Post by hi224 on Jul 30, 2019 6:04:02 GMT
In 2015 the United States government officially re-established relations with Cuba and reopened the US embassy in the capital Havana. There was the usual espionage back and forth between the Cubans, Americans, Russians, and Chinese, but it was all diplomacy and spycraft as usual. Indeed, while segments of the Cuban leadership were hostile to the American presence, Obama was able to make a successful visit in March 2016.
All was seemingly well until November or December of 2016, when the first American victim – an experienced CIA agent working out of the Havana embassy – began hearing a loud, insect-like buzzing noise outside his apartment, together with a strange feeling of pressure in his head. It was loud enough to make him close his windows in an attempt to get rid of it. He began to suffer from headaches and dizziness to the point where he sought medical attention for his symptoms. You can listen to a recording of the sound here. The sound itself is similar to the noise of cicadas or crickets, and indeed one group of biologists claim to have identified the recording as the noise of the Indies short-tailed cricket. Some of the later victims reported metallic grinding noises also.
Washington was informed, but as it seemed to be an inexplicable one-off that they weren't even sure was credible, there was no further investigation. In January 2017, the same CIA agent again visited the US embassy nurse due to another incident. In February 2017, two other CIA agents reported the same noise. These people all reported serious symptoms resembling inner ear injury – motor issues, headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, vertigo.
This caused alarm amongst the American embassy leadership in Havana, who made complaints to the Cuban government of what they considered an attack. The Cubans vehemently denied any wrongdoing, a position they remain adamant on till this day. The Americans investigated using their intelligence capabilities in Cuba, and later also investigated the Russians, but found nothing. The only evidence that an attack had even taken place were the first hand reports by the CIA agents. They ran medical tests on the affected personnel~~, which confirmed serious injury~~. (edit: unclear if anything was found at this point)
In March 2017, the embassy informed its staff of the issue. More people came forward reporting similar symptoms, some without hearing the associated noise. This was not restricted to CIA agents; State Department staff were also affected. American leadership were baffled. More and more people began to report symptoms – 16 among the CIA alone by the end of the summer of 2017. The CIA sent out a doctor to investigate, and that doctor himself became another victim.
A meeting of medical professionals was held in Washington in July 2017. They noted that in addition to the inner ear injury-like symptoms, victims also suffered from sleeplessness, nausea, fainting, vision problems, and cognitive issues such as memory loss and lack of concentration. The symptoms were severe enough to affect day to day functioning, and continued months after exposure. The meeting concluded that the injuries more closely resembled concussion. However, investigations were stalled by the CIA's secrecy, as many of the affected were active CIA agents under diplomatic cover. Due to this, it has been difficult to find an exact number of official victims. The State Department has confirmed 26 staff and their family members (for reference, the Havana embassy had 58 staff at its peak).
Finally in August 2017, the media became aware of the events in Cuba. Washington were cagey about the details, claiming only State Department officials were affected. Around then, the US embassy became aware of victims associated with the Canadian diplomatic presence as well – a diplomat together with his family, whose children also reported repeated nosebleeds. In February 2018, the physicians at the University of Pennsylvania who examined the victims published an article reporting the results their MRI scans in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Readers of the article were skeptical, suggesting it was psychological, psychosomatic, or mass hysteria.
After all these investigations, the US were still no closer to finding a culprit. Experts suggested some kind of weapon that emitted radio or electromagnetic waves, however none of the intelligence could pin down who was operating such a device or where it could be coming from. Finally in September 2017, all non-essential staff were withdrawn from the Havana embassy. The following spring, after medical examinations, the Canadians removed all of their staff with families, and in early 2019 they halved the number of staff in Cuba. The Canadian government has confirmed 14 cases total. In February 2019, 14 affected Canadians (5 diplomats and their dependents) sued their government for $28 million for failing to address the issue. As yet the case appears to be in progress.
The first case outside of Cuba was reported in March 2018 by an employee in at the consulate in Guangzhou, China. Her mother who came to assist her in her apartment was also affected, although the US government has not confirmed this as a case. Nonetheless the US was concerned enough to issue a public travel advisory. Upon wide scale preliminary testing across US diplomatic staff in China, 15 other possible victims were identified. In addition, the Guangzhou victim also noted that her dogs were affected, displaying behaviour such as coughing up blood and barking at unknown things.
When they were flown back to the US for complete medical testing, 14 were cleared and the remaining case was considered "indeterminate". Doctors who examined those patients have said that governmental officials overrode their medical conclusions, and suspect an attempt underplay the extent of the problem in China. However the medical teams themselves have been criticised – for tunnel vision on potential causes, not allowing external researchers access to data for wider investigations, using the issue to promote equipment they had created, and being more concerned with the publication value of the issue.
In July 2019, a new study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by the UPenn team who have been investigating the issue for the government. This report used advanced brain imaging techniques and compared the brains of 40 (!) affected US personnel to a control sample of healthy people. The study found significantly less brain matter in the affected sample compared to the control, as well as problems in the functional connectivity parts of the brain that process sound and visuospatial input. The study's lead author said that these results support the claim that Havana Syndrome is not psychological.
Theories as to the cause include:
Radio waves
Microwaves
Sonic waves
Very loud insects - Crickets or cicadas
A virus
Mass hysteria/Psychological suggestion
Malfunctioning equipment of some kind
Prior brain injury
Theories as to who is responsible are equally varied:
Cubans
Russians
Chinese
Complete accident
Environmental (the cricket theory)
As yet this phenomenon is a complete mystery, other than the physical evidence that a significant number of people have all been injured in the same way, and that all those people were in some way connected to US and Canadian diplomatic missions.
Further reading:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome
www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/19/the-mystery-of-the-havana-syndrome
www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/evacuated-after-health-attacks-cuba-china-diplomats-face-new-ordeals-n920241
slate.com/technology/2019/07/cuban-sonic-attacks-comprehensive-list-of-all-potential-causes.html
ottawacitizen.com/news/national/our-men-women-and-children-in-havana-how-a-dream-posting-became-a-nightmare
www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/havana-syndrome-research-cuba-sonic-attack
All was seemingly well until November or December of 2016, when the first American victim – an experienced CIA agent working out of the Havana embassy – began hearing a loud, insect-like buzzing noise outside his apartment, together with a strange feeling of pressure in his head. It was loud enough to make him close his windows in an attempt to get rid of it. He began to suffer from headaches and dizziness to the point where he sought medical attention for his symptoms. You can listen to a recording of the sound here. The sound itself is similar to the noise of cicadas or crickets, and indeed one group of biologists claim to have identified the recording as the noise of the Indies short-tailed cricket. Some of the later victims reported metallic grinding noises also.
Washington was informed, but as it seemed to be an inexplicable one-off that they weren't even sure was credible, there was no further investigation. In January 2017, the same CIA agent again visited the US embassy nurse due to another incident. In February 2017, two other CIA agents reported the same noise. These people all reported serious symptoms resembling inner ear injury – motor issues, headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, vertigo.
This caused alarm amongst the American embassy leadership in Havana, who made complaints to the Cuban government of what they considered an attack. The Cubans vehemently denied any wrongdoing, a position they remain adamant on till this day. The Americans investigated using their intelligence capabilities in Cuba, and later also investigated the Russians, but found nothing. The only evidence that an attack had even taken place were the first hand reports by the CIA agents. They ran medical tests on the affected personnel~~, which confirmed serious injury~~. (edit: unclear if anything was found at this point)
In March 2017, the embassy informed its staff of the issue. More people came forward reporting similar symptoms, some without hearing the associated noise. This was not restricted to CIA agents; State Department staff were also affected. American leadership were baffled. More and more people began to report symptoms – 16 among the CIA alone by the end of the summer of 2017. The CIA sent out a doctor to investigate, and that doctor himself became another victim.
A meeting of medical professionals was held in Washington in July 2017. They noted that in addition to the inner ear injury-like symptoms, victims also suffered from sleeplessness, nausea, fainting, vision problems, and cognitive issues such as memory loss and lack of concentration. The symptoms were severe enough to affect day to day functioning, and continued months after exposure. The meeting concluded that the injuries more closely resembled concussion. However, investigations were stalled by the CIA's secrecy, as many of the affected were active CIA agents under diplomatic cover. Due to this, it has been difficult to find an exact number of official victims. The State Department has confirmed 26 staff and their family members (for reference, the Havana embassy had 58 staff at its peak).
Finally in August 2017, the media became aware of the events in Cuba. Washington were cagey about the details, claiming only State Department officials were affected. Around then, the US embassy became aware of victims associated with the Canadian diplomatic presence as well – a diplomat together with his family, whose children also reported repeated nosebleeds. In February 2018, the physicians at the University of Pennsylvania who examined the victims published an article reporting the results their MRI scans in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Readers of the article were skeptical, suggesting it was psychological, psychosomatic, or mass hysteria.
After all these investigations, the US were still no closer to finding a culprit. Experts suggested some kind of weapon that emitted radio or electromagnetic waves, however none of the intelligence could pin down who was operating such a device or where it could be coming from. Finally in September 2017, all non-essential staff were withdrawn from the Havana embassy. The following spring, after medical examinations, the Canadians removed all of their staff with families, and in early 2019 they halved the number of staff in Cuba. The Canadian government has confirmed 14 cases total. In February 2019, 14 affected Canadians (5 diplomats and their dependents) sued their government for $28 million for failing to address the issue. As yet the case appears to be in progress.
The first case outside of Cuba was reported in March 2018 by an employee in at the consulate in Guangzhou, China. Her mother who came to assist her in her apartment was also affected, although the US government has not confirmed this as a case. Nonetheless the US was concerned enough to issue a public travel advisory. Upon wide scale preliminary testing across US diplomatic staff in China, 15 other possible victims were identified. In addition, the Guangzhou victim also noted that her dogs were affected, displaying behaviour such as coughing up blood and barking at unknown things.
When they were flown back to the US for complete medical testing, 14 were cleared and the remaining case was considered "indeterminate". Doctors who examined those patients have said that governmental officials overrode their medical conclusions, and suspect an attempt underplay the extent of the problem in China. However the medical teams themselves have been criticised – for tunnel vision on potential causes, not allowing external researchers access to data for wider investigations, using the issue to promote equipment they had created, and being more concerned with the publication value of the issue.
In July 2019, a new study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by the UPenn team who have been investigating the issue for the government. This report used advanced brain imaging techniques and compared the brains of 40 (!) affected US personnel to a control sample of healthy people. The study found significantly less brain matter in the affected sample compared to the control, as well as problems in the functional connectivity parts of the brain that process sound and visuospatial input. The study's lead author said that these results support the claim that Havana Syndrome is not psychological.
Theories as to the cause include:
Radio waves
Microwaves
Sonic waves
Very loud insects - Crickets or cicadas
A virus
Mass hysteria/Psychological suggestion
Malfunctioning equipment of some kind
Prior brain injury
Theories as to who is responsible are equally varied:
Cubans
Russians
Chinese
Complete accident
Environmental (the cricket theory)
As yet this phenomenon is a complete mystery, other than the physical evidence that a significant number of people have all been injured in the same way, and that all those people were in some way connected to US and Canadian diplomatic missions.
Further reading:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome
www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/19/the-mystery-of-the-havana-syndrome
www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/evacuated-after-health-attacks-cuba-china-diplomats-face-new-ordeals-n920241
slate.com/technology/2019/07/cuban-sonic-attacks-comprehensive-list-of-all-potential-causes.html
ottawacitizen.com/news/national/our-men-women-and-children-in-havana-how-a-dream-posting-became-a-nightmare
www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/havana-syndrome-research-cuba-sonic-attack