Merged US may close Cuba Embassy over 'health attacks'

[Planigale]

More
EXCLUSIVE: 'They woke up burned or injured.' Top brain expert and ex-CIA officer reveals hundreds of military servicemen suffered brain damage or symptoms of the mysterious 'Havana Syndrome' and even DEATH after encountering UFOs (Daily Mail, April 7, 2022)

I previously pointed out that these brain injuries are what you would expect after the MiB have mind wiped you after a CE. I would take this report as clear evidence in support of this hypothesis. It is hardly surprising that at a time when the US government was concerned about illegal aliens entering the US that the MiB would be more active.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

More
EXCLUSIVE: 'They woke up burned or injured.' Top brain expert and ex-CIA officer reveals hundreds of military servicemen suffered brain damage or symptoms of the mysterious 'Havana Syndrome' and even DEATH after encountering UFOs (Daily Mail, April 7, 2022)

Hmm.

'hundreds of patients' who were injured or died after interacting with UFOs

I'd like to see a list. Surely their families deserve to know the truth? I wonder what the death certificates say?

 

[Planigale]

Hmm.


I'd like to see a list. Surely their families deserve to know the truth? I wonder what the death certificates say?

You are uncovering the conspiracy now. Doctors are not allowed to put 'Alien death ray' as a cause of death, so you'll never know just how many of your country men (and women, but mostly men) are the victims of alien encounters.

 

[dann]

On the bright side, anal probing appears to be much less common now than it used to be.

 

[dann]

Good Vibrations

Articles like this one sometimes make it difficult to navigate the media reports about the 'syndrome':

A panel of US intelligence experts found that different vibrations could cause a unique combination of symptoms. The finding contradicts recently published conclusions that rejected the possibility of attacks.
An external energy source could cause the mysterious “Havana syndrome” that has affected US diplomats and military personnel, US intelligence services said on Wednesday, thus supporting the thesis of deliberate attacks.
The “Havana Syndrome” Enigma Continues: Now, A New Report Says That It Could Be Due To Electromagnetic Waves. (Webtimes.uk, April 12, 2022)

It only becomes clear that the article is more than two months old if you click at the link after the article: Read original article here.

 

[dann]

More
EXCLUSIVE: 'They woke up burned or injured.' Top brain expert and ex-CIA officer reveals hundreds of military servicemen suffered brain damage or symptoms of the mysterious 'Havana Syndrome' and even DEATH after encountering UFOs (Daily Mail, April 7, 2022)

The Daily Mail can't let it go:

The photos emerged a day after news energed hundreds of military officers reporting injuries, including brain damage and burns, after encounters with UFOs, a top brain expert and former CIA officer revealed.
(...)
Some of the injuries resembled the mysterious 'Havana Syndrome', which intelligence agencies believe could be a series of clandestine attacks on US diplomats by a foreign power using targeted microwaves.
Bizarre cloud formation over Alaska's Lazy Mountain prompts police investigation as witnesses fear it was a plane crash, a UFO or top secret Russian weapon (Daily Mail, April 9, 2022)

 

[dann]

Some journalists still talk about attacks:

So far the administration has taken few steps on Cuba. Its only major move was to appoint an official to oversee the State Department’s response to the “Havana syndrome” attacks that first occurred in 2016 but have since been carried out in several other countries.
(...)
“The last two years of the Obama administration saw an explosion of positive change in Cuba. The fledgling Cuban private sector flourished, innovation, the internet, communications and political space expanded, and exchanges between our two peoples multiplied. … Dialogues began on tough topics like economic reform and human rights,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), a longtime proponent of Cuba normalization, said on the House floor last week, blaming the Trump administration for single handedly stalling that progress.
“Let’s not make the mistake of moving slowly and incrementally. We need to act now.”
Biden’s hesitancy to take immediate action could be due to the headache it might create.
In addition to legislation that would block Biden from reversing Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terror, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have vowed to oppose any “any motions or consent requests with regard to any legislation that seeks to amend our nation’s policy towards Cuba.”
Biden under pressure to spell out Cuba policy (The Hill, March 28, 2022)

 

[dann]

Podcast, 57:43 min:

Olivia Troye was the homeland security and counterterrorism advisor to VP Mike Pence. She and other White House staff are coming forward to tell their stories of apparent pulsed energy attacks against them, on the White House campus, by an unknown adversary. Olivia joins us for a fascinating discussion.
The Bureau: Has Havana Syndrome Hit the Homeland? A high-ranking victim speaks (Mueller, She Wrote, April 12, 2022)

 

[dann]

The 'syndrome' in actual fiction (as opposed to delusion):

Havana Syndrome
What’s that noise? Do you hear that?
So asks Beatriz, a young Cuban-American working at the United States Embassy in Havana. Are these “sonic attacks” real, or is she just losing her mind? And what’s the deal with all those talking gusanos?
Havana Syndrome is a dark comedy that explores the legacy of what it means to norteamericana in these post-thaw times.
Workshopped at Teatro LATEA (2019) and The Playwrights’ Center (2020)

Note: In light of recent events, I’m continuing to work on this one. This story just keeps getting more absurd.
Select plays by Cristina Luzárraga

gusano (Wikipedia)

 

[dann]

Accommodation, free speech claims dismissed
Some retaliation, disparate treatment claims proceed

The U.S. State Department convinced a federal judge in Virginia to narrow a disability bias suit brought by an engineer who allegedly contracted Havana Syndrome while stationed in China.
Mark Lenzi* failed to plausibly allege that his “generalized complaints to supervisors about assignments and disclosures” prompted retaliation, Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said Thursday in dismissing that aspect of his claim.
Lenzi also failed to exhaust his administrative remedies as to his claims that the agency denied him reasonable accommodation and failed to promote him because of his disability
State Department Trims Engineer’s ‘Havana Syndrome’ Bias Suit (Bloomberg Law, April 15, 2022)

* See posts 1143, 1145, 1150 and 1396.

 

[Orphia Nay]

* See posts 1143, 1145, 1150 and 1396.

Mark Lenzi seems a bit litigious, which would itself compound psychological stress symptoms.

 

[dann]

I notice that another 'Havana Syndrome' sufferer, Marc Polymeropoulos, has been busy writing articles, most recently about the war in Ukraine, for Washington Examiner, Washington Post, The Hill and others since he retired from the CIA in 2019.

 

[dann]

An article from January about the mainstream media's fake news stories:

Corporate media goes wild blaming US Official Enemies for bogus ‘Havana Syndrome’ conspiracy
It’s quite instructive to review how top media outlets enthusiastically promoted this bogus story. It shows how the most respected newspapers in the United States and United Kingdom are more than willing to publish harebrained conspiracy theories when it does political damage to NATO’s adversaries.
All of these scoops were fed to reporters in the corporate media by their handlers in the CIA and Pentagon. These stenographers never exercised a shred of skepticism, mindlessly attributing the outlandish accusations to anonymous officials.
(...)
Mindlessly regurgitated the claims of anonymous spooks to feed baseless conspiracy theories that help advance US foreign-policy interests is, in reality, the job description for mainstream “national security” reporters.
If we had the glasses from John Carpenter’s classic “They Live,” that’s exactly what New York Times job listings would say.
CIA’s ‘Havana Syndrome’ conspiracy implodes: Here are media’s worst fake news stories (Multipolarista, Jan 23, 2022)

 

[dann]

The bizarre true story of Havana syndrome: covert sonic warfare or a case of mass hysteria? (The Telegraph, April 15, 2022)
Paywalled. I haven't read it.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

The bizarre true story of Havana syndrome: covert sonic warfare or a case of mass hysteria? (The Telegraph, April 15, 2022)
Paywalled. I haven't read it.

Not paywalled for me in Canada for some reason. A pretty good article and summary. Gives both sides but comes down on the somewhat firmly on the Mass Psychogenic Illness explanation.

 

[dann]

The talks represent a thaw of sorts: Officials had been meeting biannually to discuss migration since the 1990s. Four years ago, the meetings stopped, after the Trump administration effectively shuttered U.S. immigration operations in its Havana embassy over concerns sparked by the much-hyped ailment known as “Havana Syndrome.”
(...)
Bolter said that a number of push and pull factors are convincing Cubans to make the journey to the U.S.-Mexican border: An embargo-crippled economy—made worse by a pandemic-induced drop in tourism, a repressive political environment, as well as an easier travel route via Nicaragua, which has dropped transit visa requirements for Cuban nationals.
But the United States shares much of the blame. Cubans have been all but frozen out of the U.S. visa system by the Trump-era decision to halt operations in Havana. (Thanks to a series of laws passed since the Cold War, Cubans receive preferential treatment in U.S. immigration policy. For example, under U.S. law, the U.S. can legally admit at least 20,000 Cubans each year, and Cubans who arrive legally and stay for one year can apply for permanent residency, a process that takes at least three times as long for other arrivals).
(...)
“A broader, larger dialogue is definitely needed,” Nodarse Venancio said. “But also the Biden administration needs to keep their word, because it cannot only be about having Cuba accept deportees. If the situation on the island does not improve, then it’s not going to dissuade Cubans from migrating.”
U.S. and Cuba Hold First Migration Talks in Four Years (Foreign Policy, April 21, 2022)

That was in 2019, but even after acknowledging that the story no longer looked that “certain way”, The Times continued to assign every scandal, whether caused by Cuban crickets (Havana Syndrome) or Hunter Biden, to the Russians. The newspaper quietly stopped making such accusations long after their source, the intelligence community, began hinting that there was no substance to them. More than a year ago the CIA internally renamed Havana Syndrome “Anomalous Health Incidents.” And it was only this past January that the CIA admitted, after six years of suspecting Russia, that there was no reason to believe the incidents were provoked by a foreign attack. In its latest post on the subject, The Times nevertheless still took the trouble to say that some professionals (could they be conspiracy theorists?) found that thesis of Russian culpability “probable.”
The New York Times’ Anti-Russian Inquisition Cancels History (again) (Fair Observer, April 20, 2022)

I think this one is entirely made up: Le Pen Blinded by “Havana Syndrome” Attack on Eve of the Election… (The Phaser, April 21, 2022)
I have no idea what The Phaser is, but they appear to think that the New World Order is behind the 'Havana Syndrome'.

 

[dann]

U.S. lawmakers are pushing for diplomats to return to Ukraine’s capital. But does the show of support outweigh the risk?
The Biden administration is resisting growing calls from U.S. lawmakers, former diplomats and others to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, a move advocates say would send a signal of Western strength and unity to Russia as its war on Ukraine nears the two-month mark.
(...)
And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has praised the governments that have returned, saying they are sending “a clear signal to the aggressor.”
(...)
The United States dramatically reduced its activities at its embassy in Cuba in recent years, in part due to the still-unsolved cases of illnesses known as “Havana syndrome.”
Biden admin weighs reopening U.S. Embassy in Kyiv (Politico, April 20, 2022)

But for some reason, is is not being considered if reopening the U.S. Embassy in Havana will "send a signal of Western strength and unity" or "a clear signal to the aggressor", which is a particular problem in the case of the 'Havana Syndrome': How do you send a signal to an entirely imaginary aggressor?

By the way, claiming that the "cases of illnesses known as 'Havana syndrome'" are "still unsolved" is better than insisting that they were caused by attacks, I guess, but it is just another way of maintaining that the U.S. diplomats are staying in the USA to protect them from the alleged hostile power. How come this is not interpreted as a signal of Western weakness and confusion?

The answer is obvious: Everybody, including the CIA and the State Department, is well aware that no aggressor was involved in the Havana cricket scare. The alleged syndrome was just a very bad excuse for suspending consular services in Havana.

 

[thines]

There is a report in the journal Brain of a new type of mass hysteria. Here's the link: https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/145/2/476/6356504

Mods: I don't know how to start a new thread so please move if you think it best.

 

[dann]

Your link is relevant in the context of the 'Havana Syndrome'. We have discussed mass psychogenic illness in general several times, and I have mentioned how TikTok served as a spreader of Tourette's-like symptoms a couple of times. Most recently in post 1357.

In Denmark, the HPV vaccine scare was spread online, which an elderly doctor was unaware of. He argued that it could not be a case of mass psychogenic illness because the girls came from all over the country and not from a close-knit community like a high school or a convent.

However, a journalist found an online site for girls interested in horses where other topics were often discussed - in Danish, which probably did more to limit the spread of this particular outbreak than physical distance:
https://www.heste-nettet.dk/forum/1/2363816/2363816/
https://www.heste-nettet.dk/forum/25/490783/490783/

Some people in this thread have used the same argument against the 'Havana Syndrome' being mass psychogenic illness, in particular after it spread to US intelligence communities outside of Cuba.

Unlike the writers of the Brain article, I don't think it makes sense to come up with another name for mass psychogenic illness using the internet as its vector. The definition of mass psychogenic illness needs to change its description of what constitutes a tight-knit community. Nowadays, you find them online. Physical distance is no longer a barrier to the spreading of ideas.


ETA: You create a new thread by going to the relevant sub-forum, for instance Social Issues & Current Events. In the top-left corner, you click on [New thread].

 

[dann]

Nevertheless, ADS [Active Denial System] has been the subject of a great deal of controversy. Because most people outside of DoD are unfamiliar with milimeter waves, perceptions that DoD has developed a "heat ray" meant to microwave people have gained traction.
ADS is also sometimes brought up in discussions of "Havana syndrome," a type of brain damage potentially caused by microwave attacks, even though its effects are temporary and entirely different. This controversy may inhibit the deployment of ADS, despite its proven safety record and impressive efficacy.
Effective Use of Nonlethal Weapons Could Require Combating Disinformation (RealClear Defense, April 22, 2022)

I am a big fan of combating disinformation, but I appreciate the irony that disinformation about the 'Havana Syndrome' seems to contribute to inhibiting the deployment of ADS!