Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby Allegro » Mon Jun 25, 2012 1:43 am

elfismiles wrote:[PDF] Discharge of Tectonic Stresses in the Earth Crust by High-power ...
http://bit.ly/y2zYVf (voltairenet.org) [PDF]
http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/pdf/gene ... me-2-2.pdf
elfismiles, I was particularly interested in that ^ 5-page pdf, because I had heard that Earth’s crust is to the Earth what an apple’s skin is to an apple. I hadn’t thought of the temperatures of the continental and oceanic crusts, however; my personal presumption then is the crust, which actually floats on the (upper) mantle, is a relatively tender part of the planet. I’ve only read the abstract of the paper. Highlights in the quoted material below are mine.

excerpt | Earth’s crust and mantle, Wiki wrote:The crust of the Earth is composed of a great variety of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. The crust is underlain by the mantle. The upper part of the mantle is composed mostly of peridotite, a rock denser than rocks common in the overlying crust. The boundary between the crust and mantle is conventionally placed at the Mohorovičić discontinuity, a boundary defined by a contrast in seismic velocity. The crust occupies less than 1% of Earth’s volume.

The oceanic crust of the sheet is different from its continental crust. The oceanic crust is 5 km (3 mi) to 10 km (6 mi) thick and is composed primarily of basalt, diabase, and gabbro. The continental crust is typically from 30 km (20 mi) to 50 km (30 mi) thick and is mostly composed of slightly less dense rocks than those of the oceanic crust. Some of these less dense rocks, such as granite, are common in the continental crust but rare to absent in the oceanic crust. Both the continental and oceanic crust "float" on the mantle. Because the continental crust is thicker, it extends both above and below the oceanic crust. The slightly lighter density of felsic continental rock compared to basaltic ocean rock contributes to the higher relative elevation of the top of the continental crust. Because the top of the continental crust is above that of the oceanic, water runs off the continents and collects above the oceanic crust. The continental crust and the oceanic crust are sometimes called sial and sima respectively. Because of the change in velocity of seismic waves it is believed that on continents at a certain depth sial becomes close in its physical properties to sima, and the dividing line is called the Conrad discontinuity.

The temperature of the crust increases with depth, reaching values typically in the range from about 200 °C (392 °F) to 400 °C (752 °F) at the boundary with the underlying mantle. The crust and underlying relatively rigid uppermost mantle make up the lithosphere. Because of convection in the underlying plastic (although non-molten) upper mantle and asthenosphere, the lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates that move. The temperature increases by as much as 30 °C (about 50 °F) for every kilometer locally in the upper part of the crust, but the geothermal gradient is smaller in deeper crust.
Art will be the last bastion when all else fades away.
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby elfismiles » Wed Dec 18, 2013 2:54 pm

Billion dollar race: Soviet Union vied with US in ‘mind control research’
Published time: December 17, 2013 23:59
Edited time: December 18, 2013 00:35

Image
Competing with the US during the Arms Race, the Soviet Union put extensive effort in unconventional research seeking to outflank its rival in understanding behavior control, remote influencing and parapsychology, a new survey has revealed.

The survey published by Cornell University Library is based on open scientific and journalistic materials and provides an overview of unconventional research in the USSR and then in its successor, Russia, in the period between 1917 and 2003 – as compared to the USA.

The report by Serge Kernbach showed that unconventional weapons took the scientists in both countries to areas bordering sci-fi which nowadays would be seen in TV programs featuring UFOs, the supernatural and superpowers.

Due the Iron Curtain, Soviet and American scientists knew little about each other’s secret work – still, they focused on same themes.

In the Soviet Union, among the areas of particular interest, were, for instance, “the impact of weak and strong electromagnetic emission on biological objects, quantum entanglement in macroscopic systems, nonlocal signal transmission based on the Aharonov-Bohm effect, and ‘human operator’ phenomena,” the survey says.

Soviet scientists were developing a field they dubbed “psychotronics.” The country spent between $0.5-1 billion on research of the phenomena, Kernbach who works, at the Research Center of Advanced Robotics and Environmental Science in Stuttgart, Germany, found out.

Some of the programs in psychotronic research – even those launched decades ago – have not been officially published.

“For instance, documents on experiments performed in OGPU and NKVD – even 80 years after – still remain classified,” Kernbach noted. The OGPU (Joint State Political Directorate) was the Soviet secret police and the NKVD (The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) was the main law enforcing body, which was later transformed into the Internal Ministry and a security organization which was part of it – into the KGB.

According to the survey, Soviet and American areas of interest often mirrored each other. In particular, Kernbach recalls the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) scandalous human research program MKUltra which involved the use of various methods to manipulate an individual’s mental states and alter brain functions.

“As mentioned in the public documents, the program to some extent was motivated by the corresponding NKVD’s program, with similar strategies of using psychotropic (e.g. drugs) substances and technical equipment,” Kernbach said.

In the 60s and the 70s, the Soviet Union was actively researching the influence of electromagnetic fields on human physiological and psychological conditions. Several authors point to the application of research results in the form of new weapons in the USA and the Soviet Union.

“Over the past years, US researchers have confirmed the possibility of affecting functions of the nervous system by weak electromagnetic fields (EMFs), as it was previously said by Soviet researchers. EMFs may cause acoustic hallucination (’radiosound’) and reduce the sensitivity of humans and animals to some other stimuli, to change the activity of the brain (especially the hypothalamus and the cortex), to break the processes of formation processing and information storage in the brain. These nonspecific changes in the central nervous system can serve as a basis for studying the possibilities of the direct influence of EMFs on specific functions of CNS,” read an article in Nauka (Science) magazine in 1982.

Image
A US Marine Corps truck is seen carrying a palletized version of the Active Denial System, March 9th, 2012, at the US Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. It is a US DoD non-lethal weapon that uses directed energy and projects a beam of man-sized millimeter waves up to 1000 meters that when fired at a human, delivers a heat sensation to the skin and generally makes humans stop what they are doing and run. (AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards)

Kernbach’s analysis lacks details on practical results of unconventional research in the USSR.

He mentions though a device invented by Anatoly Beridze-Stakhovsky – the torsion generator ‘Cerpan’. The exact structure of the device is unknown, as the scientist feared it would be put to unethical uses. Cerpan was designed on the "shape effect" produced by torsion fields. Some sources claim that the device – a 7-kilo metal cylinder – was used to heal people, including Kremlin senior officials.

Kernbach’s overview of unconventional research in USSR and Russia suggests that following the collapse of the USSR in 1991, these programs were first reduced and then completely closed in 2003.

“Due to academic and non-academic researchers, the instrumental psychotronics, denoted sometimes as torsionics, still continue to grow, but we cannot speak about government programs in Russia any longer,” he said.

However, based on the number of participants at major conferences, the number of psychotronics researchers in Russia is estimated between 200 and 500, the report said.

Last year, the now-fired Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said his ministry was working on futuristic weaponry.

“The development of weaponry based on new physics principles; direct-energy weapons, geophysical weapons, wave-energy weapons, genetic weapons, psychotronic weapons, etc., is part of the state arms procurement program for 2011-2020,” Serdyukov said at a meeting with the then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, cited RIA Novosti.

That followed a series of Putin’s presidential campaign articles, one of which focused on national security guarantees. Speaking about new challenges that Russia may face, and which armed forces should be ready to respond to, he wrote:

“Space-based systems and IT tools, especially in cyberspace, will play a great, if not decisive role in armed conflicts. In a more remote future, weapon systems that use different physical principles will be created (beam, geophysical, wave, genetic, psychophysical and other types of weapons). All this will provide fundamentally new instruments for achieving political and strategic goals in addition to nuclear weapons.”



http://rt.com/news/psychotronic-arms-soviet-weapon-379/
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby coffin_dodger » Wed Dec 18, 2013 3:33 pm

slightly divergent, but nethertheless *possibly* relevent to this thread, I was surfing "serverporn" http://porn.serverbear.com/ (yes, pretty sad) and came across this beast - The Stampede Supercomputer https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/stampede/.

With:

10,000,000,000,000,000 operations per second (10 quadrillion)
522,000 processors
270 terrabytes of memory
14 Petabytes of storage

of processing power, the ability to model (and thus predict) human behaviour on an individual basis can't be that far away.
If it isn't here already. Maybe that's what the NSA is gathering our information for. Behaviour modelling based on real-time flows of information and thus - prediction.

Assuming 7,000,000,000 inhabitants on Earth, that computer could, concievably, given the contingent input, cope with calculating 1.5 million actions/variables per second for each and every person on Earth. (10 quadrillion divided by 7 billion)

Asimov's Foundation series is screaming at me.
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby elfismiles » Sun Dec 29, 2013 11:51 am

Exposed: The Soviet Union spent $1 billion on mind-control program
December 29, 2013 1:31PM
http://www.news.com.au/technology/scien ... 6790700498


elfismiles » 18 Dec 2013 18:54 wrote:
Billion dollar race: Soviet Union vied with US in ‘mind control research’
Published time: December 17, 2013 23:59
Edited time: December 18, 2013 00:35
http://rt.com/news/psychotronic-arms-soviet-weapon-379/
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby elfismiles » Sun Dec 29, 2013 11:58 am

Whoa!

Surfing the SEAS Synth Environ Anal Sim
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=32452

coffin_dodger » 18 Dec 2013 19:33 wrote:slightly divergent, but nethertheless *possibly* relevent to this thread, I was surfing "serverporn" http://porn.serverbear.com/ (yes, pretty sad) and came across this beast - The Stampede Supercomputer https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/stampede/.

With:

10,000,000,000,000,000 operations per second (10 quadrillion)
522,000 processors
270 terrabytes of memory
14 Petabytes of storage

of processing power, the ability to model (and thus predict) human behaviour on an individual basis can't be that far away.
If it isn't here already. Maybe that's what the NSA is gathering our information for. Behaviour modelling based on real-time flows of information and thus - prediction.

Assuming 7,000,000,000 inhabitants on Earth, that computer could, concievably, given the contingent input, cope with calculating 1.5 million actions/variables per second for each and every person on Earth. (10 quadrillion divided by 7 billion)

Asimov's Foundation series is screaming at me.
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby elfismiles » Thu Sep 18, 2014 10:26 am

CIA Mind Control History: UCLA’s Dr. W. Ross Adey & Remote Brain Telemetry
By / June 5th, 2013
http://www.constantinereport.com/cia-mi ... telemetry/
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby elfismiles » Fri Jun 17, 2016 4:04 pm

WOW! This is the first actual footage (allegedly from CNN 1985!?) that I've ever seen on this.

Mindcontrol and LIDA, CNN 1985

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=651EOeD4Lhw
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby elfismiles » Fri Aug 25, 2017 11:56 am

US Moscow Embassy Microwaving Brief

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2UsriLqtEk

Burnt Hill » 25 Aug 2017 00:45 wrote:
Belligerent Savant » Thu Aug 10, 2017 5:17 pm wrote:.
Related:

https://www.apnews.com/51828908c6c84d78a29e833d0aae10aa

(Taste of their own medicine, ay?)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The two-year-old U.S. diplomatic relationship with Cuba was roiled Wednesday by what U.S. officials say was a string of bizarre incidents that left a group of American diplomats in Havana with severe hearing loss attributed to a covert sonic device.

In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation into the case. Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of former President Barack Obama’s reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Some of the diplomats’ symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, officials said. After months of investigation, U.S. officials concluded that the diplomats had been exposed to an advanced device that operated outside the range of audible sound and had been deployed either inside or outside their residences. It was not immediately clear if the device was a weapon used in a deliberate attack, or had some other purpose.

The U.S. officials weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. retaliated by expelling two Cuban diplomats from their embassy in Washington on May 23. She did not say how many U.S. diplomats were affected or confirm they had suffered hearing loss, saying only that they had “a variety of physical symptoms.”

The Cuban government said in a lengthy statement late Wednesday that “Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception.”

The statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry said it had been informed of the incidents on Feb. 17 and had launched an “exhaustive, high-priority, urgent investigation at the behest of the highest level of the Cuban government.”

It said the decision to expel two Cuban diplomats was “unjustified and baseless.”

The ministry said it had created an expert committee to analyze the incidents and had reinforced security around the U.S. embassy and U.S. diplomatic residences.

“Cuba is universally considered a safe destination for visitors and foreign diplomats, including U.S. citizens,” the statement said.

U.S. officials told The Associated Press that about five diplomats, several with spouses, had been affected and that no children had been involved. The FBI and Diplomatic Security Service are investigating.

Cuba employs a state security apparatus that keeps many people under surveillance and U.S. diplomats are among the most closely monitored people on the island. Like virtually all foreign diplomats in Cuba, the victims of the incidents lived in housing owned and maintained by the Cuban government.

However, officials familiar with the probe said investigators were looking into the possibilities that the incidents were carried out by a third country such as Russia, possibly operating without the knowledge of Cuba’s formal chain of command.

Nauert said investigators did not yet have a definitive explanation for the incidents but stressed they take them “very seriously,” as shown by the Cuban diplomats’ expulsions.

“We requested their departure as a reciprocal measure since some U.S. personnel’s assignments in Havana had to be curtailed due to these incidents,” she said. “Under the Vienna Convention, Cuba has an obligation to take measures to protect diplomats.”

U.S. diplomats in Cuba said they suffered occasional harassment for years after the restoration of limited ties with the communist government in the 1970s, harassment reciprocated by U.S. agents against Cuban diplomats in Washington. The use of sonic devices to intentionally harm diplomats would be unprecedented.



http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2017/08/24/us-diplomats-return-from-cuba-with-brain-damage/

Diplomats Return from Cuba with Brain Damage
August 24, 2017 6:53 AM
Filed Under: brain damage, Cuba, diplomats, hearing loss

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Some diplomats in Cuba have returned to North America suffering brain damage after a series of attacks, possibly from a sonic device directed at their homes. One expert says it could have been sort of like a very damaging and powerful dog whistle, only aimed at humans.

“If they were able to utilize something at a short range and particularly noxious, it could do a lot of damage to people,” says Dr. Josh Sappington, a SLU Care otologist, specializing in the ear and hearing loss at SSM Health SLU Hospital.

“If they had repeated exposure to it, or sustained exposure to it, that’s not something that the brain and the ears will like for an extended period of time and they could suffer neurological damage,” he says.

In some cases, oral steroids can help with the hearing damage, but Sappington says the more serious brain and nerve damage cases are more concerning with much longer therapy needed.


SEE ALSO:
search.php?keywords=russian+embassy+microwave

Image
by Cheryl Welsh

President
Citizens Against Human Rights Abuse
February 2001
. . .

Washington AP, May 22, 1988, Barton Reppert Associated Press Writer

Looking at the Moscow Signal, the Zapping of an Embassy 35 years later, The Mystery Lingers.

Reppert stated,

"Since the early 1980s, however, federal government support for non-ionizing radiation bioeffects research has declined markedly. W. Ross Adey, a leading researcher based at the Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif., told a House subcommittee last Oct. 6 that current levels of government funding - now about $7 million a year- are 'disastrously low.'

There is reason to believe that this situation has arisen in part through a well-organized activity on the part of major corporate entities from the consumer and military electronic industries to discredit all research into athermal biological and biomedical effects," Adey said.

. . .

Defense & Foreign Affairs. P.34(1983,July), "Scientific Advances Hold Dramatic Prospects for Psy-Strat", Possony, Stefan

"Associate Editor Dr. Stefan Possony discusses how scientists are facing the prospect of messaging directly into a target mind. Whither psy-war?

Suppose it becomes feasible to affect brain cells by low frequency waves or beams, thereby altering psychological states, and making it possible to transmit suggestions and commands directly into the brain. Who is so rash as to doubt that technological breakthroughs of this general type would not be put promptly to psyops use?

More importantly who would seriously assume that such a technology would not be deployed to accomplish political and military surprise? A few years ago there was much excitement about the Soviet microwave "bombardment" of the US Embassy in Moscow.

Why did the KGB, then under Yuri Andropov's leadership, embark on this seemingly scurrilous - and very prolonged - effort? There was no answer to this question, except that the KGB must have wished to harass US diplomats and cause them to worry about their health. This theory was never convincing.

The question was raised whether the Soviets had discovered a technique of using microwaves for psychological purposes, and whether they were experimenting with this technique on US specialists on the USSR, unwittingly pressed into Soviet service as guinea pigs. Impossible, replied the State Department, the waves cannot break through the blood-brain barrier, and thermal effects are so negligible that the body would not be affected.

Nevertheless, embassy personnel were indemnified for health damage. By 1979, at the latest, it was known that electromagnetic fields raising body temperatures less than 0.1 degrees Celsius may result in somatic changes. It was most surprising that such a trivial temperature rise was having any effects, and even more astonishing that those effects were significant. Chemical, physiological and behavioral changes can occur within "windows" of frequency and energy continua.

Another is at the level of the human electroencephalogram (EEG), which is in the range of extremely low radio and sound waves, around 20 Hertz. Let us cut the story to the minimum. The original model, according to which the blood-brain barrier cannot be broken, was derived from the axiom that electromagnetic waves interact with tissue in a linear manner.

However, it turned out that the molecular vibrations caused by a stimulating extracellular electromagnetic field are non-linear. In the US, the pioneering work seems to have been done by Albert F. Lawrence and w. Ross Adey, writing in Neurological Research, Volume 4, 1982."

. . .

Microwave Debate by Nicholas Steneck

1984, MIT Press, page 84.

Following the UCLA conference, the military, which controlled the RF bioeffects purse-strings and therefore made the major policy decisions, decided both to fish and cut bait. Publicly talk of athermal effects was downplayed.

Open contracts were not awarded for athermal or central nervous system studies, and in fact efforts were even made to keep information about central nervous system research from circulating too widely. Privately, however, the military and the State Department began work to try to determine whether there was any factual basis for a belief in the direct effect of RF radiation on human behavior and whether perhaps the Soviets had gotten the jump in exploiting such effects for espionage and military purposes.

The primary motivation for the work was a desire to find out the purpose of a beam of microwave radiation that was being directed at the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

This and all subsequent information on the UCLA meeting is taken from the unpublished minutes:

"Neurological Responses to External Electromagnetic Energy (A Critique of Currently Available Data and Hypotheses)," co-sponsored by the Brain Research Institute, UCLA and the Air Force Systems Command, July 11, 1963, USAF Contract 18(600)-2057.

. . .

Military Review (official publication of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College), "The New Mental Battlefield", Lt. Col. John B. Alexander, U.S. Army, Ph.D.

[He is a leading proponent of and spokesman for nonlethal weapons. Col. Alexander worked at Los Alamos Lab on nonlethal weapons.]

"(Soviet) mind-altering techniques, designed to impact on an opponent are well-advanced. The procedures employed include manipulation of human behavior through the use of psychological weapons effecting sight, sound, smell, temperature, electromagnetic energy, or sensory deprivation."

He further stated, "Soviet researchers, studying controlled behavior, have also examined the effects of electromagnetic radiation on humans and have applied these techniques against the U.S. Embassy in Moscow."

Also, "Researchers suggest that certain low-frequency (ELF) emissions possess psychoactive characteristics. These transmissions can be used to induce depression or irritability in a target population. The application of large-scale ELF behavior modification could have horrendous impact."

. . .

Hustler Magazine, June 1989, "Who's Killing the Star Wars Scientists", suggests that,

"the Russians are using a death ray to drive the scientists to suicide. The British press blames stress. This wave of suspicious fatalities in the ultrasecret world of sophisticated weaponry has not gone unnoticed by the US government. Late last fall, the American embassy in London publicly requested a full investigation by the British Ministry of Defense. (MoD). ...The Pentagon refuses comment on the deaths. But according to Reagan administration sources, "We cannot ignore it anymore."

. . .

Washington AP, May 22, 1988 by Barton Reppert Associated Press Writer, entitled, "Looking at the Moscow Signal, the Zapping of an Embassy 35 years later, The Mystery Lingers"

Richard S. Cesaro, deputy director for advanced sensors at the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency, in an interview prior to his death two years ago, contended that "in our experiments we did some remarkable things. And there was no question in my mind that you can get into the brain with microwaves. ...If you really make the breakthrough, you've got something better than any bomb ever built, because when you finally come down the line you're talking about controlling people's minds."

. . .

Federal Times, Dec. 13, 1976 "Microwave Weapons Study by Soviets Cited."

The Defense Intelligence Agency has released a report on heavy Communist research on microwaves, including their use as weapons. Microwaves are used in radar, television and microwave ovens. They can cause disorientation and possibly heart attacks in humans.

Another biological effect with possible anti-personnel uses is "microwave hearing."

"Sounds and possibly even words which appear to be originating intracranially (within the head) can be induced by signal modulation at very low average power densities," the report said.

According to the study, Communist work in this area,

"has great potential for development into a system for disorienting or disrupting the behavior patterns of military or diplomatic personnel."

No mention was made of the still-unexplained microwave bombardment of the American Embassy in Moscow. The study dealt largely with long-term exposure of days or weeks in industrial situations, which usually produce mild effects. Short exposure to intense radiation can cause heart seizure and a wide range of physical disorders.

https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/scal ... tech33.htm


Environ Health. 2012; 11: 85.
Published online 2012 Nov 14. doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-11-85
PMCID: PMC3509929
Microwaves in the cold war: the Moscow embassy study and its interpretation. Review of a retrospective cohort study
J Mark Elwoodcorresponding author1
Author information ► Article notes ► Copyright and License information ►
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Go to:
Abstract
Background

From 1953 to 1976, beams of microwaves of 2.5 to 4.0 GHz were aimed at the US embassy building in Moscow. An extensive study investigated the health of embassy staff and their families, comparing Moscow embassy staff with staff in other Eastern European US embassies. The resulting large report has never been published in peer reviewed literature.
Methods

The original report and other published comments or extracts from the report were reviewed.
Results

The extensive study reports on mortality and morbidity, recorded on medical records and by regular examinations, and on self-reported symptoms. Exposure levels were low, but similar or greater than present-day exposures to radiofrequencies sources such as cell phone base stations. The conclusions were that no adverse health effects of the radiation were shown. The study validity depends on the assumption that staff at the other embassies were not exposed to similar radiofrequencies. This has been questioned, and other interpretations of the data have been presented.
Conclusions

The conclusions of the original report are supported. Contrary conclusions given in some other reports are due to misinterpretation of the results.
Keywords: Radiofrequencies, Cancer, Health, Cohort study
Go to:
Background

Beams of microwaves from Soviet sources aimed at the US embassy building in Moscow were detected since 1953, increasing in intensity in 1975. In 1976, an ambitious epidemiological study was commissioned by the U.S. Department of State to investigate possible health effects on the staff of the US embassy in Moscow and their families. The study was carried out by Abraham Lilienfeld (deceased, 1984) and colleagues at the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. The study has never been published in detail. It has been cited several times, with varying interpretations. This review is based on the main 1978 report [1], obtained from the Johns Hopkins University library, and on published literature referring to it. The frequency was 2.5 to 4.0 GHz and the exposure levels, while low compared to accepted exposure standards, were higher than typical present-day exposures of the public to, for example, cell phone base stations, so the study has relevance to current issues of health effects.
Methods for this review

The original report was obtained from the Johns Hopkins University library ( https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/). Searches for peer-reviewed material reporting on the study were carried out using PubMed, citation indexes, and major reports and reviews on health effects of radiofrequencies, up to September 2011. A senior living author of the original report was also contacted to identify any other sources; but was not involved in this review. General media coverage and ‘grey’ literature could not be comprehensively reviewed, and so is not included.
Review - study design

The key aspect of Lilienfeld’s study design was to compare the Moscow embassy staff and their dependents with the staff and dependents at other eastern European U.S. embassies, who would have had similar selection procedures, and many similarities in their work and lifestyle. In this retrospective cohort study, the exposed group were staff who had served in the Moscow embassy during the period January 1 1953 to June 30 1976, and their dependents who lived in Moscow; and the comparison group were staff who served in other selected Eastern European embassies or consulates during the same period of time, and their dependents; in Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Leningrad, Prague, Sofia, Warsaw, and Zagreb. These posts were chosen for their general similarity to Moscow in climate, diet, geographical location, disease problems, and general social milieu. Individuals who served in both Moscow and one of the comparison posts were counted in the Moscow group.
Exposures to radiofrequencies

Exposure information is given in the main report and an appendix, and in more detail in a further assessment published later [2]. There was nearly continuous monitoring in the Moscow embassy from early 1963, and monitoring of other buildings further from the embassy at least every few months, but for earlier periods measurements were sparse. Tests for microwave radiation (0.5 Ghz to 10 Ghz) at the other embassies chosen were made periodically, at least once or twice a year but up to several times per month, and “only background levels have been detected at these Eastern European embassies” (page 3).

From 1953 to May 1975, the microwave beam came from a source in a Soviet apartment building about 100 m west of the 10 floor embassy building, affecting the west facade of the central building, with highest intensities between the third and eighth floors. The frequency was from 2.5 to 4.0 GHz and maximum exposures are given as up to 5 μW/cm2, 9 hours per day [1]. However Appendix 11 notes: "In general, individual exposures would have been much less than the maximums because of location away from a window or movement to other rooms or floors and the fact that some hours of signal operation were at night. ‘ Background’ levels existing when signals were off would be lower than the maximum signal levels by at least a factor of one thousand”. In the later report, the average power density in the rooms exposed is estimated as 1.5 μW/cm2[2]. Living quarters for employees and dependents were on the third to seventh floors, and similar levels were estimated for the kitchens and bedrooms, but living rooms, dining areas and bathrooms were not exposed.

From May 1975 there were beams from two sources, originating from buildings about 100 m east, and south, of the embassy. Maximum exposures are given as up to 15 μW/cm2 for 18 hours a day [1]. In the later report [2], the highest average levels given are 10.2 μW/cm2 in a 10th floor room, with average levels of exposure of staff of from 1.3 to 3.3 μW/cm2. The highest reading recorded was 24 μW/cm2 close to a window in a 10th floor room for a two hour period. On 6 February 1976, screening was installed on windows, which along with reductions in transmitter power, reduced the levels in even directly exposed rooms to less than 0.1 μW/cm2.

Estimates were made of the actual number of people working or living in exposed areas [2]. From 1953 to 1976 there were in total 1827 employees, whose tours of duty were usually two years, and about 3000 dependents; there were about 240 employees exposed to levels of 1.5 μW/cm2 for approximately 2 hours during the workday. There were 15 residential apartments, and about 660 residents (staff, dependent adults and dependent children) were exposed, with again average exposures of around 1.5 μW/cm2. From May 1975 to Feb 1976, there were 26 employees with exposures of 1.5 μW/cm2 for 4 to 8 hours during work days. During this period the beam was more sharply focused on the upper floors, and in the living quarters the exposures would not have exceeded 0.8 μW/cm2.
Identification of subjects and health information

Identifying eligible employees and dependents and linkage to death certificates and information on morbidity was a huge task; up to 50 people were employed in abstracting and coding health records, which were held in several different places. For most personnel, there were six or seven medical examinations available, with the maximum exceeding 20. Psychiatric examinations were also abstracted when available. An abbreviated abstraction form was used for dependents under the age of 12. For quality control, 10% of medical records were independently abstracted by two people, and 5% of all abstracts were checked by the investigators (page 14). In addition, a comprehensive Health History Questionnaire (HHQ) was developed and sent to employees and dependents for self-completion. This produced an “unacceptable” response rate of some 30% (page 27), and therefore “an ambitious system of tracing and interviewing state department employees by telephone” was set up.
Methods of analysis

As “hundreds of factors” were examined, the analyses assessed three logical consequences for any condition increased by radiofrequency exposures specific to the Moscow embassy:

(1) the condition would be more common in the Moscow group than in the comparison group,

(2) within the Moscow group, it would be more common in those with greater estimated exposure to radiofrequencies, and

(3) amongst the Moscow group it would be more common in those who had spent a longer time in Moscow.

For mortality, for each of the Moscow and the comparison groups, standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were computed, the expected numbers being based on death rates for the U.S. population for 59 causes of death, by sex, 5 year age group, and 5 year calendar period, using Monson’s program [3]. For recent years, data for earlier available years was used. Exact 95% confidence limits were based a Poisson distribution for the observed numbers, assuming no variance in the expected numbers. The report says data for the U.S. ‘white’ population was used (page 42); there is no data given on race.

Morbidity data was obtained from abstracts of medical records and from the Health History Questionnaires, distinguishing between conditions ever present and those first present after arrival at the index post (Moscow or other). Annual rates of first occurrence per 1000 person-years were calculated and compared as standardized morbidity ratios (SMbR), after indirect standardization by year of entry and by age, each in 4 groups, giving 16 strata, by Breslow and Day’s method [4], with confidence limits as in mortality data. Although very many comparisons were made in this study, no formal methods to account for multiple testing were used.
Results - tracing

4,388 employees were identified (Table ​(Table1);1); 1827 who had served in Moscow, and 2561 who had been only in the other postings. State department employees were easier to trace and had more complete information than non-state department employees. Although the report states that the distribution was similar for Moscow group and for the comparison group (page 67), 63% of the Moscow and 72% of the comparison group were state department staff, resulting in respectively 94 and 96% of staff being traced. Medical records were reviewed for 70% of Moscow staff and 77% of other embassies. The HHQ was sent to 94% of Moscow and 91% of other embassy staff. The response rate was higher for Moscow but was still low: 51% compared to 40% in the other embassy staff. 2819 adult dependents and 5474 children were identified who had lived at the posting, either in the embassy or consulate or in off-site accommodation.
Table 1
Table 1
Employees and dependents identified, traced, and with health information
Results - mortality

The mortality experience is described in detail, but as the employees were relatively young, the numbers are small (Table ​(Table2).2). The results are given comparing observed deaths with expected numbers based on US mortality data. For total deaths, the standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) compared to the US population were 0.47 for Moscow employees (total deaths 38 men, 11 women), and 0.59 for the comparison group (102 male deaths, 30 female). This was interpreted as a “healthy worker effect” and the ratios for heart disease were 0.49 and 0.38 respectively. Cancers are shown in more detail; the SMRs for all cancer were 0.89 for Moscow, and 1.1 for the comparison group. For brain tumors in the comparison postings, the SMR is significantly raised, based on 5 cases. The SMRs are increased for leukemia and for breast cancer both in Moscow and in the comparison embassies, but these are not statistically significant.
Table 2
Table 2
Mortality in employees

The interpretation given is that “no differences were observed between the Moscow and comparison groups either in total mortality or in mortality from cancer” (page 243). It was noted that particularly for women the proportion of all deaths that were due to cancer was high, both in the Moscow (8 of 11 deaths) and in the comparison group (14 of 31); the authors state “however, it was not possible to find any satisfactory explanation for this, due mainly to the small numbers of deaths involved and the absence of information on many epidemiological characteristics that influence the occurrence of many types of malignant neoplasms.” (page 243).

The study also assessed mortality amongst dependents, both adults and children. Lower importance is given to these groups, as the information on exposures and on health records was less complete, although these limitations were “present to the same degree in both the Moscow and comparison groups” (page 243). It was concluded that “no differences in mortality were detected between the Moscow and comparison dependent groups of children or adults” (page 244).
Results - morbidity

The analysis was based on medical records and on the Health History Questionnaire. For several general indices, such as the number of examinations performed for a medical problem and the occurrence of a hospitalization or a medical evacuation, the Moscow and comparison groups were ‘virtually identical’ (page 104). The records gave reports of any significant medical problem, various specific findings such as increased blood pressure, the occurrence of 15 general medical conditions in men and 18 in women, and in both men and women, 70 diseases or medical conditions, abnormal evaluations in 19 body systems, and 44 selected medical conditions reported on examinations.

Morbidity results between the Moscow and the comparison postings groups were compared by standardized morbidity ratios (SMbR), based on the rates of first occurrence of each condition after the relevant posting, adjusted for age at entry and year of entry to the study, giving 16 strata, using a Poisson log linear model (p. 46–48). Of the 70 diseases listed, three in men showed significant differences (Table ​(Table3):3): venereal disease was more common in the Moscow group, and appendicitis and sleepwalking were more common in the comparison group. However, venereal disease was not more common in those who had served longer in Moscow. Eight other conditions in men and one condition in women were, but none of these was more common in the Moscow group than in the comparison group. The authors comment that those who had served longer were older, which would explain most of the differences seen. Similarly, three conditions in men and five in women were more common in those in Moscow who were exposed to higher levels of microwaves, but none of these was more common in the Moscow group than the comparison group, and only one, vaginal discharge in women, was associated both with length of time spent in Moscow and with assessed exposure.
Table 3
Table 3
Frequencies of medical conditions and of symptoms, per 1000 person-years, after the first tour at the index post, for those conditions with statistically significant differences between employees serving in Moscow and in the comparison group

Of the 44 medical conditions, for men, three were significantly more common in the Moscow group (protozoal intestinal diseases, benign neoplasms, and diseases of nerves and peripheral ganglia), and one was significantly more common in the comparison group (pneumonia). Women showed a significant difference only in complications of pregnancy, more common in the Moscow group. None of these four conditions were associated with length of service or a higher level of assessed microwave exposure within the Moscow group.

Cancers are discussed in detail. The authors note that women had more cancers than men, and that the Moscow women more frequently reported multiple cancers. In men, the occurrence of ‘all cancer except skin cancer’ was more common amongst Moscow employees who were exposed, but was slightly lower in the Moscow group than in the comparison group.

Data from the HHQ represents the self-reporting of illnesses, and 28 specific medical conditions are assessed (Table ​(Table3).3). For men, three conditions were significantly more common in the Moscow group: eye problems (almost all refractive errors), psoriasis, and other skin conditions. None of these three was more common in those who had greater length of service or higher microwave exposure within the Moscow group. In the medical abstracts, refractive errors were the most commonly reported condition in both Moscow and the comparison groups, at very similar frequencies. In women the only significant differences were in eye problems, anemia, and ulcers, all more common in the Moscow group, but none of these were significantly increased in those with longer service or those more exposed to microwaves in Moscow.

Further questions dealt with the occurrence of symptoms, as distinct from defined health problems. The authors report “there was a clear pattern of a higher frequency of symptoms reported by the Moscow group than was reported by the comparison group” (page 156). For men, four groups of symptoms were more common in the Moscow group than in the comparison group (depression, irritability, difficulty in concentrating, and memory loss), but within the Moscow group all four of these symptoms were less common in the group exposed to microwaves than those unexposed or with uncertain exposure.

For women, again there was greater reporting of symptoms amongst the Moscow group, with two symptoms, difficulty in concentrating and an aggregate category of other symptoms, being significantly more common. Difficulty in concentrating was reported more frequently in the microwave exposed group within the Moscow group, although the difference was not statistically significant.

Medical conditions reported in the questionnaires were classified into the 44 categories used earlier. For men and for women, there were no significant differences. Total hospitalizations were less common in Moscow than in the comparison group; physician visits and accidents or injuries of any kind were of similar frequency.

For dependents, the likely exposures were lower and the information available on health records was more limited. In their overall summary, the investigators conclude based on medical records and health history questionnaires, amongst adult dependents, and for children, “the vast majority” of health problems were similar in Moscow and comparison groups. The only problem present to a greater extent in children who had lived in Moscow compared to the comparison group was the occurrence of mumps. There were no differences detected in the frequency of congenital anomalies.
Summary of results as reported

In the investigators’ discussion (page 244) they emphasize that “literally hundreds of comparisons were made” and only two differences stood out from the medical record review, the increased rate of protozoal infections in Moscow male employees, and the slightly higher frequencies of most common kinds of health conditions in the Moscow group. There were greater differences in the self-reported data on the questionnaires, but there were no conditions which were more common in Moscow and showed a relationship to estimated microwave exposure or length of service within the Moscow group.

The overall conclusion of the investigators (page 246) was: “To summarize, with very few exceptions, an exhaustive comparison of the health status of the state and non-state department employees who had served in Moscow with those who had served in other Eastern European posts during the same period of time revealed no differences in health status as indicated by their mortality experience and a variety of morbidity measures. No convincing evidence was discovered that would directly implicate the exposure to microwave radiation experienced by the employees at the Moscow embassy in the causation of any adverse health effects as of the time of this analysis”.
Reporting of this study in the literature

This study does not appear to have been published in any detail in a peer reviewed paper. One paper by Lilienfeld [5] describes the tracing methods and mortality results, but only for State Department employees. It also shows the results for conditions on medical abstracts which were increased with greater estimated exposure in Moscow, but as noted above, none of these were more common in Moscow than in the comparison postings. The paper discusses the problems of follow up, validity of exposure classification, and study power.

In 1979, in a symposium on health aspects of non-ionizing radiation at the New York Academy of Medicine, a presentation by Herbert Pollack, professor emeritus of clinical medicine at George Washington University (deceased, 1990) [6] opens intriguingly with “…after yesterday's discussions, it was evident that there is so much misunderstanding about the basic facts that I shall deviate from my prepared text and present a historical background to the so-called ‘Moscow’ situation…”. Pollack describes the exposures and the study results, and quotes the conclusions statement given above, emphasizing the comparison between the Moscow embassy staff and staff of other Eastern European embassies. Also at that symposium, Pollack says that the purpose of the microwave beams was unknown [7]. He claims that that some reports of microwave effects were either misquoted or invented in the media [8]. Pollack’s own role is not described, but Goldsmith [9] (see later) says he was the State Department Contract Officer. In a later article [10], Pollack comments on ‘false’ news stories that two U.S. ambassadors died of cancer after exposure to microwaves in Moscow; he states that the ambassadors’ office was on the unexposed side of the building.

The main publication of data from the study was by John Goldsmith (deceased, 1999), who gives a very different interpretation of the results. In a review of radiofrequency effects, which states "this article is an opinion piece, not an intended to be a balanced presentation of the literature" [11], he notes that “The most important comparison was with the employees of other Eastern European embassies and their dependents,” but continues “but it was not certain whether microwave exposures of the comparison group could also have occurred." (page 52).

Goldsmith presents a table of cancer mortality which emphasizes the comparisons between embassy staff and the general US population (Table ​(Table4),4), combining Moscow and the other embassies, and employees and dependents. Many of these comparisons show statistically significant differences. For example, for all cancers in employees and adult and child dependents, in Moscow and in other embassies combined, the observed and expected numbers were 116 and 80.5 (P<0.05). Goldsmith uses this as evidence that embassy staff and dependents in both Moscow and the other embassies were at increased risk, and all the embassies were exposed to microwaves; however he gives no other evidence for this. Goldsmith's figures show that the greater increase in total cancers was seen in dependents rather than employees, both in those who lived in the embassy and outside the embassy. In a similar way, combining Moscow and other embassies and combining employees and dependents, Goldsmith shows significant increases in deaths from leukemia, mainly in children, both those who lived in embassies and outside; in brain tumors, mainly in employees in the other European embassies; and in breast cancer, contributed to both by employees in Moscow and dependents in other embassies. He reports one particular result, the occurrence of multiple site cancers in Moscow, being 1.33 sites per person compared to 1.02 expected.
Table 4
Table 4
Cancer mortality in employees and dependents, as given by Goldsmith

In a further table Goldsmith gives his estimate of a positive association as being “convincing” in the Moscow study for red blood cell changes, white blood cell changes, and increased all-site cancer incidence for Moscow staff and other employees, and some other comparisons which depend on combining Moscow and other embassies. He cites the exposures of the Moscow embassy cohort as ranging from 5 to 18 μW/cm2 , giving these as estimated exposures rather than as maximum levels. Goldsmith’s conclusions, and comments on excesses of particular cancers, without giving confidence limits, are repeated in another paper [12].

In [9], Goldsmith presents results on complications of pregnancy, which shows an increased risk in Moscow compared with the other embassies after the initial tour of duty (P=0.04), which he interprets as relating to spontaneous abortion. As noted above, this was the only one of 44 medical conditions in women assessed from medical records that showed a significant difference. Goldsmith claims that a potential infertility effect in the study was modified before the final report. He gives data on leukemia deaths, derived from his earlier paper [11], but showing only employees and child dependents (which showed excesses over expected), and omitting adult dependents (which did not). Goldsmith states that [9] there was some evidence that employees in the other embassies were exposed as well, "but the contract officer dismissed the possibility as being based on hearsay".

In a more informal 1985 publication [13], Goldsmith says that his introduction to the subject was from a lawyer, relating the wife of a State Department employee, who had lived in the Moscow embassy building and had developed breast cancer. The employee produced some data on the numbers of cancer cases which Goldsmith compared to US general population data, and estimated a 6 to 8 times higher cancer incidence. At about this time the investigation by Lilienfeld and his team was announced. After the Lilienfeld report was published and Goldsmith made his initial interpretation that there was increased cancer in both Moscow and the other embassies, the lawyer provided him in 1979 with further material obtained from the State Department under the Freedom of Information Act, including data on some small studies of blood measures, a claim from an employee group that radiation exposures were occurring of other embassies, and claims that data on exposure and the occurrence of some cases of cancer was withheld from Lilienfeld's team, and that some of their findings were altered or deleted.

Goldsmith’s data have been cited in some influential reviews. The review of epidemiological studies for the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) [14] gives some results from the Moscow study attributed to ‘Lilienfeld cited by Goldsmith’ and noting that the source of the expected numbers is unclear, and also that it was unclear whether the other Eastern European embassies were exposed. The observed numbers given are those for the Moscow group only, but the expected numbers do not match those in Goldsmith’s table [11].

Rothman [15] gives for leukemia and brain cancer the relative risk (SMR) and confidence limits for Moscow embassy employees; the comparison to other embassies is not mentioned. Similarly, Moulder et al. [16] cite these same estimates, with the SMR for all cancer in Moscow employees only. Other papers briefly mention the Moscow study and report it as showing no increase in leukemia or brain cancer [17], cancers in general [16,18-20], non-Hodgkin lymphoma [21], or health conditions in general [18,20,22].

Johnston-Liakouris [23] claims that the Moscow study results support the existence of a “radiofrequency sickness syndrome”. In this paper, “the critical review of this study” by John Goldsmith is gratefully acknowledged. While no data are presented, it claims that the Moscow study shows statistically significant effects ‘relative to controls’ (without specifying which controls), for many effects. These include loss of appetite, which is given in the text of the main report as increased in the Moscow group, but this seems to be an error: the corresponding table does not show an excess.

Navarro et al. [24] state that the Moscow study showed elevated mutagenesis and carcinogenesis in US embassy employees in Moscow, and a dose–response relationship between various neurological symptoms and microwave exposure.
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Discussion

Is this a useful and relevant study? As a cohort study with multiple outcomes, a major limitation is the limited information on the exposure. The microwave exposures had a frequency range somewhat higher than most cell phone frequencies, and similar to microwave relays, radar, and satellite links [25]. The exposure intensities in Moscow were low, for example in comparison to the ICNIRP recommended limit for public exposure of 10,000 μW/cm2 for frequencies from 2 to 300 GHz [26,27], but the maximum exposure levels documented were high compared to typical levels of public exposure from all radiofrequency sources or from cell phone base stations. A 1980 paper gives a median exposure level of 0.005 μW/cm2 in US cities, and an estimate that 1% of the population were exposed to levels greater than 1 μW/cm2[28]. A more recent UK survey measured exposures from base stations and from all sources at 180 locations at 17 sites where people were concerned about their exposures [29]; exposures from base stations had a geometric mean of 0.003 μW/cm2 and 95% percentile of 0.07 μW/cm2. As such exposures have been the focus of much speculation and several studies of potential health effects [30-41], the results of the extensive Moscow studies are relevant in this context.

As discussed in the report (page 237) there were no available records showing where employees in Moscow had worked or lived. It was only possible to determine exposure status if the Health History Questionnaire had been returned and even so, many respondents could not remember the details of their work and living locations. Even when the data were available, the worksheets provided by the Department of State on exposures cover only two time periods, before and after May 1975, and it is stated that “the study staff was unable to get access to the basic data on the intensity measurements from which the worksheet was derived before the preparation of this report” (page 237). It is also noted that the highest levels documented were for a short period, from June 1975 to Feb 1976.

The possibility that one or more comparison posts were exposed to microwave surveillance is also discussed (page 238), and it is stated that “As far as could be determined, no microwave levels other than background intensities have ever been discovered. Unfortunately, no access to the underlying data collected was possible before the preparation of this report.” Goldsmith has concluded not only that the other embassies were exposed, but he assumes the exposures were similar to Moscow, as he combines the data from Moscow and the other embassies for his interpretation. There seems no direct evidence to support Goldsmith’s position.

If we accept the contrast between Moscow and the other embassies as valid, the study does provide much data; and with all this detail, there is no consistent pattern in regard to any particular disease.

The authors of the main report are appropriately cautious about the interpretation of their study, emphasizing its limitations. They conclude that “all that can be said at present is that no deleterious effects have been noted in the study population, based on the data that had been collected and analyzed” (page 246). They point out that the highest exposure to microwaves occurred during a short period from June 1975–1976, and there was only a short time from then until the end of the investigation for any effects to appear. They recommended that further assessments of the health of this group should be made in future years, and a surveillance system should be set up to monitor the occurrence of deaths and the proportion due to malignancies.

The study had multiple outcome variables, and no corrections for multiple testing were used. The authors instead emphasized the logical issue of looking for differences between Moscow and other embassies, and differences by estimated exposure and time spent in Moscow. For many outcomes, statistical power is low. This is discussed in the report and in a paper [5] giving minimum detectable risk ratios.

Some of the problems in interpretation may have arisen because although the objective of the study was to compare the disease experience of Moscow embassy staff with staff of other embassies, this comparison is not summarized numerically. The mortality tables give the observed and expected number of events and the SMRs compared to the general US population, separately for the Moscow embassy and the other European embassies. The morbidity tables similarly present SMbRs separately for the two groups. The interpretation depends on a subjective comparison of the SMRs or SMbRs between the Moscow and the other embassies groups, but the ratio of the SMR or SMbRs is not shown. This is almost certainly because SMRs are not mutually comparable as they are based on different standard populations. However, the effect is that even papers which correctly interpret the study as showing no increased risks do not present the relevant comparison in their extracted data; they may show the observed and expected numbers or the SMR in the Moscow group only, ignoring the comparison to other embassies, e.g. [15,16,19]. While a ratio of the SMRs or SMbRs is not correct, it should be a reasonable approximation as the age and sex distributions of the two embassy groups do not vary greatly, and so have been added here in Tables ​Tables22 and 3. The ratio will also be imprecise as the variance of each SMR is large. If direct standardization or other methods of control for age and sex differences had been used, and a ratio given, the study may have been less open to misinterpretation.
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Conclusions

The Moscow study was a major epidemiological study of radiofrequency exposure and deserves recognition as such. Much of the published commentary on the study is misleading. Perhaps the publication of this review will encourage those with direct knowledge of the study and its sequelae to contribute new information.
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Abbreviations

GHz: Gigahertz; μW/cm2: Microwatts per square centimeter; HHQ: Health History Questionnaire; SMR: Standardized mortality ratio; CI: Confidence interval; SMbR: Standardized morbidity ratio; Obs: Observed; Exp: Expected.
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Competing interests

The author declares that he has no competing interests.
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Author’s contribution

The named author reviewed the original report and the references given and prepared the manuscript.
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Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to Dr David Black (Auckland), who first sparked my interest in this topic; Katharine Chan, MSc (Vancouver) who assisted with the literature search, and Dr James Tonascia (Baltimore), who responded helpfully to a query. No financial support was required.
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References

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3509929/


Air Force Accused of "Zapping" Protesters
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On Guard

Women peace campers at Greenham Common, England, claim that they are being attacked by the US electronic weapons from within the US airbase there. They believe that some form of electromagnetic wave or other signal is being directed at them and is responsible for a number of illnesses they have suffered over the past year.

Symptoms range from mild headaches and drowsiness to bouts of temporary paralysis and, in one case, an apparent circulatory failure which required emergency treatment. Women have also complained of sharp pains and problems with speech coordination. A team of doctors from the Medical Campaign Against nuclear Weapons are compiling a report on the condition of the women affected.

The women first noticed a pattern of illnesses emerging in 1984. They discounted food or water poisoning as a cause and started to suspect interference from inside the base. They found that women at different points around the camp appeared to have experienced similar symptoms at the same time, even when they were not in contact with one another.

They believe there is a deliberate intent to make life difficult for them and so drive them away. Some of the worst affected women now find it impossible to stay around Greenham for more than a short period of time.

Electronic weapons are know to have been used by security forces on a number of occasions. The Americas are reported to have used ultrasound to disorient and demoralize their enemies during the Vietnam war and a number of American police forces are believed to have carried out trials with infra-sound generators mounted on the back of trucks. The high intensity, low frequency pressure waves these produce are said to cause vomiting, nausea and a range of other disturbances and to induce fits in those who are subject to them. American medical groups have protested against the proposed use of these weapons for urban riot control.

Microwave radiation is also believed to have been used as a weapon at various times. The most celebrated instance was the irradiation of the US Embassy in Moscow during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. It has never been made clear whether the Russians used the signal as a weapon or for surveillance, but a television documentary screened last year reported a high incidence of cancer amongst ex-Embassy staff and suggested that disorders of the blood and nervous system could also have been caused by the signal.

The women at Greenham Common suspect that more than one type of frequency of radiation is being used against them. They say that the symptoms vary from time to time and seem to reflect what takes place on the base. Large numbers of women have complained of sudden feelings of extreme tiredness shortly before major events, such as the departure of a cruise missile convoy and on other occasions when their activities might have proved particularly awkward for the forces using the base.

We have conducted a number of tests around the base in cooperation with journalists from other organizations. Readings taken with a wide range signal strength meter showed marked increases in the background signal level near one of the womens' camps at a time when they claimed to be experiencing ill effects.

On another occasion, previously low signal levels near the camp rose sharply when the women created a disturbance just outside the perimeter fence of the base. Whether this indicated an attempt to subdue the women by electronic means or merely the use of a radar surveillance system it is impossible to say.

The signal levels measured were well above normal background levels but still within official safety limits. however, there is evidence from a number of sources that low levels of electromagnetic radiation can have harmful effects especially where exposure takes place over a long period of time.

British Defense officials have denied that any form of electronic signal is being used against the protesters.

--courtesy, Electronics Today

http://mindjustice.org/victims.htm
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby Burnt Hill » Fri Aug 25, 2017 5:00 pm

Thanks elfismiles!
I knew there was another appropriate thread somewhere for that report.
:thumbsup
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby elfismiles » Sat Aug 26, 2017 8:55 am

Burnt Hill » 25 Aug 2017 21:00 wrote:Thanks elfismiles!
I knew there was another appropriate thread somewhere for that report.
:thumbsup


No problem BH. I know some people hate folks reposting stuff from one thread to another but sometimes that's the only way I see stuff.

I just saw this posted to fb...

U.S. Department of State (VIDEO)
August 24 at 3:57pm

During her press briefing today, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert confirms that at least 16 employees at the U.S. Embassy in Havana were affected by attacks in #Cuba.

https://www.facebook.com/usdos/videos/1 ... 509826074/



U.S. says its diplomats in Cuba were attacked with advanced sonic weapon
U.S. expelled 2 Cuban diplomats after incidents, an order Cuba calls 'unjustified and baseless'
The Associated Press Posted: Aug 09, 2017
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-diploma ... -1.4241129
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby elfismiles » Mon Aug 28, 2017 2:33 pm

Cuba acoustic attack: What is a covert sound weapon?
25 August 2017
From the section US & Canada

Image caption At least 16 staff members at the US Embassy in Havana have reported symptoms blamed on an "acoustic attack"

The US state department says its diplomats in Cuba have been suffering symptoms including hearing loss after suspected sonic attacks, some of which were - according to some reports - inaudible to human ears.

The use of sound as a weapon is not new, but what about unheard sound attacks?
What damage can sound do?

If you've ever heeded the warning to wear ear plugs to a loud concert, you have been taking care of the hair cells in your inner ear that pick up noise and send it to the brain. You've been trying to avoid hearing loss or tinnitus (ringing in the ears).

But sound can have effects that go beyond hearing.

Symptoms of a sonic attack may include dizziness, headaches, vomiting, bowel spasms, vertigo, permanent hearing loss and even brain damage.

How would an inaudible sound weapon work?

There are two options - go low or go high.

Lower frequencies than humans can hear - below 20Hz - are known as infrasound. They're used by animals including elephants, whales and hippos to communicate.

Infrasound could affect human hearing if very loud, and could cause vertigo and even vomiting or uncontrollable defecation if deployed very intensely.

But Dr Toby Heys has told the New Scientist that an attack using infrasound would rely on "a large array of subwoofers" and "wouldn't be very covert".

Given the Associated Press reports embassy staff were targeted at their residences, it's hard to see how anyone would pull that off without the huge racks of speakers giving the game away.

Ultrasound frequencies above 20,000Hz, or 20kHz, are also inaudible to humans but can damage the parts of the ear, including hairs, that pick up sound.

This is more likely in the Cuban case as ultrasound can be targeted more easily. It has many medical applications so has been at the forefront of research, and directional speakers already exist for home use. These could direct sound through walls.

But any equipment would need to be reasonably large to fit a battery that could power it strongly enough, and an ultrasound attack would place other people in the vicinity - including, potentially, the person carrying out the attack - at risk.

Steve Goodman, author of the book Sonic Warfare, told BBC Radio 4 that it was "not clear" whether inaudible soundwaves could give someone the hearing loss the state department described.

"The information given is so vague it's hard to say," he said.
Who has this kind of technology?

Again, it's not clear. And it's also not clear who would have carried out such an attack on embassy staff. Cuba has denied involvement and security analysts say it may have been done by a third country, hostile to the US.

Elizabeth Quintana, a senior research fellow at the UK-based military think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), specialises in emerging technologies in the defence world.

"The US have been surprised at the extent to which others have caught up with them in all sorts of technologies," she told the BBC.

"It's probably not so much a surprise that the technology exists, more that others are aware of it and using it."
Has sound been used as a weapon before?

Yes. Sound cannon are used in crowd control by police forces around the world, were fitted to a ship to deter Somali pirates, and were made available for London police during the 2012 Olympics, although not used.

Some versions are capable of producing deafening sound levels of 150 decibels at one metre. They can deafen people within a 15 metre range and some can be heard miles away - not quite the subtle, covert operation supposed to have happened in Havana.

Image
Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Police in the US have access to Long Range Acoustic Devices, a form of sonic cannon

Sound has been used in psychological operations too - the US army played heavy metal and Western children's music to Iraqi prisoners of war in an attempt to deprive them of rest and make them co-operate in interrogations.

And some shop owners in the UK use so-called Mosquitos, devices that emit high-pitched sounds (15-18kHz) and cannot be heard by people who have turned 25, to try to discourage teenagers from standing around near the entrance to their shops.

But in all of these examples, the person being targeted could hear the sound - a key difference from the incidents said to have happened in Havana.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41047721
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby American Dream » Sun Sep 24, 2017 8:54 am

Sonic Attacks and Spy Games

Image


The Moscow Signal was not, however, the only prominent instance of the Russians using electromagnetic radiation for potentially hostile purposes. Another curious incident involved a signal broadcast from a Duga radar based in Chernobyl. Shortwave radio operators eventually dubbed it the "Russian Woodpecker." The late, great Philip Coppens provided the following details concerning this signal:

"The Russian Woodpecker was a Soviet signal that could be heard on the shortwave radio bands worldwide between July 1976 and December 1989 – the latter date marking the collapse of the communist regime in the Soviet Union. It sounded like a sharp, repetitive tapping noise – giving rise to the 'Woodpecker' name. The signal could be replicated by tapping a pencil on a table between eight and fourteen times each second.

"The random frequency was heard on disrupted legitimate broadcast, amateur radio, and utility transmissions and resulted in thousands of complaints by countries worldwide to Moscow. The complaints were however non-specific: it seemed that whatever the Russians were doing, was interfering with 'business as usual' in the West, and could the Russians please rectify the problem. The answer was 'njet,' but also invited another question: what was the signal?

"Today, it is known that the signal came from the Duga-3 system, which was officially part of the Soviet Anti-Ballistic Missiles early-warning network, also known as an over-the-horizon radar (OTH) system and it is this that the Soviet Union post 1989 gave as the official explanation. In principle, it therefore seemed to be a mundane cause and purpose, tied in with the Soviet’s defence system and not with a global mind control technology."


Image
the Duga radar from which the "Russian Woodpecker" signal was broadcast

As Coppens goes on to note, however, there is some compelling evidence that the Duga system was in fact intended to effect human behavior.

Now, it is important to note that these prior incidents were linked to electromagnetic radiation, which has long been suspected as a tool of mind control by conspiracy researchers. As far as as the Cuban incident is concerned, early reports indicate that the diplomats were attacked with some type of sonic weapon, most likely one involving ultrasound. And ultrasound is not a form of electromagnetic radiation, being a type of sound wave.

However, ultrasound has been explored by the United States as a form of behavior modification. As was noted before here, Project ARTICHOKE had researched the possibility of using ultrasound for behavior modification as far back as the 1950s. More recently, US developments of "non-lethal" weapons have included ultrasonic devices.

So be assured, US officials are not nearly as perplexed by these developments as they would have the MSM believe, though it is possible the weapon unveiled in Cuba represents some type of game changer. Certainly the Great Powers have been making a showing of force lately.

As noted above, what is so striking is how open all of this. But then again, the Trump presidency has resulted in a gradual lowering of the mask. The ugliness of the modern world has become manifest in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago. This is likely only the begging of a revelation of a new breed of weapons. We can only hope that their deployment will be limited.

Image


http://visupview.blogspot.com/2017/09/s ... games.html
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:05 am

Don't believe anything they say.
And at the same time,
Don't believe that they say anything without a reason.
---Immanuel Kant
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:15 am

^^^ THANK YOU....I missed this thread should have posted this here

Recording Of Sound Tied To Diplomat Attacks In Cuba Adds More Mystery

By JOSH LEDERMAN and MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Published OCTOBER 12, 2017 3:17 PM
0Views
WASHINGTON (AP) — It sounds sort of like a mass of crickets. But not quite. A high-pitched whine, but from what? It seems to undulate, even writhe. Listen closely: Some hear multiple, distinct tones colliding in a nails-on-the-chalkboard effect.

The Associated Press has obtained a recording of what some U.S. Embassy workers heard in Havana, part of the series of unnerving incidents later deemed to be deliberate attacks. The recording, released Thursday by the AP, is the first disseminated publicly of the many taken in Cuba of sounds that led investigators initially to suspect a sonic weapon.



The recordings from Havana have been sent for analysis to the U.S. Navy, which has advanced capabilities for analyzing acoustic signals, and to the intelligence services, the AP has learned. But the recordings have not significantly advanced U.S. knowledge about what is harming diplomats. Officials say the government still doesn’t know what is responsible for injuries to its personnel, but the U.S. has faulted Cuba for failing to protect American diplomats on its soil.

The Navy and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment on the recording. Cuba has denied involvement or knowledge of the attacks.

Not all Americans injured in Cuba heard sounds. Of those who did, it’s not clear they heard precisely the same thing.

Yet the AP has reviewed several recordings from Havana taken under different circumstances, and all have variations of the same high-pitched sound. Individuals who have heard the noise in Havana confirm the recordings are generally consistent with what they heard.

“That’s the sound,” one of them said.

The recording being released by the AP has been digitally enhanced to increase volume and reduce background noise, but has not been otherwise altered.

The sound seemed to manifest in pulses of varying lengths — seven seconds, 12 seconds, two seconds — with some sustained periods of several minutes or more. Then there would be silence for a second, or 13 seconds, or four seconds, before the sound abruptly started again.

Whether there’s a direct relationship between the sound and the physical damage suffered by the victims is unclear. The U.S. says that in general, the attacks caused hearing, cognitive, visual, balance, sleep and other problems.

A closer examination of one recording reveals it’s not just a single sound. Roughly 20 or more different frequencies, or pitches, are embedded in it, the AP discovered using a spectrum analyzer, which measures a signal’s frequency and amplitude.

To the ear, the multiple frequencies can sound a bit like dissonant keys on a piano being struck all at once. Plotted on a graph, the Havana sound forms a series of “peaks” that jump up from a baseline, like spikes or fingers on a hand.

“What it is telling us is the sound is located between about 7,000 kHz and 8,000 kHz. There are about 20 peaks, and they seem to be equally spaced. All these peaks correspond to a different frequency,” said Kausik Sarkar, an acoustics expert and engineering professor at The George Washington University who reviewed the recording with the AP.

Those frequencies might be only part of the picture. Conventional recording devices and tools to measure sound may not pick up very high or low frequencies, such as those above or below what the human ear can hear. Investigators have explored whether infrasound or ultrasound might be at play in the Havana attacks.

The recordings have been played for workers at the U.S. Embassy to teach them what to listen for, said several individuals with knowledge of the situation in Havana. Some embassy employees have also been given recording devices to turn on if they hear the sounds. The individuals weren’t authorized to discuss the situation publicly and demanded anonymity.

Cuban officials wouldn’t say whether the U.S. has shared the recordings with Cuba’s government.

Another big question remains: Even if you know you’re under attack, what do you do? Still dumbfounded by what’s causing this, the United States has been at a loss to offer advice.

The embassy’s security officials have told staff if they believe they’re being attacked, they should get up and move to a different location, because the attack is unlikely to be able to follow them, the commenting individuals said. The AP reported last month that some people experienced attacks or heard sounds that were narrowly confined to a room or parts of a room.

At least 22 Americans are “medically confirmed” to be affected, the State Department says, adding that the number could grow. The attacks started last year and are considered “ongoing,” with an incident reported as recently as late August.

Cuba has defended its “exhaustive and priority” response, emphasizing its eagerness to assist the U.S. investigation. Cuban officials did not respond to requests for comment for this story but have complained in the past that Washington refuses to share information they say they need to fully investigate, such as medical records, technical data and timely notification of attacks.

The recordings also appear to rule out one possibility for a high-tech weapon: electromagnetic pulses.

The broad array of symptoms reported, including those not easily explained by sound waves, had led to questions of a possible microwave or radio wave device frying body tissue from afar. Research conducted by the U.S. military decades ago showed that short, intense “pulses” of microwaves could affect tissue in the head in a way that was interpreted by the ear as sound, meaning that a microwave device could potentially “beam” sounds directly into people’s heads.

If that were the case, the sounds wouldn’t show up on a recording.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/recor ... bassy-cuba


and I will add Min's post here also

MinM » Sun Oct 08, 2017 11:24 pm wrote:The latest US-Cuba kerfuffle is a strange one .....

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@watchingeye Sep 21

Damning evidence Cuba's launched a sci-fi sonic weapon at America: How 21 US diplomats were hit by hearing and...
Image

@zerohedge Sep 22

Damning Evidence Cuba Launched A Sci-Fi Weapon At US Diplomats
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@lydrummet Sep 26

Fascinating what sound can do: How could the 'sonic attack' on US diplomats in Cuba have been carried out?
Image

@JasonLeopold Sep 28

US Diplomats Oppose Withdrawal Of Staff From Cuba https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnhudson/us- ... uo5dgmWjAd … via @John_Hudson
Image

@kenvogel Oct 6

There's not much evidence to back up the theory that US diplomats in Cuba were injured by some kind of sonic attack.
Image

@WIRED 5 hours ago

Here's the issue with the "sonic weapon" hypothesis: physicists and acousticians don't know that it's even possible http://wrd.cm/2xlrtpy

Global Research‏ @CRG_CRM

Trump Expels 60% of Cuban Diplomats http://ow.ly/cSKt30fIQSh
Image

Global Research‏ @CRG_CRM Oct 7

Cuba Has Never Perpetrated, Nor Will It Ever Perpetrate Attacks of Any Sort Against Diplomatic Officials or ... http://ow.ly/lJuV30fI9qY
Image

Image

***** ***** ***** ***** *****


Hugh Manatee Wins » Sat Dec 27, 2008 10:01 pm wrote:


OMG. That CIA-NYTimes link is bizarre.

I've never seen Philip Agee's name printed as a massive feminine curly "Philip" and underneath it a tiny tiny tiny "Agee."
Spooks have their fun with their enemies.

Philip Agee was a moral icon and very brave, too.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/C ... _Agee.html

PP [psychological and paramilitary] programmes are to be found in almost every CIA station and emphasis on the kinds of PP operations will depend very much on local conditions. Psychological warfare includes propaganda (also known simply as 'media'), work in youth and student organizations, work in labour organizations (trade unions, etc.), work in professional and cultural groups and in political parties.
.....
The vehicles for grey and black propaganda may be unaware of their CIA or US government sponsorship. This is partly so that it can be more effective and partly to keep down the number of people who know what is going on and thus to reduce the danger of exposing true sponsorship. Thus editorialists, politicians, businessmen and others may produce propaganda, even for money, without necessarily knowing who their masters in the case are. Some among them obviously will and so, in agency terminology, there is a distinction between 'witting' and 'unwitting' agents.


and SonicG's also

SonicG » Sun Jun 18, 2017 10:43 am wrote:And now a slap on the wrist from Russia over the Cuba policy...
MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian Foreign Ministry has criticized President Donald Trump's decision to freeze a detente with Cuba and his verbal attack on the Caribbean island's leaders.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that Trump is "returning us to the forgotten rhetoric of the Cold War."

The statement says that "It's clear the anti-Cuba discourse is still widely needed. This can only induce regret."

Despite Trump's campaign pledge to improve relations with Moscow, there has been no significant improvement in foreign policy cooperation between the two countries. Last week, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to back new sanctions on Russia.

Moscow maintains close ties with Havana, and in March signed a deal to ship oil to Cuba for the first time in over a decade.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-says- ... 50251.html


It really is like a bizarro-replay of the Reagan years...or the manifestation of some desire to return to it. I imagine that is the MAGA era for most...
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Soviet Psychotronics Master Thread

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Oct 19, 2017 11:37 am

U.S. tourist, FBI agent may have been victims of Cuba sonic attacks

Associated Press
Havana, Cuba
Chris Allen's phone started buzzing as word broke last month that invisible attacks in Cuba had hit a U.S. government worker at Havana's Hotel Capri. Allen's friends and family had heard an eerily similar story from him before.

Allen, from South Carolina, had cut short his trip to Cuba two years earlier after numbness spread through all four of his limbs within minutes of climbing into bed at the same hotel where U.S. Embassy and other government workers were housed. Abd those weren't the only parallels with the latest reports. Convinced the incidents must be related, Allen joined a growing list of private U.S. citizens asking the same alarming but unanswerable question: Were we victims, too?

It may be that Allen's unexplained illness, which lingered for months and bewildered a half-dozen neurologists in the United States, bears no connection to whatever has harmed at least 22 American diplomats, intelligence agents and their spouses over the last year. But for Cuba and the U.S., it matters all the same.

It's cases like Allen's that illustrate the essential paradox of Havana's mystery: If you can't say what the attacks are, how can you say what they're not?

With no answers about the weapon, culprit or motive, the U.S. and Cuba have been unable to prevent the attacks from becoming a runaway crisis. As the United States warns its citizens to stay away from Cuba, there are signs that spring breakers, adventure seekers and retirees already are reconsidering trips to the island. After years of cautious progress, U.S.-Cuban relations are now at risk of collapsing entirely.

That delicate rapprochement hadn't even started to take hold in April 2014 when Allen felt numbness overtake his body on his first night in the Havana hotel.

"It was so noticeable and it happened so quickly that it was all I could focus on and it really, really frightened me," said Allen, a 37-year-old who works in finance.

The Associated Press reviewed more than 30 pages of medical records, lab results, travel agency records and contemporaneous emails, some sent from Havana, provided by Allen. They tell the story of an American tourist who fell ill under baffling circumstances in the Cuban capital, left abruptly, then spent months and thousands of dollars undergoing medical tests as his symptoms continued to recur.

One troubling fact is true for tourists and embassy workers alike: There's no test to definitively say who was attacked with a mysterious, unseen weapon and whose symptoms might be entirely unrelated. The United States hasn't disclosed what criteria prove its assertion that 22 embassy workers and their spouses are "medically confirmed" victims.

So it's no surprise that even the U.S. government has struggled to sort through confusing signs of possible attacks, odd symptoms, and incidents that could easily be interpreted as coincidences.

The AP has learned that an FBI agent sent to Cuba this year was alarmed enough by an unexplained sound in his hotel that he sought medical testing to see whether he was the latest victim of what some U.S. officials suspect are "sonic attacks." Whether the FBI agent was really affected is disputed.

But there's no dispute that a U.S. government doctor was hit in Havana, half a dozen U.S. officials said.

Dispatched to the island earlier this year to test and treat Americans at the embassy, the physician became the latest victim himself. The degree of his affliction varies from telling to telling. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the sensitive investigation. The FBI and the State Department declined to comment.

While the U.S. hasn't blamed anyone for perpetrating the attacks, President Trump said this week he holds Cuba "responsible."

Cuba's government, which declined to comment for this story, vehemently denies involvement or knowledge of the attacks. Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba's first vice president and presumably its next leader, last week called the allegations "bizarre nonsense without the slightest evidence, with the perverse intention of discrediting Cuba's impeccable behavior."

When Allen visited Havana three years ago, today’s sicknesses and political drama were all still in the distant future.

After spending his first day walking the city, he checked into Room 1414 of the recently refurbished Hotel Capri. Within minutes of going to bed, he started losing sensation in his body.

The tingling originated in his toes, like the prickly feeling when your foot falls asleep, he said. It spread into his ankles and calves, then to his fingertips. When he got out of bed, the sensation went away. When he got back in bed, the tingling returned, reaching his hands, forearms, ears, cheek and neck.

Allen assumed he'd never identify the cause of all his trouble. Then in September, the AP reported that the hotel where he stayed was the site of other puzzling events — later declared "attacks" by U.S. officials — that left embassy staffers with their own set of varying and seemingly inscrutable symptoms.

"I wanted to wave a flag and be like, I know this, I know what it is like to stay there and have something weird happen to your body and not be able to explain it," Allen said in an hour-long interview in his office in Charleston.

While the State Department says it's not aware of any tourists being attacked, it has given credence to the notion that the unidentifiable danger could potentially ensnare any American who sets foot on the island. Its extraordinary warnings last month noted that assaults have occurred at popular tourist hotels, including the Capri, and that the U.S. is no position to guarantee anyone's safety.

Among the hundreds of thousands of Americans who've thronged to Cuba in recent years, Allen isn't the only tourist who believes he was attacked.

The State Department has received reports of several citizens who visited Cuba and say they've developed symptoms similar to what embassy victims experienced. The government says it can't verify their accounts, but hasn't indicated it's trying hard to do so. Asked if anyone is investigating such reports, the State Department said its advice to concerned tourists is to "consult a medical professional."

Since the AP began reporting on the Cuba attacks, roughly three dozen American citizens have contacted the news agency to say they believe they may have been affected by the same or related phenomena. The AP has not published those accounts, because closer examination gave reason to doubt their situations were connected.

Allen's case is different.

He stayed on the 14th floor of the same Havana hotel where U.S. government workers have been attacked, including on an upper floor. He described sudden-onset symptoms that began in his hotel bed, but disappeared in other parts of the room — similar to accounts given by U.S. government workers who described attacks narrowly confined to just parts of rooms. They also spoke of being hit at night, in bed.

And medical records show Allen conveyed consistent, detailed descriptions of what he experienced to at least six physicians — almost two years before the public knew anything about the attacks.

Still, other parts of Allen's story don't neatly align with what embassy workers have reported.

The U.S. has said the attacks started in 2016, two years after Allen's Cuba visit.

His primary complaints of numbness and tingling aren't known to have been reported by the government victims, though their symptoms, too, have varied widely and included many neurological problems.

Allen also didn't recount hearing the blaring, agonizing sound — a recording of which the AP published last week — that led investigators to suspect a sonic weapon. Then again, neither did many of the 22 "medically confirmed" government victims.

When Allen traveled to Havana for a long weekend of sightseeing, Americans were still prohibited from visiting under U.S. travel restrictions that were later eased. He booked flights through Mexico using a Canadian travel company that specifically recommended he stay at Capri, travel records show.

Whatever happened on his first night in Havana, it came back the next evening. Again the numbness set in within minutes after he got into bed, this time stronger and in more parts of his body. It didn't go away.

So the next morning Allen rushed to the airport and took the first available flight off the island.

But the numbness stayed with him to varying degrees for six months. In that time, he saw an urgent care doctor, then his family physician, and then one neurologist after another at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Every time the numbness seemed to ease, it would return without explanation. Specialists performed nerve conduction tests, full blood workups, exams to check muscle function, a CT of the head, an MRI of the spine, a sonogram of the heart. Doctors considered infections, tumors, the temporarily paralyzing Guillain-Barre syndrome, poisoning from heavy metal contamination and even ciguatoxin, a substance some Caribbean fish use to paralyze prey.

"When you have these vague symptoms, sometimes all you can do is prove what it's not," said Dr. George Durst, Allen's longtime physician. "No one's smart enough to figure out what it was."

Durst said Allen was right to be worried and didn't imagine his symptoms. He said Allen's loss of sensation on both sides of the body ruled out peripheral nerve damage, suggesting the problem was in his central nervous system instead.

Outside medical experts say it's difficult if not impossible to determine whether different symptoms experienced by different individuals in Cuba are connected. The U.S. has declined to say what criteria separate the medically confirmed victims from others who've reported concerns or symptoms.

"I am sure that between April 2014 and October 2017 there must have been a very large number of people who were in Cuba and who were affected by various symptoms. But that's not unusual," said Mario Svirsky, who teaches neuroscience at New York University School of Medicine.

If Allen was targeted by anyone, it's not clear why.

He would have been one of the first Americans to stay at Hotel Capri after a major renovation. The iconic high-rise, known as a flashy mobster hangout before Cuba's 1959 revolution, had reopened a few months earlier under a partnership between Cuba's state-run tourism company and a Spanish hotel chain. Hotel representatives declined to comment for this story.

To an outsider, Allen could have looked like a U.S. government agent, potentially even a spy.

A clean-cut 33-year-old at the time, he had worked for years in Republican politics, including on former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's 2012 presidential campaign. He also performed "advance" work in George W. Bush's administration that involved setting up logistics for official trips, a contract job that meant he briefly had an official passport.

Allen approached the AP after it reported on the Capri attacks to ask how he could contact investigators to volunteer information. He agreed to tell his story publicly once it became clear the U.S. government was not actively looking into cases of potentially affected tourists. Allen said he was uninterested in publicity, and declined the AP's requests to be photographed and to tell his story on camera.

The harrowing symptoms aside, Allen said he doesn't regret visiting Cuba. Eight months after his trip, as President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced they would restore diplomatic relations, Allen took to Instagram to reflect on "a few wonderful days wandering the streets and photographing the people of Havana."

"If the latest news makes it easier for you to visit, I encourage all of you to do so sooner than later," he wrote.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow ... story.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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