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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
(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.