Posted on 04/05/2024 10:54:02 AM PDT by Twotone
Havana syndrome, an alleged malady that purportedly affects U.S. intelligence and military officials, is back in the news thanks to an investigative report by 60 Minutes. The report was accompanied by a big, splashy headline: "Russian nexus revealed during 60 Minutes Havana Syndrome investigation into potential attacks on U.S. officials." That's right: CBS has decided that the mysterious ailments—headaches, earaches, etc.—afflicting some American service personnel are perhaps explained by a secretive Russian program to create energy weapons.
The 60 Minutes report begins by interviewing "Carrie," an FBI agent who claims that she was struck by just such an energy weapon while at home in Florida. Host Scott Pelley, providing narrative voiceover, explains that in order to protect her identity, CBS is redacting her full name and disguising her appearance.
As pointed out by numerous commentators (as well as BuzzFeed), Carrie's "disguise" is hilariously inadequate and will not protect her identity in any meaningful way. What was 60 Minutes thinking?
But this is hardly the only thing wrong with the report, which combines breathless alarmism about foreign malfeasance with a healthy dose of outright science fiction—energy beams!—in order to advance the mainstream media's favorite James Bond–esque narrative: Everything is Russia's fault.
"The one thread common among most if not all of my clients," Mark Zaid, an attorney who represents alleged Havana syndrome victims, told 60 Minutes, "is that they were all doing something relating to Russia."
What Happens in Havana
Let's back up. Havana syndrome was first reported by a CIA officer stationed in Havana, Cuba, who went to the U.S. embassy there to complain about headaches and hearing loss. Dozens more people reported similar symptoms, tied to a mysterious noise.
This noise was not produced by some kind of sonic weapon, however. It turned out to be crickets. Literal crickets.
And yet, this did not put Havana syndrome panic to rest, even though subsequent analysis by medical experts and U.S. intelligence suggests that the condition is not real. In 2022, the CIA concluded that the symptoms described by various officials were not caused by "a sustained global campaign by a hostile power." The FBI's analysis was that Havana syndrome is a "mass sociogenic illness," which sounds pretty scary, but actually means that the symptoms are essentially caused by social contagion, under conditions of extreme stress, paranoia, and among members of an insular community. Writer Natalie Shure likened it to the "demonic fits" experienced by girls during the Salem witch trials.
"It means that the perceived diagnosis spreads socially, almost like an infectious pathogen would, with symptoms either triggered, exacerbated or wrongly ascribed to a phony cause," she wrote in a November 2021 piece for Slow Boring. "People experience various maladies all the time and the cause is not always clear."
According to Shure, the idea that a directed energy ray could produce the described symptoms without burning the victim's skin or frying their internal organs should be met with intense skepticism.
"There's no reason to believe the Russian government is responsible for 'Havana Syndrome' because there is absolutely no reason to believe that it's a distinct, novel disease inflicted by an outside force of any kind," she wrote.
Aches and Pains
Intelligence officials are capable of making mistakes, of course. (See: the Iraq War.) The scientific consensus often misses important facts. (See: COVID-19.) But the vast majority of experts who have looked into Havana syndrome concluded, fairly uniformly, that a hostile foreign power is not afflicting people with these symptoms—and we ought to treat this as a fairly robust baseline assumption. That does not mean the alleged victims are faking their symptoms, but just that the symptoms are incredibly common, and can be explained by any number of other things.
Given all this, I was surprised that the 60 Minutes report did not generate more immediate skepticism. National Review penned an editorial in response to the findings that chided President Joe Biden for not responding to this new, sinister Russian threat with enough force. The Wall Street Journal called the report "impressive." USA Today speculated that perhaps the mystery of Havana syndrome's origins had been effectively "solved." (On the other hand, some voices on both the right and left were less impressed, including Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance and progressive writer Jeet Heer.)
One might have hoped that other media outlets—if not CBS News itself—would have probed the potential motivations of the people coming forward now. One of the key witnesses in the 60 Minutes report, former Pentagon investigator Greg Edgreen, has now started up a company that is seeking federal grant money to fund treatment programs for Havana syndrome (a fact the report concedes at the very end of the segment).
Then there's the Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks Act of 2021. (HAVANA ACT, get it?) This law instructs the federal government to compensate victims of Havana syndrome. As economists always point out, if you want more of something, subsidize it.
“According to Shure, the idea that a directed energy ray could produce the described symptoms without burning the victim’s skin or frying their internal organs should be met with intense skepticism.”
I think a high-energy, focused, mostly inaudible sonic beam possibly could.
I did get the feeling it was junk science.
The one woman claimed they were getting her inside her house and causing her phone battery to swell. Seemed unlikely but who knows.
Where was the person directing this into her window?
Typical insult from an obsessed person.
Anyone with half a brain can figure out the claim was more propaganda to cover Mike Johnson’s push for $61 billion more to the failed proxy war in Ukraine.
Be skeptical of everything that comes from corporate media.
Have they hypothesized infrasound having something to do with it? I seem to remember something about that.
This report will be found to have absolutely no merit, however, it will take so long to do so that most all of those associated with CBS 60 Minutes will be totally Disabled or Dead, so there is a Silver lining.
Yeah, I am skeptical. Typical See BS fake news crap jumping on the Demon Rat bandwagon “Russia Russia Russia” idiocy.
Another red flag: local Miami media (not just local See BS news either!) was VERY VERY happy to regurgitate these Democrat party talking points.
If the Dems are saying it is true, it is probably a lie. And the media are 99% Dems. Hence, 99% a lie.
Canuck Conservative believed the report and encourage other to believe it too.
But this is hardly the only thing wrong with the report, which combines breathless alarmism about foreign malfeasance with a healthy dose of outright science fiction—energy beams!—in order to advance the mainstream media's favorite James Bond–esque narrative: Everything is Russia's fault.
It’s hard to tell if he’s saying that ‘energy beams’ are science fiction…or the idea of directing them at people is science fiction. Either way it’s a poor argument.
We know of course that energy beams! - are not science fiction. Lasers are energy beams and are used in various ways in science, technology and medicine. HAARP uses beams of energy to move the ionosphere. A variation on the concept of beams is energy waves, like sonic, ultrasonic and microwave.
There are numerous patents for directed energy weapons (beams!) - created to be used on people, from 1962 to 2014. After 2014 - no patent info. TEN YEARS is a huge amount of time in the scientific and technical world, so whatever substantial gains were made in this research has not been made public.
It is admitted and provable that sonic and ultrasonic weapons are used for crowd control and crime deterrence (waves! used on people).
The prevalence of articles wanting to sidetrack these claims by completely ignoring history as well as current capabilities and uses of this technology, are saying in essence, “there’s nothing there, it’s all in your mind.” This can be interpreted as proof that there is indeed something there.
People wouldn’t be paranoid if there weren’t many documented cases of government malfeasance and treachery via secretive programs, designed to use humans as test subjects for nefarious and harmful experimentation. Horrible things have been done to people without their consent, and many were ignored, marginalized, and accused of being mentally ill. This sounds a lot like that.
That show is still on?
I’d guess it’s a frequency weapon. Tune it to the organ’s vibration, turn up the amplitude to create resonance and boom - you’re fried or incapacitated.
Neither CIA nor Russia have that capability.
A new player has entered the game is my guess.
Years and years ago, ‘60 Minutes’ was often good.
This recent one on ‘Havana Syndrome’ was sloppy and unbelievable. People don’t even know how to do smart propaganda anymore.
Havana is real. Many of us who are in politics in the US are getting it from the intel operation which runs domestic surveillance. If you want to see a thermal video I shot of me being beamed, you can go here:
https://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog/gently-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/
I put a sheet of aluminum foil over me to catch the beam and turn it into heat so it would show in the thermal. I get up at the end because I can hear what sounds like a spattering of particles on the led dental blanket under the foil.
You see the support for migrants, and crime, and politicians doing the opposite of what they should be doing if they want votes.
But none of you understand, a foreign intel op has launched a takeover of the US government, and has penetrated everything from the intel community to politics, to domestic surveillance, and it is destroying this nation in a way far smarter than any war could.
Those of us who have seen it know, but all of you would blow us off as kooks, as you sit back and watch the greatest country in the world burn, for reasons you would admit you do not understand.
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