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Merged US may close Cuba Embassy over 'health attacks'
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Another new series of podcasts about the 'syndrome':
"In 2016, a mysterious, debilitating illness begins to afflict American diplomats and spies working abroad – first in Cuba, and then around the world. Victims report crippling neurological symptoms. Some describe the feeling of being hit by an invisible, directed pressure while they were stationed on government property, or sometimes standing in their own homes or hotel rooms. Is this bizarre illness the result of a weapon? Is it mass psychosis? Or something else entirely?
Award-winning journalists Jon Lee Anderson and Adam Entous take listeners to the heart of this saga in HAVANA SYNDROME, a new podcast from VICE World News."
POLITICO writes about the podcast:
So I guess the series doesn't end after the first four episodes.
"In 2016, a mysterious, debilitating illness begins to afflict American diplomats and spies working abroad – first in Cuba, and then around the world. Victims report crippling neurological symptoms. Some describe the feeling of being hit by an invisible, directed pressure while they were stationed on government property, or sometimes standing in their own homes or hotel rooms. Is this bizarre illness the result of a weapon? Is it mass psychosis? Or something else entirely?
Award-winning journalists Jon Lee Anderson and Adam Entous take listeners to the heart of this saga in HAVANA SYNDROME, a new podcast from VICE World News."
POLITICO writes about the podcast:
So I guess the series doesn't end after the first four episodes.
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Skeptic Ginger
Nasty Woman
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I don't recall anyone was crippled. Did I miss that?
1: I haven't heard of any limbs being lost, and the victims we've seen so far have not been in wheelchairs or on crutches.
2: Well, yeah. Some of them lost their jobs. Polymeropoulos said that he couldn't drive anymore. And it does say "crippling neurological symptoms" ...
Robert Bartholomew wrote:
So crippling it is, I guess.
In a quotation in post 1,634 about the new eight-part podcast series, The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome, it said that "the podcast will launch on January 23," but according to Yahoo! News it may already start this Friday, i.e. tomorrow:
A short article about the podcast mentioned in post 1,642.
Jon Lee Anderson writes:
Unlike Jon Lee Anderson, I am no longer asking, "What is Havana Syndrome? Is it real? And if it is real, who – or what – is causing it?" Those questions were answered satisfactorily a long time ago as was the question about why it's "taking the US government so long to solve it?" (The US government doesn't want to solve it! It's biased and interested in a solution that isn't supported by facts.)
But nevertheless, the podcast series is very interesting, not least because Anderson and Entous have managed to interview Patient Zero himself, the CIA operative 'Tony'. And they look at the 'syndrome' in the political context of not only the rapprochement between the USA and Cuba towards the end of the Obama administration but also of the relationship between the two countries since the Cuban revolution in the 1950s.
I have listened to the first four podcasts and am looking forward to the rest.
Jon Lee Anderson writes:
Unlike Jon Lee Anderson, I am no longer asking, "What is Havana Syndrome? Is it real? And if it is real, who – or what – is causing it?" Those questions were answered satisfactorily a long time ago as was the question about why it's "taking the US government so long to solve it?" (The US government doesn't want to solve it! It's biased and interested in a solution that isn't supported by facts.)
But nevertheless, the podcast series is very interesting, not least because Anderson and Entous have managed to interview Patient Zero himself, the CIA operative 'Tony'. And they look at the 'syndrome' in the political context of not only the rapprochement between the USA and Cuba towards the end of the Obama administration but also of the relationship between the two countries since the Cuban revolution in the 1950s.
I have listened to the first four podcasts and am looking forward to the rest.
In recent week, several articles have appeared in U.S. and Cuban media about American Ana Montes, who was released after serving two decades in prison for spying for Cuba. Having been behind bars, she can't be suspected of attacking anybody with pulsed directed microwave energy weapons, but occasionally references to the 'syndrome' do appear in the articles:
Project Brazen has released a number of teaser tweets for their podcast series The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome:
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1616152716589555712 The sci-fi version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1616153460772044805 The brain-attack version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1616152626055217166 The cricket version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1616151251594661894 The Hitchcock version
https://twitter.com/bradleyhope/status/1615652074884055041 The Goya version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615289805994168322 The Vermeer (Girl without a Pearl Earring) version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615012505058775043 The disaster-movie version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615010830466023427
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615289264639549443 The ocussed pulsed energy ray version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615289014944432130 The Escher version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615526440623083521 The the-noise-is-coming-from-INSIDE-THE-HOUSE version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615523224212705280 The Cronenberg (Videodrome) version
Somehow I get the impression that they don't take the attacks seriously!
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1616152716589555712 The sci-fi version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1616153460772044805 The brain-attack version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1616152626055217166 The cricket version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1616151251594661894 The Hitchcock version
https://twitter.com/bradleyhope/status/1615652074884055041 The Goya version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615289805994168322 The Vermeer (Girl without a Pearl Earring) version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615012505058775043 The disaster-movie version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615010830466023427
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615289264639549443 The ocussed pulsed energy ray version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615289014944432130 The Escher version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615526440623083521 The the-noise-is-coming-from-INSIDE-THE-HOUSE version
https://twitter.com/ProjectBrazen/status/1615523224212705280 The Cronenberg (Videodrome) version
Somehow I get the impression that they don't take the attacks seriously!
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I can't access this one:
So I don't know if the new podcast it refers to is the one from Vice or the one from Project Brazen.
Jericho
The first episode of Project Brazen's podcast series, The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome, first mentioned here in post 1,634, premiered today:
And the walls
ETA: As I mentioned in post 1,640, I feared the worst after having seen and listened to the annoying teaser for the series, but I can recommend it after I have listened to the first episode, Jericho. It appears to be serious and not at all sensationalist.
The first episode of Project Brazen's podcast series, The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome, first mentioned here in post 1,634, premiered today:
And the walls
ETA: As I mentioned in post 1,640, I feared the worst after having seen and listened to the annoying teaser for the series, but I can recommend it after I have listened to the first episode, Jericho. It appears to be serious and not at all sensationalist.
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It is remarkable that this new article from The National Defense University Press does not simply ignore the JASON report.
I assume that the "8 of the original 21 cases" that were attributed "to hearing cricket noses" were the 8 'syndrome' victims who recorded the sounds on their cell phones. It is obvious that the sonic-attack idea has now been abandoned completely, at least by the authors of the article. The conclusion makes this clear:
But they don't seem to consider that they have abandoned sonic attacks in favor of an idea that lacks any kind of evidence. In the case of the cricket attacks, at least they had the recordings. Now, all they have is their imaginary hostile 'perpetrator(s)' and their imaginary 'ingenious method':
When the only actually possible explanation is deemed to be unacceptable, it is at least consistent to continue to support the idea that sinister foreign adversaries are screwing with innocent U.S. diplomats overseas (!), which, by the way, seems to dismiss the idea that AHIs on U.S. soil (see post 1,581) were caused by any kind of 'ingenious method'.
I wonder what former White House top officials like Olivia Troye (see post 1,595) think of this new development ...
ETA: It just occurred to me that Mark Zaid, the lawyer of many of the alleged 'Havana Syndrome' victims, also completely dismissed the relevance of the cricket sounds even though they were the one thing that the Havana cases had in common and the thing that several of them recorded as proof that they were the victims of an attack: "whatever they were experiencing, they happened (!) to also (!) hear crickets." See post 1,602.
I assume that the "8 of the original 21 cases" that were attributed "to hearing cricket noses" were the 8 'syndrome' victims who recorded the sounds on their cell phones. It is obvious that the sonic-attack idea has now been abandoned completely, at least by the authors of the article. The conclusion makes this clear:
'The sonic attacks are just soooo 2017-18, aren't they? We don't believe in the ridiculous idea of cricket attacks anymore!'
But they don't seem to consider that they have abandoned sonic attacks in favor of an idea that lacks any kind of evidence. In the case of the cricket attacks, at least they had the recordings. Now, all they have is their imaginary hostile 'perpetrator(s)' and their imaginary 'ingenious method':
When the only actually possible explanation is deemed to be unacceptable, it is at least consistent to continue to support the idea that sinister foreign adversaries are screwing with innocent U.S. diplomats overseas (!), which, by the way, seems to dismiss the idea that AHIs on U.S. soil (see post 1,581) were caused by any kind of 'ingenious method'.
I wonder what former White House top officials like Olivia Troye (see post 1,595) think of this new development ...
ETA: It just occurred to me that Mark Zaid, the lawyer of many of the alleged 'Havana Syndrome' victims, also completely dismissed the relevance of the cricket sounds even though they were the one thing that the Havana cases had in common and the thing that several of them recorded as proof that they were the victims of an attack: "whatever they were experiencing, they happened (!) to also (!) hear crickets." See post 1,602.
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A short interview with Nicky Woolf, the investigative journalist behind the new podcast, The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome:
Len Ber, Targeted Individual, diagnosed with #HavanaSyndrome due to domestic #DirectedEnergy attacks, doesn't like the two new podcasts, the one from Vice and the other one from Project Brazen.
The former is allegedly "nothing but CIA propaganda."
The big news in the community of Targeted Individuals appears to be this lawsuit:
Targeted Justice files $1.3 Billion lawsuit against the DOJ, FBI, & DHS. (Targeted Justice, Jan 12, 2023)
The former is allegedly "nothing but CIA propaganda."
The big news in the community of Targeted Individuals appears to be this lawsuit:
Targeted Justice files $1.3 Billion lawsuit against the DOJ, FBI, & DHS. (Targeted Justice, Jan 12, 2023)
The conclusion of the Vice podcast is a disappointment. Of my original suggestions Alien Attack? Mass Hysteria? Conspiracy? Aldous and in particular Anderson, apparently, think that it was a conspiracy: Castro did it! In Havana, with a Russian ray gun.
In spite of the lack of a weapon, the lack of a perpetrator, and the lack of a single malicious microwave actually having been detected, Aldous & Anderson think that Fidel Castro (who died on Nov 25, 2016) had been so pissed off by the CIA's escalating attempts to recruit new spies in Cuba that he decided to get back at them by using a pulsed energy weapon delivered by the Russians.
But what about the 1,000 cases in the rest of the world?, you may well ask. Well, after having damaged the brains of CIA agents in Havana, the Russians would have asked, "Why not take it on the road?" and then they started using the same hypothetical weapon against American intelligence agents all over the world, "messing with their heads."
It doesn't seem to bother A&A much that the 1,000 cases in the rest of the world have found other explanations in spite of having had 'Havana Syndrome' symptoms. They just regret that "without a smoking gun, we can't come out and declare war."
The conspiracy-theory thinking behind this conclusion becomes clear in an excerpt from the seventh episode. After Mark Polymeropoulos has told his story about his alleged Anomalous Health Incident in Moscow, Anderson says:
It doesn't seem to matter at all "that we don't know for sure what happened in Austria", that there's not a single piece of real evidence, that it's all circumstantial.
It also doesn't matter that the 'signature' on Vienna is nothing but Anderson's ability to imagine that Russians must be behind it because Polymeropoulos suspected that Russians were behind his AHI, and Russians have been busy spying in both Vienna and Havana.
But wouldn't Paris and Geneva also 'bear a signature on them'? The two European cities where outbreaks of 'Havana Syndrome' were reported in January 2022, five days before the CIA interim report (almost) put an end to the whole thing.
Has anybody mentioned Paris and Geneva since then?! Why not? Don't we need to get to the bottom of this? 'Connect the dots', as conspiracy nuts would say ...
In spite of the lack of a weapon, the lack of a perpetrator, and the lack of a single malicious microwave actually having been detected, Aldous & Anderson think that Fidel Castro (who died on Nov 25, 2016) had been so pissed off by the CIA's escalating attempts to recruit new spies in Cuba that he decided to get back at them by using a pulsed energy weapon delivered by the Russians.
But what about the 1,000 cases in the rest of the world?, you may well ask. Well, after having damaged the brains of CIA agents in Havana, the Russians would have asked, "Why not take it on the road?" and then they started using the same hypothetical weapon against American intelligence agents all over the world, "messing with their heads."
It doesn't seem to bother A&A much that the 1,000 cases in the rest of the world have found other explanations in spite of having had 'Havana Syndrome' symptoms. They just regret that "without a smoking gun, we can't come out and declare war."
The conspiracy-theory thinking behind this conclusion becomes clear in an excerpt from the seventh episode. After Mark Polymeropoulos has told his story about his alleged Anomalous Health Incident in Moscow, Anderson says:
You will have to go to the actual podcast to listen to the sinister background music!
It doesn't seem to matter at all "that we don't know for sure what happened in Austria", that there's not a single piece of real evidence, that it's all circumstantial.
It also doesn't matter that the 'signature' on Vienna is nothing but Anderson's ability to imagine that Russians must be behind it because Polymeropoulos suspected that Russians were behind his AHI, and Russians have been busy spying in both Vienna and Havana.
But wouldn't Paris and Geneva also 'bear a signature on them'? The two European cities where outbreaks of 'Havana Syndrome' were reported in January 2022, five days before the CIA interim report (almost) put an end to the whole thing.
Has anybody mentioned Paris and Geneva since then?! Why not? Don't we need to get to the bottom of this? 'Connect the dots', as conspiracy nuts would say ...
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New NPR interview:
I am pretty sure that medical help does include telling patients what their ailments are. If doctors think that a patient is 'making it up' (which appears to be how Polymeropoulos thinks of psychogenic illness), that is what the patient should be told. I don't think patients can or should require that their ailments are treated "as a combat injury" if the medical evidence does not point in that direction.
In the NPR podcast, mass psychogenic illness is dismissed as the explanation for 'Havana Syndrome' for two main reasons:
1) The first two 'syndrome' patients hadn't heard of each other's experiences.
2) "There are symptoms that can not be faked."
As for 1), I assume that the first two patients are the ones we hear about in the Vice podcast series, episode 8. Deny Everything, Admit Nothing. In that podcast, they are two CIA operatives in Havana called Craig and Tony, Craig being the "mysterious source (who) comes out of the woodwork to fill in the blanks," which is very convenient.
However, Craig only contributes with his own 'syndrome' story. The only reason why Entous and Anderson think that he 'fills in the blanks' is that he appears to develop his symptoms much the same way that Tony did. But he claims to have done so before and independently of Tony until they meet up and describe to each other the experiences and symptoms they have had. The alleged 'filling in the blanks' is neither an identified perpetrator nor the discovery of a smoking (ray) gun.
As for 2), it's the same mistake that has been made by advocates of the attack theory since the very beginning when mass psychogenic illness was dismissed with the argument that the 'Havana Syndrome' patients weren't trying to shirk but wanted to get back to work. Mass psychogenic illness isn't faking! The main proponents of the MPI explanation have stressed this again and again: The symptoms are real! They just aren't symptoms of an attack!
At this point, this should have become clear to even Mark Polymeropoulos. And to the CIA, if they are actually telling Polymeropoulos and the other victims of AHIs that they "are all making it up," which I doubt. On the contrary, people (for instance Pamela Spratlen and the leader of the Vienna office) appear to have been removed if they so much as considered MPI as a possibility.
I am pretty sure that medical help does include telling patients what their ailments are. If doctors think that a patient is 'making it up' (which appears to be how Polymeropoulos thinks of psychogenic illness), that is what the patient should be told. I don't think patients can or should require that their ailments are treated "as a combat injury" if the medical evidence does not point in that direction.
In the NPR podcast, mass psychogenic illness is dismissed as the explanation for 'Havana Syndrome' for two main reasons:
1) The first two 'syndrome' patients hadn't heard of each other's experiences.
2) "There are symptoms that can not be faked."
As for 1), I assume that the first two patients are the ones we hear about in the Vice podcast series, episode 8. Deny Everything, Admit Nothing. In that podcast, they are two CIA operatives in Havana called Craig and Tony, Craig being the "mysterious source (who) comes out of the woodwork to fill in the blanks," which is very convenient.
However, Craig only contributes with his own 'syndrome' story. The only reason why Entous and Anderson think that he 'fills in the blanks' is that he appears to develop his symptoms much the same way that Tony did. But he claims to have done so before and independently of Tony until they meet up and describe to each other the experiences and symptoms they have had. The alleged 'filling in the blanks' is neither an identified perpetrator nor the discovery of a smoking (ray) gun.
As for 2), it's the same mistake that has been made by advocates of the attack theory since the very beginning when mass psychogenic illness was dismissed with the argument that the 'Havana Syndrome' patients weren't trying to shirk but wanted to get back to work. Mass psychogenic illness isn't faking! The main proponents of the MPI explanation have stressed this again and again: The symptoms are real! They just aren't symptoms of an attack!
At this point, this should have become clear to even Mark Polymeropoulos. And to the CIA, if they are actually telling Polymeropoulos and the other victims of AHIs that they "are all making it up," which I doubt. On the contrary, people (for instance Pamela Spratlen and the leader of the Vienna office) appear to have been removed if they so much as considered MPI as a possibility.
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Amateur Hour
Today, I could acces the article in The Sunday Times. I don't know why. It is written by Nicky Woolf, who also made Project Brazen's podcast series, and if you don't want to know how that podcast ends, you should stop reading at this point.
Nicky Woolf dismisses the MPI explanation out of hand and seems to be convinced that the 'Havana Syndrome' constitutes an actual attack. His main reference is none other than Beatrice Golomb, mentioned most recently in post 1,633.
I will get back to Nicky Woolf's article tomorrow when I have more time, but for now I will leave you with this, which is how the article ends:
Since most of you here are skeptics or, even if you aren't, have probably watched Better Call Saul, this may already have occurred to you, too: Karen Coats seems to have been turned into an electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) sufferer by the 'Havana Syndrome'!
If Nicky Woolf is worth his salt as an investigative reporter, he would have asked people about something like this. (People other than Beatrice Golomb, that is!) Now, it obviously wouldn't do to ask Coats to have her brain scanned (again?), but less than that would do it. A double-blinded test, much like the ones used when testing dowsers, could be used to find out if Coats actually suffers from EHS or if it's all in her mind.
And I think her doctor(s), too, owe(s) it to her to put her through this kind of test and would do so unless they have a reason to want her to continue to believe that she suffers from EHS. I don't doubt her suffering, her symptoms, but I seriously doubt that they are caused by electromagnetism.
I am sure that Robert Baloh would be happy to explain these things to both Coats and Woolf.
And as for the argument used to dismiss mass psychogenic illness as the cause of the 'Havana Syndrome', I'll get back to that tomorrow.
Today, I could acces the article in The Sunday Times. I don't know why. It is written by Nicky Woolf, who also made Project Brazen's podcast series, and if you don't want to know how that podcast ends, you should stop reading at this point.
Nicky Woolf dismisses the MPI explanation out of hand and seems to be convinced that the 'Havana Syndrome' constitutes an actual attack. His main reference is none other than Beatrice Golomb, mentioned most recently in post 1,633.
I will get back to Nicky Woolf's article tomorrow when I have more time, but for now I will leave you with this, which is how the article ends:
Since most of you here are skeptics or, even if you aren't, have probably watched Better Call Saul, this may already have occurred to you, too: Karen Coats seems to have been turned into an electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) sufferer by the 'Havana Syndrome'!
If Nicky Woolf is worth his salt as an investigative reporter, he would have asked people about something like this. (People other than Beatrice Golomb, that is!) Now, it obviously wouldn't do to ask Coats to have her brain scanned (again?), but less than that would do it. A double-blinded test, much like the ones used when testing dowsers, could be used to find out if Coats actually suffers from EHS or if it's all in her mind.
And I think her doctor(s), too, owe(s) it to her to put her through this kind of test and would do so unless they have a reason to want her to continue to believe that she suffers from EHS. I don't doubt her suffering, her symptoms, but I seriously doubt that they are caused by electromagnetism.
I am sure that Robert Baloh would be happy to explain these things to both Coats and Woolf.
And as for the argument used to dismiss mass psychogenic illness as the cause of the 'Havana Syndrome', I'll get back to that tomorrow.
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