“Injury to widespread brain networks” in victims of mystery attacks in Cuba

Doctors stumped by sonic experiences, doubt cause is viruses, delusions, or chemicals.

Read the whole story

 

[Apotheoun]

Mysterious and inexplicable illnesses and injuries at a government facility?

*X-Files music plays in the background*

 

[tripodal]

*aliens guy*

 

[I am not your friend]

Just what we need, more weapons to add to the biological/chemical/nuclear/conventional list...

 

[Crossingtheabyss]

Victims also reported bizarre circumstances under which the attacks occurred, including feeling vibrations and hearing deafening noises only while lying in bed. Others said they didn’t notice anything unusual before their symptoms developed.

Wild speculation may be out there, but one can't ignore this. I've always been concerned with what weapons another country (or ours!) may be engineering be it virus, technology, environmental, etc...

edit. Couldn't get the link and quote format to work. Forgive me, I'm new here.

 

[Pusher of Buttons]

Beth-

Is there some chance of this being caused by a brain eating fungus, and if so, can you include pictures of the brain being eaten by fungus?

This story is seriously lacking in your typical gross out factor. Please consider revising.

 

[daxomni]

Meh, what wrong with the roadsign on the picture? It looks like it has been edited

Looks like a standard "no entry" sign that's been hit by a vehicle and is out of focus.

 

[Dukov Nook]

Cuba, of all places, is the place where an incident like this is first reported. That right there is great evidence that there is more going on in the building where these attacks were centered than is being let on. I mean, if something like this happened in a more developed metropolis, Moscow, New York, London, it might not seem so completely out of place. But it's Havana, former jewel of the Caribbean but lately held firm in the 1950s through sanctions. It's out of place. To think the Cubans would fire something like this off just because is silly. There is something being hidden. This isn't the kind of scenario where a first use of this type would occur just out of spite and political ideology.

 

[Voldenuit]

This is obviously the start of a huge Incident Zone.

 

[DCStone]

Let's not forget that Canadian diplomatic staff were also affected by similar symptoms. It looks like these individuals were not part of the published study. It would be interesting to see if the long term effects were similar between the US and Canadian staff.

 

[patriedes]

The fact the average age is 43 has me intrigued. When I first heard about this case, the typical explanation was: old age + mass hysteria. But 43 means a significant portion of the victims were on the young side of things. Interesting...

 

[Dilbert]

Let's not forget that Canadian diplomatic staff were also affected by similar symptoms. It looks like these individuals were not part of the published study. It would be interesting to see if the long term effects were similar between the US and Canadian staff.

Link for the sauce:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... ing-damage

We obviously don't know what is going on. However, an exotic weapon is plausible because it has happened before. Canadian helicopter attempted to stop a Russian ship off the coast of WA a few years back, and the ship fired a high powered laser which permanently damaged the pilots' eyesight.

https://www.cnn.com/US/9705/14/russia.l ... l?_s=PM:US

 

[Abdominal Snoman]

What I've always found creepy about this was that the symptoms pretty much exactly match what my dad experienced when he was having radiation therapy for brain cancer. Sometimes he'd hear things, other times he'd see weird colors, but every experience I've heard of reminded me of what he went through.

 

[fellow human]

This is such a strange story. Thanks for the continued coverage Beth!

 

[Nalyd]

Full disclosure: I am not an undercover CIA operative.

That's just what an undercover CIA operative would say.

 

[Dilbert]

What I've always found creepy about this was that the symptoms pretty much exactly match what my dad experienced when he was having radiation therapy for brain cancer. Sometimes he'd hear things, other times he'd see weird colors, but every experience I've heard of reminded me of what he went through.

Hmmm interesting. When first hearing of this, I was thinking directed microwave beam but that sounds too James Bond. Or does it?

 

[I am not your friend]

If this is a weapon, it's not a very good one. The effects are realtively mild, and everyone seems to have been well aware they were under attack. Not sure what the use case for this thing would be.

Disturb and disrupt. Mild initial test for a more powerful weapon. Could be anything. The fact that it is an embassy that just happens to be related to three nations that damn near started WWIII is very suspicious.

 

[Urist]

As someone who has a whole shed load of neurological problems, including pretty much all the ones those embassy people have and there was no evidence of abnormality on my MRI or EEGs can we assume that I've been attacked by an ultra-sound weapon too?

Full disclosure: I am not an undercover CIA operative.

Also, has anyone ruled out mass-hysteria? I know that sounds daft but it's happened before (e.g. a San Diego Navy barracks in the 80s) and there is a long history of groups of people spontaneously developing random neurological symptoms, the cause of which is never discovered...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria

Mass psychogenic illness is mentioned in the article.

But the team of Penn doctors cast doubt on this hypothesis, noting that some of their clinical results—such as those on eye-movement exams—could not be consciously or unconsciously manipulated. They also note that MPI usually involves short-term health issues, whereas many issues experienced by the individuals studied had long-term impairments. Lastly, the 21 individuals do not all know one another, according to an accompanying report in JAMA.

 

[Architect_of_Insanity]

If this is a weapon, it's not a very good one. The effects are realtively mild, and everyone seems to have been well aware they were under attack. Not sure what the use case for this thing would be.

It's causing anxiety about visiting Cuba... if everything was moving forward that the Obama administration had wanted, then we would be slowly normalizing relations which Russia does not want to happen.

This is a great weapon - we have no idea who has it, what it is, how it works, and who's been hit with it... until after the damage is done.

 

[Dadlyedly]

What I've always found creepy about this was that the symptoms pretty much exactly match what my dad experienced when he was having radiation therapy for brain cancer. Sometimes he'd hear things, other times he'd see weird colors, but every experience I've heard of reminded me of what he went through.

Hmmm interesting. When first hearing of this, I was thinking directed microwave beam but that sounds too James Bond. Or does it?

Nothing I've read makes me think that a microwave beam is the wrong answer. In fact, I keep coming back to it.

 

[NickHos]

As someone who has a whole shed load of neurological problems, including pretty much all the ones those embassy people have and there was no evidence of abnormality on my MRI or EEGs can we assume that I've been attacked by an ultra-sound weapon too?

Full disclosure: I am not an undercover CIA operative.

Also, has anyone ruled out mass-hysteria? I know that sounds daft but it's happened before (e.g. a San Diego Navy barracks in the 80s) and there is a long history of groups of people spontaneously developing random neurological symptoms, the cause of which is never discovered...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria

Mass psychogenic illness is mentioned in the article.

But the team of Penn doctors cast doubt on this hypothesis, noting that some of their clinical results—such as those on eye-movement exams—could not be consciously or unconsciously manipulated. They also note that MPI usually involves short-term health issues, whereas many issues experienced by the individuals studied had long-term impairments. Lastly, the 21 individuals do not all know one another, according to an accompanying report in JAMA.

Gah. I've become *that* person: the one that doesn't read the article properly. sorry.

 

[nom3ramy]

If this is a weapon, it's not a very good one. The effects are realtively mild, and everyone seems to have been well aware they were under attack. Not sure what the use case for this thing would be.

Well, it did essentially emptied the embassy indefinitely, and reduced US government presence in Cuba. It was done in a way that is unlikely to be reversed until the cause is understood, and the cause appears to be very, very difficult to determine. An effective tool for anyone seeking that result.

 

[Dilbert]

What I've always found creepy about this was that the symptoms pretty much exactly match what my dad experienced when he was having radiation therapy for brain cancer. Sometimes he'd hear things, other times he'd see weird colors, but every experience I've heard of reminded me of what he went through.

Hmmm interesting. When first hearing of this, I was thinking directed microwave beam but that sounds too James Bond. Or does it?

Nothing I've read makes me think that a microwave beam is the wrong answer. In fact, I keep coming back to it.

Well. It could be. If it's confirmed at a later time, that doesn't mean we were right. It only means that we made a lucky guess. /guy with a science degree

 

[Sulik2]

This is such a crazy story. I'm really curious to see if they ever figure out what caused these injuries. It really seems like something sonic basically shaking the brain could be a culprit, but what the heck kind of weapon does that?

 

[Veritas super omens]

Can anyone confirm asvarduil's location during these "attacks"?

 

[oyam]

We obviously don't know what is going on. However, an exotic weapon is plausible because it has happened before. Canadian helicopter attempted to stop a Russian ship off the coast of WA a few years back, and the ship fired a high powered laser which permanently damaged the pilots' eyesight.

The effects of laser on eye sight are well known. Lasers are used for lot of things these days (UAV navigation and missile guidance among other things), so the fact that they had it on a ship isn't all that exotic, it's downright routine.

 

[fellow human]

What I've always found creepy about this was that the symptoms pretty much exactly match what my dad experienced when he was having radiation therapy for brain cancer. Sometimes he'd hear things, other times he'd see weird colors, but every experience I've heard of reminded me of what he went through.

It definitely sounds radiation-related. Disgruntled night cleaner sneaking around with magnetron? That's about as conspiratorial as I'm willing to get.

Beyond that, what? Hole in the ozone layer combined with freak sunspot event? Misoriented ground or space-based microwave emitter? Weird geological formation doing seemingly impossible things?

It inspires the imagination if nothing else.

 

[Derecho Imminent]

The lead Penn doctor told JAMA that the doctors involved in the evaluations had all signed a non-disclosure agreement with the State Department, so they cannot discuss whether they know more about the attacks.

Doesnt this imply that the state dept is hiding something?

Its fairly well known that all embassy personnel include spies. Its just common practice. Maybe our spies were listening in to Cuban conversations and there was blowback. That would give them incentive to keep quiet about what they know.
------------------------------------------
And Ill keep repeating this:
If there are repeating microwave or sonic 'attacks' it would have been trivially easy to setup gear in the locations to capture, record, and analyse it. This is not rocket science. Microwaves, infrasound, and ultrasound are all well understood.

 

[Dilbert]

We obviously don't know what is going on. However, an exotic weapon is plausible because it has happened before. Canadian helicopter attempted to stop a Russian ship off the coast of WA a few years back, and the ship fired a high powered laser which permanently damaged the pilots' eyesight.

The effects of laser on eye sight are well known. Lasers are used for lot of things these days (UAV navigation and missile guidance among other things), so the fact that they had it on a ship isn't all that exotic, it's downright routine.

That they had a laser on a civilian cargo ship in 1997 powerful enough to permanently blind was weird as fuck. Just like this new, whatever this was, that was apparently used on the embassy.

 

[oyam]

What I've always found creepy about this was that the symptoms pretty much exactly match what my dad experienced when he was having radiation therapy for brain cancer. Sometimes he'd hear things, other times he'd see weird colors, but every experience I've heard of reminded me of what he went through.

Except these people aren't "hearing things", they heard things. As in they don't keep hearing them anymore, and the sounds were recorded, so actually happened.

 

[ReadySetGo]

Let's not forget that Canadian diplomatic staff were also affected by similar symptoms. It looks like these individuals were not part of the published study. It would be interesting to see if the long term effects were similar between the US and Canadian staff.

And what makes it odd is that Canada has had relatively good diplomatic relations with Cuba for decades now. Assuming the victims were targeted, then this needs to be kept in mind. Cuba has denied any involvement, and if the Canadians were indeed victims of the same (or a similar) attack it would seem, at least on the surface, to lend credence to Cuba's denials in this regard.

Russia or China perhaps?

 

[Dilbert]

What I've always found creepy about this was that the symptoms pretty much exactly match what my dad experienced when he was having radiation therapy for brain cancer. Sometimes he'd hear things, other times he'd see weird colors, but every experience I've heard of reminded me of what he went through.

Except these people aren't "hearing things", they heard things. As in they don't keep hearing them anymore, and the sounds were recorded, so actually happened.

I heard that recording. It did not sound loud at all. Im calling bs on it being evidence of an attack.

Just like when there are gunshots on the other end of a phone line it deafens the phone user amirite?

 

[Parole]

What I've always found creepy about this was that the symptoms pretty much exactly match what my dad experienced when he was having radiation therapy for brain cancer. Sometimes he'd hear things, other times he'd see weird colors, but every experience I've heard of reminded me of what he went through.

Except these people aren't "hearing things", they heard things. As in they don't keep hearing them anymore, and the sounds were recorded, so actually happened.

I heard that recording. It did not sound loud at all. Im calling bs on it being evidence of an attack.

Did you try turning up the volume on your speakers? Recorded sound can be a little hard to put in perspective. The recording device may not have captured all the data, and you are reproducing that data on a completely different system.

 

[Derecho Imminent]

What I've always found creepy about this was that the symptoms pretty much exactly match what my dad experienced when he was having radiation therapy for brain cancer. Sometimes he'd hear things, other times he'd see weird colors, but every experience I've heard of reminded me of what he went through.

Except these people aren't "hearing things", they heard things. As in they don't keep hearing them anymore, and the sounds were recorded, so actually happened.

I heard that recording. It did not sound loud at all. Im calling bs on it being evidence of an attack.

Just like when there are gunshots on the other end of a phone line it deafens the phone user amirite?

Maybe not but you would know its a gun shot. This recording was barely audible unless you turned the volume to max. Even then - annoying not loud.

 

[beebee]

What I've always found creepy about this was that the symptoms pretty much exactly match what my dad experienced when he was having radiation therapy for brain cancer. Sometimes he'd hear things, other times he'd see weird colors, but every experience I've heard of reminded me of what he went through.

Except these people aren't "hearing things", they heard things. As in they don't keep hearing them anymore, and the sounds were recorded, so actually happened.

Ditto this. I ran the recorded signal through a FFT. It had a series of discreet tones rather than noise. This is a common signalling scheme it you want cheap and dirty comms without clock recovery. I didn't seen any modulation, but the sample could have been too short. So the signal could just trigger an event. If your target is RF shielded, hit it with something else. Sound for example.