Maybe Donald should spend some time down there.
“some officials see the Cuba problem as yet another lesson in the dangers of using intelligence selectively to advance policy goals.”
Before you can use intelligence, you need to possess some. Not in this White House.
Great stuff. It does not rule out the possibility of coordination between Russians and a rogue G2 faction, the former with the weapon and the latter with the local knowledge. And plenty of Cuban officials do not like the rapprochement with the US, have never liked it. So there’s a motive.
Trump’s reaction just pushes Raul toward that faction. Back to the comfortable old ways of mutual hostility.
Yes, very good (and long) article. Very informative about most of everything that is known at this point. While it does leave open the possibility that Russians are in cahoots with rogue elements within the Cuban regime and are ultimately responsible for everything that’s going on, the article also points out that based on available intelligence information about both the Russians and the Cubans, this isn’t very likely. I’m much more interested in this story (for my own reasons) from the medical perspective than the diplomatic perspective. Any type of weapon that can cause vestibular and otoralyngolical damage without blunt force is a very deep mystery. Sound BTW, is a physical force, and it is only known to cause these types of symptoms through the pressure waves of blunt force trauma. Sonic sound is used as a tool in rehabilitation therapy, not as a weapon. This article also points out that whatever this weapon is (if it is a weapon at all) has the ability to penetrate other physical barriers like walls, and still hit a designated target. No one has seen any weapon that has ever demonstrated those abilities. Absent help from the Russians, forget about the Cubans being able to develop a weapon like this. Still, only Americans and Canadians have been reportedly affected, suggesting that the causes of their injuries was targeted. And isolated.
I also noted that the article makes it pretty clear that the American’s response to this problem has been very distinct between the career law-enforcement officials at the FBI, and the T rump-appointed lakeys at the CIA. T rump and Tillerson are determined to make this a bigger problem than it needs to be in their efforts to undermine any improvement in US/Cuba relations. Although, having said that, i also find it very curious how no other countries besides the US and Canada have experienced this problem. Why? The answer might depend on how every other nation with an embassy in Havana treats Cuba. Just speculation, but still…
More broadly, the Cuba problem has raised questions within the national security community about how the Trump administration is using intelligence information,to guide its foreign policy. At a time when the White House has vowed to act more forcefully against North Korea, Iran and other threats, some officials see the Cuba problem as yet another lesson in the dangers of using intelligence selectively to advance policy goals.
Or completely disregarding it. With the White House openly attacking the FBI, I can’t see how national security threats could be taken care of properly.
Are we still expecting Cuba to pay back companies they seized in the 1950’s and nationalized?
“We,” as in the US? Not likely. At least, i’ve never heard about that being any condition to a normalization of relations. I can’t speak for Nambia, though.
Knowing something about harmonics, standing waves, stereo acoustics and speaker cabinet design…why shouldn’t there be low frequencies, tuned to resonate within the cavity of the average inner ear, that can create momentary destructive harmonics? Over regular exposure, damaged hearing results.
Suspicion and fear take over to wreck diplomacy.
This has been such a strange story. No one has been able to even describe a specific technology that could cause these effects, let alone how it could be directed with accuracy through walls and glass at specific individuals. Next, not every individual in the vicinity of the attacks has been affected. Added to that, the Cuban government offered full cooperation with the FBI investigation, and that has turned up nothing.
So, WTF? Who benefits by a reduced diplomatic and trade connection between the US and Cuba? Only guessing, but my money would be on an unidentified group within Cuba composed of non-state sanctioned participants (possibly with outside help) who see a weakened Cuba as an opportunity. That explains a motive, but still does not explain a method.
Russia is eating our lunch all over the world, and our president is the one with the ladle.
It’s an inside job, right wing deep state factions in alliance with ultra right Cuban-American Cold War refugees, who are against rapprochement without getting reparations for their losses after Fidel. Add Trump kowtowing to aforesaid Cuban-Americans and his traitorous alliance with Russia … it’s an inside job, I say, an inside job by God! … not needing to mention the all consuming current Unabashed Right Wing Evil that will do anything to further their ends.
I just recall stories like this coming out when Obama announced the change in policy. But I don’t know the details.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/04/18/cuba-you-owe-billion/jHAufRfQJ9Bx24TuzQyBNO/story.html
I think the problem with that is the selective targeting of those waves. Sound waves can bounce, but the experiences of those affected in Cuba seem to reflect an isolated and restricted path for those sound waves. The article did note, though, that the sounds that each person heard might only be cover for some other form of energy. At this point, no one in the US has any clue, and if anyone does, they’re in on the whole deal.
That’s kinda what I’m betting on. Also, although it would be a pretty scifi kind of thing, for about the past 10-15 years researchers have had the tools to say "This is the acoustic waveform I want there, these are the paths between there and my array of emitters, so what kind if waveform do I have to produce here the get the result I want here.
Wow. Good long articles like this used to be more common in the 60s and 70s.
But I cringe to lay out some possibilities. First and foremost, if someone is behind this stuff, it feels like something being tested and if it produces “positive” results, it could be developed further and used elsewhere. Cicadas, of course, are not likely behind the ear damage. And yet cicadas seem to be around.
If this involves new technology and some country behind it, my suspicion is that the Cubans know about it but feel too intimidated to get in the way.
Who could pull off such a project if indeed ears are being damaged as described? You need the technology, the smarts, probably computer expertise, and probably a culture that finds these things cute. The capability can be found in Europe, Canada, China, the more prosperous Asian countries and, of course, Russia. (Russian mathematicians and computer experts are world class.) I don’t know enough about the technology of North Korea or Pakistan to include them.
Russia, in the past, has sort of done more primitive versions of this kind of game playing. But that was back during the Cold War. With Brezhnev and Gorbachev, this kind of stuff mostly stopped, at least the more aggressive stuff.
Assuming this is not psychosomatic, it’s sophisticated. First, there seems to be misdirection. That’s the cicada sound. Second, something is probably getting inside living quarters, maybe through the cooling system and is the object that damages ears, possibly with sound that is out of hearing range. Third, it’s possible a small drone is transporting these devices. Sound preposterous? Well, I agree. But the world is changing. And maybe something more clever than I can think of is being used (beyond the use of missiles and surveillance, small drones with very focused capability have been discussed for years as military hardware.) There would be a lot to figure out. A team of programmers are needed. Probably some mathematicians to work out a high probability method to damage people, and how to handle logistics. And some computer hardware experts. There are other countries who could do this but this feels like something the Russians and Putin would love to pull off. Assuming any of this is real.
One last point. Maybe an early version of these “devices” were tested earlier to test if anyone would even notice them.
Anyway, terrific reporting.
It seems to me that artificial cicada noise was broadcast loudly to hide something.
Maybe it’s an inaudible sound weapon but striking the building or windows creates clearly artificial noise that needs to be masked. In some locations with different building materials or more or less windows present the masking noise was not needed or was at a lower volume that people didn’t notice it.