The study commissioned by the State Department and released on Saturday is the latest attempt to find a cause for the mysterious illnesses that started to emerge in late 2016 among US personnel in Havana.
The study found that “directed, pulsed radio-frequency energy appears to be the most plausible” explanation for symptoms that included intense head pressure, dizziness and cognitive difficulties.
It found this explanation was more likely than other previously considered causes such as tropical disease or psychological issues.
The study did not name a source for the energy and did not say it came as the result of an attack, though it did note that previous research on this type of injury was done in the former Soviet Union.
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In its report, the 19-member committee noted that it faced significant challenges in trying to get to the bottom of the medical mystery. Among them, not everyone reported the same symptoms and the National Academy of Sciences research did not have access to all the previous studies on the illnesses, some of which are classified.
ReplyDelete“The committee found these cases quite concerning, in part because of the plausible role of directed, pulsed radio-frequency energy as a mechanism, but also because of the significant suffering and debility that has occurred in some of these individuals,” said committee chairman David Relman, a professor of medicine at Stanford University.
“We as a nation need to address these specific cases as well as the possibility of future cases with a concerted, coordinated, and comprehensive approach.”
The health effects were experienced by about two dozen Americans affiliated with the US Embassy in Cuba as well as Canadian diplomats and personnel at the US consulate in Guangzhou, China, in early 2017.
DeleteSome of the Americans have been critical of the US government’s response to their health complaints and at least one has filed suit against the State Department.
Between late 2016 and May 2018, several US and Canadian diplomats in Havana complained of health problems from an unknown cause.
One US government count put the number of American personnel affected at 26.
Some reported hearing high-pitched sounds similar to crickets while at home or staying in hotels, leading to an early theory of a sonic attack.
The implication is that US diplomats and intelligence officers were attacked with a sophisticated weapon that the US could not detect.
ReplyDelete“The mere consideration of such a scenario raises grave concerns about a world with disinhibited malevolent actors and new tools for causing harm to others, as if the US government does not have its hands full already with naturally occurring threats,” says the study.
Russia had already been widely described by the US media as a likely culprit behind the American officials’ health problems. The country is mentioned in the study only briefly, in the context of past research into the effects of pulsed microwave exposure. It showed no proof that the supposed victims of the hypothetical attack were actually subjected to microwave radiation, yet alone that it was intentional.
Un rapporto del comitato di esperti delle Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze americane, incaricato di studiare la cosiddetta 'sindrome dell'Avana', ha scoperto che sono le radiazioni a microonde "dirette" la probabile causa di malattie tra i diplomatici americani a Cuba e anche in Cina. Lo studio, commissionato dal Dipartimento di Stato e appena pubblicato, è stato richiesto proprio per trovare la causa delle misteriose malattie che hanno colpito il personale diplomatico a partire alla fine del 2016 all'ambasciata Usa a L'Avana. Il personale e alcuni loro familiari lamentarono una serie di sintomi, tra cui capogiri, perdita dell'equilibrio e dell'udito, ansia e un fenomeno che descrissero come "nebbia cognitiva". Il malessere fu chiamato "sindrome dell'Avana" e gli Usa accusarono Cuba di "attacchi sonici", che l'Avana smentì. Lo studio ha evidenziato che "l'energia a radiofrequenza diretta e pulsata sembra essere la spiegazione più plausibile" per i sintomi, una spiegazione più probabile rispetto ad altre cause precedentemente prese in considerazione, come malattie tropicali o problemi psicologici. Lo studio non ha indicato, però, la fonte di emissioni di energia e non ha chiarito se si tratti di un attacco mirato, ma sottolinea che ricerche precedenti su questi disturbi erano state condotte nell'ex Unione Sovietica.
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