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.

Comments

Poorly maintained local electronics?

[wired_parrot]

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.

Re:Poorly maintained local electronics?

[Solandri]

FWIW, in grad school I worked with sonars which emitted in the 12-35 kHz frequency range. I wasn't exposed to them regularly, but I did get blasted a few dozen times (very annoying when it's in the audible range). Because they're designed to operate underwater, the transducers pack a lot more energy than speakers designed for the air (water being 800x denser than air).

By the time I was 35 my hearing above 11 kHz was pretty much gone. On those hearing tests, I rated among 60- and 70-year olds. And no I didn't listen to loud music as a kid. I actually hated rock concerts because of how loud they were, and only went to one in my life (part of a school rally). The loss seems to have stabilized. I'm 48 now and I'm still able to hear 11 kHz, but not above.

I didn't notice it happening, and it happened pretty rapidly (within a few years). Because of the relatively few incidents of exposure and short durations (single pings - this was in the days before CHIRP sonars), I've wondered if the cause wasn't the sonars, but rather some electronic device. Say, a component in a computer I used all the time, constantly exposing me to high frequency noise just outside my hearing range for hours every day. I do suffer tinnitus, though oddly it doesn't bother me as it's in the frequencies I've lost so doesn't interfere with hearing "real" sounds.

Doubtful it was the Cubans

[Dan East]

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.

Re:Remind me...

[The Grim Reefer]

I don't know if you've noticed, but in Cuba they drive cars that are from the 40's and 50's. There is no way they have this advanced tech.

I don't know if you noticed, but most of those cars retain little of what was originally there other than the frame and the original shape of the car. Most have engines that are from more modern (though not the latest tech) Russian, EU and Japanese manufacturers. Besides, the US had such weapons in the 1960's. So it's not like you would need a bleeding edge chip fab in order to do this.

Maybe something like The Thing?

[Lothsahn]

I wonder if it had any similarities to The Thing, a Soviet listening device that required no power...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Same thing happened at the Canadian Embassy.

[Dan East]

In a comment earlier I threw out the idea that the hearing damage was caused by a countersurveillance device (such as one to disrupt laser microphones) that was employed incorrectly (used continuously when only meant for use for a few minutes at a time, wrong settings for the size of the room, etc). The fact that it happened to Canadians too might lend credence to that theory, as it is likely the US and Canada shares some degree of technology or services to protect diplomats in foreign countries. Still, this seems the kind of thing that the CIA would try and sweep under the rug if it was US tech that caused it, instead of playing dumb and letting it become mysterious international news.

There's also the possibility that the Cubans employed such a device to protect the privacy of foreign diplomats, as a nice gesture, and it the technology was misused in some way to cause hearing damage.

Re:Remind me...

[Tuidjy]

The linked story is such crap. It has gotten us talking about sonic weapons, and Cuba's access to them, and on top of that, it suggest, without any sign of evidence that Russia may be the culprit.

Here are a few things that I think are hard to argue against:
1) It only takes some decent knowledge of biology and some 50s tech to create something that deliberately harms a person's hearing.
2) Neither Russia nor Cuba has any interest in harming US or Canadian diplomats
3) There are quite a few parties (Cuban immigrants, unfettered government agents, Cubans hating Americans) who may want to harm US diplomats, whether to destroy Cuban-US relations, or simply to take perceived revenge on Americans.
4) There exist, and have existed for decades, listening devices which are technically passive, but get used through remote application of power. Think a resonating plane or chamber read through lasers, EM radiation, etc. For all I know, some may require inaudible (to humans) sonic waves to operate.

So, as far as I am concerned, the three most likely possibilities are, in no particular order.
0) There's nothing going on, this is all due to a parasite infection, an accident with a misused device belonging to the embassy, etc.
1) Some asshole, working contrary to Cuban interests, deliberately harmed the diplomats, possibly with a low tech, hand made device.
2) The Cubans or Russian fucked up, and harmed the diplomats while trying to spy on them

But nasty Commies deliberately targeting diplomats? I can't see their angle. I'm not saying they would not do it, I am saying I cannot see how they would profit.