Something similar happened to the US Embassy in Moscow. The Soviets smuggled a tiny, unpowered antenna inside and were able to eavesdrop on conversations by bathing the embassy in microwave radiation.<p>During this period, some of the staff reported feeling nausea, some were found to have notably elevated white blood cell counts, and Ambassodors Stoessel, Thompson and Bohlen later died of cancer.
Interesting one. I remember I went to the local One Stop with my son - he was about 15 at the time. He couldn't bear standing outside - he said the noise was unbearable. I said "what noise"?<p>Apparently they used some kind of sonic device that emits sound that can only be heard by teenagers, and it was incredibly effective - they wouldn't hang around outside the shop more than a moment longer than necessary. I do wonder whether it caused any damage though?<p>One Stop was later bought by Tesco and they got rid of it.
There's more to this story. Hearing loss is one issue, but Cuban intelligence will do random things to US diplomats just to mess with them. From what I understand, families of diplomats have been sent back to the US because of the problems. One story I've heard from a reliable source is that they'll break in to your home while you're out and shave your cat, just to remind you they're watching, among a myriad of other things.
Curious, I'll be interested to hear what the root cause is if they publish that information.<p>I played around with 'ultrasonic projection' for a bit, which involved two ultrasonic emitters that were emitting the same carrier wave, then the phase of one gets modulated by an audio signal. At the point where the two beams can be heard at the same time, you get the classic mixing effect where the interference between the two beams is the audible input signal. That "projected" the sound (or transmitted depending on your definition) to a remote location without the intervening folks hearing it. Of course to make it work you need pretty strong carriers and that has the effect of deafening you even if you can't hear it.<p>Thinking about that experiment though I wonder if you shot a high power beam at a window if you could use the resonance to pull off audio without having a tell tale laser bouncing off of the window. (mix the reflected ultrasonic signal with the echo to extract any modulation from the window).<p>And all of that has me wondering if it would be useful to create an inaudible sound detector / meter to let you know there was a sound around you that you couldn't hear.
Wow. This sounds horrifying. I have mild tinnitus that causes me endless grief (a lot of it mental: "I'll never be able to enjoy my music properly", but also trouble sleeping.)<p>This is just many levels worse. And bizzare! What possible gain could you derive from harming some poor sods who are only there to do a job?
"US investigators have concluded that the country's diplomats were being hit with an advanced device that can send out sound that is inaudible but can cause huge damage to the ears of a person around them, which appears to have been left either inside or near the diplomats' houses"<p>So is this an actual device they found or is it something they theorized existed? Does this technology exist now? If so, that is unsettling!
Some of the comments:<p>> Syphilis, if not treated in time, can cause damage to hearing. That is the most plausible explanation.<p>> Come on, isn't high tech USA capable of detecting high frequency sound?<p>And what sense would make for Cuba to invent something like that, and then use it to annoy its biggest enemy so far?
The Cuban regime is despicable, but I don't see what they have to gain by targeting diplomats -- particularly US diplomats.<p>I'm inclined to believe the theory that the damage is inadvertent.
This sounds less like sonic weapons and more like faulty equipment nearby. US diplomats have been gone from Cuba for decades are now only coming back within the last year.
There are lots of devices which emit sounds just outside the human hearing frequency range.<p>For example, most mobile phone power supplies emit a lot of noise around 25kHz (and a few which are faulty drop down below 18kHz and become audible to young people).<p>I wonder what hearing issues all these devices together might cause?
Perhaps an overly powerful carrier wave for a passive acoustic bug e.g. a non-RF version of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)</a> ?
I'm wondering if very low or very high frequencies are used. Either way you could probably build a detector that emits an <i>audible</i> alarm once such frequencies are detected at high intensities.<p>Are whales and fish suffering similarly due to extreme noise in the oceans?
I presume this is very low-frequency sonar that could therefore penetrate walls. They wanted to know whether the diplomats were at home, so they could enter and explore, plant bugs, etc at will. Including planting very small bugs in clothes that would be worn to work, probably.
Three words:<p>MKULTRA electronic warfare.<p>This program tested many electronic devices to annoy target subjects.<p>The russian also had their own, google the "LIDA Machine" (also patented in the US).
> You could quite easily put together such a device yourself. Just put out a 130dB noise for someone in a frequency they can't hear.<p>Or Real Soon Now™ you'll just be able to buy a uBeam
A bunch of married men contract STD that goes untreated for obvious reasons sounds a lot more plausible then Russia testing out its new weapon on our diplomats.<p>Anyone know if any of the diplomats were female?
What the hell. What possible good for Cuba could this do? (Don't answer that, none, it's time to accept the post-war era is here and you should get your power-game urges out in a video game)<p>However, I think you could make something to pinpoint high-pitch sounds relatively easily (< $200) and get a little more conclusive evidence.
There are lots of things that can cause hearing loss but I think the most <i>illogical</i> reason would be some sort of high-tech spying device or weapon. That's just silly.<p>A more reasonable explanation would be tropical diseases:<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4222184/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4222184/</a><p>My money's on West Nile Virus (WNV) because it can be completely asymptomatic <i>until you suffer hearing loss</i>. Since WNV has been detected in Cuba (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16707068" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16707068</a>) it seems plausible.<p>Then plain old opiate/heroin usage:<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21586255" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21586255</a><p>...but it's not like we have an opioid epidemic or anything!