China Develops The World’s First Portable Sonic Gun For Riot Control

Professor Xie Xiujuan discusses the portable sonic rifle (circled) with the government science panel sent to evaluate it. Photo: CAS

SCMP: Chinese scientists develop handheld sonic weapon for crowd control

* Gas-powered device passed for mass production after two years of research

China has developed the world’s first portable sonic gun for riot control, the Chinese Academy of Sciences said.

The rifle-shaped instrument, which was jointly developed with military and law enforcement, is designed to disperse crowds using focused waves of low frequency sound, the academy's Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry website said on Wednesday.

The device’s “biological effect” would cause extreme discomfort, with vibrations in the eardrums, eyeballs, stomach, liver, and brain, scientists said.

Studies dating to the 1940s found that low frequency sound energy could, depending upon intensity and exposure, cause dizziness, headaches, vomiting, bowel spasms, involuntary defecation, organ damage and heart attacks.

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WNU Editor: I am sure that we are going to be seeing this sonic weapon in Hong Kong if the protests continue.

Is A Hostile Government Targeting U.S. Diplomats With A Device That Leaves Severe Brain Trauma

The U.S. Embassy in Havana, now all but closed

60 Minutes CBS News: Brain trauma suffered by U.S. diplomats abroad could be work of hostile foreign government

Since 2016, dozens of American officials have come home from Cuba and China with unexplained brain trauma. Evidence shows it may be the work of another government using a weapon that leaves no trace

In 2016 and '17, 25 Americans, including CIA agents, who worked in the U.S. Embassy in Cuba suffered serious brain injuries causing impaired vision and memory loss among other persistent symptoms. Now, we've learned that at least 15 American officials in China suffered unexplained brain trauma soon after. The FBI is now investigating whether these Americans were attacked by a mysterious weapon that leaves no trace. Over many months we have been collecting evidence of what appears to be a hostile foreign government's plan to target americans serving abroad and their families.

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WNU Editor: Canadian diplomats have also been affected .... Canadian Diplomats Sue Their Own Government Over Injuries Suffered In Cuba (February 7, 2019). What's my take. Considering the number of diplomats and their families that have been impacted, and the countries where they were stationed, this smells to me of an intel operation gone wrong done in both Cuba and in China. Both countries are authoritarian regimes, nothing happens in these two countries without their intelligence community knowing about it.  As to who is responsible for it? My gut tells me .... and it is just a gut feeling with no evidence .... that in one of these two countries a device was developed to conduct surveillance, and the other country learned about it and took it for their own surveillance operation.

Another Canadian Diplomat In Cuba Is Sick From Suspected 'Sonic Attack'

A man walks beside Canada's embassy in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, April 17, 2018.Desmond Boylan/The Canadian Press

National Post: Another Canadian diplomat in Cuba is sick with mysterious illness that has affected 13 people so far

Canadian diplomatic personnel are allowed to return to Canada if they wish.

OTTAWA — Global Affairs Canada says another Canadian diplomat in Cuba has fallen ill, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 13.

That includes diplomats posted to the Canadian embassy in Havana, as well as their dependants, who have come down with a mysterious illness that causes dizziness, headaches and trouble concentrating.

Global Affairs says the government continues to investigate the cause of the unknown illness, adding in a statement that the health and safety of diplomatic staff and their families is a top priority.

The department says the person who fell ill most recently “is receiving the necessary medical attention.”

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More News On Suspected 'Sonic Attack' Against Canadian Diplomat In Cuba

Another Canadian diplomat in Cuba affected by mysterious brain injury -- CBC
Another Canadian diplomat has reportedly fallen ill in Cuba with mysterious symptoms -- Business Insider/AP
Canada reviews Cuba presence after another diplomat falls ill -- Reuters
Canada reviewing presence in Cuba after another diplomat falls mysteriously ill -- CTV News
Another Canadian diplomat falls ill in Cuba after 12 other embassy dwellers struck with the same mystery brain illness claimed they have been 'abandoned' by their government -- Daily Mail
Another Canadian diplomat in Cuba sick with mystery illness, Global Affairs says -- Global News

U.S. Diplomats Are Still Suffering From Alleged 'Sonic Attacks' In Cuba And China

U.S consulate in Guangzhou, China (Wikiwand)

NBC: Evacuated after 'health attacks' in Cuba and China, diplomats face new ordeals in U.S.

Some diplomats and their doctors tell NBC they're concerned the U.S. wants to downplay what happened. Some suspect harassment has continued inside the U.S..

WASHINGTON — Alone in her bed in a sprawling Chinese metropolis, Catherine Werner was jolted awake one night by a pulsing, humming sound. It seemed to be coming from a specific direction.

Perhaps the A.C. unit in her upscale Guangzhou apartment was malfunctioning, the American diplomat thought. But at the same moment, she also noticed intense pressure in her head.

The sounds and sensations returned, night after night, for months. When Werner's health began declining in late 2017 — vomiting, headaches, loss of balance — she brushed it off at first, thinking China's polluted air and water were getting to her.

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WNU Editor: It is not easy to be a diplomat sometimes.

U.S. Intelligence Suspect Russia Is Behind Recent Mystery 'Attacks' On Diplomats In Cuba, China

NBC: U.S. officials suspect Russia in mystery 'attacks' on diplomats in Cuba, China

The strong suspicion that Russia was behind the alleged attacks is backed by signals intelligence, meaning intercepted communications, say U.S. officials.

WASHINGTON — Intelligence agencies investigating mysterious "attacks" that led to brain injuries in U.S. personnel in Cuba and China consider Russia to be the main suspect, three U.S. officials and two others briefed on the investigation tell NBC News.

The suspicion that Russia is likely behind the alleged attacks is backed up by evidence from communications intercepts, known in the spy world as signals intelligence, amassed during a lengthy and ongoing investigation involving the FBI, the CIA and other U.S. agencies. The officials declined to elaborate on the nature of the intelligence.

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More News On Reports That U.S. Intelligence Believe Russia Is Behind Recent Mystery 'Attacks' On Diplomats In Cuba, China

Russia the main suspect in U.S. diplomats' illness in Cuba: NBC -- Reuters
Russia Suspected in Mystery 'Attacks' on US Diplomats in Cuba, China: Sources -- NBC 10
Russia suspected of mysterious attacks on US diplomats in Cuba -- NYPost
Cory Gardner Renews Call for Russia to Be Declared Sponsor of Terrorism After Reports on Sonic Attacks -- Roll Call

Is Someone Using Microwave Weapons Against U.S. Diplomats?

New York Times: Microwave Weapons Are Prime Suspect in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers

Doctors and scientists say microwave strikes may have caused sonic delusions and very real brain damage among embassy staff and family members.

During the Cold War, Washington feared that Moscow was seeking to turn microwave radiation into covert weapons of mind control.

More recently, the American military itself sought to develop microwave arms that could invisibly beam painfully loud booms and even spoken words into people’s heads. The aims were to disable attackers and wage psychological warfare.

Now, doctors and scientists say such unconventional weapons may have caused the baffling symptoms and ailments that, starting in late 2016, hit more than three dozen American diplomats and family members in Cuba and China. The Cuban incidents resulted in a diplomatic rupture between Havana and Washington.

The medical team that examined 21 affected diplomats from Cuba made no mention of microwaves in its detailed report published in JAMA in March. But Douglas H. Smith, the study’s lead author and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a recent interview that microwaves were now considered a main suspect and that the team was increasingly sure the diplomats had suffered brain injury.

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Update: 'Sonic' Attacks on U.S. Embassy Staff Could Have Been Weaponized Microwave Radiation (Gizmodo).

WNU Editor: Both Russia and the U.S. have been trying to develop microwave weapons for years .... Russia Claims To Have Developed Microwave Weapons That Are Able To Deactivate Drones And Warheads (June 15, 2015). But using it to specifically target and disable human beings .... that is something new and far more realistic than the sonic weapon story.

Sonic Attacks Against U.S. Diplomats Worldwide Are Now Reaching Epidemic Proportions

US officials in Cuba are desperately trying to discover the source of the attacks. (Reuters: Alexandre Meneghini)

Gizmodo: Bizarre 'Sonic Attack' Symptoms Reportedly Spreading to US Diplomats Around the World

For more than 18 months, US diplomats have come down with similar illnesses that include mild brain damage and hearing loss after they claim to have heard unusual sounds. The incidents began in Cuba but reports have now spread to other countries. As authorities have ramped up efforts to treat any potential cases, almost 200 people have reportedly come forward to be tested.

The State Department has had little to say about the incidents that began in Havana in the fall of 2016, and the resulting information vacuum that has left the door wide open for conspiracy theories and other unverified claims. For now, no one can say for certain what is happening in these cases, but it appears US diplomats are being targeted in some sort of attack that’s left experts baffled. In the beginning, officials believed that some unknown “sonic device” was being used against the victims, but other theories have emerged in the meantime.

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Update: Bizarre diplomatic 'sonic attacks' reaching epidemic proportions (WND)

WNU Editor: You would think that with 200 stepping forward in the past two years to be tested that there would be more news coverage of this story. But actually the opposite .... not much coverage, and the US State Department is staying quiet.

Is The Beijing Government Launching 'Sonic Attacks' Against U.S. Diplomats In China?

Reuters: U.S. warns citizens in China after 'abnormal' sound injures consulate worker

BEIJING (Reuters) - An American citizen working at the U.S. consulate in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has reported suffering from “abnormal” sounds and pressure leading to a mild brain injury, the U.S. embassy said on Wednesday.

The embassy, which issued a health alert to Americans living in China, said it could not link the case to health issues suffered by U.S. government staff in Cuba dating back to late 2016.

The unnamed American citizen assigned to the consulate in Guangzhou had reported a variety of “physical symptoms” dating from late 2017 to April this year, the U.S. embassy in Beijing said in an email.

The worker was sent to the United States for further evaluation. “The clinical findings of this evaluation matched mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI),” the embassy said.

The State Department was taking the incident very seriously and working to determine the cause and impact, the embassy said.

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WNU Editor: I know in the 1980s when I was working in China that it was common knowledge that Beijing was watching all foreign diplomats 24/7 .... and I am sure nothing has changed since then. The technology has also changed .... from simply watching and following you and using crude eavesdropping devices .... to God only knows what today. In this particular case .... it appears that they have targeted a U.S. diplomat who was far more sensitive to their surveillance and spy equipment than expected. The Chinese have to be careful on this one. If other U.S. diplomats report experiencing the same symptoms .... there are going to be serious consequences .... starting with the withdrawal of U.S. embassy personnel .... to visa applications that will take forever to be approved .... a blow-back that will immediately impact the three million Chinese who want to visit the U.S. this year.

More News On Reports That A U.S. Diplomat In China Has Been A Victim Of A Sonic Attack

US employee in China reported strange sounds, pressure -- ABC News/AP
U.S. gov't worker reports "abnormal" sound, pressure in China -- CBS
US staffer suffers brain injury after 'sound' incident in China -- Channel News Asia/AFP
US issues alert after employee in China reports 'abnormal' sound sensations -- CNN
US warns staff in China: Beware of unusual sounds -- BBC
Mysterious 'sound' sickness prompts warning for Americans in China -- Euronews/MSNBC

Sonic-Audio Noise Recording Heard By Some Diplomats In Havana Has Emerged

The Hill: AP releases audio of noise heard by some diplomats in Havana attacks

The noise heard by some American diplomats who were affected by mysterious health attacks in Havana was a shrill, almost cricket-like tone with an electrical whine, according to a recording of the sound obtained by The Associated Press.

The recording is one of several reviewed by the AP, with the recordings made under "different circumstances." According to the news organization, it's just one of the sounds documented in Cuba that led U.S. investigators to initially suspect that some kind of covert sonic device was responsible for causing symptoms in American diplomats ranging from permanent hearing loss to difficulty sleeping to balance problems.

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More News On A Recording of The Sonic-Audio Noise Heard By Some Diplomats in Havana Emerging

Dangerous sound? What Americans heard in Cuba attacks -- AP
'Sonic Attack' On US Diplomats In Cuba Sounded Like Shrieking Crickets -- CBS Miami
First recording emerges of high-pitched 'sonic weapon' linked to attacks on US Embassy workers in Cuba -- FOX News
Listen to the Sound That US Diplomats Heard When Attacked by a 'Sonic Device' in Cuba -- Gizmodo

Israel Developing Semi-Lethal Sonic Cannon To Control Rioters

LRAD Sonic Weapon The LRAD, another sonic weapon, has been used successfully
to disperse protestors via Discovery.com

From Popular Science:

A desert people have developed a new weapon that uses sound instead of bullets. But this time, it will be used to control crowds instead of fighting giant worms or devious members of House Harkonnen. The Israeli Defense Ministry has contracted for the production of sonic-boom stun-guns called "Thunder Generator cannons," which they hope to use in crowd-control situations.

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My comment: So much for the next intifada taking hold.