Recent assertions by key individuals within the U.S. government that anomalous health incidents of the so-called “Havana Syndrome” have supported theories that these incidents were due to exposure to some form of directable energy devices; and attributable, in part, to involvement and activity of foreign intelligence operations. VIEWPOINT: Directed Energy Remains Key Suspect Behind Havana Syndrome (NationalDefenseMagazine, April 4, 2024)
My quotation from Giordano's article is the intro, but Giordano doesn't cite those alleged "recent assertions." Nor does he name the alleged "key individuals within the U.S. government". And his article is an opinion piece.
I think he's lying or at the very least exaggerating wildly because his pet theory was debunked by the CIA interim report and the ODNI report, and now 60 Minutes has made his idea popular again without offering proof of anything whatsoever.
I suspect that a 'key individual within the U.S. government' might be none other than the dethroned Greg EdGreen, who has a vested interest in pushing the attack narrative.
Breaking - the public hearing on the Havana Syndrome Myth has now been canceled - will be a closed doors briefing instead. Robert Bartholomew (X, April 13, 2024)
We know for a fact that the Relman panels were stacked with HS advocates - he didn't interview a single major skeptic & they were riddled with factual errors - which I have documented. Ditto for 60 Minutes & Scott Pelley. Robert Bartholomew (X, April 13, 2024)
Nurse Joy in Tblisi and the Frankfurt case revisited
The Insider, which cooperated with 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel on the recent 'investigation' into the 'syndrome', has a new article about how they allegedly uncovered evidence that "placed known agents of Russian GRU sabotage and assassination Unit 29155 at the scene of multiple — previously unexplained — attacks on U.S. government personnel and their families." A remarkable accomplishment, considering that they didn't even manage to uncover evidence that any actual attacks took place.
The two incidents that they present are the one in Tblisi, Georgia, where nurse Joy may or may not have seen a Russian agent when she came down with ... symptoms, and another one in Frankfurt, Germany, when Russian agents were probably in Germany, somewhere, and an employee at the U.S. consulate came down with ... symptoms.
We're going to talk about our work with 60 Minutes and how we went about uncovering evidence that puts 29155 operatives at the scene of the crime, as it were, two incidents involving Havana Syndrome victims who had positively identified two separate members of 29155 years apart, about eight years apart, and a thousand miles apart — one in Tbilisi, Georgia, and the other in Frankfurt, Germany. The GRU’s connection to Havana Syndrome: The Insider’s investigative team tells the story behind its most recent bombshell exposé (TheInsider, April 11, 2024)
I mentioned both incidents in post 2,207, but I mentioned the Tblisi case even earlier because it was an important part of the 60 Minutes episode, so I'll start with: The case of nurse Joy in Tblisi:
As I'm reaching into the dryer-- I am completely consumed by a piercing sound that I can only describe as when you listen to a movie and the main character is also consumed by the sound after a bomb goes off. That is similar to the sound that I heard. And it just pierced my ears, came in my left side, felt like it came through the window, into my left ear. I immediately felt fullness in my head, and just a piercing headache. And when I realized that I needed to get out of the laundry room, I left the room, and went into our bedroom next door, and projectile vomited in our bathroom.
To avoid confusion, I think it's worth emphasizing that the piercing sound didn't come from an actual bomb going off. It just reminded her of one. If there had been an actual bomb, the case would have been clear since explosions tend to leave debris behind, shrapnel, empty shells or stuff like that. What was left behind in Joy's case was her symptoms, her real symptoms, and her photo of a car:
My headaches and brain fog continued. Later on into that weekend, I started having trouble walking down the stairs, specifically at night. I had trouble finding the steps to get down the stairs. So my coordination and vestibular system started just really falling apart.
She was medically evacuated. And now doctors say she has holes in her inner ear canals—the vestibular system that creates the sense of balance. Two surgeries put metal plates in her skull. Another surgery is likely.
All of this sounds extremely unpleasant, and it no doubt is. But can sound really create holes in ear canals? Not according to otolaryngologists.
So what can?
We saw in post 2,207 that the "two surgeries [were] for semicircular canal dehiscence (the appearance of holes in the bony walls that encase her inner ears)," which we also learned is caused by a "genetic (!) predisposition" that comes with symptoms like "Autophony – person's own speech or other self-generated noises (e.g. heartbeat, eye movements, creaking joints, chewing) are heard unusually loudly in the affected ear; Dizziness/vertigo – chronic disequilibrium caused by the dysfunction of the superior semicircular canal; Tullio phenomenon – sound-induced vertigo, disequilibrium or dizziness, nystagmus and oscillopsia; Pulse-synchronous oscillopsia [oscillopsia]; Hyperacusis – the over-sensitivity to sound; Low-frequency conductive hearing loss; A feeling of fullness in the affected ear; Brain fog; Fatigue; Headache/migraine; Tinnitus – high pitched ringing in the ear"
What do the experts say about cases like this one? 60 Minutes didn't ask any experts, apparently, but: "Despite experiences like hers, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said last year it's "very unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible.""
So in principle the case could have been closed, the symptoms are explained by her diagnosis, canal dehiscence, a genetic disorder! No Russians are needed as the explanation for anything, but Scott Pelley nevertheless shows her a photo of a Russian:
I wonder if that looks anything like the man you saw outside your home.
Nurse Joy: It absolutely (!) does. And when I received this photo, I had a visceral reaction. It made me feel sick. I cannot (!) absolutely (!) say for certainty that it is this man, but I can tell you that even to this day, looking at him makes me feel that same visceral reaction. And I can absolutely (!) say that this looks like the man that I saw in the street.
She is obviously very good at visceral reactions, but I seriously doubt that her testimony would be worth much in court as evidence that "placed known agents of Russian"GRU sabotage and assassination Unit 29155 at the scene of" this particular alleged crime.
The Frankfurt case will have to wait till tomorrow.
If you don't remember Targeted Individual Len Ber's enthusiasm for the biomarkers GFAP and NfL, see posts 2,119 and 2,129. He referred to GFAP and NFL as evidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
However, Len Ber appered to have been unaware that even though those biomarkers may indicate mTBI (I don't know; I'm not a neurologist and neither is Len Ber), they also indicate other ailments such as stress-related exhaustion:
Now, I may be wrong about this, but I suspect that Len Ber didn't come up with this idea on his own. I think he was probably led astray by some of the people (Michael Hoffer?) who claimed that they had discovered 'immaculate concussion' and thus 'Havana syndrome' in their US-foreign-service patients.
The new campaign from 60 Minutes, The Insider, Der Spiegel and Mark Zaid (!) also refers to biomarkers, but they are smarter (and also more dishonest) than Len Ber: They just mention biomarkers without mentioning what kind of biomarkers they are talking about:
Both microwave and ultrasound energy can damage cells in the brain as well as open the blood-brain barrier, causing proteins from the damaged cells to leak into the spinal fluid and then into the bloodstream. These so-called biomarkers are metabolized by the body within hours to days, meaning that someone hit with an acoustic weapon would need to have their blood drawn almost immediately after an attack to detect this kind of evidence of injury.
The former Kyiv Station CIA officer who was hit in Hanoi in 2021 was one of only two victims of Havana Syndrome whose biomarkers had been measured before the attack, thus establishing an individualized baseline. In this officer’s case, the biomarker levels jumped from normal before the attack to far above normal hours after; they then returned to normal days later, clearly indicating brain injury at the time of the attack, according to multiple sources within the U.S. intelligence community. He was diagnosed with “neural network dysfunction and persistent dysautonomia due to traumatic brain injury.” Unraveling Havana Syndrome: New evidence links the GRU's assassination Unit 29155 to mysterious attacks on U.S. officials and their families (TheInsider, April 1, 2024)
However, the drama queens at 60 Minutes managed to find a much higher number:
U.S. officials in Vietnam were injured in a Havana Syndrome style attack ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris's 2021 trip to Hanoi. Now, new evidence suggests Russia may have been involved — and that it may have been the Vietnamese themselves who were given technology that could have caused the injuries
At the time, the U.S. embassy in Hanoi announced that a possible "anomalous health incident," the federal government's term for so-called Havana Syndrome attacks, was slowing Harris's arrival in Vietnam. 60 Minutes has learned that 11 people reported being struck in separate incidents before Harris entered the country: two people who were officials at the American embassy in Hanoi, and nine people who were part of a Defense Department advance team preparing for Harris's visit.
While at least some of the injured U.S. personnel were medevaced out of the country, Harris was unharmed and continued her trip to Hanoi after a three-hour delay in Singapore. 60 MINUTES OVERTIME Havana Syndrome in Vietnam: Possible Russian role in attack on Americans, according to new evidence (CBS News, March 31, 2024)
I wonder why only two of the eleven victims of the alleged Russian-Vietnamese attacks were medevaced out of Vietnam. Could it be that the other nine victims just got inexplicably better?
For the time being, skeptics appear to be in control:
Note 24 is a link to Baloh and Bartholomew's article, “Havana Syndrome”: A post mortem (International Journal of Social Psychiatry/PubMed Central, Dec 25, 2023).
For a long time after David Relman's NAS study, Wikipedia's article about the 'syndrome' claimed that DEW attacks were the most plausible explanation. I don't remember when it changed, but it may have been after either the CIA interim report in January '22 or the ODNI report in March '23.
A Wiki war is happening over on the Havana Syndrome talk page, where one editor is refusing to allow updates adding a reference to the 2024 NIH studies finding no detectable brain injuries, over the protests of four others, because they don't like what the research says Robert Skvarla (X, April 15, 2024)
I don't know if someone over at the Skeptical Inquirer saw my tweet about the Havana Syndrome Wiki but they've posted a new article detailing the struggle to update the page. There appears to be a coordinated effort to manage/prevent changes, including a deluge of new accounts. Robert Skvarla (X, April 16, 2024)
If you happened to be watching CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, March 31, 2024, you would have received an eyeful of uncritical interviews about the supposed attack on the U.S. and Canadian embassy staff in Havana, Cuba, starting around 2016. Soon after the show aired on CBS, almost 180,000 people ventured over to Wikipedia to check out the Havana syndrome article. In the two weeks leading up to the show, the article received about 6,000 views a day. All this far exceeds the normal views, which is about 1500 a day. That’s a lot of eyeballs.
I will be giving you a quick background of my and the Guerilla Skeptics on Wikipedia’s history with this article and pose a few questions about what is going on for you to consider.
(...)
My hypothesis is just this: people are curious but only to the point that someone will spoon-feed them the information they want to hear. The more sensational and implausible the better. Taking a few minutes to learn more is too much work. If my theory is correct, I find it very sad. Mass psychogenic illness is fascinating. Havana Syndrome by the Numbers (SkepticalInquirer, April 15, 2024)
It's a pity. I usually like her videos. However, in this case she may have done her own research, but she should have asked somebody else to do it for her or at least help her do it.
Did Skeptics Debunk Havana Syndrome?
(Rebecca Watson on YouTube, April 16, 2024 - 22:19 min.)
At the beginning of the video, Rebecca Watson says, "I've now spent a solid week reading about international politics intrigue, research on auditory and microwave weapons, medical case studies and far too many 'definitive' debunkings, and now I'm finally ready."
But unfortunately, she isn't ready. A week clearly wasn't enough, and she is in over her head.
Her railing against Bartholomew makes it apparent that she herself never looked into the diagnoses of the people suffering from the 'syndrome'. She should have instead of relying on the 'investigative' journalists from 60 Minutes and The Insider doing it for her and trusting their claims because they also didn't do it.
"Bartholomew rails against every aspect of the [60 Minutes] show, though it seems that he didn't even know about the more in-depth report over on The Insider. Nor did he apparently know about the previous episodes 60 Minutes has done on this because he complains that David Relman shows up, but that was actually a clip from their previous episode on Havana syndrome. It was just to give background and context to these new findings. He complains that all of the spies they interviewed were kept anonymous because, I guess, Bartholomew assumes that 60 Minutes and their partners failed to fact check their sources, and only he can confirm these people's stories."
Watson apparently doesn't know that Bartholomew not only knew about the "previous episodes 60 Minutes has done on this." He even wrote about them at the time: 60 MINUTES WHIPS UP “HAVANA SYNDROME” HYSTERIA, AIRS SENSATIONAL SEGMENT ON WHITE HOUSE “ATTACKS” (Skeptic, Mar 6, 2022).
It's one of those embarrassing mistakes that would have been so easy to avoid if only she had tried googling "Robert Bartholomew" "60 Minutes", which she didn't, apparently.
I don't know, but I suspect that it may have been Michael Shermer's (fairly superficial) involvement in this that may have made her lose all caution and go into blind attack mode. She summarizes Shermer's description of a Bartholomew article like this: "a definitive debunking of the idea that Havana Syndrome has anything to do with spies, or weaponry, or anything but basic human psychology".
She accepts claims made by 60 Minutes and The Insider as facts: "And in fact, nearly all the cases involved the most successful U.S. spies working in counterintelligence, specifically focussed on Russia. So that's interesting because you'd think if it was just a psychogenic illness, you would see this illness spread through offices regardless of the victims' rank, or their specific job or specialty."
However, the 'syndrome' did actually spread through offices regardless of the victims' rank, or their specific job or specialty. They weren't all top-level officials or CIA agents specializing in Russia. And some of them were Canadians, spouses, children and even pets, which people arguing against MPI are eager to point out in some contexts, but only because they insist on a one-cause-fits-all explanation: They all have to be either DEW attacks or MPI, so if one case couldn't possible be MPI, it counts as an argument against any case being MPI, but if one case just might 'plausibly' be caused by DEWs, it speaks for all of them*. That spouses, children and pets also get sick for a number of reasons doesn't occur to them in this context.
"They profile many of the victims, whose stories certainly don't sound like anxiety and often include the agents' spouses and children and even household pets."
They do indeed, but they also profile many victims who mention how stressed out they were at the time. However, coming down with vestibular symptoms doesn't require that you are anxious. Infections may cause them, COVID-19, for instance, as Watson points out in another context.
And Watson describes Joy (see post 2,225), who is absolutely sure that a photo of a Russian agent is the guy she saw outside her house, then isn't sure it's the same guy, and then is absolutely sure again, as "a witness who understands that witness identification is error prone."
Yeah, right!
"He [Bartholomew] then says that brain fog, one of her many symptoms, is a common description of people experiencing anxiety, which is a common tactic known as poisoning the well: brain fog is also a common description of people experiencing long covid and pregnancy. So what?!"
I don't think she actually understands the point here, which is that brain fog is indeed common in people experiencing anxiety - as well as in people experiencing Long Covid or pregnancy or an awful lot of other ailments, and that it is thus far from being specific to AHIs, which is Bartholomew's point. It is ironic that Rebecca Watson, while being ironic, is busy poisoning her own well with an argument that doesn't support the idea that the alleged syndrome is due to microwaves or any other attacks. The same thing can be said about all the other alleged AHI symptoms: They are all very common. They are the symptoms of many other diseases. And Bartholomew doesn't actually say that Joy "probably got it scuba diving." This is a lie, and since Watson has copied the text onto the screen, the lie is immediately apparent.
Watson also thinks that Bartholomew should "have admitted that he has no idea what she [i.e. Joy] has been through," which is yet another one of the many times over the years when we have heard people demand empathy with the 'syndrome' sufferers' at the expense of clarity and analysis. (Empathy actually requires clarity!)
Those of us who have been following the history of the 'syndrome' and listening to the victims telling their stories, and Robert Bartholomew certainly has, have a very good idea of what the 'syndrome' victims have been through. We know because they have told us in great detail again and again.
But Watson fails to look into the specifics of Joy's story. If she had, she might have discovered what the diagnosis says and she might have discovered that it isn't bloody likely that Joy's suffering was caused by ultrasound or microwaves. If only Watson "had had an extra 5 to 10 minutes" as she arrogantly puts it about Bartholomew, she would know. It's approximately how long it took me to find out about "semicircular canal dehiscence," its symptoms and causes. (Again: see post 2,225.)
"I just want to end by stressing that it's okay to admit when you don't know something for sure."
I look forward to seeing Watson admit that she did sloppy research on the 'syndrome'. She actually claims that Robert Bartholomew did.
*Remember that the ODNI report"identified medical, environmental, and social factors that plausibly can explain many AHIs reported by US officials."
Bartholomew mocks yet another group of unfortunate victims of targeted attacks
From the Watson video's comments section:
@glitterberserker1029
I feel compelled to share that Bartholomew has a bad reputation among knitters. A channel called Emma in the moment has a pair of videos about the history and drama of ravelry (social media but only for yarn nerds). The second guess in depth into this but long story short a few years ago they redesigned the site and things went poorly. Some people have reported migraines and people with epilepsy have reported having seizures. He wrote what I thought was a rather flippant article that didn't really even bother looking into claims. I suppose it's good to know he's like that with everyone and not just those of us who are way too interested in yarn.
Rebecca Watson @RebeccaWatson
Oh my god, that's fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
Opinion: How does a website about knitting and crocheting lead to migraines and seizures? Robert Bartholomew examines a strange illness spreading over the internet.
(...)
One woman wrote: “Within minutes of seeing the new design I had searing pain in my eyes and head, and trouble focusing my vision. It lasted hours.” Another woman wrote that after logging off, within 10 minutes “the room started rolling and it was like I was on a boat with all the queasiness and motion sickness.” She had a history of migraines.
As one person observed: “I wouldn’t have associated the weird facial and neck pain I get from looking at (the site)…without other people speaking up.” Another user claimed that viewing the site was responsible for their muscle spasms and even vomiting. The worried viewers began spreading their message to different social media platforms. One influencer warned that Ravelry’s newly redesigned site was triggering “Seizures, dizziness, nausea, and migraine in a pretty significant amount of people. Be aware…” Another called it “a harmful and potentially dangerous website.” The website that’s making people sick (University of Auckland, July 1, 2020)
That guy Putin sure works in mysterious ways! It is clear that nobody's safe from him.
The knitting community has sworn revenge! Bartholomew's next in line.
The March 31 report broadcast on 60 Minutes revealed new evidence of a potential Russian nexus tied to mysterious illnesses suffered by U.S. national security officials. In response, a bipartisan group of lawmakers last week sent a letter to President Biden calling for a "renewed assessment by the U.S. government" of what officials call "anomalous health incidents."
"At this time, we recognize that we must not let allegations carry more weight than evidence," the members of Congress wrote. "However, the 60 Minutes piece presented compelling evidence that warrants further review."
The letter was signed by, among others, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the U.S. Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence. Senators call for renewed Havana Syndrome assessment after 60 Minutes report (NBC News, April 17, 2024)
It would have been nice if NBC had told us exactly what that "compelling evidence" is supposed to be, but somehow the media never gets around to doing that.
In the process of responding to this phenomenon, we have met with dozens of former intelligence officials, service members and diplomats who put their lives on the line to served their country. Most recently, some of these individuals have told Congress that the Intelligence Community has not followed all credible leads about AHIs or that the Intelligence Community is in possession of information that undermines or contradicts the assessment provided by the National Intelligence Council in March 2023 that "available intelligence consistently points against the involvement of U.S. adversaries in causing the reported incidents." Letter to President Biden (Shaheen.Senate.Gov, April 12, 2024)
So let's see that "compelling evidence"! Let's hear abut those "credible leads about AHIs" or the "information that undermines or contradicts" the ODNI report. We have been hearing about alleged evidence since the 'syndrome' story began, but what has happened to it? Why does it always seem to vaporize before it can be shown?
A little more from the astonishingly eventful and dramatic world of knitting!
Here’s the problem: It appears to be an ordinary website. There are no flashing lights or obvious features that should cause health issues. That a small number of people self-report having a seizure does not prove that it was triggered by the site. Some claim that the health effect is delayed by hours or days after viewing the site. PSE is rare but it’s common enough that out of such a large population of users on any given day, you would expect some to be experiencing a variety of health complaints. Some users say that just viewing a link to the website or a screenshot of the site is making them unwell. And some visitors say they have fallen ill immediately upon looking at the site. A Popular Website Is Reportedly Making People Sick (PsychologyToday, July 6, 2020)
The post that got me blocked by Rebecca Watson (see post 2,230:
I like most of your videos, and occasionally post links to them on ISF, but this one's very bad.
You do sloppy research and accuse Bartholomew of doing sloppy research.
I have been following the 'syndrome' since 2017. My post about your 'syndrome' video: https://internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=14302329#post14302329 DannSim (X, April 17, 2024)
Response to Rebecca Watson on Havana Syndrome from Robert Bartholomew. Response to Skepchick on Havana Syndrome (Mass Hysteria Man on YouTube, April 20, 2024 - 7:54 min.)
UFO/UAP fans don't like skeptics, criticism of the 'Havana syndrome's' DEW-attack delusion, and they really, really don't like Guerilla Skeptics (see post 2,228), Susan Gerbic, and Robert Barholomew.
Hey @MarkSZaidEsq, as the attorney of multiple Havana Syndrome victims from 60 Minutes, you should know the Guerrilla Skeptics group of Wikipedia editors hijacked the @Wikipedia page to debunk the subject.
@Rob_Palmer of the group is the #1 editor of the page.
#ufotwitter StandForBetter.org (X, April 2, 2024)
The sceptics [i.e. Guerilla Skeptics on Wikipedia] edited out any mention of the 60 Minutes discoveries, and minimized the facts and reports by an actual expert David Relman. RobHeatherly1 (X, April 19, 2024)
The latter Xweet presents this appeal to (alleged) authority:
"It is not for Wikipedia editors to challenge the expertise of a scientist described by reputable sources such as The New York Times as a "prominent scientist" in an article on the topic. Moreover, The NYT article emphasises that the American Medical Association published his critique of the NIH studies, highlighting his respected standing in the scientific community, specific to this topic."RobHeatherly1 (X, April 19, 2024)
David Relman's alleged "respected standing ... specific to this topic" is questionable. He doesn't really have any expertise on anything relevant to the 'syndrome', and his attempts to explain how the 'syndrome' victims in Havana were attacked by DEWs is ludicrous (see post 1,306).
I can recommend Big Think's article about why some of the world's greatest scientists go crazy:
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Winning the Nobel Prize is the ultimate professional achievement for a scientist. The honor is so great, that a Nobel Laureate may feel as if their ideas and judgments should never be questioned again. This aloof status, along with the pressures of fame, can cause Nobel Laureates to spend their later years chasing impossible, pseudoscientific, or outright insane ideas. Nobel Disease: Why some of the world's greatest scientists go crazy (BigThink, Sep 15, 2023)
I am aware that Relman never got the Nobel prize.
And as for the Wikipedia edit war, the Havana Syndrome page still doesn't mention the recent NIH studies (see post 2,143)
ETA I notice that there has been a name change in Robert Bartholomew's video mentioned in my previous post: from Mass Hysteria Man to Bob Bartholomew. I think it's a good change, and I hope it isn't due to a YouTube edit war!
'Syndrome' Humor (There hasn't been enough of that!)
I think I have mentioned before that I look forward to one day watching the docu-horror-comedy The Havana Syndrome - The Day of the Crickets, preferably with Armando Iannucci as the writer/director. I liked his 2017 political satire black comedy The Death of Stalin (Wikipedia).
In post 2,214, I linked to an English-language version of an article in the Cuban daily Granma about Cuba's response to the recent CBS 60 Minutes episode about the 'syndrome'.
Three days ago, CBS News aired an interview with Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister:
In a rare and exclusive interview, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío, the island nation's point person in U.S.-Cuba relations, discusses his thoughts on the record number of Cubans processed at the southern border, the findings of a Cuban investigation into Havana Syndrome, and more with CBS News immigration and politics reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez. Top Cuban diplomat weighs in on immigration, Havana Syndrome and more (CBS News, April 18, 2024 - 26:18 min.)
With subtitles, but there is no transcription.
18:44-->22:16
At 22:16, the theme of the interview shifts to the question of Russian attempts to recruit Cubans to fight in Ukraine. See post 237 in the thread Protests Erupt in Cuba.
For Danes or other Scandinavians: ‘Havana-syndromet’ vender frygteligt tilbage (Dansk-Cubansk Forening, April 24, 2024)
The first three lines aren't mine. The rest of the article is.
For people who resort to Google Translate: It can now translate the Danish word for cricket (singular) correctly. However, the plural word, i.e. crickets, is sometimes translated correctly as crickets, at other times as mutton chick. I have no idea what that is or what it sounds like.
When I google it, I get this, which is probably delicious.
In response, adherents of the Russian microwave weapon theory have pointed to a long and detailed article published by The Insider, an investigative journalistic website that teamed up with 60 Minutes. But if you read the fine print, its story ultimately falls back on—you guessed it—a “corpus of scientific literature” from the Soviet Union, including a 1974 Soviet patent that claimed to successfully test a device that used radio waves to put people to sleep.
This reminded me of the infamous account of the Soviet psychic who could stop a frog’s heart with her mind, one of the many fantastical tales of Russian psychic prowess chronicled by American authors in the 1970s. There was a KGB-sponsored pipeline of this stuff that American readers ate up and that seemingly induced the U.S. intelligence community to fall down its paranormal rabbit hole.
As the intelligence historian Filip Kovačević explained to me, psychic phenomena were at this time incompatible with Marxist (e.g., materialist) ideology in the U.S.S.R. But ESP (extrasensory perception) was all the rage in America’s Age of the Aquarius, and the Soviets took notice. “That was something the Westerners wanted to hear (especially in the late 1960s and early 1970s) and the KGB supplied them with it,” he said to me in an e-mail. “My sense is that most of what was known about Soviet science in the West during the [cold war] was a result of KGB disinformation.” Soviet-Era Pseudoscience Lurks behind ‘Havana Syndrome’ Worries (ScientificAmerican, April 24, 2024)
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
