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Last month, news broke that multiple US diplomats and personnel stationed in Havana, Cuba had been attacked or exposed to some kind of device that inflicted symptoms ranging from hearing loss to brain injury. This was highly unusual, even by the standards of US-Cuban relations, which thawed slightly in the last years of President Obama'south second term.

The AP has published a new report on the incidents, revealing the entire situation is even weirder than we knew. At that place are now at least 21 US victims and a few from Canada. That's strange in and of itself; Cuba has maintained a adept relationship with Canada for decades. Simply the symptom and experiences of the victims are varied and don't point to a single cause. Some individuals reported hearing loud grinding noises that were localized to their beds and ceased equally shortly as they moved away from them. Just that's scarcely a universal experience, as the AP reports:

In several episodes recounted by U.Southward. officials, victims knew it was happening in real time, and there were strong indications of a sonic assault.

Some felt vibrations, and heard sounds — loud ringing or a high-pitch chirping like to crickets or cicadas. Others heard the grinding noise. Some victims awoke with ringing in their ears and fumbled for their warning clocks, only to observe the ringing stopped when they moved away from their beds.

The attacks seemed to come at night. Several victims reported they came in minute-long bursts.

Even so others heard zippo, felt nothing. Subsequently, their symptoms came.

The telescopic keeps widening. On Tuesday, the State Section disclosed that doctors had confirmed another 2 cases, bringing the total American victims to 21. Some have mild traumatic encephalon injury, known equally a concussion, and others permanent hearing loss.

At that place'southward a miracle known as mass hysteria, in which symptoms of "disease" can spread from one observer to some other, often without whatsoever conscious intent past either the original victim or those who discover them. Wikipedia has an extensive list of the known incidents throughout history, and it'south not short. But it's also not by and large idea to mimic symptoms of concussion, much less hearing loss. Typically, you'd likewise expect victims of mass hysteria to show the aforementioned symptoms or describe similar causes, non wildly different ones.

And so-Secretary of State John Kerry attended the re-opening of the United States' Cuban diplomatic mission on August 14, 2015.

While the attacks occurred on Cuban soil, they may not have occurred with any support from the Cuban government. The U.s.a. has not accused the Cuban government of attacking its diplomats, and neither has Canada. In fact, Cuban authorities have been described as being unusually cooperative in searching for clues as to what has befallen both the Usa and Canadian diplomats.

It's possible to build a weapon that leverages infrasound or ultrasound, and human being beings can have physiological reactions to sounds we tin't consciously hear, as has been demonstrated in repeated ultrasound experiences. Just the injured personnel aren't reporting feeling more than afraid or depressed; they're being deafened, concussed, and/or left with symptoms like tinnitus. While information technology's possible to target a pocket-size area with a localized sound "beam," the equipment required is neither pocket-size nor cheap. Repeated searches of the areas where victims report hearing noise turned up nothing, and non everyone who has had a concrete injury remembers any potential crusade at all.

The investigation is ongoing, but no public leads or useful information take been revealed.