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A Declassified State Department Report Says Microwaves Didn't Cause 'Havana Syndrome' (buzzfeednews.com) 118

Posted by BeauHD from the blame-it-on-the-bugs dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: Noises linked to mysterious injuries among US diplomats in Cuba were most likely caused by crickets -- not microwave weapons -- according to a declassified scientific review commissioned by the US State Department and obtained by BuzzFeed News. The State Department report was written by the JASON advisory group, an elite scientific board that has reviewed US national security concerns since the Cold War. It was completed in November of 2018, two years after dozens of US diplomats in Cuba and their families reported hearing buzzing noises and then experiencing puzzling neurological injuries, including pain, vertigo, and difficulty concentrating. Originally classified as "secret," the report concluded that the sounds accompanying at least eight of the original 21 Havana syndrome incidents were "most likely" caused by insects. That same scientific review also judged it "highly unlikely" that microwaves or ultrasound beams -- now widely proposed by US government officials to explain the injuries -- were involved in the incidents. And though the report didn't definitively conclude what caused the injuries themselves, it found that "psychogenic" mass psychology effects may have played a role.

"No plausible single source of energy (neither radio/microwaves nor sonic) can produce both the recorded audio/video signals and the reported medical effects," the JASON report concluded. "We believe the recorded sounds are mechanical or biological in origin, rather than electronic. The most likely source is the Indies short-tailed cricket." The report's findings fly in the face of a medical report commissioned by the State Department and published by a National Academies of Sciences panel last year, which found that microwaves were the "most plausible" cause of the symptoms. That panel was not provided with the JASON report as part of its assessment, the NAS told BuzzFeed News.
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A Declassified State Department Report Says Microwaves Didn't Cause 'Havana Syndrome' More

A Declassified State Department Report Says Microwaves Didn't Cause 'Havana Syndrome'

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  • Mass Hysteria (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Hey_Jude_Jesus ( 3442653 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @11:38PM (#61849941)
    People have a medical problem and then they blame it on something that doesn't exist or is not related. "The demon gave me cancer" "I got COVID-19 from the government vaccine!"

    • It's not mass hysteria, it's illegal pesticides. And it has been reported on Slashdot already. Whoever is doing the cover-up is doing a bad job. I suspect the auditory anomalies may just be part of a psy-op linked to the cover-up; like someone projecting cricket noises at the building from a long distance away so that when people start reporting brain injuries and mistake the association with the noises as causal, they just get written off as nutcases and the proper amount of due-diligence is never done.

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Issue313 ( 2840599 )
        So it's either a high tech assault by people who have only ever wanted to be left alone, or it's just a bunch of Americans being paranoid nuts, as usual. Which is more likely, Cubans attacking Americans, or Americans having an incident of mass psychosis. Historically, which has happened more often?

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Do you know *anything* about Cuban politics? Trust me, they didn't "want to be left alone". They were sending mercenaries around the world with Cuban passion for their Communism, they led Soviets around by the nose for decades, and misleading suckers in the States was part of how they stayed alive. What stopped them was a lot of angry Cubans in Miami. Cubans have no idea how to do "aloof".

          And yes, my relatives are politicians in Miami. Family holidays make the Borgias look like amateurs, it's just that the

          • "Leave Britney, I mean, a vicious thugocracy alone!"

            They just want to lord over millions of others with no interference.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by whitroth ( 9367 )

            They also sent doctors around the world. And they have a higher literacy rate than the US.

            But mercenaries around the world? Nothing at *all* like the US military....

            • Cuba is world leader in sending "development aid" in medical terms.
              Is there a disaster: Cuba is first there with its "army in white".

              On top of that Cuba has a first wold medial system - unlike the idiots who want to get rid of it, because it is "close to" Florida.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by dcw3 ( 649211 )

                Sure, that's why so many Cubans have left Florida in boats to escape the terrible systems in the US. DUH!

        • How come nobody ever suspects the mafia?

          • Or the Spanish Inquisition.
          • Well when your car doesn't work and it's brand new, and 20000 other people have the same problem, you generally look at the car maker. You don't have the news paper desperately trying to convince people they're mentally ill because their car doesn't work. Theres nothing wrong with the vehicle folks it's just mass psychosis? No. In the same vanity who controls microwave traffic in the air? Could it be the fcc or the telecom companies? what a mystery. Impossible to figure out. How will we ever get to the bot
        • Agreed. Take any work environment & place the individuals in it under constant threat, fear & stress of capture &/or career threatening attempts at coercion by a hostile govt & it'll more than likely have adverse psychological effects on those workers. An atmosphere of fear & paranoia. The US military has a very long history of ignoring & riding roughshod over its workers' mental health issues. I can imagine the alternative theories of energy beams & electronic weapons being wide

        • So it's either a high tech assault by people who have only ever wanted to be left alone, or it's just a bunch of Americans being paranoid nuts, as usual. Which is more likely, Cubans attacking Americans, or Americans having an incident of mass psychosis. Historically, which has happened more often?

          Neither. Your own anti-Murrica psychosis has gone full throttle.

          I am inclined to assign the problem to overuse of pesticides or contaminated building materials. All of the symptoms can show up with nerve damage that pesticides can produce.

          Things like microwaves or ultrasound are so outlandishly easy to find and detect by equipment any embassy will have. After all, embassies are regularly swept for electronics devices.

          In addition, the amount of microwave energy needed to cover an embassy is pretty high

          • It wasn't Cuba it's the telecom companies. They're evil.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dcw3 ( 649211 )

            "Things like microwaves or ultrasound are so outlandishly easy to find and detect by equipment any embassy will have. After all, embassies are regularly swept for electronics devices."

            There's a long history of devices being planted in embassies. Claiming they can easily be found is naive in the assumption that they would necessarily be emitting a detectable signal all the time, or that they couldn't be aimed from across the street against a window or main entrance. Embassies almost always have employees f

            • "Things like microwaves or ultrasound are so outlandishly easy to find and detect by equipment any embassy will have. After all, embassies are regularly swept for electronics devices."

              There's a long history of devices being planted in embassies. Claiming they can easily be found is naive in the assumption that they would necessarily be emitting a detectable signal all the time, or that they couldn't be aimed from across the street against a window or main entrance.

              Of course bugs might not be working all the time. That's why you have RDF equipment working all the time. I just found some intermittent RFI yesterday. While this was a signal that was interfering via an equipment problem, it's the same principle. Figure out when it's happening, find the frequency, then localize it.

              What is more, if you are bug searching, you might leave a found bug operational in order to feed it bogus intel. But that's another subject entirely. No one would leave an interfering signa

      • They were trying to get rid of all the bugs?

        Please, excuse me: the joke was too obvious.

    • The technology to deliver audio signals to our auditory cortex via microwaves has been demonstrated since the 1970"s. It's curious that you're so ready to dismiss groups of peoples claims of their experience as pre existing medical conditions. Do you work for an insurance company perhaps?

      • The technology to deliver audio signals to our auditory cortex via microwaves has been demonstrated since the 1970"s. It's curious that you're so ready to dismiss groups of peoples claims of their experience as pre existing medical conditions. Do you work for an insurance company perhaps?

        The technology to deliver audio signals to our auditory cortex via microwaves has been demonstrated since the 1970"s. It's curious that you're so ready to dismiss groups of peoples claims of their experience as pre existing medical conditions. Do you work for an insurance company perhaps?

        The technology to find such microwaves has been demonstrated for even longer.

        And in a business like diplomacy, where buildings are regularly - perhaps continuously - RF swept for bugging devices, DC to daylight spectrum wise, the idea that these presumed microwaves would not have been found long before anyone reported any physical problems requires a first class reality distortion field.

        In a coincidence, I'm going out to do a little RDF as soon as I'm done with breakfast. I'm trying out a dirt cheap s

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dcw3 ( 649211 )

          So, a device from let's say across the street that was only turned on/off periodically would be simple to detect? Say it was aimed at the main entrance or some other exterior area...and pulsed whenever people were seen coming and going. How would you go about detecting it?

          • So, a device from let's say across the street that was only turned on/off periodically would be simple to detect? Say it was aimed at the main entrance or some other exterior area...and pulsed whenever people were seen coming and going. How would you go about detecting it?

            You would have electronic RDF, likely wide band Software Defined Radios that are listening 24/7/365. You would have these in multiple locations with directional antennas. These might be either loops, or more likely a Doppler Direction finders. Here's a simple one that plots out the transmitters on a Google map. http://www.kn2c.us/ [kn2c.us] . Uses the doppler effect to find the direction the signal comes from, uses a gps input to locate itself, then when moved, triangulates the signal on a Google map. For more in-de

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The technology to deliver audio signals to our auditory cortex via microwaves has been demonstrated since the 1970"s.

        It has been reported as far back as the 1940's and it is the site of conversion of RF energy to acoustic energy is within or peripheral to the cochlea [wiley.com].

    • Re:Mass Hysteria (Score:4, Interesting)

      by kot-begemot-uk ( 6104030 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @02:11AM (#61850113) Homepage
      No. Mass coverup.

      All US diplomatic stations have active electronic countermeasures both radio and ultrasound. The radio one is obvious, no need to explain it on slashdot. The ultrasound is not so well known. One of the ways to snoop on a conversation is to shine a modulated laser on the window and recover the sound from the doppler shift in the reflections. It is defeated by "shaking" the window.

      What we see here is a f*ckup by whatever contractor built the system (a few usual suspects come to mind). Instead of drowning snooping in white radio or ultrasound noise it is frying the diplomats' brains.

      That is the only plausible explanation, because it has now occurred in 25+ locations worldwide all of which are USA diplomatic sites. A lot of these were also sited in a places where it would have been difficulty for an adversary carrying a humongous and very "inconspicuous" antenna to point it at the embassy.

      Why the coverup? There are 45000 Department of State employees stationed overseas. Now count the payout to each of them for living and working in a brain fryer.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 )

        Mass... coverup...

        Because those two things go so well together... --.--

        When's your next flat earther club meeting?

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          kot-begemot-uk is a Russian propagandist; his own website in his signature pointed to a fake news site he runs that claimed MH17 wasn't shot down by Russians etc. the usual bullshit.

          So don't be too surprised that he's spouting some conspiracy theory that absolves Russia and makes America look incompetent, it's his job after all.

      • contagious hysteria and similar psychological trick is also a valid one, and mentioned. In fact it is probably far more likely then equipment fuck up.

      • Re:Mass Hysteria (Score:5, Informative)

        by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @06:24AM (#61850371)

        What we see here is a f*ckup by whatever contractor built the system (a few usual suspects come to mind)... That is the only plausible explanation, because it has now occurred in 25+ locations worldwide all of which are USA diplomatic sites. A lot of these were also sited in a places where it would have been difficulty for an adversary carrying a humongous and very "inconspicuous" antenna to point it at the embassy.

        Normally I'd accept what you're saying. But this New Yorker article [newyorker.com] reports that it happened to two people in DC on the Ellipse. Looking at aerial maps and photos suggests that such a large outdoor location would be an unlikely place for ultrasonic countermeasures.

        Quoting from the same article: "One of the most dramatic episodes involved a U.S. military officer stationed in a country with a large Russian presence. As the officer pulled his car into a busy intersection, he suddenly felt as though his head were going to explode. His two-year-old son, in a car seat in the back, started screaming. As the officer sped out of the intersection, the pressure in his head ceased, and his son went quiet. A remarkably similar incident was reported by a C.I.A. officer who was stationed in the same city, and who had no connection to the military officer." If this is true, then a number of obvious things pretty well preclude American involvement. And the simultaneous screaming of the kid in the back seat probably rules out anything psychosomatic.

        Why the coverup? There are 45000 Department of State employees stationed overseas. Now count the payout to each of them for living and working in a brain fryer.

        It seems to me that applies in either scenario. These folks were injured during the course of their work for the US government - wouldn't the gov and their contractors be liable whether it was a domestic fuckup or foreign interference? Also, the government could be covering up the embarrassing situation of having their own people attacked, sometimes on their own soil, without a clue as to how it's being done.

        • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

          by jgainey ( 8789819 )
          it's not just US diplomatic sites. the ripples in the air are just a false flag operation to make people believe this was an external weapon. the real crime is that someone in each of those sites were implanted with a device that can be used for intelligence gathering, torture/coercion, and interrogation. There have been people using this who should not be. if you ever see security vehicles with 100% conviction guaranteed written on them you'll understand. they have been using it to torture confession

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by shanen ( 462549 )

            Why was this modded Funny? Where's the joke I'm missing?

            Disappointed by the lack of Funny comment from this ripe-for-humor story. (The other Funny-modded comment was even less so.)

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          You've got to remember that kot-begemot-uk routinely spreads Russian propaganda. As per your links, he's absolutely full of it and his blame America/absolve Russia stance just falls flat in face the evidence.

          There's been quite a few in depth articles and analysis on this, and there's a lot of evidence as you say of Russia being a potential suspect that kot-begemot-uk is trying to bury, not least that mobile phone evidence has constantly placed known Russian agencies in proximity to many of these events when

      • But if this were true, they would almost assuredly know by now and have turned them off/switched to another vendor because human lives are more impor.... never mind, I was failing to not apply logic again.
      • Why would you bother with ultrasound noise when audible noise is going to work much better on audible sound signals?

      • No. Mass coverup.

        All US diplomatic stations have active electronic countermeasures both radio and ultrasound. The radio one is obvious, no need to explain it on slashdot. The ultrasound is not so well known. One of the ways to snoop on a conversation is to shine a modulated laser on the window and recover the sound from the doppler shift in the reflections. It is defeated by "shaking" the window.

        What we see here is a f*ckup by whatever contractor built the system (a few usual suspects come to mind). Instead of drowning snooping in white radio or ultrasound noise it is frying the diplomats' brains.

        That is the only plausible explanation, because it has now occurred in 25+ locations worldwide all of which are USA diplomatic sites. A lot of these were also sited in a places where it would have been difficulty for an adversary carrying a humongous and very "inconspicuous" antenna to point it at the embassy.

        Why the coverup? There are 45000 Department of State employees stationed overseas. Now count the payout to each of them for living and working in a brain fryer.

        Aaaand your extraordinary proof for these extraordinary claims is...?

      • see my comment. they did the same thing to me in london it's a false flag op to cover up the fact that at least one of the people affected had an implant put in. i believe it uses the same frequency communication you would use to communicate with subs. it seems to work whether you are in the uk, canada, netherlans, or the US or flying across the atlantic. it's used for intelligence gathering, torture and interrogation. since the affects all appear as neurological and are on the inside and most people d

        • This has to be the stupidest theory I've heard. It's even more stupid than thinking the Apollo moon landings didn't take place, more stupid than thinking the Twin Towers were brought down by an inside job; it might even be more stupid than thinking that Bill Gates has put chips in millions of covid vaccines. It's right up there with thinking you've been personally inspected by aliens.

      • They typically don't install masking systems in embassy employees' residences.
    • Yea microwaves don't exist! It's literally how internet gets to your cellphone you tard

  • Crickets, riiiiight... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Todd Knarr ( 15451 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @11:51PM (#61849959) Homepage

    The JASON report reads to me like "Yeah, we know exactly what it is, but the higher-ups don't want anybody knowing we know and we're under strict orders not to breathe a hint of our conclusions to anyone so here's some bilge of the first water in it's place.".

  • Sounds familiar (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "It was swamp gas, no extraterrestrial involvement here..."

  • No plausible single source of energy (neither radio/microwaves nor sonic) can produce both the recorded audio/video signals

    Oh really? That's strange, because every microwave I've every used produces a distinct humming sound along with a little light from the very second that I press the "START" button!

    • Re:Lies! (Score:4, Informative)

      by CaptQuark ( 2706165 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @01:13AM (#61850047)

      Yes, really. The sound you hear from your microwave is the power supply generating huge amounts of current to drive the magnatron tube. If you doubt it, google for how to turn an old microwave power supply into an arc welder. [youtube.com]

      Microwaves are electromagnetic waves that don't make any noise themselves. All the WiFi signals in your home use microwaves (2.4GHz and 5GHz) so your laptop, cell phone, and access point are all silently using microwaves to communicate. The microwave portion of the RF spectrum is full of satellite communication, radio location, aircraft location signals, HAM radio, UHF TV signals, etc. Your home and indeed your whole environment is full of microwave signals.

      Any microwave signal beamed from a distant source strong enough to affect the health of the embassy workers would light up even the most elementary spectrum analyzer and be very obvious to trace to the source.

      --

      • The reason you hear the sound with things like fluorescent lights, microwaves and other (usually power supply) electronics is usually the inductor/transformer(s). They are used to store energy temporarily in a magnetic field, and in the process the electromagnet effect physically pushes on the wires making up the inductor/transformer windings. They move a microscopic amount then relax again as the coil charges and discharges and thus create sound waves. You can often tell the frequency that they are runn

      • Yes, really. The sound you hear from your microwave is the power supply generating huge amounts of current to drive the magnatron tube.

        All I have to say - both to you and to whoever modded you up - is "WHOOSH!!!". Also, if you're going to be pedantic and humourless, you might want to learn how to spell "magnetron". It makes use of a "magnet", not a "magnat".

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Specifically the sound is from the transformer vibrating. It's an electro-magnetic device, and the switching magnetic fields cause it to vibrate in the audible frequency range.

        That and the fans to keep everything cool, and the motor to run the turntable.

        You sometimes get a similar effect with computer equipment like graphics cards and power supplies. It's commonly referred to as coil whine, and it's basically the same thing. A switching powers supply causes a small inductor coil to vibrate and some of the h

        • Old CRT televisions often had it too, you could tell when they were turned on even if the sound was muted just from the high pitch whine.

          Anyone able to remember this is probably too old to be able to hear in that frequency range anymore and thus be annoyed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by afxgrin ( 208686 )

      If you had actual microwave energy leaking from your oven it wouldn't have an auditory effect on the human ear. But it is amplitude modulated with how the power supply is rectified into the magnetron. The main frequency of the oven would need to be one that effects your ear more specifically, so if you were to AM one tuned for the inner ear for example you should be able to generate an audible tone. Most microphones will respond to 2.4GHz that's being amplitude modulated though, I've accidentally done it my

  • JASONS? (Score:3)

    by sk999 ( 846068 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @12:21AM (#61849995)

    I've know a couple of them (maybe more) over the years and, yes, they're smart people, but would I trust one of their reports? Not without corroboration. Too full of themselves.

  • Call Mulder & Scully (Score:4, Funny)

    by Vegan Cyclist ( 1650427 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @12:46AM (#61850019) Homepage

    This sounds like an X-File.

  • Is that the American Empire, now that the war on terror is unpopular, wants to reboot the Cold War. It doesn't matter if Havana Syndrome is real, by the time the news comes out that it's just pesticides or West Nile Virus you'll have moved on to the next boogeyman used to demonize Russia-China-North Korea-Bolivia-Iran-Venezuela. That ensures the military funding never stops. In a few years we'll cycle back to "dangerous" cartels at the border and/or terrorists once Cold War 2.0 is unpopular.

  • I remember thinking that one of the sound clips they posted sounded like it could have come from one of the old ThinkGeek Annoy-a-Tron devices. Wouldn't it be funny if this all turned out be to be caused by a prank played by one of the other embassy employees?

  • Was the story planted by the CIA because someone was owed a favor? If this was leaked, is the information true? I heard whispers of PSYOPS?. Shhh, its crickets.
    --
    Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, It is not safe to know. - William Davenant

  • No surprise to me (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sitnalta ( 1051230 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @01:56AM (#61850089)

    The thing that always bugged me with these "Havana Syndrome" reports is how easily such supposed microwave or ultrasonic devices would be detected.

    A microwave strong enough to cause neurological issues FROM A DISTANCE would cause absolutely catastrophic EMI, Even if it was focused... even if it was a MASER. It would induce voltage in surrounding electronics. Ultrasound would also cause ancillary effects.

    And all this mastermind Bond villain spytech deployed just to... harass some US diplomates?

    • And all this mastermind Bond villain spytech deployed just to... harass some US diplomates?

      Some of those "harassed" have suffered debilitating long-term effects. I suppose that might all be psychomatic and/or faked, but see my earlier post for some info that might make you think otherwise.

    • They are easily detected. If you detect them and report them you get ignored. The fcc and various telecoms are supposed to keep watch of it. They do nothing. I wonder why they don't respond or do their job? They're supposed to investigate illegal signals with power signals above 5 milliwatts per cm squared. I've sent 1000 complaints and have never gotten a single response and this is from multiple accounts. The signals are easily 100s of times as powerful as they should be. So there's your answer.
      • People also call you mentally ill if you complain about it. It's literally just turning up the power on a cellphone frequency. It's not like it's some magical power it's literally a basic function of how your cellphone works. It's like not understanding that a bullet doesn't harm you when it's thrown softly (like a cellphone signal) versus fired from a gun (the torture version). It's not a conspiracy theory it's just the public being very very stupid.

    • Ultrasound would also cause ancillary effects.

      You mean like irritating a nearby cricket population?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by qeveren ( 318805 )
      Not that I'm anything but a layperson in such things, but what if you used multiple coherent beams, and arrange the emitters so that they constructively interfere at the target volume? The individual beams could be at reasonably innocuous power.
  • ... millions of dollars of RF equipment, or $8 of pure LSD?

  • Bad Reporting Here (Score:5, Informative)

    by fortunatus ( 445210 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @02:20AM (#61850121)
    The report, as quoted, does not deny that energy weapons could have caused the medical problems. The report only denys that energy weapons caused BOTH the medical problems AND the sounds TOGETHER. That's a very easy statement to make, as it says nothing about the actual issue at hand.
    • So what you're saying is that this weapon has a speaker that plays 1970's sci-fi sound effects while it's turned on. Neat!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rapjr ( 732628 )
      "No plausible single source of energy (neither radio/microwaves nor sonic) can produce both the recorded audio/video signals and the reported medical effects,"

      Microwaves could have caused the crickets to start chirping, so that is one way a microwave source could have produced both the recorded signals and the medical effects. The article does not really address the Frey Effect for microwaves either. If the Frey Effect can cause sound in human tissues it seems possible it could create sounds that are au

  • How will we spin a story of a big bad enemy to make everyone in our country obey and conform and ignore our own errors then?
    Before you know it, they will stop handing us billions for pointless aggressions and invest it in silly things like ... education... or healthcare... or even ... *gag* ... a social safety net!
    You're destroying our population control instrument!

  • for a story about the State Department and the CIA.

    I'm amazed the title doesn't accidentally say "Top 5 Kombucha Brands in the Portland Area" in strikethrough.

  • NOT what the report says (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @07:41AM (#61850429) Journal

    That is not at all what the report says. There were two different things: Sounds, which had actually been recorded, and the physical affects on the people. The biggest part of the study was attempting to determine what the source of the sounds in the recorded audio was.

    The report says that microwave energy could not have produced those sounds for a number of reasons. Obviously if the sounds were recorded in a myriad of ways (which they were - phone calls, facetime, people recording them on purpose, etc), then they were not sounds directly "injected" into a person's head by radiation.. So it reaches the conclusion that the sounds were real, and most likely caused by crickets and had nothing to do with the symptoms. It also considers many other sources, from generators running nearby to devices designed to interfere with acoustics that had gone awry.

    With high confidence, we find that the recorded sounds are entirely consistent with bioacoustics noise. We have identified a candidate species of insect whose call is an excellent match to the acoustic power spectra. This does not preclude the audio sounds being, a source of harassment. Also we find that the power levels in the audio part of spectrum are too low to produce physiological damage.

    It also says that psychogenic illness cannot be ruled out, and may be a source of some of the cases. However the report also acknowledges measurable physiological damage to some of the people, so something really did happen.

    Nowhere does the report say that it was just crickets causing psychogenic illness and nothing more.

    • And to directly address the phenomenally inaccurate headline:
      A Declassified State Department Report Says Microwaves Didn't Cause 'Havana Syndrome'

      The report says that microwaves didn't cause the recorded sounds, and the recorded sounds didn't cause the physiological damage. That's all. It totally leaves the possibility that microwaves (or other energy not in the audible spectrum) caused the physiological damage.

      • It was 5G or they were testing a vaccine. /s Strange to me how people jump to complicated solutions first I suppose that is why not everyone is a scientist. Hell many folks have language issues as well semantics matter when it comes to life love or property rights.
      • Yea and in other news water can't cut steel. See look let me turn on a faucet. Look there's the proof. Clearly anyone who says water can cut steel is crazy and needs medication and should be ignored. It's mass psychosis I tells ya. *Insert retard grunt* durrr

    • Of course, theres no way an ultrasonic beam or microwave signal could agitate an indigenous insect population, causing them to chirp or whatever as their ears or organs are affected?

      There were cricket sounds in one a third of cases, but I suspect there were car/truck noises in almost 100% of cases - were the car/truck noises considered as possible sources?

  • Some people do not remove some microchips, even knowing when was inserted and where are located, because reverse engineering it turns out to be terribly profitable - and can lead to new products. I agree with them.

  • Just think about this logically. How could this happens for a number of people all linked to the similiar places in different countries. It's clear what ever couses this is some kind of chemical which is either airborne or ingested. So it's either in the food or is sprayed. Since this has happened in different countries this most likely isn't in the food unless it's the same food imported in every place, but then this would be more widespread from the importer. So that leaves the only logical explaination i

    • No it's just a radio signal like the one used for your cell phone turned from 5 milliwatts to 1000. They get away with it because the people who monitor it let it happen and everyone lets them do it. It's literally the FCC and Verizon's job.
  • The ripples in the air that people thought were microwaves meant to affect them physically were just a false flag operation to keep people from realizing who the real target is. Technology is being employed as an implant that is causing most of the problems. It performs several functions including those used in torture and interrogations of people being held at Guantanamo Bay. As a victim of this technology, I can tell you it's advanced to the point where they may the speech center of the brain and use b

  • If some types of cricket's chirping can cause physical uneasiness for some people, what if the Cuban or some other government strategically acquired and placed them near US installations as an effort to disrupt government business? And who's to say those crickets haven't been placed around the world as a
    disruptive mechanism.

    They could have even been placed in varying degrees of quantity to have the effects be inconsistent. Its not like mankind hasn't used natural enemies/nuisances against a foe before. Reme

  • Same symptoms reported by folks living in the shadow of mega windfarms.

  • So one third of the reports mention cricket noises, so it must be caused by crickets?

    Has anyone considered the possibility that whatever is causing the reaction in victims (ultrasonic or microwave beam, chemical agent, etc) may also be provoking a reaction in nearby cricket populations?

    Its called "Havana syndrome" because that was where it was first cases were discovered, subsequent cases have been outside Havana.

    Also, the psychological phenomenon claim seems a little dubious - victims are reporting observa

    • Strange how one species of cricket is present around so many US diplomatic sites in so many parts of the world.
  • Clearly and objectively Russia and/or China have weaponized crickets, and are deploying them in the West.

  • I always assumed it was a "sound" like tinnitus --or the artifact of some sort of brain 'uckery.

  • ...some think they were attacked after listening to these crickets. They have an amazingly unsettling call.

    https://orthsoc.org/sina/492a.... [orthsoc.org]

  • Actual crickets can't possibly be the source because the locals would have the same problem. A possibility is that the sound was the signal transmitted by a directed energy weapon.

  • "Buzzfeed News"

    Wait. What? Since when did Buzzfeed do anything that wasn't like it came from the Onion, only not as funny???

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