August 9, 2021

"President Biden’s top aides were told on Friday that experts studying the mysterious illnesses affecting scores of diplomats, spies and their family members were still struggling to find evidence..."

"... to back up the leading theory, that microwave attacks are being launched by Russian agents. The report came in an unusual, classified meeting called by the director of national intelligence, Avril D. Haines, according to several senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The purpose of the meeting was to assess the investigations and efforts to treat victims of the so-called Havana syndrome — the unexplained headaches, dizziness and memory loss reported by scores of State Department officials, C.I.A. officers and their families. While Mr. Biden has said almost nothing publicly about the episodes, the National Security Council has begun an urgent effort to address the issue, and two separate task forces are now in operation...."

From "Mystery Attacks on Diplomats Leave Scores of Victims but Still Little Evidence/While the leading theory in the 'Havana syndrome' cases is directed microwave attacks, a classified session for senior government officials said months of investigation were inconclusive" (NYT).

10 comments:

tds said...

possibilities:

a. strange medical condition
b. mass hysteria
c. gov employees found a way to retire early on full benefits

wendybar said...

That makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Maybe instead of searching all over America for people who "trespassed" at the Capitol, they could actually do something about China and Russia attacking us.

Danno said...

As the wikipedia summary for Havana Syndrome says, "Havana syndrome is a set of medical signs and symptoms reported by United States and Canadian embassy staff in Cuba dating back to late 2016 as well as subsequently in some other countries, including the United States and Austria. In 2017, Donald Trump accused Cuba of perpetrating unspecified attacks causing these symptoms. "

This is nothing new but the press minimized it in 2016 since the Communists in Cuba under the Castro brothers were good communists. And Trump had to be wrong in all things.

Temujin said...

It's like a Woody Allen farce, having a team studying known serious attacks on US State personnel (and others) by microwave, or other frequency waves, or laser- that affect the brain of the victim, and having that team report it's findings to a man who cannot finish a sentence without losing his thought, who is not sure what year he is living in, or if he's wearing underwear today or not.

This is not even Chauncey Gardiner level. This is worse.

Big Mike said...

Point of information: it’s thought to be infrasound, extremely low frequency sound waves, and not high frequency microwaves, causing the phenomena.

pious agnostic said...

At least, from that list of symptoms, we can rule out the Brown Note

Skeptical Voter said...

If it's extremely low frequency sound waves, you can get your Havana Syndrome right here on the streets of Southern California (or any big city in the USA). Just get in your car and go for a drive--and at a stoplight your ears will be assaulted by the heavy bass vibrations emanating from the rolling "boom box" stopped next to you at the light.

But I had to smile at Temujin's noting that the "report" will go to a man who cannot finish a sentence without losing his thought. Which of course assumes that there was a thought in the sentence to begin with.

StephenFearby said...

Wikipedia (Havana Syndrome

Studies regarding injury

'...Subsequent study findings by the University of Pennsylvania team, published in July 2019, found that compared to a healthy control group, the diplomats who had reported injury had experienced brain trauma; advanced MRI scans (specifically res-fMRI, multimodal MRI, and diffusion MRI) revealed "differences in whole brain white matter volume, regional gray and white matter volume, cerebellar microstructural integrity, and functional connectivity in the auditory and visuospatial subnetworks"...The study concluded that the U.S. government personnel had been physically injured in a way consistent with the symptoms that they described, but expressed no conclusion on the cause or source of the injury.'

I've read elsewhere that the reactions from targeted individuals varied from mild (who eventually got better) to those who continue to have severe problems.

This is consistent with reactions from individuals with well-modulated versus poorly-modulated immune systems.

For the latter, sort of like long COVID-19. Or, football players who sustain multiple TBI's, recover and continue to play compared to those who never completely recover and may commit suicide.

A two-part intervention.

#1 is to neuroimage the brain and identify the damaged areas, which usually reflect inflammation and/or diminished circulation. Then use various stimulus techniques (described, for example, in the Elsevier journal Brain Stimulation) to address the problems. Of particular note is anti-inflammatory 810 nanometer near-infrared light from LEDs or cool lasers.

#2 is to address a poorly modulated immune system (also called immunosenescence) with a range of supplements that have been reported as effective in the scientific literature. One of many examples, flavenoids:

Front Immunol. (2018)
Inflammation, a Double-Edge Sword for Cancer and Other Age-Related Diseases

'...The currently available drugs against chronic diseases are highly expensive, minimally effective and produce several side effects when taken for long period of time. The focus of this review is to discuss the potential of nutraceuticals derived from “Mother Nature” such as apigenin, catechins, curcumin, ellagic acid, emodin, epigallocatechin gallate, fisetin...in suppression of these inflammatory pathways.'

tinyurl.com/7c3v5ewp

hombre said...

The Biden Administration can’t take time away from subjugating non-compliant Americans to counter Russian and Red Chinese shenanigans here or abroad. Motivation may also be lacking.

madAsHell said...

President Biden’s top aides were told on Friday that experts studying the mysterious illnesses affecting scores of diplomats, spies and their family members were still struggling to find evidence...

Battle prep in the 25th amendment space??........or are they just trying to find a cure for Hunter?