from the on-the-bus,-off-the-bus,-on-the-bus,-.... dept.
Newly Declassified Government Report Suggests Havana Syndrome Might Be Caused by an Energy Weapon:
After years of debate about the cause of the strange malady, a recently declassified document points the finger (once again) at "electromagnetic energy."
Several weeks after the intelligence community came out to disavow claims that "Havana Syndrome"—the bizarre rash of neurological disorders plaguing U.S. foreign service officers—was the result of a directed energy weapon, a newly declassified report alleges that may very well be what it is.
The group behind the report, the Intelligence Community Experts Panel on Anomalous Health Incidents (AHIs), was established by the government to figure out just what the heck had happened to the 1,000-ish American officials who claim to have suffered from "Havana"'s bizarre symptoms. Those symptoms, which first cropped up at a U.S. embassy in Cuba in 2016 and soon spread to other parts of the globe, include a rash of inexplicable ailments—things like hearing and memory loss, severe headaches, light sensitivity, nausea, and a host of other debilitating issues.
Well, after a substantial research effort to get to the bottom of Havana Syndrome's seemingly impenetrable mystery, the IC panel ultimately released their findings to the government, but the contents of the report have remained classified—until now, that is.
[...] According to the report, a plausible explanation for the disorders may be "pulsed electromagnetic energy." It reads:
Electromagnetic energy, particularly pulsed signals in the radio frequency range, plausibly explains the core characteristics, although information gaps exist. There are several plausible pathways involving forms of electromagnetic energy, each with its own requirements, limitations, and unknowns. For all the pathways, sources exist that could generate the required stimuli, are concealable, and have moderate power requirements.
Furthermore, the report speculates that such energy could be "propagated with low loss through air for tens to hundreds of meters, and with some loss, through most building materials." This could potentially be done using "commercial off-the-shelf technology" and devices exist that "are easily portable and concealable, and can be powered by standard electricity or batteries," it states.
The report is really interesting but it's also [sort of] funny because it appears to say the exact opposite of what the government just came out and told everybody less than a month ago. On March 1st, Haines told journalists that most cases of Havana Syndrome could likely be attributed to "environmental factors" or "conventional illnesses." The notion that the symptoms would've been caused by a "directed energy weapon" was considered "highly unlikely" in most instances, Haines told the public. While she and other officials left the door open for alternative explanations, the press conference seemed like a clear attempt to shut down further speculation about the bizarre episodes.
But far from waving off victims' symptoms as the result of "environmental factors" or some sort of mass delusion, the recently declassified report refers to Havana Syndrome as a "unique neurosensory syndrome" that is "distinctly unusual," and is "unreported elsewhere in the medical literature." Aside from the "electromagnetic energy" explanation, it also seems to dismiss most of the other theories that have been posited to explain the syndrome's genesis."
Previously:
- US: Havana Syndrome Likely Not the Result of Energy Weapon
- The Time Russians Really Did Target Americans With Microwaves
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Pre-existing mental health issues and the stress of working in Cuba are more likely culprits:
Havana Syndrome – the inexplicable illness experienced by some US intelligence and diplomatic personnel – is almost certainly not caused by energy weapons, according to the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It has, rather, attributed the malady to pre-existing mental health challenges exacerbated by environmental conditions.
First reported in 2016 by US and Canadian intelligence officers stationed in Cuba, Havana Syndrome was characterized by a variety of unexplained auditory and cognitive symptoms. Individuals reported hearing sudden loud noises that were often accompanied by ear pain. Others reported tinnitus, visual problems, vertigo, and cognitive difficulties. Similar symptoms were later experienced by intelligence personnel and service members around the globe.
A definitive cause was never identified, but a report produced by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that the symptoms experienced by US diplomats in Cuba was consistent with the use of directed, pulsed radio frequency energy.
"Many of the chronic, nonspecific symptoms are also consistent with known RF effects, such as dizziness, headache, fatigue, nausea, anxiety, cognitive deficits, and memory loss," the report read. "Overall, directed, pulsed RF energy, especially in those with the distinct early manifestations, appears to be the most plausible mechanism in explaining these cases."
The Time Russians Really Did Target Americans With Microwaves
A year before his arrival, State Department officials had told embassy staffers and their families that the Soviet Union had been blasting some kind of microwave beam at the embassy for up to 14 hours per day. But American higher-ups said there was little reason for concern. Issuing a "Fact Sheet," [1976] the State Department said that this microwave beam — later dubbed the "Moscow Signal" — was "no cause for concern," as "no causal relationship had been established between these microwave transmissions and any health problems."
There was, in other words, nothing to worry about. As a precaution, American officials erected aluminum "screening" around the embassy — all the better to "reduce the anxiety of employees." But that was it. And so Schumaker went about his work, day in and day out. For years, he and dozens of others operated out of the American embassy, assured that the microwave radiation was perfectly normal.
It was only years later, when Schumaker received a surprise leukemia diagnosis — and after multiple American ambassadors had already died from cancer, with the another diagnosed with a "severe blood disorder" — that Schumaker realized that microwave radiation, and the U.S.'s lackadaisical response, was far more disastrous, and even fatal, than he ever thought. And in recent months, that realization only deepened, for a pair of reasons.
First, a tranche of newly declassified documents confirmed that the Soviets saturated American embassy staffers in decades of elevated microwave radiation — and American higher-ups spent years trying to sweep the entire affair under the rug. And second, recent revelations about the so-called "Havana Syndrome" have given Schumaker and other diplomats who remember the days of Moscow Signal a sense of, as he sees it, "déjà vu all over again."
(Score: 4, Funny) by krishnoid on Thursday March 30, @08:51PM (2 children)
When I see this, the first thing that pops (unbidden) into mind is "What kind of marginal legislation are they trying to get pushed through, while introducing this as a distracting controversy into this week's news cycle? Naah, don't be a conspiracy theorist, you've probably just been listening to the radio play of 1984 [youtu.be]."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday March 30, @09:17PM (1 child)
The FUD is to hide the fact that the CIA has its own directed energy weapons.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 30, @09:37PM
>the CIA has its own directed energy weapons.
Which they tested on US citizens without the citizens knowledge since the 1950s and they continue to refine them to this day...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday March 30, @10:00PM (12 children)
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday March 31, @02:36AM (9 children)
This isn't Star Trek, Mr. Spock wasn't there with his tricorder.
We do have instruments that can detect various EM radiation, but not across the entire spectrum at once complete with an analysis that tells you what every single signal might do.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 31, @02:50AM (2 children)
You don't need analysis of what every single signal might do in order to detect them. And the problem frequencies aren't that broad. They're talking about radio or microwave, possibly sound. It's not that hard especially for a superpower with a lot of snooping gear already in place.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sjames on Friday March 31, @04:02AM (1 child)
Do you have any idea how many signals that are radio or microwave can be found everywhere in an urban environment at any given time? Do you realize you named the entire usable communications spectrum plus baseband?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday March 31, @10:59AM
Or that such a signal would have to have considerable power density to cause instant discomfort and pain? Yes. Back at you on this one. We aren't looking for faint signals with delicate patterns.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday March 31, @04:06AM (5 children)
Sigint in a fucking embassy would be considered bare minimum work for the NSA to be doing. It was literally their original purpose as an agency before mission creep and infinite money got involved.
Detecting "Electromagnetic radiation" in "microwave bands" can be done with a fucking antenna.
And that's why "This could potentially be done using 'commercial off-the-shelf technology'" is in this article, because we're again, talking about very basic technology, on both sides of the equation. Using *vague hand gesture* "EM radiation" to produce specific biomedical effects on a human body(other than burns), on the other hand, is fucking magic. I'm not saying such a thing can never be done, but I am saying that everything about Havana Syndrome reeks of absolute horseshit.
To be more specific
1. The "syndrome" is perfectly analogous to what I call Quack Disease: the things that homeopaths, chiropractors, reiki channlers, and other fake doctors promise to treat, while being vague, subjective, and inconsistent in their makeup. Headaches, discomfort, digestive issues, depression, and fatigue. All of those things can be caused by real conditions, but when they're the only symptoms being treated is always a red flag of solution-in-search-of-a-problem type shit.
2. The proposed mechanism being so specifically identified, with no material evidence for that specific mechanism(or how it even relates to some of the syndrome's affiliated symptoms). If people talked about a pattern of illness with a detectably disproportionate occurrence in people in a given embassy(also not demonstrated for these symptoms), then went hunting for a cause that would be different. Instead, they come up, acting with near certainty, with a device using a specific mechanism that they've detected no direct evidence of, that's someone bullshitting you.
The hyperbole of the null hypothesis that the person in the article attributes "Mass delusion" is a really unfair reading of how common the cloud of symptoms is in the general populace, and the frequency with which people search out explanations for similar experiences. The null hypothesis is much more reasonable "Someone provided an explanation which made it to the news, and people bought into it"
On the other hand, good luck ever convincing someone of something that subjective when noxiously well proven, scientifically uncontroversial statements like "Vaccines reduce people's risk of dying" is up for furious shouting debate. Understanding problems, much less solving them, is no longer possible in the United States.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday March 31, @05:39AM (4 children)
Sigint is specific to detecting communication. An energy pulse meant to harm someone probably doesn't look much like communication. It would (if it even exists) probably souund more like the "russian woodpecker".
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 31, @11:07AM
The snoop would be like "No, I haven't heard any grenades go off because I only listen for whispering." So you'd ask "Have you heard any whispering?" "Nope, some idiot keeps setting grenades off. Can't hear a thing with all that noise!"
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 31, @12:11PM (2 children)
BTW, here's how absurd this particular argument is. From the Wikipedia article on the "russian woodpecker" [wikipedia.org].
Consider that last sentence. This thing was so obvious, that some people were putting in filters precisely for that signal. While a directed energy pulse that is intended to harm someone wouldn't likely be 10 MW of power, it's still a loud signal. They might miss it if it happens well away from the embassy, but some of these are supposed to have happened on embassy grounds.
My take is that this is either purely imaginary or an owned goal - caused by some secret projects operating out of the embassies which the various investigations aren't permitted to know about or acknowledge. There wouldn't be all this mystery and confusion otherwise.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday March 31, @03:47PM (1 child)
Or they heard it but not that loudly because they didn't strap the receiver to the person's head 24/7 and they had no idea what it was but it sounded like EMI from an arc welder somewhere.
I'm not saying this latest theory is right or wrong, only that not detecting the signal and instantly knowing what it is like Spock with his tricorder isn't evidence either way.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 31, @05:12PM
These occasionally happen in embassies from what I heard. So you wouldn't need a received strapped to the person's head. You'd just need a sensitive receiver somewhere in a few block radius, which the entire building would happen to be.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Saturday April 01, @12:22AM
Shouldn't there be secondary victims in the vicinity? You might even be able to get directional information if you could find them.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday April 01, @11:24PM
These discussions are interesting. Since we don't have hard data, well, we the public don't- we don't really know what govt. might know. But let's say we don't have data, yet, so we have to keep all theories open.
I don't happen to like the "directed energy" idea. I don't know numbers, but a few watts won't affect a human much. Leakage from a microwave oven (2.45 GHz) can damage cornea, but it'd take a lot more energy to cause the kinds of reported symptoms. You'd expect all of the victims to have cornea damage.
Also, you don't need specific frequency detection. All conductive materials become antennas and therefore energized by EM radiation, which of course includes all conductive parts of electronic circuits. Enough energy to hurt a human will clobber any electronic circuits- phones, radios, TVs, computers, ...
I have a RF wireless headphone I often wear (TV, radio, recorded music) that run on a 900 MHz carrier. If I have them on and start my microwave oven, I hear all kinds of interference, buzzing, etc. Again, headphones are 900 MHz, microwave 2.45 GHz. Before you comment, I also have a microwave oven leakage detector and mine has almost no leakage- well within safety specs.
Energy weapon is still possible, but I'd look more into exotic poisons. I've heard there are many that are pretty much undetectable.
(Score: 3, Informative) by jelizondo on Thursday March 30, @10:51PM (4 children)
It was debunked as a weapon [theguardian.com] like less than a month ago...
WTF?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday March 31, @01:30AM (3 children)
The back and forth on this topic has been going on for years now.
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(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday March 31, @04:02AM (1 child)
Yep...someone picks a few lines out of a 153 page report considering possible causes, then runs off a speculation of government malfeasance and or possible cover up.
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday March 31, @12:13PM
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday March 31, @04:13AM
Yeah, but "back and forth" doesn't really have any relationship to material evidence or serious analysis.
How much ink is spilled by Very Serious People on a subject is purely a function of how much vested interest each side has in finding a given outcome. And one of the sides here has the vested interest in blaming our "adversaries" for "attacking our citizens", and, oh boy, that's a bigg'un. Comparatively "Are our people actually at risk of a non-life-threatening condition?" is much smaller.
So no matter which side has the best evidence, you can expect to hear from the "We're under attack" side for decades to come.
(Score: 4, Funny) by gznork26 on Friday March 31, @01:06AM (1 child)
If this were a SF story, a crackpot would be spreading the idea that reality finally got broken by all the people fervently believing in 'alternate facts'. We're now trapped in a bi-stable bit of space-time in which we're experiencing two overlapping realities. In one of them, there's a directed energy weapons, and in the other, it's natural causes that can't be explained. Left as is, the situation will drive everyone mad unless something is done to completely split the two realities apart. (It's a series, so you'll have to wait to find out what happens in the next book.)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Freeman on Friday March 31, @02:08PM
Hey, we could just have a window from another dimension that's leaking noise, but only at specific embassy locations.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"