Merged US may close Cuba Embassy over 'health attacks'

[dann]

Two more:

Microwaves, mass hysteria, crickets? What is the cause of this mysterious condition? Sorry to disappoint you. No answer here. It is as yet unknown. Hopefully, science will eventually give us an answer. Unfortunately, science does not always give us immediate answers.
However, we absolutely need to take these victims seriously whatever the cause. Unfortunately, our government has a history of not taking similar claims seriously. Shell shock, combat fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder, Agent Orange, war-related illness from burn pits. And you don’t have to have been to war to have PTSD. Military participants at nuclear test sites, the Tuskegee Study, the Pentagon Papers, agricultural pesticides such as DDT. The tobacco industry, Love Canal, use of torture in Guantanamo and elsewhere, the CIA’s LSD experiments on humans. Need I go on?
Our View: Havana syndrome (The Durango Herald, Jan 28, 2022)

Havana Syndrome just another episode in U.S. lying saga (Xinhua Net, Jan 24, 2022)

 

[dann]

Many articles about the interim CIA report seem to be afraid of using the taboo word:

Hysterical contagion, or mass hysteria, is usually associated with occasional outbursts of panic among people living in close proximity to one another. For example, in 1962, at a girls’ missionary boarding school in Tanzania, there was an outbreak of laughing contagion. As one report describes it, the ‘laughing was accompanied by other symptoms including fainting, crying and agitation’.
Such hysteria is highly contagious when it breaks out within an institution like a school. And it now appears to be equally contagious within an institution like the State Department.
(...)
The emergence of Havana syndrome, and the willingness of the State Department to endorse it, should worry us all. An outbreak of hysterical contagion among schoolgirls is one thing. For it to seize those in charge of US foreign policy is testament to a far more serious problem.
Havana syndrome: a classic case of mass hysteria - How did so many US officials succumb to this obvious delusion? (Sp¡ked, Jan 25, 2022)

 

[dann]

Cuban officials are calling for the Biden administration to restore relations with the island in light of a recent CIA report that found most “Havana syndrome” cases were unlikely to have been caused by a foreign power.
5 things to know for January 27: Supreme Court, Ukraine, Covid, Federal Reserve, Cuba (Crossroads Today, Jan 27, 2022)

It includes the short CNN video from Jan 27 (see post 1,233) in which Patrick Oppmann mentioned how unusual it is for Cuba to agree with anything the CIA says.

 

[dann]

Does anybody know if this guy has been reinstated?

The sidelining of the station chief in one of the largest and most prestigious CIA posts is expected to send a message that top agency leaders must take seriously any reports of “Havana Syndrome,” the phenomenon named after the Cuban capital where U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers had first reported unusual and varied symptoms, from headaches to vision problems and dizziness to brain injuries, that started in 2016.
In recent months, the Austrian capital has become a hotbed of what the CIA officially calls “anomalous health incidents.” The ouster of the CIA station chief comes as the State Department’s top official overseeing Havana Syndrome cases leaves her position after six months.
CIA station chief in Vienna recalled amid criticism of management and handling of mysterious ‘Havana Syndrome’ incidents (WP, Sep 23, 2021)

 

[dann]

The report is also an effort to contain the cascade of denunciations and new cases that have proliferated in various parts of the world since the U.S. Congress approved in September 2021 a resolution to grant economic aid to diplomatic officials afflicted by the alleged syndrome.
Why hasn’t the White House dismissed this fantasy altogether? Because they do not want to admit that the “phenomenon” has become a boomerang for them, bringing them more losses than gains. They want to make the whole story fade away, without recognizing how ridiculous it is. They neither want to admit that it has been a farce, because they know that, historically, the world will believe whatever story they make up against Cuba without asking questions, even if it includes supersonic weapons, murderous microwaves, deafening sounds in the middle of the night, or malicious short-legged crickets.
Havana Syndrome, the U.S.’s Monumental Hoax (Orinoco Tribune/Monthly Review, Jan 27/29, 2022)

I like the title of this one:

Many speculated it was the result of a "directed-energy weapon" the Russians had somehow built in secret.
But the CIA recently concluded Havana syndrome didn't come from any foreign power. This should come as no surprise. The symptoms were vague, and the proposed weapon was scientifically implausible. As Dr. Adam Gaffney argued back in November, it had all the signs of a classic "mass sociogenic illness." Importantly, this is not to say that the symptoms were fake — rather, the idea is people with ordinary ailments come to believe they're caused by some external (and often spooky) source. The resulting stress and fear causes more people to experience symptoms, and the "syndrome" spreads. Similar cases have been documented for centuries.
So that's no shade on the diplomats. Anybody could fall for mass sociogenic illness in the right context. But there is some shame on the great many journalists and members of Congress who stoked inflammatory, implausible claims about magic Russian ray guns.
A fake Russian ray gun destroyed the media's BS detector (The Week, Jan 20, 2022)

See some of the many examples of "inflammatory, implausible claims" in the article.

Q Okay. On a different subject, so much of the public discourse about so-called “Havana Syndrome” has come from anonymous leaks. And I’m just wondering: How soon will the National Security Council release their expert report on Havana Syndrome and — these anomalous health incidents? And will this report be made, you know, public in a fulsome way?

MS. PSAKI: Sure. Well, I know there’s been a recent CIA report that talks about the findings of their interim analysis. It does not — which does not rule out that a foreign actor may be involved in a subset of reported cases and affirms that the intelligence community will be drilling down in its analysis on a subset of cases — the toughest unresolved ones, of course, to try to determine whether a foreign actor may be involved.
There are a range of investigations and efforts underway across the U.S. government. And we continue to take every report of a suspected incident safely [seriously].
What’s most important is the President has aksed — has asked his National Security team to ensure we are leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that people who have been impacted receive the proper healthcare they need.
I can’t make a prediction of what a final release of a report would look like. I would really point you to the intelligence community on that.
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, January 24, 2022 (The White House, Jan 24, 2022)

 

[dann]

One week before the world heard about the CIA interim report, there was this:

Administration officials have found consistencies across many cases as more have been evaluated, helping them refine the tool. At the same time, they have been able to narrow the criteria, eliminating some cases because the patients did not experience initial sensations of heat, pressure or unusual sounds followed by headache, nausea or other symptoms. The tool is "very fluid, changing as we go," one official said.
US refines tool to evaluate Havana Syndrome cases (Indian Express, Jan 14, 2022)

I am a little surprised that hearing crickets remained one of the criteria still in use, but it might explain why they are down to two dozen cases at the point: Those from Havana and maybe a couple more like Marc Polymeropoulos and the guy in the car with they crying toddler, I guess.

 

[dann]

Excerpts from a new interview with Robert Baloh at The Signal:

This finally led to the submission of a paper to the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2018, which I was sent to review prior to publication. The patients and their symptoms were described in some detail, but there wasn’t really any mention of what may have been causing the damage other than some secret weapon—possibly a sonic weapon—though no weapon was identified. The article kind of suggested the government had classified information it couldn’t provide. My feeling was that these patients had common symptoms I’d seen—headaches, dizziness, forgetfulness, trouble concentrating. It was beyond me why you’d conclude these patients had been attacked by a secret weapon, except that they’d reported hearing a sound—but three had symptoms without reporting any sound. Some reported that symptoms came right after hearing the sound. Some reported a delay of several days. Some got better. For others, symptoms remained chronic and persistent.
I thought all of this was too vague, with no good scientific information, and a lot more questions than answers. I recommended rejecting the paper and suggested that publishing it could lead to a scientific backlash, but it was published. In our book, published in 2020, we concluded that there was no evidence of any kind of weapon or brain damage.
Mind Games - What is the “Havana Syndrome” that’s been afflicting U.S. diplomats since 2016? Robert Baloh on the range of explanations—and how well the known evidence now supports them. (The Signal, Jan 28, 2022)

“Marco Rubio, the U.S. senator from Florida with obvious political interests regarding Cuba, made strong statements that attacks were occurring. He was part of a foreign-relations subcommittee that held hearings and concluded that there were definitely attacks on Americans at the embassy and that it was likely the Cubans. Trump said certainly that it was the Cubans. Anyone who went to the embassy was told to be on alert for unusual sounds or symptoms, which they should report immediately. The State Department and the Department of Defense subsequently emailed their employees around the world saying it was their duty to report these sounds and symptoms if they encountered them. Not surprisingly, since this is a well-known phenomenon in psychology, large numbers of people said they had the symptoms.”
Mind Games: What is the “Havana Syndrome” that’s been afflicting U.S. diplomats since 2016? (Attack the System, Jan 30, 2022)

 

[dann]

New interview with Robert Bartholomew:

Ascribing diseases to the evil-doing of enemies is an old human habit that can be traced in a wide range of historic injustices, from the witchcraft trials to the Holocaust. One would think that in this age of science and rationality, we would have moved beyond casting unproven recriminations, at least at the state level, but apparently not. Take the so-called Havana syndrome, a mysterious condition said to be afflicting American diplomatic and military personnel abroad — it’s barely diagnosed but widely assumed to be an act of aggression. What is that symptomatic of? To discuss this, Oksana is joined by Robert Bartholomew, Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland and author of Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Mass Hysteria.
MAGICAL MALADY? Ft. Robert Bartholomew, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Dept. Psychological Medicine, UA (WorldsApaRT on Youtube, Jan 30, 2022 - 27:19 min)

Notice that Bartholomew makes a distinction between mass psychogenic illness and mass suggestion as two different stages of the 'Havana Syndrome'. He did the same thing in his Open Letter to the U.S. Congress on Nov 2, 2021, mentioned in post 1,136:

Two Separate Events
‘Havana Syndrome’ has become a catch-all category to explain a variety of health complaints both in Cuba and now internationally. It is important to view these episodes separately, although the first prompted the second. The global spread of ‘Havana Syndrome’ is being driven not by mass psychogenic illness, but mass suggestion after the State Department issued an alert for their embassy staff and intelligence officers to report any ‘anomalous health incidents’ that may or may not be accompanied by unusual sounds. More recently, the US Department of Defense has contacted US service personnel and contractors and told them to report anomalous health incidents that they experienced over the past several years (Austin, 2021).

I tend to call the whole thing mass psychogenic illness because it's part of the same story, but I'm not the expert, and I can see the point of distinguishing between the two different ways of spreading the illness.

 

[dann]

This one is personal!
I commented on a reader's letter to the editors of Washington Post, Opinion: Havana syndrome’s source should not be so easily dismissed, Jan 26, 2022.
Among other things, the letter read:

Much has changed since then. What has not changed is the requirement for directed energy to power a passive listening device.

I replied:

One thing that actually has changed since then is that, so far, not one single case of a "directed energy" attack against a 'Havana Syndrome' sufferer has been discovered.
Now, I am not an expert, I know almost nothing about microwaves, but I assume that technology to detect microwaves has improved and not deteriorated since 1960, and detectors appear to be available at very low prices online. So why hasn't the CIA detected any cases of U.S. diplomats or spies being "excited by microwave radiation"? Five years should be ample time to equip everybody with one of those microwave detectors.
Unlike the alleged directed microwave energy weapons, an actual microwave radiation detector doesn't seem to take up more space than a cell phone: https://www.tester.co.uk/environmen...testers/radiation-microwave-leakage-detectors

To which a 'Sapozhnik' replied:

It may be that this is already being done. That said, the number of potential targets of a microwave attack would be in the hundreds of thousands or even millions -- the number of US and Canadian official personnel and their families.

I would have replied:

The number of potential targets of a zombie attack would be in the millions or even billions.
What remains to be documented is that any such attack ever took place, can take place or is ever likely to take place.
The CIA has now ruled out that the vast majority of the alleged 'Havana Syndrome' cases weren't caused by directed microwave energy attacks, so the technology available to them to rule it out appears to be available.
Speculations about potential attacks using a, so far, imaginary directed microwave energy ray gun are science fiction - just like my imaginary zombies. The existence of actual brain-eating amoeba doesn't turn the potential zombie attack into a clear and present danger.

But immediately after Sapozhnik's posts, "Comments are now closed."

 

[Checkmite]

Why make this hypothetical? Why invent a complicated thought experiment?

Well, I didn't really "invent" anything. I actually just described the short history of a "real" (that is, historical) alleged malady called "Gulf War Syndrome", and the real government response to it - which was an immediate, consistent dismissal. The relevant takeaway is, that instant dismissal that it was a case of what would today be termed MPI, did not actually assuage the anxieties or tamp the claims of those who initially reported suffering from it; the employees did not simply accept that they had maybe fallen for some type of hysteria and return to work satisfied. Indeed, to a one those personnel dismissed the government's dismissal and have maintained for years that they suffered an actual poisoning of some kind.

The point being that no, the brief period the CIA entertained the possibility of a genuine "Havana Syndrome" before ultimately dismissing it, has almost certainly not resulted in the alleged sufferers "believing in it"; they already believed in it when they reported the symptoms and nothing about the government response meaningfully exacerbated that belief nor would a different response have convinced them they were wrong any more than it did the believers in Gulf War Syndrome.

But....you know, you don't need to respond to this. This latest, deeply petty antic where you're responding to my post but insultingly addressing me in the third-person, just goes to underscore that a conversation isn't actually what you're here for; this thread has just become your personal microblog where you compulsively repost any external content about this topic you can find regardless of how devoid of actually new information or perspective it might be. Fear not, I won't "@" you anymore.

 

[dann]

Well, I didn't really "invent" anything. I actually just described the short history of a "real" (that is, historical) alleged malady called "Gulf War Syndrome", and the real government response to it - which was an immediate, consistent dismissal. The relevant takeaway is, that instant dismissal that it was a case of what would today be termed MPI, did not actually assuage the anxieties or tamp the claims of those who initially reported suffering from it; the employees did not simply accept that they had maybe fallen for some type of hysteria and return to work satisfied. Indeed, to a one those personnel dismissed the government's dismissal and have maintained for years that they suffered an actual poisoning of some kind.

Of course, "the employees did not simply accept that they had maybe fallen for some type of hysteria and return to work satisfied." If their symptoms and fears are not taken seriously, they will distrust the authorities. If MPI sufferers get the impression that their symptoms are simply dismissed, their anxieties will not be assuaged. On the contrary, it will seem to confirm their suspicions.

The point being that no, the brief period the CIA entertained the possibility of a genuine "Havana Syndrome" before ultimately dismissing it, has almost certainly not resulted in the alleged sufferers "believing in it"; they already believed in it when they reported the symptoms and nothing about the government response meaningfully exacerbated that belief nor would a different response have convinced them they were wrong any more than it did the believers in Gulf War Syndrome.

The allegedly "brief period the CIA entertained the possibility of a genuine "Havana Syndrome" before ultimately dismissing it" was five years! And the CIA did not merely 'entertain the possibility'. The CIA dismissed the reports by other commissions investigating the 'syndrome' and insisted that their agents and the diplomats had been attacked, thus confirming the attack delusion and not merely entertaining the possibility.

The government response did not only exacerbate the belief of the original 'syndrome' sufferers in Havana, it promoted the delusion by warning millions of other U.S. employees against the alleged attacks and asking them to consider (extremely ordinary!) symptoms to be caused by the alleged ongoing attacks. (What Robert Bartholomew calls mass suggestion. See post 1,248.) This was uncalled for, and the hundreds of additional 'syndrome' sufferers created in this way have reason to feel betrayed by their employer.

But....you know, you don't need to respond to this. This latest, deeply petty antic where you're responding to my post but insultingly addressing me in the third-person, just goes to underscore that a conversation isn't actually what you're here for; this thread has just become your personal microblog where you compulsively repost any external content about this topic you can find regardless of how devoid of actually new information or perspective it might be. Fear not, I won't "@" you anymore.

I don't respond to posts because I need to. I respond in order to create clarity. If this had been my "personal microblog", I would have removed many of the posts that instead attempted to create confusion. However, the strength of the thread is that I couldn't do so, which means that nobody can suspect me of having deleted posts for disagreeing with a certain bias or agenda. It's all there: the arguments for brain-damaging sonic attacks, directed microwave radiation weapons or insecticide poisoning and the arguments against those ideas.

Some people may feel bitter about this, but it's how a well-run forum works. I would recommend directing some of the anger and bitterness against the institutions and organizations (and sometimes researchers) that have abused the trust of not just their employees but of everybody who believed that they had good reason to promote the idea that the brains of American spies and diplomats were under attack by a hostile enemy.

 

[dann]

Frank Bures describes functional neurological disorder (FND) and mass psychogenic illness:

On rare occasions, the symptoms of functional disorders become contagious, passed from person to person via “social contagion” or “social learning.” In this case they constitute a “mass psychogenic illness”—or, more colloquially, mass hysterias—that can move across the world quickly, usually through social networks. A recent wave of tics spreading (ironically) through TikTok is one example. Havana syndrome is mostly likely another.
(...)
But FND skeptics don’t want to talk about Havana syndrome at the psychological level or even the neurological level. Instead, they want to talk about it at the political and military level. And while victims may feel like politicians hunting for phantom ray guns are advocating for their interests, the reality is that this may be setting back their chances for recovery by preventing them from confronting the reality of their condition. If we want to make progress against Havana syndrome and similar conditions, it’s time to drop the sci-fi conjecture about sonic weapons and take aim at the real target
If a weapon didn't cause Havana Syndrome, what did? (Slate, Feb 1, 2022)

 

[dann]

No (More) Malarkey?!

I hereby designate the Senior Director for Intelligence Programs for the National Security Council staff to serve as the Anomalous Health Incidents (AHI) Interagency Coordinator. Consistent with section 6603(b)(1)(A) of the FY22 NDAA, I ask that you take rapid action to designate an appropriate senior official to serve as your respective agency’s AHI Agency Coordination Lead, who will work closely with the AHI Interagency Coordinator through the National Security Council-led policy process on AHI.

In accordance with section 6603(e) of the FY22 NDAA, I further direct that, no later than February 25, 2022, you issue, updated guidance to the elements of your workforce who are determined to be at risk of exposure to AHI.
Memorandum on Implementation of the Anomalous Health Incidents Provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (The White House, Feb 1, 2022)

I think he should have (re)appointed Pamela Spratlen ...

 

[dann]

In some circles, the idea of sonic attacks just won't die:

――Numbers of US diplomats and CIA emissaries are suffering Havana Syndrome. Is there any possibility that Havana Syndrome is a stealth attack from hostile countries?

Mr. Chang: U.S. diplomats in Guangzhou were sonic-attacked in 2018. Beijing has denied responsibility, but nobody in the Communist Party’s near-total surveillance state could have conducted those attacks without Beijing knowing about them. In all probability, the Party was behind those attacks.
The White House should have held Beijing accountable for those attacks on Chinese soil
“Biden Is Failing to Discharge His Most Fundamental Constitutional Duty: Protecting Americans From Foreign Attack” (The Liberty Web, Feb 2, 2022)

Unfortunately, Chang doesn't seem to have a prediction for when the sonic guns will be discovered.

Collapse of China
As the author of The Coming Collapse of China, since 2001 Chang has repeatedly said that the Chinese government would eventually collapse and made very specific forecasts on the year that the Communist Party would fall.
Chang insisted that it would be year 2011. When 2011 was almost over, he admitted that his prediction was wrong but said he was only off by a year. In 29 December 2011, Chang wrote in Foreign Policy magazine, "Instead of 2011, the mighty Communist Party of China will fall in 2012. Bet on it." Consequently he made Foreign Policy's "10 worst predictions of the year" twice in a row when his predictions were proven wrong again.
Gordon G. Chang: Collapse of China (Wikipedia)

 

[dann]

... aaaaand the attack-conspiracy theorists strike back!

I am glad that they seem to have kept the crickets!

Although officials declined to say how many cases the panel examined as part of its inquiry, they said they studied cases that met four "core characteristics": the acute onset of sounds or pressure, sometimes in only one ear or on one side of the head; simultaneous symptoms of vertigo, loss of balance and ear pain; "a strong sense of locality or directionality"; and the absence of any known environmental or medical conditions that could have caused the other symptoms.
(...)
Both pulsed electromagnetic energy, "particularly in the radiofrequency range," and ultrasonic arrays could feasibly cause the four core symptoms, the panel found. Both could originate from "a concealable source." But ultrasound can't travel through walls, the panel found, "restricting its applicability to scenarios in which the source is near the target."
(...)
Those four core characteristics could not by explained by psycho-social factors "alone," the report found -- although an intelligence official explained that in some cases, a victim's symptoms might be "compounded" by a stress reaction or other psycho-social response.
US intelligence community report says 'pulsed electromagnetic energy' could cause Havana Syndrome (CNN, Feb 2, 2022)

The panel’s findings, while full of caveats, are consistent with what has been a longstanding hypothesis by intelligence officials — that a foreign adversary, most likely Russia, is responsible for at least some of the symptoms suffered by those who have fallen victim to what is commonly known as Havana Syndrome.
The panel’s conclusions also are consistent with a recent CIA interim assessment, which found that most of the 1,000 people who have come forward with possible injuries have symptoms that can be explained by other factors.
(...)
The panel found that “pulsed electro magnetic energy plausibly explains” the core cases, “although information gaps exist.”
The panel did not identify any device capable of inflicting the injuries.
“It’s more than theory — we were able to obtain some level of evidence,” one officials said. “But there are some significant information gaps.”
'Havana Syndrome' symptoms in small group most likely caused by directed energy, says U.S. intel panel of experts (NBC, Feb 2, 2022)

 

[dann]

It says that non-standard antennas could create the effects on the human body. Such a source could be concealed and require only moderate power. It could also travel through the air and through walls of buildings.
(...)
There is no detail in the report of what such a device might be, nor whether the intention was to cause harm or carry out some kind of surveillance. The panel did not look at who might have been behind such activity.
A number of people within the US government believe Russia could be responsible and the issue has been raised in meetings although no conclusive evidence has been discovered to back up the assertion.
Havana Syndrome may be caused by ‘pulsed energy’ (BBC, Feb 2, 2022)

And if only homeopathy did actually work, it could be because water has memory ...

At this point, I would like to hear more about the kind of affliction that is, on the one hand, very specific, but on the other hand also something that could be caused by both microwaves and ultrasound.

 

[dann]

The panel’s conclusions also undercut the arguments of some outside experts that mass hysteria, stress or psychosomatic reactions were the cause of the incidents. The panel found that stress reactions could have contributed to ongoing symptoms, but that no so-called functional illness or mass hysteria could explain the initial injuries in the cases that were the focus of its investigation.
(...)
Intelligence officials briefed on the panel’s findings did not say how many cases it had focused on, though they said between 10 and 20 victims were interviewed. They said the panel focused on cases in which victims heard a strange sound or felt pressure and then experienced a loss of balance and ear pain. In addition, the panel focused on cases in which the victims reported the sounds as coming from a specific direction.
(...)
The panel’s membership included some members of a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine group that concluded last year that a directed radio frequency energy device or microwave device could have caused the injuries associated with Havana syndrome.
Panel Says Some Havana Syndrome Cases May Stem From Radio Energy (NYT, Feb 2, 2022)

So the panel focussed on the cricket cases. If I were the science advisor for Mark Zaid, the lawyer, I don't think I would recommend focussing on that aspect of the 'syndrome', but it is obvious that the one physical, objective piece of evidence that actually exist in this case, the recordings of crickets, is something that you don't usually have in cases of mass psychogenic illness. However, the problem remains that those recordings have already been explained, and the sounds can't have caused any physiological damage.

Another problem is the description of "the sounds as coming from a specific direction." If we are talking about either the Frey effect or tinnitus: they could not be perceived as coming from a specific direction. (I know from experience that tinnitus follows you around. When you turn your head, you still 'hear' it in the same ear.) They also can't be recorded as sound on a cell phone!

It is also interesting that the new panel included some of the members of the NAS group!

But let us move on to the real expert, Susan Collins!

Ms. Collins said the fact that the remaining unexplained incidents included clusters of injured officials suggested at least the possibility of the involvement of an intelligence collection device, potentially one using directed energy, that could have “devastating side effects.”
“If it was a collection device, it would explain the very similar symptoms, preceded often by a piercing noise, for example, that many of these government personnel report in the areas where there’s been clusters,” she said.
Ms. Collins said the administration’s review of cases and its call for people to report unusual incidents ended up bringing in reports of cases that were not examples of Havana syndrome. While casting a wide net was the right thing to do, she said, it had the effect of adding cases involving people with brain tumors, migraines and other unrelated conditions.
The government should continue to look at the incidents that remain mysterious, Ms. Collins said. “I think we just got to keep going,” she said.
Panel Says Some Havana Syndrome Cases May Stem From Radio Energy (NYT, Feb 2, 2022)

I would think that if it were any kind of device causing the 'syndrome', the symptoms would be similar in the affected patients. I don't see why this would be specific to a "collection device." Susan Collins is obviously thinking of the microwaves used in connection with surveillance apparatus in Moscow a long time ago, but she obviously doesn't have a clue about how any of that stuff works. (Nor do I!)

And why suddenly discriminate against "people with brain tumors, migraines and other unrelated conditions," as if they don't have it hard enough already? It was very obvious that anybody with a headache would respond to the administration's "call for people to report unusual incidents." The call described the symptoms they were looking for, and I assume that brain tumors and migraines can cause almost all of them.

Why not assume that there are weapons, antennas (5G?!) and other devices out there that can cause brain tumors and migraines?
To quote Susan Collins, I think we just got to keep going!

 

[dann]

The report's executive summary (Feb 1, 2022)

That smaller group of affected personnel's cases "cannot be easily explained by known environmental or medical conditions and could be due to an external stimuli," according to Wednesday's new report, which largely focused on those cases.
It's unclear still what that could be, including whether it is a device or weapon of some kind -- a theory that has been floated in the five years since the first cases were reported in Havana.
"It's more than theory," the intelligence official said Wednesday. "A very specific device with parameters that would result in the biological effects -- we don't have one of those."
'Havana syndrome' could be caused by external energy source: Intel community experts (ABC News, Feb 2, 2022)

It doesn't sound like more than theory to me. Calling it a "very specific device" doesn't make it more than theory. It doesn't even make it very specific.

And speaking of devices, it would have been nice to hear a little more about the other, actually existing devices, the ones used to detect the alleged harmful pulsed radio frequency radiation, but ...

The report calls on the U.S. government to better collect data on reported incidents and affected personnel, match incident and patient data, and boost its capacity to investigate incidents as soon as they're reported.
That includes through "detectors," officials said, declining to provide more information. In the executive summary, the section on detectors, along with "devices to aid research," are redacted.

 

[dann]

A US intelligence report by a panel of expert scientists has named pulsed electromagnetic energy and ultrasound as plausible causes for the mystery Havana Syndrome symptoms suffered by US diplomats and spies in recent years.
The report found that a group of cases could not be explained by health or environmental factors or by psychosomatic illness. It also said that devices exist with “modest energy requirements” which were concealable and could produce the observed symptoms and be effective over hundreds of meters or through walls.
(...)
In a redacted executive summary of its report published on Wednesday, the panel of experts said that the signs and symptoms of the syndrome were “diverse and may be caused by multiple mechanisms” but that a subset of them “cannot be easily explained by known environmental or medical conditions”.
(...)
The latest panel narrowed its review of the hundreds of reported cases by defining four “core characteristics”: the sudden onset of sound or pressure in one ear or one side of the head; near simultaneous symptoms like vertigo, loss of balance and ear pain; a “strong sense of locality or directionality” – the feeling of being assailed from a particular direction; and the absence of known environmental or medical conditions that might otherwise explain the symptoms.
Havana Syndrome could be caused by pulsed energy devices - US expert report (The Guardian, Feb 2, 2022)

There is nothing new in this article, but I still get the impression that the researchers of this most recent study are just flailing around and now trying to come up with descriptions to make the public think that they may have been on to something real the whole time, thus making their original (NAS) report seem to be 'scientific':

The expert panel found “the combination of the four core characteristics is distinctly unusual and unreported elsewhere in the medical literature, and so far have not been associated with a specific neurological abnormality.”

Remember that some of the members of the new panel were already members of the NAS panel. They have no interest in making the hundreds of new reports in 2021 seem to be caused by attacks, but they will be somewhat disgraced as reliable researchers if the two dozen or so cases in Havana turn out to have been nothing but a mixture of perfectly natural ailments (hearing loss due to age, for instance) and mass psychogenic illness.

The weirdest symptom is probably "the feeling of being assailed from a particular direction", which is also the one that should make them think mass psychogenic illness. How exactly does it feel to be "assailed from a particular direction" if you are not actually being assailed? I come to think of the Japanese children who were 'attacked' by Pokemon:

Just 30 minutes after the show ended, 618 children were rushed to Japanese hospitals, complaining of symptoms that suggested epileptic seizures.
(...)
Within two days some 13,000 children needed medical help for seizures.
POKEMON SCARE WAS HYSTERIA (NY Post, Feb 26, 2001)

Did it come from "a particular direction"? It sure did: from the TV set. Did the sounds heard by CIA agents and diplomats in Havana come from a particular direction? It did! In the first cluster, it came from the crickets outside, and they even recorded it and played it on TV. The only thing missing is "the feeling of being assailed," which was added to the mix by patient Zero, the CIA agent, who spread the idea to everybody he got into contact with, be it at the U.S. embassy or his Canadian neighbors.

In the February issue of the Southern Medical Journal, researcher Benjamin Radford writes:
“There’s certainly no question that there were at least some epileptic children who were affected. Clearly, some children had photosensitive epilepsy.
“The answer is that it . . . triggered a case of mass hysteria. What I found most interesting is the notion of how an idea can spread from person to person, and be transformed into physical symptoms.”

But in Japan, the fears of the Pokemon victims were easily dismissed: They were children, not adult trained agents and diplomats ...

 

[dann]

CNN's article from Feb 2, see post 1255, has been updated:

In a victory for victims' advocates, the experts panel did rule out one cause for those four characteristics: so-called psycho-social factors. Some victims have long complained that the CIA in the past had failed to take their reported symptoms seriously, brushing the cases aside as a psychosomatic episode or mass hysteria.
Those four core characteristics could not by explained by psycho-social factors "alone," the report found -- although an intelligence official explained that in some cases, a victim's symptoms might be "compounded" by a stress reaction or other psycho-social response.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/02/politics/havana-syndrome-report/index.html (CNN, Feb 3, 2022)

So let us take another look at the four core characteristics:
1) "the acute onset of sounds or pressure, sometimes in only one ear or on one side of the head;"
2) "simultaneous symptoms of vertigo, loss of balance and ear pain;"
3) "a strong sense of locality or directionality";"
4) "and the absence of any known environmental or medical conditions that could have caused the other symptoms."

There is one obvious cause of 1 and 3: the onset of the sound of crickets, which, by the way, doesn't become any more scientific because you use the word acute to describe the onset instead of, for instance, sudden. Since the sound of crickets is directional - it comes from wherever the crickets happen to be - there is also nothing mysterious about the "strong sense of locality or directionality". It is to be expected.

However, there is an inconsistency between 1) and 3): A strong sense of locality or directionality contradicts "in only one ear or on one side of the head," which is what you would expect from tinnitus, which is the opposite of directional. In other words, 1) is not a "core characteristic," it's at least two: the sound of crickets and tinnitus.

The combination of "vertigo, loss of balance and ear pain" is not unusual. And the word "simultaneous" doesn't make it more unusual. If you google "vertigo balance ear pain", which I just did, you get: "About 6.070.000 results (0,52 seconds)"
The first "result" says:

Attacks of vertigo can develop suddenly and last for a few seconds, or they may last much longer. If you have severe vertigo, your symptoms may be constant and last for several days, making normal life very difficult.
(...)
Vertigo is commonly caused by a problem with the way balance works in the inner ear, although it can also be caused by problems in certain parts of the brain.
(...)
Vertigo is a symptom of several different conditions.
(...)
Labyrinthitis is usually caused by a viral infection, such as the common cold or flu, which spreads to the labyrinth. Less commonly, it's caused by a bacterial infection. Vertigo caused by labyrinthitis may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, hearing loss, tinnitus and sometimes a high temperature and ear pain.
Vertigo (NHS Inform, Oct 28, 2021)

In other words, a medical doctor specializing in any of those things will see at least a couple of cases combining "vertigo, loss of balance and ear pain" every day.
And this was just one "result" of about 6 million!
I tried adding "pressure" to my Google search, "vertigo balance ear pain pressure", and for some reason, the number increased to: "About 7.100.000 results (0,60 seconds)"

According to Wikipedia, the three most common symptoms of mass psychogenic illness are:
Headache 67%
Dizziness or light-headedness 46%
Nausea 41%

In other words, the sound of crickets combined with a couple of cases of ear pain and headaches in an environment where people are already telling each other stories about alleged harassment by Cuban Dirección de Inteligencia agents is enough to explain even the "core cases" of 'Havana Syndrome'. No ray gun, be it sonic or radio frequency, is necessary to explain it.

However, there is a whole segment of U.S. state employed experts and intelligence officers who have a very vested interest in keeping the story of those ray guns alive at this point. And they seem to be getting away with it, at least in the media.