What Was Cuba Trying to Do with Its Sonic Weapon?

There’s mounting evidence that Canadian and American diplomats were attacked by some kind of sonic weapon while were stationed in Havana, resulting in everything from hearing and memory loss to mild brain damage. WTF?

Those affected say the attacks usually happened at night in their homes. Only one hotel–the Hotel Capri–is part of the story. (Two affected diplomats were staying there and no other guests reported problems.) Some say they never felt or heard a thing. Others are sure they felt or heard…something. Descriptions range from weird vibrations and a loud ringing to scraping noises to something akin to high-pitched chirping crickets. The noise seemed to come in bursts lasting about a minute.

The sounds were very targeted, too. One victim says that he heard a terrible noise while lying in his bed, but when he moved across the room, it stopped. When he returned to his bed, the noise came back.

If this is some kind of sonic weapon, it uses ultrasound–just like those dog whistles humans can’t hear–fired towards its targets in a tight beam of energy. Experts say that you’d need a generator about the size of a car to generate such a beam from about 50 feet away.

And lest you think that this is all psychosomatic, victims’ symptoms are very real: nausea, dizziness, nose bleeds, headaches and worse. And when all those affected left Cuba, the noises stopped, although the after-effects continue to linger. Some fear long-term mental damage.

The Americans think that all this is the result of some kind of secret sonic weapon but so far, the Mounties, CIA, FBI and the US State Department have found nothing. The Cubans claim they know nothing. Could it be the Russians? Some kind of rogue element? And what’s the endgame?

Read more here.