Is Havana Syndrome a joke to you

[GeneralMacArthur]

There have now been dozens of incidents over the last few years, with over 100 victims, all with essentially the same experience.  A feeling of intense head pressure and loud noise, causing severe long-term neurological damage.  The attacks (if you think these are attacks) have been directed at CIA officers, state department officials and military personnel.  Almost all American although some Canadian as well.

The most common hypothesis is that this is some sort of Russian operation.  But virtually everything surrounding both what the victims were up to and what the U.S. knows about the attacks is shrouded in secrecy.  But apparently it's concerning enough to us that we delayed Kamala Harris' itinerary in Vietnam due to another attack that required medical evacuation of two state department personnel in Hanoi today.

One of the most dramatic episodes involved a U.S. military officer stationed in a country with a large Russian presence. As the officer pulled his car into a busy intersection, he suddenly felt as though his head were going to explode. His two-year-old son, in a car seat in the back, started screaming. As the officer sped out of the intersection, the pressure in his head ceased, and his son went quiet. A remarkably similar incident was reported by a C.I.A. officer who was stationed in the same city, and who had no connection to the military officer.

With all that said, apparently a lot of people think this is either just a funny joke or just some conspiracy nonsense America is making up to yell at Russia, as if we need more reasons to be mad at Russia.

[PSOL]

Can we please remove the sanctions then on the innocent Cuban government caught between the crossfires? I think this is the more pressing aspect of this story given that the investigation is still ongoing yet not a lick of Cuban involvement is actually evident.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

1. Russia
2. China
3. US government
4. someone else
5. hypochondriacs
6. some environmental factor

Take your pick

[Crumpets]

No. I think it's really interesting, actually. Trying to figure out commonalities between the attacks, seeing what the long-term effects are, trying to figure out what the capabilities and limitations of whatever the source is. It combines all my favorite things about IR, counter-intelligence analysis, and physics.

[Blue3]

Aren’t they just sending high frequency sounds to the espionage earpieces of spies and diplomats, hurting their hearing? I thought that was near confirmed.

[It’s so Joever]

Yes, but only because literally everything can be a joke.

[Person Man]

I am keeping an open mind on this. Then again, I have an open mind on UFOs, too. Which is saying more than usual given that the UFO report appears to suggest that there's a there.

[emailking]

I didn't know anyone thought it was a joke. I hadn't encountered that. I do think it's getting much less exposure than it deserves. My money is on some kind of remote electronic surveillance (e.g. trying to steal data from phones or laptops) and the illness is a side effect.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

Havana Syndrome is a racist term. Let's called Ksi-syndrome.

I am keeping an open mind on this. Then again, I have an open mind on UFOs, too. Which is saying more than usual given that the UFO report appears to suggest that there's a there.

Are you suggesting that Syndrome's existence is as likely as Aliens', or that Aliens are behind it? 

[Person Man]

Havana Syndrome is a racist term. Let's called Ksi-syndrome.

I am keeping an open mind on this. Then again, I have an open mind on UFOs, too. Which is saying more than usual given that the UFO report appears to suggest that there's a there.

Are you suggesting that Syndrome's existence is as likely as Aliens', or that Aliens are behind it?  

No....

It's that whatever you want to call it is just like UFOs in that I believe there is enough evidence for both of them to have reasonable suspicion that they actually exist.

Spies have done other insane and over-the-top stuff like this whether its some sort of simple "hack" or something they've figured out that wasn't really supposed to be possible. This feels like what the Stazi did with its "database" before the internet or large scale databases or what the CIA kept trying to do with Castro. Then again, we simply only know that something is happening and can only now map by correlation and not causation.   

[Sol]

My take on this is that this most likely something fairly similar to a culture bound syndrome or a mass psychogenic illness. Being in the federal government abroad is probably a fairly isolating and paranoia inducing experience, and when some odd one-off experiences get major international headlines it's only natural that other people might experience it in similar situations.

[jdk]

Can we please remove the sanctions then on the innocent Cuban government caught between the crossfires? I think this is the more pressing aspect of this story given that the investigation is still ongoing yet not a lick of Cuban involvement is actually evident.

But without the sanctions, what will their idiot apologists have to falsely blame for the suffering of the Cuban people caused by the brutal regime and the perpetually failed ideology that is communism?

[Del Tachi]

My take on this is that this most likely something fairly similar to a culture bound syndrome or a mass psychogenic illness. Being in the federal government abroad is probably a fairly isolating and paranoia inducing experience, and when some odd one-off experiences get major international headlines it's only natural that other people might experience it in similar situations.

Yeah, this really doesn’t seem all that different than the physical manifestations of Paris syndrome or Jerusalem syndrome

[President Johnson]

I tend to believe it's real, though I - like most others - don't know enough to make a hard conclusion. Could also something psychological as already suggested. I'd like to see more extended research being done and made public.

[SInNYC]

1. Russia
2. China
3. US government
4. someone else
5. hypochondriacs
6. some environmental factor

Take your pick

My leading guess is that it was something the US government was doing to others in some form, and has now been adopted/adapted by Russia/China against the US. I obviously have no evidence for this, but the reason I say this is that I think its unlikely that we haven't figured out whats causing it after all this time, and this would be one reason why the causes remain a mystery (in public at least).

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

It’s real but not anything nefarious, probably just hysteria

[emailking]

A psychological explanation doesn't make sense to me since some of them can pinpoint a time and location it started. Maybe for some of them it's psychological.

[Torrain]

I mean, why should we doubt its real?

We live in a world where we can use ultrasound waves to image the internal structures of the body?

We use electromagnetic waves to heat food inside the microwave.

The US military has a prototype laser beam weapon.

More to the point, there is a common consumer product that releases a high pitched frequency that dissuades cats and dogs from entering your garden. It can even annoy some humans. (There are a bunch of products - PestBye Battery Operated Cat Repeller being one example).

Is it really so hard to believe that a foreign actor has worked out how to release a targeted frequency in a small, localised range that can screw with the human head? It probably just disrupts the ear drum causing nausea and high anxiety or something similar, worsening after prolonged exposure. 

[AtorBoltox]

It is not a joke, but the burden is on the US government to prove it is a real physical phenomena which they have not done as of yet

[Person Man]

It is not a joke, but the burden is on the US government to prove it is a real physical phenomena which they have not done as of yet

And the US government should investigate.

[Utah Neolib]

Havana Syndrome is a documented, real, thing for many of these ambassadors and CIA agents. We have no idea what’s causing it, but this is evidently real. It’s not a joke, people are suffering from Brain Damage.




*I accidentally voted Yes*

[Fuzzy Bear]

Havana Syndrome isn't a joke to me.

Neither is Kamala Harris.  She's a tragedy waiting to happen.

[Ancestral Republican]

I think it's hilarious. That's what these state department ghouls and CIA spooks get for choosing evil careers. I wouldn't be surprised if "Havana Syndrome" was just a catch all term for hypochondriacs, drug addicts, and guilty consciences.

Yeah, driving through upstate New York and having to drive past the taxpayer-funded "designated recreation areas" for West Point welfare queens really cemented in my mind how little their fates and made-up diseases matter to me.

[Cassandra]

I think it's hilarious. That's what these state department ghouls and CIA spooks get for choosing evil careers. I wouldn't be surprised if "Havana Syndrome" was just a catch all term for hypochondriacs, drug addicts, and guilty consciences.

Yeah, driving through upstate New York and having to drive past the taxpayer-funded "designated recreation areas" for West Point welfare queens really cemented in my mind how little their fates and made-up diseases matter to me.

Lol, I guess my post was "inappropriate." Thanks for memorializing it for me.

[EugeneDebs]

It's probably psychosomatic.