# Sonic attack on US ambassadors in Cuba. WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 10, 2017, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216 "2017-08-10T01:58:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/21 "2017-08-12T14:16:01Z")
Dropzone hits it out of the park!! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/22 "2017-09-29T14:50:57Z")
> [@](#): > > The United States is warning Americans against visiting Cuba and ordering more than half of U.S. personnel to leave the island, senior officials said Friday, in a dramatic response to what they described as “specific attacks” on diplomats. > > The decision deals a blow to already delicate ties between the U.S. and Cuba, longtime enemies who only recently began putting their hostility behind them. The embassy in Havana will lose roughly 60 percent of its U.S. staff, and will stop processing visas in Cuba indefinitely, the American officials said. > > In a new travel warning to be issued Friday, the U.S. will say some of the attacks have occurred in Cuban hotels, and that while American tourists aren’t known to have been hurt, they could be exposed if they travel to Cuba. Tourism is a critical component of Cuba’s economy that has grown in recent years as the U.S. relaxed restrictions. [http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article176081581.html](http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article176081581.html) ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/23 "2017-09-29T15:28:05Z")
> [@](#): > > The United States is warning Americans against visiting Cuba and ordering more than half of U.S. personnel to leave the island, senior officials said Friday, in a dramatic response to what they described as “specific attacks” on diplomats. > > The decision deals a blow to already delicate ties between the U.S. and Cuba, longtime enemies who only recently began putting their hostility behind them. The embassy in Havana will lose roughly 60 percent of its U.S. staff, and will stop processing visas in Cuba indefinitely, the American officials said. > > In a new travel warning to be issued Friday, the U.S. will say some of the attacks have occurred in Cuban hotels, and that while American tourists aren’t known to have been hurt, they could be exposed if they travel to Cuba. Tourism is a critical component of Cuba’s economy that has grown in recent years as the U.S. relaxed restrictions. If this is true it sounds more like the work of terrorists than the government.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/24 "2017-09-29T19:25:53Z")
Here’s an Ars Tech article about it - > **[More US diplomats called out of Cuba after attacks with mystery weapons](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/after-mystery-attacks-us-pulls-more-diplomats-from-cuba-warns-travelers/)** > > Still no new information about what caused hearing loss, brain damage. > [@Ars Tech](#): > > The attacks have injured 21 Americans associated with the embassy so far, as well as Canadian diplomats. Attacks took place in the diplomats’ homes as well as hotels. The last attack occurred in August, according to the New York Times. > > Victims have reported a range of symptoms, including dizziness, nausea, headaches, balance problems, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), nosebleeds, difficulty concentrating and recalling words, permanent hearing loss, and speech problems. There have also been brain injuries, including swelling and concussion. > > Victims also reported bizarre circumstances under which the attacks occurred, including feeling vibrations and hearing deafening noises only while lying in bed. Others said they didn’t notice anything unusual before their symptoms developed. Ars goes on to say that the range of symptoms and the variable onsets suggest that a single technological problem can’t explain all these symptoms. It’s very odd, but I actually think it’s unlikely to be terrorism. I’d like to know, how many, precisely, have real brain damage and how many have ears ringing or nausea like symptoms. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/25 "2017-09-29T19:37:07Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > It’s very odd, but I actually think it’s unlikely to be terrorism. I’d like to know, how many, precisely, have real brain damage and how many have ears ringing or nausea like symptoms. I wonder if someone doesn’t want the USA and Cuba to resume diplomatic relations. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/26 "2017-09-29T19:41:30Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I wonder if someone doesn’t want the USA and Cuba to resume diplomatic relations. Did these attacks start before or after Trump’s people went to Cuba to try and make some business deals? ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/27 "2017-09-29T21:45:25Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Did these attacks start before or after Trump’s people went to Cuba to try and make some business deals? They started in the fall of 2016 before the election and when Obama was still in office. As for who the real guilty party is, their motive, and what they’re trying to accomplish, I’m at a loss. If the Cuban government (assuming it’s them) didn’t want to resume relations with the US, they just could’ve told Obama that in 2015 and avoided all the trouble of having to set up the sonic attacks. It would make more sense if it’s Russia since it would go along with their policy of trolling and ratfucking the US and its allies. ---
**Author:** ![scratchmarc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@scratchmarc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratchmarc)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/28 "2017-10-03T17:30:32Z")
[Now we’re expelling some Cubans…](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-diplomacy/u-s-orders-expulsion-of-15-cuban-diplomats-idUSKCN1C81UE) […and then there’s this.](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-diplomacy/russia-threatens-retaliation-over-u-s-break-in-at-san-francisco-consulate-idUSKCN1C80M9) Since Russia is basically ruled by the FSB, wouldn’t surprise at all if they’re behind the “sonic attacks”. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/29 "2017-10-03T18:25:34Z")
Apparently motiveless and with random symptoms, this makes me wonder if it could have some improperly understood environmental or industrial cause, as opposed to an attack. Maybe it will turn out to be the result of various vibrations thought to be harmless in themselves but harmonizing accidentally, or a feedback loop of some sort we have yet to predict. Some kinds of industrial or pollution disasters are first detected as collections of vague, wildly varying, poorly-understood symptoms that only later research reveals to have been from a specific, preventable cause. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/30 "2017-10-03T18:38:13Z")
> [@scratchmarc](#): > > […and then there’s this.](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-diplomacy/russia-threatens-retaliation-over-u-s-break-in-at-san-francisco-consulate-idUSKCN1C80M9) > > Since Russia is basically ruled by the FSB, wouldn’t surprise at all if they’re behind the “sonic attacks”. I call that bold talk from the guys who [built bugs](http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/15/world/the-bugged-embassy-case-what-went-wrong.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/15/world/the-bugged-embassy-case-what-went-wrong.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/15/world/the-bugged-embassy-case-what-went-wrong.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/15/world/the-bugged-embassy-case-what-went-wrong.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/15/world/the-bugged-embassy-case-what-went-wrong.html?pagewanted=all) into the American chancery. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/31 "2017-10-03T18:41:07Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Russians were unhappy with the USA and Cuba moving closer together and were behind it. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/32 "2017-10-16T19:58:11Z")
Back in the [news today](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-trump/trump-says-he-believes-cuba-responsible-for-attacks-that-hurt-u-s-diplomats-idUSKBN1CL2RH). Two months on, what do we know? Were there actual attacks? If so, what sort of attack would do that? If not, what caused the health problems? Mold? Toxic dust? [Snopes put out some info](http://www.snopes.com/do-sonic-weapons-explain-the-health-diplomats-cuba/) on it a few weeks ago. According to their sources, a sonic weapon doesn’t seem likely. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/33 "2018-03-06T17:57:39Z")
Updating this thread: > [@](#): > > A team of computer scientists from the University of Michigan may have solved the mystery behind strange sounds heard by American diplomats in Havana, who later suffered a variety of medical disorders. > > Professor Kevin Fu and members of the Security and Privacy Research Group at the University of Michigan say they have an explanation for what could have happened in Havana: two sources of ultrasound — such as listening devices — placed too close together could generate interference and provoke the intense sounds described by the victims. > > And this may not have been done intentionally to harm diplomats, the scientists concluded in their study, first reported by the Daily Beast. Those who have followed the case closely say the new theory makes sense. [http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article203221919.html](http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article203221919.html) Here is the report: [https://spqr.eecs.umich.edu/papers/YanFuXu-Cuba-CSE-TR-001-18.pdf](https://spqr.eecs.umich.edu/papers/YanFuXu-Cuba-CSE-TR-001-18.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/34 "2018-06-09T22:27:06Z")
And now in China, Guangzhou. > **[Controversy surrounds research on State Department employees sickened in...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/06/08/controversy-surrounds-research-on-state-department-employees-sickened-in-attacks/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3e62f5bb7bdb)** > > Skeptics see no external cause for the symptoms that State Department staffers in Cuba and China have reported. And some theories: > **[What’s happening to US diplomats in Cuba and China? Here are 4 theories.](https://www.vox.com/2018/6/8/17438032/china-cuba-diplomat-attack-sonic-weapon)** > > One of them is an attack from a "sonic weapon." Weapon Listening device Toxin Mass hysteria. My theory similar to listening devices (I am not an electronics tech or spook so YMMV\*). It’s frequencies being beamed through the target room to a receiver opposite. Any conversations modulate the beam; at the receiver, the initial frequency/frequencies are filtered out and the conversation is left. Way beyond my scope, it may be possible to grab electronic signals from wireless devices or displayed to a screen in this manner??? \*YMMV - your microwave may vary. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/35 "2018-06-09T23:08:15Z")
I don’t believe that human voices at around 10 kHz would modulate a much higher carrier frequency. I think the Godless Commies are just messing with we God Fearing Americans. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/36 "2018-06-11T11:12:37Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > My theory similar to listening devices (I am not an electronics tech or spook so YMMV\*). It’s frequencies being beamed through the target room to a receiver opposite. Any conversations modulate the beam; at the receiver, the initial frequency/frequencies are filtered out and the conversation is left. Way beyond my scope, it may be possible to grab electronic signals from wireless devices or displayed to a screen in this manner??? Yes, but it doesn’t make any sense. (1) Ultrasonics are low-range. That’s why nobody uses ultrasonics for this. (2) To get cross-modulation, you need to run the ultrasonics so loud that you get audible distortion. Like this. But that’s stupid: people can hear it (like this). So the problem with the multiple-device cross-modulation theory is still, what device puts out high-volume ultrasonics? I’m still with a sound “like cicadas” probably comes from cicadas: non-specific symptoms from groups of people is something called “hysterics”. I’d be interested to know if cicadas put out ultrasonics. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/37 "2018-07-06T09:07:32Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I’d be interested to know if cicadas put out ultrasonics. “Forest-dwelling katydids (Tettigoniidae) subject to predation by foliage-gleaning bats show reduced calling activity and unusually high ultrasonic carrier frequencies, and utilize substrate vibration instead of airborne calling” [http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&context=bio\_fac](http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&context=bio_fac) Also, I don’t know what kind of sound “ultrasonic” may refer to. I can’t hear anything above 6K: apparently lots of insects put out noise in the 6-20Khz region that kids can hear: [https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/ultrasonicNoiseGenerator.php](https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/ultrasonicNoiseGenerator.php) Which reminds me: I could hear painful sound from TV’s and PA systems when I was a kid. TV’s had high-power high frequency transformers. In theory noise could come from any kind of high power system, like high power lighting systems. PA systems get high-frequency feed-back. PA systems could be an evacuation system or even an intercom system. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/38 "2018-09-02T19:25:06Z")
Updating this thread with the latest theory: > [@](#): > > During the Cold War, the United States feared that the Soviet Union was seeking to turn microwave radiation into covert weapons of mind control. > > More recently, the U.S. military itself sought to develop microwave weapons that could invisibly beam painfully loud booms and even spoken words into people’s heads. The aims were to disable attackers and wage psychological warfare. > > Now, doctors and scientists say such unconventional weapons may have caused the baffling symptoms and ailments that, starting in late 2016, hit more than three dozen U.S. diplomats and their relatives in Cuba and China. The Cuban incidents resulted in a diplomatic rupture between Cuba and the U.S. > > The medical team that examined 21 affected diplomats from Cuba made no mention of microwaves in its detailed report published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in March. But Douglas Smith, the study’s lead author and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a recent interview that microwaves were now considered a main suspect, and the team was increasingly sure the diplomats had suffered brain injury. > **[Embassy illnesses in Cuba point to mysterious world of microwave weapons](https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/embassy-illnesses-in-cuba-point-to-mysterious-world-of-microwave-weapons/)** > > The director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania said in a recent interview that microwaves were now considered a main suspect, and the team was increasingly sure the diplomats had suffered brain injury. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/39 "2020-12-07T06:39:33Z")
New Report Assesses Illnesses Among U.S. Government Personnel and Their Families at Overseas Embassies " _**[An Assessment of Illness in U.S. Government Employees and Their Families at Overseas Embassies](https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25889/an-assessment-of-illness-in-us-government-employees-and-their-families-at-overseas-embassies)**_ says that among the mechanisms the committee considered, directed, pulsed radio frequency energy appears to be the most plausible mechanism in explaining these cases, especially in individuals with the distinct early symptoms. Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) — a functional (not psychiatric) vestibular disorder that may be triggered by vestibular, neurologic, or other medical and psychological conditions — is a secondary reinforcing mechanism, as well as the possible additive effects of psychological conditions." [https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2020/12/new-report-assesses-illnesses-among-us-government-personnel-and-their-families-at-overseas-embassies](https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2020/12/new-report-assesses-illnesses-among-us-government-personnel-and-their-families-at-overseas-embassies) Download the full report at: [https://www.nap.edu/download/25889](https://www.nap.edu/download/25889) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216/40 "2021-07-17T13:33:02Z")
Zombie, arise! Vienna now: > **[US probes rash of health incidents among diplomats in Vienna](https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-europe-health-government-and-politics-vienna-3c68ba74c927493e863c9f71ab482807)** > > WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is investigating a recent rash of mysterious health incidents reported by American diplomats and other government employees in Vienna, Austria, U.S. officials said Friday. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-attack-on-us-ambassadors-in-cuba-wtf/793216.md?page=3)