Spooky Theory on Ills of U.S. Diplomats in Cuba (archive)
During the Cold War, Washington feared that Moscow was seeking to turn microwave radiation into covert weapons of mind control. More recently, the American military itself sought to develop microwave arms that could invisibly beam painfully loud booms and even spoken words into people's heads. The aims were to disable attackers and wage psychological warfare.
Now, doctors and scientists say such unconventional weapons may have caused the baffling symptoms and ailments that, starting in late 2016, hit more than three dozen American diplomats and family members in Cuba and China. The Cuban incidents resulted in a diplomatic rupture between Havana and Washington.
The medical team that examined 21 affected diplomats from Cuba made no mention of microwaves in its detailed report [open, DOI: 10.1001/jama.2018.1742] [DX] published in JAMA in March. But Douglas H. Smith, the study's lead author and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a recent interview that microwaves were now considered a main suspect and that the team was increasingly sure the diplomats had suffered brain injury. "Everybody was relatively skeptical at first," he said, "and everyone now agrees there's something there." Dr. Smith remarked that the diplomats and doctors jokingly refer to the trauma as the immaculate concussion.
Strikes with microwaves, some experts now argue, more plausibly explain reports of painful sounds, ills and traumas than do other possible culprits — sonic attacks, viral infections and contagious anxiety. In particular, a growing number of analysts cite an eerie phenomenon known as the Frey effect, named after Allan H. Frey, an American scientist. Long ago, he found that microwaves can trick the brain into perceiving what seem to be ordinary sounds.
Mentioned in the article: JASON, which is also investigating the attacks and considering the possibility of microwaves causing the symptoms.
Previously: US Embassy Employees in Cuba Possibly Subjected to 'Acoustic Attack'
U.S. State Department Pulls Employees From Cuba, Issues Travel Warning Due to "Sonic Attacks"
A 'Sonic Attack' on Diplomats in Cuba? These Scientists Doubt It
Cuban Embassy Victims Experiencing Neurological Symptoms
Computer Scientists May Have Solved the Mystery Behind the 'Sonic Attacks' in Cuban Embassy
Related Stories
The US believes several State Department employees at the US embassy in Havana were subjected to an "acoustic attack" using sonic devices that left at least two with such serious health problems they needed to be brought back to the US for treatment, several senior State Department officials told CNN. One official said the employees could have suffered permanent hearing loss as a result.
The employees affected were not at the same place at the same time, but suffered a variety of physical symptoms since late 2016 which resembled concussions.
Conspiracy theory fodder, or actually possible?
alt links:
https://archive.fo/yZB5q
https://web.archive.org/web/20170809231552/http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/09/politics/us-cuba-acoustic-attack-embassy/index.html
State Department orders nonessential diplomats and families out of Cuba following mysterious attacks
The US State Department is pulling out all families of employees and nonessential personnel from Cuba, after a string of mysterious attacks against US diplomats.
Several US officials tell CNN that 21 US diplomats and family members became ill after apparent sonic attacks. The American embassy will continue to operate with a 60% reduction in staff. The officials said the US will stop issuing visas in Cuba effective immediately because of the staff reductions and the decision is not described as a retaliatory measure. Officials say there will still be consular officials in the embassy available to assist US citizens in Cuba.
The State Department is also issuing a travel warning, urging Americans not to travel to Cuba because they could also be at risk as some of the attacks against diplomats have taken place at hotels where Americans stay, a senior State Department official told reporters Friday.
Also at the Miami Herald, BBC, and NYT:
Some of those attacked have suffered significant injuries, with symptoms including hearing loss, dizziness, tinnitus, balance and visual problems, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues and difficulty sleeping. But despite an intensive investigation by the F.B.I., the cause and perpetrators of the attacks remain a mystery, with some experts speculating that some kind of sonic weapon or faulty surveillance device may have been at fault.
Related: US Embassy Employees in Cuba Possibly Subjected to 'Acoustic Attack'
The State Department has not provided further details about the medical condition of the affected staffers. But government officials have suggested anonymously that the diplomats may have been assaulted with some sort of sonic weapon.
Experts in acoustics, however, say that's a theory more appropriate to a James Bond movie.
Sound can cause discomfort and even serious harm, and researchers have explored the idea of sonic weaponry for years. But scientists doubt a hidden ultrasound weapon can explain what happened in Cuba.
"I'd say it's fairly implausible," said Jürgen Altmann, a physicist at the Technische Universität Dortmund in Germany and an expert on acoustics.
Once again, the New York Times gets it wrong. James Bond is not the movie genre they're looking for.
mrpg also brings us this less-critical AP report, What Americans Heard in Cuba Attacks: The Sound.
Diplomats and other victims of mysterious "sonic attacks" at the American embassy in Havana, Cuba are experiencing neurological symptoms months after being affected:
A preliminary case report on the victims of mysterious "health attacks" in Havana, Cuba details the results of extensive clinical evaluations, concluding that the individuals appear to have sustained "injury to widespread brain networks without an associated history of head trauma."
The report offers the first medical glimpse of the victims—US government personnel and their families who were serving on diplomatic assignment in Havana. From late 2016 to August 2017, they reported experiencing bizarre and inexplicable sonic and sensory episodes. The episodes tended to include directional, irritating sounds, such as buzzing and piercing squeals, as well as pressure and vibrations. Afterward, the victims developed a constellation of neurological symptoms.
In clinical evaluations of 21 of 24 individuals affected, an interdisciplinary team of doctors at University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine retrospectively pieced together symptoms—an average of 203 days after individuals were exposed. They found that the most common issues persisting more than three months after exposure were cognitive impairment (17/21); balance issues (15/21); visual (18/21) and hearing (15/21) problems; sleep impairment (18/21); and headaches (16/21).
Previously: U.S. State Department Pulls Employees From Cuba, Issues Travel Warning Due to "Sonic Attacks"
A 'Sonic Attack' on Diplomats in Cuba? These Scientists Doubt It
"A team of computer scientists from the University of Michigan may have solved the mystery behind strange sounds heard by American diplomats in Havana, who later suffered a variety of medical disorders.
Professor Kevin Fu and members of the Security and Privacy Research Group at the University of Michigan say they have an explanation for what could have happened in Havana: two sources of ultrasound — such as listening devices — placed too close together could generate interference and provoke the intense sounds described by the victims."
Original URL:
Computer scientists may have solved the mystery behind the ‘sonic attacks’ in Cuba
This is an update of previous stories here:
US Embassy Employees in Cuba Possibly Subjected to 'Acoustic Attack'
U.S. State Department Pulls Employees From Cuba, Issues Travel Warning Due to "Sonic Attacks"
A ‘Sonic Attack’ on Diplomats in Cuba? These Scientists Doubt It
The Sounds That Haunted U.S. Diplomats in Cuba? Lovelorn Crickets, Scientists Say
In November 2016, American diplomats in Cuba complained of persistent, high-pitched sounds followed by a range of symptoms, including headaches, nausea and hearing loss.
Exams of nearly two dozen of them eventually revealed signs of concussions or other brain injuries, and speculation about the cause turned to weapons that blast sound or microwaves. Amid an international uproar, a recording of the sinister droning was widely circulated in the news media.
On Friday, two scientists presented evidence that those sounds were not so mysterious after all. They were made by crickets, the researchers concluded.
That's not to say that the diplomats weren't attacked, the scientists added — only that the recording is not of a sonic weapon, as had been suggested.
Alexander Stubbs of the University of California, Berkeley, and Fernando Montealegre-Z of the University of Lincoln in England studied a recording of the sounds made by diplomats and published by The Associated Press. "There's plenty of debate in the medical community over what, if any, physical damage there is to these individuals," said Mr. Stubbs in a phone interview. "All I can say fairly definitively is that the A.P.-released recording is of a cricket, and we think we know what species it is."
Recording of "sonic attacks" on U.S. diplomats in Cuba spectrally matches the echoing call of a Caribbean cricket (open, DOI: 10.1101/510834) (DX)
Previously: US Embassy Employees in Cuba Possibly Subjected to 'Acoustic Attack'
A 'Sonic Attack' on Diplomats in Cuba? These Scientists Doubt It
Cuban Embassy Victims Experiencing Neurological Symptoms
Computer Scientists May Have Solved the Mystery Behind the 'Sonic Attacks' in Cuban Embassy
Sonic Attack? U.S. Issues Health Alert After Employee Experiences Brain Trauma in Guangzhou, China
Two US Diplomats Evacuated From China Amid 'Sonic Attack' Concerns
Latest Explanation for Cuban Embassy Symptoms: Microwave Weapons
CIA director "fuming" after Havana syndrome strikes team member in India
A US intelligence officer traveling in India earlier this month with CIA director William Burns reported experiencing a mysterious health incident and symptoms consistent with so-called Havana syndrome, according to a report by CNN. The officer received immediate medical care upon returning to the US.
The case raises fears that such incidents are not only increasing, but potentially escalating, unnamed officials told CNN and The New York Times. The new incident within Burns' own team reportedly left the CIA chief "fuming" with anger.
The director's schedule is tightly guarded, and officials do not know if the affected intelligence officer was targeted because the officer was traveling with the director. If the health incident was an attack carried out by an adversarial intelligence agency—as feared—it's unclear how the adversarial agency learned of the trip and was able to prepare an attack. It's also possible, however, that the officer was targeted for other reasons and without knowledge that the officer was traveling with the director.
[...] The incident is the second high-profile case in less than a month. On August 24, another so-called "anomalous health incident" affecting US embassy staff in Hanoi, Vietnam, came to light. It is still unclear how many staff members were affected in that incident, but NBC News reported that two US personnel were medevaced out of the country.
Previously:
US Embassy Employees in Cuba Possibly Subjected to 'Acoustic Attack'
U.S. State Department Pulls Employees From Cuba, Issues Travel Warning Due to "Sonic Attacks"
Latest Explanation for Cuban Embassy Symptoms: Microwave Weapons
"Sonic Attack" Recording Made by Diplomats is Actually a Recording of Crickets
Mysterious health "attack" cases rise to 130, US officials confirm
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:41AM (14 children)
We are constantly bathed in microwave radiation from wi-fi everywhere, and as we all know science has proven conclusively, all those people who claim to have wi-fi allergies are fucking nuts.
The article is horseshit and the authors are insane.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:25AM (3 children)
Hit the nail on the head. This is all bullshit.
If microwaves were dangerous, why would we be using them in food preparation? What BS.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:05AM (1 child)
Try sticking your head in a microwave oven and see just how safe microwaves are.
(Score: 5, Funny) by MostCynical on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:56AM
I think he already did.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:16AM
Try microwaving some metal. Or a gerbil.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:51AM
FTFY
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by mhajicek on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:02AM
The dose makes the poison.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by GerryA on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:09AM (2 children)
Detectors for 'microwave oven' leaks are cheap and ubiquitous. Did not the local security team have a few handy? If true, most likely that spooks were trying to recharge the batteries of hidden mics - did no one ever find one of those, with microwave-recharge circuits to match?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:12AM (1 child)
Aren't those things just sold to old people who don't trust microwaves?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:18AM
But of course they are. You can have them only with prescription.
However, those Canadian pharmacies...
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:22AM (1 child)
It's a matter of power. Surely you don't think you would be unharmed if you hotwired a microwave oven and stuck your head inside with it running, do you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @01:01PM
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday September 02 2018, @12:04PM
If CONSTANTLY bathed in it, how do you know your reality isn't fake?
Imagined sounds, imagined images, imagined existence...
How do you KNOW you're reading an actual post from me? You could be laying in action in a Cuban embassy imagining that this reality is reality.....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:25PM
They got published. That's all that matters to the authors.
(Score: 1) by AlphaSnail on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:07PM
Well rip the door off your microwave at home and stick your head in there - seeing as how any type of microwave no matter how powerful has no effect on the human body. The microwaves just bring water to a boil by gently massages the atoms, and if anyone were to be attacked by a microwave weapon they would just walk away feeling refreshed so your right, this is just bullshit.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:16AM (18 children)
Why is that only American diplomats feel the 'sonic weapon sickness'?
'Sonic attack' fears as more US diplomats fall ill in China [theguardian.com]
Bizarre 'Sonic Attack' Symptoms Reportedly Spreading To US Diplomats Around The World [gizmodo.com.au]
Sonic attack or mass paranoia? New evidence stokes debate over diplomats’ mysterious illness [sciencemag.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:17AM (1 child)
when you're the world's policeman and top dawg, you're the top target.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:23AM
Right! And the Americans are once again exceptional: they have exclusivity in being a target.
All the other nations are so boringly uninteresting they aren't worth spying on or 'attacking' their diplomats.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:25AM (15 children)
Perhaps they're the ones being irradiated?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:29AM (2 children)
Americans are, once again, exceptional
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @11:08AM
Why do you think all Alien invasions and natural dissasters target USA?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @10:32PM
We call them "special".
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:34AM (11 children)
Or perhaps they are the only ones to receive a vaccine with side effects?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:45AM (10 children)
Well, since there is no known example or mechanism for vaccines to cause those effects, but microwaves are known to be able to cause the effects, I think one of those explanations is distinctly more likely than the other.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Sunday September 02 2018, @07:07AM (9 children)
It only takes a bad batch to create a cluster of "attacks".
Include along vaccines any specific medication the Americans travelling abroad receive.
For example, the malaria preventative ones aren't so side-effect free [cdc.gov]
Mefloquine [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:12PM (3 children)
Mefloquine is not a vaccine, it is a prophylactic medication. The side effects are not the result of a bad batch, they are just reactions some people have, so you will see a uniform distribution among people taking it, not clusters. It doesn't leave lasting damage once it is stopped.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday September 02 2018, @09:42PM (2 children)
Read the "Include along vaccines any specific medication...". Is it hard to understand?
"Serious side effects include potentially long-term mental health problems...".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday September 02 2018, @11:06PM (1 child)
It's hard to undertstand why you went on and on about vaccines then changed gears to Mefloquine when that didn't pan out, and then ignored the point about how drug side effects don't tend to cluster.
Also, I don't see signs of a concussion listed for Mefloquine.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 03 2018, @12:07AM
Lemme explain. I'm unsatisfied with many explanations involving 'invisible remote attack, by exotic means, disabling our diplomats'. I haven't seen any list of alternative hypotheses that have been tested and rejected before going into 'sensationalist mode'
I don't reject outright the hypothesis of 'remote exotic attack' but I'm not going to swallow it only because it makes such a sensational explanation (which conveniently popped up just when USA switched from being on the 'Let's try to be good neighbours with Cuba' to 'Roll back anything Obama has done, Cuba included').
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:50PM (4 children)
Among the various theories put forth by "vaccines can cause injury" camp in the early 2000s: thimerosal (mercury) in multi-dose vials can settle so that, in a 10 dose vial, one recipient might get 90% of the thimerosal while the other 9 doses contain very little. It was about this time that Jenny McCarthy was put forward as an anti-vaccine advocate by the pro-vaccination political camp.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday September 02 2018, @11:38PM (3 children)
? I don't think that's what happened.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 03 2018, @01:45AM (2 children)
I'm sure I don't know what really happened, can't know what really happened, but to have somebody of that "caliber" show up just around the time that they're all grasping at straws in an attempt to burn Wakefield at the stake (and some of the "science" put forth to counter Wakefield around the time McCarthy was rising to prominence was extremely weak, rushed, and otherwise had desperate clearly printed in the abstract)... would have been a master stroke of long-game strategy.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday September 03 2018, @03:30AM (1 child)
I don't think you can seriously link a porn star and a discredited former Doctor.
Unless you're arguing that Wakefield was not a lying scam artist. In which case I think you're wrong.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 03 2018, @01:39PM
The joke is: McCarthy was thrust into prominence by the anti-Wakefield camp, to help make the whole thing reek of non-credibility.
Take a random sampling of 100 practicing research M.D.s and dig on them for dirt, at least 50 can be smeared as badly as they did Wakefield - if there is a motive to do so.
Were Wakefield's findings flawed? Probably, but you have to ask: if you did a study and reproduced his findings, would you want to put yourself out there as the next target?
The media is the biggest flaw in the system of scientific investigation today. They take preliminary studies done on less than a dozen non-randomly selected individuals and promote the findings to billions as if they are somehow applicable to everyone, and the media's selection criteria is, as it always has been: sensationalism, whatever gets people interested / excited.
If you think back to the time when Wakefield was first published, my kids were still getting vaccines with thimerosal in them and there were no alternatives. Oh, it's long been proven harmless, was the story from M.D.s at the time - just like lead in gasoline, asbestos in insulation, arsenic in playground wood, all was "proven harmless" for decades before it was banned.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:26AM
Tinfoil hats!
Somebody patent it for the use the American diplomats, there'll be money to be made.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @08:26AM (3 children)
Someone read my comments from 6 months back? [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday September 02 2018, @12:41PM
Latest Semi-Official Explanation
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Sunday September 02 2018, @01:24PM
ACs can see their posting history...what's next? Buying them subscriptions?
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday September 03 2018, @06:52AM
Yes, I did, and then sneakily commented a few months earlier than that, giving a link to put people off the scent. Ignore the time machine behind the curtain.
Microwave auditory effect? [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @08:39AM (3 children)
Why is every idiot and his mother in this thread claiming that this has only ever affected Americans? That is completely untrue and if you don't know that from all the articles published regarding this then you aren't qualified to even make a comment about it...
(Score: 4, Informative) by khallow on Sunday September 02 2018, @11:43AM (2 children)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:37PM (1 child)
Assuming the Canadians will hang out at US parties, they can easily catch mass hysteria. And since the Canadians have had long term relations with Cuba, while the current US administration wants to delegitimize the previous administration's opening to Cuba, they won't entertain any bullshit.
The Epoch Times? Mouthpiece of China's Scientology, Falun Gong? Definitely in the Guangzhou example they would have an interest in not being truthful.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 03 2018, @12:46AM
Or it might be some other explanation. I didn't expect my linked story to explain everything.
Didn't care enough to find a prettier source. Still don't care. I figure they're good enough to say what country an embassy belongs to.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday September 02 2018, @07:17PM (1 child)
Maybe Cuban microwave ovens are just badly made?
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday September 04 2018, @03:57PM
That's an interesting thought...Cuba does, though necessity, have a very large number of what we in the US would call "hackers" or "makers". A lot of these guys make MacGuyver look like an amateur. So if you're going to find a crappy hacked up microwave that's frying the whole block, Cuba would probably be the place to look. Although I suspect you'd need a series of very precise fuck-ups to get the power sufficiently concentrated to cause this kind of damage -- I've seen someone fry a computer from a meter or two away with one, but I'm not sure how much damage you could do from across the street and through a couple walls. It's probably not inside the embassy itself...I don't expect they're buying their electronics off the local street market. Although perhaps the janitorial staff snuck one in. But maybe it's a cafe across the street hitting people while they walk in or out of the building...although then you might expect more local victims to start showing up, but the local doctor isn't likely to be checking for that sort of thing so maybe not.
Certainly seems rather unlikely, but not *entirely* impossible from my limited knowledge. Should also be pretty easy to track down with the right mix of RF scanners though, even for an intermittent source...so the longer they go without detecting anything, the more likely it is to be either an actual attack (which would presumably stop for a while once it becomes obvious that they're looking for it) or purely psychological (meaning there's nothing to find in the first place.)