US sees Russian weapon behind US diplomats’ mystery ailments, say officials

 

In early September, Douglas H. Smith, who heads the team of scientists tasked by the US government to examine the matter, said that microwave radiation was almost certainly responsible for the diplomats’ ailments. He added that microwaves were considered “a main suspect” and that his team of scientists was now “increasingly sure” that the diplomats had suffered brain injuries caused by microwave radiation. Now the US news network NBC reports that Russia is viewed as the primary culprit behind the mystery ailments that plagued US diplomats. Reporting on Tuesday the news network cited three unnamed officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump, as well as “congressional aides and others briefed on the investigation”. Specifically, NBC reported that the Russian connection was supported by “evidence from communications intercepts” (signals intelligence or SIGINT), though it did not elaborate on their precise nature. It also said that the ongoing investigation into the purported weapon involves the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency among other US intelligence and security agencies. Another leading actor in the investigation is the US Air Force, said NBC, stating that experts in its directed energy research program at the Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, New Mexico, are trying to reverse-engineer the alleged weapons based on the symptoms that they cause.

Microwave weapons were behind US diplomats’ ailments, says leading scientist

 

Less than a year later, in June 2018, the US reportedly evacuated at least two more diplomatic personnel from its consulate in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, after they experienced “unusual acute auditory or sensory phenomena” and “unusual sounds or piercing noises”. The evacuations took place two weeks after the US Department of State disclosed that a consulate worker in Guangzhou had been flown home for medical testing, in response to having experienced “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure”. The evacuations from China prompted comparisons to the very similar phenomena that had been reported by US diplomatic personnel in Cuba the previous year. In 2017, media reports stated that Washington had concluded that the American diplomats were exposed to “an advanced device that was deployed either inside or outside their residences”. But the Cuban government denied that it had anything to do with the American diplomats’ symptoms, and some believe that the alleged “covert sonic device” may have been deployed by an intelligence service of a third country —possibly Russia— without the knowledge of Cuban authorities. However, the US government has remained largely silent about the cases.

Taiwan embarks on spending spree on homemade subs

Two Dutch-made submarines surface near southern Taiwan during an exercise in July 29, 2004. Taiwan has been having trouble updating its submarine fleet. Photo: AFP/Sam Yeh

 

International technical support secured as Taiwan presses ahead with replacing aging boats with indigenous ones

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has vowed to spend a lot more – NT$73.6 billion (US$2.4 billion), or more than one-fifth of the island’s defense budget next year – on the development of indigenous weapons.

Suspected Russian spy found working at US embassy in Moscow

File photo of Russian police officer patrolling a street in front of the US embassy in Moscow. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images

 

Exclusive: Russian is understood to have had full access to secret data during decade at embassy

US counter-intelligence investigators discovered a suspected Russian spy had been working undetected in the heart of the American embassy in Moscow for more than a decade, the Guardian has learned.

The Russian national had been hired by the US Secret Service and is understood to have had access to the agency’s intranet and email systems, which gave her a potential window into highly confidential material including the schedules of the president and vice-president.

U.S. Announces Withdrawal From UNESCO, Cites ‘Anti-Israel Bias’

Irina Bokova, UNESCO / Getty Images

 

As part of the decision, the U.S. notified UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova of its intent to withdraw and become a permanent observer of the body instead.

More facts revealed about mystery sonic attacks on US embassy in Cuba

 

Now new information has been disclosed by the United States Department of State. It suggests that, although diplomats began reporting hearing-loss symptoms in as early as fall 2016, the incidents continued until mid-August of this year. In a report published on Saturday, the BBC said that the bizarre incidents had not ended “several months ago” as was initially believed. Instead, they continued even after the last week of May, when the US deported two Cuban diplomats from Washington, DC. The move was in response to what Washington believes was a deliberate attempt to sabotage its diplomatic mission in Havana. The American embassy in the Cuban capital reopened in 2015, 54 years after it was closed down following a series of diplomatic rifts between Cuba and the US during the height of the Cold War.

ISIS’ new top military commander was trained in U.S. by Blackwater & State Department

@EngageState/Twitter

 

 

Washington considers Khalimov a particular threat due to his counter-terrorism training

Mosul, Iraq – Former Tajikistan Special Forces colonel Gulmurod Khalimov, defected to the ranks of ISIS last year and publicly declared jihad against the West.  After being trained in the United States by private military contractor Blackwater, Khalimov has reportedly been promoted from within the Islamic State organization and has been named the new chief military commander for the global terror group.

“There’s information in the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) that Tajik Gulmurod Khalimov was named the new chief military commander of ISIS, after the murder of the previous leader Abu Omar al-Shishani,” a source in Nineveh province, where ISIS stronghold of Mosul is located, told Iraqi Al Sumaria.

Chinese ‘Silk Road’ Initiative to Diminish US Role in Eurasian Region

Was America tricked and swindled out of building this for Eurasia? For more information on how the U.S. originally supported this initiative, see HERE and HERE.

 

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Ekaterina Blinova — By involving India and Russia in its “One Belt, One Road” project, China has dealt a final blow to ambitious New Silk Road initiative, launched by the United States in 2011.

“Since China’s “One Belt and One Road” strategy, which refers to the Silk Road economic belt and the 21st century maritime Silk Road, was initiated at the end of 2013, significant progress has been made and increasing support has been garnered from the international community,” the Global Times, a Chinese English-language media outlet noted.