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Hearing Loss of US Diplomats In Cuba Is Blamed On Covert Device (bostonglobe.com)
bsharma shares a report from The Boston Globe: The two-year-old U.S. diplomatic relationship with Cuba was roiled Wednesday by what U.S. officials say was a string of bizarre incidents that left a group of American diplomats in Havana with severe hearing loss attributed to a covert sonic device. In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation into the case. Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of former President Barack Obama's reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Some of the diplomats' symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, officials said. After months of investigation, U.S. officials concluded that the diplomats had been exposed to an advanced device that operated outside the range of audible sound and had been deployed either inside or outside their residences. It was not immediately clear if the device was a weapon used in a deliberate attack, or had some other purpose.
libre
If the commies are harming our diplomats, why did Odumba normalize relations with them? As usual, Odumba had no clue about foreign policy. Castro may be dead, but the antics haven't changed. I expect the Democrats to attack me for asking this, but the question needs an answer.
Another mishipment by the ACME Corporation.
in so far as eradicating the competition these guys make john gotti look reasonable? millions of innocent businesses are perishing? cease fire stand down, there's moms & babys in every town.. that's the spirit....
Fuck em into hell
Immunity and protection are the precepts of diplomatic law. Without them there are no diplomatic relations. Time to take our ball and go home.
Replacement US diplomats in Cuba have been attacked by assailants wielding spring-loaded extend-o hammers
What?
"They sent us some Kanye West cd's, let's pay them back in kind"...?
Way back in 1997 this was called a Pandora's box (text files from BBS's on phone phreaking used to have these...
http://www.textfiles.com/phreak/BOXES/pandora.box
probably they had a bad air conditioner fan
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
Bacardí, is that you?
We need to be hard-assed about this! I think Trump should invade. I hear Bay of Pigs is a great place to land.
Cubans are known for their DIY, improvised repairs that has kept together their infrastructure even during decades of economic hardship and an embargo. Could this just be a poorly done local electronic repair job on a power transformer, for example? The locals may well be suffering from the same issue health issues, but given the communist mindset, no one had the courage to complain. I'd wager more on poorly done electronic repair job than cloak and dagger spy tricks.
What, Cuba may have done something to physically injure US diplomats? Unthinkable! Cuba is a valuable member of the international community, and an important partner of the US. Or at least that's what our last President said.
And friends don't physically assault other friends' diplomats.
I think it is very doubtful it was the Cuban government. They want money from the USA, in the form of tourism, the ability for people in the USA to send money back home to family in Cuba, etc. Obama already set all that in motion and gave it to them for free (IE without any worthwhile conditions or concessions from the Cuban government). The Castros should be tickled pink with the state of things - they still have full control, yet are now getting some respect and official acknowledgement from the superpower next door, and money, goods and services are beginning to flow into their country.
So it makes absolutely no sense for them to do something as petty as this - injuring diplomats from the USA for no good reason whatsoever, with the only possible result being harm to relations between the two countries. If the Cuban government didn't want these diplomats there, they would simply tell them to leave - it is a dictatorship after all.
IMO this is the action of some other government, with sophisticated technology and deep covert capability, doing this because it is in their best interest for Cuba and the USA to not have good relations. I'll leave the exercise of figuring out who those players could be to you.
Better known as 318230.
that the US did not have any audio recording device *ever* being active in the entire embassy for over a year?
Which would be immediately pickup such loud background noise and noticed by anyone analyzing any recordings with any kind of audio tools showing the spectrum.
Would you believe the US embassy did NOT have regular scan on all EM and audio spectrum for any kind of surveillance devices? In a previously hostile country where the embassy was just established? And such scan would NOT detect such high-powered (loud enough to cause hearing loss) noise in the background?
Does it make any sense for anyone in Cuba to mount such an easily detected attack (and yet still went undetected for over a year?!), just to create hearing loss for some US embassy staff? Which basically profits nobody?
If you could believe this story, I guess you would also believe anything.
Great for controlling infestations of cockroaches, mice and American diplomats.
https://www.nachi.org/ultrasonic-pest-repellers.htm
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
I wonder if it had any similarities to The Thing, a Soviet listening device that required no power...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
-=Lothsahn=-
And US diplomats go around the world trying to work issues out to prevent war. Now, I don't agree with invading everyone who doesn't see things our way, but you're complaining that attacks on the people we put out there to help up see eye-to-eye with other nations so we're not inclined to invade them is news?
Huh. What's the point of your comment, again?
Are you implying that, because we're so quick to go to war, we should just start right on with the invasion and bombings and not make any attempt at diplomacy?
Would that be better for you?
Because, when our diplomats start being harmed on foreign soil, that quickly becomes the only option. That's why this is news; and quite important news, at that. My only hope is that we take a moment to step back and figure out who actually did this before we start dropping bombs (again, because I know we will, not because I think we should), because there's no way in hell Cuba has that technology.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
nice
unn.edu.ng
Being nice to d-bags only gives them permission to continue being d-bags. Same applies to Maduro, North Korean, Putin, Iran, ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Boko Haram. That last only always reminds me of "Temple of Doom"
A long time ago...
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-11-01/sports/sp-229_1_ultrasonic-gun
The article mentions that the "officials familiar with the probe said investigators were looking into the possibilities that the incidents were carried out by a third country such as Russia, possibly operating without the knowledge of Cuba’s formal chain of command."
Of course it doesn't mention that the device could have come from the second party. Hint: I'm talking about the USA spy agencies. Because all US embassies have strange spying devices in or (mostly) on top of them, And do those of the other four "Five Eyes" countries - including Canada...
But then again: could a whistle blown into a telephone cause hearing problems for "US diplomats" listening in on Cuban phone calls?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
"Buy our gas or die" is not diplomacy.
For me, it's the inaudible part that doesn't add up.
Regarding the laser microphone :
If this device emits in the inaudible part of the spectrum, how can it jam speech ?
The most obvious counter-counter-measure, would be to clean the sound spectrum from the laser, amplifying the frequencies mostly found in human voice, and masking frequencies out of this frequency-band (thus masking all frequencies beyond hearing range but still somewhat picked up by the mic).
Or is the anti-laser counter-measure banking on output so much noise (out of spectrum sounds), that the signal (speech) is swamped by the jamming, and the laser mic mostly picks up noise.
i.e.: make the signal/noise ratio suck a lot hoping that the mic won't pick up the interesting (voice) frequencies against the ultra loud background.
so after frequency isolation, the resulting voice would be completely distorted due to poor mic response.
(But probably there are no publically available detailed analysis of the response of laser mics)
(Though signal processing science tells us that if the analog stage - the lase part of the mic - is able to pick higher frequencies than the digitizer - which probably could be limited to hearing range - the signalling will be strongly distorted in the hearing range - which also the single reason of existance of 192kHz ADC)
Regarding the hearing loss :
How the hell is hearing loss possible with a out-of-spectrum noise ?
By definition sound outside the audible spectrum is sound outside the frequency response of the human auditory system.
I.e.: frequencies which physically can't interact with the inner ear.
By which mechanism could they still harm the hearing if we can't hear them ? (= if they can't manage to interact with the inner ear)
By damaging the middle ear (the small bones that work as transducers to transmit sound to the inner ear ?)
I can't manage to find a thing about it.
- There's only a 2013 study in Germany on 21 individuals that reported a change in spontaneous otoaccoustic emissions (the noise that the ear it self is making) when people were subject to 90 sec. bursts of infra sounds.
- Wikipedia page on "Ultrasound" mentions a 120dB safety limit, but the cited source is dead.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
A device that generates a sound wave outside of your normal hearing range would only damage your hearing in THAT frequency range.
Ultrasonic sounds are far above the frequency range of human voices.
Same goes with subsonic. And if it were subsonic they would FEEL it.
Story is rubbish. Other causes may be to blame but "sonic devices" no....
Would you please crack a book about the history of Cuba, reading your ignorance is painful to my eyes.
I'm amazed at what kind of technology has existed for so long but has never been made public.I tried searching but was unable to find any resources online about this. Anyone heard of a device that causes deafness? Side note - I agree with previous posts, definitely not the Cuban government. They don't have the motive. CIA does since it would create a distraction from all the chaos and turmoil surrounding president Trump. Russia obviously does not want US and Cuba to be on good terms since Cuba is their foothold to the US.
I mean; it is scary that such a device is capable of existing, and you can be physically attacked/damaged over time without noticing it.
It is a cruel sort of weapon victims have no chance of defending against with high potential of grave accidental collateral damage, so it should clearly be banned; same with any weapon using light outside human visible range with no visible warning.....
Also, is there some kind of monitoring system that can be installed, and portably carried that could detect such kind of devices in operation?
Maybe just exposed to very loud music and disco with local cubans 24/7.
Side effects may include deafness.
Just outside hearing range. Configure it wrong and you get a constant barrage of too much sound energy. Also the kind of thing one would install in an embassy.
Not to worry because of the terms of employment, those federal employees now qualify for 100% disability for the rest of their lives.
"You've suffered extreme hearing loss".
"HUH? What you say"?
"I said, your hearing has been greatly diminished".
"WHAT!? Could you speak up"?
"We're giving you your monthly pay in full for the rest of your life".
"Oh, OK. When does my first check arrive"?
They will have to talk louder to hear themselves which makes it easier to overhear them. Also the hearing loss makes it easier to stalk them.
trouble sleeping? these have been used here for years. Cuba or someone else is just learning to get the settings right. Nothing to see here folks, move along....
https://www.usatoday.com/story...
Of what possible strategic value would be damaging the hearing of diplomats? This quote from a Canadian news organization is telling:
Nauert said the United States expelled two Cuban diplomats in retaliation on May 23, saying while the U.S. didn't have a definitive explanation for the incidents, "the Cuban government has a responsibility and an obligation under the Geneva Convention to protect our diplomats."
A few years back a famous talk radio host lost his hearing due to overuse of a popular prescription opiate painkiller.
To damage hearing, the energy level of the sound must be pretty high. Why can't someone put a microphone out there, hook it to an
oscilloscope and see where the audio energy is and at what frequency/frequencies? A spectrum analyzer (just so it is able to record
signals high enough in frequency) might indicate too. With no technical figures on frequencies being seen and volumes, this all has
a kind of X files flavor. (You need to be sure your mike can pick up very high frequencies too.)
I had noted at one time that there was talk about audio signals being sent to inside of someone's head. A way to do this and
achieve aimability of the signals would be to have two audio signals at high frequencies (so short wavelengths allow you to
limit diffraction spread), differing in frequency by amounts within the audio spectrum...imagine 1MHz and 1MHz+signal frequencies
where signal is maybe in 300-3000Hz range. Any nonlinearity in your ears would let you hear the audio and none of the carriers
(or the sum frequency either) would be audible.
Leave something like that on with no signal being sent, and you wind up with a target area getting bombarded with lots of very high frequency
audio energy.
It is not immediately obvious how such a setup might be used to exfiltrate sound but given the analogy of the eagle in the US embassy
in Russia there could be such schemes.
At any rate, we need to hear frequencies, volumes so as to make it clear this is not just a baseless accusation. Incidentally it would
make it easy to set up warnings for our folks to alert them of such without waiting for their hearing to be damaged.
Ridiculous conspiracy theory, just to cover up these diplomats went deaf from too much masturbation.
(what with all those jineteras...)
Dry ear-drums? Hygiene issues? Someone loses hearing and have to blame it on "secret audio devices" designed to destroy someone's hearing? Is this a joke, or an exercise in weird accusations to whip up hatred for Cuba and Cubans?
Screw star wars, watching US news is way more entertaining.
I was going to try to "moderate" this thread, but I have only five mod points. EVERY comment in this thread deserves to be marked as "TROLL"; probably including this one.
Hearing damage in a particular sound range is consistently found to be from noise in that range. That they'd come up with the idea of "hearing" damage from an ultrasonic weapon is about as plausible as fetuses getting hearing damage from an ultrasound or humans suffering color blindness from being exposed to X-rays.
A more probable cause would be chemically induced hearing loss as some medications are known to cause hearing loss: aspirin and other NSAIDS (like ibuprofen), some antibiotics, some cancer drugs and some high-blood pressure meds -- especially in combination with other potentiators.
Since it is only diplomats being affected, I'd look at possibilities of prescribed drugs for state personnel visiting Cuba or Caribbean countries & interactions.
Apparently they didn't learn from previous experiences with communist countries. SovUnion comes to mind.
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.