Health officials in Louisiana announced Monday the first bird flu death in the United States. The elderly individual, who had underlying medical conditions, was exposed to the virus from a backyard flock and wild birds. There have been 66 reported cases of bird flu in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the risk remains law, the CDC’s former director has urged Americans to take the virus seriously. Robert Redfield, who led the CDC during the first Trump administration, spoke with The Daily Signal last year about bird flu. He predicted bird flu, also known as H5N1, would be “much more catastrophic than the COVID pandemic.” Redfield served on a nonpartisan commission on China and COVID-19, which last year released a report, “Holding China Accountable for Its Role in the Most Catastrophic Pandemic of Our Time: COVID-19.” He spoke to The Daily Signal about its recommendations in July. An excerpt from our conversation is below. The full interview is available from “The Daily Signal Podcast.” Rob Bluey: Could you share with us about some of the steps that you think policymakers in Washington should take now that they’ve had the benefit of seeing your COVID-19 report and some of the findings? Robert Redfield: We need a 9/11-type commission to go through and really take this apart—a nonpartisan commission to really see what happened here, what went right, what went wrong, because I’m of the view, and some people may disagree with me, but I’m of the view that the most important national security threat that our nation has right now is biosecurity. I think it’s a time for our nation to step back and realize that the playing field has changed, similar to what happened when, say, the atomic bomb came into the theater, and we’ve really realized that nuclear and atomic issues had a central piece in our national security posture. Well, I’ll argue biosecurity needs to have that central piece. So, part of it is to go through … and take a good look at it. And really start to look at what is it that we need to do to be better prepared because I’m also of the point of view that we are going to have another pandemic. I do believe it’s going to be much more catastrophic than the COVID pandemic. I refer to the COVID pandemic as the lesser pandemic. The great pandemic is coming. ‘IT’S GOING TO BE CATASTROPHIC’: Why the Next Pandemic Will Be Worse Than COVID (The Daily Signal)The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning Americans to prepare for the next pandemic, which he fears will be more catastrophic than COVID-19.… pic.twitter.com/xtINg37Oeh— Rob Bluey (@RobertBluey) July 9, 2024 I think it’s going to be a bird flu pandemic. You hear a lot about it. We have over 100 million chickens and turkeys infected in the United States already. But that virus likes to go in chickens and turkeys and ducks. It doesn’t really know how to go in humans yet. But it has moved into 27 different mammals in the United States, including dolphins and seals and polar bears and brown bears and black bears and skunks and mice. It’s in a lot of species. And it gets into those species, it’s trying to learn how to, “OK, how can I get in the species? OK, the next thing, how can I get that species now to transmit to itself?” All right? And eventually, there’ll be changes. We know that it only needs four amino acid changes. Four amino acids is all needed to take COVID bird flu that can’t infect humans to make it a bird flu that’s highly infectious for humans. Now, in biological terms, you may say four is not very many, but in biological, that’s a huge species barrier for it to overcome. That could take 10 years, 100 years, 500 years, who knows, OK? But if one does purposeful gain-of-function research, where I and the laboratory make those four amino acid changes, I can make this virus in months. And this is why I’ve called for a moratorium on gain-of-function research until we can have a broader public debate about it and how we can have it really much more regulated—if the society decides it needs to be done. I’m not convinced it needs to be done. I don’t think there’s really any benefit from it. Some of my colleagues disagree with me, but I think we shouldn’t do it until we know how we do it in a safe, responsible, and effective way and we clearly can’t do that at the present time. Bluey: Do you think it’s possible to have a 9/11-style commission and what would it take? Would it take a president to endorse that type of idea? Redfield: You need a president to want to provide the leadership for it, for sure, and you need Congress to really want to get behind it and let people see. I think it is a really important first step and we have now journalists on both sides of the spectrum calling for it. I know Chris Cuomo, who’s fairly liberal, is a very aggressive advocate now to get a 9/11 commission. And I think many of us, like myself and others, and now the commission report, believe it’s our first recommendation. So, I think it’s gonna be really important. I think people don’t realize COVID is here to stay. COVID is now the third or fourth leading cause of death in America. So, it’s not gone away. I’m still practicing medicine one and a half days a week. Seventy-five percent of my practice now is long COVID, which is probably about anywhere from 5% to 20%. We probably have about 15 million Americans right now who are significantly debilitated from long COVID. Good news, it’s likely going to get better over time with them. But the bad news, it’s quite a debilitating illness. And so, even though they may be frustrated with COVID and the policies … that went with it, I think they need to, we need to really get aggressive in recognizing—what I started saying—that the national security implications of biosecurity are substantial. And that when, and I don’t think it’s if, I think when bird flu learns how to go human to human, our nation and the world will go through really a catastrophic period of time that will make the COVID pandemic look like sort of grade school. So far we’ve had 888 individuals in the world since 2003 infected with what we call H5N1, which is the dominant bird flu that’s going around now. There’s some other viruses also. Of those 888 individuals, 52% of them died. So, it’s mortality, whereas COVID’s mortality was about 0.6%. Bird flu’s mortality is going to be north of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%. It’s going to be catastrophic. And we can prepare by—and I’ve argued this, and I will continue to argue it. I think that since this is such a national security threat, we should have a response proportional to the threat. We have a Defense Department, which I spent 23 years in, that has a $900 billion-a-year defense group of which most of those resources are really to the private sector, to defense contractors to make sure that we have the defense capacity we need with planes and missiles and bullets and drones, etc. I will argue we need to build the same capacity, maybe not $900 billion worth, but we need to have a proportional to the threat response grounded in government. I would propose the Department of Energy and then most of it is private sector contractors that have antiviral drug development, that have vaccine development, that have diagnostics, that have preventive material that we can use to protect ourselves, and that also can predict what kind of medical devices that we would need for a respiratory. Many people don’t know, when COVID happened, it originally was causing a lot of respiratory deaths because that original virus liked to replicate in the lower lung. The current omicron and beyond goes upper airway, throat, so we don’t see the same degree of respiratory disease. But in early COVID, we had a lot of respiratory disease. And the one thing we found out right away, as did Italy, is we didn’t have enough ventilators. And so, Vice President [Mike] Pence very rapidly went up to Ford, up in Michigan, and asked the Ford company if they would shut down their car lines and turn it over to make ventilators so we’d have ventilators. We ought to do that prospectively. We shouldn’t be just sitting here saying, “Oh, this will never happen.” It is going to happen and we should be as prepared as possible to minimize the impact. And I will argue the No. 1 thing that we need to do is have a huge push on developing antiviral agents so that we have not just two that we have right now for COVID but that we have multiple antiviral agents that could be used that would be effective to minimize the impact that this virus has. Antiviral agents do two things. It can keep you alive, which is good thing. But antiviral agents can also change the infectivity of the individual, so they infect less people. And antiviral can also be used prophylactically so that if I take it, I’m less likely to have the virus actually successfully infect me. So we ought to be aggressive there. That’s our best defense. Vaccines are important, but as we know from COVID, they didn’t stop 1.1 million Americans from dying, all right? They did keep certain people alive, and we’ve saved a lot of lives, particularly the vulnerable. I’ve always been an advocate of vaccines for the vulnerable. I’ve never been an advocate for mandating vaccines. I think that was a big public health mistake, and I don’t think we should advocate vaccines for people that don’t have a risk for bad outcome, which is most of us under the age of 50. But if you’re old like me, 73 years old tomorrow or the next day, then my life can be saved by the vaccine. The post Former CDC Chief Warns Bird Flu Could Be ‘More Catastrophic Than COVID’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Just two months after the election of Donald Trump, Canada is on track to receive a Trumpian leader of its own—Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party.  Poilievre, a 45-year-old from the province of Alberta who has served in Canada’s Parliament for most of his adult life, is poised to become prime minister in the wake of Justin Trudeau’s resignation announcement. Trump may have been the straw that broke the back of Trudeau’s Liberal Party government. Since Trump’s election, Canadians have been up in arms over his tariff threats if Canada does not better control its border with the U.S., as well as his deliberate taunts of Canada becoming America’s “51st state.” Trump has only added fuel to the fire shortly after Trudeau’s announcement of his plans to resign, calling Trudeau the “governor” of the “Great State of Canada” on his social media site, Truth Social. With Trudeau’s government rapidly losing support amid Trump’s recent heavy-handed negotiations and the resignation of some of Trudeau’s top advisors, opposition leader Poilievre seized the moment to present himself as the Canadian antidote to Trump, mirroring the president-elect’s policy proposals with his own threats of aggressive trade policy. Economics were key to the downfall of Trudeau’s government, with the December resignation of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland serving as the final nail in the coffin. Kelly Torrance, a Canadian member of the New York Post’s editorial board who has written on politics on both sides of the border for years, told The Daily Signal that Freeland departed amid disagreements over how to deal with Trump. “She did want to be more combative,” said Torrance. “She dealt with a Trump administration before and actually came through it quite well. But this time, she was more reticent. But there’s also the fact that she was about to present to Parliament documents showing Canada’s terrible fiscal position. And she really believed that change needed to be made to cut spending and deal with deficits.” It was precisely this weakness in the face of Trump’s threats that Poilievre zeroed in on in the midst of the government crisis. “President Trump yesterday made an unjustified threat of a 25% tariff on our already weak and shrinking economy,” said Poilievre in a press conference in December as Trump bemoaned Trudeau’s lack of preparedness.  “We need a plan. A plan to put Canada first on the economy and on security,” he said in a deliberate reference to Trump’s “America First” rhetoric. In many ways, Poilievre’s brand of free market capitalism combined with aggressive trade policy is identical to that of Trump.  Poilievre added, “What we actually need to do is stand up for our economy by axing taxes, unleashing free enterprise, having a massive boom in our energy and resource production, and standing up for our country against unfair tariffs abroad.” But Torrance told the Daily Signal that one must avoid completely equating Poilievre with Trump. “He is a conservative, but he does have a lot of those libertarian tendencies,” said Torrance of Poilievre. “And I think that plays well in Canada as well. Canada’s not as socially conservative a country as America.” Torrance added that Poilievre borrows from Trump but differs on key issues, such as his support of socialized health care. “Pierre has done a good job of taking some of what is really great about what Donald Trump has done and what’s been successful for him, but not becoming just, ‘Hey, I’m Canada’s Trump,’” she said. Poilievre is not alone in fighting fire with fire when it comes to Trump’s proposed tariffs. Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened in early December to cut off energy to the United States in retaliation for Trump’s 25% tax on Canadian imports. “I’m sure the other provinces will as well,” said Ford. “We will use every tool in our toolbox to fight back.” It appears that Canada has been backed into a corner where the only response to Trump’s right-wing policies is to adopt right-wing policies of its own.  This hostile reaction to Trump’s election stands in sharp contrast to the vision presented by many on the right of an international populist uprising through which Trumpian figures might find common cause. Javier Milei of Argentina, for example, made the case in December for a “right-wing international” made up of leaders such as himself, Donald Trump, and Giorgia Meloni of Italy. “We could call ourselves a right-wing international … network of mutual assistance made up of all those interested in spreading the ideas of freedom around the world,” argued Milei at a Conservative Political Action Conference in Buenos Aires. Meloni has also cozied up to Trump in recent days, singing his praises after the two met at Mar-a-Lago Saturday. “Nice evening with @realDonaldTrump, whom I thank for the welcome. Ready to work together,” wrote Meloni on X after the meeting. Trump returned the praise by calling her a “fantastic woman” who has “taken Europe by storm” on social media. The varied responses of right-of-center politicians around the globe to Trump’s political comeback are perhaps merely distinct strategies through which these leaders promote the interests of their own nations. In contrast to Poilievre’s branding as a tough guy to take on Trump, Milei and Meloni have decided that a more friendly tone is a better strategy in dealing with the president-elect.  Their motives are easily discernible. The “dollarization” of the Argentinian economy was one of Milei’s main campaign promises. This will involve using the United States dollar as Argentina’s main monetary standard and refraining from printing the Argentinian peso. Thus, Milei has a vested interest in keeping Trump as an ally and working toward America’s prosperity. Meloni, on the other hand, is likely to feel the pressure of Trump’s tariff threats, as well as his demands that European nations contribute 2% of their gross domestic product toward funding NATO. Meloni has apparently decided that it is easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar, joining Milei in calls for an ideological alliance of nationalists in the United States and beyond. By emphasizing a “Canada first” policy over an abstract idea of an international alliance against authoritarianism, Poilievre has chosen the opposite approach to that of Milei and Meloni. In his deliberate borrowing of Trump’s rhetoric on foreign policy, it is clear what Poilievre wants Canadians to see in him—a Canadian Trump to protect them from America’s Trump. Poilievre’s Conservatives will likely increase their share of seats in Parliament when elections are held this year, likely securing him the prime minister’s office. The post Canada’s Pierre Poilievre Makes Bid for Power as Canadian Version of Trump appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Fact-Checkers Call an Emergency Meeting as Meta Cuts Their Funding

A pro-life activist was detained by police for preaching the gospel outside of an abortion clinic in Ohio. Despite being hit with criminal charges, the Christian defiantly returned to the abortion clinic to present alternatives to pregnant women and save unborn lives. Zack Knotts and his wife spent three Saturdays in December preaching the gospel outside of the Northeast Ohio Women’s Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, roughly five miles from Akron. The Christian couple pled with pregnant women to choose life.'I will preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will warn people of the wrath to come if they don’t repent. But I always say that there’s good news. There’s hope for you in Christ.'Zack and Lindsay Knotts were at the abortion clinic to offer resources to pregnant women to hopefully sway their opinions about aborting their babies. “We have free resources available," Zack told the Daily Signal. "We contacted an adoption agency, a couple of pregnancy resource centers, and got some of their information. We have folders with literally everything they could need if they were able to come talk to us, and we hold it up in the air."The Knotts are so dedicated to their pro-life mission that they are willing to adopt a baby that would have otherwise been aborted. "One of the greatest things that we think we could do to demonstrate that is to adopt a child that would have otherwise been murdered, bring them into a family that will love them, will show them Christ, will give them everything that they need," Knotts stated. "Knowing God used us to save that baby, that would be the greatest thing in the world, the greatest victory of our lives," he explained. "To hold the baby that week the Lord used us to help stay alive."The Knotts have a 3-year-old of their own. Knotts was preaching the gospel from the sidewalk outside the Northeast Ohio Women’s Center on Dec. 28. “There’s hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ for all of you,” Knotts said. Lindsay Knotts captured video of the moment that police interrupted Zack and demanded, "You're coming with us." The officer accused Knotts of committing disorderly conduct. Knotts is compliant with the officer's commands; he walks to a police cruiser and gets inside the vehicle.Knotts vowed to sue the two officers, the police department, and the city of Cuyahoga Falls for violating his First Amendment rights. Lindsay is seen on video asking the officer what crimes her husband has committed, and the cop responds, "So we've had complaints that he's causing an inconvenience or alarm to another. We also have recordings of him doing that, and obviously the statute here in the city of Cuyahoga Falls — you're not allowed to do that — under disorderly conduct." The other officer is heard telling Zack that there have been "a lot of people complaining about you." Lindsay said of the incident, "My first emotion was just pure shock. He was standing there on the public sidewalk, pleading with these escorts, with the women, telling them about the good news of the gospel, that they can be forgiven, that we have free resources for them."Knotts was charged with disorderly conduct. According to the misdemeanor citation, Knotts “did knowingly generate noise by means of a megaphone causing [inconvenience] and alarm to passersby at the Women’s Clinic.”The Cuyahoga Falls disorderly conduct ordinance 509.03 (a) (6) states: "Generating or, being the owner or person in possession or control of a vehicle or premises by reason of employment, agency, or otherwise, permitting to be generated unreasonable noise or loud sound which is likely to cause inconvenience or annoyance to persons of ordinary sensibilities by means of a radio, phonograph, television, tape player, loudspeaker or any other sound amplifying device or by any horn, drum, piano or other musical or percussion instrument.”Knotts told Live Action, "The charge was based on the claim that my preaching ‘annoyed’ passersby, which is an entirely subjective basis for restricting free speech. This action was taken despite my clear constitutional right to free speech and religious expression, and we firmly believe it violates my First and Fourth Amendment rights."Zack explained, "I will preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will warn people of the wrath to come if they don’t repent. But I always say that there’s good news. There’s hope for you in Christ."Nonetheless, the Knotts defied the authorities and returned to the clinic this past Saturday to try to offer help to the pregnant women. During their most recent appearance at the abortion clinic, the Knotts were besieged by patient escorts who hoisted up large umbrellas and blared loud noises with kazoos in close proximity to the pro-life activists. The Knotts contend that the screeching of the musical instruments violates ordinance 509.03 (a) (6) — the same ordinance that Zack was cited for in his disorderly conduct charge.An Instagram video from Lindsay shows the confrontation by the clinic escorts. However, when a complaint was made to a Cuyahoga Falls Police Department officer regarding the noise of the kazoos, he responded, "The kazoos are not annoying you."After pointing out that the ordinance specifically says "musical or percussion instrument," the officer said he would still not enforce the ordinance until a local resident lodged a complaint. The officer claimed that because the pro-life activists were on the sidewalk, they "don't really qualify as a resident." Knotts told Blaze News, "The Cuyahoga Falls Police Department refused to enforce the same ordinance with the escorts that they enforced against me. There is clear partiality, and now we have a violation of my 14th Amendment rights.""I have always had tremendous respect for the police, but I do believe it is only fair they are held to the same standard all of us are held to and when they are wrong, there is accountability," Knott stressed to Blaze News. "If we don’t hold them accountable, then any oppression will only get worse. Subjective, arbitrary ordinances are unconstitutional and give police the ability to do exactly this — enforce the 'law' unjustly and with partiality. That’s always wrong, and it needs to change."The Cuyahoga Falls Police Department declined to provide a comment to the Daily Signal. During his first court appearance on Thursday, Knotts pleaded not guilty. He has a hearing scheduled for Jan. 9.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Ex-Pussycat Dolls member Kaya Jones has been speaking out about the disturbing side of Hollywood for years — but no one has listened. That is, until now. Jones had claimed the group was essentially a “a prostitution ring” as far back as 2017 and tells Alex Stein of “Prime Time with Alex Stein” that while she wasn’t physically forced to do anything, she was put in “a pretty precarious situation” where she was made to feel like there were no other options. “That’s pretty much why I left,” Jones says, adding, “I felt it was just too much abuse and too much of not what it’s about.” Stein notes that Jones’ former group’s name, “The Pussycat Dolls,” is overtly inappropriate in itself. “Do you think that they were trying to be sexually subversive by calling you guys the Pussycat Dolls?” He asks the singer. “It was so overly sexualized,” Jones answers. “Our name was sex, we sang about sex, we looked like sex. It was overkill for me.” “That’s a lot of the reason why I think I’m so vocal now. ... Look at how the music industry has turned into just a mess, and there’s no more inspiration because everything, just, we’re so desensitized, so now they’re going almost demonic and it’s like, that’s not hot either,” she continues. “Travis Scott,” Stein says, acknowledging one of what he believes is a demonic act in Hollywood. “They’re going full demonic. They’re basically doing satanic rituals.” “I believe these elites are doing weird stuff,” he continues. “They used to call it ‘satanic panic.’ Like, artists like Aleister Crowley, that’s actually been a thing in Hollywood for a long time where they’ve always kind of worshiped the devil and the occult.” “I think it was more behind the scenes though, cause I used to say, when I left the Dolls, ‘Everything was really evil.’ And people would be like, ‘What do you mean? Everything looks so glamorous,’” Jones says. “Now it’s so out there; there’s no hiding anymore,” she adds. “You said people can’t be forced to do anything. If you go to a freak off, are you forced to have anal sex with Puff Daddy?” Stein asks. “Well, no. If you’re held against your will,” Jones responds, explaining that “even Britney Spears has said she felt like she was trafficked” from lack of control over her own life. “It’s because you don’t have control over, you know, your car service doesn’t show up, and you get sent home with a gentleman from the event who’s an executive and you have to basically really excuse yourself at the end of the night — if you’re able to,” she says. “So I don’t think people can force you into something, but if they’re making it impossible for you, then, yeah, in a way it’s kind of forcing it,” she adds. Jones also was forced to sign contracts stipulating she “wasn’t allowed to say Jesus’s name” or clarify who she prayed to. “You’re never allowed to define who God is,” she says. Want more from Alex Stein?To enjoy more of Alex's culture jamming, comedic monologues, skits, and street segments, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden told colleagues that he and the Department of Defense authorized use of directed-energy weapons against June 2020 rioters at Lafayette Park in Washington D.C., a highly placed source told Blaze News.–First in a series on directed-energy weapons–Retired Gen. Mark A. Milley — who served as the 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs from October 2019 through September 2023 — made the disclosure at a private gathering in October 2024, the source said. “Milley told a small group in October of 2024, ‘We had directed-energy weapons at Lafayette Park in June 2020’ to be used against rioters,'” the source said.According to Blaze News' source, who was present at the meeting, “In the full context of the discussion, I took that to mean that both Milley and then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper had signed off on the use of those weapons.” Esper, the 27th secretary of defense, was sworn in on July 23, 2019, and was fired by President Trump on Nov. 9, 2020. Blaze Media reached out to Esper for comment but did not get a reply by press time.A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense referred any questions on the subject to now-retired Gen. Milley and the United States Northern Command. Capt. May Morales, media operations officer at U.S. Northern Command Public Affairs, told Blaze News: “USNORTHCOM does not have any information to offer on this matter.”Directed energy weapons are emerging from the shadows as more becomes known about them, how they are used by military and law enforcement, and the damage they can do to the human body. The spread in use of these weapons in domestic law enforcement raises civil rights and training issues.Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge reported on the case of a former CIA officer who was disabled after being targeted with a DEW while on duty in Africa. Blaze News national correspondent Julio Rosas recently shared his story of the ear pain and hearing loss he suffered from a powerful, long-range sound weapon used by law enforcement during 2020 riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin.Lafayette Park riots in 2020Black Lives Matter protesters gathered in Lafayette Park beginning on May 29, 2020, enraged by the death of a black man, George Floyd, in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department.'It can stop the heart, make you s**t your pants and disrupt any number of bodily functions.'Lafayette Park is a federally owned seven-acre property managed by the National Park Service. It is located just north of the White House’s North Lawn.Rioting in Lafayette Park on May 30 and 31, 2020, resulted in the injury of at least 49 U.S. Park Police officers and extensive vandalism to federal and private property, according to a report by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Inspector General.The Lafayette Park restroom building and the basement of St. John’s Church were set ablaze by rioters on May 31. A statue of Poland-born Revolutionary War General Tadeusz Kościuszko was defaced with painted profane messages on June 1. Black Lives Matter protesters in front of Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 2020.Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images“Officers were assaulted with projectiles, such as bottles and bricks; and a brick struck a USPP officer in the head, resulting in the officer’s hospitalization,” the OIG report said. “Some protesters threw projectiles, such as bricks, rocks, caustic liquids, frozen water bottles, glass bottles, lit flares, rental scooters, and fireworks, at law enforcement officials.”The Park Police and U.S. Secret Service determined the rioters had to be removed from Lafayette Park on June 1 to make it safe for a contractor to install anti-scale fencing to protect the White House.Seven law enforcement agencies and the District of Columbia National Guard took part in an operation to dislodge the rioters that began at 6:23 p.m. June 1 and finished at 7:01 p.m., the OIG report said.A story quickly spread by the media claimed the action against Black Lives Matter protesters was undertaken to allow President Trump to walk from the White House to St. John’s Church, where the president was famously photographed holding up a Bible.An investigation by the Department of the Interior OIG found that the actions taken to remove protesters were not due to President Trump but rather solely to protect the contractors while they erected the safety fencing to protect the White House.'How they’re designed is to make the target feel like they’re crazy, like they’re imagining things.'The Park Police “used a sound-amplifying long-range acoustic device (LRAD) to issue three dispersal warnings to the crowd on June 1,” the OIG report said. Not everyone heard the dispersal warnings, the OIG said.The U.S. Park Police borrowed the LRAD unit from the Metropolitan Police Department on May 30, 2020, the OIG report said.“The USPP incident commander told us the USPP borrowed a backpack-style LRAD from the MPD. He told us that the LRAD was set to speaker mode and that he did not know if the LRAD had capabilities beyond sound amplification,” the OIG report said.“The USPP deputy operations commander told us, and video evidence confirmed, that after the USPP incident commander gave the three warnings, he walked with the USPP incident commander west on H Street carrying the LRAD.“USPP and open-source video evidence we reviewed showed that as the USPP and ACPD [Arlington County Police Department] civil-disturbance units entered H Street, protesters appeared surprised and confused; most protesters ran from the area as the officers advanced.” Graphic from the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General report on an acoustic device used against crowds. Yellow circle at right overlaid to show detail of the backpack.U.S. Department of the Interior/Graphic overlay by Blaze NewsThe LRAD operated by Park Police on June 1, 2020, was not part of the directed-energy weapons authorized by the Pentagon, the Blaze News source said. It is unknown whether the military directed-energy weapons were actually used on rioters during the Lafayette Park unrest.The OIG report includes a photograph of the U.S. Park Police deputy operations commander carrying the backpack-sized LRAD on H Street at 6:42 p.m. on June 1. Sources told Blaze News the backpack unit appears similar to directed-energy weapons that are “prolifically used” by U.S. military special forces.“USPP and open-source video evidence we reviewed showed protesters punching and throwing objects at officers and grabbing officers’ shields as well as officers rushing the crowd, pushing protesters with their shields, and deploying less-lethal munitions, including pepper balls, flash grenades, stinger ball grenades, and white smoke,” the OIG report said.Use of DEWs on the riseThe disclosures comes amidst renewed public and media interest in the existence and use of vehicle-mounted and more compact directed-energy weapons.Blaze News national correspondent Julio Rosas said an LRAD mounted on an armored police vehicle was used at super audio levels during the Kenosha riots on August 25, 2020. Rosas said the effects were painful. A long-range acoustic device is used against rioters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020. “Longer exposure created a sharp pain directly in my eardrum and contributed to my hearing damage that accumulated from the flash-bangs used at so many riots that year,” Rosas told Blaze News. A retired senior military commander at the United States Special Operations Command told Blaze News that the backpack-size “agitation weapon” employed by U.S. forces uses infra-sound technology. “It can stop the heart, make you s**t your pants” and “disrupt any number of bodily functions,” the source said. The backpack weapon is “highly directional, with an easily disguised wearable antenna.”In 2024, media reports and congressional testimony exposed how directed-energy weapons have been used against American diplomats and intelligence officers by foreign powers.Investigative reporter Herridge published an interview December 29 with a CIA whistleblower who said she was injured by a DEW while serving in Africa. “Alice” told Herridge the CIA refuses to acknowledge the “anomalous health incidents” she and other agents have suffered. Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev told a U.S. House committee on May 8, 2024, that he saw a backpack model of a directed-energy weapon as far back as 1991. Julien de Rosa/AFP via Getty Images The Lafayette Park unrest might be the first publicly disclosed case of such a weapon authorized for use by the U.S. military against American citizens. In this case, violent Black Lives Matter crowds that gathered at Lafayette Park on and after June 1, 2020. Sources said directed-energy weapons have been used as crowd control devices around the world. The weapons can affect virtually any part of the body and make the target feel disoriented, ill, or even violent. The weapons can also be used to trigger cardiac arrest, the sources told Blaze News.Special forces have been tasked with inciting mobs in foreign operations using these directed-energy weapons, said one source who helped develop the technology for the U.S. military. Actual use of them against citizens on American soil could be viewed as an unprecedented escalation of government weaponization against political dissidents.The United States adapted technology from the former Soviet Union after the fall of the Iron Curtain and collapse of the Soviet empire.A U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on May 8, 2024, detailed the use of DEWs against American officials abroad and within the United States.“Dating back to 2014, a number of US diplomatic military and intelligence officials and their families have reported major medical symptoms that have affected their auditory and sensory motor skills,” said U.S. Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence.Retired , who led the Pentagon’s investigation into anomalous health incidents, said exposure of American personnel predates the 2016 Havana incidents and traces back to the former Soviet Union. “Soviet intelligence bathed the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with microwave transmissions. The health effects were similar to what we see today,” Edgreen said. “There are many examples of syndromes and ailments from Americans injured in the line of duty that the government did not recognize for many years, which were eventually proven.”The goal of such attacks, Edgreen said, is to take top American national security officials out of operation using directed-energy weapons.“Don’t take my word for it,” Edgreen said. “Nikolai Petrushev, the secretary of Russia’s security council, wrote in September 2023 and I quote, ‘In recent years, hundreds of employees of foreign intelligence services involved in organizing intelligence and subversive activities against our country have been neutralized.’”Attorney Mark Zaid, who represents victims of directed-energy weapons, said attacks on Americans have included family members.“The victims are not just selfless public servants but their spouses, children, including infants and even pets,” Zaid said. “These criminal attacks have primarily taken place overseas on multiple continents but have also occurred on our homeland in Washington, D.C.; Northern Virginia; Florida; and elsewhere.”Zaid said he first obtained information on AHI injuries in 2014.“As part of my first case, I was provided an unclassified memorandum by NSA [National Security Agency] in October 2014, two years before Havana, that revealed the existence of intelligence information concerning a foreign adversary quote, ‘With a high-powered microwave system weapon that may have the ability to weaken, intimidate, or kill an enemy over time and without leaving evidence,’” Zaid testified. President Donald J. Trump walks through Lafayette Park on the way to St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 2020.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images“The 2012 intelligence information indicated that this weapon is designed to bathe targets' living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system,” Zaid said.“A recent investigation by '60 Minutes,' Der Spiegel, and the Insider identified potential credible links between AHIs and alleged Russian operatives from military unit 29155,” Zaid said. “This included activities within the United States.“What was the government's response? CIA doubled down that there was nothing to see and that it knew of and had already ruled out the same evidence,” Zaid said. “That is a blatant falsehood that has infuriated many serving members of the intelligence community because so much of the evidence to the contrary is available to them in reports, briefings, and cable traffic.”A Blaze News source working as a special operator in the field of directed-energy weapons agreed.“Our best and brightest are targeted over leaders in an obvious attempt to subvert our operational capabilities,” the source said. “Family members of American victims of DEW have been affected seemingly without cause for concern from our national leadership.”‘I’ll convince all of you’Edgreen said he could quickly convince everyone of the danger if the briefing were held in a secure environment.“Give me 20 minutes in a SCIF [Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility], and I’ll convince all of you,” Edgreen said. “I know where the bodies are buried. I know the cabinets to look in, the questions to ask, and the people to subpoena.“I will say that this is a global campaign, and it’s focused on attacking our people, the best of our people,” Edgreen said. “It’s not the middle-range people that are being attacked. It’s those that are succeeding, succeeding and providing work, work that winds up on the president’s desk every morning. So it’s a massive issue.”Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev said while these weapons have some limit on how small they can be made, they have been miniaturized over the decades.“I have seen a 1991 version of the weapon and it looks like a satellite dish with a unit this size attached to it. Of course, over the years, miniaturization has been possible,” Grozev said.“Obviously there is a limitation to how miniaturized it can be because of the antenna size, which is always related to the wave, but still it is something that can be well contained in the trunk of a car or even a large backpack,” he said.Edgreen said the after-effects of directed-energy weapons can be difficult to detect.“There’s no entry or exit wound,” he said. “How they’re designed is to make the target feel like they’re crazy, like they’re imagining things, especially on the low duration, the low-intensity, long-duration hits.”Zaid said an ongoing issue with these weapons is a lack of candor by the government.“What I have learned to date is the Executive Branch, particularly at the behest of and manipulation by officials within the CIA, is not truthfully reporting to the American people what it knows about AHIs.”COMING NEXT: Were directed-energy weapons used on Jan. 6?Like Blaze News? 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