WEA 1/4PMS by The Washington Post

 This article described the current (in 1987) state of RF-Weapons research. Its important to note the gap between the nature of the revelations that occurred in that time and what he have today (2023) - almost 40 years later. There was a regression - what was openly admitted at that time is considered fringe speculation today. Specially, the the group of symptoms of the so called 'havana syndrome' - declared by the American  government to be the result of 'mass hysteria' - can be clearly recognized here  as a result of RF-Weapons attacks (as multiple microwave experts speculated). Although the article lengthy describes the effects of RF-Weapons on electronics, for our case the biological effects are more important. Among the interviewed were:

• James Fraser, who spent l0 years researching the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation for the Air Force
• Dr. Robert Becker, a physician twice nominated for the Nobel prize for his work in the bioeffects of electromagnetic fields

The interesting content is:

• Some interesting technical details of the weapons are that a) The atmosphere is almost transparent to electromagnetic waves of certain frequencies, b) They use devices called gyrotrons do produce extremely high power electromagnetic pulses c) "In their research the Soviets have generated single pulses exceeding 1 billion watts, and repetitive pulses of over 100 million watts. If they choose to develop such a system, no significant technological obstacles stand in the way of a prototype short-range weapon."  d) The beam frequency cited for the destructive weapons were 60GHz and 100GHz and in the ELF range for non-lethal weapons
• Quotes related to Becker: 
• 'In his book, "The Body Electric," [Becker] devotes a chapter to the vulnerability of humans to RF weapons: "The whole point is that it is now very clear that there are interactions between electromagnetic radiation and human physiology and behavior; electromagnetism is extremely important to basic operation of the human body," and "obviously intimate knowledge of those processes could be used to make extremely lethal weapons."'
• "A high-peak power pulse from an RF weapon, let's say one million watts for one tenth of a millisecond, is enough to override the dielectric capacity of nerve and brain cells. (...) With a direct hit by an RF bolt, the brain shuts down. There is total neural disorientation. Cardiac and respiratory control functions cease. A near-miss by a powerful RF bolt can manifest itself as a heat pulse that penetrates the central nervous system. Inside the brain, a violent thermo-elastic expansion and contraction will produce neural disturbances, a sensation of light flashes, loud noises and total disorientation." (notice how this matches perfectly the symptoms of Havana Syndrome, described 30 years later by the american government as result of 'mass hysteria'  - despite scans showing brain damage)
• Regarding the Soviet developments: 'I learned from other professors who helped with the project that after a few months the Soviet scientists were able to kill goats at ranges beyond one kilometer, and cause disorienting or incapacitating effects, depending on the aspect angle of the goats' heads, at well over two kilometers."'

• "Many scientists, including Fraser and Becker, believe that such technology is well within the realm of off-the-shelf reality and could be made into a truck-sized tactical system within a year."

• '..a highly tuned RF device could act as sort of a negative pacemaker, inducing heart attacks by overriding the heart's normal "P" wave. Such a device would produce a specific EMP set at a specific frequency and power level that would cause cardiac fibrillation, or heart attack. Such a device could immobilize or kill large numbers of troops.'
• The section on nonlethal ELF weapons is specially interesting and will be posted as a whole:
• 'Nor are RF weapons the only electromagnetic anti-personnel devices now under consideration. Some military actions -- certain kinds of Marine Corps assaults, for example -- might require that destructive effects be minimized and casualties prevented. For those purposes, a disabling but non-lethal technology would be ideal. To that end, the United States has experimented with the effects of ELF (extremely low frequency) signals on animals. Between 1981 and 1982, for example, a study conducted at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda bombarded rats with various ELF rays of various intensities and frequencies. (ELF signals are those below 3,000 cycles per second; frequencies used in the experiments ranged from 3.33 to 9.41 Hz.) The researchers' report confirmed that "extremely low frequency, low power em signals can: a) possibly cause behavioral changes in animals; b) interact with cells to cause rather immediate chemical changes in living systems; c) cause long-term effects, such as hormonal imbalances, bone growth, etc.; and d) interact directly with neurons in the brains of humans, causing firing rate entrainment of specific neurons and/or sets of neurons." Such an ELF device, the researchers suggested, "would be useful in dispersing crowds and in temporarily disabling potential prisoners."'