When Havana Syndrome headlines splashed across the front pages of newspapers worldwide one of the most compelling theories was that US spies were victims of a sonic attack.
Only a year after the US Embassy in Havana reopened in 2015, staff in Cuba were complaining about headaches, dizziness, and brain fog. Were they being targeted by an acoustic weapon? The American military were already reportedly exploring microwave ray guns that could beam invisible booms and spoken words into a person’s head as a way to control crowds so the idea seemed plausible.
Sonic weapons have been around for decades and their chilling history has often involved secret operations and spies. But could they actually cause the brain injuries associated with Havana Syndrome?
The Nazis were rumored to be experimenting with acoustic cannons
When Havana Syndrome headlines splashed across the front pages of newspapers worldwide one of the most compelling theories was that US spies were victims of a sonic attack.
Only a year after the US Embassy in Havana reopened in 2015, staff in Cuba were complaining about headaches, dizziness, and brain fog. Were they being targeted by an acoustic weapon? The American military were already reportedly exploring microwave ray guns that could beam invisible booms and spoken words into a person’s head as a way to control crowds so the idea seemed plausible.
Sonic weapons have been around for decades and their chilling history has often involved secret operations and spies. But could they actually cause the brain injuries associated with Havana Syndrome?
The Nazis were rumored to be experimenting with acoustic cannons
The dark history of sound dates back to WWII and Albert Speer, the Nazi minister of armaments and a close ally of Hitler. Speer was reportedly designing an ‘acoustic cannon’. The idea was to use reflector dishes to narrow the sound into a targeted beam which could cause death within a 100-yard radius but there’s no evidence the cannon was ever built.
Sound has frequently been used post WWII to produce a 'bad vibe', however - whether expressing a threat or creating an ambiance of fear or dread, according to historian Steve Goodman, author of Sonic Warfare.
Operation Wandering Soul
During the Vietnam War, the US military launched a top-secret psychological campaign against the Viet Cong, blaring ‘haunting sounds’ said to represent the souls of the dead. Operation Wandering Soul inspired the memorable scene in Apocalypse Now where attack helicopters blast Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.
When CIA spy and Panama strongman Manuel Noriega barricaded himself in Panama’s Vatican Embassy in 1989 to avoid drug trafficking charges, the US Army blasted him with Linda Rondstadt’s You’re No Good and The Clash’s I Fought The Law,presumably to prevent him from sleeping and concentrating.
The FBI aimed ‘psychoacoustic correction’ at the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas
The FBI & sonic weapons
The FBI used ‘psychoacoustic correction’ at the Branch Davidians’ compound in Waco, Texas during the infamous 1993 siege. At night, David Koresh’s compound was flooded with light and high-volume music blended with sound effects - screeching seagulls, sirens, and dentist drills among them.
A 2014 US Senate Intelligence Committee reported on the CIA’s use of ‘sound disorientation techniques’, including an instance where the Agency blared the Blues Brothers' Rawhide’ at Guantanamo detainees. Other news reports suggest detainees listened to music containing subliminal messages to persuade them to reveal al-Qaeda’s secrets.
Sound has been used for crowd control
Sound bombs
In February 2004, the American Technology Corporation signed a $1m deal to provide long-range acoustic devices (LRADs) to US Marines in Iraq.
The Arab News described the LRADs as giant loudspeakers that seem to “borrow some of its technology from modern pest-control devices that shoo away mice and other pesky critters with the help of ultrasound”. The devices delivered a 145-decibel tone that could cause splitting headaches, panic, and in some cases hearing loss.
Outside of war zones, LRADs were used in the US after Hurricane Katrina to repel looters, Goodman said.
The Scream
Controversially, Israel's IDF military police corps deployed a device known as ‘The Scream’ after violent clashes in 2005 by Palestinians and Jewish sympathizers.
"Protesters covered their ears and grabbed their heads, overcome by dizziness and nausea," CBS said in a report. "The vehicle-mounted device began sending out bursts of audible, but not loud, sound at intervals of about 10 seconds."
US police forces have also adapted versions of LRADs to disperse crowds, including during protests in Pittsburgh outside the G-20 conference in 2009.
Israel’s ‘Thunder Generator’, introduced in 2010, is so loud it could be deadly at close range, Wired reported, although it could also be used as a "good way of keeping stone-throwing youths out of a sensitive area without using excessive force".
So is Havana Syndrome caused by a sonic attack? There’s no hard evidence to back up the theory and no weapon has been found. Some believe Havana Syndrome may actually be a psychological illness, but that doesn’t explain how victims have been diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms without having had a concussion.
In 2017, the US State Department said officials were possible targets of an ‘acoustic attack’ and at least two people had "such serious health problems they needed to be brought back to the US for treatment".
At the time of the State Department briefing, speculation leaned more toward a sonic device or a hypersonic device, but opinion later shifted to focus more on the possibility of a highly directed long-distance ‘microwave’ weapon, Dr. James Giordano told SPYSCAPE’s True Spies podcast.
Descriptions of the noise preceding the onset of Havana Syndrome vary widely
Mysterious sounds
To make matters even more complicated, not every one of the hundreds of Havana Syndrome sufferers has had the same experience.
In an interview with The New York Times, security engineer Mark Lenzi described the sounds he heard as marbles rolling around a metal funnel. Other sufferers described a disturbing cricket-like noise. Some heard a sudden loud noise or whirring before the onset of symptoms including loss of balance and splitting headaches. Others heard nothing.
There's also no one-size-fits-all description to take into account all of the different types of sonic weapons in existence. So far, there is also no proof that weapons were deployed to harm North American diplomats and spies, let alone who - or what - may be behind the mysterious syndrome.
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