Donald Trump confirmed that US special forces used a ‘secret sonic’ weapon during the daring capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The President on Tuesday night bragged that ‘nobody else’ has the weapon, while glorifying the capabilities of the US military.
The exact nature of the weapons and how it was used is unknown. Trump was coy when giving details during an interview with NewsNation anchor Katie Pavlich.
Pavlich asked Trump whether Americans should be ‘afraid’ of these sonic devices.
‘Well yeah,’ Trump responded.
He then added that only the US military has access to the sonic weapons by noting, ‘It’s something I don’t wanna … nobody else has it.’
‘But we have weapons nobody else knows about.’ Trump continued. ‘And, I say it’s probably good not to talk about it, but we have some amazing weapons.’
Following the capture of Maduro, reports surfaced that special forces used unknown sonic weapons to disable the Cuban bodyguards assigned to protect the Venezuelan dictator.
The report surfaced online by an X account claiming that the sonic weapon caused Venezuelan soldiers to vomit blood. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared the testimony via X earlier this month.
Leavitt’s account on X shared an interview with an unnamed security guard who claimed to be working the night the US struck Venezuela and took Maduro on drug trafficking charges.
‘Stop what you are doing and read this…’ she wrote, alongside five American flag emojis.
The interview saw the security guard reveal the terrifying capabilities of the mysterious new US military weapon, which he described as a ‘very intense sound wave’ that disabled Venezuelan forces.
Mike Netter, the vice chairman of Rebuild California, first shared in the days after the attack in an X post that received over 15 million views in a day, and he said the apparent use of the sonic weapon ‘explains a lot about why the tone across Latin America suddenly changed.’
‘Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside,’ the security guard reportedly said. ‘We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move.
‘We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon or whatever it was.’
Following reports of the weapons existence, Kremlin officials have demanded that the US provide more information about the sonic device.
Putin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said his government would begin investigating and obtaining more information regarding Trump’s remarks.
Sonic weapons have been linked to the ‘Havana Syndrome’, a controversial disease which is yet to be formally recognized but has been put forward as an explanation for dozens of anomalous ailments hitting US officials.
The condition was first documented in 2016, after officials said a localized sound wave caused symptoms including headaches, dizziness, nausea, cognitive impairment, memory lapses, balance issues and insomnia.
If the weapon system Trump is referring to is a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), then this device has been used by other country’s militaries all over the world, including Israel.
An LRAD is a specialized loudspeaker that fires a concentrated beam of sound, rather than spraying noise in all directions like a typical bullhorn.
LRADs are used by military, law enforcement and maritime security for communication, crowd control and defense against pirates.
Capable of reaching up to 3.5 miles for voice, they can also emit excruciating sound at 160 decibels as a deterrent that can cause hearing loss.
