
The Sounds That Haunted US Diplomats in Cuba? Lovelorn Crickets, Scientists Say - Someone
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/04/science/sonic-attack-cuba-crickets.html
======
bjourne
Here is the mysterious recording
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANykud9iE1A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANykud9iE1A)
and here is the perfectly matching cricket sound
[https://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/492a.htm](https://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/492a.htm)
This whole story is reminiscent of the n-ray debacle 100 years ago
[https://www.wired.com/2014/09/fantastically-wrong-n-
rays/](https://www.wired.com/2014/09/fantastically-wrong-n-rays/) Lots of
scientists and officials are so sure that "it was something" that they now
can't admit that it was "absolutely nothing".

~~~
will_brown
>they now can't admit that it was "absolutely nothing".

It may or may not have been an _attack_ but what’s the explaination for 24
embassy staff members randomly experiencing the same symptoms and all showing
brain abnormalities?

I think it’s a lot more likely intelligence agencies know exactly what caused
it. Public releases of sound clips of strange sounds claiming to be the cause,
later publications proving those sounds to be crickets and nothing Nefarious
all reads like something out of an intelligence playbook to misdirect the
public and other governments. Unless you are intimately familiar with
intelligence operations it sounds like conspiracy theory, until you come full
circle to 24 staff members with brain abnormalities. At minimum that doesn’t
result from absolutely nothing.

~~~
bjourne
> It may or may not have been an attack but what’s the explaination for 24
> embassy staff members randomly experiencing the same symptoms and all
> showing brain abnormalities?

I haven't followed the story in detail, but the claim of "brain abnormalities"
appear to come from a small number of doctors who likely were primed with
irrelevant information. "Doctor, take a look at these CT scans of diplomats in
Cuba who might have been attacked using a sonic weapon." It is not far-fetched
to imagine that this priming caused the doctors to see brain abnormalities
where none existed.

Oh, and someone who was down-voted to dead status already linked to an article
from 2017 in which the Cubans said they believed crickets were the culprit:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18837926](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18837926)

See also this blog post,
[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2018/04/07/ba...](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2018/04/07/bad-
science-havana-attack/#.XDIhHVxKg2x), which in not so kind words calls the
original study junk: "The condition suffered by the US diplomats in Cuba has
been labelled “mysterious” (Rubin, 2018). The real mystery though is how such
a poor neuropsychogical report could have passed the scrutiny of expert
reviewers in a first class outlet."

~~~
TomMckenny
Every MRI scan is primed with information. "grandma is forgetful", "billy fell
off the roof"

But if MRIs were that subjective, they would not have the success rate they
do.

It is more reasonable to assume something happen to the embassy staff than
that MRIs are as bogus as lie detectors.

~~~
rasz
nothing wrong with MRI indeed
[https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/scicurious-
brain/ignobe...](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/scicurious-
brain/ignobel-prize-in-neuroscience-the-dead-salmon-study/)

~~~
TomMckenny
That article points out the importance of statistical correction not innate
problems with MRI. From the article:

>Some people like to use the salmon study as proof that fMRI is woo, but this
isn't the case, it's actually a study to show the importance of correcting
your stats.

It further points out the by 2012 90% of labs were using the corrected
techniques.

------
petecox
Our local species of cicada has been measured at 150 decibels - bloody loud.
So I imagine if the bedroom walls were _bugged_ next to one's pillow, hearing
damage is plausible.

It's consistent with a "blaring, grinding" noise and the cricket's internal
proximity sensor that caused the sound to disappear when the occupant moved
away from the vicinity of the wall.
[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-15/us-investigates-
myste...](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-15/us-investigates-mystery-
acoustic-attacks-on-diplomats-in-cuba/8950568)

------
lisper
The crickets could just be a red herring. Just because the sound recorded
turned out to be crickets doesn't mean that there wasn't something else going
in in addition.

And I have to say, listening to the recordings, that sound would drive me
absolutely nuts.

~~~
DoctorOetker
Add a few degrees of global warming, and those crickets will be all over the
US :-s

The bay of crickets invasion

~~~
lisper
There would be a certain poetic justice in that.

------
zenexer
Fifty years from now there's going to be a PBS documentary with the true
story. Until then, we have no way of discerning fact from fiction, and any
real intel is going to remain highly classified.

~~~
darkpuma
My thoughts exactly, this whole story is textbook spook shit. Any of the
involved parties may have any number of hidden motivations for lying to
everybody. Normal analysis of news stories assumes that at least some of the
involved parties are relatively neutral and at least aren't intentionally
lying, and that conspiracies rarely happen. That all goes out the window when
you're dealing with intelligence agencies.

Take Roswell for instance. The government said it was a weather balloon.
Conspiracy theorists said it was aliens. "Rational skeptics" said it was an
experimental aircraft that the government covered up with the weather balloon
story. Paranoid "rational skeptics" said it was an experimental aircraft and
that the government had seeded the aliens conspiracy theory to distract
anybody skeptical of the official weather balloon story.

The reality? It seems clear now that it was a balloon, but not a _weather_
balloon:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mogul](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mogul)
Everybody got misdirected.

------
anoncoward111
At the risk of being downvoted, I must ask:

Do we assume "incompetence", or "deliberate action", in misidentifying the
source of this sound?

I always assume good faith and that honest mistakes happen, but in the realm
of politics, "mistakes", whether rightly or wrongly, lead to hundreds of
deaths [1]

[1] Korea Air shootdown, USS Vincennes shootdown, US bombing of Chinese
embassy Belgrade [2]

[2] "Sorry, intern put in the wrong bombing coordinates"

~~~
mannykannot
What benefit might be expected from deliberately misidentifying the source of
the sound, especially given the probability that it could be correctly
identified at any time?

~~~
oldgradstudent
It was identified[1] as cicadas by the Cubans more than a year ago. Nobody
seems to remember that. It's not even mentioned in the NYT story.

[1] [https://qz.com/1113692/cuba-sonic-attacks-havana-blames-
cric...](https://qz.com/1113692/cuba-sonic-attacks-havana-blames-crickets-and-
cicadas-for-injuries-to-us-diplomats/)

------
ape4
Canadian diplomats too. And US diplomates in China.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome)

~~~
jpatokal
...but only in Guangzhou, which is in subtropical southern China and also has
very noisy crickets.

------
raptordamus
This is easily debunked by the fact that similar attacks happened to US
personelle in China.

Having read about the history of the CIA, planted stories like this are not
actually conspiracy theories. This has the feel of a very real coverup. It
seems so obvious.

Here is the story about China personelle suffering the same attacks:
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/07/sonic-
attack-f...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/07/sonic-attack-fears-
as-more-us-diplomats-fall-ill-in-china).

Are you telling me attack crickets are invading multiple countries now? Quite
the BS story. Super suspicious.

------
bvinc
There was an article a year ago or so that I thought was pretty convincing. It
talked about how multiple high frequency spying devices could be interfering
with each other and creating the effect. What happened to that theory? No one
seemed to think it was solved after that article came out.

------
empath75
I’ve been convinced all along that this is just mass hysteria. Anxiety and
stress can cause almost all the symptoms they’ve talked about.

~~~
prolikewh0a
It is. It's nothing but anti-Cuba propaganda. Business as usual for US & Cuba
relations.

~~~
empath75
I don’t think it’s anti-Cuba propaganda. I think these people genuinely think
they’ve been attacked.

------
arkitaip
Crickets still sound more plausible than the status quo explanation that
intelligence agencies in multiple countries would attack US (and Canadian!)
diplomats with no apparent motivation, especially after being "caught"
committing the supposed attacks. Most likely, though, the diplomats are
experiencing a mass psychogenic illness.

~~~
marcoperaza
The US has reduced staffing at affected embassies and has probably taken other
precautions. Don’t you think that hostile governments have good reason to
hinder US operations on their territory? A lot of intelligence gathering
happens through embassies.

It’s not as far fetched as you make it sound.

~~~
empath75
Cuba was working really hard to get relations normalized. It makes no sense
for them to attack Americans.

~~~
marcoperaza
As was the Obama administration, which made these allegations in the first
place.

------
clubm8
Obviously the sound was not crickets, but two weather balloons vigorously
rubbing themselves. Obviously this is a sensitive subject[1], so the USG had
to invent a cover story.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mogul](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mogul)

------
jnaina
I grew up in a tropical country and went to a Primary school which had massive
number of Angsana tress directly outside the open windows. Everyday we would
be bombarded by the sounds of multiple Cicadas chirping away. They were very
loud and it would go on for pretty much the whole day. And sound itself would
be very distracting. The whole school was affected by these sounds, but I
don’t recall any of my class/school mates getting impacted by the sounds
(except for perhaps a constant bloody distraction that got me disciplined for
not paying attention in class)

------
scarejunba
The whole thing and its explanations has conspiracy theory overtones.
Honestly, I’m going to null hypothesis this whole event because none of the
stories are convincing.

~~~
oldgradstudent
The reason for the conspiracy theory overtones is that a lot of information is
not being reported.

> The first four Americans to report being struck by the phenomenon —
> including the fit-looking man in his 30s — were all CIA officers working
> under diplomatic cover, as were two others affected later on.

Even this report effectively leaks the identifies of the intelligence officers
involved.

[1] [https://www.propublica.org/article/diplomats-in-
cuba](https://www.propublica.org/article/diplomats-in-cuba)

------
olivermarks
Reminds me of the mysterious and highly disruptive drone activities at UK
Gatwick airport just before Christmas. Mass confusion about what actually
happened if anything

------
newnewpdro
So the recorded sound appears to be a red herring, and we're no closer to
understanding the nature of the attack.

------
aaron695
Cubans told us (who were to stupid to know after hearing it ourselves) a year
ago [https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4375193](https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4375193)

Lol, fake news going strong. It's mass hysteria as we're knew straight away
but still we continue rehashing and rehashing the fairy tales.

Not sure what the USA wants here... Boring incompentance I suspect.

------
__m
How do you explain the heating rays coming from the sky though? They are
clearly under attack

------
marcoperaza
The medical team at the University of Pennsylvania, who actually examined the
victims and published their findings in the peer reviewed _Journal of the
American Medical Association_ , found that the victims suffered real injuries
and psychosomatic illness was ruled out.

Meanwhile, all these people who have never examined the patients keep
speculating the opposite. Color me skeptical.

~~~
jackweirdy
> Imaging

> MRI neuroimaging was obtained in all 21 patients. Most patients had
> conventional imaging findings, which were within normal limits, at most
> showing a few small nonspecific T2-bright foci in the white matter (n =9,
> 43%). There were 3 patients with multiple T2-bright white matter foci, which
> were more than expected for age, 2 mild in degree, and 1 with moderate
> changes. The pattern of conventional imaging findings in these cases was
> nonspecific with regard to the exposure/insult experienced, and the findings
> could perhaps be attributed to other preexisting disease processes or risk
> factors. Advanced structural and functional neuroimaging studies are
> ongoing.

The study concludes that "These individuals appeared to have sustained injury
to widespread brain networks without an associated history of head trauma."
but its not clear to me whether that is to say the study identified specific
signs of injury (the imaging section certainly doesn't indicate that) or
whether it is saying the symptoms would usually be explained by injury that is
as-yet unidentified

[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2673168](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2673168)

~~~
jug
How can they say all this unless they had made brain scans before the specific
incident to compare against?

~~~
aylmao
Well, most brains all look the same.

It's much like hands. If you were tasked with finding out if someone had a
hand chopped off, and saw they had two hands on them, you wouldn't need to
know how many hands they had before to be able to medically claim "Yeah, two
hands is within normal limits".

