cricket
You're an American diplomat. Posted to Cuba. You compose yourself for peaceful slumber, as an innocent American dip should... What's that noise? Whine, buzz. Get up. Lights on. Look. Nothing. Head on pillow. Whine, buzz. We've all been kept up nights by some unidentifiable sound. You promise yourself you won't listen to it. Aha, it's stopped... no, there it is again. Another night of tossing and turning. Very understandable. The next morning you tell a colleague, heard it too, another hadn't but can't help listening. Soon everybody is awake listening to this irritating noise. Doctors come, check people out and find this and that (as ageing apes we all have something. Is there any before and after take on these injuries?) This is happening in Cuba, a country richly furnished with noisy insects. At some point, this irritating sound, that could be insects, morphs into something more sinister: "'microwave hearing,' also known as the Frey effect" for example.

The US Embassy in Havana re-opened in July 2015. About a year later, it was reported that some American diplomats complained about strange noises. The Guardian reported the story using numerous variations on the word "attack". Crickets are mentioned, but only to be dismissed; "But this is Cuba", wink, wink, nudge, nudge; Russia peeps above the horizon:
In fact, almost nothing about what went down in Havana is clear. Investigators have tested several theories about an intentional attack: by Cuba's government, a rogue faction of its security forces, a third country like Russia or some combination thereof. Yet they've left open the possibility an advanced espionage operation went horribly awry, or that some other, less nefarious explanation is to blame.
Attacks - the story builds. A recording is produced (verrry irritating; keep anybody awake). "High pitched cricket sound". That's because they are insects say the Cubans. The phrasing of the AP report that covered the Cuban findings has to be read to be believed: it's written in the sneering tone that tells you to ignore them:
Cuba on Thursday presented its most detailed defense to date against U.S. Accusations... Cuban officials attempted to undermine the Trump administration's assertion... alleged was a lack of evidence for the U.S. Accusations... an exhaustive investigation ordered by "the highest government authorities," a clear reference to President Raul Castro... Thursday night's special did not present an alternate explanation for the facts presented by U.S. officials, with one significant exception...
What a dishonest way to cover a report by Cuban specialists saying we compared the recordings with cicada sounds and there was a good fit. Fortunately, as we shall see, honest people did follow that lead.

American tourists are solemnly warned "Exercise increased caution in Cuba due to attacks targeting U.S. Embassy". Washington expels Cuban diplomats and the Guardian helpfully tells us:
Cuba employs a massive state security apparatus that keeps hundreds and possibly thousands of people under constant surveillance. US diplomats are among the most closely monitored people on the island. It's virtually impossible for anyone to take action against an American diplomat without an element of the Cuban state being aware.
So the state of play as of the end of 2017 is this. Facts: noises, medical findings, investigations, expulsions. Speculation, they're "attacks", the Cuban authorities control everything and the insect explanation should be laughed at. Next year it's China's turn.

But at last, in September 2018, the Russian sun rises over the horizon.
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... If Russia did use a futuristic weapon to damage the brains of U.S. personnel, it would mark a stunning escalation in Russian aggression toward Western nations, compounded recently by the use of a military-grade nerve agent to poison an ex-spy and his daughter in Britain.
Love the juxtaposition of "suspicion", "likely" and "alleged": how many degrees of uncertainty is that? You have to wonder whether an Integrity-challenged Initiative clusteroid gave that little gem to NBC - the "signals intelligence" will probably turn out to be a five-year-old RT report about insomnia. Also note that the US military "has been working to reverse-engineer the weapon or weapons used to harm the diplomats".

Ensorcelled by this "un-elaborated" "intelligence", the Gadarene media swine rush straight for the cliff:
  • Did Russia Attack U.S. Officials in Cuba? U.S.S.R. Used Microwaves Against American Diplomats During Cold War (Newsweek)
  • Russia Is No. 1 Suspect in Mystery Brain Attacks in Cuba and China: Report (Daily Beast)
  • Russia Might Be Behind Those Sonic Attacks on U.S. Government Workers in Cuba and China (Fortune)
  • The U.S. Now Believes RUSSIA May Be Behind Sonic Attacks On Americans In Cuba And China (Daily Wire)
  • Russia main suspect behind illnesses of US staff in Cuba and China - report (Guardian)
  • Russia suspected in Cuba mystery 'attacks' against US diplomats (NBC)
  • Report: Experts Suspect Cuba May Have Had Russian Help in 'Sonic' Diplomat Attacks (Breitbart)
Altogether a perfect illustration of how fake news is built. It's surprising, actually, that it took so long; after all, Putin has weaponised Soviet history, Syrian refugees, Photoshop, humour, Pokemon, and Russophobia, why would you think he'd have forgotten crickets? Nothing is beyond or beneath him: "14-legged killer squid found TWO MILES beneath Antarctica being weaponised by Putin?".

This happy complacency was interrupted...

by...

a loud...

POP!

The Sounds That Haunted U.S. Diplomats in Cuba? Lovelorn Crickets, Scientists Say.

And, because they're Western scientists, not Castro's Cuban Collaborators, we have to believe them. Two honest scientists - remember their names: Alexander Stubbs of the University of California, Berkeley, and Fernando Montealegre-Zapata of the University of Lincoln in England - on their own it seems, applied human reason to the problem and solved it. Here's a summary of their paper.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So that's it; the story's dead (although the NYT does its best to keep it alive: "That's not to say that the diplomats weren't attacked, the scientists added"). Would be nice, though, if State took its warning down. In time the details will fade away leaving a vague sense that Cuba's a bad and dangerous place and nasty Russians do nasty things for the fun of it. But that's the purpose of propaganda: to leave an impression when the details are forgotten.

So what really happened? Irritating cricket sounds produced a kind of dancing mania among US diplomats and the presstitutes sank to the occasion - even though the Cuban evidence was out there - and blamed Russia.

PS.
My neighbours often ask me from where I get my news when I tell them something they've never heard of. Well not from the Guardian or the NYT or NBC or the others that boomed this fake story: I learned from Moon of Alabama that it was crickets waaaay back in October 2017 when he (a one-man operation who does more reporting than the entire NYT building) beat the NYT by 14 months. You should read him too so you too can get next year's NYT headlines today.
Patrick Armstrong was an analyst in the Canadian Department of National Defence specialising in the USSR/Russia from 1984 and a Counsellor in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow in 1993-1996. He retired in 2008 and has been writing on Russia and related subjects on the Net ever since.