have already
been used against American soldiers and the police in other countries.
In fact, because of these weapons, some people believe some day in the
future we may face a kind of electronic Pearl Harbor, as you
discovered, Diane.
DIANE SAWYER, ABCNEWS That is exactly the phrase you
hear people using. Because what we’ve been investigating tonight is so
new and so exotic, much of it remains secret military information. But
tonight, some experts and a naval intelligence officer have decided to
go public for a simple reason, they say. It’s time to face the facts.
(VO=voice over) It starts when the lights go out. Next, the phones go
dead. Misrouted trains collide. Air traffic control screens go blank.
Cars mysteriously come to a dead halt. And in not one instance is the
cause visible to the naked eye. Welcome to the brave new world of
directed energy warfare. It’s already begun to claim victims. Just ask
Jack Daly (ph), who says he’s a casualty of a particularly terrifying
new technology.
JACK DALY, NAVAL INTELLIGENCE OFFICER The doctor at the
emergency room told me, "I don’t know what you have. I’ve never seen
anything like this before."
DIANE SAWYER (VO) It happened two years ago. Daly, a
naval intelligence officer, was sent out onboard a helicopter to
photograph a Russian ship called the Kapitan Man, which he says was
monitoring US submarines off Washington state. (on camera) So you have
suspicion that this is a Russian spy ship?
JACK DALY Yes.
DIANE SAWYER In US waters?
JACK DALY Yes.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) Daly takes 30 surveillance photos. He
and his pilot fly back toward home. They were on the ground when both
feel their eyes throbbing, their vision blurred, horrible headaches.
But why? It was a mystery until Daly’s photos were developed. (on
camera) Do you recognize this?
JACK DALY Yes, I do.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) It’s one of his surveillance pictures,
frame 16. Look closely. Look closer still. That red dot below the
bridge.
JACK DALY This may be the first time that a laser was
actually ever photographed during routine operations.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) And medical exams showed Daly’s eyes
had been burned, and the lesions were consistent with laser exposure.
We’re not talking about those little pointers kids use, but a blinding
laser, much more powerful, that can be used for pin-point attacks from
hundreds of feet away. (on camera) Tell me what it was like and is
like to look out your eyes.
JACK DALY They always hurt. I’ve been in constant pain
since the 4th of April ’97, without a moment’s relief.
DIANE SAWYER Constant pain?
JACK DALY Constant pain.
DIANE SAWYER What kind?
JACK DALY I get these surges of pain that can be
anything from being jabbed in the eye with an ice pick to being hit in
the face with a baseball bat.
DIANE SAWYER Both eyes?
JACK DALY Both eyes.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) And it’s not just Daly. The pilot of
his helicopter also suffered eye damage. And no one knows the
long-term effects. Daly fears he’ll go blind. (on camera) You really
seem to be saying that this is the dawn of a new weapons era, and
everybody better wake up.
JACK DALY Well, this particular weapon has
indiscriminate effects. There’s no gaping hole in the back of my head.
There was no blood gushing out of the front of my face when this
incident happened. If it’s a new device, if it’s a new type of laser,
we may not know anything about that.
DIANE SAWYER And lasers that can blind people are just
the beginning. Tonight, we are going to tell you about a wide range of
weapons that don’t use bullets, but beams of electromagnetic energy at
different frequencies. (VO) Each different kind of energy is defined
by different frequencies. Lasers are short waves at high frequencies.
At their highest levels, they are so hot they can burn through metal.
AIR FORCE TEST CONDUCTOR Cleared to fire.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) The US military wants to use them to
shoot down enemy missiles, though in the wrong hands, these lasers
could slice open an aircraft when it’s flying in the sky. And lasers
aren’t the only kind of energy that can do serious damage. Radio waves
and microwaves are long waves at lower frequency. But they’re perfect
for penetrating computers and disrupting the circuitry without
exterior damage to the machine. You could concentrate them on a
computer and set a fire inside, and no one would know how it happened.
DAVID SCHRINER (PH), RETIRED NAVY ENGINEER I think we
have a problem, and I think we may have a very, very big problem.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) Until recently it was thought any kind
of radio frequency - or RF - weapon would have to be large, expensive
and sophisticated. But David Schriner, a retired Navy engineer
advising the military, says that idea is wrong.
DAVID SCHRINER I’m trying to do things just like a
terrorist would.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) So Schriner gathered components
available in places like salvage yards and hardware stores and
catalogs. He says for a tinkerer who knows engineering, RF weapons are
not hard to create or expensive. He used these components to build a
machine which is a kind of direct-energy Uzi. He says he can take out
not just computers but whole computerized systems.
DAVID SCHRINER I can build the things here. I can design
them here. But when it comes down to the turning them on, we have to
go to a safe and legal place to do that.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) He takes us far away from people and
towns and highways, to the China Lake Navy desert test range north of
Los Angeles. We decided to test his device on a lot of things we use
every day. Schriner won’t let us reveal exactly what’s in the machine.
That’s classified. Though it doesn’t have the look of a high-tech
weapon. (on camera) You know, this is not a beautiful thing. I don’t
want to hurt your feelings, but it’s not.
DAVID SCHRINER It’s rather crudely made. You know, we
just kind of used whatever we had in my lab to build it.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) But will it work? We take precautions
with our cables and computerized cameras by enclosing them in copper
shielding. Schriner and his assistant use copper mesh masks to protect
their eyes and face.
DAVID SCHRINER Ray one is ready for testing.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) The first target, two computers. The
objective - to crash them.
DAVID SCHRINER Going hot.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) Every short burst has the energy of
100 radio stations, a million watts. Watch the computer on the left.
In just three seconds, it crashes. And a few seconds later, so does
the other one.
DAVID SCHRINER We had a system kill.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) Next target? An IV pump, provided by
Dr Larry Cosner (ph) from the local hospital.
DR LARRY COSNER (?) Someone with the power to stop this
suddenly or make it work wrong suddenly would have the power to
devastate a medical facility.
DAVID SCHRINER High voltage going hot.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) The effect is almost instantaneous.
DAVID SCHRINER Yeah, boy, it sure did kill it.
DR LARRY COSNER It stopped it dead, and it totally reset
all the delivery indicators.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) But if you wanted to cause havoc in a
large city, imagine someone out of view able to shut down cars.
DAVID SCHRINER I have a shutdown.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) And it happened not once, but every
time he fired. The computerized engine in this car started to stall.
DAVID SCHRINER Very erratic operation. You can hear the
jiggling and burning.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) And he doesn’t have to be this close.
DAVID SCHRINER Going hot.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) We’re told there are other devices
that work from thousands of feet away.
DAVID SCHRINER I have a kill.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) Virtually any car with a
computer-controlled engine is vulnerable. Since Schriner supplied that
car, we asked him to test one of our choice. (on camera) All right, so
just in case there’s any chance you think some of this could have been
rigged with his car, let’s see what happens with this one.
DAVID SCHRINER There’s a definite effect. It’s dropped
the rpm way low, and it’s intermittently chugging.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) Watch the tachometer. Schriner’s
device gives the car an electronic nervous breakdown. It sets off the
car alarm.
DAVID SCHRINER Something bad happened.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) It makes the doors lock and unlock and
twice kills the engine dead.
DAVID SCHRINER I have a shutdown. I know that I could
put some of this stuff into a little briefcase and go up to a airlines
counter or to a bank counter and probably take down their computer. I
know I could do that. I haven’t done it yet, but I’m confident that I
could do that.
DIANE SAWYER (on camera) We keep reading that the
Russians are very far ahead on this. What do you think?
DAVID SCHRINER Well, for years we’ve been noting that
they have been probably ahead of us on building high-powered microwave
devices.
VICTOR SHEYMOV (PH), FORMER KGB COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY
EXPERT Russians certainly do have that technology and highly developed
technology. The KBG had it.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) This is Victor Sheymov, a Soviet
defector. His job - communications security for the KBG. He told us
how Russia has been developing RF devices for years. This is the first
time he’s given a television interview on the subject. (on camera) And
has the KBG ever used it against the United States?
VICTOR SHEYMOV Yes.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) Sheymov told us something shocking -
that years ago, the KBG used a primitive RF weapon to start a fire at
the US embassy in Moscow. (on camera) Was the KBG aware that’s what
would happen?
VICTOR SHEYMOV Oh, they hoped it would. And it did work,
so ...
DIANE SAWYER That was their intention?
VICTOR SHEYMOV Oh, yes.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) And they did it, Sheymov says, as a
pretext for sending in so-called "firemen" who were, in fact, KBG
agents trying to plant bugs. We asked the State Department about this.
"No comment" was the response. It’s not just the KBG. 20/20 has also
learned from a well-placed Russian official that those rebels in
Chechnya also used an RF weapon to knock out police communications
during a hostage situation. And not only that, Russian criminals have
used an RF weapon, we’re told, to disarm security and rob a bank.
There are actually Russian-made devices on the market like this
state-of-the-art "radan," which experts say could be sold and used as
a weapon against power plants, banks or aircraft. (on camera) Paint a
portrait for me of the US vulnerability.
VICTOR SHEYMOV Everything. These days, virtually
everything is controlled by computers.
DIANE SAWYER We assume that if there is a growing
threat, that there’s at least some anxiety about it.
VICTOR SHEYMOV Should be. Should be a lot of anxiety.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) Back at the China Lake test site,
they’re worried. (on camera) Consider what happened just a year ago
right here, when the military decided to bombard this Huey Cobra
helicopter, which isn’t even a highly computerized machine, with some
high&emdash;powered pulses. The results - they’re classified. All
they’ll say is they were surprised, and they didn’t like what they
saw. (VO) Finally, let us tell you about two other weapons which could
be ready in the not-so-distant future. A company has created what it
calls a "vortex launcher" for the Air Force. In time, the cannonball
of air should be powerful enough to knock someone down. And the Marine
Corps is intrigued by still another kind of weapon. This is a
videotape of recent military war game. The weapon at issue
- sound waves which, at certain frequencies, can penetrate the
human body and vibrate the internal organs. Here, soldiers simulate
the expected effect, writhing in pain and convulsions. Which brings us
back to the real-life experience of Jack Daly, who says the US
government is afraid to take on the Russians for their use of laser
weapons on his eyes. (on camera) You feel betrayed?
JACK DALY I feel very betrayed.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) He says after his eyes were injured,
the Navy ordered a search of that ship, the Kapitan Man, but they gave
the Russians 24 hours’ notice. No surprise, no laser was found. (on
camera) And you really believe it was a calculated decision not to
rock the boat?
JACK DALY Yes, exactly.
DIANE SAWYER With the Russians.
JACK DALY Yes, I do.
DIANE SAWYER You think they’re afraid of looking
vulnerable?
JACK DALY That’s a distinct possibility. Because there
are devices that are being produced that current technology may not be
able to counter.
DIANE SAWYER All the Pentagon will say is that Daly
probably suffered laser eye damage, but there’s no proof it came from
the Kapitan Man or that this photo really captured a laser. Even
though just a few months ago, it seemed to happen again. Another
helicopter pilot and crewman, this time in Bosnia. And the Pentagon
confirms that their eyes were damaged with lasers.
JACK DALY When I spoke with the pilot the other night,
he told me that the laser signature that he saw was a red halo with a
white center. That was almost exactly what we saw in that picture.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) And Daly says even though he’s been
told by the Navy to keep silent about all this, he’s speaking out
because the US has to face the reality of the future.
JACK DALY Even though I’m probably solidifying the fact
that my career is coming to an end by going public like this, I feel
the most important thing is, if I can prevent this from happening to
someone else, then I need to do this. It’s my duty. It’s my
responsibility to do this.
DIANE SAWYER Lieutenant Daly is expected to testify
about his experience tomorrow before a House Armed Services
subcommittee. And by the way, since that recent attack in Bosnia, US
forces there have been given special goggles designed to protect their
eyes against laser attacks.
SAM DONALDSON What about other countries? I assume they
are working on this problem?
DIANE SAWYER The Europeans are already far ahead of us.
The components in their computers come with better metal shielding
than ours do. So they are better protected already. By the way, the
Swedes sent word to us of something. They have been testing all of
these electromagnetic weapons, and they told us that they recently
blasted a car from 3,000 feet away with microwaves and not only
disabled it, blew up the headlights. So this new world is at hand.
SAM DONALDSON Thank you, Diane.