ARGUMENT: Microwave weaponsClaims of Microwave Attacks Are Scientifically Implausible
Allegations about microwave attacks on U.S. personnel have been reported regularly, some going back decades. The recent wave of reports started in 2016, with reports from the American and Canadian diplomatic missions in Havana, hence the name “Havana syndrome.” “Here’s the problem,” Cheryl Rofer writes. “Aside from the reported syndromes, there’s no evidence that a microwave weapon exists—and all the available science suggests that any such weapon would be wildly impractical. It’s possible that the symptoms of all the sufferers of Havana syndrome share a single, as yet unknown, cause; it’s also possible that multiple real health problems have been amalgamated into a single syndrome.”
“It’s an act of war,” said Christopher Miller, former President Donald Trump’s last acting secretary of defense. He was talking about alleged attacks on diplomatic and intelligence personnel by an unknown microwave directed-energy weapon. Cheryl Rofer writes in Foreign Policy, however, that before the United States declares war on the unknown enemy wielding that weapon, we should know what it is—and whether it exists at all.
Rofer notes that allegations about microwave attacks on U.S. personnel have been reported regularly, some going back decades. The recent wave of reports started in 2016, with reports from the American and Canadian diplomatic missions in Havana, hence the name “Havana syndrome.” Similar cases have since been reported in other places, including China; Washington, D.C.; and Syria. State Department and intelligence personnel make up most of those affected.
Here’s the problem. Aside from the reported syndromes, there’s no evidence that a microwave weapon exists—and all the available science suggests that any such weapon would be wildly impractical. It’s possible that the symptoms of all the sufferers of Havana syndrome share a single, as yet unknown, cause; it’s also possible that multiple real health problems have been amalgamated into a single syndrome.
Rofer, a former Los Alamos chemist, writes that there’s a persistent myth that microwaves heat things from the inside out. Anyone who has heated a frozen dinner knows that this is not true. The outer part of the frozen food thaws first, because it absorbs the microwaves before they can reach the inner part. “In the same way, if a directed microwave beam hit people’s brains, we would expect to see visible effects on the skin and flesh. None of that has accompanied Havana syndrome,” she notes, adding:
With no clear biological connection of microwaves to Havana syndrome, it’s not possible to describe a weapon that would produce that syndrome. We do not know what frequency the supposed microwaves would be or whether they are pulsed or continuous.
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The evidence for microwave effects of the type categorized as Havana syndrome is exceedingly weak. No proponent of the idea has outlined how the weapon would actually work. No evidence has been offered that such a weapon has been developed by any nation. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and no evidence has been offered to support the existence of this mystery weapon.
