Back in 2017, we made you aware of the “sonic attacks” on diplomatic staff in Cuba (and on China in 2018) and now scientists are saying the ailments could have been caused by microwave weapons. (Most of the attacks took place between 2016 and 2017 but there have been a handful of reported incidents this year.)
“Though a March report based on the examinations of 21 diplomats who served in Cuba didn’t link the attacks to microwaves, the study’s lead author, Douglas Smith, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Brain Injury and Repair, told The New York Times that the diplomats likely suffered brain injuries and that microwaves are considered the culprit.
‘It’s almost like a concussion, but without a concussion — meaning that they look like individuals who have persistent concussion symptoms but have no history of head impact,’ Smith said, describing the injuries and explaining that learning the cause is vital to determining the best means of preventing it. ‘Just like we have ways to prevent people from having a concussion, you could think of maybe protecting your brain from these energy sources,’ he said.”1
Although this is only a theory, investigators have reportedly “torn apart buildings where diplomatic employees encountered the sounds but found no acoustic devices,”2 leading law enforcement to believe that the injuries “were the result of microwaves beamed from a nearby location and that the “sounds” were merely a means of masking the microwave attacks.”3 It’s also believed that the actual weapon is likely portable, i.e., handheld or mounted on a vehicle. While most devices like this would only work over the span of only a few blocks, high-powered versions could fire microwave beams up to several miles. (Remember, governments, including ours and Russia, have been trying to weaponize microwaves for decades.)
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The reason these incidents have been explained as “sonic” or “acoustic” is because they coincided with high-pitched sounds.
Beatrice Golomb, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, said in response to the theory that, “Everything fits. The specifics of the varied sounds that the diplomats reported hearing during the apparent inciting episodes, such as chirping, ringing and buzzing, cohere in detail with known properties of so-called ‘microwave hearing,’ also known as the Frey effect.”4
The Frey effect, named for scientist Allan Frey, shows that microwaves can dupe the brain into hearing what it perceives to be normal sounds. This may account for the loud ringing, buzzing and grinding experienced by the injured diplomats. (And for the symptoms they suffered from later, including sharp ear pain, headaches, ringing in one ear, vertigo, disorientation, attention issues and signs consistent with mild traumatic brain injury or concussion.)
On Sunday, the US State Department said in a statement, that they would neither confirm nor deny the possibility that microwaves were behind the diplomatic injuries:
“The health and well-being of our personnel remains our top priority. The investigation into the origin of these symptoms continues. The inter-agency community is working diligently to determine the cause of the symptoms, as well as to develop mitigation strategies.”5
The Cuban government, who previously denied involvement in the attacks, has yet to respond.
The sophistication of these attacks has led US officials to suspect the involvement of a third country, perhaps as retribution against the United States or Canada (who have also seen their diplomats targeted) or to drive a wedge between those countries and Cuba. (Russia is one of the few countries that have used microwave technology before.)
