Victims of Mystery Attacks In Cuba Left With Anomalies In Brain Tissue (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: American victims of mysterious attacks in Cuba have abnormalities in their brains' white matter, according to new medical testing reported by the Associated Press. But, so far, it's unclear how or if the white-matter anomalies seen in the victims relate to their symptoms. White matter is made up of dense nerve fibers that connect neurons in different areas of the brain, forming networks. It gets its name from the light-colored electrical insulation, myelin, that coats the fibers. Overall, the tissue is essential for rapidly transmitting brain signals critical for learning and cognitive function.

In August, U.S. authorities first acknowledged that American diplomats and their spouses stationed in Havana, Cuba, had been the targets of puzzling attacks for months. The attacks were carried out by unknown agents and for unknown reasons, using a completely baffling weaponry. The attacks were sometimes marked by bizarrely targeted and piercing noises or vibrations, but other times they were completely imperceptible. Victims complained of a range of symptoms, including dizziness, nausea, headaches, balance problems, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), nosebleeds, difficulty concentrating and recalling words, permanent hearing loss, and speech and vision problems. Doctors have also identified mild brain injuries, including swelling and concussion. U.S. officials now report that 24 Americans were injured in the attacks but wouldn't comment on how many showed abnormalities in their white matter.

Comments

Re:Fraud

[SuperKendall]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. There isn't any.

Doesn't a fair number of people with similar and rare brain abnormalities constitute exactly that? I wasn't sure myself if anything was really going on, but this fact makes it seem much more compelling that something real was going on.

Put it the way - why do you have reason to doubt what they are all saying?

Re:Fraud

[mlyle]

A specific claim like "it was a sonic weapon used by the Russians" might require extraordinary evidence.

But if there's a bunch of people in one place, and then there is credible evidence that they've all got an unusual injury-- isn't it a bit natural to draw the inference that the unusual injury may have been caused by a factor related to that place-- whether deliberate harm, accidental consequences of espionage, or some unknown pathogen, etc.

Microwave auditory effect device?

[RhettLivingston]

I have wondered from the first time I read about these embassy attacks if someone was playing with a device that utilizes the "microwave auditory effect" that this wired article was discussing in 2008.

Perhaps they were attempting to project voices into their heads and had some sort of tuning issue that caused it to have a range of other effects.

Re:Microwave auditory effect device?

[Rei]

Wow, that article is eerily similar to what's been described.

This one uses the so-called "microwave auditory effect": a beam of microwaves is turned into sound by the interaction with your head. Nobody else can hear it unless they are in the beam as well.

There are health risks, he notes. But the biggest issue from the microwave weapon is not the radiation. It's the risk of brain damage from the high-intensity shockwave created by the microwave pulse.

But if it does prove hazardous, that does not mean an end to weapons research in this area: a device that delivered a lethal shockwave inside the target's skull might make an effective death ray.

Such a device had apparently already been built and tested by the US. The interesting thing to me is that the sound comes from a shockwave of the beam interacting with the body of whoever is in the beam; it's not a hallucinatory effect of the brain damage. That would mean that interactions with other objects (including microphones) in the path of the beam could also result in recordable sound, which would explain the recordings that are being analyzed.

Plausible explanation: microwave guns

[pikine]

There is a plausible explanation for this mysterious attack. Currently, Microwave guns that are being used for riot-control have their frequencies tuned to be absorbed by the skin, but you can lower the frequency (longer wavelength) to make the microwave penetrate deeper, literally frying the victim's brain. When the microwave cooks the auditory region, the victim hears a phantom sound.

There is no actual recording of the sound. What the AP released is just a synthesized simulation of what it might sound like to a victim under attack.

Re:Or Maybe Just Bad Pork

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't understand why, when Guillain Barre syndrome was discovered, they didn't just kill Guillain Barre

Yeah! And Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig's disease. You'd think he would have seen that coming.