A story about crickets that isn't actually about crickets at all.
This episode was originally published in 2019. It has been updated.
Operation Confirmation Bias
Sam Evans-Brown
When workers at the American embassy in Cuba claimed to have been attacked by a mysterious weapon that left no trace, it led to a major shift in American diplomacy towards the Caribbean socialist state. It also led to a split in journalism. But the story that, at first, seemed like a perfect fit for Outside/In wound up going places that we didn’t expect it to go. As we set off in pursuit of the truth, we're forced to ask ourselves how we decide what we know and what kinds of information we trust.
Updates
This episode originally aired in 2019. Since then, due to the intervention of New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a bill has been passed that guaranteed long-term disability benefits for Mark Lenzi and all of the staff at the Chinese consulate with mysterious symptoms. When we last spoke to Lenzi in 2020, he continued to experience flare-ups.
In July 2019, neuroscientists at UPenn released a study that found a consistent pattern of damage to the white matter of embassy workers' brains. The study still couldn't pinpoint the cause. In September, yet another explanation was floated: excessive exposure to pesticides sprayed to control Zika-carrying mosquitoes. This hypothesis also remains unconfirmed.
Reports of these alleged attacks continued during the Trump administration, including two reported on White House grounds. President Biden’s CIA director William Burns has reportedly assembled a “targeting team” to investigate the issue.
We briefly discussed the existence of acoustic weapons used against pirates in Somalia. In June 2020, the NYPD used this same technology against civil rights protestors in New York City.
For links to further reading and reporting on the story, visit the original Outside/In episode.
