The strange affliction that affected US embassy workers in Cuba and China may have been due to focused microwave attacks, according to a recent report in the New York Times. Analysts have cited the "Frey effect," in which microwaves are perceived as loud noises or buzzing as one of the defining features of the incidents. A 2014 statement from the NSA warned that foreign powers had built weapons "designed to bathe a target's living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system."
One leading investigator, James C. Lin, further outlined the effects of microwave strikes that could be conducted via a satellite dish-sized weapon mounted in a van, boat, or helicopter. In addition to the loud unexplained sounds, he said the diplomats possibly experienced nausea, headaches, and vertigo, and most alarmingly, brain-tissue injury. Washington lawyer Mark Zaid who represents eight of the victims remarked it's "naïve to think this just started now" and that such covert attacks have probably been going on for decades.