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IIRC this is the explanation behind the “never clear” incident @aLynHall brought up.
Microwave communications and listening devices were a hot thing for a minute there in the cold war. Because they were at the time considered “undetectable”.
And the Soviets had some devices that weren’t exactly safe to operate. There were supposedly some some injuries as a result at embassies and like CIA listening stations.
More realistically people who’ve been exposed to bursts of microwaves report hearing clicks and headaches. So that seem to be the closest potential match (though not necessarily a close match) to the symptoms.
That makes it a bad explanation for “why” cause if it’s known you can cause injuries this way. And we currently have better ways of listing in on stuff or sending hard to trace communications. Knowingly harming people for the sake of tech that was state of the art 40 years ago doesn’t make much sense. Especially seemingly random diplomats, in peace time, in a 3rd party territory.
It makes just as little sense as targeting these people with a weapon.
I think it’s also a problem as an explanation for what happened. Cause the story is well known, and seems to be a bit of a bugbear in military and intelligence circles. As well as conspiracy theory. It also seems to be one of places the idea of weapons like this came from.
It gets brought up a lot by people who “would know” as explanation and justification for a lot. Which begs the question if this is something people actually know, or something people just assume because “everyone knows”.
Meanwhile a lot more science and military people were pushing the infra-sound idea a minute ago. Despite there still being no proof infra-sound can actually hurt you, or accepted explanation as to how.
And an awful lot of scientists who do know cause they have the relevant expertise are still pointing at mass delusions. But seem to have been cut out of the process.
And that’s kinda the core thing there.
As far as I was ever able to tell there was never any confirmation of what injuries supposedly resulted in those Russian listening incidents.
Beyond heard clicks and what have.
Definitely not the burns people get when actually injured by microwaves.
So the less paranoid way this applies to Havana is that harmless microwave devices caused a few people to hear some buzzing, and feel off. And it kicked off a panic.
Which still leaves a big why?
But medical peeps don’t seem to have identified or clearly outlined a consistent set of actual injuries. As in physical changes.
None the less tied them to specific symptoms.
Most of the folks involved in saying otherwise or involved in the official look into what’s going on specifically work in intelligence or for the military. Many of them lack expertise in the appropriate field.
When independent groups of medical specialists, brain injury experts and psychologists look at it. They can’t even pin down a list of symptoms. Actual injuries seem to be an inconsistent group of things with mundane causes, and most people appear to have no identifiable injuries at all.
And there’s still the problem of how microwaves (or last go round’s favorite infra-sound) would cause any such injuries.
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Brain-frying energy weapons actually do exist, say scientists who would know
Scientists say the weapon is called “Fox News.”
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Are you basing these observations on the most recently released NSA report or as sounds possible, from the Trump-era sweep it under the rug report? Because it seems that there were very serious health problems that got waved away initially and that are now being acknowledged.
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Oddly the consumer slash victim is in charge of the trigger.
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I’m basing it on the wide number of actual medical publications and commentary from independent medical professionals.
Pushback has been growing from independent scientists, and even from some of those involved with the government efforts. Here’s a couple examples:
The link you provided references and summarizes an apparently heavily redacted report. One on the government’s handling of the situation.
It doesn’t appear to contain, and the summary makes no references too, any information about confirmed injuries, plausible mechanisms, or any medical information at all. The report comes directly from the NSA and doesn’t appear to be a scientific document or report.
All that does is confirm the Trump admin mishandled it. That’s not in anyway inconsistent with this being psychological.
From my prospective a key way they mishandled it was by jumping on, running with, and publicly pushing the “death ray” interpretation.
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That would be a MASER (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation), actually a predecessor to lasers.
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Science vs. had a pretty good (and balanced) podcast on this last April:
Note that this is not NSA in the sense of National Security Agency, but National Security Archive, a journalism think tank/repository. The report is actually a (redacted, leaked) CDC report that is not conclusive as to cause.
There is a nice summary here:
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We havana questions, but we don’t havana swers.
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even better, FARADAY CAGE GHILLIE SUITS
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So thaaaat’s why they called it the Cuban Thaw
The Opinion Piece posted in that Psychology Today article reads ike a standard issue counterintelligence effort really. One person’s opinions and three dollars will get you a cup of coffee ya’ know.
The other link suggests that something other than microwave could have been the culprit. It does not suggest that “Everyone was faking it” by any stretch.
I wasn’t there so I don’t know…but several instances of this have been reported. What would be the impetus of anybody to make all of this up?
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So what I’m hearing is that we need carefully placed canaries everywhere for detection.
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Psychosomatic illness, PTSD, depression and mass psychological effects are not “just faking it” and it’s disrespectful to suggest so.
Both links list specific problems with the few claims with any research behind them and the only actual data to come out of this.
Including the core thing that none of the claimed “injuries” or “anomalies” fall outside of normal human variation. And that some of the doctors responsible for the only bit of actual data that we’ve seen have pushed back on the microwave idea.
So the actual military Intelligence officials telling you that something that no one can establish is even possible is a very real concern, who can not provide anything to back it up are trustworthy?
But a practicing researcher, with expertise in exactly the subject’s he’s discussing, with no apparent connection to government is not?
The guy expressing concerns that government entities with a documented history of ignoring or covering up mental illness, especially PTSD, might be covering up and ignoring PTSD.
That’s “counter intelligence”?
Not the professional counter intelligence people?
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Well now you have me thoroughly confused. From my vantage point it looks like they were all actually injured by some very real but as yet unknown source just like they say that they were. Since this is my opinion I fail to see how I am being disrespectful of people who are saying that something happened to them. If anything it appears that you are choosing not to listen to what they say, which would be disrespectful?
In any case let’s put this to bed. I do plan to listen to the Science Vs. Podcast suggested above and study further. Cheers.
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And that is why we never discuss confidential topics while standing in the presence of metallic bowls.
my thought exactly. “No, the US would NEVER test this! There are no prisoners without rights anywhere that are mistreated enough already so it little more brain fog wouldn’t even register. nooo!”
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If only there were some sort of hat you could wear to block these brain-frying energy beams.
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A lunch lady hair net made of chicken wire?
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