Merged: US may close Cuba Embassy over 'health attacks'

[dann]

Quote:

This story was published on our Quartz Weekly Obsession newsletter, an interactive email for curious minds. Escape the stale news cycle with forgotten histories, surprising facts, and vital stats.
Havana syndrome: Spooky sounds - A spy thriller, IRL (Quartz, Mar 15, 2023)

Contains a quiz with just one question. I would have been disappointed in myself if I hadn't got it right.

[dann]

I mentioned the YouGov poll in post 1,772. Here with a little more detail. This probably shouldn't come as a surprise:

Quote:

1. Have you heard about Havana syndrome?
Yes, a lot 12%
Yes, a little 33%
No 55%

2. Havana syndrome is a set of medical symptoms with unknown causes experienced mostly abroad by U.S. government workers and military personnel. Do you think Havana syndrome is most likely caused by...?
Directed microwave radiation 7%
A sonic or acoustic weapon 18%
Crickets or other insect noises 3%
Pesticides or infectious agents 9%
A mass psychogenic illness 9%
Something else 8%
Not sure 47%

3. Do you think Havana syndrome is the result of a targeted attack by a foreign government?
Definitely 8%
Probably 31%
Probably no 20%
Definitely no 7%
Not sure 34%
Daily Survey: Havana Syndrome (YouGov, conducted Mar 3 to 6, 2023)

I guess most of the 45% of people who have heard about (and still remember) the 'syndrome' lost interest in the story before it was revealed that the alleged sonic weapon was nothing but the misinterpreted sound of crickets and before the conspiracy nuts then had to shift to the microwave delusion.
That would also explain why as many as 39% still believe that the 'syndrome' was caused by an attack.

58% hadn't even heard about the ODNI report!

[dann]

PETA's unabridged letter to the Department of Defense (Mar 13, 2023) about the Wayne State University microwaving ferret and primate brains.

[dann]

New podcast. Looks good, but I haven't listened to it yet:

Quote:

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Branko Marcetic comments on the age of imaginary super-weapons and wild threat inflation.

The good news is we have one less thing to worry about: So-called Havana Syndrome turns out not to be caused by a mysterious super-weapon to harm American diplomats and military personnel, despite numerous press reports warning of a hypothetical ray gun created by a foreign foe (Cuba? Russia? China?). Instead, an assessment by the National Intelligence Council concluded that the symptoms of Havana Syndrome, reported by hundreds of government officials working all over the world) likely had “medical, environmental, and social factors that plausibly can explain.” In less polite terms, this was an example of a mass psychogenic illness, a product of hysteria and overactive imaginations.
Havana Syndrome and the Psychosomatic Empire (The Nation, Mar 15, 2023 - 40:27 min.)

[dann]

I have listened to the new podcast from The Nation about "the age of imaginary super-weapons and wild threat inflation":

Quote:

Writing in Jacobin, Branko Marcetic links the Havana Syndrome frenzy to other examples of national security paranoia such as the false reports of Russians paying for Taliban bounty hunters and the recent meltdown over Chinese surveillance balloons. I talked with Branko about both the Havana Syndrome, and the reasons—political and psychological—that the military-industrial complex is going into over drive conjuring up imaginary or overhyped threats.
Havana Syndrome and the Psychosomatic Empire (The Nation, Mar 15, 2023)

But ... I have a hard time understanding the voice (or the recording of the voice) of Branko Marcetic from Jacobin (see post 1,784) in his conversation with The Nation's Jeet Heet. I think my problem is mainly due to my impaired hearing, so the podcast will probably be intelligible to most of you. Their conversation is mainly about the political context of the 'syndrome'.

[dann]

I suspect that this commentary may have been the reason why Nicky Woolf and Project Brazen used Karen Coats's retinal bleeding to dismiss mass psychogenic illness and as proof positive that the 'Havana Syndrome' was caused by a microwave attack:

Quote:

This preliminary analysis suggests that, in principle, high peak power IR lasers can induce auditory/vestibular responses in humans via thermoelastic sound generation when directed against the head. Developing a practical non-lethal weapon would require adapting the laser and associated hardware for portable use, and adjusting the beam characteristics, power output, and wavelength to produce objectionable responses while minimizing, as far as possible, the likelihood of eye damage to the subjects. Unlike the case of high peak power microwave generators used in classified weapons programs, high peak power pulsed lasers are commercially available (but potentially are very hazardous to an untrained user) and TA sound generation in the head from pulsed IR radiation would be relatively easy to study. If reasonable suspicion exists that some individuals were exposed to such radiation, they should be examined for possible retinal injury. Non-lethal weapons of this sort are hypothetical, but seem more feasible than analogous weapons using pulsed microwaves and would potentially be of interest to governments around the world which have already made considerable investments in laser weapons.
Commentary: Can the microwave auditory effect be “weaponized”? (National Library of Medicine, PubMed, Jan 9, 2023)

It is so easy to forget the word hypothetical and all the other things that can cause retinal bleeding (see post 1,661) when you want to convince people that a microwave attack has taken place. In his article in The Sunday Times (also post 1,661), Nicky Woolf wrote that Karen Coats had been told by her doctors that "they’d “only ever seen this when somebody has a trauma to their head, like a car accident,”" even though Wikipedia informs us that "retinal hemorrhage can be caused by several medical conditions such as hypertension, retinal vein occlusion (a blockage of a retinal vein), anemia, leukemia or diabetes," and that in adults, "retinal hemorrhages are largely spontaneous, secondary to chronic medical conditions such as hypertension."

Somebody is lying here, but I don't think Nicky Woolf will tell us. Did he just rely on Karen Coats' story? Didn't he ask her doctors? If he didn't, it's sloppy research. If he did and they confirmed her story, he owes his listeners to reveal who those doctors were.

But I fear that Nicky Woolf has a vested interest in the 'Havana Syndrome'. I see no other reason for neglecting to follow up on mass psychogenic illness after dismissing what Robert Baloh, a leading neurologist, had said. Nicky Woolf: "A 2019 paper concluded “a wholly psychogenic cause is very unlikely.”"

'Nothing to see here, a paper has dismissed Baloh's ideas!'

[dann]

One of those podcasts that really bug me, but a least it's short:

Quote:

Today, Les, Jess, and Jamil discuss Havana Syndrome, a mysterious ailment that has caused dizziness, headache, fatigue, nausea, anxiety, cognitive difficulties and memory loss among U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers. Last week, after a years-long assessment, a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that it is very ‘unlikely’ that people experiencing symptoms were targeted and sickened by a clandestine enemy.
How worried should American officials be of Havana Syndrome reports after the IC’s recent conclusions? Is the U.S. doing enough to investigate Havana Syndrome cases and provide support to those who suffer from it? Does the Fault Lines crew believe that all these reported cases are just coincidences?
Hear our experts debate these issues and more in less than 10 minutes on our latest episode of Fault Lines!
Want to learn more about this topic? Check out these articles that our experts used to frame our discussion:
https://thehill.com/policy/national-...ign-adversary/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...report-weapon/
Episode 190: Havana Syndrome: More than Coincidence? (Fault Lines, A National Security Institute Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Mar 6, 2023 - 8:50 min.)

The worst thing about it is that these guys are supposed to be some kind of national security professionals, and yet they either don't seem to understand the report and the pressbriefing at all, or they have their own agenda and ignore what doesn't suit them. First of all: all the cases that have actually been explained - unambiguously!

They appear to be very much in love with the attack idea, but after the release of the ODNI report, they can't come out and say so openly, so instead they have decided that nothing has been explained at all. Since 'there are conflicting views', i.e. the report (Relman's from Feb 2022) that said microwave attack and then this new one, the one that they find it so hard to stomach:

Quote:

Lester Munson: We need to be mindful about the fact that there are real victims here. There are folks who have served their country abroad in difficult places, who have been victims of this phenomenon. Their reports are very credible, very specific. And the most important thing is that they are getting what they need to kind of repair their health and their careers and their lives and all of this.
(...)
And I think we just need to be, we the American people, ... serving in central positions, need to be a lot more careful about talking about issues like this when it's clear: We don't know the answer to the fundamental question of why is this happening!

In both cases, the previous panel that said that this thing might be from one of our adversaries and then this new conclusion that it's not from one of our adversaries. Neither one of them is very definitive. it is very much a muddled answer. It's clear to me that we have had very good folks looking into this. We just haven't quite been able to figure it out because of the lack of evidence or perhaps a lack of resources or something.

So I think our government, whether it is the executive branch or the legislative branch, are to be very careful about characterizing these things in a way that gives the American people the impression that something is being hidden. I don't think anything has been hidden, except maybe the fact that we just don't know the answer to the question.

He is talking about credible reports that interpreted the sound of crickets as a sonic attack.
The fundamental question would have been: What is happening. The why reveals that he is still thinking in terms of an actor, a perpetrator, with a purpose: Why would anyone do this to our good men and women serving their country?
He compares the two reports, the Relman group's Feb 2022 report, and the new, all-encompassing report as if they were somehow equal: 'Well, you know, one report says one thing, the other report says something else, so "it is very much a muddled answer," and we (!) just "haven't quite been able to figure it (!) out" ... lacking evidence, lacking resources', so "we just don't know the answer."
That is: They don't want to hear the answer!

The next guy agrees:

Quote:

You are right that we don't have a real answer yet. but the problem is, we may never had an answer. (...) I tend to agree with senator Rubio: I don't buy this idea that all of the incidents that have happened and there's no part at all, there's no basis for it at all. It's random happenstance. That seems unlikely.

Yes, when he puts it like that, it does indeed seem unlikely, which is the reason why he puts it like that. Nobody other than Rubio and his fans have claimed that there is no basis for "it", that it's "random happenstance."
'Tis Madness, but there's method to't. The method just isn't the weapon and the adversarial perpetrator that he and Marco Rubio so desire!

The conclusion is pathetic:

Quote:

You are right, that we don't have an answer yet.
(...)
We just don't know the answer yet. Sorry, folks. We wish we did.
(...)
I do not have enough information to decide.
It's true. But it's true: We don't know the answer. We don't know the answer

It is clear that they can't handle the answer, which is why they pretend that isn't any.

[dann]

Originally Posted by Steve

There's money to be made in them thar conspiracy theories!! Gotta keep them marks on the hook for as long as we can! Good ol' American capitalism at its finest.

I may have dismissed the idea too soon! There appears to be a lot of money to be made on the 'syndrome':

Quote:

In September 2022, the same month the DoD awarded the Wayne State grant, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded a contract via the National Institutes of Health to the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, for work on “Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and Anomalous Health Incidences (AHI),” according to USASpending.
(...)
Giordano appears regularly in the media as a subject matter expert on anomalous health incidents, and in a 2021 op-ed referencing Havana Syndrome for Medpage Today, he included a financial disclosure stating that he has received funding from both the NIH and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.
When asked about the contract, Colleen Franklin, director of communication for the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, stated via email, “This is a government contract, we cannot respond to any media inquiries, requests for interviews or comments.”
The Office of the Surgeon General did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. is spending millions on ‘Havana Syndrome’ research – but it’s not clear if it exists (GeoPolitical Economy, Mar 17, 2023)

[dann]

Originally Posted by dann

Of the two people behind the VICE podcast series, Adam Entous and Jon Lee Anderson, Entous appeared to be more skeptical of the 'attack' idea than Anderson, and he doesn't seem to have any reservations about the recently released ODNI report.
Foreign Adversaries ‘Very Unlikely’ to Blame for Havana Syndrome, Intelligence Review Finds (NYT, By Julian E. Barnes and Adam Entous, March 1, 2023)
So far, I haven't seen anything from Jon Lee Anderson about the new report.

I may have been wrong about Entous:

Quote:

In 2016, U.S. government officials began reporting a mysterious set of symptoms. They first appeared in Havana, but then showed up in other countries around the world. For Vice World News, reporters Adam Entous and Jon Lee Anderson explain everything they’ve learned about what’s now commonly called Havana syndrome, and why the U.S. still can’t explain what causes it. On this week’s episode of Apple News In Conversation, Entous and Anderson discuss their reporting with host Shumita Basu. This is a preview of that conversation.
Sneak Peak: Havana syndrome looks very real on brain scans. Why is it still a mystery to the U.S. government? (ivoox, Mar 17, 2023)

I am not a neurologist, so I look forward to hearing two experts explain how exactly the 'syndrome' looks very real on brain scans. I hope that it will be accompanied by a video.
I had my brain scanned in 2019 and didn't ask to see the results. I wouldn't have known what to look for anyway. I was quite content when the neurologist told me that nothing was abnormal. (I forgot to ask him specifically if he couldn't at least find something that was a bit anomalous.)

[dann]

In today's climate, would it be possible to write an article like this about the 'syndrome'?

Science-Based Satire: Florida Authorities Report First Case of Mosquito-Borne Fentanyl Overdose (Science-Based Medicine, Mar 17, 2023)

Why aren't reports about the Fentanyl-overdose scare accompanied by health authorities with grave faces assuring the public that the symptoms are real, that the suffering is real, and that they will do whatever they can to provide the victims with all the health care and therapy they need?

Or do they do that? Is it just something I've missed?
Is training like this being considered for AHI victims?
Can touch this: training to correct police officer beliefs about overdose from incidental contact with fentanyl (BioMedCentral, Nov 24, 2021)

[dann]

This looks like an attempt to de-escalate the anxiety caused by the sound of crickets:

Quote:

Anomalous Health Incidents (AHI), commonly referred to as Havana Syndrome in the media, remain an emerging health and readiness concern for the Department of Defense (DOD). Many reported symptoms are similar to those of traumatic brain injury. But others, including unexplained sensory events just before onset of symptoms, haven't been associated with any specific medical condition
Anomalous Health Incidents (Health.mil, Mar 15, 2023)

[Roger Ramjets]

Originally Posted by dann

I mentioned the YouGov poll in post 1,772. Here with a little more detail. This probably shouldn't come as a surprise:

Quote:

1. Have you heard about Havana syndrome?
Yes, a lot 12%
Yes, a little 33%
No 55%

2. Havana syndrome is a set of medical symptoms with unknown causes experienced mostly abroad by U.S. government workers and military personnel. Do you think Havana syndrome is most likely caused by...?
Directed microwave radiation 7%
A sonic or acoustic weapon 18%
Crickets or other insect noises 3%
Pesticides or infectious agents 9%
A mass psychogenic illness 9%
Something else 8%
Not sure 47%

3. Do you think Havana syndrome is the result of a targeted attack by a foreign government?
Definitely 8%
Probably 31%
Probably no 20%
Definitely no 7%
Not sure 34%

45% have heard of it, and 39% think it was probably or definitely a targeted attack by a foreign government. Whichever way you look at it that's not good. But opinions tend to mirror the news cycle. With so many 'undecided's it wouldn't take much to push public opinion one way or the other. So the question is - which 'side' will the news media take on this issue in the future?

[dann]

Cuba probably doesn't take up much space in the minds of most Americans. And when you consider that many people only read headlines, the poll doesn't surprise me.

Skeptics and other geeks may find the 'syndrome' incredibly interesting: sci-fi weapons shooting invisible rays instead of bullets, people's brains being fried without them even noticing, at first, clandestine adversaries, perception of reality, people believing weird things. The story has more or less got it all. And for me, there was the Cuban connection on top of that.

But the majority of people won't be particularly interested in it.

By the way, I am not quite sure if the answers to many of the poll questions, for instance #2 and #3, include answers from the 55% who never heard about the 'syndrome'. Judging by some of Jimmy Kimmel's interviews with people in the street, many are willing to have opinions (often very specific opinions) about things they know absolutely nothing about - and couldn't know about because they never happened.

YouTube Video This video is not hosted by the ISF. The ISF can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website.

I AGREE

YouTube Video This video is not hosted by the ISF. The ISF can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website.

I AGREE

[dann]

Originally Posted by dann

I may have been wrong about Entous:

Quote:

Sneak Peak: Havana syndrome looks very real on brain scans. Why is it still a mystery to the U.S. government? (ivoox, Mar 17, 2023)

I am not a neurologist, so I look forward to hearing two experts explain how exactly the 'syndrome' looks very real on brain scans. I hope that it will be accompanied by a video.
I had my brain scanned in 2019 and didn't ask to see the results. I wouldn't have known what to look for anyway. I was quite content when the neurologist told me that nothing was abnormal. (I forgot to ask him specifically if he couldn't at least find something that was a bit anomalous.)

When I posted this on Mar 17, I thought it was a teaser for an upcoming episode, but it had already been released the day before:

Quote:

In 2016, U.S. government officials began reporting a mysterious set of symptoms. They first appeared in Havana, but then showed up in other countries around the world. In a podcast for Vice World News, reporters Adam Entous and Jon Lee Anderson explain everything they’ve learned about what’s now commonly called Havana syndrome, and why the U.S. still can’t explain what causes it. On this week’s episode of Apple News In Conversation, Entous and Anderson discuss their reporting with host Shumita Basu.
Havana syndrome looks very real on brain scans. Why is it still a mystery to the U.S. government? (Apple News in Conversation, Mar 16, 2023 - 28 min.)

I have listened to it. It's bloody awful. I was actually wrong about Entous. I will comment on it tomorrow.

[dann]

Quote:

During a House Intelligence Committee hearing last week, Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) questioned US Intelligence officials.
Abigail Spanberger Raises Concern About Anomalous Health Incidents Impacting Intelligence Community (Forbes Braking News on YouTube, March 19, 2023 - 6 min.)

YouTube Video This video is not hosted by the ISF. The ISF can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website.

I AGREE

Spanberger quotes from the ODNI report:

Quote:

"It is unlikely that a foreign actor, including Russia, is conducting a sustained worldwide campaign involving hundreds of incidents." It continues, related to Anomalous Health Incidents, further in the paragraph, it says, "The IC continues to actively investigate the AHI issue focusing particularly on a subset of priority cases for which it has not ruled out any cause, including the possibility that one or more foreign actors were involved."
There's. lot of consternation among those who have been affected by AHI. I appreciate the work that you have been doing and making sure people are having their health need met. But would anyone like to comment on what appears to be, by my reading, somewhat contradictory statements in one small paragraph?

In her answer, Avril Haynes, Intelligence Committee, stresses that ...

Quote:

... across the IC, most elements now have concluded that it's very unlikely that a foreign adversary is responsible for the reported AHIs, and there are different degrees of confidence associated with that, and then you have some that look at it as unlikely that a foreign adversary have done this part at the same time. And this is sort of where you know our work continues. And there's no question that we see this as a continued priority for us that we are going to be and continue to be vigilant about and looking for information that undercuts those assumptions because we recognize there are gaps here we are going to continue to focus on trying to understand essentially what it is that we can do to help the folks that have experienced these very real symptoms and these issues, and to figure out what's happening to each of them. And as we look at the expert panel that went through this process to look at different mechanisms that might in fact be causing different symptoms issues, and so on, they had recommendations on research and development that would continue to go forward. And that is something that we are also pursuing. And any remaining questions that we have are things that we're looking to try to ensure that we'er focused on moving forward.

However, it is obvious that Spanberger doesn't want to hear that "most elements now have concluded that it's very unlikely that a foreign adversary is responsible". Instead, she makes it clear that she would like to see a reversal of ODNI's conclusion:

Quote:

So we're currently at a point, is it correct to say that where this is a point in time analysis and the door is very much open and the investigation very much continues that there could be a reversal or not of new information that would cause a new assessment that might differ from what we've seen thus far?

It is obvious that U.S. politicians (a majority?) aren't interested in any conclusion saying that there was no attack by a foreign adversary. To them, any report that doesn't say that Putin did it will remain an interim report even though the interim report was the one from Jan 20, 2022. To conclude that he didn't is "very much" not what they want and the question will remain "very much open" until somebody writes the report that they want, telling them that he did. And guys like James Giordano and David Relman are more than willing to give them that answer based on their "subset of priority cases."

CIA's Mr. Burns says approximately the same thing that Avril Haynes does, i.e. not quite what Spanberger wants to hear but without contradicting her, and stressing once again that the AHI sufferers are real people with real symptoms and real pain, which nobody has denied. But as always, it leaves both the AHI sufferers, the politicians and the general public thinking that real symptoms means that they must have been caused by real attacks.

Burns continues: "We will also continue to focus with our partners on research and development efforts (!) by our adversaries that could (!) focus on directed energy mechanisms as well," which is his mealy-mouthed way of saying the words they want to hear, i.e. our adversaries + directed energy mechanisms. He knows that what he is saying means that no adversary actually has such a 'mechanism', the imaginary weapon that Polymeropoulos and Spanberger want people to think that members of the U.S. intelligence agencies were attacked with. It just means that the CIA and others will continue to spy on any kind of weapon research and development in China, Iran and Russia. He also knows that his reference to the phantom weapon will make Spanberger know that he knows what she wants him to find and present to her.

[dann]

Originally Posted by dann

When I posted this on Mar 17, I thought it was a teaser for an upcoming episode, but it had already been released the day before:

I have listened to it. It's bloody awful. I was actually wrong about Entous. I will comment on it tomorrow.

It will take a couple of posts for me to put down my thoughts about the podcast with Anderson & Entous:

My transcript of excerpts from the podcast. And my usual warning that my hearing is impaired. But I think that my transcripts are a lot better than, for instance, YouTube's AI transcripts, but here goes:

Shumita Bastu (SB) repeating what Adam Entous (AE) told her: "You have to know that Cuba was one of the most successful, most sophisticated intelligence forces in the world."
AE: ...The cubans, I like to think of them as sort of like the Israelis ... singularly focussed on this and incredibly efficient ... outpaced the KGB ... so good the CIA had to basically respect their trade craft.

John Lee Anderson (JLA) says that he was spied on by Cuban friends who reported on him.

AE: ... there would be feces under the handle of the door ...

AE (about Tony) finds one of his dress shirts crumpled in the corner of his bedroom soaked in urine, and it's a very pungent smell.

dann: Maybe it's just me, but, even if Patient Zero's anecdote is true, i.e. somebody smeared feces on the door handle and pissed on his shirt, and this somebody was a Cuban Dirección de Inteligencia agent, which I tend to doubt, and not a disgruntled neighbor('s cat), I don't think that it is a sign of sophistication, but maybe that's just me! What the anecdote is meant to say is that "one of the most successful, most successful intelligence forces in the world," is evil incarnate.

JLA: This is in the weeks following the death of Fidel Castro ... and the election of Donald Trump ... That's the context in which this syndrome begins to become something that's acknowledged ...

JLA: The sound isn't from without it's from within, It's inside your head. ... But you are feeling pain in every of your body ... and it's not until you move from where you are ... and it stops just like that, suddenly.
You can't remember why you walked from A to C ... and you seek medical advice.

dann: It really bugs me that Entous doesn't seem to remember what he said in another podcast about the sound that he now claims came from inside (not the house, but) head! Do you remember what he told us about Patient Zero (called Tony in this podcast) in another podcast? "And he records it and he actually brings the recording, this is around Christmas time, New Year's. He actually goes to a New Year's party at the embassy. And he brings the recording and plays it for some of his colleagues to see if that is also what they heard, right?!" (see post 1,741). Even Adam Entous, who doesn't seem to know much about acoustics and the Frey effect, ought to at least know that you can't record sounds "from within", sound that is "inside your head," which is what he now claims. He should at least listen to Mark Zaid telling him that the cricket tapes were recordings of crickets, nothing else. But Entous believes what he wants to believe, and the contradiction between his two statements doesn't seem to bother him at all! There is not even the slightest sign that he is aware of the cognitive dissonance inside his head!

So make up your mind, Entous! Do you want to go with the sonic weapon, which would be recordable (but unfortunately for the hypothesis, the sound turned out to be crickets)? Or do you claim that the sound was the Frey effect caused by a microwave attack (but unfortunately for that idea, Patient Zero couldn't have recorded the sound inside his head on a cell phone?

Make up your mind, Entous! You can't have both the cricket recordings and the Frey effect!
There can be only one!

[dann]

Quote:

SB: And it was around this time that the State Department finally sent Tony and others like him to a medical facility at the University of Pennsylvania.
(...)
JLA: They find out that they have injuries in their brain similar to that of concussions, but really massive concussions, similar to the kinds we're hearing about and brain injuries similar to those that we in recent years have been hearing that football players have experienced. So actual brain injuries.

When Adam and I went to meet the doctor who was in charge of the cases of many of these people, he got very offended when we suggested that it might be what they call psychogenic or some kind of mass hysteria, you know, a bunch of nervous nellies who were getting each other scared and experiencing symptoms like panic attacks. Which is still something that circulates.
This doctor who is a real, you know, he's a scientist. He's one of the country's top, if not the top expert in the pathology of concussions. really reacted very emotionally when we brought this up and suggested this.

And he said, 'No I don't know of any psychiatric issues that can look like traumatic brain injury. It doesn't mean that it could never happen, but this is kind of a unique disruption of the brain's networks'.

And he said,'They have scarring in their cerebellum', I believe it's called, which is the innermost part of the brain, the most primitive part of the brain, the most protected part of the brain. And therefore, if it were anxiety or stress-induced, it would be inexplicable for there to be this kind of scarring. These people were real victims of something that had happened to them.
Havana syndrome looks very real on brain scans. Why is it still a mystery to the U.S. government? (Apple News in Conversation, Mar 16, 2023 - 28 min.)

As I have repeated over and over: Everybody agrees that something did indeed happen to them. Nobody denies it. Something did indeed happen to them.
That is not where the disagreement begins.

I can see why Anderson and Entous might be afraid to offend somebody who is "one of the country's top, if not the top expert in the pathology of concussions" and thus cause him to react "very emotionally". We can't have that. But it is still possible to do a little research without telling the nellie doctor:

Quote:

A close look at the brains of 40 U.S. Embassy workers in Cuba who developed mysterious symptoms has found no evidence of injury. The State Department has said the employees were hurt by some sort of attack.

Advanced brain imaging techniques did reveal some subtle differences in the workers' brains, says Ragini Verma, a professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania and an author of the study published in this week's JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association.

But those differences "do not reflect the imaging differences that we see in [traumatic brain injury] or concussion," Verma says.
"All you can say is something (!) happened, which caused their brain to change," she says.

And even that conclusion was challenged by brain scientists who have been skeptical that any diplomat was attacked or injured from what became known as "Havana syndrome."

The differences could have been random or simply the result of different life experiences that can change the brain — like learning a foreign language, says Sergio Della Sala, a professor of human cognitive neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. He called the study in JAMA "half-baked."

"There is no evidence of any pathology," says Douglas Fields, a neuroscientist who has investigated and written about the events in Cuba. "And when you look at the data, there's no coherent syndrome, no pattern."
Brain Scans Find Differences But No Injury In U.S. Diplomats Who Fell Ill In Cuba (NPR, July 23, 2019)

Jon Stone said something similar (see post 1,788).

What happened to Ragini Verma? The link in the NPR article says "Page Not Found." Is she one of the people who were removed from the investigation of the 'syndrome' when they dared question the 'attack'? Like Pamela Spratlen and CIA's Vienna station chief ...

I don't know, but she still seems to be a Professor in Diffusion & Connectomics In Precision Healthcare Research (DiCIPHR), Department of Radiology as well as a Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania.
Have Entous & Anderson considered asking her about the apparent inconsistency between "really massive concussions" and "some subtle differences in the workers' brains"? Maybe they should! Maybe she wouldn't get "very offended" like "one of the country's top, if not the top expert in the pathology of concussions." Maybe she won't react "very emotionally". It's worth a try, ain't it?

And even if Anderson & Entous are scared of an emotional reaction, it should be safe for them to take a look at the study mentioned in the NPR article, shouldn't it?

There are also all the other skeptical brain scientists mentioned in the NPR article. Are Anderson and Entous also afraid that they may act "very emotionally"?

Will Sergio Della Sala and Douglas Fields have temper tantrums if A&E ask them about "psychogenic or some kind of mass hysteria"? I don't know. I haven't asked them myself, but I think it would be safe for two investigative journalists to at least try.

There is also neurologist Robert Baloh, author of the book about the 'syndrome' along with Robert Bartholomew. Baloh has been asked about the alleged "really massive brain concussions" several times, and he has remained cool and calm in all the interviews with him I have seen on YouTube, even when he is talking with Targeted Individuals:

YouTube Video This video is not hosted by the ISF. The ISF can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website.

I AGREE

So what are you waiting for, Jon Lee Anderson and Adam Entous?
Isn't asking questions a major part of what investigative journalists are supposed to do?

To be continued ...

[dann]

Quote:

Cases have been reported in other places ... Moscow ...
After that you have cases being reported in Guangzhou, in China.
(..)
And there was also a significant number of people who apparently succumbed to it in the US embassy in Vienna, Austria. A long time stamping ground of Cold War espionage and post-cold war espionage it turns out as well, and that was that people very close to senior American goverment officials began to come into these symptoms.
it happened to a senior aid to the CIA director on a trip to New Delhi.
it happened to two briefers of John Bolton - he was national security adviser - on a trip to London.
People at the US embassy to Hanoi had to be evacuated right before a visit by vicepresident Kamela Harris.
A few days before Secretary of State Blinken arrived in Bogota, a similar thing happened with members of the U.S. embassy there.
And those I have to say do seem to carry a kind of signature. It is as if someone is saying, 'we can get you. We just decided to get the person next to you. And we can get you at a very high level wherever you are. And of course there's the case of the official who succumbed to these symptoms within sight of the White House.

How many of the members of the U.S. embassies and other U.S. officials affected in Washington, Bogota, Hanoi, London, New Delhi, Vienna, Guangzhou and Moscow have or had symptoms that still haven't been explained?

There are indeed all these cases, but have Jon Lee Anderson and Adam Entous tried counting them? Their numbers seem to be swelling far beyond the roughly two dozen cases that are considered to be the kosher 'Havana Syndrome' cases, the ones that James Giordano and David Relman have claimed as theirs.
How many of the cases mentioned by Anderson & Entous in this quotation have already found other explanations, much more mundane explanations than directed energy attacks?

I get the impression that the vast majority of cases outside of Cuba have already been explained, but maybe A&E know something they are not telling us. Or is it possible that they are just listing all these cases without investigating them, without knowing if they are still consider to be caused by microwave attacks, only to make the 'syndrome' seem to be much more impressive than it actually is?

To be continued ...

[dann]

Investigative journalists ought to know that hearing the victims telling something doesn't mean that they are right. What I would have liked to hear instead of A&E retelling their stories is some kind, any kind of documentation backing up what these people claim to have experienced: Were any mysterious rays detected at the time?

I don't think that you should "shrug these cases off." I assume that most of the people who experienced this did experience it, but instead of simply finding those cases compelling "where multiple people felt the same attack at the same place at the same time," I expect more from investigative reporting. For instance, what makes Adam Entous and Shumita Bastu think that what multiple people felt were attacks? What they actually felt was "this tremendous pressure" "in their heads" accompanied by "this ringing in their ear," which they interpreted to be an attack. I assume that they don't have a recording of the sound. Otherwise we would probably have heard about it.

But it never ceases to amaze me that it comes a surprise to all the fans of the attack conspiracy that you can often no longer hear a sound when you leave the place where you hear it. It is also not unusual that people's anxiety disappears once they get away from what they believe to be a serious threat. Let us also not forget that in 2019 everybody working for the U.S. government would have heard about the 'syndrome' symptoms and what was supposed to set them off and that more than one person can experience the same trigger and the same symptoms without being attacked or seriously ill. It sounds like a classic version of mass psychogenic illness:

Quote:

SB: Adam says it's really hard to shrug these cases off once you hear the victims describe it themselves.
And the cases he finds most compelling, most difficult to deny, are the ones where multiple people felt the same attack at the same place at the same time.
Adam spoke to two aides to former national security adviser John Bolton about an incident when they were London in 2019.

AE: They're in a hotel room,and the window is open. They're getting ready to go out to dinner. Suddenly they feel in their heads this tremendous pressure. And they [hilite]hear this ringing tn their ear[/i] like what Jon Lee describes. And they look to each other, and they say, 'Do you hear that? do you feel that?' And they acknowledge that they both are experiencing the same thing. They both rush out of the room, and when they are outside of the room, it's gone, right. So, when you hear a story like that, it's, it's, you know, you have people who are experiencing the same thing.

Yes, that is indeed what you have! The other case "where multiple people felt the same attack" is another one of those stories we have heard several times before:

Quote:

Now this story happens in one of the .. (?)
And it involves a military officer who had spent time in, I believe, Afghanistan.
And he is in his car driving down a crowded busy road. And he has got his son in the back seat, in a child's seat.
I believe the son is two or three years old at the time. And they come to an intersection, and they stop because of traffic. And suddenly the father, who's driving the car, feels this tremendous pain in his head and ringing in his ears. And at that moment his son in the back seat starts bawling and screaming hysterically.

He's a military guy and he, because of his experience in war zones, has this concept, which we talk about in the podcast, get off the X! So if you feel like you are becoming the epicenter of a target of something, what you do is you try to do is get out of that space, right. So he guns it, pulls out of the intersection, and when he clears the intersection, he no longer has the pressure and feels the pain. And his son is quiet in the back.

So examples like that, I find them very compelling, because, you know, again there's two people experiencing something. In the case of a child, obviously, a child doesn't know, you know, psychogenic, what? You know, it doesn't make any sense, right?

So those are two cases that I find particularly convincing because they involve two people experiencing the same thing. And then again, once they move to a different location, the experience stops and the pain stops.

Now, I have also experienced screaming toddlers accompanied by pressure in the head and ringing in the ears. It has happened in cars, but also often on planes, where flight attendants prevented me from getting off the X, so I can't say if the pain would have stopped if I had succeeded. However, I suspect that it might have been the case even though I never thought that what I was experiencing was any kind of attack.

Adam Entous finds the second case "very compelling, because, you know, again there's two people experiencing something." People tend to experience something all the time, but notice how Entous (and probably the army dad, too) also takes the liberty to interpret the toddler's experience along with the experience of grown-ups who were able to describe their own experiences: As "two cases that I find particularly convincing because they involve two people experiencing the same thing."

How the **** does Entous know that army dad and toddler son experienced the same thing? Based on the description, I find it highly unlikely that they did. First of all because the father experienced a toddler screaming hysterically in the backseat. Why does anybody think that the toddler experienced the same thing?

I don't know if the military officer was a first-time father, but I suspect that he was (no other children in the car, apparently), which may explain why he thinks that toddlers who suddenly scream hysterically and then suddenly stop again are something unusual.

I can't say why this particular toddler in this situation, which we have now heard about so many times, starts screaming and why he stops, but I can offer a possible explanation for the latter: He stops because his father "guns it" and "pulls out of the intersection".

Experienced parents know that a distraction is usually the best way to make a hysterically screaming toddler stop screaming, which adds to my assumption that army dad was a first-time father. I don't know about Adam Entous.

To be continued ...

[dann]

For the sake of varity, news about Polymeropoulos:

Quote:

he says that to rule out probable adversaries when the culprit hasn’t been identified is an insult to those who were injured in the line of duty.

Common sense is in Mr. Polymeropoulos’s corner. Americans tended to suffer from the symptoms of Havana syndrome after being in places like China, Vietnam, Serbia, Russia and Cuba. He’s particularly suspicious of the last two, where many intelligence officers were when brought low by symptoms like debilitating headaches, dizziness, pressure and vibration in the head, ear pain and visual difficulties.
Havana Syndrome Revisited (Wall Street Journal, Mar 19, 2023)

In this case, common sense seems to be identical with cherry picking. Are we supposed to forget about places like Berlin, Bogota, London, New Delhi and Vienna? And American personnel in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan reported as among ‘Havana Syndrome’ victims (IntelliNews, July 21, 2021). Are they anti-American in those two countries? (I have no idea!)
Only one week before the CIA interim report was released, Geneva and Paris were added to the list of countries with 'Havana Syndrome' outbreaks. And are we supposed to forget about the 'syndrome' victims in Washington, DC?

As for his "visual difficulties", I assume that he must be thinking of his oft-mentioned loss of long distance vision (see post 1,764).
Won't somebody tell him about bifocals?! I think he can get a discount if he promises to wear them on TV.

[dann]

I will get back to the conclusion of the Anderson-Entous podcast tomorrow.
In the meantime, I can recommend Robert Bartholomew's new article:

Quote:

KEY POINTS
* A new government report has concluded that 'Havana Syndrome' was not caused by a secret weapon, but an array of health conditions and anxiety.
* While 'Havana Syndrome' appears destined to fade from the headlines, confirmation bias is likely to perpetuate its persistence.
* History is replete with examples where scientists have advocated for a particular position, only to have their claims discredited.
(...)
The intelligence community found that ‘Havana Syndrome’ was the result of a variety of existing health conditions, environmental factors, and anxiety—all of which were lumped into a new catch-all category. A contributing factor was the laundry list of common symptoms that were associated with it: headaches, nausea, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, memory problems, fatigue, tinnitus, insomnia; even nose bleeds. The most serious claims of brain damage and hearing loss were never proven. While the full intelligence report has not been released, officials familiar with it note that “environmental factors” included health conditions induced by such devices as malfunctioning air conditioning and ventilation systems.
What We Can Learn From the 'Havana Syndrome' Fiasco (Psychology Today, Mar 20, 2023)

[dann]

Quote:

AE: You know, for me, I don't know the cause of this. But when you talk to the people that we spoke to who had been affected, you realize that they were, you know, type A personalities. These people were at the peak of their careers. They were really, in some cases, very experienced or had been deployed to very dangerous places. These were not pushovers. These were really, really serious people.

And they were completely destroyed. I mean, physically destroyed. And they have no incentive to make up a story. Telling a story to their bosses, basically destroyed their careers.
They were basically shipped off - you know I think it's episode two where you hear Tony tell the story of how he, you know, was so frustrated with his deterioration. Having gone from basically being Jason Bourne in real life to being hobbled.
He was gonna kill himself, you know.

And that is a story that I've heard from so many of these people. So we are talking about here, like the prime, like the best of the best suddenly being, you know, really debilitated. And they saw their careers crash and burn over this. So really, my heart goes out to these people. Who, you know, have suffered a tremendous amount, right? And that skepticism, you know, it kills them. It really does. It kills them.
And I feel so bad for them. Because they don't really have futures anymore.

Anderson and Entous make the same mistake as the JAMA studies: They confuse psychogenesis with having an incentive. As if people who suffer from mass psychogenic illness are faking it in order to achieve some kind of benefits. But they aren't faking their symptoms. They misunderstand their symptoms as caused by something that doesn't actually cause them: in this case an imaginary sonic attack due to the specific trigger in this specific case: the misinterpretation of the sound of crickets. In another context, the trigger could have been a smell, What Happened to the Girls in Le Roy (NYT, Mar 7, 2012). Remember that a smell also triggered an outbreak of MPI at the U.S. embassy in Havana 30 years ago (see post 1,695).

So A&E make two mistakes about mass psychogenic illness (MPI):
They think that MPI is either 1) caused by a particular susceptiblity, a weakness: They must be "a bunch of nervous nellies". Or 2) the victims are faking it, i.e. they must have an "incentive to make up a story".

And since the 'Havana Syndrome' victims are so very experienced, prime, type A personalities, and really, really serious people, they can't possibly have come down with a bad case of MPI because that only happens to nervous nellies and pushovers.
The same argument against MPI as the cause of 'Havana Syndrome' appeared in this thread only seven minutes after I had posted the OP, and it has popped up a couple of times since then.

As for skepticism killing 'Havana Syndrome' sufferers, it's another one of those drama queen tricks used by Anderson & Entous. Nobody has died, be it from the 'syndrome' or from skepticism about it. So far, the 'Havana Syndrome' has only made people sick, which is bad enough. Skepticism is not what made them sick. What made them sick in the first place was the interpretation of cricket sounds as signs of an ongoing attack.
One of the things that contribute to making these people stay sick is bad journalism.
Bad journalism helps ruin these people's lives. It really does!

To be continued ...

[dann]

Quote:

AE: In my understanding, there ... haven't been cases being reported anywhere around the world since approximately February-March of last year, which is - maybe it's a coincidence or not - that's when Russia invades Ukraine. And roughly since then, there haven't been any reported cases. And I met recently with a senior official, who very much follows this and points to that correlation between when the invasion of Ukraine happens and when suddenly Havana Syndrome cases stop being reported.
And that person sees a connection, whether there is a connection I don't know.
(...)
But we really still don't know ... the US government hasn't figured out what happened.

We do know. The U.S. government has figured out what happened. All the headlines told us so:
'Havana syndrome not caused by foreign adversary, US intelligence says
'Havana syndrome' not linked to foreign adversary, says US intelligence
US Finds No Evidence to Link Adversaries to 'Havana syndrome'
'Havana syndrome' not caused by foreign adversary, U.S. intelligence finds
There is even this article by Adam Entous, who must have changed his mind since March 1, 2023:
Foreign Adversarries 'Very Unlikely' to Blame for Havana Syndrome, Intelligence Review Finds

As for the "coincidence or not": The CIA interim report was released on Jan 20, 2022. One week earlier, on Jan 13, there were still media reports about 'syndrome' cases, this time in Paris and Geneva, and Russia was still the suspected adversarial perpetrator:

Quote:

Four more US diplomats working in Geneva and Paris have fallen ill with a suspected neurological illness known as "Havana syndrome", US media report.
Three diplomats became sick in the Swiss city and one in the French capital last summer, with some 200 people affected over five years.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the American government was working to get to the bottom of the mystery.
There are fears an adversary may have targeted diplomats with microwaves.
Mr Blinken said the issue had been raised with Russia but no determination had been made.
'Havana syndrome': US baffled after new cases in Europe (BBC, Jan 13, 2022)

After the CIA interim report telling intelligence officials, diplomats and other U.S. government workers all around the world that there was no reason to fear that "an adversary may have targeted diplomats with microwaves," the alleged attacks stopped. Not even David Relman's minority report in early February and CBS 60 Minutes later that same month pushing the attack narrative were able to revive the 'syndrome' - except in the community of Targeted Individuals. The fears of U.S. government employees seemed to have been assuaged.
Coincidence? Very unlikely!

It is absurd to use Russia's invasion of the Ukraine as an argument for the hypothesis that the 'syndrome' was caused by a Russian microwave attack. Another very outspoken fan of the Russian-microwave-attack idea (see post 1,820):

Quote:

Mr. Polymeropoulos calls “directed-energy technology” the perfect covert weapon because it can remove the most capable officers from the battlefield, create fear and distract. It also leaves no fingerprints like a pistol would so it’s “nonattributable.” With a home-field advantage, it wouldn’t be hard to unleash it on unsuspecting Americans.

Why the **** would the Russians stop using a weapon that "can remove the most capable officers from the battlefield, create fear and distract" just when it would be needed the most to remove capable Ukrainian officers from the battlefield? Why abstain from using it when "it wouldn’t be hard to unleash it on [the] unsuspecting" Zelensky?!
The idea is absurd, no matter how many senior officials have managed to persuade Anderson and Entous that it is sound! (Pun not intended, but now that it's there, I really, really like it! )

The end - for now.
But it just occurred to be that I should probably comment on the weird alliance that has been formed between the Russian media and the Targeted Individuals. Also interesting in this context: For some reason, the TIs seem to be very fond of James Giordano!

[dann]

The title is a little misleading. Faye Flam knows that the 'Havana syndrome' is not a mystery. She knows what causes it. And she knows what doesn't:

Quote:

The microwaves emitted in ovens are absorbed by water, which is present in food, and turned into heat. That causes food to get hot, from the outside in, which Rofer points out should be obvious to anyone who has tried to defrost meat. Similarly, a microwave weapon would burn the outside of your head long before it would cook cells on the inside.
Another point against the microwave weapon theory is a large body of research conducted over decades on the safety of exposure to military radar equipment, power lines, mobile phones and WiFi.
Bioengineering professor Ken Foster of the University of Pennsylvania started conducting such studies for the Navy in the 1970s. When I interviewed him for this 2018 column, he told me he found that microwaves can stimulate the cochlea and cause people to hear a clicking sound — something called the Frey effect. He tested this on himself.
The Frey effect was the prime suspect, according to a panel assembled by the National Academy of Sciences, but Foster says this panel was mostly medical doctors and didn’t include physicists with the right expertise. He says this effect would not be able to cause internal damage without also causing external damage.
Havana Syndrome Is a Mystery, But Not of Physics (Bloomberg, Mar 2, 2023)

[dann]

After PETA, another society for the protection of animals has joined the protest against the DoD's experiments with ferret brains:
Stop Replicating "Havana Syndrome" in Animals' Brains (National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS))

But the NAVS has misunderstood what this experiment is actually about.
There is no doubt that the DoD has granted money for the torture of ferrets in the name of (alleged) science, but "Replicating "Havana Syndrome" in Animals' Brains" requires that the animals are 1) exposed to the sound of crickets, and 2) persuaded to believe that it is the sound of an attack that will damage their brains.

1) is easily accomplished by using either actual crickets or recordings of cricket sounds.
However, the animal psychologists I've spoken to all assure me that
2) is impossible. It just can't be done.

[dann]

Kamala Harris Sick And Battled With Havana Syndrome, But Is She Sick Now? Illness and Health Update (GeniusCelebs, Mar 9, 2023)

Well, it's not as if other news media hasn't resorted to reporting entirely fake news about the 'syndrome' and its victims, is it?

[dann]

Evaluation of the DoD's Response to Anomalous Health Incidents, or "Havana Syndrome" (Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense, Mar 9, 2023)

I don't think that even the redacted parts of this report would be interesting if one had access to them.
And not a word about ferrets (Anomalous Animal Health Incidents), but maybe that's what's been redacted!

[dann]

Originally Posted by dann

But it just occurred to be that I should probably comment on the weird alliance that has been formed between the Russian media and the Targeted Individuals. Also interesting in this context: For some reason, the TIs seem to be very fond of James Giordano!

In post 1,752, I mentioned that Targeted Individual Len Ber was on RT / Whistleblowers with John Kiriakou. Also here: Havana Syndrome (Sovren.media, Mar 3, 2023)

The community of Targeted Individual thinks that the mainstream media is biassed against them, so it it not surprising that Len Ber, a former citizen of Russia, uses Russian media to get his message out. For a transcript of parts of the video see post 1,752 above.

But what makes Russia interested in this? I have noticed a far-from-subtle change in Russian media's reporting about the 'syndrome' over the years. I may have missed something because Google tends to hide articles from RT and Sputnik (and also from Chinese Xinhua) unless you specifically search for those. RT was happy to report when researchers revealed the sound of the attack to be recordings of crickets (as was I). Also here. And at one point, an RT studio host actually wore a tinfoil hat when reporting on the 'Havana syndrome'! I posted about this in the thread, but my link from that post is dead now. And back then, Russian media also called the idea of microwave weapons 'science fiction'. (Cuba still does!)

But at one point, when both Blinken and Burns, more or less openly, had started accusing Russia of being the perpetrator of the alleged 'syndrome' attacks, Russian media went on the offensive and countered with their own accusations: The 'syndrome' was real and US intelligence agencies were the perpetrator. And nowadays Russian media loves the TIs, who believe that the CIA and/or similar agencies are V2K'ing them.
RT used to refer to the crickets to ridicule the USA, but now they accuse the USA of dismissing the allegedly very plausible 'syndrome' "as the product of crickets", nnd Len Ber is invited into the studio to talk about how he is being attacked almost permanently on U.S. soil.

Quote:

In 2016, American diplomats began complaining of a variety of medical symptoms that included things from physical pain to ringing in the ears to cognitive difficulties. These symptoms were largely ignored at first. And then the term Havana Syndrome was coined. Dr. Leonid ‘Len’ Ber joins John Kiriakou to discuss his own case of Havana Syndrome and why the FBI is blaming crickets.
https://sovren.media/video/havana-syndrome-2565.html (Whistleblowers/RT, Mar 2, 2023)

With the ODNI report, the US government has declared that there never was any attack by a foreign adversary, whereas Russia has embraced the idea of 'Havana Syndrome' and supports the TI community. I assume that this is Russia's way to sow confusion and distrust in the U.S. government. I can't imagine that it will help Russia in any way. After all, the TI community is small and very fringe, and I don't think that this will change. Or maybe it is meant for a Russian audience as a kind of 'This is what the USA is like'.

I have seen no sign that Cuba intends to follow suit. In all the Cuban articles about the 'syndrome' I've seen, Cuba has remained devoted to science and facts and hasn't embraced or even aired these conspiracy theories. And this is not the only point where Russia and Cuba go their separate ways.

[dann]

Quote:

The U.S. Department of State has agreed to settle an engineer's suit alleging he was denied promotions and positions overseas after suffering a brain injury brought on by the so-called Havana Syndrome
State Dept. Strikes Deal To End 'Havana Syndrome' Bias Suit (Law360, Mar 22, 2023)

The suing engineer is probably Mark Lenzi, who claimed to have been attacked in Guangzhou (see posts 1702 and 1,655). Post 1,655 has links to five earlier posts.

[dann]

Quote:

Patients are tormented by creeping, crawling sensations in their skin, but docs say there is no evidence of bugs or parasites
(...)
Are there any other characteristics of Morgellons besides the itching symptoms and skin lesions?
Patients often become extremely invested in studying their condition. I've had people who send me photographs tell me that they have invested thousands of dollars in very sophisticated microscopes to track these so-called organisms living in their skin. (According to the MRF, the condition also causes, "joint pain, debilitating fatigue, changes in cognition, memory loss, mood disturbance, and serious neurological manifestations.")
What is Morgellons Disease? Is it a physical or psychological condition? (Scientific American, May 13, 2009)

So sensations that something physical is going on, i.e. 'their symptoms are real', but no evidence whatsoever of a causative agent.
The symptoms are very similar to 'Havana syndrome'. Electromagnetic hypsersensibility would be a serious neurological manifestation, wouldn't it?!

[dann]

Originally Posted by dann

For some reason, the TIs seem to be very fond of James Giordano!

As I have mentioned before:
On the one hand, the community of targeted individuals aren't happy with the way the U.S. government has handled the 'Havana syndrome'. They think that their own problems are being neglected because the government agencies have been focussed on diplomats, spies, military personnel and other government staff, and they want the same recognition as being the victims of targeted attacks by (some kind of) adversary/-ies. It's the MeToo! movement of people who believe that they are the victims of electronic harassment (Wikipedia) and envy 'official' victims like Marc Polymeropoulos (MP):

Quote:

Replying to @MicrowaveNews, @ODNIgov and @Mpolymer
But is he buying that civilians are also attacked? The amount of looking down upon civilian cases is almost as big as a Chinese balloon. Marc, this is not a dig. I understand your situation more than you imagine. But the longer you hide your head in the sand, the sillier it gets. #HavanaSyndrome is not some kind of exclusive club for people of government importance. Be the reasonable man you aspire to portray.
Len Ber MD (on Twitter, Mar 20, 2023)

It refers to the recent WSJ article based almost exclusively on claims made by Marc Polymeropoulos (see posts 1,820 and 1,823).

There is no doubt that Len Ber understands MP's situation. Probably not more than MP can imagine, but as much as MP fears and hates. MP isn't happy with this attempt by Len Ber to embrace him because it threatens to ruin his claim to be suffering from a "combat injury" (see post 1,659) that he got when he was allegedly attacked by Russians with microwave weapons. Where "Mr. Polymeropoulos sees the release of this [ODNI] report as an effort by Washington to sweep the whole thing under the rug," the whole thing being "the war between U.S. and Cuban intelligence," and doesn't see anybody who was not a combatant in this war as entitled to recognition and support, Len Ber sees him as a fellow sufferer of electronic harassment who doesn't want to share.

But on the other hand, the recognition of 'Havana syndrome' as an attack was the very thing that gave the TIs hope that they might somehow achieve the same recognition as victims of an attack, which is why he appeals to the reasonable man MP allegedly aspires to portray. A lot of good that will do him since neither MP nor the U.S. government will ever recognize the claims of the TI community the same way that 'Havana syndrome' was at one point fully recognized as having been caused by a sonic or microwave (or whatever) attack:

Quote:

The government resorts to labeling plaintiffs claims as absurd, fantastical, and conspiratorial in the historic lawsuit filed by Targeted Justice and 18 plaintiffs (Positively NOT a legal opinion)
Condescension - Defendant’s Strategy Revealed (Len Ber on Substack, Mar 23, 2023)

The irony is that the TI claims aren't the least bit more absurd, fantastical, and conspiratorial than the 'Havana syndrome' claims. There never was the least bit of evidence for any of them. And as for what appeared to be medical evidence of radio frequency attacks, Dr. Michael Hoffer appears to have diagnosed several cases in people who were never anywhere near a combat zone, a real one or the imaginary one in Havana.

As for the two recent podcast series, Entous & Anderson's on ViCE and Nicky Woolf's on Project Brazen, judged by Len Ber's poll, members of the TI community seem to favor Nicky Woolf's. I don't really see why they favor any one of them over the other since both series carefully avoided mentioning other targeted individuals than the ones who were officially recognized as having been targeted by foreign adversaries in AHI attacks. (I am not 100% sure that the TI community was never mentioned, but I'll spare myself from having to listen to the two series again. I don't remember TIs being mentioned, and mentioning them would ruin the story that both podcast series were trying to tell: that innocent diplomats and spies were targeted in a real attack by real enemies with real RF weapons.)

If I have to venture a guess, I think that Nicky Woolf's podcast series appeals more to the TIs because Beatrice Golomb figures so prominently in it.

And then there's James Giordano. Why is Len Ber so fond of Giordano?

I am not sure that he has actually read what Giordano writes. If he has, I don't think he fully understands what he read. I criticized James Giordano's article in detail in post 1,795. I think that Len Ber may have been taken in by James Giordano's appeal to compassion and pity for the victims. But 1) Giordano's appeal to compassion is nothing but an attempt to cancel all criticism of his own attack narrative, and 2) he would never dream of appealing to compassion for the ordinary, noncombatant TIs. Like all the other warmongers, Giordano sees them as jeopardizing his claim to being one of the researchers who have allegedly discovered an entirely new syndrome. (Is the Nobel Prize Committee watching?!)

Unlike Michael Hoffer (apparently), James Giordano won't let just anybody into the fold. For his claim to stand a chance, which I don't think it will for much longer, he knows that he will have to insist on the exceptionalism, the uniqueness, of the cases that he deemed worthy of being recognized as having been caused by microwave attacks.
Giordano may accept cases like Polymeropoulos's, but cases like Len Ber's ruin the picture he is trying to paint.

[dann]

This is the message from the two U.S. intelligence officials that the attack conspiracy nuts are trying to deny:

Quote:

The assessment is based not just on a lack of evidence but also existing evidence that actually “points against” a foreign actor being involved, the second official said.
Intel community bats down main theory behind ‘Havana Syndrome’ incidents (Politico, Mar 1,2023)

[dann]

On March 9, in post 1,774, I mentioned the case of Iranian schoolgirls that appeared to have been victims of a gas attack, but in many ways it looked more like mass psychogenic illness.
Rob Palmer, 'The Well-Known Skeptic', has a conversation with Robert Bartholomew about this recent Iranian MPI case and the 'Havana Syndrome':

Iranian Schoolgirl Gas Attacks and Havana Syndrome: A Conversation with Robert Bartholomew (Skeptical Inquirer, The Well-Known Skeptic, Mar 15, 2023)

Quote:

In November 2022, reports first surfaced about a poison gas attack at a school in Iran affecting over 200 students. This was just the beginning. Reports of poison gas attacks happening all across the country quickly followed. As of this writing, the count of victims stands at over 7,000. The victims: mostly girls and women students at over 100 schools in nearly as many cities.
Speculation regarding a villain has ranged from the Iranian government seeking revenge for the ongoing mass protests regarding compulsory wearing of the hijab to this being a false flag operation performed by enemies of the Iranian government who are seeking to make the authorities look evil. But is there another explanation—perhaps one where there are actually no evildoers poisoning helpless children and civilians for political ends?
Indeed, an expert in mass psychogenic illness, Dr. Robert Bartholomew, believes that is the case here. He believes there have been no such poison gas attacks against schoolgirls in Iran, just as he has for years maintained that no American (or Canadian) diplomats were mysteriously attacked in Cuba or elsewhere despite nearly six years’ worth of claims about Havana Syndrome made by the U.S. government.
I have been fascinated by Bartholomew’s skeptical take on Havana Syndrome since 2017 when the story of the “Sonic Attacks in Cuba” first hit the media, and I’ve written about this subject on three occasions for Skeptical Inquirer. I Interviewed Bartholomew for two articles and also wrote a review of his seminal 2020 book Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria.
For those unfamiliar with this topic, let me provide an overview: Beginning in 2017, the U.S. government claimed there were ongoing attacks against its embassy personnel in Cuba by unknown forces using unknown weapons. In subsequent years, the scope of these claimed attacks broadened to include intelligence agents, other government officials, and even family members stationed in a long list of countries.
Iranian Schoolgirl Gas Attacks and Havana Syndrome: A Conversation with Robert Bartholomew (Center for Inquiry on YouTube, Mar 15, 2023 - 34:42 min.)

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I AGREE

ETA: The European Parliament seems to believe that the girls in Iran have actually been exposed to real poison attacks. I can believe that the Iranian government may have tried to "silence women and girls", but the poison story still sounds more like a case of MPI, which I assume is the reason why no "transparent and definitive report on the chemical attacks" has been issued and no "alleged perpetrators" have appeared in court.
This lack of perpetrators and 'smoking guns', i.e. traces of chemicals, sounds familiar, doesn't it?!

Quote:

The European parliament has adopted a resolution calling on the UN Human Rights Council to conduct an independent probe into a wave of chemical attacks on Iranian schoolgirls.
The motion, which passed by 516 votes in favor, five against and 14 abstentions on Thursday, vehemently condemned “this atrocious attempt to silence women and girls in Iran,” and expressed “its deep solidarity with the Iranian students poisoned in the incidents and with their families.”
(...)
The Iranian government, police and judiciary have not issued a transparent and definitive report on the chemical attacks, vaguely claiming that dozens of arrests were made, without any sign of court action against alleged perpetrators.
European Parliament Demands Investigation Over Chemical Attacks On Iranian Schoolgirls (Iranintl.com, Mar 16, 2023)

[dann]

Short video presenting most of the theories that have been proposed as explanations for the 'syndrome', ending with mass psychogenic illness:

Quote:

Finally, some researchers have debated the possibility that this could actually be a modern example of a mass psychogenic illness, a shared but otherwise unexplained psychological reaction, perhaps to the stressful working conditions that some Americans might have felt.
Although again, there isn't wide support for this conclusion. For one, many of the syndrome sufferers were reportedly unknown to each other or at least unaware of their colleagues' comparable experiences. It is not as if any one person was influencing the behavior of anyone else.
But another reason why some doubt the psychogenic explanation is because it's thought that any of the symptoms just wouldn't have been triggered by something like that, including the almost universal characteristic: ringing in the ears.
Havana Syndrome: Conspiracy Theory or Genuine Threat? | Unveiled (Daily Motion, Mar 23, 2023 - 8:15 min.)

The lies are being repeated again and again as they have been since the beginning. This is how "one person was influencing the behavior of" everybody working at the U.S. embassy in Havana on New Year's Eve, 2017:

Quote:

And he records it and he actually brings the recording, this is around Christmas time, New Year's. He actually goes to a New Year's party at the embassy. And he brings the recording and plays it for some of his colleagues to see if that is also what they heard, right?!
The ‘Havana Syndrome’ with Jon Lee Anderson and Adam Entous (Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast, Apple Podcasts, Feb 21, 2023 - 54:21 min.)

After that, the State Department and the media took over and spread the lie to U.S. government staff all over the world.
As for the "almost universal characteristic:ringing in the ears," it was only almost universal in Havana, Cuba, where it was due to either crickets, in the majority of cases, or ordinary tinnitus in the rest.

It would be nice if the lies could be stamped out, which may allow Cuba to return to pre-'syndrome' conditions and get back the tourists that the country lost due to the exacerbated blockade and the pandemic:

Cubans dance to their carnival rhythms in Havana (Daily Motion - 1:06 min.)
Cuba cabaret stars don't fade, even in their 70s (Daily Motion - 1:59 min.)
Cuban Neighbourhood Restaurant (Daily Motion - 1:52 min.)
Cuba before Corona (Daily Motion - 2:08 min.)
Rooftop Salsa, Cuba (Daily Motion - 2:43 min.)
Buena Vista Social Club Documentary movie (Daily Motion - 1:33 min.)
Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club At Carnegie Hall (Full Album) (Daily Motion - 1:28:15 min.)
Afro Cuban All Stars - A Toda Cuba Le Gusta (Full Album (Daily Motion - 55:49 min.)
A Tuba to Cuba (Daily Motion - 1:23:59 min.)
Cubans Dancing Salsa, Rumba & Reggaeton in London (Dancers from "Rakatan" (Daily Motion - 2:25 min.)

[dann]

I mentioned and linked to this article by neurologist Robert Baloh when it first appeared on The Conversation on Sep 30, 2021. It was updated on March 7, 2023, i.e. after the ODNI report, and it is as relevant now as it was then: Havana syndrome fits the pattern of psychosomatic illness – but that doesn’t mean symptoms aren’t real.

Other websites have noticed its relevance after the release of the ODNI report and republished it from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license, sometimes with a new title. The most recent example is: Is the mysterious 'Havana Syndrome' really a psychosomatic illness? (Unexplained Mysteries, Mar 24, 2023).

It you didn't read it then (and even if you did), you should use the opportunity to catch up.

[dann]

Is your loved one a diplomat? Or a CIA agent? (Or just one of those guys who claims to be?)
Forget about all those other boring ideas for Easter gifts. This is the one you've been waiting for!
ANNOYING CICADA MAGNET IS NONETHELESS AUTHENTIC (Hackaday, Mar 18, 2023)

[dann]

In post 1,823, I quoted Adam Entous saying:

Originally Posted by dann

Quote:

In my understanding, there ... haven't been cases being reported anywhere around the world since approximately February-March of last year, which is - maybe it's a coincidence or not - that's when Russia invades Ukraine. And roughly since then, there haven't been any reported cases. And I met recently with a senior official, who very much follows this and points to that correlation between when the invasion of Ukraine happens and when suddenly Havana Syndrome cases stop being reported.
And that person sees a connection, whether there is a connection I don't know.

In the same post, I pointed out that there was a much more likely reason why the reports of new cases of the 'Havana Syndrome' stopped after January 2022: the release of the CIA interim report on Jan 20, 2022:

Originally Posted by dann

As for the "coincidence or not": The CIA interim report was released on Jan 20, 2022. One week earlier, on Jan 13, there were still media reports about 'syndrome' cases, this time in Paris and Geneva, and Russia was still the suspected adversarial perpetrator:

Quote:

Four more US diplomats working in Geneva and Paris have fallen ill with a suspected neurological illness known as "Havana syndrome", US media report.
Three diplomats became sick in the Swiss city and one in the French capital last summer, with some 200 people affected over five years.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the American government was working to get to the bottom of the mystery.
There are fears an adversary may have targeted diplomats with microwaves.
Mr Blinken said the issue had been raised with Russia but no determination had been made.
'Havana syndrome': US baffled after new cases in Europe (BBC, Jan 13, 2022)

After the CIA interim report telling intelligence officials, diplomats and other U.S. government workers all around the world that there was no reason to fear that "an adversary may have targeted diplomats with microwaves," the alleged attacks stopped. Not even David Relman's minority report in early February and CBS 60 Minutes later that same month pushing the attack narrative were able to revive the 'syndrome' - except in the community of Targeted Individuals. The fears of U.S. government employees seemed to have been assuaged.
Coincidence? Very unlikely!

It is absurd to use Russia's invasion of the Ukraine as an argument for the hypothesis that the 'syndrome' was caused by a Russian microwave attack.

But Adam Entous, Jon Lee Anderson and the anonymous "senior official" are not alone:

Quote:

True, reports of Havana Syndrome have sharply dropped off since the start of the war in Ukraine. That gives the intelligence community breathing room to put this issue to bed.
For the time being. Given space, the Russians will advance.
US intelligence community has proven it can't investigate Havana Syndrome, it should let UK and Australia try (Washington Examiner, Mar 1, 2023)

It may comfort Anderson and Entous that there may be a career opportunity for them at the Washington Examiner (Media Bias/Fact Check).

[dann]

A Danish translation of Robert Bartholomew's recent article in Skeptic: Dødsfald: Havana-syndromet (2016-2023) R.I.P. (Skeptica.dk, Mar 26, 2023)

[Random person]

Originally Posted by dann

I had my brain scanned in 2019 and didn't ask to see the results. I wouldn't have known what to look for anyway. I was quite content when the neurologist told me that nothing was abnormal.

OCD can't be diagnosed only with brain scanning.

[dann]

More disinformation from new member Random person.

Brain scanning is actually useful when diagnosing OCD: What does an OCD brain look like? (Yale School of Medicine, Oct 10, 2014)

OCD is an interesting phenomenon, but in the context of the 'Havana Syndrome' it seems to be of limited relevance. I have only seen it mentioned here:

Quote:

If a Frey-like effect can be induced on central nervous system tissue responsible for space and motion information processing, it likely would induce similarly idiosyncratic responses. More general neuropsychiatric effects from electromagnetic stimuli are well-known and are being used increasingly to treat psychiatric and neurologic disorders. In 2008, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to treat major depression in adults who do not respond to antidepressant medications (Cook, 2018). Ten years later, the FDA approved office-based TMS as a treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) (FDA, 2018) and portable TMS to treat migraine (Jeffrey, 2013).
An Assessment of Illness in U.S. Government Employees and Their Families at Overseas Embassies (2020), Chapter 4, Plausible Mechanisms (The National Academies Press)

And I haven't seen anybody suggesting that foreign adversaries were using portable TMS to treat migraine in diplomats and spies in Havana or anywhere else.

In other contexts, for instance in cases of "harassment and/or stalking", the possibility of OCD should be factored in:

Quote:

Unsurprisingly, some persons with OCD engage in harassment and/or stalking. Meloy has argued that there is the convergence of five psychosocial factors in stalking: social incompetence, isolation and loneliness, obsessional thinking, pathological narcissism and aggression.
Obsessive compulsive disorder and obsessive compulsive personality disorder and the criminal law (National Library of Medicine, May 5, 2020)