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Comment by luckylion | Hacker News Reader

> Given that almost exclusively US officials have acquired these symptoms, I would like to hear the arguments that one would give for it not being a weapon.

Only US officials work in US military/intelligence (which all embassies are to an extent) installations. If it's something they deployed, e.g. some new surveillance or security tech, it makes sense that it would affect people working there. And the US intelligence community would probably rather have a few people get inconvenienced than not use their toys.

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Not entirely true, many embassies and facilities hire local nationals to work and operate within the grounds.

Yes so the interesting question is: Do these nationals also get sick or not?

This would be an excellent data point.

Note that many of the 'attacks' happened when staff were at home, not in the embassies. So this would have to be some sort of spytech deployed in diplomats' homes.

How do you know that? If they all work at the same embassy, it seems much more likely that an attack was made on the embassy that manifested into symptoms later on, at home.

"What no one disputes is that, beginning in late 2016 and continuing until August 2017, a total of 24 US diplomatic personnel stationed in Havana, Cuba, experienced audible or sensory phenomena emanating from a distinct direction. When they moved, the sensation disappeared or lessened. Some described pressure-like or vibratory stimuli akin to air “baffling” inside a moving car when a single window is partially rolled down. The stimuli lasted for as little as 20 seconds to as long as 30 minutes.

"The diplomats experienced the stimuli in their homes or hotel rooms, although family members and other hotel guests remained unaffected. Immediately or in the days and weeks after, the subjects reported an array of neurological impairments, including disorders of balance, sleep, vision, hearing or cognition. Headaches were also frequently reported." [1]

[1] https://journals.lww.com/neurotodayonline/Fulltext/2018/0322...

That doesn't really contradict anything I said?

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