Fake News Reports Blamed Cuba, Russia And China Of 'Sonic Attack' On U.S. Diplomats - The Culprits Were Crickets
In the autumn of 2016 U.S. diplomats stationed in Cuba started to complain about being affected by some mysterious noise. Twenty four embassy staff and family claimed a bizarre list of symptoms - from headaches, dizziness and sleeping difficulties to problems with balance, vision and hearing. Doctors were not sure what affected these people. There were all kinds of speculations about a mysterious 'sonic weapons' with which the diplomats were 'attacked', but no convincing evidence was found.
Cuba fully cooperated with an FBI investigation into the mystery. Scientist dispelled the idea of a 'sonic weapon' attack. The medical evidence turned out to be dubious. Nevertheless anti-Cuban politicians in the U.S. successfully used the issue to pressure the White House to penalize the country. The Trump administration recalled 60% of its embassy personal in Havana and expelled Cuban diplomats from the embassy in Washington. It issued a travel warning for its citizens going to Cuba and stopped issuing visas for Cubans in Havana.
The investigation continued. Some recordings of the mysterious noise were made and doctors played various of these to the affected persons. The patients confirmed that the sound was like the noise that had bothered them. On October 17 2017 those sound files were given to the Associated Press and published (vid). In its report on the files the AP noted that:
It sounds sort of like a mass of crickets.
The Cuban government and its scientist analyzed those sound files and compared them with known sound sources in Cuba. On October 27 2017 they published their conclusions. The results were also handed to U.S. investigators. The AP reported the Cuban finding:
Cuba on Thursday presented its most detailed defense to date against U.S. accusations that American diplomats in Havana were subjected to mysterious sonic attacks that left them with a variety of ailments including headaches, hearing problems and concussions.In a half-hour, prime-time special titled “Alleged Sonic Attacks,” Cuban officials attempted to undermine the Trump administration’s assertion that 24 U.S. officials or their relatives had been subjected to deliberate attacks by a still-undetermined culprit.
...
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.”
Base on the AP report this site mocked the U.S. diplomats over their retreat from cricket noise.
The Havana incident was probably based on some innocent fear of some weapon. Or it may have been a ploy by anti-Cuban forces to sabotage the recovering relations with Cuba. Most likely though the whole issue was a mass psychosis over an unfamiliar natural noise - crickets.
The AP wire story ran on many news sites but only few looked further into it. The report should have closed the issue, but it was soon forgotten.
Even after the Cuban scientist delivered their very plausible explanation, U.S. government fear mongering over the 'sonic attack' did not die down. Only the target changed.
In May 2018 the U.S. suddenly accused China of a similar 'attack' as the ones that allegedly happened in Cuba:
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that an incident involving a US government employee stationed in China who reported "abnormal sensations of sound and pressure" suggesting a mild brain injury has medical indications that are "very similar" and "entirely consistent" to those experienced by American diplomats posted in Havana.
But by mid 2018 a special task force set up by the State Department was still clueless of what caused the sickness of the diplomats affected in Cuba and later also in China. There are serious questions if the 'brain damage' that the sound allegedly caused even exists. None of the diplomats was examined before the incidents happened. The minor 'damage' some doctors saw in the brain scan pictures of some of their patients may well have been there way before they joined the State Department.
The China track went nowhere. But in September 2018 Russia was suddenly accused as being the cause of the menacing noise. NBC News reported:
Intelligence agencies investigating mysterious "attacks" that led to brain injuries in U.S. personnel in Cuba and China consider Russia to be the main suspect, three U.S. officials and two others briefed on the investigation tell NBC News.The suspicion that Russia is likely behind the alleged attacks is backed up by evidence from communications intercepts, known in the spy world as signals intelligence, amassed during a lengthy and ongoing investigation involving the FBI, the CIA and other U.S. agencies. The officials declined to elaborate on the nature of the intelligence.
The evidence is not yet conclusive enough, however, for the U.S. to formally assign blame to Moscow for incidents that started in late 2016 and have continued in 2018, causing a major rupture in U.S.-Cuba relations.
The NBC story came with a red flag. One of its authors was the CIA's mop-up man Ken Dilanian who lets the CIA rewrite his stories before they get published. Whenever one sees that author's name one must presume to read disinformation.
But it did not matter. Based on the vague NBC report the Daily Beast headlined: Russia Is No. 1 Suspect in Mystery Brain Attacks in Cuba and China: Report. The Guardian joined in with: Russia main suspect behind illnesses of US staff in Cuba and China – report. The Russophobe MSNBC aired a whole segment about the issue.
None of the reports mention the year old Cuban finding of cicada noise the AP had previously published.
Last Friday the New York Times reported that U.S. scientists found that the mysterious noise identified by the diplomats was indeed from crickets:
Alexander Stubbs of the University of California, Berkeley, and Fernando Montealegre-Z of the University of Lincoln in England studied a recording of the sounds made by diplomats and published by The Associated Press.“There’s plenty of debate in the medical community over what, if any, physical damage there is to these individuals,” said Mr. Stubbs in a phone interview. “All I can say fairly definitively is that the A.P.-released recording is of a cricket, and we think we know what species it is.”
...
The song of the Indies short-tailed cricket “matches, in nuanced detail, the A.P. recording in duration, pulse repetition rate, power spectrum, pulse rate stability, and oscillations per pulse,” the scientists wrote in their analysis.
The published noise is indeed extremely similar to the noise of the (west-)Indies short-tailed cricket recorded in this scientific database.
The New York Times does not even mention that Cuban scientists had come to the same result as the U.S. scientists. Nor does it dispel the "Russia did it" nonsense NBC News and other were spewing.
The issue is now probably buried, but the damage it did will not be rectified.
Diplomatic relations with Cuba are still reduced. The State Department still has a travel warning for Cuba "due to attacks targeting U.S. Embassy Havana employees". In the public record Russia is still accused of causing this non-issue in which it was never involved.
Not one of the 'journalists' involved in the fear campaign will be punished for ignoring the earlier AP report of the Cuban finding. None of the media that smeared Russia over the issue will retract those reports or expose the officials who initiated them.
Cricket noise can be as loud as 100 decibel. It is extremely irritating to anyone not used to it. Some diplomats new to Cuba felt affected by it. Other joined them in their fear of being attacked by some mysterious weapon. But the medical effects were very minor. Some doctors claimed to have found minor brain damage, others refuted those results as too vague.
Anti-Cuban politicians used the issue to press for penalties and the White House delivered to them. Those deep-state forces who want to portrait China and Russia as enemies hooked onto the issue. The media willingly followed them while ignoring the science that refuted the 'sonic weapon' thesis and the very plausible explanation the Cuban scientists had found.
The whole story reminds us again to be wary of all news that accuses this or that person, group or country of doing something bad to perceived 'U.S. interests'. Most of such stories are fake news, based on false claims and assertions.
Then again - maybe Putin indeed weaponized those Indie short tail crickets. His aim, sources say, was to create doubt over the truthfulness of the news in 'western' media. Officials say that his ploy was very effective. They ask for more money to counter it.
Posted by b on January 7, 2019 at 18:41 UTC | Permalink
This site called it right away. Hopefully there is an apology coming. I wonder if we'll ever hear what supposedly sickened the Skripals was something as ridiculous. BTW Has B taken a look at the first dump from Dark Overlord? Its crickets in the MSM right now, but this situation seems to be developing quite quickly.. might be worth looking through the first cache of material.
Posted by: Jason | Jan 7 2019 18:57 utc | 2
I was surprised that this story still has "legs"-- not unlike cricket legs that produce their distinctively persistent "chirp".
As the post recounts, the original reports produced the conflicting conclusions that: it was indeed, or at least most likely was, cricket/cicada noise unfamiliar to the foreign embassy staff; it was some sort of sinister new sophisticated electronic weapon; it was entirely psychosomatic, i.e. a sort of spontaneous group hallucination.
All of the above were cross-rejected or dismissed as self-serving falsehoods or gross exaggeration. The fact that this "News of the Weird" item was incorporated into the Russophobia propaganda indicates how preposterous and desperate the propagandists are-- if something goes wrong with a Western official's kitchen sink, the anti-Russia propagandists will throw that in as another "proof" of hostile and malign Russian intervention.
However, it brings new meaning to this haiku:
"Nothing in the voice of the cicada intimates how soon it will die." -- Bashō
Posted by: Ort | Jan 7 2019 19:25 utc | 3
As usual, the US government and the media have been "bullshitting". I use that word, not in the commonplace sense, but in the specialized technical sense given it by Harry G Frankfurt in his short classic "On Bullshit". He defines it as speaking (or writing) with utter disregard for truth or falsity - aiming only to achieve certain results. A bullshitter may not even know whether what he says is true or not, mainly because he doesn't care.
Obviously advertising, marketing, PR and propaganda are prime areas for bullshit.
In this case, of course all government and media sources blame the Cubans, the Chinese and the Russians. That's their job.
And the technique is typical, proven effective since WW2 and long before. Make extravagant claims (the Big Lie), repeat them over and over, and make no attempt to give any proof.
Posted by: Tom Welsh | Jan 7 2019 19:26 utc | 4
The New York Times does not even mention that Cuban scientists had come to the same result as the U.S. scientists. Nor does it dispel the "Russia did it" nonsense NBC News and other were spewing.
What the neocon NYT has done is really dishonest, but they can use a weasel explanation that the linked article was written by one of their science writers. My disgust with that outfit and the Bezos Blog WP is such I hate to even click one of their article links.
Another factor involved here is that Donald John Trump is a clueless doofus as well as a generic moron. The man knows virtually nothing about anything, and is quite satisfied with the situation. The people running these scams are in place because he put them there, and there is no getting around that.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jan 7 2019 19:26 utc | 5
@1 "we all know what a cricket is."
Evidently not. It's a cicada. And I like the picture. Far more attractive than the cockroaches we usually see photos of here.
thanks b... your conclusion is bang on - "The whole story reminds us again to be wary of all news that accuses this or that person, group or country of doing something bad to perceived 'U.S. interests'. Most of such stories are fake news, based on false claims and assertions."
this is the type of thing integrity initiative, cambridge analytica, chatham house and etc would cook up... until people look under the hood of the car, they are going to be exposed to this kind of bullshit 24/7.. again - it is a clear sign of an empire in decline...
Posted by: james | Jan 7 2019 19:31 utc | 7
This whole charade was a favor to that flunky senator Marco Rubio who was Trump’s vote in the senate investigation committee. And furthermore, was another jab at Obama and his “achievements”.
Cuban’s had no incentive whatsoever to chase away all those dollars pouring in suddenly, after Obama’s orders to open tourism.
It was just the lamest way to achieve that goal and only served to erode the dwindling credibility of Americans even further in the eyes of the world.
If anything, Trump wanted a golf resort in Cuba in 2009 and Obama shut that idea down.
Posted by: Alpi57 | Jan 7 2019 19:36 utc | 8
"Most likely though the whole issue was a mass psychosis over an unfamiliar natural noise - crickets."
To whatever extent they really are stupid enough to believed their own propaganda, they're going to be prone to mass hysteria and psychosis. I'd say Russia Derangement Syndrome, to the point that Demtards really seem to want WWIII solely in order to spite Trump, already qualifies as a mass psychosis. The same goes for the neocons in general, to the extent they really snort their own stuff.
I don't say that sarcastically. Except for the venal interests of weapons contractors and various propagandists, there's zero political basis for Russophobia in the US. To the extent people really feel it they're automatically being hysterical.
And when enough people have primed their psyches to such a deranged pitch, they're ready to respond psychotically to any stimulus that hits them the wrong way. The cricket incident is relatively trivial. But what's going to be our equivalent of the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" (mass hysteria shortly after the Sudeten war crisis in Europe)?
And then the totally unforced mass hysteria against Russia, which encompasses most of the elite political class, threatens to become a mass psychotic nuclear incident. Clearly the whole lot of them aren't afraid of pushing their derangement to the point of WWIII. On the contrary they keep saying the US isn't being aggressive and brink-pushing enough.
@ the pair Fear of insects? You would have "enemies" everywhere.
Posted by: mike k | Jan 7 2019 19:45 utc | 10
Well, thats is just an argument though, it is necessary not the reason of the "attacks" in Cuba.
Posted by: Zanon | Jan 7 2019 19:50 utc | 11
Cicada 3301 mystery solved! Putin has weaponized < crickets >.
( Do I really need to add /s here? The USA becomes more laughable every day. )
Posted by: TJ | Jan 7 2019 19:54 utc | 12
This:
"The Havana incident was probably based on some innocent fear of some weapon. Or it may have been a ploy by anti-Cuban forces to sabotage the recovering relations with Cuba. Most likely though the whole issue was a mass psychosis over an unfamiliar natural noise - crickets."
is either the most stupid thing I've read in a long time or the most breathtakingly cynical thing I've read in a long time. The Western mo is more than clear enough, long since, and of course should always be presumed. They throw lies, distortions and false allegations against the wall, knowing that the truth never catches up to the lie and knowing that the lies can simply be repeated later in endless fake recitations of 'malign behavior'. This process is key to the process of demonization that gets applied to Washington's 'enemies" (ie anyone who even appears to resist the Hegemon' surge for absolute global power)and Cuba is by no means out of the crosshairs yet.
B knows all this. It may be ridiculous, but it's not laughable and it's the most likely explanation. And lets remember that the explanations in B's paragraph are not mutually exclusive. A story can start as hysteria, for one thing, and then get seized upon and turned into demonizing fake news.
Posted by: paul | Jan 7 2019 20:05 utc | 13
Never fear, Rachel Maddow will have a secret source claiming that the crickets were KGB trained agents and that Putin himself gave them their chirping orders.
Posted by: Christopher Donahue | Jan 7 2019 20:12 utc | 14
Re the crickets: A long time back Cuban scientists had already suggested that insects were the cause, but of course, nobody listened to them. Damn Communists!
Posted by: William Bowles | Jan 7 2019 20:38 utc | 15
When this first came to light in the media, some time ago, what crossed my mind was the story of the United States embassy in Moscow, some fifty years ago, which surely must have played into the reaction of the United States authorities. At that time, people working in the embassy starting getting sick, some of them very sick, and the ambassador ended up with cancer. It was later discovered that the Soviet Union's intelligence sevices had been irradiating the embassy with microwaves of some sort.
The danger of electormagnetic radiation (as used in cell phones, for example) is immense, and the telecommunications industry as well as the military are doing their best to make sure that the public is not informed of it, although there is a major campaign in France to inform the public (where 90% of the over 450 models of cell phones tested by the public health authorities turned out to be in violation of basic safety standards -- a scandal that continues under the name "phonegate" -- after Dr Marc Arazi sued the government to obtain what was supposed to be information in the public domaine).
In the Swiss canton (state) of Neuchâtel, wifi has been banned from all schools, and cell towers have been banned from any location in proximity of schools. On 27 March 2018, the Swiss Senate refused a new law authorizing the increase in cell phone antenna output necessary for the up and coming Generation 5 (G5) following a long and arduous lobbying campaign by the Swiss Medical Association (FMH -- Fédération médicale helvétique, in French), a campaign based entirely on the danger of electormagnetic radiation to health, human and animal.
The story of the embassy was treated in some detail in Jean Hêche's brilliant documentary "Ondes, science et manigance" ("Microwaves, Science and Lies" https://www.filmsdocumentaires.com/films/2858-microwaves-science-and-lies), the best piece of work I have yet seen on the subject overall (a subject that I, as a muck-raker, have been tracking for some seven years now, both in French and in English).
Dr Arazi recently attended a conference in France, where his car was badly vandalized. Dr Daniel Favre, of the Lausanne (Switzerland) Federal Politechnic Institute, who has been studying bees and the utterly disorienting effects of electromagnetic radiation on them, found his bee hives gassed and all the bees dead.
In short, it is not a figment of the imagination (contrary to what the industry and the military would have us believe, for it is a matter of a multi-trillion-dollar industry and most of the military structure). Hence, the concern of the United States authorities, without, of course their being able to discuss in public why the deep concern.
Posted by: RJPJR | Jan 7 2019 20:58 utc | 16
Honestly, the naivety of some of the comments here is breathtaking.
Of course the embassy staff is going to associate their headaches with that loud chirping sound that they keep hearing night after night after night.
Of course the embassy staff is going to shout "Yes! Yes! That's the sound I've been hearing!!!" when those cricket-sounds are played back to them.
Inevitably they are going to conflate the two things in their (addled) minds, but correlation is not causation. They are suffering from headaches. They hear loud chirping. It is natural that they associate the two, but it isn't necessarily the case that the latter is causing the former.
Here, a simple factoid that blows that theory out the water: "In May 2018 the U.S. suddenly accused China of a similar 'attack' as the ones that allegedly happened in Cuba"
How can the "crickets hypothesis" account for that?
An alternative hypothesis, one that I already mentioned in the open thread: the USA is harming the health of their own embassy staff because they installed some new-fangled spy-thingy in the basement of the embassy building.
Whatever that thingy is, and whatever it does, it radiates the sh*t out of people's brains, and the spooks that are running it don't care because it is collecting intelligence gold.
Indeed, it is so good at collecting intelligence that they are now rolling it out elsewhere, starting with... oh... wild guess... China.
Expect this phenomenon to spread around the world as this device is installed in more and more US embassies, and for this to continue until some perceptive State Department employee clicks to notion that these headaches inevitably follow an influx of NSA/CIA technicians, all of whom leave the building in a hurry right after the lights momentarily dim.
Americans aren't soft. They aren't shrinking violets. If they are reporting massive headaches then you can be certain that there is a cause, they aren't just a bunch of hypochondriacs.
But it isn't crickets that are causing this, because if it was then every foreign embassy would be reporting these symptoms.
And it isn't Cuban brain ray-guns, because - again - every foreign embassy would be reporting these symptoms.
Only the USA, and now in two countries.
This is real health issue for the Americans, I'm certain of this, just as I am certain it is self-inflicted - even if those who are suffering most (the State Dept staff) haven't connected the dots yet.
Posted by: Yeah, Right | Jan 7 2019 21:41 utc | 17
"... unfamiliar natural noise..."
Except it's not "unfamiliar" as I've commented trice on this topic. Tens of millions of residents in the Southern tier of the USA are quite familiar with the noise of cicadas, as am I having visited numerous times, first noting that ugly sound in the summer of 1966 or '67, but certainly prior to the big Hemisfare World's Fair held in San Antonio during 1968, which I attended thanks to my grandfather residing there. We talked about those bugs, grandpa and I, and used a butterfly net to capture some from the trees in his front yard. Big buggers! About twice the length of an American Cockroach. I bet they'd make great fish bait, and are consumed by humans living in the tropic and semi-tropical regions, now and in antiquity. Of course, the fascist Cuban exiles living mostly in Florida know exactly what a cicada is and how it sounds, so they've been knowingly lying about this since day one as have the rest. BigLie Media needs to be burned down along with its patron the CIA.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 7 2019 22:02 utc | 18
Fortunately for the State Department, the ongoing species eradication of insects through pesticides and other chemicals probably means that this type of "attack" is less likely to occur in the future. Of course, there may be other problems associated with this, like birds also vanishing due to a loss of food sources, but if it makes the State Department sleep better, isn't it worth it?
Posted by: worldblee | Jan 7 2019 22:08 utc | 19
The New York Times had also joined in the Russia bashing. On Sept 1, 2018, William Broad authored a long article https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/science/sonic-attack-cuba-microwave.html “> Microwave Weapons Are Prime Suspect in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers in which it was posited
He speculated that Cubans aligned with Russia, the nation’s longtime ally, might have launched microwave strikes in attempts to undermine developing ties between Cuba and the United States.“It’s a possibility,” he said at his kitchen table. “In dictatorships, you often have factions that think nothing of going against the general policy if it suits their needs. I think that’s a perfectly viable explanation.
and
Vladimir Putin, as Russia’s president and prime minister, sought to recover the economic, political and strategic clout that the Soviets had lost. In December 2000, months after the start of his first presidential term, Mr. Putin flew to the island nation. It was the first visit by a Soviet or Russian leader since the Cold War.
He also sought to resurrect Soviet work on psychoactive arms. In 2012, he declared that Russia would pursue “new instruments for achieving political and strategic goals,” including psychophysical weapons.In July 2014, Mr. Putin again visited Cuba. This time he brought a gift — the cancellation of some $30 billion in Cuban debt. The two nations signed a dozen accords.
A Russian spy ship, Viktor Leonov, docked in Havana on the eve of the beginning of reconciliation talks between Cuba and the United States in early 2015, and did so again in subsequent years. Moscow and Havana grew so close that in late 2016, the two nations signed a sweeping pact on defense and technology cooperation.
Posted by: Ludwig | Jan 7 2019 22:14 utc | 20
RJPJR @ 16, Yeah, Right @ 17:
Of course the source of the electromagnetic radiation that may well be causing the symptoms being reported - the headaches, the dizziness, loss of balance, the slight brain damage noted by doctors - will never be revealed because that could well suggest the US is bugging its own embassy, monitoring embassy staff conversations and capturing their digital activities (including looking at porn during quiet periods). The gadget or gadgets housing the bugs causing the problem could be the PCs, laptops or cellphones the staff have to use in all their day-to-day work transactions.
Who at the State Department would want to work in an overseas embassy for the US then?
Posted by: Jen | Jan 7 2019 22:34 utc | 21
Amazing that a tiny creature can cause pain and other events. (though yes, "psychotronic" weapons have been around since the 60s)
I have been in an area of GA heavy with cicadas. At first, I thought some farmer was running loud, heavy equipment ... or maybe a UFO.
Posted by: Curtis | Jan 7 2019 22:40 utc | 22
I thought that the original problem was sub-sonic sound waves that could not be heard.
Posted by: D White | Jan 7 2019 22:45 utc | 23
I hear Bolton and Bibi are demanding Trump bomb Iran based on this info.
Posted by: BraveNewWorld | Jan 7 2019 23:00 utc | 24
The US State Dept also known as the vile sister of the even more vile C$$IA - is filled with neocons warmongers, pedos and other scum. The probably all got disability retirement pay and wanted out once Trump was elected. Crickets causing disability. Corrupt govt scum.
Posted by: Jerry | Jan 7 2019 23:15 utc | 25
The NYT generally leads the MSM in reporting (concocting) anything that can eventually (the sooner the better!) get the bombs dropping.
This is historically relevant. The NYT has never in its history opposed any attack by the USA on any other nation. In fact, it has pushed for war in every instance.
Posted by: fast freddy | Jan 7 2019 23:26 utc | 26
@ Yeah, Right #17
An alternative hypothesis, one that I already mentioned in the open thread: the USA is harming the health of their own embassy staff because they installed some new-fangled spy-thingy in the basement of the embassy building.
Your theory is crazy enough that it really ought to be considered. The US of A has a long history of doing this sort of thing, and there is even a Wiki for it.
1 Surgical experiments....2 Pathogens, disease and biological warfare agents....3 Human radiation experiments....4 Chemical experiments....5 Psychological and torture experiments....6 Pharmacological research....7 Other experiments
Most of those have many sub-headings. The Japanese biowar criminals the US captured after WW2 were NOT prosecuted. Instead they were coddled, and very probably the CIA tried out their techniques and equipment during the Korean War.
People got dosed with LSD and injected with plutonium. Researchers had very good careers studying and experimenting with torture, and not a single one has yet been punished in any way. Heck, we have a torture-loving President in the White House at this very moment. Years of solitary confinement in US prisons can be viewed as an example of the testing of very long term torture.
Other goings-on:
I Got Blasted by the Pentagon's Pain Ray – Twice
"We" have a pain-ray which causes severe pain. Why not try to build another device to cause brain damage and arrange matters to get two results for the price of one. Blame Cuba, Russia, China and anyone else who needs demonizing while using US employees as unsuspecting no-cost guinea pigs? If everybody keeps their lips zipped it'll be a Win/Win situtation.
I'm still leaning towards the cricket theory, but your hypothesis is causing me to waver on that.
Unethical human experimentation in the United States
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jan 7 2019 23:36 utc | 27
If the Russians are innocent it must be Climate Change to blame for the noisy crickets
Speaking of microwave weapons thats pretty much what 5G is, and it is being ramped up with extraordinary speed without any consideration of the health effects. World wide coverage of microwave radiation. What could go wrong
Posted by: Pft | Jan 7 2019 23:36 utc | 28
Contrary to popular myth, there aren't a lot of crickets in downtown Havana.
try again.
Posted by: Florin | Jan 7 2019 23:55 utc | 29
@ Florin #29
While we're trying out our tinfoil hats, consider this:
Yes, you can actually hear microwave pulses
Assuming the hypothetical brain scrambler is electromagnetic, it might be something which the victim's ears could detect. Adding the noise of the local crickets to the beam would mask that, and also add a layer of deniability. "Hey, it was just crickets after all!"
At some point the American sufferers are going to bring in some equipment which might detect 'whatever-it-is' afflicting them. Perhaps that was when the experimenters turned their little device towards the Canadians.
Since I might as well go whole hog here, when the Canadians start sniffing around for a solution, it's time to haul The Beamer to China. If this happened, I'll assume somebody was too stupid to remove the Cuban Cricket sound and substitute Something Chinese. Say, the Peking Croaking Toad. :)
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jan 8 2019 0:13 utc | 32
Cicada sounds at night;
http://www.orangefreesounds.com/cicada-sounds-at-night/
As a boy in Tucson, used to catch'em. Big ugly bugs..
Posted by: ben | Jan 8 2019 0:30 utc | 33
Apropos to crickets is a hilarious Big Bang episode some years ago with the comedian, Lewis Black. Look it up on you-tube.
Posted by: Paul b | Jan 8 2019 0:36 utc | 34
Same topic--False US Government Accusations--different aspect:
Awhile ago we noted one of the companies Mueller indicted showed up in court to fight the charges, and we all gloated about what would be unearthed through discovery. Well, one of my Twitter listees retweeted a thread by someone doing the dirty work of following the trial in person Techno_Fog being its nom de plume. This is the current thread about the current discovery process. All sorts of "irregularities" have already surfaced; the judge needs to recuse herself for starters, then there's the issue of confidential information that was supposed to be locked behind a "firewall" leaked through to the special prosecutor who then used it before a grand jury. And there's more for those brave enough to read some.
What we have is worse than a Swamp, as swamps aren't ipso facto sewers. But even sewer is too soft--Cesspool seems proper--What remains of the Outlaw US Empire's Rule of Law/Legal System now dwells within a massive Cesspool where those unlucky enough to become mired in it slowly drown in unprecedented corruption and filth. Is that being too nice?
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 8 2019 0:37 utc | 35
The imperialists dont wait for something like this to turn up, they make sure it happens and they have all the hitech support. So they might have used authentic sound from crickets but amplified it. Or they might have synthesized it and improved its unpleasant effects.
Posted by: Peter Grafström | Jan 8 2019 1:30 utc | 36
@ Peter Grafström #36
So they might have used authentic sound from crickets but amplified it. Or they might have synthesized it and improved its unpleasant effects.
More good thinking. I think the delivery of the sound would be an issue - don't want anybody except the intended target/victim to be bothered. Besides, others would serve as witnesses that something had happened.
What about this:
Sound amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jan 8 2019 1:48 utc | 37
Microwaves - or how about enormous radio antennas beaming massive amounts of captured signal intel to satellites for retransmission?
Posted by: c1ue | Jan 8 2019 2:01 utc | 38
Now what is behind our brain damaged government officials? What has destroyed Rubio's soul?
Posted by: Jared | Jan 8 2019 2:33 utc | 39
@ 35 asked; " Is that being too nice?"
You bet it is. DJT has exposed the fake and phoney, "liberty and justice for all" for all the world to see.
The curtain has been pulled back on the land of Oz..
Posted by: ben | Jan 8 2019 3:43 utc | 40
Ariel Glaria Enriquez
HAVANA TIMES — There are some memories which Time makes appear less real. [...] The bus I was waiting for stopped at the last lit-up corner of that remote town, more than an hour away from Havana. [...] The main street was empty. The never-ending buzzing of crickets, a dog barking in the distance and the river’s continous murmor below my feet, prevailed in the silence.
What I cited is Cuban literature, so "crickets" may be any combination of crickets, katydids and cicadas. There could be fewer of them in the downtown Havana, but as the shrubbery is there, the actual numbers of the critters may fluctuate wildly from city block to city block and from year to year.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 8 2019 3:54 utc | 41
#35 The Concord/Mueller court case
This has already been spun another way: "Judge Blasts Lawyers fo Russian Firm Charged By Mueller"
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/07/mueller-probe-concord-management-1085285
The final sentence of the Politico report adds an editorial statement: "Under U.S. law, the company is entitled to the full panoply of U.S. constitutional rights even though no individual connected to the firm is at risk of going to prison until and unless they come into U.S. custody." Isn't that outrageous! Now Putin has weaponized constitutional rights! Time to get rid of them, no doubt.
Posted by: jayc | Jan 8 2019 3:58 utc | 42
Paranoia may destroy ya. I would suppose that you do not create mass hysteria over some perceived enemy based on one single incident but a over time with many incidents building up to condition the population to accept the enemy fully. My question is, whom is fracking with who's brain?
Posted by: dltravers | Jan 8 2019 4:12 utc | 43
On the gravestone of the Empire "The Crickets did it"
Posted by: Hem Lock | Jan 8 2019 4:54 utc | 44
Crickets will soon be part of the paraphernalia of the CiA "ecological" torture methods.
Posted by: virgile | Jan 8 2019 4:55 utc | 45
I think the cricket story is only understandable if one considers the state of mind of US embassy members. From what I saw of them they are totally paranoid and isolated. In a third world country I was able to observe them up close. They are absolutely wlled off, get sick from all the antibacterial cleaning agents they use, of course don´t speak the language and live like in a piece of the US surrounded by murderous barbarians. Thus they are primed to imagine all kinds of non existant dangers. No connection to physical reality anymore
Posted by: Tom | Jan 8 2019 7:10 utc | 46
@ Tom 46
Yes, physically and psychologically they're a microcosm of the whole bubble-boy monoculture-based, sterilization-based civilization.
While this one will go down the memory hole for most, we should try to keep this knowledge around about how obviously psyop-like the media operates with even a minor "hate story" against Official Enemies of the Liberal Order.
Posted by: Anne Jaclard | Jan 8 2019 8:02 utc | 48
This "phenomenon" is the result of the confluence of a number of issues.
First is that the individuals affected are not just regular embassy staff, but CIA personnel in the embassies using being diplomats and junior diplomats or just embassy clerical staff as cover. They are at war (have been since the agency was formed in 1947) and they know it. They are certain the "enemies" they imagine America has knows it too. These individuals are deeply paranoid to begin with simply from the positions they are in, and they are deliberately trained to be even more paranoid by the sick freaks who rise succeed and climb the management ladder in such a sick and dysfunctional organization. They are steeped from day one in delusion specific to the internal culture of the CIA.
Second, since the Obama administration and doubtless continued under Trump, an ongoing effort to "professionalize" government agencies has been taking place that mirrors similar trends in the American business world. This involves hiring traditional college graduates who have never been "contaminated" by employment elsewhere. Traditional students who have progressed from childhood in gated communities and suburbia to safe-zoned college campuses to employment at "The Company" with no other detours to learn anything about the world on their own in between. The point of this is that such individuals will be emotionally and intellectually immature, and so will imprint on their new employer, with the employer becoming a surrogate for the fresh graduate's parents. This is, in fact, a very common hiring practice in the contemporary tech industry and was adopted by the US government to modernize. Such employees tend to be more devoted to their employer. They eagerly work longer hours and are less likely to be the sources of leaks. They are less likely to question the orders from their surrogate parents in management.
Third is that this new generation of CIA employees are more likely to have been business majors in college. This is simply a consequence of supply and demand. American universities produce lots of business majors and most of the graduates of other programs like the hard sciences and engineering are international students from China and Russia and thus not suitable for filling out the CIA's cubicle warrens. Business Administration is the university equivalent of Special Education.
All three of the above issues select for individuals with a very loose grip on reality to begin with, and methodically isolate them even further from the real world. Many of these individuals have literally never heard a cicada before as there simply are none in their childhood bug-sprayed suburban neighborhoods, nor on the campuses of Harvard or Yale. They have never heard a squeaky old fashioned belt-drive air conditioner. In the rare instances when they might have walked in a city park they have done so with earbuds plugged into their smartphones.
Now throw those kids into what they are told is enemy territory and subject them to culture shock. Anyone who has spent significant time away from home knows that culture shock can be non-trivial. In fact 100% of the symptoms described by these "sonic attack" victims can be readily explained by culture shock.
But it gets worse.
The final issue and trigger is something jarringly and earthshakingly inexplicable happens: Trump wins the election. A famous Black actor whom they literally view as God himself (Morgan Freeman) tells them "America is at WAR!" As CIA spooks, they are frontline troops in any asymmetric warfare, so now their paranoia goes through the roof. Then the hysteria begins. Every creak in the house, every bump in the night is now a KGB agent out to get them. That mysterious screeching sound they've been hearing since they got off the plane in Havana is now obvious to them: A secret KGB mind control ray!
The hysteria continues, and that's how we got to where we are now. This sequence of causes is so natural and to be expected that if the entire population of America itself were not deeply mired in hysteria at the moment they would find it obvious.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 8 2019 12:11 utc | 50
Maybe these cricket news also explain the noise from one million Chinese uighur muslims presently incarcerated? All mainstream Atlantist media started chirping 'bout this all at once like true bugs and lotus...!
Posted by: Ts'yew Taw-Loh | Jan 8 2019 12:32 utc | 51
If there is a healthy issue related with those embassies, the government must raid it and take a closer look.
The source of the healthy issue could be inside the embassy!
Posted by: Zico, The Musketeer | Jan 8 2019 12:47 utc | 52
Post #1 The pair
The photograph is of a Cicada, not a cricket. Nor is it disgusting. Or no more so than a photograph of a human would be.
Cicadas make a great deal of noise - but no more than your rock music loving next-door neighbor who turns their volume up to max.
Posted by: AnneR | Jan 8 2019 13:29 utc | 53
"...were subjected to mysterious sonic attacks that left them with a variety of ailments including headaches, hearing problems and concussions."
I suffered from the same thing myself a few years ago. I got it diagnosed and it was a condition known as Watching BBC News. The treatment was quite straightforward and now I can carry out all of my spying duties without interference.
Posted by: Ross | Jan 8 2019 14:04 utc | 54
Ts'yew [email protected] 51 sez: "Maybe these cricket news also explain the noise from one million Chinese uighur muslims..."
Strangely enough, yes, the issues are very closely related. America, and indeed much of the western world, has experienced a traumatic psychotic break with reality. After the 2016 elections in the USA large portions of the populations in western cultures could no longer accept the real world as they saw it and instead spun off into delusion. Having lost all connection to the real world these western mass media consumers will now believe literally anything they are told by their TV sets.
This tendency towards disconnecting from reality has a long history in the US. Climate change deniers, Moon landing skeptics, flat-Earthers, Bigfoot trackers, witch hunters and the like have been part of American culture since the Europeans murdered off the native inhabitants. In 2016, however, the supposed college educated "realists" lost their grip and joined the rest in barking at the Moon. This includes all so-called "journalists and the rest of the West's mass media producers. In the past portions of the American population could wander off into lunacy-land so long as the mass media kept one foot in reality so they could lead the population back when needed. Now those involved in producing the West's mass media have themselves become completely unhinged, and so America no longer has any sort of anchor in reality. The media makers now consume and believe the lunacy they manufacture for the masses and have no longer have any way to know how it differs from reality. To reference Plato's Cave metaphor, the individuals responsible for casting imagery on the cave wall that is interpreted as reality by the imagery consumers have begun believing the imagery they themselves are creating is reality. A vicious feedback loop ensues in which the whole population now peels off entirely orthogonal to reality and with no means to find their way back.
The entire population will now believe anything authoritatively presented to them on their giant screen Plato's Cave displays, and these days that includes even the people manufacturing the nonsense to put on those screens in the first place. Imaginary Russian invasions? Chinese concentration camps? Russians hacking the brains of Black Americans? An evil ophthalmologist gassing children left and right? Secret KGB mind control rays zapping embassy staff? Whatever lunacy you can think up they will now believe.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 8 2019 14:46 utc | 55
Crickets? Really, you guys believe that? Crickets can be annoying, but giving cognitive disorders and brainijuries. that's a stretch.
Obviously something else is going on here. Like some undeclared equipment installed in the embassys by the US of A themselves. Like 'Yeah, Right' @ 17 suggested. If this was some natural thing, it wouldn't affect only US embassys.
Posted by: Alexander Grimsmo | Jan 8 2019 15:46 utc | 56
Residing out in the country, the cacophony of crickets is a nuisance and sometimes deafening. Much to the consternation of my spouse why hates snakes, I introduced garden snakes into the area and within a week all crickets were eaten, and soon the snakes left as well.
Of course, such actions assume the prerequisite ability TO THINK.
Since the Russian embassy staff do not complain, I must assume they used garden snakes to eliminate the cricket population. In other words and unlike the Americans, they possess the ability to THINK.
Posted by: David | Jan 8 2019 15:48 utc | 57
Alexander [email protected]
The "cognitive disorders and brainijuries" are preexisting conditions. Practically all Americans suffer from them at this point.
What is important to note is that there are no (as in none) physical indications of injury. No injuries show up on EEGs or MRI scans or any physical diagnostic test whatsoever. All symptoms are entirely subjective.
No, there are no secret KGB brain rays. It is hilarious how the hysterical think that this old joke from the 1950s is real now.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 8 2019 16:24 utc | 58
Too much time spent indoors watching sci-fi. Try living with stress-induced tinnitus - you'll be begging for a Parktown prawn. Although they nip rather than hum.
Posted by: Kula | Jan 8 2019 16:35 utc | 59
As an addendum to my above post, and to answer the question of why the staff at no other countries' embassies are having issues, please point out which other country on the planet is suffering from mass hysteria to the degree that the United States is? There is no other such country. America is indeed exceptional in the degrees of hysteria and delusion its population is experiencing at the moment. These are people who honestly believe that $4700 in Google ads wrecked their multi-billion dollar elections, and that some silly clickbait social media memes are actually a declaration of war. When people in such fragile psychological states are primed to think Satan is trying to claim their souls, then yes, crickets can set them off.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 8 2019 16:37 utc | 60
there's this Brit who has been living in China for many years, recently he wrote on Quora that he feels very angry reading the anti Chinese fake news perpetrated by the likes of BBC, Guardian, Economists..
Their reporting are very selective,always singling out China for alleged 'human rights abuses', their narratives are often very biased , distorted, even total fabrications.
Actually, even these certified anti Chinese outfits occasionally have something positive to say about China, albeit once in a blue moon.
Like a crappy clock getting it right twice in a day, or perhaps just to preserve a semblance of 'objectivity' , buying street cred if you like.
OTOH, there's an army of 'progressives' in MOA/UNZ/SAKER , who'r even more radically sinophobic than those known anti Chinese MSM outfits.
For them, China is 'no different', or even 'far worse than the great satan'. [sic]
Where do they get their extraordinary 'scoops' on China ?
The very same sources that they've been lambasting daily as fake news outlets....BBC, AP, Reuters., Guardian..../NYT, WP, CNN. FOX.
Go figure.
hehehhe
Posted by: denk | Jan 8 2019 16:46 utc | 61
Stupidest analysis I've ever read in my life. Sonic weapons exist you moron. You must be a baby boomer who believes anything a "scientist" says. The world will not improve until every last authority-goosestepping baby boomer is dead and buried.
To dismiss the idea of energy weapons for the trivial thrill of slamming the US is truly pathetic.
Posted by: g | Jan 8 2019 16:48 utc | 62
@ g | Jan 8, 2019 11:48:05 AM | 62
Stupidest analysis I've ever read in my life.
_______________________________________
I don't doubt it! However, you will be forced to revise your opinion if you ever start reading your own comments.
Posted by: Ort | Jan 8 2019 17:00 utc | 63
5;djt is a doofus and moron?He has one up on you.the msm is fake news.
Posted by: dahoit | Jan 8 2019 17:01 utc | 64
g 62
YOu epitomise exactly the kind of people I mention in 60.
We know about sonic weapons honey.
reports on MKULTRA mentioned about it being used to bombard peacful protestors in fukus.
But where's your proof that it has been used against murikkan 'diplomats' [aka spooks] ?
At this point,
Anybody who lap up 5lies official stories at face values can only be either...
1] An imbecile.,
2] A disinfo agent.
You sound too hot headed to be [2] , so....?
P.S.
By now Im quite convinced there'r several type [2] posters in MOA,
HEHEHE
Posted by: denk | Jan 8 2019 17:03 utc | 65
William Gruff @55--
Ever read Richard Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize winning Anti-intellectualism in American Life? What about Michael Kammen's People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization, also a Pulitzer Prize winner? There are others that round out the mix, but these two are enough to provide the Social-Historian with the wherewithal to substantiate your main premises about the gullibility of portions of the American populous and the resulting ease of their exploitation. Hofstadter's critique was powerful enough to generate curricular change resulting in more teaching of critical thinking/reasoning/interpreting/debating within some states while others remained stagnant or became worse. That current changed with the ascendency of Neoliberalism which wants nobody to think critically, which led to the US Ed Dept's corruption of education through testing to gain essential funding denied by Neoliberal held statehouses.
The primary enemies of the American People are all homegrown since 1776. Several, like Jefferson and Madison, lived on each side of the Enemy/Patriot divide. Most of what we protest about today we protested about during the 1950s-1970s, and we find ourselves still fighting against the Neoliberal/Reagan Counter-revolution and CIA usurpation of the Executive--40 long years now with no light yet at the end of the tunnel.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 8 2019 19:00 utc | 66
I see my reply to William Gruff @55 vanished into the cloud, which is too bad. Another aspect of this topic that hasn't been discussed for awhile is the Steele Dossier. This op/ed argues that email evidence proves the Dossier was to act as an "Insurance Policy" in the event of Trump's election--not a device to prevent his election. IMO, the argument is quite plausible. Yes, the op/ed writer is likely biased, but the evidence he uses isn't; click the link, read and judge for yourself.
As for my earlier posting, the investigator Techno_Fog continues to provide updates further exposing the Cesspool underlying Mueller's "investigation." More evidence the judge is biased and must recuse herself and that Mueller and others on his team obstructed justice and perjured themselves as this thread demonstrates. When I watched the Senate Watergate Hearings, I was astounded but not altogether shocked having read the criminal Warren Commission Report. IMO, there's little difference between the UK's Integrity Bollocks and the entire Media/Mueller Circus as they both came from the same Hag stirred caldron.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 8 2019 20:44 utc | 68
Hello everybody! I think Yeah,Right! has a point here,about some device put in their own american embassies.Think a bit logical.If you think about your own experiences with strange,unfamiliar or unexpected noises,like a smoke alarm kicking off,a wake-up alarm on a strange moment,or like I've experienced several times in my house:a house cricket calling out for love to its partner(only males make the noise) you will always be able with your ears,and legs,and eyes at last to locate the origin of the sound,it's not tricky,it just happens.So if embassy staff hears something the like,you don't need scientists to find out ,do you?I don't know about cuban insects,but here in France you can witness in the right spot and season large noises coming from large populations of cicades,but immediately recognisable as such.Within a month I will hear thousands of frogs (no not the yellow vest variety)screaming onto each other all night long,but you identify without a doubt.So how come that Cuban scientist (why not a windowcleaner or broomlady)have identified the cause and it's not what the press proposes to the public?The only explanation is indeed to grab a hold on anything that strengthens the badguys narrative,the cubans did it,the chinese,the russians,without even considering the real origin.But in doing this,they give away the secret,because ,I presume that all those personnel are really suffering from some inconvenience.Those maybe brain damaged already,working for the american government,but they would still behave as normal humans if confronted with strange noises,wouldn't they?
Posted by: willie | Jan 8 2019 21:11 utc | 69
Sorry, but this cricket story is pure bullshit. I have spent quite a bit of time in Cuba and never heard of crickets or any problems from cricket noise. Ridiculous. The Cubans are covering their asses.
Posted by: Chuck1776 | Jan 8 2019 21:17 utc | 70
@ Chuck1776 | Jan 8, 2019 4:17:33 PM | 68
Yeah, and the worst part is that, assuming they're not undercover Cuban intelligence operatives, Alexander Stubbs of the University of California, Berkeley, and Fernando Montealegre-Z of the University of Lincoln in England have been bribed or coerced into going along with the Cuban cover story!
I mean, what the hell kind of a name is "Montealegre-Z"? That sets off the alarm bells right there!
Posted by: Ort | Jan 8 2019 21:34 utc | 71
Dear MOA author:
Thank you for not deleting my comment. I have respect for anyone who values free speech which is measured by tolerating what we may find offensive. And sorry I called you a moron, you are a rare breed. Article is still wrongheaded though.
Posted by: g | Jan 8 2019 22:09 utc | 72
... That mysterious screeching sound they've been hearing since they got off the plane in Havana is now obvious to them: A secret KGB mind control ray! .... The hysteria continues, and that's how we got to where we are now. ....
Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 8, 2019 7:11:20 AM | 50
This indeed is puzzling: why DoS is not supplying overseas employees with tinfoil hats? Properly designed, such hats would also have ice pockets to prevent cranial overheating, and could even have ear flaps for sound waves. At night, the personnel could use tinfoil canopies that could also defend against insect bites.
More seriously, once the government or a substantial faction of the government has definite interests in certain hostile incidents to occur, they have ways of making them happen or making them being reported -- not exactly the same thing. So a black flag scenario is a possible explanation too.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 9 2019 2:48 utc | 73
America is indeed exceptional in the degrees of hysteria and delusion its population is experiencing at the moment. These are people who honestly believe that $4700 in Google ads wrecked their multi-billion dollar elections, and that some silly clickbait social media memes are actually a declaration of war. When people in such fragile psychological states are primed to think Satan is trying to claim their souls, then yes, crickets can set them off.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 8, 2019 11:37:29 AM | 60
Sadly, mass delusions happen in many countries, my old homeland, Poland, being one of them. The simplest explanation, if only partial, is that it is hard to make informed judgement on facts beyond immediate personal expertise, eg. tomatoes in store A are cheaper than in store B. Hence one has to rely on expert opinion. To give one example, someone observed that carbon dioxide cannot have "greenhouse effect" according to his understanding of gas thermodynamics, sadly, the explanation of the greenhouse effect requires quantum theory on a much more sophisticated level than I personally experienced in one semester of college physics for non-majors.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 9 2019 3:12 utc | 74
@william gruff and piotr berman... thanks for those insights and humour.. if we don't have humour in this environment, we are really lost... it is hard to believe all of what you say is actually taken in some serious manner, but in fact it is..
Posted by: james | Jan 9 2019 4:09 utc | 75
@ james, Piotr Berman and William Gruff
I am sorry to report that I am seeing almost total zombiedom on the part of my fellow Americans. Very, very, very few know anything about more than Trump's latest tweet and how special America and Americans are. I come to MoA for sanity.
As I have said before, I blame the foundation of the brainwashing on faith over reason. It is a slippery slope that has been abused for centuries.
The people in the West have faith that the folks that have owned private finance for centuries have we-the-people's interest above theirs. I don't share that faith.
I think that the God of Mammon myth along with the other, better than others, monotheistic religion myths need to have their worthwhile sentiments turned into mythology, like the Greek and Roman kind, and let us proceed forward as a merit based homogenous species respective of but not limited by our heritage.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 9 2019 6:06 utc | 76
Supplementary information from RT last June. Neuroscientist from University of Edinburgh Debunks Accusations of Cuban Sonic Attacks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSOj6PWLoMQ
"The Integrity Initiative has mobilized an international disinformation campaign across Europe. Now, with government and right-wing foundation money, this massive 'political smear unit' is infiltrating the US."
Need to add British government's MI6 operation as intro prior to II for readers not knowing that essential fact. Furthermore, Blumenthal and Ames are late--"... is infiltrating..."--is incorrect as it already has infiltrated, in 2016! Clearly Max has yet to cleanse himself of his previous impurities as a writer.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 9 2019 15:57 utc | 78
I wonder if the symptoms the US personnel suffered are not similar to what might be caused by an inferior batch of coke? Perhaps the Canadians also got some of it? Even the US "Diplomats in China? It would also explain why no other embassies or indeed Cuban citizens, seem to have suffered the same symptoms, at the same time.
Posted by: foolisholdman | Jan 14 2019 22:44 utc | 79
This whole charade was a favor to that flunky senator Marco Rubio who was Trump’s vote in the senate investigation committee.
run 3
Posted by: Gene Norris | Jan 24 2019 6:57 utc | 80
The comments to this entry are closed.
DAMN IT...love the site. great story and all. but WHY the giant disgusting picture of a bug? we all know what a cricket is.
Posted by: the pair | Jan 7 2019 18:50 utc | 1