“I looked at what’s known about pulsed RF/MW in relation to diplomats’ experiences. Everything fits. The specifics of the varied sounds that the diplomats reported hearing during the apparent inciting episodes, such as chirping, ringing and buzzing, cohere in detail with known properties of so-called ‘microwave hearing,’ also known as the Frey effect. And the symptoms that emerged fit, including the dominance of sleep problems, headaches and cognitive issues, as well as the distinctive prominence of auditory symptoms. Even objective findings reported on brain imaging fit with what has been reported for persons affected by RF/MW radiation.”

Professor Beatrice Golomb UCSD — August 29 2018

August 31 2018 — In October 2017, I suggested than a microwave weapon — and not sonic attacks — may be the cause of the “Havana syndrome”. I am therefore pleased to report that Beatrice Golomb — MD, PhD, professor of medicine at University of California San Diego School of Medicine — has concluded that reported symptoms and experiences of a “mystery illness” afflicting American and Canadian diplomats in Cuba and China strongly match known effects of pulsed microwave electromagnetic radiation. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

RELATED POST: Havana Syndrome & Microwave Weapons: Q&A with Professor James Lin [UPDATE 3]

RELATED POST: US Spies & the Havana Syndrome — [UPDATE : Microwave Weapon?]

RELATED POST: NSA Spy’s Disease Caused by Secret Microwave Weapon?

RELATED POST: The Cuba Syndrome : Sonic Attacks or Microwave Weapons?

RELATED POST: CUBA — Secret Sonic Weapon or Mass Hysteria?

RELATED POST: Microwave Spying — How does it work anyway?

RELATED POST: DARPA to Resurrect Top-Secret “PANDORA Project”

“Whether or not a microwave weapon was the culprit, this stealth technique may be a weapon of the future. I would not be surprised if some military establishment around the world invests or has already been engaged in such a program.”

Professor James Lin — UIC

UPDATE (August 31 2020) — I am delighted to announce that Pr. James Lin has authored a book on the important subject of the Auditory Effects of Microwave Radiation.

This book examines the human auditory effects of exposure to directed beams of high-power microwave pulses, which research results have shown can cause a cascade of health events when aimed at a human subject or the subject’s head.

The book details multidisciplinary investigations using physical theories and models, physiological events and phenomena, and computer analysis and simulation.

Coverage includes brain anatomy and physiology, dosimetry of microwave power deposition, microwave auditory effect, interaction mechanisms, shock/pressure wave induction, Havana syndrome, and application in microwave thermoacoustic tomography (MTT).

The book will be welcomed by scientists, academics, health professionals, government officials, and practicing biomedical engineers as an important contribution to the continuing study of the effects of microwave pulse absorption on humans.

I will read the book as soon as possible and I will of course write a post regarding the “Havana Syndrome” section.

Stay tuned!

END of UPDATE

“We have a very strong team of people — the best across CIA — focused on those questions of ‘What?’ and ‘Who?’, led by a very experienced and accomplished senior officer who, a decade ago, led the successful hunt for bin Laden. So we’re throwing the very best we have at this issue.”

CIA Director William J. Burns (July 2021)

UPDATE (August 31 2020) — As soon as the US media reported the mysterious illness affecting the US diplomats, I suggested than a microwave weapon — and not sonic attacks — may be the cause of the “Havana syndrome”.

To the best of my knowledge, I may have been the first person to suggest that the noise “heard” by the victims could have been in fact an illusion caused by the exposure of the acoustic nerve to microwave — GSM like — radiations.

On October 2 2017, I wrote:

“Quick Analysis — If the facts are confirmed and if the effects are indeed caused by a physical device, I find the microwave explanation far more likely than a sonic attack; for many reasons.

If this is indeed the case, I expect to hear nothing further in the future because the truth would sent a wave of panic in the Telecom sector.”

On August 29 2018, Beatrice Golomb — MD, PhD, professor of medicine at University of California San Diego School of Medicine — concluded that reported symptoms and experiences of a “mystery illness” afflicting American and Canadian diplomats in Cuba and China strongly match known effects of pulsed microwave electromagnetic radiation.

On September 1 2018, the NYT published a long article titled:  “Microwave Weapons Are Prime Suspect in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers.

Obviously, there is a good chance that I was right about the microwave attacks. I am afraid that my second prediction may also be correct. Has the official cover-up begun? I think so.

Since the NYT article publication, nothing has been heard from any of the US agencies investigating the case. Why not?

For the record — The expression “Havana Syndrome” was coined by Dr. Ludwig De Braeckeleer and appeared for the first time in a story published by the Intel Today blog on October 3 2017. [Here is the tweet]

END of UPDATE

“Independent studies over decades have reported biological effects and harms to health from non-ionizing radiation, specifically RF/MW radiation, including via oxidative stress and downstream mechanisms, such as inflammation, autoimmune activation and mitochondrial injury.”

Professor Beatrice Golomb UCSD — August 29 2018

Professor Golomb’s findings will be published in the September 15 issue of Neural Computation .

Her conclusions may aid in the treatment of the diplomats (and affected family members) and assist U.S. government agencies seeking to determine the precise cause.

More broadly, Professor Golomb believes that her research will draw attention to a larger population of people who are affected by similar health problems.

UCSD media contact person Scott Lafee wrote the following press release ahead of the forthcoming publication.

Beginning in 2016, personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba (as well as Canadian diplomats and family members) described hearing strange sounds, followed by development of an array of symptoms. The source of the health problems has not been determined.

Though some officials and media have described the events as “sonic attacks,” some experts on sound have rejected this explanation. In May of this year, the State Department reported that U.S. government employees in Guangzhou, China had also experienced similar sounds and health problems.

Affected diplomats and family members from both locations were medically evacuated to the U.S. for treatment, but despite multiple government investigations, an official explanation of events and subsequent illnesses has not been announced. At least two early published studies examining available data were inconclusive.

In her paper, scheduled to be published September 15 in Neural Computation, Golomb compared rates of described symptoms among diplomats with a published 2012 study of symptoms reported by people affected by electromagnetic radiation in Japan. By and large, she said the cited symptoms — headache, cognitive problems, sleep issues, irritability, nervousness or anxiety, dizziness and tinnitus (ringing in the ears) — occurred at strikingly similar rates.

Some diplomats reported hearing loss. That symptom was not assessed in both studies so rates could not be compared, but Golomb said it is widely reported in both conditions. She also noted that previous brain imaging research in persons affected by RF/ EMR “showed evidence of traumatic brain injury, paralleling reports in diplomats.”

David O. Carpenter, MD, is director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University of Albany, part of the State University of New York. He was not involved in Golomb’s study. He said evidence cited by Golomb illustrates “microwave hearing,” which results “from heating induced in tissue, which causes ‘waves’ in the ear and results in clicks and other sounds.” Reported symptoms, he said, characterize the syndrome of electro-hypersensitivity (EHS), in which unusual exposure to radio-frequency radiation can trigger symptoms in vulnerable persons that may be permanent and disabling.

“We have seen this before when the Soviets irradiated the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in the days of the Cold War,” he said.

Golomb, whose undergraduate degree was in physics, conducts research investigating the relationship of oxidative stress and mitochondrial function — mechanisms shown to be involved with RF/EMR injury — to health, aging, behavior and illness. Her work is wide-ranging, with published studies on Gulf War illness, statins, antibiotic toxicity, ALS, autism and the health effects of chocolate and trans fats, with a secondary interest in research methods, including placebos.

Golomb said an analysis of 100 studies examining whether low-level RF produced oxidative injury found that 93 studies concluded that it did. Oxidative injury or stress arises when there is an imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species (free radicals) and the body’s detoxifying antioxidant defenses. Oxidative stress has been linked to a range of diseases and conditions, from Alzheimer’s disease, autism and depression to cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as toxic effects linked to certain drugs and chemicals. More to the point, Golomb said, oxidative injury has been linked to the symptoms and conditions reported in diplomats.

The health consequences of RF/MW exposure is a matter of on-going debate. Some government agencies, such as the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute, publicly assert that low- to mid-frequency, non-ionizing radiation like those from microwaves and RF is generally harmless. They cite studies that have found no conclusive link between exposure and harm.

But others, including researchers like Golomb, dispute that conclusion, noting that many of the no-harm studies were funded by vested industries or had other conflicts of interest. She said independent studies over decades have reported biological effects and harms to health from non-ionizing radiation, specifically RF/MW radiation, including via oxidative stress and downstream mechanisms, such as inflammation, autoimmune activation and mitochondrial injury.

Golomb compared the situation to persons with peanut allergies: Most people do not experience any adverse effect from peanut exposure, but for a vulnerable subgroup, exposure produces negative, even life-threatening, consequences.

In her analysis, Golomb concludes that “of hypotheses tendered to date, (RF/MW exposure) alone fits the facts, including the peculiar ones” regarding events in Cuba and China. She said her findings advocate for more robust attention to pulsed RF/MW and associated adverse health effects.

“The focus must be on research by parties free from ties to vested interests. Such research is needed not only to explain and address the symptoms in diplomats, but also for the benefit of the small fraction – but large number — of persons outside the diplomatic corps, who are beset by similar problems.”

When the US National Toxicology Program announced in 2016 that cell phone radiation increased the incidence of tumors in the brain and heart of male rats,  Maria Feychting — a professor at the Karolinska Institute and the vice chair of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) — immediately began a Fake News campaign  casting doubt on the landmark $25 million NTP RF animal study.

Specifically, she alleged that the pathology analyses were not properly blinded.

Fortunately, the editor of “Microwave News” decided to check out her allegations and convincingly demonstrated that she was simply lying.

RELATED POST: Fake News in Academia — How to Discredit a Major Discovery

Documentary

The following video includes shots taken from Professor James Lin’s lab some years ago.

Professor Lin told me that this video was originally produced by a TV program entitled:  Ultra-Science III – Spies Like Us.

UPDATE (September 1 2018) — The NYT has just posted a long article titled:  “Microwave Weapons Are Prime Suspect in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers“.

During the Cold War, Washington feared that Moscow was seeking to turn microwave radiation into covert weapons of mind control.

More recently, the American military itself sought to develop microwave arms that could invisibly beam painfully loud booms and even spoken words into people’s heads. The aims were to disable attackers and wage psychological warfare.

Now, doctors and scientists say such unconventional weapons may have caused the baffling symptoms and ailments that, starting in late 2016, hit more than three dozen American diplomats and family members in Cuba and China. The Cuban incidents resulted in a diplomatic rupture between Havana and Washington. (…)

In particular, a growing number of analysts cite an eerie phenomenon known as the Frey effect, named after Allan H. Frey, an American scientist. Long ago, he found that microwaves can trick the brain into perceiving what seem to be ordinary sounds. (…)

The Soviets took notice. Not long after his initial discoveries, Mr. Frey said, he was invited by the Soviet Academy of Sciences to visit and lecture. Toward the end, in a surprise, he was taken outside Moscow to a military base surrounded by armed guards and barbed-wire fences.

“They had me visiting the various labs and discussing the problems,” including the neural impacts of microwaves, Mr. Frey recalled. “I got an inside look at their classified program.”

Moscow was so intrigued by the prospect of mind control that it adopted a special terminology for the overall class of envisioned arms, calling them psychophysical and psychotronic.

Soviet research on microwaves for “internal sound perception,” the Defense Intelligence Agency warned in 1976, showed great promise for “disrupting the behavior patterns of military or diplomatic personnel.” (…)

Washington, too, foresaw new kinds of arms.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Air Force scientists sought to beam comprehensible speech into the heads of adversaries. Their novel approach won a patent in 2002, and an update in 2003. Both were assigned to the Air Force secretary, helping limit the idea’s dissemination.

The lead inventor said the research team had “experimentally demonstrated” that the “signal is intelligible.” As for the invention’s uses, an Air Force disclosure form listed the first application as “Psychological Warfare.” (…)

Francisco Palmieri, a State Department official, was asked during the open Senate hearing if “attacks against U.S. personnel in Cuba” had been raised with Moscow.

“That is a very good question,” Mr. Palmieri replied. But addressing it, he added, would require “a classified setting.”

REFERENCES

Mass Hysteria or Microwave Weapons—What’s Behind the ‘Sonic Attacks’ On U.S. Diplomats — Newsweek

What Harmed U.S. Diplomats In Cuba? The Mystery Continues— NPR

These Americans suffered severe neurological disorders in Cuba. Now they have a lawyer — Miami Herald

Researcher Links Diplomats’ Mystery Illness to Radiofrequency/Microwave Radiation — UC San Diego Health

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Havana Syndrome — UCSD Researcher Links Diplomats’ Mystery Illness to Microwave Radiation

Havana Syndrome — UCSD Researcher Links Diplomats’ Mystery Illness to Microwave Radiation — UPDATE — NYT : “Microwave Weapons Are Prime Suspect in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers” (Sept 1 2018)

One Year Ago — Havana Syndrome : UCSD Researcher Links Diplomats’ Mystery Illness to Microwave Radiation

Two Years Ago — Havana Syndrome : UCSD Researcher Links Diplomats’ Mystery Illness to Microwave Radiation

Three Years Ago — Havana Syndrome : UCSD Researcher Links Diplomats’ Mystery Illness to Microwave Radiation [New Book : Auditory Effects of Microwave Radiation by Pr. James Lin]