Merged US may close Cuba Embassy over 'health attacks'

[dann]

Yet another buried 'Havana Syndrome' report

I never noticed this BuzzFeed News article from January until now:

The CDC report ultimately found that the diplomats’ medical histories alone could not explain their illnesses. Inconsistencies in their records, as well as long times between symptoms and medical tests, "hindered CDC's ability to discriminate patterns in the data," the report concluded.

"Essentially the CDC is saying that they have no idea what happened in Cuba," said UCLA neurologist Robert Baloh, who reviewed the report for BuzzFeed News. "CDC should have been called in at the beginning."
(...)
Although the CDC’s investigation was demanded by US lawmakers, and its conclusion says, “CDC is working with partners to disseminate findings from this investigation to the medical community and the public,” the report was only made available in redacted form, with some pages obscured under medical privacy claims. However, the December NASEM report on the illnesses cites some of the redacted CDC findings, including that 6 of the 15 people injured were still in rehabilitative therapy and 4 are still unable to work two years later.
Medical Records Can't Explain "Havana Syndrome", a Buried CDC Report Says (BuzzFeed News, Jan 15, 2021)

(NASEM is the acronym for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report is often referred to as the NAS report.)

 

[Orphia Nay]

Dann, is there any example of someone from the US government saying it's a mass delusion?

 

[dann]

I don't remember seeing any. And members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Marco Rubio (R), Susan Collins (R) and Jeanne Shaheen (D) are adamant that they are dealing with attacks. However, I haven't heard any reliable arguments or data from them to back up the claim:

But some have floated the idea that the illnesses are psychosomatic, meaning they have no physical cause.
Rubio dismissed that idea, telling Politico, “I think that’s quackery. I’d invite them to explain that to the now-dozens of people who have suffered documented brain injuries that in many cases have made them incapable of ever working again.”
Lawmakers Insist Havana Syndrome Is Result of Attacks That Are ‘Escalating’] (Rolling Stone, Oct 8, 2021)

In other words, the people who suffer from 'Havana Syndrome' are sick, so they must have been attacked!
It's a cheap trick to ask people to simply trust the opinion of the patients, who have no indication other than the dismissed recordings of crickets to back up the idea that their ailments were caused by an attack. When you asked the Danish girls who claimed that they had been harmed by the HPV vaccines, they would of course have sworn that their ailments were vaccine related. So would (and will) many parents of children with autism who claimed that the kids became autistic because of the MMR vaccines. And ask anybody who claims to be suffering from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS) what they think is causing their symptoms, which by the way are very similar to those of the 'Havana Syndrome' patients:

What is EHS?
EHS is characterized by a variety of non-specific symptoms, which afflicted individuals attribute to exposure to EMF. The symptoms most commonly experienced include dermatological symptoms (redness, tingling, and burning sensations) as well as neurasthenic and vegetative symptoms (fatigue, tiredness, concentration difficulties, dizziness, nausea, heart palpitation, and digestive disturbances). The collection of symptoms is not part of any recognized syndrome.
Electromagnetic fields and public health: Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (WHO, Dec 2005)

The lawmakers claim to have seen evidence in their briefings:

The U.S. government’s investigation into the mysterious illnesses impacting American personnel overseas and at home is turning up new evidence that the symptoms are the result of directed-energy attacks, according to five lawmakers and officials briefed on the matter.
Behind closed doors, lawmakers are also growing increasingly confident that Russia or another hostile foreign government is behind the suspected attacks, based on regular briefings from administration officials — although there is still no smoking gun linking the incidents to Moscow.
(...)
“There have been new additional attacks, which is very disturbing,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has been leading the push for answers on Capitol Hill. “It’s being taken very seriously now due to the director of the CIA … [who] has put very highly qualified people on it.”
U.S. investigators increasingly confident directed-energy attacks behind Havana Syndrome (Politico, Oct 8, 2021)

But we know who is briefing them, first of all, CIA's Mr. Burns and his "very highly qualified people", who seem to be more concerned about saving the credibility of the CIA, whose staff came up with the idea of attacks in the first place, than about coming to terms with the truth. Susan Collins doesn't appear to have the prerequisites to distinguish between nonsensical claims and actual evidence. Marco Rubio is as biased against Cuba as he always was. I know too little about Jeanne Shaheen to get an impression of her skills as a member of a Senate Intelligence Committee, but these lawmakers don't appear to be neurologists or microwave specialists or have any qualifications to question the "very highly qualified people" briefing them.

Only the actual government still maintains that there is no evidence of anything:

A Biden administration official emphasized that the investigation is ongoing and has not yet reached specific conclusions.
(Politico)

 

[dann]

Dann, is there any example of someone from the US government saying it's a mass delusion?

In think that the Biden administration finds the 'Havana Syndrome' as useful as Trump did, so they see no reason to give up on the delusion that the American spies were the victims of an attack:

“Swiftly,” Carlos Fernández de Cossío said. Biden had campaigned with the vow of a fast rollback of many of the toughest policies imposed on Cuba by President Trump. But nearly nine months into the Biden administration, little has changed.
(...)
Despite promises early in Biden’s presidency that limits on remittances — long a key source of income for many Cubans — would be eased, the State Department now says only that it has studied the issue and has sent recommendations to the White House.
(...)
Biden’s lack of action on Cuba, which sits just 90 miles south of the U.S., has served as another example for a small but growing group of foreign policy experts who argue that many of the president’s policies are not so different from Trump’s.
(...)
Obama reopened the embassy in 2015, a major step in ending half a century of Cold War tensions. But the staff shrank in part because of Trump’s decision to freeze relations. Then, U.S. personnel were withdrawn after diplomats and others reported unexplained medical problems; the mysterious affliction, which has harmed U.S. diplomats around the world, is now known as Havana syndrome.
(...)
Fernández de Cossío said Cubans are especially aggrieved at being placed on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, along with North Korea, Iran and Syria. Putting Cuba in that club, he said, is unfair and not supported by facts.
Biden and others criticized the move, which Trump made eight days before he left office. But the new administration has yet to take action to reverse it.
Despite promises to lift some Trump sanctions, Biden leaves Cuba in deep freeze (LA Times, Oct 18, 2021)

 

[Orphia Nay]

Thanks, dann.

As David Wong said (about truthers IIRC), there are nutjobs and fruit loops all the way to the top.

 

[dann]

Except that in this case, they aren't simply the fringe. They are the people at the top who want to believe in the lie and are doing their utmost to spread it. And they are very successful:

In a report for the media outlet Puck published Wednesday, Julia Ioffe claimed that the total was near 300, so many even right at this moment that Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland is “overwhelmed to the point of no longer being able to take new patients.”The case for ‘Havana Syndrome’ skepticism (WP, Oct 20, 2021)

At this point, what appears to be the argument that convinces most people that the 'Havana Syndrome' is anything other than mass psychogenic illness is the alleged brain damage. In the comments section of the WP article it is repeated again: It can't have been mere anxiety because: brain damage!

I haven’t had a brain scan but I don’t think my panic attacks have caused brain damage. Doesn’t that disprove your theory?

And when another comment backs up the article:

Just from a person who has experienced panic attacks, the writer's description of a panic attack is 100% accurate.

The objection is:

Except the part about brain damage.

But people tend to forget (and the 'lawmakers' Collins, Shaheen and Rubio certainly don't stress the point - if they are even aware of it) that
1) we only hear about the brains after the alleged attacks. There are no before-and-after examinations to establish a change;
2) only few of people examined actually have brain damage: "in 21 patients only three had white matter tract changes." (See Bartholomew interview);
3) if you "randomly pick 21 people, that's exactly what you would expect to find because white matter tract changes are common in everything from migraines to depression, to normal aging." (Bartholomew interview)
4) even if they were harmed in the line of spy or diplomat duty, it is much more likely that stress and anxiety caused the damage: Depression and Anxiety Disorders Damage Your Brain -
Untreated mental disorders cause shrinkage of key brain areas.

The "directed, pulsed, radio-frequency energy weapons" are science fiction - at least in this context - and the attempts to make the idea seem plausible only serve to make it more absurd. For instance, see the YouTube video: Havana Syndrome — Direct Microwave Energy Weapon Explained! (National Defence, May 18, 2021)


I can recommend the WP article!

 

[dann]

This isn't really news. We have heard about this before in the context of the 'Havana Syndrome':

One of the longest running operations, dating to the 1960s and lasting for decades, was beaming microwaves at the embassy.
Memos from the CIA, the State Department and presidential advisers routinely refer to this practice, especially in the 1970s and 80s.
(...)
"The Russians have never hesitated to use technology that could hurt our health," he said. "But there was always a reason. It was always part of a process to break into our computers or to turn on listening devices. When this first happened, I thought this must be some technology that has gone wrong."
Now he's questioning that assumption.
"This hurting people and it is hurting their families and their children," he said. "But it's continuing to happen. The Russians — if it is the Russians — would have to be pretty bold to continue to do so when they now realize that they're harming the health of Americans."
Long before Havana Syndrome, U.S. reported microwaves beamed at an embassy (NPR, Oct 21, 2021)

Continue to do what exactly?!
Yes, people continue to get sick, but where are the microwaves?

That embassies have been spied on since the 1960s and that people from the National Security Agency may have been spied on back in the 1990s by a "hostile country" using a "high powered microwave system weapon" makes it very unlikely that the USA doesn't already try to protect their embassies and other buildings, e.g. the homes of CIA agents and diplomats, from microwaves - or at least scan for them.
So where are the microwaves?!

And again James Giordano is the main proponent of the theory that 'Havana Syndrome' is caused by an attack:

"It wasn't just accidental. Clearly, these individuals were getting hit with something which would have put them in the line of fire," said Dr. Giordano.
As more cases are reported, he says he's seeing strong similarities.
"I think what's important to understand, and this is an important term, is a constellation of effects, which is a generalized pattern of effects," he said. "If you're going to categorize them within a set of objective signs and subjective symptoms, they fall very squarely, and I would say rather neatly, within that definable set of characteristics."

If it were so clear that they were hit with something, it shouldn't be difficult to name what hit them! And if the similarities are so strong, please name those similarities! So far, the similarities between the symptoms that have been mentioned are so vague that they could be the symptoms of almost anything, including "Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), known in the past as "Microwave syndrome"."
And if those symptoms actually "fall very squarely, and I would say rather neatly, within that definable set of characteristics," then please define that set of characteristics instead of claiming how definable it is.
Instead, James Giordano gives us nothing but technobabble.
I am sure that Rubio, Collins and Shaheen are impressed, but they shouldn't be.

 

[dann]

With “Havana Syndrome,” Washington Is Repeating Colin Powell’s Worst Mistake

Despite Powell’s apparent misgivings behind closed doors, the influential figure wholly legitimized the warmongering fervor manufactured by jingoistic smut-peddlers throughout the Bush administration and their parrots in the media. He relayed an unflappable certainty as he described covert manufacturing processes that hadn’t taken place, misrepresented intercepted conversations, and repeated sketchy conjecture as airtight truth. In doing so, Powell essentially laundered the dubious case for a simultaneously preemptive and retaliatory military response, lending his personal credibility to coax naysayers into cheering on an invasion.
(...)
As someone too young to have lived through Powell’s apparently fabled early statesman phase, I’ve learned little from his legacy beyond two stupefyingly obvious lessons: The threshold for insisting that a hostile foreign power is hoarding weapons to attack us ought to be incredibly high, and onlookers ought to call ******** when those standards aren’t met. So, I hope you’ll forgive me for being downright apoplectic to be watching this mendacious chapter of our very recent history repeating itself as “Havana Syndrome,” with a new generation of reprobates shoving make-believe weapons down our throats, recklessly swearing that these are causing a series of mysterious attacks, none of which actually happened.
(...)
Eighteen years ago, too many people gave Colin Powell and others the benefit of the doubt. Today, “Havana Syndrome” promoters deserve none of it.
Evidence-free accounts of spooky weapons bedeviling American diplomats have lawmakers jumping at shadows—and talking of war. (New Republic, Oct 21, 2021)

 

[dann]

Havana Syndrome: Over 200 Cases Documented Yet Cause Remains A Mystery (NPR, Oct 20, 2021)

With sound bites from Mr. Burns, Mark Zaid and David Relman.
CIA Burns is not at all as adamant about the attack idea as he appears to be behind closed doors with the lawmakers, Mark Zaid is the lawyer of many of the syndrome sufferers, and David Relman, who headed the NAS investigation.
The latter makes clear that "we deliberately chose to focus on just a handful of mechanisms that had been suggested to us by work that had been published already or by suggestions from our sponsors. These included microwave radiation, chemicals and in particular pesticides, infectious agents that might have been common in Cuba, which is where many of the cases that we looked at had taken place, and then finally psychosocial mechanisms." That is, mass psychogenic illness was never a focus for the NAS investigation - and, no surprise, was never suggested by "our sponsors."

 

[dann]

New article in Salon:

Politicians have leapt to address the seemingly serious "syndrome." Congress even passed a bill to set aside money to help victims of the malady.
The problem? Scientists are not only unsure what it is, but many doubt that it is a physical ailment at all. And some say that dastardly "microwave weapons" defy the laws of physics.
(...)
Scientists like Bartholomew felt that the cases of Havana syndrome were also being misreported, with credence being lent to research that was tenuous at best. In an interview with National Public Radio earlier this week, Stanford microbiologist Dr. David Relman — who led the National Academic of Sciences' investigation into the condition, with direction from he U.S. State Department — confirmed that, at the very least, scientists must acknowledge we know very little for sure about this condition.
"There's still a lot of missing information and lack of molecular understanding of how this might occur," Relman explained.
Scientists are skeptical that "Havana syndrome" is anything more than a psychogenic illness (Salon, Oct 21, 2021)

And as I mentioned here three days ago in post 1040:

It just occurred to me that there was another inconsistency in the NBC News interview with the two diplomats (?) from the U.S. embassy in Havana.
(...)
These people and their lawyers should consider which theory they are going for:

1) If they insist that they were the victims of sonic attacks, they can continue to play the cricket tapes as evidence, but no expert will believe that it is anything other than the sound of crickets, and crickets can't cause brain damage or impair your hearing unless, as one of the experts put it, you take the cricket and stuff it into the ear canal of the victim.

2) If they insist on the Frey effect (Wikipedia), i.e. that they were harmed by pulsated microwave energy weapons, they will have to give up on the tapes since their recordings don't rhyme with the Frey effect:
(...)
They probably haven't considered this, but the Frey effect is all in your head. Not as a hallucination. It is not a psychological phenomenon, but it is a 'sound' in your head, literally, not coming from your backyard, and thus it can't be recorded using your cell phone as a recording device. (Nor can it probably be recorded using any other kind of device.)

This is the reason why you never hear about recordings of the Frey effect. You only hear about how it is perceived by people who are exposed to microwaves and experience it.

The same idea in the Salon article:

Dr. Robert Baloh, a professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said the idea that a sonic weapon caused selective brain or inner ear damage "is not physically possible." Though the microwave weapon theory is speculative, "8 of the 21 initial 'victims' in Cuba actually recorded the sounds as they were occurring and expert analysis of the sound concluded that they were crickets. The simple fact that they were able to record the sounds rules out microwaves as the source," Baloh says.

 

[dann]

Blinken met with diplomats impacted by Havana syndrome in Bogotá (CNN, Oct 21, 2021)

At least in this recent mainstream-media article, there is no mention of attacks, enemies, adversaries or any kind of weapon - sonic or microwave. It gets no closer than this: "... sometimes accompanied by a "piercing directional noise."" The cases of 'Havana Syndrome' are referred to as "anomalous health incidents."

By the way, the question about what to call the 'incidents' constitutes a major part of the Salon article. I think that we should go for "CIA Hysteria". It seems to be to the point, and it might make Mr. Burns and his people want to do their utmost to make the world forget about it forever. How they deal with it in the agency doesn't have to concern us. If they start doing that, we can consider calling it "CIA Mass Psychogenic Illness" (CIAMPI) instead.

 

[dann]

Blinken was finishing a three-day visit to South America. The stop to the embassy in Bogota featured at least one surprise - an in-embassy band of diplomats welcomed him by playing one of Blinken's own songs.
An amateur guitarist who has performed at Washington clubs, Blinken joked about the song, "It really does sound a lot better than when I last heard it."
Blinken meets Colombia embassy staff hit by 'Havana Syndrome' (The Straits Times, Oct 22, 2021)

It doesn't sound to me as if they fear any clear and present danger of microwave attacks.

However, the embassy in Bogotá seems to be very well protected.
I don't see any signs of tinfoil, but you never know what those caps are lined with:

Guards patrol US embassy in Bogota following 'Havana Syndrome' cases (Daily Mail on YouTube, Oct 13, 2021)

 

[dann]

A modest thaw appears to have begun in the Biden administration’s relationship with Russia — including agreement on a little-noticed joint effort at the United Nations on the contentious issue of cybersecurity.
(...)
The most ominous issue ahead is the still mysterious question of the “Havana syndrome” affecting U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers abroad. Russia is a prime suspect for what many believe are deliberate attacks using directed energy systems that have caused medical problems, sometimes severe, for about 200 U.S. government personnel.
When confronted by U.S. officials, the Russians deny any involvement — but that’s hardly conclusive. U.S. officials need stronger evidence than they’ve gathered so far. But if they find it, the current thaw could return to a deep freeze — or worse. If Russia is found to be deliberately targeting U.S. officials, a severe crisis lies ahead, recent cooperation notwithstanding.
Opinion: The ice between the U.S. and Russia may be thawing — for now (WP, Oct 19, 2021)

So what is more important: an agreement with Russia on cybersecurity or the vanity of the CIA upholding a bizarre idea of a microwave-weapon induced syndrome?

 

[dann]

Megan Kelly interviews Glenn Greenwald (9:18):

Megyn Kelly is joined by Glenn Greenwald, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-founder of the Intercept, to talk about why he is skeptical about the “Havana Syndrome” mainstream storyline, the connection he sees to the media's Russia obsession, and more.
Why Glenn Greenwald is Skeptical About The "Havana Syndrome" (Megyn Kelly, Oct 20, 2021)

The much longer version (1:28:14):

Megyn Kelly is joined by David Zweig, journalist for New York Magazine, to talk about the Biden administration's push to vaccinate young kids and keep them masked in schools, the truth about natural immunity, and how experts are being silenced on COVID reality. Then, a Deep State deep dive, with Glenn Greenwald, journalist on Substack, and Marc Polymeropoulos, former CIA official, to talk about "Havana Syndrome" symptoms, doubters of the mysterious disease, what the causes may be, the media's Russia obsession, the reports that CIA informants are becoming double agents and being captured and killed, the state of our national security apparatus, how the left became more favorable to the CIA and FBI, and more.
Havana Syndrome and Vaccinating Young Kids, with Glenn Greenwald, David Zweig, & Marc Polymeropoulos (Megyn Kelly, Oct 20, 2021)

 

[dann]

Vox's Unexplainable has a podcast about the 'Havana Syndrome' (29 min.). Also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify etc.
With R. Douglas Fields, Jon Stone and others.

 

[dann]

In instant messaging channels, fellow UN colleagues discuss the usual suspects and even joke about it. But underneath the humor is a constant, low-lying fear.
Diplomats like me are becoming Increasingly scared of Havana Syndrome (Independent, Aug 5, 2021)

No wonder! I assume "the usual suspects" aren't Blinken, Burns & Rubio ...

 

[dann]

Dr Robert Bartholomew put it all on the line with his assessment that Havana Syndrome is mass psychogenic illness, a form of mass hysteria.
Dr Bartholomew Pulls No Punches With Havana Syndrome (Mick West on YouTube, Oct 23, 2021) 49 sec.

The much longer version, which I haven't listened to yet, so no comments from me for now:

Robert Bartholomew has a PhD in Medical Sociology, and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He's an expert in Mass Psychogenic Illness and the co-author with Rober Baloh of the book "Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria"

Havana syndrome is a loose set of fairly generic symptoms that are being blamed on some kind of attack. It started with personnel at the US embassy in Havana, but has since spread around the world. Dr Bartholomew thinks it's an example of Mass Psychogenic Illness - people are being asked to look for odd health events and strange sounds, and so of course they find them. But there really no good evidence of any kind of attack. Bartholomew thinks the intelligence community is largely aware of this, but an unbiased examination is being avoided for political reason.
Dr Bartholomew's website - https://rebartholomew.com/

FTRH #56 - Robert Bartholomew: Havana Syndrome and Mass Psychogenic Illness (Mick West, Tales from the Rabbit HoleOct 22, 2021) 57 min.

There are interesting comments to both videos on YouTube.

 

[dann]

Dr. Todd Grande is onboard with psychogenic illness as the explanation for 'Havana Syndrome':

This video answers the questions: Can I analyze the case of Havana Syndrome? Is it Mass Psychogenic Illness?

What is Havana Syndrome? | Directed Energy Weapons or Mass Psychogenic Illness (Dr. Todd Grande on YouTube, Oct 24, 2021 - 14:47 min.)

 

[dann]

Again, Dr. James Giordano, professor of neurology at Georgetown University, seems to be the only researcher left who is adamant that it it is possible, based on patients symptoms alone, to determine that 'Havana Syndrome' is an attack:

Encore: Havana Syndrome remains a mystery as researchers study microwave beam theory (NPR, Oct 24, 2021)

 

[dann]

Is public safe from being afflicted by ‘Havana syndrome’? (RepublicanAmerican, Oct 23, 2021)

Yes, why not spread the panic to the rest of the population? Why should U.S. spies and diplomats be the only ones?
(Based on the title alone; I don't have access to the rest.)