Noises linked to mysterious injuries among US diplomats in Cuba were most likely caused by crickets — not microwave weapons — according to a declassified scientific review commissioned by the US State Department and obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The State Department report was written by the JASON advisory group, an elite scientific board that has reviewed US national security concerns since the Cold War. It was completed in November of 2018, two years after dozens of US diplomats in Cuba and their families reported hearing buzzing noises and then experiencing puzzling neurological injuries, including pain, vertigo, and difficulty concentrating.

Originally classified as “secret,” the report concluded that the sounds accompanying at least eight of the original 21 Havana syndrome incidents were “most likely” caused by insects. That same scientific review also judged it “highly unlikely” that microwaves or ultrasound beams — now widely proposed by US government officials to explain the injuries — were involved in the incidents. And though the report didn’t definitively conclude what caused the injuries themselves, it found that “psychogenic” mass psychology effects may have played a role.

“No plausible single source of energy (neither radio/microwaves nor sonic) can produce both the recorded audio/video signals and the reported medical effects,” the JASON report concluded. “We believe the recorded sounds are mechanical or biological in origin, rather than electronic. The most likely source is the Indies short-tailed cricket.”

The report’s findings fly in the face of a medical report commissioned by the State Department and published by a National Academies of Sciences panel last year, which found that microwaves were the “most plausible” cause of the symptoms. That panel was not provided with the JASON report as part of its assessment, the NAS told BuzzFeed News.

“We are grateful to the JASON Group for their insight, which while coming to no firm conclusions, has assisted us in our ongoing investigation of these incidents,” a State Department spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in an emailed statement. The spokesperson declined to answer questions about why the panel’s findings were never made public or provided to the NAS.

  • chlooooooooooooo [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    we dont need the state department to know this it's fairly basic physics. you cannot build a directed energy weapon of the sort they claim is being used covertly to give americans brain damage from long range with high accuracy. certainly not if the emphasis is on the "covert" part - unless Cuba has developed technology far in advance of anything else on the planet.

    • AntipastoAktion [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      That's the part I love the most. Somehow the spooky Bad Guy Cubans can build a pinpoint accurate directed energy weapon that can penetrate solid walls (which requires, for that level of precision and penetration, immense amounts of power) and affect only a single target (but nobody else that might be in the way), but also is somehow so weak the weapon can only produce mild inconveniences to its targets as well as some nebulous "brain damage" that doesn't seem to do anything to affect the person.

      Communist science at it again, building superweapons that break all known laws of physics.

    • HntrKllr [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Communism no food

      But communism also make Star Trek tech

  • EthicalHumanMeat [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Wait a second, you're telling me that the CIA lied about being attacked by communist mind beams?

  • CoconutOctopus [it/its]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I still think that the authentic cases of Havana Syndrome are caused by exposure to pesticides, but the meme that it's an excuse diplomats are making for hangovers makes libs so angry that I'm going to repeat it anyway.

      • IDF_Summer_Camp [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        These people will readily accept that there is a substantial amount of fraud and abuse in any kind of aid program but think it's unfathomable that our brave diplomats and spies would stoop to such a thing.

      • crime [she/her, any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Thanks to Bayer

        Haha isn't it wild that IG Farben still has tremendous influence over public policy

  • Phillipkdink [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    it found that “psychogenic” mass psychology effects may have played a role.

    Lol

  • The_Walkening [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Lol next they're going to claim Cuba tricked them into sticking their head into a microwave oven by putting a head-sized hole in it and a sign that says "state secrets inside - no looking!"

    • determinism2 [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      at least 3

      https://www.sbs.com.au/news/sonic-attack-or-just-crickets-new-analysis-sheds-light-on-us-embassy-in-cuba-mystery/e9e702eb-dde0-49c9-b96b-35514aa6d9b0

      • determinism2 [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        New bit idea: play this on the login page to keep the feds off hexbear.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB6RuVBy444

  • pppp1000 [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Where is the clown in here who said he believed in Havana Syndrome?

    • CliffordBigRedDog [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      i choose to believe that Cuba has through the immortal science of Marxist-leninism discovered science unknown by liberals, Fidel had access to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that liberals cant detect

      • notthenameiwant [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Glenn Greenwald wrote this same article 2 years ago. Yawn.

        Use the emote next time, it'll make your point better.

  • ToastGhost [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    deep american secrets that have been well known to the users of awebsite with a silly name for many months

    • AntipastoAktion [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Jesus fucking Christ I even looked that up. Leave it to Wikipedia to fucking passive voice a blatant lie. The entire article is a huge game of "Weeell it was conclusively proven to be honeybee shit, but you never know for sure, right?" And where it's linked to in other articles (like the Kerala Red Rain incident), it's called a "purported chemical weapon".

      You can call a lie a lie, Wikipedia, please.