Cuba - U.S. Diplomats Retreat In Horror ... Because ... 'Crickets'
This incident earlier this month will probably go down in the annals as the most stupid diplomatic f***-up ever:
President Trump on Tuesday expelled 15 Cuban diplomats, escalating his response to a mysterious affliction that has stricken American Embassy personnel in Havana in a move that cast a Cold War chill over relations between the two countries.
...
American diplomats and their spouses began reporting symptoms that included hearing loss, dizziness, balance and visual problems, headaches and cognitive issues last December. By late January, the State Department realized that the illnesses were related and might have resulted from some sort of attack, perhaps by a sonic device, toxin or virus.
The U.S. diplomats were hearing strange noises at night. This within certain parts of their embassy as well as in some homes. Lots of mischief was suspected - from huge infrasound weapons to food poisoning. But no technical or medical explanation was found. The State Department described the noise as "specific attacks" on its diplomats. At least 21 were affected and half of the U.S. staff in Havana was ordered home. Cuban diplomats were expelled from the U.S.
Recordings of the mysterious sound were made available to AP. The agency noted:
It sounds sort of like a mass of crickets. A high-pitched whine, but from what?
...
The sound seemed to manifest in pulses of varying lengths — seven seconds, 12 seconds, two seconds — with some sustained periods of several minutes or more. Then there would be silence for a second, or 13 seconds, or four seconds, before the sound abruptly started again.
A Cuban investigation now found the obvious answer to the AP's "but what?" question - 'crickets':
Officials with Cuba’s Interior Ministry said that U.S. investigators had presented them with three recordings made by presumed victims of sonic attacks and that analysis of the sounds showed them to be extremely similar to those of crickets and cicadas that live along the northern coast of Cuba.“It’s the same bandwidth and it’s audibly very similar,” said Lt. Col. Juan Carlos Molina, a telecommunications specialist with the Interior Ministry. “We compared the spectrums of the sounds and evidently this common sound is very similar to the sound of a cicada.”
Crickets can make noise as loud as 100 decibel, loud enough to cause health problems. The U.S. diplomats in Cuba were "attacked" by Cuban crickets which made enough noise to cause discomfort or even symptoms of illness. As someone only exposed to crickets when traveling abroad I can confirm that night-long cricket noise can be extremely unsettling to those who are not used to it.
But why did the State Department not know this? Why did the diplomats not recognize the noise for what it was? Cicadas and crickets are not uncommon in the southern U.S. states.
Presumable some in the CIA and in the State Department do not want better relations with Cuba and resisted the 2016 reopening of the embassy. It is possible that they used the cicada "attacks" to sabotage the relations.
Whatever. The incident lets the U.S. State Department look extremely silly. Imagine all the "crickets" jokes diplomats from other countries will make about their U.S. colleagues.
The mighty U.S. was defeated! Its diplomats retreated in panic! ... because ... 'crickets'.
Posted by b on October 27, 2017 at 7:50 UTC | Permalink
An unnamed source close to Hillary have told me that 24 intelligence agencies agree the Russians have weaponised the crickets
Posted by: Alogon | Oct 27 2017 8:54 utc | 3
Alogon | Oct 27, 2017 4:54:45 AM | 3
Aw come-on; everybody knows it was only 17 agencies. ;-)
Posted by: V. Arnold | Oct 27 2017 9:04 utc | 4
Best way to start the day is with a good laugh.....
Posted by: notlurking | Oct 27 2017 9:20 utc | 5
Crickets are common around my neck of the woods in summer. I can attest that they are extremely loud when they start up their refrain. But the sound starts at dusk and ends at sunset.
I can only assume that it is extremely dangerous for crickets to be advertising their location during the day (birds) or at night (bats? owls?)
Surely that would be the giveaway in this case e.g. if the dastardly Cuban psych-op starts at dusk and ends at sunset then it's probably... crickets.
I mean, how hard is that to test? And don't US diplomats know the many advantages of double-glazing?
Posted by: Yeah, Right | Oct 27 2017 9:28 utc | 6
More than likely simply escaped cicadas from a Gitmo Bay torture program gone feral.
Simply an opportunity to fit the emerging DC swamp narrative.
The point is not that they were 'crickets' -- but rather that they were communist crickets ... and clearly hellbent on destroying Western Democracy!
Posted by: x | Oct 27 2017 10:40 utc | 7
But surely the noise made by crickets, cicadas and other congregations of insects at night don't cause dizziness, headaches, loss of balance and visual problems?
These symptoms could have multiple causes. They might not even have been caused by the same phenomenon, whatever it is.
By the way, does anyone think some of those symptoms mentioned might be symptoms of hysteria?
Posted by: Jen | Oct 27 2017 10:47 utc | 8
By the way, does anyone think some of those symptoms mentioned might be symptoms of hysteria?
It took me a while to stop my hysterical laughter at your comment; how could it be anything else?
Posted by: V. Arnold | Oct 27 2017 10:53 utc | 9
^ Sorry, no offense to you; just the present US Idiocracy...
Posted by: V. Arnold | Oct 27 2017 10:59 utc | 10
i've always found the little buggers totally soothing...
check it out, 10 hours,
Posted by: john | Oct 27 2017 11:03 utc | 11
>>>> Yeah, Right | Oct 27, 2017 5:28:40 AM | 6
the sound starts at dusk and ends at sunset.
Sunset is the start of dusk, then you have civil dusk (sun 6 degs below horizon), nautical dusk (12 degs below horizon) and astronomical dusk (18 degs below horizon) which is the start of nighttime.
I've heard crickets and their ilk late in the night, long after astronomical dusk.
>>>> Jen | Oct 27, 2017 6:47:49 AM | 8
But surely the noise made by crickets, cicadas and other congregations of insects at night don't cause dizziness, headaches, loss of balance and visual problems?
Insect noise might not but sleep deprivation would. You can survive for a 3-4 days on about three hours sleep per night but then you need a full nights sleep to recover. Prolonged sleep deprivation will give you lots of health problems and even drive you bonkers. And a bit of paranoia and hysteria will help it all along.
Posted by: Ghostship | Oct 27 2017 11:08 utc | 12
>>>> john | Oct 27, 2017 7:03:56 AM | 11
sweet dreams
But turn the volume up to eleven and you'd be stark raving bonkers by the end. Why do you think torturers use white noise?
BTW, sounded more like jingle bells to me than crickets - I was expecting Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters to kick in at any moment
>>>> john | Oct 27, 2017 7:03:56 AM | 11
Posted by: Ghostship | Oct 27 2017 11:22 utc | 13
Justifiably, the Cubans have called these "sonic attack" claims science-fiction.
Anyone who has worked with sound knows sound cannot behave like they described it (they hear it, then if they move away while remaining in the same room, something like two meters away from the point where they heard the sound, it stops. If they move back to the spot where they first heard the sound, they hear it again.
Im-po-ssible. Sound just doesn't stop by itself like it has met some invisible fully sound-proof music studio wall it cannot cross or get around. In fact, sound is extremely hard to insulate against, precisely. It CANNOT be stopped by thin air.
So, either it's a lie, auditory hallucinations or some sort of alien attack from Planet Zorglub with some device unknown to man, which is why the Cubans were rolling on the floor.
And Western experts concur.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/12/cuba-mass-hysteria-sonic-attacks-neurologists
Posted by: Lea | Oct 27 2017 11:23 utc | 14
Just some technical points:
Cicadas are "true bugs", while crickets are not bugs at all, and are distantly related to grasshoppers.
"Male cicadas produce very loud calls that can damage human hearing." -- Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada#As_pests
Infrasound is technically considered to be at or below 20Hz (cycles per second). It typically can cause a wide variety of usually minor health problems. It has been found to be rather common, and is often caused by large fans in ventilation systems. Often, it cannot be heard. And it can be intensified by resonance effects in certain buildings.
The USSA has gone nutso.
Posted by: blues | Oct 27 2017 11:35 utc | 15
The USSA has gone nutso.
Yes, I acknowledged that at #1.
Glad you agree...
Posted by: V. Arnold | Oct 27 2017 11:41 utc | 16
The symptoms can be very real. People can fall ill without any physical cause. Compare the "Cuban Spy Syndrome" to these reports from Sweden:
- Refugee children in Sweden are falling into coma-like states on learning their families will be deported
- In Sweden, Hundreds Of Refugee Children Gave Up On Life
- Resignation syndrome: Sweden's mystery illness - BBC News
- Apathetic Children "In The Risk Zone" - Radio Sweden
- The Trauma of Facing Deportation | The New Yorker
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Oct 27 2017 11:46 utc | 17
Here are three I can think of to get the list of jokes started:
* Subject line of an internal State Dept email about to be written: Wanted > alCicada members - dead or alive.
* Common order given by commanders in future facing US personnel: Release the Cicadas!
* US diplomats attacked by forces hiding largely underground! DARPA tasked to develop defensive measures. Uses 10 billion dollar project funding to invent new protection system, named Bug B Gone. President surprised to find out near identical item costs $4.95, sold in supermarkets since the 1950's.
Posted by: Juan Moment | Oct 27 2017 12:07 utc | 18
The Cubans have bugged the Americans. Good riddance, they were there to sow discord and 'democracy' at the end of a gun.
i've always found the little buggers totally soothing...
...
sweet dreams
Posted by: john | Oct 27, 2017 7:03:56 AM | 11
Me too.
From the time I was a toddler I've always associated the chirping of cicadas as a sign that All's Well. I discovered that if I went outside and stamped my foot on the ground very hard, all the nearby cicadas stopped chirping immediately and took several minutes to restart.
That said, maybe if the Yankees took Cricket Lessons from the Brits, Indians or Pakis, it would reduce the likelihood of cricket noises driving them Batty...
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 27 2017 12:57 utc | 20
@ Petri Krohn | Oct 27, 2017 7:46:24 AM | 17
Because an illness is entirely caused by psychological factors doesn't mean it doesn't feel real to the affected people.
Very interesting, about this "resignation syndrome" that only exists in Sweden and nowhere else. Of course, the Swedish culture of political correctness and victimization is the leading cause. I don't mean to say that the immigrants is Sweden are to blame, I am saying that this particular response is triggered by a particular environment.
https://ethicsblog.crb.uu.se/2016/02/22/resignation-syndrome-in-refugee-children-a-new-hypothesis/
And BTW, catatonia can be a response to a traumatic environment, but it is an extreme response, and as such, it normally exists only under REAL, immediate life-threatening circumstances, like for instance, life in a death camp or extreme abuse; it certainly cannot be triggered by threats of, say for instance in at least one of the cases, having to go back to... Russia. On the other hand, that will do beautifully for russophobic NATO propaganda purposes.
https://jezebel.com/the-strange-case-of-immigrant-children-in-sweden-who-b-1793785185
Posted by: Lea | Oct 27 2017 13:00 utc | 21
I had lots of crickets when I owned a home in Joshua Tree. Very loud, all night long. My girlfriend, who is from Mexico, started calling me "assessino del grillos" after she saw me going around the house vacuuming up what seemed like hundreds of the little buggers. Turned out that it was like a cricket superhighway at my french doors going out onto the patio, the crickets were crawling through under the doors, taping the whole thing up with duct tape solved the problem.
Posted by: Morongobill | Oct 27 2017 13:18 utc | 22
The Commie Crickets are coming! It's just not cricket!
Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 27 2017 13:29 utc | 23
The cricket "sound" was likely tinnitus, which was likely caused by infrasound or low-frequency noise. All the symptoms and descriptions suggest that: probably an environmental phenomenon that resonates in certain rooms, even in different part of a room. Ask anyone who lives near industrial wind turbines and is sensitive to ILFN.
The AP just worked on a file like one of these, not an actual recording:
www.hearing.nihr.ac.uk/public/auditory-examples-sounds-of-tinnitus
The response from everyone reflects the general ignorance about ILFN. An appropriate public health response would be to survey other residents and workers in the neighborhood, not to fall back on paranoia or mockery.
Posted by: Rucio | Oct 27 2017 14:08 utc | 24
Posted by: Jen | Oct 27, 2017 6:47:49 AM | 8
"But surely the noise made by crickets, cicadas and other congregations of insects at night don't cause dizziness, headaches, loss of balance and visual problems?"
MOST disease is psychosomatic (meaning mental cause, at least in part, and physical manifestation). 70% of all illness can be shown to be at least in part caused by mental causes combined with physical causes, whilst an astonishing 50% is predominantly caused by purely mental causes. "dizziness, headaches, loss of balance and visual problems" plus gastric effects are some of the most typical examples of psychosomatic illness, but almost all types of disease can be psychosomatic in specific instances. Psychological factors can be a major factor in cancer and heart disease. Skin diseases are also often linked to mental factors such as stress.
Posted by: Lea | Oct 27, 2017 7:23:36 AM | 14
"So, either it's a lie, auditory hallucinations or some sort of alien attack from Planet Zorglub with some device unknown to man, which is why the Cubans were rolling on the floor."
The fact that the sounds are due to such a common and totally normal natural cause is really blatant! The Cubans may be rolling on the floor in laughter, but what about the CIA? I bet they were too, right from the start! When did these reports start - about April 2016 maybe? It probably started as an April Fools Day internal report in the CIA and someone then decided to pretend it is real.
The last paragraph of the second AP link is very revealing:
"The special’s narrator said U.S. diplomats continued to travel around Cuba after the incidents began to be reported, and there were requests for dozens of visas for visits by friends and family, something the narrator said undermined U.S. allegations that the diplomats were not being kept safe in Cuba."
The so-called "diplomats" were obviously enjoying their working holidays in Cuba at the US taxpayers' expense and were inviting all their friends and family to join them. Being the psychopathically disturbed degenerates that they evidently were, they abused the Cuban hospitality spreading lies about their experiences, and probably thought they were being funny.
Who's the laughing stock now? This right at the time the US international reputation is in any case at an all-time low! The international reputation of US "diplomacy" will be undermined for the next 30 years!
Posted by: ger | Oct 27, 2017 8:14:05 AM | 19
"The Cubans have bugged the Americans."
Ha!
Posted by: Bhante | Oct 27 2017 14:23 utc | 25
I'm glad we have such experienced, discerning people representing us abroad. Just imagine how fucked up it'd be if an average America were to take on such responsibility!
50 years ago, according to some, the insect biomass was 300 to 400 times greater than what it is now. No wonder we had no diplomatic presence in Cuba for generations.
Posted by: Shh | Oct 27 2017 14:37 utc | 26
Soon, we'll be seeing the Cricket Dossier headlined by that tabloid known as the NY Times, perhaps delivered by a UFO or The King's Ghost.
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 27 2017 14:52 utc | 27
Posted by: ger | Oct 27, 2017 8:14:05 AM | 19
"The Cubans have bugged the Americans."
The Cubans have joined the Russians' devlish schemes to destroy the US by infiltrating them and turning all their activities in every spectrum into the idiotic behaviour we see, such as claiming the sounds of the normal insects in the garden are "sonic attacks"!
Ha! Ha! Ha! The Yankees are finished! Everybody watching from around the world will think the Americans have lost their minds completely, but actually the Russians and the Cubans did it!
Posted by: Bhante | Oct 27 2017 15:02 utc | 28
Yeah, but they are Cuban Commie Crickets and Cicadas!
And some of them have names in Cyrillic lettering. Genus cyrillus.
Russia's secret Operation Cicadistas.
Putin . . .
Posted by: Red Ryder | Oct 27 2017 15:02 utc | 29
>>>> Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 27, 2017 8:57:43 AM | 20
Pakis
Is your real name Pamela Gellar by any chance? I only ask 'cos of your overt racism?
Posted by: Ghostship | Oct 27 2017 15:05 utc | 30
Reply to Lea|14, who wrote "they hear it, then if they move away while remaining in the same room, something like two meters away from the point where they heard the sound, it stops. If they move back to the spot where they first heard the sound, they hear it again" — that's how infrasound works.
Posted by: Rucio | Oct 27 2017 15:08 utc | 31
I have learned these crickets were raised in troll farms in St. Petersberg. Russia is weaponizing these creatures to attack the good ol' USA.
Posted by: WorldBLee | Oct 27 2017 15:13 utc | 32
Yemeni, Syrian and Afgan weapons experts in Cuban to learn first hand the Commie Crickets and Cicadas weapon technology..
Fed Register weaponized CC sound research grants.
Posted by: fudmier | Oct 27 2017 15:29 utc | 33
In 1991, I spent a couple of months in Greece,--most of the time walking about in Athens. The rising chirr of cicadas would start unexpectedly at midday. It was surprisingly loud and startling, but in a very beguiling way. I thought that in an unusual way it was appealing, even beautiful. Only minds that are already disturbed, could latch onto this, and use it as a pretext for a diplomatic incident. It's too absurd to believe that cricket or cicada songs could make US officials ill.
In a secure but comfortable room deep inside the Kremlin, Shoigu, Lavrov and Putin sit in silence watching CNN. Finally, Shoigu says, "Hey Vladimir, what the hell happened to America?". Putin replies, "I don't know but I didn't have nearly this much fun when I was stationed in East Germany with the KGB. You can't make this shit up. Hey, Sergey, pass the popcorn".
Posted by: Stephen | Oct 27 2017 15:31 utc | 35
Sorry b but according to MSM what they discovered was high-tech biological weapons of mass hearing impairment Cubans unleashed on unsuspected US diplomats, so future Hollywood movie story goes, watch for it at US propaganda outfit NETFLIX show called "House of Crickets"
Posted by: Kalen | Oct 27 2017 15:36 utc | 36
Just like they created the 'Russia hacked the election' agitprop the CIA is sabotaging renewed relations between Cuba and the US.
Notice that CIA agitprop is getting more ridiculous by the moment. I sense desperation.
Posted by: AriusArmenian | Oct 27 2017 16:42 utc | 37
Unless a person have not grown up in the islands (born and raised there) night noises are not the same as ones here in the US. They can be very loud. I took a cruise to Cuba last month from Miami before Hurricane Irma struck and it did bother me and no one else on the ship (Norwegian Sky) complained of noises making them feel sick.
Posted by: NewYorker | Oct 27 2017 17:25 utc | 38
Some commenters suggest its psychological, others believe it really was those little insects. Others try a scientific explanation.
Since this kind of problem seems new, I suggest it does have a technological explanation and that the perps, probably the US wants to communicate something with the aim to misdirect.
Since people being harassed by technical means is not new and often has been so as to reach only one individual, it has also been accompanied by suspicions of being a psychiatric condition.
Some of the means are invasive but other means employ beams. Eg an invisible light beam modulated with sound may pinpoint one individual and cause that person alone(or others along the length of the beam) to hear it. Or a beam of ultrasound modulated with audible frequencies
By demonstrating such entities they may hope to misdirect people away from their favorite secret technology which is much more versatile and which they really dont want to expose.
But the first motive might be to enthuse altmedia conspiracy theories and then come up with a natural explanation for ridicule.
For the more observant the seeming localized character would stimulate technical speculations and might convince people who have been concerned about previous cases of technical persecution, that they have now found an explanation of a noninvasive kind. That was what I had in mind when I suggested it was about misdirection.
Posted by: Peter Grafström | Oct 27 2017 17:45 utc | 40
thanks for the laughs! jiminy the cricket was replaced with carlos the cricket and look what happened..
Posted by: james | Oct 27 2017 18:08 utc | 41
"...silly...?"
No, sir, that is far beyond 'silly'.
Fast forward to those who buy into all this idiocy hook, line, sinker.
It is apparent that the cognitive dissonance of the majority of people is only surpassed by their administrators.
Signs of an imploding, added to the pile of previous pathetic wanna be empires.
Listening to Nationalist Propaganda Radio, it becomes painfully clear just how deep the US has sunken into the filth of corruption, deceit and manipulation.
An old, broken record plays:
"One cannot eat as much as one wants to vomit."
Posted by: nottheonly1 | Oct 27 2017 18:24 utc | 42
A scintillating cricket discussion, but (Off-Topic) E Syria news needed --
1. When will the SAA be able to mass a full fighting force E of the Euphrates?
2. Is there likely to be a military confrontation between the SAA and SDF?
3. If Yes, wii the Russians provide air support to the SAA?
Posted by: chet380 | Oct 27 2017 18:41 utc | 43
Im-po-ssible. Sound just doesn't stop by itself like it has met some invisible fully sound-proof music studio wall
Posted by: Lea | Oct 27, 2017 7:23:36 AM | 14
Sound is a wave that can be cancelled out quite easily.
It is entirely possible to have a sound at one point and no sound right next to it. Elementary physics - reflection, refraction, diffraction and interference.
I have experienced it in a noisy factory setting where there is no machinery noise when standing in an exact spot, a situation that given the amount of machinery and types of sound would require a supercomputer to replicate. In that one point all of the competing sound waves produce complete destructive interference. The spot was about the size of a basketball.
Posted by: supersonic | Oct 27 2017 19:04 utc | 44
LOL folks, thanks. A new high in lows for the imperial empire's propaganda efforts.
Posted by: ben | Oct 27 2017 19:24 utc | 45
I hate bugs!
Luckily, DoS does not need to post personnel in hellish locations like Texas (red ants, bite painfully), Florida (flying huge cockroaches) or Chicago (huge cockroaches, actually you could trap them and cook like small shrimp...).
PS. In non-snark mode, I am actually rather tolerant for critters.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Oct 27 2017 20:13 utc | 46
Perhaps the State Department can just issue noise-cancelling earphones for its diplomats?
I purchased some made by Boise, and can highly recommend them.
Posted by: Yeah, Right | Oct 27 2017 21:17 utc | 47
Consider that insect populations in the US have declined by over 75 percent and that this is widely blamed on insecticides used by commercial agriculture in the US. It may be the Cuba has not seen such a decline in insect population-not having access to such chemicals due to the embargo. Could be the dipshits in question have just never heard noise associated with a natural insect population before and were a bit unnerved. Either way, yes-this did make the current administration look petty and foolish.
Posted by: Scylla | Oct 27 2017 21:21 utc | 48
This is way more complicated than it seems since there are several explanations:
1.) Americans are going batshit crazy, becoming more and more like snowflakes who suffer post stress trauma after seeing a mouse.
2.) These crickets or critters or whatever they were developed as weapons by ... fill in the blanks, America has evil enemies galore.
3.) These crickets were crying out to American diplomats to bring them some freedom and democracy. They are desperate, you know, Fidel has kept them stifled for so long. Hence their excessive noise level.
4.) these critters were transgendered and into heavy duty progressive sex. That does make loud noises, you know.
5.) Perhaps this is a setup for a mega-million class action law suit to claim damages from State for harm suffered while on duty. A possibility, this, don't dismiss it outright.
Posted by: LOL!! | Oct 27 2017 21:45 utc | 49
Cuban Acoustic Weapons Attack Symptoms - "Some cases include migraines, dizziness, and hearing loss, while others go so far as cognitive impairment, trouble recalling words, and light brain damage. "
Cuban Rum Hangover Symptoms - Fatigue and weakness, Thirst, Headaches and muscle aches, Nausea, vomiting or stomach pain, Poor or decreased sleep, Increased sensitivity to light and sound, Dizziness or a sense of the room spinning, Shakiness, Decreased ability to concentrate, Mood disturbances, such as depression, anxiety and irritability, Rapid heartbeat...
Strangely Similar...
r
Posted by: Randy | Oct 27 2017 21:54 utc | 50
The Guardian ,of all places, posted a story a few weeks ago that the symptoms experienced by our Havana diplomats were a classic example mass hysteria.
Given that US diplomacy and current politics in the US is being driven by mass hysteria it is not really surprising to see our State Department and CIA employees descending into madness.
Posted by: ToivoS | Oct 27 2017 22:17 utc | 52
I thought that the Cuban exiles who hoped to regain their Batista-era properties from the 1950s had mostly passed away. Have their kids inherited these fantasies?
Can't we just give up the imperial fantasy and start cutting business deals with all the ex-geopolitical strategic 'enemies', from Cuba to Iran to Russia? It's the one thing that Trump proposed that actually makes a lot of sense. Yes, it's a multipolar world. Why not just deal with that reality? Why keep trying to live in the past?
I really don't understand the imperial fanatics. It's like they're running around with invisible messages scrawled on the insides of their foreheads.
Posted by: nonsense factory | Oct 27 2017 22:29 utc | 53
The crickets have been weaponised by using clever Cuban modulators so they can use the cicada chirping as the carrier signal and impose devious music and messages. I am certain when I listen to cicadas in my country that they are singing the national anthem or god save the queen.
Seriously every country should be grateful if they are free from yankee lunacy. Perhaps it should included in the UN list of fundamental human rights.
I can just imagine Fidel laughing in his grave at this latest bout of foolishness. No one will ever take them seriously again. I can't wait for someone to hack the sound system at some big event and switch the USA national anthem for a cicada chorus. It will happen.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Oct 27 2017 22:51 utc | 54
The CIA controls all MSM. Ppl believe the MSM. Ppl will believe that Cuba attacked US diplomats with sound waves, and etc. That's the takeaway. This fake news will spread like wildfire.
Wingnuts will believe it because it aligns with their worldview.
Democrats will believe it b/c they trust the MSM.
Marco Rubio has something nice to serve up to the Miami anti-Castro old guard. It's a feather in his cap. Grooming the creep for the future. Bunch o Bushes waiting in the wings too. Only one Chelsea, but many Bushes plus Rubio.
Posted by: fast freddy | Oct 27 2017 23:38 utc | 55
Yes, the Cuban cicada is a commie bastard with the bulging red eyes of a Red, but when it comes to sonic weaponry it can't compete with the Japanese cicada, min-min-zemi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfS-R1tPDuw
Notice the abura-zemi 13 secs in -- it looks unimpressed.
And with some urban reverb:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ifu_kWqx38
Posted by: drj | Oct 27 2017 23:41 utc | 56
In Mexico they have such crickets & they are unbelievably loud.
Posted by: penelope | Oct 28 2017 0:41 utc | 57
Frequently eager to join Uncle Sam in whatever he's got going, the northern vassal doesn't disappoint in this latest nonsense either...
How Canadian Diplomats In Cuba Are Being Acoustically Attacked
http://www.macleans.ca/news/how-canadian-diplomats-in-cuba-are-being-acoustically-attacked/
"If this sounds like a cheap device in a bad sci-fi plot, that's because it is..."
Posted by: John Gilberts | Oct 28 2017 2:08 utc | 58
@53 -- " I can't wait for someone to hack the sound system at some big event and switch the USA national anthem for a cicada chorus. It will happen."
Might be more useful for world peace if the UN played a "cicada chorus" over the PA system from time to time to help eradicate certain pests from the building -- e.g. especially when that Hillbilly witch, Nikki Haley, is in session.
Posted by: x | Oct 28 2017 2:11 utc | 59
53 " I can't wait for someone to hack the sound system at some big event and switch the USA national anthem for a cicada chorus. It will happen."
For non yank pleasure and entertainment - here's Borat singing national anthem at US rodeo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePQ9_re7f1A
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2017 9:42 utc | 60
53's comment reminded me of the video that I had run onto some time ago and posted the link @59.
Many other videoes of Borat from Kazakastan exploring yankistan. In many he homes in on the US culture.
Another here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmJuf2NO23Y
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2017 10:04 utc | 61
Like the JFK government fairytale, the National Archives will likely hold the evidence for 50 years before release to insure innocent cicadas and crickets won't be outed.
Posted by: Ken | Oct 28 2017 12:17 utc | 62
Ken
50 years? Oh no dont be stupid, just wait some days and the spooks will let you know that Putin is the culprit of JFK killing.
Posted by: Anon | Oct 28 2017 12:33 utc | 63
>>>> Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 27, 2017 8:57:43 AM | 20
Pakis
Is your real name Pamela Gellar by any chance? I only ask 'cos of your overt racism?
Posted by: Ghostship | Oct 27, 2017 11:05:59 AM | 29
No, I'm not Pam Gellar, nor am I Caroline (We Con The World) Glick.
"Pakis" is no more racist when applied to Pakistani cricketers by cricket fans, than "Ozzies" is when applied to Australian cricketers.
Couldn't you think of anything sensible to say?
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 28 2017 12:51 utc | 64
>>>> Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 28, 2017 8:51:34 AM | 63
"Pakis" is no more racist when applied to Pakistani cricketers by cricket fans
Which "cricket fans" are those? The totally non-racist Australian ones?
From Wikipedia
"Paki" is a racial slur typically referring to people of Pakistani descent, but often indiscriminately directed towards people with perceived origins from the Indian Subcontinent.
BTW, try standing in certain sections of the grounds at Old Trafford, Headingley and Trent Bridge during an England v Pakistan test and shout that word if you're so convinced it has no racist connotation whatsoever.
Posted by: Ghostship | Oct 28 2017 13:37 utc | 65
Like the JFK government fairytale, the National Archives will likely hold the evidence for 50 years before release to insure innocent cicadas and crickets won't be outed.
Posted by: Ken | Oct 28, 2017 8:17:32 AM | 61
Actually, this latest JFK non-release release stinks so badly that I won't be surprised if it is successfully challenged in the Supreme Court. It fails the "Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth" (Dragnet) test by a country mile.
It also fails the Deliberately Misleading Humbuggery test.
In one of his early Lateral Thinking books, Edward de Bono has a sketch of a puzzle with detailed instructions on how to present the 5 pieces to someone in a very specific sequence. This sequence makes it virtually impossible to solve. De Bono attributes this failure to people's inability to wait until they've got all the pieces of a puzzle before they begin trying to solve it. They thus create red herrings and confuse themselves.
I tried it on 6 or 7 people, way back then and not one of the volunteers solved it, despite the fact that it's ridiculously simple.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 28 2017 13:41 utc | 66
I have heard very large swarms of cicadas near my sister's house near Macon, GA. I asked her if some farmer was running large machinery nearby. (this was during the day) And even some single cicadas can be annoying here in AL. But why didn't the diplomats hear it at different times outside the building? And there should be plenty of other witnesses not just a few isolated cases. It is an interesting explanation/theory for now ..... and perhaps true.
But keep the jokes coming. Our messed up system requires humor for us to make fun of it and ridicule it and comic relief for our own sanity.
Posted by: Curtis | Oct 28 2017 14:33 utc | 67
@Lea | Oct 27, 2017 7:23:36 AM | 14
No, you're totally wrong about it being impossible.
As far back as about 20 years ago, non-classified research into both directed sound, and LRADS (Long Range Acoustic Devices), was all over the press. I watched it on a BBC TV science show, 'Tomorrow's World', when I was a kid 20-something years ago, where an LRAD prototype was used to beam crystal-clear music to a 1-meter diameter spot, from hundreds of meters away. Walk out of the 1-meter diameter spot and hey presto, total silence.
That same technology was developed into the modern LRAD that has been used by police, navies, cost guards, and armies around the world for approximately a decade now. (E.g., USN, US police forces, US Army.) They have long used LRADs as both super-precise 'loud hailers' and signallers (some models are accurate and powerful enough to reach over several kilometers) and as audio less-lethal weapons (for beaming painfully high-decibel noise at protestors and rioters).
Look up LRAD on a search engine if you don't believe me.
Interestingly, LRADS are slim (measured in mere inches) and their surfaces are totally flat: so, theoretically, they can be hidden in all kinds of flat surfaces and objects without attracting attention. We're all familiar with modern 'flat panel speakers' of the kind found in consumer electronic devices such as high-end TVs: slim LRADs could be hidden in objects just as esily.
Plus, the US and Russia are on record as having experimented with microwave-induced sounds during the cold war: beaming low power microwaves at people (e.g., foreign nations' diplomats) in order to harrass them and cause psychological stress. The right microwave frequencies literally make people hear sounds that are not there, and the frequencies can be targeted into very precise spots (e.g., a human head) from tens or hundreds of meters away.
The thing about the 'attacks' is that, if they are actually real events, they could have been carried out by anyone within 100s of meters of American diplomatic staff.
That means the Cubans may be totally innocent of any shenanigans. Literally any competent foreign intelligence agency (e.g. Ukranians, Chinese, US, UK, French, Japanese, Russian, etc.) could have carried out such attacks within Cuba, from buildings or vehicles that were located hundreds of meters from the targets. There's no reason to assume that the Cubans had to be behind this, because proximity simply isn't an issue, and the Cubans might have been totally oblivious to the LRADs. Microwaves and LRAD beams are so precise that, even if the Cubans were bugging the Americans, the Cubans wouldn't pick up the noise of the attacks unless their bugs were in exactly the right spot, immediately next to the targeted individuals.
Posted by: 777 | Oct 28 2017 16:06 utc | 68
@ Posted by: 777 | Oct 28, 2017 12:06:16 PM | 67
I forgot to mention that the low-power microwaves were claimed to produce nonsensical random noise such as pops, hisses, crackling, and chirping. They cannot be used to beam music or messages s the LRADs can.
The microwaves just screw around with the human body, and the 'noise' heard is basically a 'mirage' caused by the nervous system and auditory system malfunctioning: a bit like if you rub your eyes hard, you 'see' illusory patterns and colors that aren't really there.
For that reason, listening/recording devices wouldn't pick up such microwave-induced 'noise'. Only humans and animals are susceptable to that artificially-induced 'noise' effect.
Maybe the recordings that the Cubans have got their hands on really *are* just recordings of Cuban crickets!
Posted by: 777 | Oct 28 2017 16:16 utc | 69
Also thought the symptoms seemed an awful lot like adverse reactions to anti-milarial drugs or Fluorosuinolone antibiotics (Cipro, Levaquin, Avalox, etc).
Posted by: JSarda | Oct 28 2017 18:27 utc | 70
JSarda, or perhaps Lariam/Mefloquine - or even one too many vaccines given at once, inducing who knows what degree of chronic encephalopathy. I'd wager the amount given these days is absurd at this point for any US diplomats in "3rd world" countries. And then they hear this cricket song that they're unfamiliar with and just go completely bonkers. One also should realize that a good portion of the US, and I'd expect it's even higher in the gov. sector, is chemically lobotomized w SSRIs. And often also hopped up on amphetamines like Adderall and Ritalin to power through the SSRI numbness, and sleeping pill hangover(which they are also on). But those damn crickets!! Is there a pill for them?
One of the loveliest things I noticed about a recent visit to the Portuguese countryside was the prolific bird and bugsong, wildflowers and beautiful vines, not to mention little critters and butterflies just everywhere. So much of the US has been Round-upped it's not even funny.
Posted by: sejomoje | Oct 28 2017 19:21 utc | 71
And if, all the speculation is true about the Cubans using technology to harass embassy employees, IMO, it would be richly deserved..
Posted by: ben | Oct 28 2017 19:25 utc | 72
Maybe they just wanted a "note from the doctor" to get out of there before something potentially uncomfortable, like declassification of Kennedy era docs. It does sound like something that would be exacerbated by severe anxiety. Once you're in a "primed" in a state like that, annoying noises can put you over the edge.
Posted by: uuu | Oct 28 2017 21:53 utc | 73
The State Dept is the twin sister of the vile C * IA. How many innocent people have these two agencies murdered since the end of WW2? 20 million? I hope these bugs fly down their throats.
Some dumb poster above posting about poor rapefugee children in Sweden falling into coma, etc. I was in Sweden before it became a third world islamic shithole. Deport them all. Sweden used to be a nice place.
Posted by: Boyo | Oct 28 2017 22:02 utc | 74
uuu, I was thinking that too, the paranoia would definitely be peaking justified or not.
Posted by: sejomoje | Oct 28 2017 22:10 utc | 75
Sonic and other kinds of electronic warfare attacks on diplomatic compounds are not uncommon, including well known examples of US attacks on Cuban missions. It is curious these would not be mentioned given the history, nevertheless, this is all part of the 100% invented US-Cuba conflict, an elaborate and long running psyop sideshow.
Please search out author Servando Gonzalez and his book The Secret Fidel Castro, Deconstructing the Symbol.
For a better understanding of the true relationship between the current US administration and Cuba under Raoul,
please listen to this Guns and Butter podcast. At aproximately the midpoint Michel Chossudovsky reveals some astonishing information about Cuba possibly cooperating in regime change operations against Venezuela.
https://m.soundcloud.com/guns-and-butter-1/the-broader-global-crisis-michel-chossudovsky-372
What's that I hear?
Would those be CRICKETS?!
Posted by: C I eh? | Oct 29 2017 5:03 utc | 76
Progress is easily sabotaged, as happens nearly every time it is made in health care, minority and women's rights, and in diplomacy.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Oct 29 2017 8:11 utc | 77
Actual microwaves are conventionally between 300 MHz and 300 GHz, but typically between 2 GHz and 20 GHz. These have front lobes of about 15 to 10 degrees, with the best antennas (dishes, horns). So the focus is not that sharp. Also, the amplitude over uneven terrain is notoriously difficult to control. So microwave is not at all a safe "non-lethal weapon".
Posted by: blues | Oct 29 2017 8:26 utc | 78
Hilarious! Too funny, :) … the picture is of a cicada?…Crickets belong to the order Gryllidae and cicadas to Hemiptera. (see blues also) Anyway they both make those skeaky high-frequency chirps, by males, the noise is love-attraction-song-triumph, often a ‘chorus’ - they band together.
Both live in natural habitats, forest, grasslands, sedgelands, woodlands, swamps, etc. Crickets - grass, weeds, mulch piles, etc. In my experience, in a large leafy park, and also in ‘varied’ human inhabited land, provided there are plentiful bushes / plants scrub etc. and a source of water (+ needed temps.)
The US embassy in Havana is an ugly concrete high-rise dumped in a concrete landscape (see goog. images) in a modern built up area with NO greenery about beyond your one struggling decorative palm tree. It surely has double/triple/bullet-proof glazing…I can’t imagine crickets anywhere around there or anyone being able to hear them if they existed…right from the lobby and up..
The explanation must be cognitive infiltration thru some new super-secret technology! Or just US employees freaking out and playing victim.
Posted by: Noirette | Oct 29 2017 12:55 utc | 79
777 68/69
A friend reminded me of that, too. Active Denial System. Authorities said it would be used for crowd control so some people raised a stink. I believe it was used in Afghanistan.
In the 80s, our embassy personnel in Moscow claimed microwaves were aimed at the building. About the same time, they loaned a LIDA device to US psychiatric scientists at the VA. It used microwave radiation to treat patients.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=651EOeD4Lhw
http://www.constantinereport.com/cia-mind-control-history-uclas-dr-w-ross-adey-brain-telemetry/
Posted by: Curtis | Oct 29 2017 13:28 utc | 80
PS
Wasn't there a complaint by the Cuban govt against the US embassy operations there for propaganda or recruiting or something like that? I can't find anything in a search because the current crap overwhelms it. But I would not be surprised to find a tit-for-tat thing going on.
Posted by: Curtis | Oct 29 2017 13:42 utc | 81
and last but not least ....
In 2008, there were a number of articles about devices for beaming audio into the brain.
https://io9.gizmodo.com/390600/we-will-beam-advertisements-directly-into-your-brain
Check out Holosonics. At the time I thought it was a cool idea because maybe in the future you could sit and listen to music without headphones or earbuds and others not hear. Of course, it has nefarious uses as well.
Posted by: Curtis | Oct 29 2017 13:52 utc | 82
Speaking of crickets, I'm looking forward to the upcoming new thread! ;)
Posted by: Ort | Oct 29 2017 15:34 utc | 83
Noirette @79: The US embassy in Havana is an ugly concrete high-rise dumped in a concrete landscape (see goog. images) in a modern built up area with NO greenery about beyond your one struggling decorative palm tree.
Indeed, the nearest clump of trees and bushes seems to be 150 ft from the embassy, and it is quite small. Cicadas actually show some mobility, I recall a cicada on a hotel balcony in Arizona with no trees next to the hotel. So the embassy could be on some insect migration route. Rum theory can explain part of the phenomenon, as it can cause headaches and reduced tolerance for sound, so the noise from the critter (Grillidea, Hemiptera) could be very reasonable to sober nature lovers. Self medication can lead to a vicious circle.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Oct 29 2017 19:05 utc | 84
I wish I hadn't been told that. Now, you've planted it into my mind that the sound of crickets can make me ill, it most probably will. We hear them throughout much of the year. I better not tell Angelica, or the neighbours. We might all get ill.
Posted by: Bryan Hemming | Oct 31 2017 8:57 utc | 86
And don't forget the herring farts the Swedes and NATO mistook for Russian submarines!
for https://www.improbable.com/2012/02/29/fish-farts-russian-submarines-the-swedish-foreign-minister/
Posted by: Dee Drake | Nov 1 2017 12:45 utc | 87
Cuba accuses the U.S. of lying about sonic attacks
November 02, 2017 11:09 PM
WASHINGTONThe Cuban Foreign Minister stepped up the attack against the United States Thursday, accusing the Trump administration of lying about the mysterious attacks that have affected 25 U.S. personnel in Havana.
Bruno Rodriguez charged the United States with failing to produce a shred of evidence that the incidents were really attacks and blamed the government of using the health of diplomats as a pretext to undermine bilateral relations.
“Anyone who asserts that there have been deliberate attacks or specific incidents that have caused health damage is deliberately lying,” Rodriguez said.
...
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has Trump’s ear on the matter, said the Castro regime is hurting itself by dismissing the attacks.“The regime’s reaction to the terrible injuries suffered by American diplomats in Havana has badly damaged its standing among many members of Congress who in the past have supported closer relations. Everyone in Congress knows the attacks were real. And the lies the regime uses to defend itself have badly damaged its standing,” Rubio said.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fl., called the comments political propaganda.
...
Information provided to Cuba has been general and lacking in objective data, [Rodriguez] said., adding audio samples of the alleged attacks were manipulated and analysis showed they could not cause hearing damage. He said Cuban medical staff has not been allowed to collaborate with U.S. doctors who evaluated the diplomats.
...
He said if Havana were really unsafe, U.S. authorities would not have requested 212 visas for relatives and friends of diplomats between January and October, which is when the attacks allegedly occurred.
This paragraph is propaganda by the McClatchy writer. Disappointing:
While the State Department has not accused Cuba of being behind the incidents, many Latin America experts and Cuban-American officials in government see no way that the government in Havana is not at least complicit. In any event, U.S. officials say Havana is responsible for the safety of foreign diplomats on its soil under the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.
@b 88 "...Cuban-American officials in government..."
This is part is of the reason US is what it is today. Apart from the many ordinary people that have migrated to the US for a supposedly better life, throughout the cold war period the US took in many so called dissidents, to be able to use them as a weapon against there own countries. The practice continues with traitors of target countries. Many of these are simply troublemakers, no matter what country they are in. In the US many have risen to high places and are now US "officials", or people of influence in well funded stink tanks and so forth.
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Nov 3 2017 6:33 utc | 89
follow on from post 89...
In saying that the US has been taking in so called dissidents to use against their own country, even the US seems to draw the line at al Qaeda media wing, white helmets.
This from CNN
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-white-helmets-cinematographer-barred-us-oscars-ap-reports/
WASHINGTON -- U.S. immigration authorities are barring entry to a 21-year-old Syrian cinematographer who worked on a harrowing film about his nation’s civil war, “The White Helmets,” that has been nominated for an Academy Award....
...Khateeb had been issued a visa to attend the ceremony with Hollywood’s biggest stars. But Turkish authorities detained him this week, according to the internal U.S. government correspondence, and he suddenly needed a passport waiver from the United States to enter the country.
The correspondence indicated he would not receive a passport waiver. There was no explanation in the correspondence for why Turkey detained Khateeb.
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Nov 3 2017 6:55 utc | 90
The comments to this entry are closed.
George Carlin would've had a field day with this (RIP).
From the outside looking in; the U.S. appears a total looney bin...
Posted by: V. Arnold | Oct 27 2017 8:10 utc | 1