For the past two years, the world has been waiting for answers after claims that employees at the US Embassy in Havana had fallen victim to a mysterious “sonic attack”. But according to fresh analysis, the so-called attack may have just been crickets.
Starting in late 2016, 26 US diplomats and their families reported unexplained health problems, including headaches, hearing loss, disorientation and some loss of cognitive ability, after hearing a strange high-pitched noise in their hotel rooms and homes.
Officials quickly suspected the employees had been targeted by some sort of acoustic weapon, cutting the number of employees working in Havana by more than half and expelling Cuban diplomats from Washington.
The US embassy in Havana, Cuba. Source: AP
Meanwhile, in May 2018, more US government personnel were sent home from China after an employee reportedly suffered brain trauma linked to “abnormal sounds”, which the US claimed was similar to the injuries in Cuba.
But scientists from the US and UK have now found “strong evidence” that a recording of the “sonic attack”, made by a US employee in Cuba and released by Associated Press, matches the echoing call of a Caribbean cricket.
“The calling song of the Indies short-tailed cricket (Anurogryllus celerinictus) matches, in nuanced detail, the AP recording in duration, pulse repetition rate, power 27 spectrum, pulse rate stability, and oscillations per pulse,” the study read.
“An echoing cricket call, rather than a sonic 33 attack or other technological device, is responsible for the sound in the released recording.”
The research came about after one of the authors, Alexander Stubbs of the University of California, listened to the recording and was reminded of his experiences conducting fieldwork in the Caribbean.
While the paper, which has been released as a ‘preprint’ and has not yet been peer-reviewed, does not examine the causes of the illnesses reported by the employees, it said there needs to be “more rigorous research into the source of these ailments”.
The authors further noted that while the recording is of crickets, this does not mean that the employees were not subject to an attack. Cuba has continually denied any role in, or knowledge of, the incidents.
In September last year, the New York Times reported that doctors and scientists believed “unconventional microwave weapons” were the cause of the mystery ailments.
The US Department of State is yet to comment on the report.
“An echoing cricket call, rather than a sonic 33 attack or other technological device, is responsible for the sound in the released recording.”
The research came about after one of the authors, Alexander Stubbs of the University of California, listened to the recording and was reminded of his experiences conducting fieldwork in the Caribbean.
While the paper, which has been released as a ‘preprint’ and has not yet been peer-reviewed, does not examine the causes of the illnesses reported by the employees, it said there needs to be “more rigorous research into the source of these ailments”.
The authors further noted that while the recording is of crickets, this does not mean that the employees were not subject to an attack. Cuba has continually denied any role in, or knowledge of, the incidents.
In September last year, the New York Times reported that doctors and scientists believed “unconventional microwave weapons” were the cause of the mystery ailments.
The US Department of State is yet to comment on the report.
