What is a microwave weapon and is Havana Syndrome real?

It was revealed on Wednesday that United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials may have been attacked with a sophisticated microwave weapon while visiting Australia late last year.

According to a report in American GQ magazine, the two officers were in their Australian hotel rooms when they heard ringing in their ears and felt nausea and dizziness – symptoms related to Havana syndrome.

The two CIA officers, one of whom was among the agency’s most senior officials, reportedly felt it again in their hotel room in Taiwan.

What is a microwave weapon?

It is a type of direct energy weapon aimed at a target with highly focused energy in the form of sound, laser, or microwaves.

While the lines between all three are blurry, the alleged attack is likely using a sonic weapon or long-range acoustic device.

Jai Galliott, a former naval officer and director of values ​​in defense and technology at the University of New South Wales, said sonic weapons could cause some form of lung and liver damage at a given decibel rating.

„“[It’s] It has been shown that prolonged exposure to continuous low frequency may have different effects on the brain in terms of potential impact on brain tissue. “

Do these weapons really exist?

Dr. Galliott said they “certainly do”.

However, questions still remain as to whether there is a weapon that can effectively get through the walls of a building or through certain types of glass.

He told the ABC that the technology has existed since the 1970s and became more debated in the late 1980s.

Not much is known about how the technology is armed, however, as it comes from high-level national government agencies such as the Department of Defense or the CIA.

“It’s not particularly complex technology, it’s more about how they use it [and] the effect they once exerted [that’s more unknown],” he said.

How does it look like?

They are known to be quite large.

Dr. Galliott said the machines he has seen and are familiar with are quite large due to the energy required to run them.

He said it needed a good electrical outlet or facility to operate or mount on large vehicles with separate energy sources such as humvees or ships.

“It is entirely feasible that there would be smaller versions, but it probably won’t be the pocket-sized things,” he said.

How about Havana Syndrome?

The first known case was suffered by American diplomats in Cuba in 2016 when staff at the US embassy in Havana claimed they had been attacked by a concealed sonic weapon.

Inexplicable brain injuries that have involved a dozen US officials who have since traveled to Cuba, China and Russia are known as Havana Syndrome.

Her symptoms were headache, nausea, bloody noses, and minor brain injuries.

Many reported hearing a grille such as noise or sudden pressure and vibration.

The incidents reported were also limited to certain rooms.

So is Havana Syndrome a real disease?

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It is still largely unproven.

Dr. Galliott said the symptoms CIA officials alleged were “right” with what he knows about previous cases.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently said the government had not yet figured out what caused the debilitating suffering that first began in Cuba, according to a report in the New York Times.

And there are also skeptics.

Robert Bartholomew, medical sociologist and senior lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said the most plausible explanation for the symptoms was pesticides.

He co-authored a book on Havana Syndrome and said the sounds recorded by the State Department were a “mating call for Indian short-tailed cricket,” which other scientists have also claimed.