Merged US may close Cuba Embassy over 'health attacks'

[dann]

The Return of the Drama Queen

Do you remember David Relman? You know, the guy who doesn't understand how ordinary sound works (post 1,306) and thus had to resort to microwaves to explain the Havana 'syndrome':

They left, it [= the sound of crickets] dissipated. They returned, it recurred. That to us was something that we had never heard of, we could not explain by known medical or environmental conditions, and to us deserved our special attention in an effort to understand what might be the plausible mechanism.
That mechanism, Dr. Relman's committees concluded, was most likely "pulsed electromagnetic energy." In other words, a focused beam of microwaves fired from a distance.

Relman has now become a "biosecurity expert," a private contractor, and is working with AIs, which scares the ◊◊◊◊ out of him once again:

Frontier AI Models Giving Specific, Actionable Instructions to Perpetrate Bioterror Attack (Futurism, May 3, 2026)
"It was answering questions that I hadn't thought to ask it, with this level of deviousness and cunning that I just found chilling."

We already know from his preface to the NASEM report that he is prone to dramatizing the dangers that he imagines may be out there. From the preface to the NASEM report 2020 (see post 726):

The committee is left with a number of concerns. Even though it was not in a position to assess or comment on how these DOS cases arose, such as a possible source of directed, pulsed RF energy and the exact circumstances of the putative exposures, the mere consideration of such a scenario raises grave concerns about a world with disinhibited malevolent actors and new tools for causing harm to others, as if the U.S. government does not have its hands full already with naturally occurring threats.

So "as if the U.S. government does not have its hands full already with naturally occurring threats," David Relman is the guy to go to if you want to add imaginary threats to the "naturally occurring" ones!

The Futurism article continues:

According to new reporting by the New York Times, at least one frontier AI model gave a scientist viable instructions for how to both engineer a deadly pathogen and weaponize it in a massive bioterror attack.

So now David Relman not only has a new incentive to dramatize imaginary threats, he is also working with AIs, which we already know are prone to hallucinate!
That does not bode well for future research.

 

[dann]

And apropos of David Relman, he is also busy promoting the lab-leak theory:

Peter Daszak on bsky, Aug 15, 2026
Unbelievable how erstwhile good scientists believe debunked conspiracies because they can’t get over the idea that China = bad. Relman is a true believer in this as well as the prob BS microwave/sound wave attacks. He’s prob half way there on the Jewish laser beams too after a couple of drinks!

Zach Hensel on bsky, Aug 15, 2026
Absolutely wild example of "data not shown" here from someone chiding others for their overconfidence.

Zach Hensel on bsky, Aug 15, 2026
Relman's other reason, "the kind of work pursued there [at the Wuhan Institute of Virology," is problematic as well. The only work he describes as concerning is remixing viruses to make chimeras. SARS-CoV-2 did not result from that type of work.

 

[dann]

'A mass psychogenic illness': How the placebo effect's evil twin is spreading faster than ever (BBC Science Focus Magazine, Aug 24, 2026)
The 'nocebo' can render medical interventions ineffective, conjure up adverse side effects or even lead to real symptoms getting worse
(...)
No perpetrator has ever been caught or admitted responsibility, and it’s unclear how such a weapon would work. Another oddity is that people with Havana Syndrome have genuine symptoms but no obvious physical damage to their bodies.
This points to a different explanation, that their symptoms may have been caused by something called the nocebo effect.

Paper by two Canadian researchers, Danielle Elliott and Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier:

The “Havana Syndrome”: atmospheres of anxiety and neurological states (Taylor&Francis online, Received 25 Oct 2025, Accepted 06 May 2026, Published online: 23 Jul 2026)
Drawing on historical, political, and media narratives, the paper explores how uncertainty about the syndrome’s origins – ranging from sonic weapons to psychogenic responses – reveals the deep entanglement of perception, politics, and embodiment. Ten years after the initial reports, the syndrome remains unresolved, its meaning shifting between science, suspicion, and sensation. Ultimately, the authors contend that the Havana Syndrome exposes how state relations and ideological tensions can generate an atmosphere of anxiety in which imagined threats acquire material and bodily form, demonstrating the power of geopolitical affect in shaping both experience and knowledge of illness.

With translations in Portuguese and Spanish.


The targeted Individuals aren't happy!

Len Ber on X, Aug 26, 2026
Mass Hysteria Does Not Explain Havana Syndrome!
On Aug 24, 2026 BBC Science Focus Magazine @sciencefocus ran a dangerously outdated piece recycling mass psychogenic illness. For Havana Syndrome - AHI Type 1 - that hypothesis was already rejected by the two expert panels.
The author, Helen Pilcher @HelenPilcher1, a self-proclaimed “peddler of feel-good science”, disregards every meaningful scientific and administrative development we’ve had since 2017.
I think, this is just another example of intelligence-driven narrative control trying to re-direct public opinion from the objective truth: Havana Syndrome is a form of brain insult enabled by directed energy.

Unfortunately, the two 'expert panels' were led by a nincompoop who is conspicuously ignorant of how sound works.

Len Ber on X, Aug 26, 2026
Elliott 2026 treats anxiety as the default explanation for Havana Syndrome. It does not address the finding that psychosocial factors cannot account for AHI Type 1 cases.

Yes, if the Canadians ever heard of Len Ber's finding, which I very much doubt they did, they do ignore it.
Why wouldn't they?

 

[dann]

Catherine Herridge, the MAGA journalist, posted a very long tweet yesterday:

She mentions Chris and Heidi again. She interviewed them as 'syndrome' victims in February 2026 (see post 2,443) even though the symptoms they complain about are nothing like the ones that are usually referred to as typical of the alleged syndrome. She also mentions Mike Beck again, another alleged 'sydnrome' victim:

Catherine Herridge on X, Sep 22, 2026
In April 2025, my investigation with former counterintelligence officer Mike Beck revealed the progressive nature of these brain injuries. Beck was hit in 1996, diagnosed with a Parkinson’s-like disorder, and passed away earlier this year.

There are new conspiracies in the tweet, e.g. the one about a CIA guy who is supposed to have deleted 'syndrome' documents. For some reason, it isn't one of the intelligence officers who were already fired.

I looked Herridge up today because I had stumbled on this story in a search totally unrelated to the 'syndrome':

Leo and Me: Parkinson's disease (Wikipedia)
In 2002, an investigation was launched into Leo and Me after a possible cluster of Parkinson's disease cases was noted among former cast and crew members of the show. Fox and director Don Williams were among the four with the disease, along with a writer and a cameraman.[1][2][3]
When asked about the cluster by Howard Stern in a September 25, 2013, interview on The Howard Stern Show, Michael J. Fox stated, "Believe it or not, from a scientific point of view, that's not significant."[4] Donald Calne, a Vancouver neurologist, said the incidence of Parkinson's in society is about 1 in 300, but that four of the 125 people on the Vancouver set of Leo and Me developed the disease. Calne said, "It could be coincidence. But it's intriguing, it might be something they were exposed to."[2]

Michael J. Fox doesn't seem to have suspected a Cuban, Russian, Chinese or CIA attack as the cause of his case of Parkinson's:

Michael J. Fox: Parkinson's disease (Wikipedia)
"I can think of a thousand possible scenarios: I used to go fishing in a river near paper mills and eat the salmon I caught; I've been to a lot of farms; I smoked a lot of pot in high school when the government was poisoning the crops. But you can drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out."[119]

I assume that he mentions having "been to a lot of farms" because "exposures to pesticides, metals, solvents, other toxicants and air pollution are increasingly seen as major risk factors in PD development.[62][63]" (Wikipedia)

One of the replies to Catherine Herridge's tweet:

morning_farter on X, Sep 22, 2026
If we have the evidence, we are perfectly justified in bombing Cuba.

Len Ber retweets Herridge, as he was bound to do, while complaining about her not considering Targeted Individuals to be legit 'syndrome' victims:

Len Ber MD on X, Sep 22, 2026
Civilian Havana Syndrome Lawsuit remains a blind spot in @C__Herridge investigation: https://natlawreview.com/press-releases/civilians-sue-cdc-and-nih-landmark-lawsuit-demand-equal-diagnostic-guidance

https://twitter.com/x/status/2102411474627183020

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

The saga continues:

Canadians were spying for U.S. in Cuba at time of alleged sonic attacks: source

Ottawa invokes rare law to keep details in lawsuit by injured diplomats secret, denies Canadians engaged in spying

www.theglobeandmail.com

 

[dann]

Color me surprised!
Canadians were spying for U.S. in Cuba at time of alleged sonic attacks: source (reddit, Sep 26, 2026)
I don't know if they're all Canadians, but the sentiment isn't exactly pro-USA (or pro-Carney).

Revealing Canada's secret collaboration with the U.S. in Cuba during the "Havana Syndrome": What is known? (cibercuba, Sep 27, 2026)
According to the Canadian newspaper, a diplomat assigned to the Global Security Reporting Program (GSRP) at the embassy in Havana was gathering human intelligence and occasionally relayed it directly to CIA agents at the U.S. embassy.
"Sometimes they could be asked to provide the information directly" to a CIA agent, one of the sources described.

The Canadian lawyer seems to consider the 60 Minutes & The Insider reports to be evidence that the 18 diplomats suing Canada were victims of a GRU attack with energy weapons.


First tweet in a short thread on X with quotations from The Globe and Mail:

Mark Warner on X, Sep 26, 2026
“A Canadian diplomat was sharing intelligence with American spies in Havana and Canadians were using satellite equipment brought into #Cuba by the US when officials from both countries began experiencing debilitating symptoms caused by alleged sonic attacks linked to #Russia…”

See also cbcwatcher on X, Sep 26, 2026