Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

White supremacy is terrorism.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 768: A Brief(ish) Monday Night Update

War for Ukraine Day 768: A Brief(ish) Monday Night Update

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Before we start, the Israelis appear to have killed four World Central Kitchen staffers in an air strike in Gaza around 6 PM EDT. Video and pics of the casualties are circulating online. Trust me, you do not need to watch them or loock at them. Expect more clarity in tomorrow’s news reporting.

Russia appears to have taken the night and day off from the mass bombardment of Ukrainian civilian targets and infrastructure Right now – 6;35 PM EDT – only Dnipropetrovsk and Russian occupied Kherson Oblast have air raid alerts up. While air raid alerts over any part of Ukraine are bad, let’s hope things stay quiet overnight and tomorrow.

I have now had a chance to read The Insider‘s deep dive reporting on the Havana Syndrome, which, apparently, was the focus of last night’s 60 Minutes. I’ve also read their in depth interview with now retired CIA Senior Operational Service officer Marc Polymeropoulos. I have a few thoughts. The first is that I am not qualified to determine if a directed energy weapon is even feasible. The second is that a whole lot of people who have been definitively saying it isn’t are also not qualified to do so. What I do know, however, is a whole lot about Russia’s premier wetwork unit: the GRU’s Unit 29155. While the evidence presented in the reporting about Unit 29155’s involvement is circumstantial, there is just too much of it to discount as coincidental; leaving aside that at this level of national security there are no coincidences. The open-source evidence of the Havana Syndrome being a Russian wetwork operation in The Insider‘s reporting, as well as other open-source reporting I’ve seen on the topic, is similar to the type of evidence presented in Buzzfeed’s detailed seven part series on Russia’s assassination program.

The Insider‘s reporting places the first attacks in 2014, which is several years earlier than has previously been reported. Moreover, they place them in Europe. This fits with what we know about the timeline of Putin’s largely non-kinetic world war primarily using the elements of national power other than military power against the US, the EU, and NATO. Moreover, as is the case with so much of that war, it is designed to wrong foot the US. As I’ve written here several times over the years, the US’s counterintelligence capability has two distinctive features. The first is that its conclusions are never intended to see the light of day. So even if it has been determined that Russia has spent the past decade targeting US intelligence and military personnel, as well as at what the reporting seems to indicate was at least one political appointee, those findings would never see the light of day unless leaked. The second is that our counterintelligence capabilities are a shadow of their former self. This is a result of year on year, decade on decade lack of resources and, quite frankly, lack of emphasis on this important capability. Given these two unfortunate realities, this type of wetwork is the perfect type of Russian op, just as the poisoning and beating operation that Buzzfeed documented extensively was/is.

It is also the perfect type of operation to ramp up and expand during the Trump administration as none of his political appointees would do anything about it. Either because they were in agreement with Trump’s views on Putin and Russia or because they were scared to get crosswise with Trump and his enforcers in the White House personnel office and wind up losing their phony baloney jobs. As a result, the senior civil servants wouldn’t either. They saw what happened to senior career DOJ and FBI personnel who got crosswise with Trump over Crossfire Hurricane and the Mueller investigation and learned the intended lesson. This is reflected in Marc Polymeropoulos’s recounting of how the senior appointed and career leadership at the CIA treated him and his colleagues that were suffering from Havana Syndrome. While it is true that the US nat-sec bureaucracy has a long, sad, and unfortunate history of either actively covering up or just ignoring the effects of war, warfare, and American uniformed and civilian personnels’ exposure to all sorts of noxious substances and the resulting negative health effects*, what The Insider reporting and Polymeropoulos’s interview indicate is that this both included this almost reflexive response and, at the same time, went far beyond it.

As I indicated in my first paragraph, I cannot speak to the weaponry, but I can speak to what we know of the tradecraft. And everything I know about that Russian tradecraft tells me that this is a Russian wetwork operation and Unit 29155 is up to their eyeballs in it. I’d be very interested to see whether there’s also a pattern of attacks on French personnel, especially in Africa, given that the GRU’s private military contractor (PMC) front group – Wagner PMC – spent years working to undermine French interests in the Sahel that led to the wave of coups in the central and western Sahel last summer and fall, which forced France out of the region and realigned those Sahel states with Russia.

I think that’s enough of that.

Here’s President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

This year raises a number of fundamental questions about NATO-Ukraine relations – address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

1 April 2024 – 19:29

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

A brief report for today.

I had a rather long and thorough discussion with the military and government officials about drones, all their necessary types – from FPV to our attack drones, which are showing remarkable results in destroying Russia’s military potential in the rear. Today we talked about the nuances of production, support and financing, contracts, and the necessary flexibility in setting priorities. Our defense industry must produce precisely what the war requires in the amount that is necessary and as timely as needed. Obviously, drones will be one of the decisive factors for victory in this war, and it should be a Ukrainian factor, Ukrainian drones, Ukrainian victory, which means we need more and more efficient Ukrainian drones. We can ensure this. Today’s meeting also focused on electronic warfare systems. We now have a significant number of Ukrainian products, and we have a great determination of our manufacturers to strengthen our defense with electronic warfare. We are providing the state resources to the maximum extent necessary and are working on comprehensive solutions. Solutions that will provide the necessary cover for the entire front. Everyone in the government of Ukraine, everyone in the Defense and Security Forces of Ukraine who is responsible for the drone program, knows their tasks clearly. Time and efficiency in fulfilling the tasks will be crucial. And I commend everyone who works one hundred percent efficiently in this area.

Second. NATO. Today I held a special meeting on our work with the Alliance on interoperability and prospects for this year. It was attended by all our international relations officials, the Minister of Defense, and the international cooperation team of the ministry. This year raises several fundamental questions about Ukraine-NATO relations. In particular, this concerns the summit in Washington and many other aspects of cooperation. Only with Ukraine in the Alliance can we count on real security in Europe.

Third. Today, in the White Hall of Heroes of Ukraine in the Mariyinsky Palace, I presented the Golden Star Orders to our warriors and the families of the fallen Heroes. The best of our warriors who have distinguished themselves in battles in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv regions and the south of our country – wherever Ukraine is fighting for its life and independence. Wherever our people show the best qualities of Ukrainians.

I am proud of each and every one of our warriors! I am proud of all our people who are defending Ukraine and doing everything to make normal life possible despite the Russian terror. From Kharkiv to Chernihiv region, from positions in Donetsk region to Odesa. I thank everyone who has dedicated their life to serving Ukraine. We must definitely win.

Glory to Ukraine!

The cost:

On the second anniversary of Bucha’s liberation:

Tonenke village, near the Avdiivka front, Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

March 30, 🇺🇦Ukraine’s 25th Airborne repels a massive attack by 36 tanks and 12 BMPs (!!!) of Russia’s 90th Guards Tank Division’s 6th Armored Regiment near the town of Tonenke, the Avdiivka section.

Russians ended up losing 12 tanks and 8 BMPs in their frontal assault. The Ukrainian lines not breached.

Seriously, I have no idea how Ukrainian troops manage to get through this, again and again, being so severely and chronically outnumbered and outgunned.

It’s just a man-made miracle that they do.

Blessed St. Javelin!

Kharkiv:

All critical energy infrastructure of Kharkiv is almost destroyed – Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov

In Kharkiv:

▪️ more than $10 billion is already needed to rebuild Kharkiv after the Russian attacks and every day this amount is increasing;

▪️ Russia has started hitting the city with new munitions – they cover a distance of up to 90 kilometers (there have already been two such strikes in the last week, the Russians are also hitting with S-300), most often “coming” from Belgorod region;

▪️”Unfortunately, there is not enough voltage. We had to end the heating season early to save money. The introduced schedules of light outages are hourly. We decided not to light the streets,” – Kharkiv mayor.

Kharkiv is my native city. It is so painful to see what Russia does to it. To all our Ukrainian cities and villages.

📷: Kharkiv during a blackout/Reuters

The BBC has details:

In central Kharkiv you hear the rattle of generators on every street.

Ten days ago, Ukraine’s second city was plunged into darkness by a massive, targeted Russian missile attack on the energy system – it was the biggest since the start of the full-scale war.

As Kharkiv works to restore power, there has been a wave of additional strikes across the country targeting the energy supply.

Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned what he calls Russia’s “missile terror”.

The Ukrainian president has also renewed his calls to his country’s allies for more air defence systems as protection.

The authorities in Odesa on the Black Sea in the south of the country say the energy system there was the latest to be hit overnight, with missiles and drones, causing partial blackouts.

In Kharkiv to the north, the damage is more serious.

Kharkiv’s mayor, Igor Terekhov, has said it will take weeks to restore full supply and that is if Russia’s armed forces don’t strike the same targets again.

The initial attack on the city’s energy supply even knocked out the air raid siren. There is now a screeching noise that comes straight to people’s mobile phones instead.

There can be hours of those missile warnings in the city each day – during one on Saturday night, the blast wave from a strike blew out dozens of windows in a block of flats.

But the Russians have increasingly been aiming at the power grid.

The damage is very serious,” Mr Terekhov told the BBC.

“We need time to repair it,” he added, suggesting that meant a couple more months at least.

Russia’s defence ministry confirms that its latest strikes have been focused on Ukraine’s power supply. It says the aim is to disrupt the work of the country’s defence industry and claims that “all aims of the strike were achieved”.

The ministry has a long history of disinformation.

But the Kharkiv mayor did tell the BBC that the city’s manufacturing sector, which requires significant power, has been affected by the blackouts. There are no further details.

The impact on civilian life is more obvious.

Blackout periods have been introduced in order to conserve energy, and there is a schedule for the city. On Saturday those power cuts lasted six hours, but by Sunday they had been reduced to four hours.

The timings can slip.

“They were supposed to cut the power to my area at 09:00, so I got up especially early to charge everything,'” a friend messaged. “Then I got in the lift and got stuck. They’d cut the power early!”

A hair salon in a Kharkiv back street is one of many small businesses with a generator whirring noisily outside the door. On Saturday it was on for seven hours, allowing the salon to keep operating.

The same goes for cafés and companies throughout the city centre, although many have sheets of wood over their windows to cover a gap where the glass has already been shattered or to protect it from future blasts.

Some of the boards are painted with birds and flowers.

“We’ve been working on generator power since Monday,” salon owner Natalia told the BBC. “Of course it’s really hard, especially because we’re all women and when we finish work late at night it’s so dark!”

Russia has attacked Ukraine’s power grid before, in the first winter of the full-scale war.

As engineers scrambled to perform emergency repairs then, residents shivered in the dark in their homes or headed for central “invincibility points” for warmth and power.

More at the link!

Vuhledar front:

Here’s the full text of the first tweet:

Destroyed Russian AFV column on the Vuhledar front.

“The column of Russian equipment, which prepared for the assault in the amount of 8 AFVs, was noticed in time.

On its way, the column was reduced to 6 AFVs, of these 6, 4 AFVs were hit by joint efforts. The rest of the scrap – 2 AFVs, threw out 8 infantrymen, only 3 of which reached across the field to their old positions…”
https://t.me/usinfantryman1/16760

Bakhmut front:

The Kreminna front:

Novomykhailivka front:

The Black Sea:

⚡️Ukrainian Warriors shot down one of the most expensive Russian drones over the Black Sea – Forpost, South Operational Command reports.

It’s worth about $7 million. It is quite large, can conduct reconnaissance and carry an additional combat load in the form of 2 missiles or other weapons to hit ground targets.

Glory to Ukrainian Defenders!

Here’s some backstory about the Russian Forpost drone, one of which the Ukrainian Armed Forces shot down today.

Back in 2009, Russia purchased two Searcher II drones from Israel for study (a total amount of $12 million). In October 2010, the two countries signed a contract worth $300 million. According to this document, the Searcher II drones were to be produced at the Kazan Helicopters manufacturing company using Israeli components.

Curiously, just two years later, in 2012, the Ural Civil Aviation Factory started producing new reconnaissance systems (command vehicle + localized drones), which were named Forpost.

The main task of the Russian combat Forpost drone is to collect intelligence and conduct search-observation flights and search operations. This drone can also carry armament in the form of a container with an ATGM missile.

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

There are no new Patron tweets or videos tonight, so here is some adjacent material.

Ukrainian Defender of the 92nd Mechanized Brigade rescued two boarlets in the forests of the Kharkiv region and named them Tisha and Tosha. Another Defender with the call sign “Sladkii” (“Sweet”) sheltered a red-listed marbled polecat.

Ukrainian soldiers constantly rescue wild animals from shellings and take care of the animals that have lost their homes and found themselves at “zero line.”

Open thread!

* Full disclosure: I have what is referred to as Burn Pit syndrome. Though in my case it wasn’t just burn pits. It’s that the idiots that decided where to build FOB Hammer situated it on top of the old impact area of the Iraqi Army’s Besmiyah artillery range. So we were living on top of a bunch of bits of depleted uranium and other not so nice materials. But wait, there’s more! The 3rd BCT/3rd ID commander, eventually disgraced and run out of the Army as a 2 star because among other things he was a walking zipper malfunction, did not want to have to wait for a new dining facility (DFAC) to be built. So he had the only one not in use shipped up from Kuwait. Why was it in Kuwait? Because it was supposed to be destroyed as a health hazard as it could not be kept to minimum sanitary standards. How did he get it shipped up? He got the Division commander to issue an exemption to policy. But wait, there’s even more. Someone up the chain in Iraq or the DOD determined that grey water – as in somewhat treated, but not potable and not safe for human ingestion – could be used for the showers, sinks, and laundry, as well as sprayed on the dirt roads to keep the dust down. But wait, there’s even more more! These geniuses sited the base about 12 to 14 km south of the Nahrwan brick factory, which burned heavy fuel oil in the kilns. Many days we’d wake up to a dark black haze of noxious and toxic smoke. The kicker to all this is because I deployed to Iraq before the program that sent my teammates and I there was a program of record, and before all the civilians were converted to civil servants, I was a contractor. And, as a result, I can’t even enter my symptoms in the VA’s database for Burn Pit syndrome because only uniformed personnel and government civilians are allowed to do so. Even though I have a 25 to 35 page supplemental insert in my medical file that my brigade’s public health doctor prepared for everyone that details everything he could document that we were exposed to. As I type this I am suffering from a flare up of one of the health souvenirs I came home from Iraq with. What I was exposed to is nowhere comparable to what Polymeropolous and others have been exposed to in the attacks on them, but I do have experience with both the bureaucracy stonewalling on adjacent problems and, as a result of the contract nature of my service in Iraq, the inability to even just enter my condition and symptoms in the tracking database, let alone get help as I’m not entitled to do so.

Reader Interactions

43Comments

  3. 3.

    Nukular Biskits

    As always, Adam, interesting and informative.

    Also, I had never considered the impact on contractors and other civilian support personnel w/ respect to burn pits and other environmental hazards.  Most of the public reporting has focused on active duty (at that time) personnel.

    Is there any move in Congress to address this?

  4. 4.

    Bard the Grim

    JFC.  I don’t know where to start with any of those things–WCK bombing, Kharkiv, Havana Syndrome, Burn Pit/poisoning/non-person status.  But for the last, I’m so sorry, Adam, that you’re having to live with it.  Is there anything we can do, agitate for, complain to?

  5. 5.

    ColoradoGuy

    What jumped out at me from “The Insider” report was the nanosecond pulse width, similar to very high frequency radar. Although average energy may be low, the instantaneous pulse power can be extremely high, possibly high enough to induce cavitation in susceptible tissue. That it is (very) audible to the victim indicates that cavitation might indeed be occurring … inside the inner ear, or in susceptible microstructures in the brain. This would cause lesions that would bleed and leak cerebrospinal fluid into adjacent brain structures.

    It would be difficult to see brain damage on a microscale unless done via electron microscopy on a cadaver subject. For brain lesions to visible on an MRI, that would be widespread and extensive damage, since the resolution limit is about 1 mm or so, which only shows larger structures.

    Microwaves can be shielded against, but that requires a grounded copper mesh with good solder joints between adjacent sheets of mesh. Otherwise microwaves pass reasonably freely through walls, which is why indoor cellphone and WiFi reception is reasonably good. A properly shielded room will show zero bars on a phone, and there will be zero WiFi.

    Wearing a tinfoil hat will NOT work. You’d need a full-mesh body suit, not anything very comfortable to wear.

    Ultrasound is much easier to shield against. 100 feet of air alone strongly attenuates high frequencies, but there are products sold to police for “crowd control” that radiate extremely high levels of ultrasonics, high enough to cause immediate and prompt hearing damage.

  6. 6.

    TBone

    Thank you and I’m sorry that you’re suffering, especially with no recourse for medical assistance, ugh.  I read an article yesterday that the Havana victims have and/or are now receiving one-time payments from the government for their injuries, which the author juxtaposed against the recent denial of the syndrome brought about by the (possibly inconclusive and flawed) new study.  The new study contradicts the previous study, which found definite brain abnormalities.

  11. 11.

    Carlo Graziani

    Adam, that sucks. I’m so sorry that you were, and are, treated that way.

    Insofar as VA nonfeasance goes, it seems to me that this might be an issue that your Congressional delegation might be able to help with, mouth-breathing knucle-draggers though their principals might be. Constituent service to veterans is bread-and-butter stuff to House and Senate staffers, and a phone call to a senior VA official from a displeased Congressional staffer has a way of changing government reality. If you haven’t tried this already, a letter+phone call+request for meeting with staff might not be a complete waste of time.

    This is shameful.

  13. 13.

    Jay

    Taurus Systems GmbH has announced the end of Taurus missile production, as there are no more orders for the system.

  14. 14.

    Yutsano

    As I type this I am suffering from a flare up of one of the health souvenirs I came home from Iraq

    Mon Dieu! Please take care of yourself up to and including calling out tomorrow if necessary.

  15. 15.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Carlo Graziani: While I appreciate the sentiment, I’m not being mistreated. I’m not a veteran, nor a uniformed retiree, and while I was a civil servant for a while until the sequester ate that (my funded line/the funding for my program and line), this is just how things work. There are rules: the uniformed retirees and vets, and some civil servants get treated one way, the rest of us another. It is simply the way things are. Even if I had a congressman or senator who cared, and I don’t, there’s nothing they can do. I’m not a veteran, nor a uniformed retiree, nor was I a govvie at the time I was exposed.

    The bigger issue is that while I’ve got 30 pages or so of documentation of what I was exposed to and a whole bunch of symptoms, but every test comes back negative. So my doctors, who are excellent, have nothing diagnostic to actually work with. As such, there is/are no actual treatments available. I’m largely self treating with things I’ve found that work/workarounds. But sometimes those don’t work for a bit and then I have to muddle through.

  17. 17.

    Bill Arnold

    @ColoradoGuy:
    I poked at methods a bit when the Havana Syndrome stories first emerged, so won’t bother with repeating what may be stale links. (Considerable published Russian research in the general area, yes.)
    It is interesting, though, that there has been little mention of infrared, or of wavelengths at the boundary between microwave and IR. One hopes that the reasons for this were good ones.
    Infrared neural stimulation at different wavelengths and pulse shapes (December 2020)
    And check out some of the references; it is said that IR penetrates the skull at some wavelengths, and IR stimulation involving the auditory nerves has been proposed(demonstrated?) (though not at range).
    Here’s some earlier research towards exotic hearing prostheses: Infrared Neural Stimulation: Beam Path in the guinea Pig Cochlea (2011, note: sci-hub has it.)

    The possibility of a technology(/method) for Induction of auditory hallucinations (akin to voices heard by schizophrenics) at range also shouldn’t be entirely discounted.

  19. 19.

    dimmsdale

    Jesus, Adam, I had no idea. I’m beyond impressed and grateful for the work you do here as it is; to operate as effectively as you do in spite of ongoing health deficits…whew. “Thank you” seems inadequate, but … thank you.

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dimmsdale: You’re welcome. I’ve mentioned it before, but I wanted to make sure I included it here as a disclosure so that everyone could weigh for themselves whether it is affecting my judgement of what is or is not going on with Havana Syndrome. For obvious reasons I’m both sympathetic and empathetic. And while I don’t think that’s affecting my judgement, that is also in the eye of the beholder.

  22. 22.

    Andrya

    As always, Adam, thanks for everything you do.

    I am so sorry about the health issues that you got from serving the country.  I would also like to mention, as a civilian who worked in defense/aerospace starting in 1974, many of my co-workers became seriously ill or died of health problems that have been credibly linked to the chemicals we were exposed to.  Also,  some horrible burns due to manufacturing practices that were known, even at the time, to be unsafe.  Under the stress of combat, things inevitably sometimes go wrong- but other than that, there is no excuse, none, for departing from safety best practices.

  23. 23.

    Gvg

    Bush wanted to do Afghanistan and Iraq cheap, to the public eye at least. He understated the realistic costs and I suspect he used contractors and such as a way to have the cost “off book” but that shortchanges you and many others and will keep doing so.

    You are correct that there are rules….but as a citizen and taxpayer I don’t like being scammed. You and others are real and a real cost and obligation. Maybe it can’t be part of the VA but contractors who did things for us should be covered and be a budget item that gets examined in all future wars. It’s not just you, now. It’s something that should not keep happening. They won’t straighten up and do things right if it always stays up paid for and semi secret unproven. This should be it’s own line in the budget, and if it rises, people should see why.

    The argument for it being added to the Va is they may be the most expert. Also as I said I think Bush was trying to fool the public by keep official Defense costs low and using dodges to his real costs. You probably should have been official as a soldier or civilian employee with benefits.

    We never really dealt with how much Bush screwed up because the next 2 crisises came along to soon.

  24. 24.

    Another Scott

    I’m sorry you’re going through all that, Adam.

    In the off-chance that it might be a little helpful, I found this about the Defense Base Act. It seems to say that government contractors have to have workman’s comp insurance for employees working overseas. That might be an path ahead (though I’m sure it is a difficult one as well). :-(

    Best of luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  25. 25.

    Another Scott

    @ColoradoGuy: @Bill Arnold:

    I came across a paper that seems to address some of these issues – Can the Microwave Auditory Effect Be “Weaponized”?:

    We consider whether the Frey effect could be “weaponized.” Existing microwave systems can produce pulses with sufficient fluence to induce unexpected and perhaps frightening auditory sensations, but the equipment is large and would be very obvious.

    For example, the (now obsolete) AN/FPS-67B radar system generates 6 μs pulses at 1.3 GHz with a peak transmitted power of 1.9 MW (11 J per pulse). An engineer described to one of the present authors2 “obvious and distracting but not distressing” auditory responses while located in the main beam and 45 m from the antenna. The peak RF field strength at his location was 4.6 kV/m with a pulse fluence of ≈ 0.3 J/m2, which is close to the threshold for inducing auditory responses (RF exposures were well below safety limits, which are expressed in terms of time-averaged exposures). The large antenna size (37 by 15 m) and probable electromagnetic interference from the pulses would make the presence of such a transmitter very obvious.

    High-frequency microwaves, in particular mm-waves (30–300 GHz) have characteristics that make them more suitable for “stealth” (not noticed) attacks. Millimeter waves cause less (or no) interference to ordinary electronics and cannot be detected with ordinary RF survey meters; the equipment is smaller and can conceivably be located much closer to the target (allowing higher exposure levels than those considered by Dagro et al.). Pulses of millimeter waves of a given fluence will induce much stronger TA acoustic waves than those at lower frequency (Table 1), but this is offset by the much shallower energy penetration depth and strong attenuation by the skull. Whether mm-wave transmitters exist that are capable of producing the extreme pulses considered here is not publicly known nor is there any evidence available to us that they played a role in the Havana incidents.

    The “commentary” article discusses trying to apply IR to the problem. There are issues in making a practical weapon there, as well.

    Many of us will remember the Active Denial System that uses 94 GHz radiation to create an intense burning skin sensation to folks in the beam (because the radiation is absorbed so close to the surface of the skin).

    tl;dr – Few (and I’m not among them) dispute that “Havana syndrome” has a variety of real, distressing symptoms. There’s a lot known about how electromagnetic radiation interacts with bodies, but there’s a lot unknown as well – bodies are complicated.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  26. 26.

    frosty

    OMG Adam, I’m sorry you’re going through that. My only experience with gray water is draining the tank in our trailer. It’s what goes down every drain except the toilet. Bathroom sink (not too bad), shower (you’re taking a shower with used shower water??) and the kitchen sink. Yuck.

    Nice to see the bureaucracy is drawing lines between contractors and staff. Fuckers.

  27. 27.

    Jay

    BTW, VatnikSoup is calling it quits, bailing on social media and will be closing the website.

    Pekka Kallioniemi can’t deal with the death threats and attacks anymore and has a new job opportunity.

  28. 28.

    frosty

    @TBone: This is why I don’t fuck around with tick bites. They love me. I went on a hike (not through tall grass!) last year and came home with ten ticks and thirty bites. These days I call the doc and tell her to give me a scrip for doxycycine. Period.

    I have a good friend with Long COVID. It’s all the same – post infection neurological problems. The same thing a cousin faced with CFS.

  29. 29.

    pieceofpeace

    Adam, thank you.

    And in some way eventually, may you find a positive, that you can take or have, from this inappropriate, cruel experience.  At the least.

  32. 32.

    Dangerman

    Adam, I’m so sorry to hear of your situation. Iraq was a full on CF, all because Jr. had Daddy Issues (coupled with being a Dry Drunk); fuck all, he and the Trumps (wives and GFs included) should be strapped into a rocket and sent to a decaying LEO. Let them have a nice view before they burn.

    And, shit, I’m a pacifist. Obviously fell off the wagon.

  34. 34.

    bjacques

    @Jay: evidently Pekka is jacking it in at Vatnik Soup for a cybersecurity gig at a company called April Fool’s…

    I hope the announcement from Taurus GmbH was in a similar vein…

    And many thanks to Adam for helping to keep the lights on in Ukraine.

  36. 36.

    Martin

    @Another Scott: While I’d defer to dmsilev on this, I don’t think the question of energy weapon as described is a a physics issue, rather an engineering one.

    There have been a LOT of advances in the last decade around directing EM radiation, mostly in the communications space. Adapting these for other purposes would probably not be difficult. The main problem with energy weapons is the falloff in power – typically inverse cube of the distance. But directing solves some of this problem. The more modern techniques use phased array structures to produce constructive interference along the vector you want the energy to be directed. It’s gotten easy enough that consumer products now employ this technique.

    We know from a range of medical applications that this can work. In the past, it required being close to the individual, but this could overcome that to some distance. Now, that leaves a couple of substantial engineering problems:

    Even in medical situations you generally need fairly high power, so making this in any way portable could be difficult. Certainly making it covert would be difficult, which might be why diplomatic posts have been targeted where the operator might have more ability to move a larger piece of equipment.

    You will always have serious problems with transmission through various materials. There is no generalized solution to that, so if you can identify the frequency range it works in and it’s limited a certain frequency range, you can shield from it pretty easily in buildings, etc. (might have to lose the ability to see out windows, etc.).

    The other downside to these systems is that if you can detect the signal, it gives you a bit ol’ arrow right back to the source.

  37. 37.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I don’t know, most of the U.S. analysts I follow think both the 60 Minutes program & the Insider report are nothing burgers that do not bring forth any new information. Cheryl Rofer certainly is not impressed. Then there is the issue that no non-US personnel AFAIK have come down w/ the Havana Syndrome. At least one of the alleged attacks occurred during a conference that Zelenskyy attended, after the start of the re-invasion. Why would the Russians not target any key Ukrainian officials, & instead went after relatively low ranking American staffers?

    If the Russians have such a wonder weapon w/ high degree of deniability, it seems a great waste to use it only for psychological warfare against the American diplomatic corps.

  39. 39.

    Jay

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    If the Russians have such a wonder weapon w/ high degree of deniability, it seems a great waste to use it only for psychological warfare against the American diplomatic corps.

    ruZZian postings in State, and many other arms of the US Govt. are not being filled. No applicants.

    I wonder why?

  41. 41.

    daveNYC

    @Martin: I think the importance of the power requirements depends on how much juice it needs to be used ‘per-shot’ or whatever, and how many shots you’re going to need before you scoot.  If all you need is one shot and you’re more concerned about GTFO afterwards instead of whether or not your shot succeeded, then, assuming the numbers aren’t in silly land, you can probably put together a pile of batteries and capacitors and whatnots that can get you that shot without requiring a portable nuclear reactor or anything.

  42. 42.

    Another Scott

    @daveNYC:

    In the 2010s the Army was working on a smaller version of the Active Denial System. But it was still quite big. DVIDsHub.net (3:30 video).

    Look out for the Microbus!!1 [ rofl ]

    The wavelength determines the minimum size of these things. The electronics and power output determines the power requirements – there’s only so much one can do given the operational constraints. There’s only so much one can do if one wants to hide them.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I am a veteran and while you were not you were working in the similar context for the US government. Now granted the VA program is set up for people of the military, drafted or enlisted, but how many people worked with programs like you did? And in dangerous situations, often far more dangerous than say I did during a war. And no I do not get the same level of cost as those that were in a combat zone and/or disabled but damn, you worked for the same government that I did, maybe not directly, in rather seemingly more dangerous situations. Effectively it’s the same damn level, or quite possibly actually higher.

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