Microwave weapons cause of sonic attack brain injuries in Cuba, China

Chip
Somodevilla/Getty Images

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It’s a mysterious story about secret weapon technology that keeps
getting stranger and stranger.

This
story began with a group of US diplomats and their families
that had been stationed in Cuba. The diplomatic personnel began
reporting headaches, ear-ringing, nerve damage, and other
mysterious symptoms that doctors diagnosed as caused by mild
traumatic brain injuries.

At first, there was speculation that these injuries may have been
caused by
some sort of sonic weapon, but experts
said such devices couldn’t exist. Alternative explanations
like viruses or mass hysteria were considered. Meanwhile, new
cases of
similar injuries showed up in China.

Now, as the
New York Times revealed with a story that could be ripped
from a sci-fi plot, some of the doctors who analyzed the brains
of affected patients
believe the injuries could have been caused by “microwave
weapons.”

The strange but consistent symptoms seemed so unlikely that some
of the first researchers to analyze patients’ brains referred to
their experiences as “the immaculate concussion,” Dr. Douglas
Smith, the lead author of a
study of the victims, told the Times.

That
study concluded the trauma the victims suffered “raised
concern for a novel mechanism of a possible acquired brain injury
from a directional exposure of undetermined etiology.” In other
words, an unknown force projected in the direction of the
patients could have somehow injured their brains, but no one
could identify what that force  was.

According to Smith, there’s now a growing consensus that
microwave radiation could have been the culprit.

Reuters/Jason Lee

Strange grinding noises as a tipoff

Most of the people affected reported hearing strange noises
before their symptoms appeared.

Some heard grinding noises, others heard blaring audio they could
only sense in one part of a room. 

People who heard noises did
report one sound in common, however: an intense,
high-pitched, pulsing, ringing noise. The AP
described it as “like a mass of crickets” or a whine
that “seems to undulate, even writhe” and reminds you of nails on
a chalkboard.

For those who heard this, and some others who didn’t, a
strange constellation of health problems followed. Some
could no longer remember words, while others had hearing loss,
speech problems, balance issues, nervous-system damage,
headaches, ringing in the ears, and nausea. Plus, there were
signs of brain swelling or concussions. Many of these problems
persisted for at least a few months.

Because more than 80% of the affected said they sensed audio
coming from somewhere, initial speculation focused on sonic
weapons. Devices that use sound to cause harm or injury do exist,
but acoustics experts say no known sonic device could have
produced these sorts of effects while remaining undetectable and
in some cases inaudible.

“There isn’t an acoustic phenomenon in the world that would cause
those type of symptoms,” Seth Horowitz, a neuroscientist who
wrote the book “The
Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind,”
previously told
Business Insider.

Parts of the human brain can act as receivers for
microwave radiation.
AP/Alastair
Grant

Microwaving the brain

As biologist Allan Frey discovered in the early 1960s, microwaves
can also make people hear things.

He found tht a focused beam of microwave radiation could make
even deaf listeners sense pulsing sounds, the Times explains.
Intelligence agencies,
especially in the Soviet Union, took note — though the US
conducted
significant research in the area as well. Using beams of
microwave radiation, researchers tried to figure out how to cause
pain, paralysis, and to send words into people’s heads.

One company created a microwave energy crowd control device while
working in partnership with the US Navy,
New Scientist reported in 2008. But outside experts were
worried its use could cause nerve or brain damage.

The injuries suffered by diplomats in Cuba and China have
symptoms consistent with the sort of brain injury or nerve damage
that targeted microwave radiation could cause, according to
experts.

The idea that microwaves may have been involved in these
incidents has been
under discussion for some time. And several research
papers have explored the theory. The symptoms that victims
experienced are consistent with pulses of radiofrequency or
microwave radiation, Dr. Beatrice Golomb
reports in an upcoming paper, cited by the Times.

Since these devices could be fired from far away and wouldn’t
necessarily be audible to others in the area, this explanation
may be more plausible than the sonic weapon theory.

But there are still major questions. If a microwave weapon was
the cause of these injuries, what was captured by a
recording that several of the affected individuals said is what
they heard?

As for who is behind the attacks, speculation has largely focused
on Russia, though it’s possible that many states would be able to
design a device capable of doing something like this.

For now, the investigation remains open. Without more evidence,
it’ll be difficult to know what truly happened.