Live data from Hacker News

Brain abnormalities found in victims of US embassy attack in Cuba

theguardian.com

81–90 of 94 posts

Re: Brain abnormalities found in victims of US embassy attack in Cuba

#81
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean America? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods

That was a rejected proposal. (There are probably all kinds of crazy military proposals that get rejected)

My memory of reading Bamford's book was that it was an APPROVED proposal, which was made obsolete by the Cuban Missile Crisis. The DOJ approved that plan, and many of the people involved in that are still on the scene today. But, I read that book a decade or more ago so maybe I'm misremembering.

Re: Brain abnormalities found in victims of US embassy attack in Cuba

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's absurd. Why would they target diplomats when they could use criminals in foreign countries, or Guantanamo Bay detainees? Why use useful diplomats?

Because that is the only way to be able to interview the subjects about how they experienced it without raising suspicions.

That's a really weak answer. It's more absurd than logical. You can interview criminals and prisoners just as easily.

Re: Brain abnormalities found in victims of US embassy attack in Cuba

#83
post #63
post #14

I think it's interesting that this was immediately framed as an "attack," with of course the implication being that the Cuban government attacked American diplomats, since Cuba has so much to lose from attacking diplomats and literally nothing to gain.

Maybe you should read some books about Cuba, the USSR, their leaders, and the twentieth century Communist movement.

I'm aware of the history of Cuba's opposition to the US after the revolution, but the Cold War has been over for 25 years and all signs point to Cuba attempting to rebuild solid relations.

Re: Brain abnormalities found in victims of US embassy attack in Cuba

#84
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The perpetrators are repeatedly performing an activity that hurts specific targets. It's hard not to consider this an attack. I agree that it's probably not Cuba itself doing it though. My own suspects, based on nothing but wild speculation, is that this is Russia, rogue elements in Cuba, China, or the CIA testing experimental technology.

Why would Russia, China, or CIA test it on American diplomats though? They all have access to plenty of people on whom they could test this, in a way that no one would have ever heard about it. Supposing it is some kind of weapon, by testing on American diplomats they just revealed its existence.

To be clear I only meant "testing" to apply to the CIA. I imagine the other groups would be using it as part of some operation.

As for why I imagine the CIA is testing this, the CIA has experimented on unwitting American citizens and servicemen with drugs and poisons in the past[1], so it's not outside their ken to do such a thing.

Perhaps the CIA is testing their new stealth harassment/assassination/mind reading tool and wants to test it on realistic targets but also not risk exposing the device to a hostile party. With US intelligence agencies perpetrating and investigating attacks on realistic targets, it may make a good test environment.

I'm not saying I believe it is the CIA, obviously I have no evidence and this is just speculation. I'm just saying I'd consider them as suspects.

1 - http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/23/the-legacy-of-the-cias...

Re: Brain abnormalities found in victims of US embassy attack in Cuba

#85
post #78

There's a longer version of this AP report that includes the below quotes. The fact that there were cases of two people in a room where one heard the sound and the other did not was something I had not seen mentioned before. It was a question I had been curious about and would seem to indicate something different going on - rather than an acoustic weapon unexplained by current science that affects some people but not…

I still can't help but think all of this are sleep paralysis symptoms. Not being able to focus on a screen sounds like they became drowsy by something?

I remember when I took alimemazine once I had severe sleep paralysis. I heard a loud buzzing sound and the day after I felt extremely drowsy.

But in the end all we can do is speculate, which is fun I guess. Maybe all of this is really nothing and they're just finding anomalies because they're looking for them.

Re: Brain abnormalities found in victims of US embassy attack in Cuba

#86
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an actual recording of these sounds. Microwaves inducing sounds into a humans perception and at the same time inducing it in recording equipment does not seem plausible. There is also an easy way to test whether the sound is actual sound conducted in air or the effect of microwave exposure: ear plugs.

If its a high frequency wave , then you would "hear" it with the skin and other tissue on your head rather than your actual ears. Earplugs wouldnt really help. How it works: you can hear a high frequency wave if its modulated at audible frequency. If it's switched on and off at a relatively low frequency, you can sense the presence and absence of the high-frequency vibrations. Those waves are poorly absorbed from the…

Did you hear the recording? That's entirely the range of sounds that good hearing protection dampens.

Re: Brain abnormalities found in victims of US embassy attack in Cuba

#87
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would Russia, China, or CIA test it on American diplomats though? They all have access to plenty of people on whom they could test this, in a way that no one would have ever heard about it. Supposing it is some kind of weapon, by testing on American diplomats they just revealed its existence.

To be clear I only meant "testing" to apply to the CIA. I imagine the other groups would be using it as part of some operation. As for why I imagine the CIA is testing this, the CIA has experimented on unwitting American citizens and servicemen with drugs and poisons in the past[1], so it's not outside their ken to do such a thing. Perhaps the CIA is testing their new stealth harassment/assassination/mind reading too…

... aaaand you are now in a list of people that the CIA wants to know more about!

Re: Brain abnormalities found in victims of US embassy attack in Cuba

#88

Note that the AP claims to have a recording of the sound believed by some to be the cause: https://apnews.com/88bb914f8b284088bce48e54f6736d84

> A closer examination of one recording reveals it’s not just a single sound. Roughly 20 or more different frequencies, or pitches, are embedded in it, the AP discovered using a spectrum analyzer, which measures a signal’s frequency and amplitude. Did anyone try decoding it? GMSK, FSK, BPSK, ASK?

AP filtered—sorry, "enhanced"—it to remove background noise before posting it to Youtube, where it's encoded with lossy compression. So if there was any signal embedded in it, there's a decent chance it's been obliterated.

Re: Brain abnormalities found in victims of US embassy attack in Cuba

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A closer examination of one recording reveals it’s not just a single sound. Roughly 20 or more different frequencies, or pitches, are embedded in it, the AP discovered using a spectrum analyzer, which measures a signal’s frequency and amplitude. Did anyone try decoding it? GMSK, FSK, BPSK, ASK?

AP filtered—sorry, "enhanced"—it to remove background noise before posting it to Youtube, where it's encoded with lossy compression. So if there was any signal embedded in it, there's a decent chance it's been obliterated.

Sure. What a bad coincidence. But let's trust them, as it might be a weapon of mass destruction /s
Post reply on HN