US Embassy Employee's in Cuba Possible Acoustic Attack

[clutch5150]

I guess I have one more assumption and just MY opinion and I'm not a conspiracy theory type in that regard, far from it.

We do know the Raul will be stepping down next year with the first elected type elections of their regime. What better way to get the American Govy presence in the region as few as possible. Plausible denial of for-hire activity is the smart way to do it. As stated, this is nothing official, just my thoughts and a few media outlets on the whole fiasco and NK is a great candidate for the collaboration IMHO.

[oliverdst]

'Sonic attack' on US embassy in Havana could have been crickets, say scientists

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/06/sonic-attack-on-us-embassy-in-havana-could-have-been-crickets-say-scientists?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copiar_para_a_área_de_transferência

'Sonic attack' on US embassy in Havana could have been crickets, say scientists

Noise which saw diplomats complaining of headaches and nausea could be song of Indies short-tailed cricket

 

Ian Sample Science editor

Published:17:58 Sun 6 January 2019

 Follow Ian Sample

 

The US embassy in Havana more than halved its staff in 2017 when diplomats complained of headaches, nausea and other ailments after hearing penetrating noises in their homes and nearby hotels.

The mysterious wave of illness fuelled speculation that the staff had been targeted by an acoustic weapon. It was an explanation that appeared to gain weight when an audio recording of a persistent, high-pitched drone made by US personnel in Cuba was released to the Associated Press.

But a fresh analysis of the audio recording has revealed what scientists in the UK and the US now believe is the true source of the piercing din: it is the song of the Indies short-tailed cricket, known formally as Anurogryllus celerinictus.

“The recording is definitively a cricket that belongs to the same group,” said Fernando Montealegre-Zapata, a professor of sensory biology at the University of Lincoln. “The call of this Caribbean species is about 7 kHz, and is delivered at an unusually high rate, which gives humans the sensation of a continuous sharp trill.”

As a child growing up in South America, Montealegre-Zapata recalls collecting crickets of a similar species and keeping them in cages in his room. One night he woke to a penetrating sharp sound. The culprit was one of the males calling out for mates. The offender was banned from the room but Montealegre-Zapata could still hear the cricket singing for females.

“I am not surprised that this call could disturb people who are not familiar with insect sounds,” he said.

The identification of the sound source does not mean that an attack of some sort did not happen, but it casts doubt over the sound being responsible for the diplomats’ health problems. The cause and nature of their illnesses remains unclear.

The spate of unexplained health problems among the US diplomats led doctors at the University of Pennsylvania to run tests on almost two dozen embassy staff. In March last year, the team concluded the diplomats had suffered concussion-like injuries, but other medical professionals have challenged the conclusions, claiming the doctors misinterpreted the test results.

Not all of the affected diplomats reported unusual sounds when they fell ill, and descriptions of any noises differed from person to person. Some recalled grinding or cicada-like sounds, while others experienced buffeting like that caused by an open car window.

In the new study, Montealegre-Zapata and Alexander Stubbs at the University of California searched a scientific database for insect sounds that matched the Cuban recording. The call of the Indies short-tailed cricket turned out to be remarkably similar, they found, with acoustic pulses repeated at the same rate, and specific frequencies being louder than others.

But the cricket’s mating call and the Cuban recording did not match up perfectly. The sound recorded in Havana had an uneven pulse structure which is not seen in calling insects.

Stubbs and Montealegre-Zapata realised that the discrepancy might be down to the environments in which the recordings were made. Scientists tend to record insect calls outside in the wild, while the diplomats complained of unpleasant sounds indoors. If the Cuban recording had been made in a room, the odd pulse structure might be explained by echoes off the walls, floor and ceiling.

The researchers tested the idea by playing the call of the Indies short-tailed cricket in a room through a single loudspeaker. Recordings from the room show that the sound gained the same uneven pulse structure seen in the Cuban recording. The two sounds matched even more closely.

Gerald Pollack, who studies how animals detect and discriminate sensory signals at McGill University in Montreal, said: “The paper shows how the cricket’s song could, when echoes to be expected in an indoor setting are taken into account, produce sounds strikingly, and quantitatively, similar to that provided by the AP. I find this a completely plausible explanation.”

He added that while he had no personal experience with the Indies short-tailed cricket, he had not heard of their calls ever having caused harm. “So far as I am aware,” he said, “except perhaps for an occasional sleepless night, no-one has suffered ill health as a result of cricket calls.”

[5thStarChicago]

4 hours ago, looseleaf said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/19/havana-syndrome-mosquitos-cuba-diplomats 

Shocking how with patience and science, a logical explanation could be possible.  Oh, and crickets too.

[alloy]

Ok, mosquito fumigation. That's why they all heard a noise in a certain part of their living quarters? Don't buy it.....

[Fuzz]

Any reason to not admit they got drunk on rum and smoked too many cigars.

[MPS]

They have the same crickets in China too? 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brain-trauma-suffered-by-u-s-diplomats-abroad-could-be-work-of-hostile-foreign-government-60-minutes-2019-09-01/

 

[Fuzz]

36 minutes ago, looseleaf said:

If it’s a microwave weapon then spies and diplomats might want to travel with one of these, $49.00, available in most hardware stores 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/REED-Instruments-Microwave-Leakage-Detector-R9200/306222011?cm_mmc=Shopping|G|Base|D27E|27-11_TOOLS_%26_ACCESSORIES|NA|PLA|71700000034238984|58700003943782712|92700031954542173&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImMCjosPp5AIVdf_jBx3_ZQZwEAQYASABEgKKafD_BwE 

No need. This is better... and cheaper too.

[Cigar Surgeon]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/17/politics/us-investigates-second-case-mystery-syndrome-white-house/index.html

Multiple sources tell CNN that the episodes affected two officials on the National Security Council in November 2020, one the day after the presidential election and one several weeks later. The cases are consistent with an inexplicable constellation of sensory experiences and physical symptoms that have sickened more than 100 US diplomats, spies and troops around the globe and have come to be known as "Havana Syndrome."

[MrBirdman]

8 minutes ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/17/politics/us-investigates-second-case-mystery-syndrome-white-house/index.html

Multiple sources tell CNN that the episodes affected two officials on the National Security Council in November 2020, one the day after the presidential election and one several weeks later. The cases are consistent with an inexplicable constellation of sensory experiences and physical symptoms that have sickened more than 100 US diplomats, spies and troops around the globe and have come to be known as "Havana Syndrome."

I’ve been keeping an eye on this bizarre story for years, and it does increasingly appear to be legit and happening in multiple countries.

It remains bizarre. I suppose it’s a clever way to disable foreign agents without a clear evidence trail on their person. 

If I had to guess? Russia. They’re not worried about a serious international response to overtly poisoning their own nationals, but foreign diplomats are another story. And this seems like their MO - but that’s my personal (and circumstantial) conjecture. 

[Cigar Surgeon]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/18/politics/mysterious-health-incidents-us-personnel-vienna/index.html

Quote

There have been about two dozen reports of symptoms of mysterious health incidents similar to the "Havana syndrome" among US diplomats, intelligence officials and other government personnel in Vienna since the beginning of the year, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Quote

There have also been reported incidents of cases in other places around the world, but Vienna is the only place where there is a current cluster of cases, the sources said.

 

[Digi]

I'd suspect the intent isn't necessarily to launch an attack on a person but more likely to attack a device.  The health problems may simply be collateral damage.