Merged US may close Cuba Embassy over 'health attacks'

[dann]

Brand new article about the 'syndrome', short and remarkably to the point, as to be expected when the author, Dr Christian Jarrett, is a cognitive neuroscientist and science writer:

... in 2018, a group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania reported that the results of brain scans they’d performed on 21 former US Cuba-based staff who’d experienced the neurological symptoms showed no significant abnormalities.

When physical symptoms are experienced in the absence of any identifiable physical cause, such as a virus – and especially when the symptoms show signs of contagiousness, first appearing in one person and then appearing in others with whom they are in close contact – then one plausible explanation is mass psychogenic illness. This means the ultimate cause of the illness is people’s beliefs, which then ‘infect’ others, potentially leading to a mass outbreak. Some experts argue controversially that this is the most likely cause of Havana Syndrome.

Mass psychogenic illness has a few key components. The first is that a set of similar health symptoms emerges among a group of people who are in close contact; the second is that it often occurs in a context of intense stress or anxiety; and finally, to be confirmed as psychogenic, there must be an absence of any known ongoing organic cause, such as a virus, bacteria, poison or cutting-edge sonic weaponry.
What is causing Havana Syndrome, the mysterious illness that has struck hundreds of US diplomats? (BBC Science Focus, Dec 14, 2021)

 

[dann]

... the evolving effort to deal with the episodes, which have spanned the globe and generated fears of stealth foreign attacks, is complicated by officials’ inability to establish a clear diagnosis for a spate of symptoms that while sometimes debilitating are also common, and to identify who or what is causing them.
Officials have detected no patterns among apparent victims in their effort to better understand and attribute the incidents, despite an extensive, ongoing investigation by the government, which includes the CIA and other agencies, according to officials. And, deepening the mystery, most of those who do report symptoms — labeled anomalous health incidents (AHI) by the government — turn out to have some other identifiable condition.
Unanswered questions loom over Biden administration push to strengthen ‘Havana Syndrome’ response (Washington Post, Dec 15, 2021)

Yes, it is very hard to come up with a coherent diagnosis when the one that makes sense is frowned upon and may cost you your job as a medical investigator.

“In a significant majority of cases where individuals have come forward with symptoms, they can be attributed to some particular illness or condition, or they’re reporting out of an abundance of caution and the symptoms do not meet AHI criteria,” said a person familiar with the matter, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic.
(...)
Officials are also seeking to better educate medical staffers at missions worldwide, instructing them to be receptive to potential victims’ experiences — and they stress that skepticism is no longer the norm.
(...)
The new law references “qualifying injuries to the brain,” even though administration experts say they do not currently have proof that the mysterious ailments are brain injuries.
“That’s one of the big challenges we have,” a State Department official said. “There’s no one test where you say, ‘Aha! This is an AHI. I can see this on a scan.’”

That really needed to be be made clear!

 

[dann]

Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) joins Andrea Mitchell to discuss how the Biden administration is addressing to the needs of more than 200 victims of Havana Syndrome. “It's important for us to keep a focus on this not just to make sure that the people who were attacked, get the help they need, but also to find out who's responsible, how they're doing it and put an end to it,” says Sen. Shaheen.
Sen. Shaheen: State Dept. needs to ‘find out who is responsible’ for Havana Syndrome (MSNBC, Dec 15, 2021)

This one's pretty easy, Shaheen: You are!
And so are your colleagues Marco Rubio and Susan Collins, among others.

 

[dann]

I assume that this is just same old, same old, and that the 'cross-functional team' is not yet another commission. And I think that the 'Interagency Coordinator for Anomalous Health Incidents' has already been instated to replace Pamela Spratlen, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they actually hope that having more people coordinate new investigations is the way to come up with proof that Putin has been attacking U.S. agents and diplomats with ray guns:

Havana Syndrome
Lawmakers are also taking an interest in Havana Syndrome, the mysterious ailment that's plagued US government officials and diplomats overseas in places like Cuba, Austria and Russia.
People seemingly afflicted by 'Havana Syndrome' have reported symptoms like nausea, vertigo, hearing and sight issues and a ringing of the ears known as tinnitus.
The 2022 NDAA orders Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to create a 'cross-functional team' to examine military-related cases of Havana Syndrome - referred to in the text and in formal settings as 'anomalous health incidents,' or AHI. It also calls on Biden to appoint a 'Interagency Coordinator for Anomalous Health Incidents' dedicated to the matter.US intelligence officials still haven't released an official explanation for what is sickening dozens of Americans stationed overseas, though one theory involves targeted 'microwave' attacks from Russia.
However, the explanation lacks evidence in some of the reported cases and the intel community has not even been able to confirm they were attacks in the first place.
If progressives want to influence defense they need to get on the committees': Democrats are reeling after coming away from negotiations empty handed while Republicans secured a $25billion boost (Daily Mail, Dec 16, 2021)

 

[dann]

Warmongering, pure and simple

Media Bias Fact Check says that National Review (NR) is "mostly factual" but with a right-wing bias. The latter is true, but the new article about the 'Havana Syndrome', Is Russia Inflicting Brain Damage on CIA Officers and Diplomats? (NR, Dec 19, 2021), doesn't concern itself with facts.

At first, the 'syndrome' is described as "another ominous scheme that may bear Moscow’s fingerprints." And of course, it may, so why mention that not one single 'fingerprint', Russian or otherwise, has been found so far?

Then Cuba, "apparently served as Russia’s accomplice in targeting U.S. and Canadian officials stationed on the island," another idea that also doesn't have one single fact to back it up.

And according to NR, it's not that the White House has no evidence that makes it seem likely that Russia or Cuba has done anything to harm U.S. diplomats and agents. In fact, nothing at all has been established about the cause of the so-called anomalous health incidents (AHI). But the NR can tell us that Washington just "is not yet prepared to acknowledge the cause," which, of course, is a bit different from not having found any cause.

But one thing is certain, in spite of no factual evidence: AHIs are "an innocuous term that masks the brutal reality of these deliberate and ongoing attacks."

And now that it has been established without any reference to facts that AHIs are the result of attacks, the NR comes up with imaginary facts as its reference: "The attacks, the (NAS) report added, were the result of “directed” and “pulsed” energy, meaning the victims were specifically targeted."

Bad and unsubstantiated as the NAS report was, it never said this. This is a very obvious lie published by this allegedly "mostly factual" magazine, and to make it worse, the article calls the alleged NAS findings, "this well-researched and unambiguous conclusion by experts."

The NAS report isn't unambiguous. It favors one of many hypotheses but never gets anywhere close to any "unambiguous conclusion". And David Relman, the leader of the NAS group, has recently expressed even more doubts about their findings. (See the quotation from the Salon article, Oct 21, 2021, in post 1050.)

But why worry about facts and truths when other things are so much more important?

"Let’s hope that protracted debate about sufficiency of evidence does not delay the moment of truth and accountability."

 

[steenkh]

At first, the 'syndrome' is described as "another ominous scheme that may bear Moscow’s fingerprints." And of course, it may, so why mention that not one single 'fingerprint', Russian or otherwise, has been found so far?

That is the fingerprint: the Russians are so sophisticated that their fingerprint is that there is no fingerprint …

 

[dann]

That is the fingerprint: the Russians are so sophisticated that their fingerprint is that there is no fingerprint …

Indeed! And you reach "the moment of truth and accountability" so much faster when you don't let yourself be bothered by minor details like "sufficiency of evidence" ...

 

[dann]

Could You Benefit from Filing a 'Havana Syndrome' Energy Attack Injury Claim?

I bet this won't slow down the growing number of new cases. I think it's the Omicron version of the 'syndrome':

"Could You Benefit from Filing a 'Havana Syndrome' Energy Attack Injury Claim?" reads an advertisement from one law firm, Sullo & Sullo of Houston. "It could be in your best interests to speak to an experienced Havana Syndrome energy attack injury lawyer."
Legal, financial fights mount as 'Havana Syndrome' goes unsolved (NBC News, Dec 22, 2021)

The article includes a video, 25:19 min.

"Fighting an Invisible Enemy: The Voices of Havana Syndrome" will stream on NBC News NOW on Friday, Dec. 24, at 4 p.m. ET. and be available on Peacock on Dec. 27.


ETA: I just finished watching the NBC News video, and I am sure that it will contribute to creating more 'Havana Syndrome' sufferers.
I have already mentioned the Danish case of the girls vaccinated against HPV as the largest case of mass psychogenic illness in Denmark that I am familiar with. It gained momentum when a TV channel, TV2.dk aired the documentary De Vaccinerede Piger – Syge og Svigtede', i.e. 'The Vaccinated Girls - Sick and Abandoned'. It showed the girls, had them talk about their suffering, and let the people who believed them described how they had been let down by the health-care system. The health-care workers who believed the girls were portrayed as heroes who came to the rescue of the poor girls.

It took years to convince the general public that the girls who had actual ailments didn't get them from the vaccines and that the majority of the girls suffered from mass psychogenic illness.

This new video from NBC News reminds me of the Danish documentary, and there is no doubt that it will contribute to the damage that has already been done with the story of the 'Havana Syndrome' in the USA.

 

[dann]

Exclusive: ‘Havana Syndrome’ victim speaks out - CLIP 12/22/21 (NBC Nightly News)
But unfortunately, "This video is not available in your location."

 

[dann]

This appears to be the exact same video as the one attached to the NBC News article mentioned in post 1168, Legal, financial fights mount as 'Havana Syndrome' goes unsolved (NBC News, Dec 22, 2021), in case any of you couldn't access it:

Fighting An Invisible Enemy: The Voices Of Havana Syndrome

 

[mgidm86]

I must admit I rarely peek in here and that I really don't understand the interest at this point, sans some new scientific breakthrough. Conspiracy Theory forum maybe?

 

[dann]

My title for the thread was Alien Attack? Mass Hysteria? Conspiracy?
I you had peeked in here more often, you would have noticed that the story is still evolving. You would also have noticed that the U.S. government and the CIA take this particular conspiracy theory very seriously as do most of the mainstream news outlets.

 

[dann]

I have already mentioned Suzanne O'Sullivan's book about mass psychogenic illness, The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness, in (post 1031).

In a new review, Mystery Illnesses Writ Large (Los Angeles Review of Books, Dec 24, 2021), Jeff Wheelwright, author of The Irritable Heart: The Medical Mystery of the Gulf War, writes:

Havana syndrome, in which US and Canadian diplomatic personnel feared they had been attacked by a sonic weapon wielded by the Cuban government, provides an interesting and unusual case because it involved a medically sophisticated population. Symptoms, shared by men and women alike, include headaches, dizziness, memory problems, and hearing issues. A crucial factor, according to O’Sullivan, is that one of the American medical researchers on the scene had a military background, which led him to associate the health complaints in and around the US embassy with the traumatic brain injuries (TBI) that occurred in the blast zones of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. TBI itself was a slippery diagnostic entity, and at any rate was the wrong tack to take, she maintains. It was biologically implausible to attribute the symptoms in Havana to the impact of sound waves or microwaves. For one thing, such weapons would have burned the skin.

Commenting on a 2018 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association, O’Sullivan writes, “Despite the paper’s emphatic conclusion pointing to a brain injury, none of the tests described in the JAMA paper actually proved that: the brain scans were all normal.” More likely, political pressures and stressful working conditions were to blame for Havana syndrome. “As is often heard said in medical circles, ‘When you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras.’ Functional disorders are common. Sonic weapons are not. How was an everyday diagnosis sidelined for one that many thought impossible?” That the Havana symptoms have since been reported at other American missions only strengthens O’Sullivan’s argument.

Highly recommended! (Both the book and the review)

 

[dann]

A reader's letter about the article in The Nation mentioned in post 1105, The Secrets of the So-Called “Havana Syndrome”:
Letters From the January 10/17, 2021, Issue: Russiagate redux?… Hope for defund… Occupy’s lessons… (The Nation, Dec 25, 2021)

The reader thinks that the author of the article "Kornbluh even suggests that the most likely culprit in this case is (you guessed it) Russia."
I don't think Korbluh actually suggests this. He reports what other people think, and the article also mentions mass psychogenic illness and the fact that "information has been restricted and heavily censored."

 

[dann]

The 'Havana Syndrome' seems to be a great inspiration for people who imagine that they themselves are being attacked by rays meant to harm them, control their minds and cause depopulation. Somehow it is also supposed to be connected to the jabs, but I only watched the first eight minutes (of 59:25!):

State Department Official Urges Congress to Take Action on Havana Syndrome (Dec 23, 2021)

 

[dann]

Recognition for atomic veterans, Havana Syndrome included in defense bill (Augusta Free Press, Dec 27, 2021)
Biden signs off on $30 million in funding for victims of Havana Syndrome, the mysterious illness officials believe is caused by directed-energy attacks (Business Insider, Dec 28, 2021)

HAVANA Act of 2021
In 2021, reports of the Havana Syndrome began to gain more attention from government officials. Some U.S. diplomatic, intelligence, and other government officials reported unusual cognitive and neurological issues during overseas assignments. The mysterious phenomenon was first reported in 2016, and reports mostly came from individuals working in Cuba, according to the bill.
The bill authorized multiple government agencies to compensate government workers for brain injuries. It passed the Senate with unanimous consent and the House with 427 votes. Biden signed the bill on Oct. 8.
Seven notable pieces of bipartisan legislation in 2021 (Washington Examiner, Dec 25, 2021)

 

[dann]

This one is from July 2021, but I hadn't noticed this interview with Clifford Saper before. He was one of the people involved with the NAS report. His claim is that 'Havana Syndrome' consists of a "core syndrome", which is when people hear and feel the 'attack', followed by the symptoms that makes them see health-care professionals, i.e. dizziness, headaches, nausea etc.
He doesn't mention the recordings of the sound, which makes his idea of microwave attacks extremely unlikely. He would, of course, also have to explain why other researchers analyzed those recordings and determined that the sounds came from crickets.

In the first segment, Dr. Alex Menze talks with Dr. Clifford Saper about Havana Syndrome and recent attacks on American diplomats.
Illness in Overseas U.S. Embassies Employees (Neurology Podcast, July 12, 2021)

The first segment is 18 minutes long.

 

[dann]

What’s causing Havana syndrome? Where are the UFOs coming from? CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin predicts one these two mysteries will be solved in 2022.
David Martin's 2022 prediction (Face the Nation of Twitter, Dec 26, 2021 - short clip, 0:51 min)

That one's pretty easy since the 'Havana Syndrome' has already been solved. The only problem is that the State Department, the CIA and the Senate can't come to terms with the explanation.

The tinfoilers love the clip from Face the Nation.

 

[dann]

Mark Lenzi's actual complaint to the United States District Court Eastern District of Virginia, Dec 8, 2021, pdf, 46 pages.

Found at:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A State Department official claims he was reassigned to a new job that doesn’t match his skillset after speaking out about how he and his family were stationed in China when they began suffering symptoms of what is now called Havana Syndrome, including memory loss, headaches and sleeplessness.
Havana Syndrome (Courthouse News Service, Jan 1, 2022)

 

[dann]

The author of the article, James Schumaker, worked as an ambassador's aid in Moscow in the late 1970s, and in 1985 he was tested positive for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
He doesn't say that this was caused by the microwave radiation at the embassy at the time, but the secrecy of the situation and the lack of transparency naturally made embassy workers very suspicious. They felt that they couldn't trust the U.S. government about this:

All in all, many people in Moscow were agitated and offended by what appeared to be efforts to sweep the whole controversy under the rug. Moscow staffers tended to be a little overwrought in any case, due to the unique pressures of work and life in Moscow, and the efforts of the State Department to assuage their concerns were viewed with extreme suspicion. The clincher for many of them was the unusual incidence of illness on the part of American ambassadors stationed in Moscow. In an article in The New Yorker on Dec. 20, 1976 (“A Reporter at Large, Microwaves–II”, Paul Brodeur reported that not only had two recent American ambassadors to Moscow died of cancer (Llewellyn “Tommy” Thompson and Charles “Chip” Bohlen), but then-Ambassador Walter Stoessel was suffering from a severe blood disorder (Ambassador Stoessel eventually died of leukemia in 1986). To most Moscow staffers, it just seemed like too much of a coincidence.
(...)
I have often wondered how many others have faced similar unexpected medical issues over the past few decades, and whether Moscow Signal was to blame. Many Moscow veterans from the 1960s through the 1980s are already gone, but a substantial number remain. Like the current victims of Havana syndrome, Moscow Signal veterans also deserve definitive answers to the questions that were raised in their time but subsequently ignored.
Before Havana Syndrome, There Was Moscow Signal (AFSA, the Foreign Service Journal Jan-Feb 2022, Jan 4, 2022)

I just finished reading Suzanne O'Sullivan's book The Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories of Mystery Illness. I read the chapter about the 'Havana Syndrome', "Horses Not Zebras" when I got it, but seeing it in the context of the other stories about mass psychogenic illness (MPI) makes it so much more obvious how important the issue of distrust in the (public health) authorities is for the development of MPI, be it in the Miskito community in Nicaragua, the immigrant community in Sweden, among students at Le Roy and their parents in New York or in the close-knit community of secret agents and diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba.
The latter are already suspicious of the authorities of the country they are working in (and against), and it only serves to make matters worse when the the facts concerning their health are being kept secret by their own government.
Other things that contribute to creating MPIs are health authorities (whether real or fake) with an agenda and sensationalist media reports.
As a Dane, it is amazing to see the many similarities between the HPV-vaccine scare among girls in such diverse environments as internet-connected Denmark and very isolated communities in Latin America.

Anyway, James Schumaker's disease is entirely physiological, i.e. not an MPI, and he doesn't claim that he is the victim of a Russian microwave attack, but his story makes it very obvious how people might come to think so due to the secrecy surrounding their cases: "I have often wondered ..."