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posted by janrinok on Thursday June 07 2018, @10:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the voices-in-my-head dept.

Two American diplomats stationed in China were reportedly evacuated from the region after being sickened by a mysterious ailment linked to odd sounds.

The two Americans evacuated worked at the American Consulate in the southern city of Guangzhou, the New York Times reported Wednesday, adding that their colleagues and relatives are also being tested by a State Department medical team.

American officials have been worried for months that American diplomats and their families in Cuba -- and now China -- have been subjected to a "sonic attack," leading to symptoms similar to those "following concussion or minor traumatic brain injury," the State Department said in a statement Tuesday.

The new cases broaden a medical mystery that began affecting American diplomats and their families in Cuba in 2016. Since then, 24 Americans stationed in Havana have experienced dizziness, headaches, fatigue, hearing loss and cognitive issues, the State Department said.

[...] The nature of the injury, and whether a common cause exists, hasn't been established yet, the department said.

Previously: Sonic Attack? U.S. Issues Health Alert After Employee Experiences Brain Trauma in Guangzhou, China

Related: 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


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @11:14AM (17 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @11:14AM (#689809)

    Maybe some side effects or adverse reactions caused by an "anticommunist vaccine" administered to US personnel, manifested as brain inflammations?

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by looorg on Thursday June 07 2018, @11:46AM (10 children)

    by looorg (578) on Thursday June 07 2018, @11:46AM (#689818)

    So is it identical issues to the once on Cuba or are they different? If they are not different it would seem likely that there is something the US brings with it to the various countries instead of something someone is doing to them. That is unless China and Cuba are now in secret developing surveillance equipment or share said equipment with each other or if China some how fieldtested their equipment on Cuba.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday June 07 2018, @12:22PM (3 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday June 07 2018, @12:22PM (#689825) Homepage
      Not just that, but nobody else apart from those in the US embassy are suffering, despite sound not being particularly directional. I do think the anti-communist vaccine is the simplest explation so far.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @01:01PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @01:01PM (#689834)

        Not true, Canadians were also affected in Cuba.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @06:12PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @06:12PM (#689991)

          Yeah but they're Canadian so they needed 2x the vaccine.

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday June 07 2018, @07:10PM

        by frojack (1554) on Thursday June 07 2018, @07:10PM (#690024) Journal

        In Cuba, some people in specific hotels which were approved for diplomatic use,
          were also affected.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Thursday June 07 2018, @06:50PM (4 children)

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 07 2018, @06:50PM (#690012)

      now in secret developing

      As a model of the world declines, it becomes less effective at integrating its predictions with observations of the real world leading to stress that can create a snap in the (group or aggregate) mind. Nothing is more progressive and globalist than the State department. As their worldview slowly dies because its evolutionary unfit to model reality, its slowly going insane with paranoia because of the stress over observed reality diverging ever further from their cherished legacy beliefs and inaccurate predictive models. So a department of government focused on interacting with the real world via a mix of legit stuff and propaganda is, literally, at an organizational level, slowly going insane, which in a lot of ways is kinda freaky. Expect to hear a lot more about Russian hackers hacking elections and UFO space weapons anal probing innocent diplomats and of course everyone is out to get them because thats what all paranoid nutters think about everyone who's sane. Iran is out to get them, Best Korea is out to get them, Cuba is out to get them, those horrible white people are out to get them, Russia is out to get them, a pretty good symptom of paranoid insanity is thinking every one is after you. Unfortunately State is going to sound like a madman raving on a late night talk show about space alien invasions until the disease burns itself out by gradual aging out of the crazy old people, unless Trump starts some mass firings or sends them as a group to mental health counseling. An entire government department raving "But But But the Chinese, they abducted me from my pickup truck and stuck a probe in my butt to steal my precious bodily fluids and hack the elections, that's why I only drink rain water and grain alcohol!" It would be funny to watch, kinda like CNN, if they didn't have legacy political power, and if the world were not laughing at us because of State. Old fashioned globalist leftism dies different everywhere, yet the same. Paranoid irrational rantings, lashing out at everyone within reach, hate hate hate, random different personality every two minutes, is this CNN infotainment propaganda or a university campus or Pravda in the 80s or the State Department in 2018 or all the same?

      This is the curse of "may you live in interesting times" and we're watching the insane death throes of a legacy worldview, essentially progressivism as a religious outlook is slowly going insane and dying, like an abandoned homeless person ranting on a street corner.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 07 2018, @07:18PM (2 children)

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday June 07 2018, @07:18PM (#690028) Journal

        And you're masturbating to that thought a good half dozen times a day or more, aren't you? Jesus, but you set some kind of record for lowest signal-to-noise ratio. What do you propose we DO about it? And don't suggest something from the 19th or 20th century that we already tried and that didn't work then, either.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday June 08 2018, @03:33PM (1 child)

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 08 2018, @03:33PM (#690357)

          Well, what do you do when any other religion dies, push such that the next one isn't messed up, etc.

          And don't suggest something from the 19th or 20th century that we already tried and that didn't work then, either.

          There's some really nice folks who talk about alt this or new this and how 2.0 is so different than 1.0 in the last century and all that. The folks with the dead ideas hate them, but they're the only people out there with new / good ideas, so prod / nurture them along.

          • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday June 08 2018, @07:16PM

            by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday June 08 2018, @07:16PM (#690455) Journal

            These would be the "really nice folks" with tiki torches and weird ideas about milk consumption...?

            --
            I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday June 08 2018, @05:12AM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday June 08 2018, @05:12AM (#690212) Journal

        That is an impressive display of a crypto-conservative stream of consciousness.

        The State Department is the last bastion of the White Man's Burden, its diplomats being nearly all horrible white people and horrible WASP blue-bloods at that. They game the numbers by hiring mainly black and brown people to be the support staff. They are also globalists to the core. They have scarcely deviated an inch from Bretton Woods.

        So it makes sense that having to answer to a guy like Trump would drive them insane. I, for one, am glad they are. State should be gutted from stem to stern and replaced with actual Americans instead of weird antediluvian dinosaurs who could have come straight out of Central Casting.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @07:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @07:23PM (#690031)

      That is unless China and Cuba are now in secret developing surveillance equipment or share said equipment with each other or if China some how fieldtested their equipment on Cuba.

      Or a third party, say Russia, has a device and is seeking to damage and undermine US diplomacy in those locations for some reason (field test, trial run, whatever). I'm amazed no one seems to be discussing the rather obvious, perhaps even likely, possibility that the attackers are completely unaffiliated with the host countries where the attacks are occurring.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @01:57PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @01:57PM (#689854)

    Wouldn't it be a "Communism Vaccine"? rather than an Anti?

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday June 07 2018, @07:12PM

      by frojack (1554) on Thursday June 07 2018, @07:12PM (#690025) Journal

      Not if required by the State Department!

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 08 2018, @12:21AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 08 2018, @12:21AM (#690127) Journal

      Do you usually say antiflu or antimeasles vaccine?

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @02:08PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @02:08PM (#689859)

    Maybe it is a withdrawal effect of being off some of the meds they take in the US.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @04:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @04:49PM (#690393)

      Flouride you mean.

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 07 2018, @05:12PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday June 07 2018, @05:12PM (#689955)

    My original was "not-quite-commie", but per US patent rules, you're close enough to owe me royalties.

    https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=25752&page=1&cid=683330#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]