More details are beginning to emerge about the mysterious “sonic attacks” that have afflicted nearly two dozen American diplomats - and a handful of Canadians - serving in Havana.

The bizarre attacks, which somehow managed to slip beneath the mainstream media radar until August when CBS published a report about the phenomenon, were first documented late last year, and continued through the spring – though one attack was reported as recently as Sept. 1. Since then, the US government has kept quiet, refusing to discuss potential suspects, or theories about how the attacks were carried out.

The Cuban government has denied involvement in the incidents; however, the US abruptly and quietly expelled two Cuban diplomats from Washington last month, shortly before CBS ran its story, raising suspicions that the US was, in fact, looking into a Cuban government role.

Recently, the State Department revealed that two more diplomats had exhibited symptoms associated with the attacks, bringing the total number of Americans affected to 21.

    “Late last year, reports began surfacing that US diplomatic personnel in Cuba were beginning to experience strange and inexplicable symptoms including dizziness, nausea, memory lapses, difficulty hearing and loss of balance. Initial reports attributed the symptoms to a “acoustic attack,” but neglected to provide any salient details about the specific nature of the attacks, or – more importantly – who might have carried them out. The Cuban government quickly denied any knowledge of the attacks.”

As one former CIA official says: "It's just mystery after mystery after mystery."

    “On Thursday it emerged that the “attack” – which Cuba denies – was in one case a blaring, grinding noise which jolted an American diplomat from his bed in The Capri, a Havana hotel popular with tourists.

    The diplomat, according to AP, moved just a few feet, and there was silence. He climbed back into bed – and then the agonising sound hit him again.

    "None of this has a reasonable explanation," said Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA official who served in Havana long before America re-opened an embassy there.

Canadian diplomats have also been affected by a suspected “sonic device” placed near embassy property in Havana, the Canadian government has confirmed.

Ottawa said that at least one Canadian diplomat, and their family members, was treated in hospital after suffering from headaches and hearing loss.

"We are aware of unusual symptoms affecting Canadian and US diplomatic personnel and their families in Havana,” said Brianne Maxwell, a Global Affairs Canada spokesperson.

Cuban authorities earlier this month allowed teams from the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate, but no evidence has been found – at least, nothing that’s been shared with the public.

At least one source thinks the Cubans are innocent.

    "Had they thought the Cuban government was deliberately attacking American diplomats, that would have had a much more negative effect," said Mark Feierstein, who oversaw Barack Obama’s defrosting of Cold War-era relations while he sat on the national security council.

     "We haven't seen that yet."

There may be a good reason the government has been reticent about the issue: US intelligence agencies don’t know what’s going on. Some of the diplomats effected have been diagnosed with minor brain injuries, something unlikely to result from a sound attack. Others have had problems concentrating or recalling specific words.

Investigators have tested several theories about an intentional attack by Cuba's government, a rogue faction of its security forces, or possibly a third country like – wait for it - Russia. Another theory is that an eavesdropping device may have gone awry. Though given the severity of the symptoms and number of victims, that seems unlikely.

Perhaps, now that previously unreleased details regarding the incident and the government’s response are beginning to leak to the press, a representative of the US’s vast intelligence apparatus will soon provide the long-overdue update the public deserves.

Source: Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/14/american-diplomats-cuba-claim-targeted
-havana-hotel-room-mystery/

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The species panthera tigris sondaica, better known as the Javan tiger, has been considered extinct for decades as there have been no confirmed sightings of the big cat that once stalked the jungles of Indonesia’s biggest island since the 1980s. But based on photographic evidence from Java’s Ujung Kulon National Park in West Java, the Javan tiger may be making a comeback.

This new photographic evidence of the Javan tiger’s continued existence was captured late last month but was only revealed to the media recently. It was taken by a park ranger while doing an inventory of banteng (a species of wild Javan cattle) on August 25. At the time, he saw a dead banteng being eaten by a big cat unlike any species known to reside in the park.

“My fellow ranger saw a large cat, but with stripes a bit different from the leopards usually found in Ujung Kulon. Finally, he photographed it, and we suspect it is either a type of Javan leopard or another one of the large cats, such as the Javan tiger,” Ujung Kulon Park Head Mamat Rahmat told Detik on Wednesday.

Mamat noted that Ujung Kulon used to be home to many Javan tigers and he hoped it still was. But he was careful to note that the animal in the photograph, while appearing quite distinct from other big cats like the Javan Leopard, still might not be a member of the long lost tiger species.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) said that they would send research teams to investigate whether it was indeed a Javan tiger in the photograph. Their experts said that while the cat’s stripes are right, its body language seems wrong.

“Its markings are like the Javan tiger, but its posture less so. The posture of the Javan tiger is bigger, more muscular, and shorter than the Sumatran tiger,” KLHK’s Director of Conservation and Natural Resources Wiratno yesterday, noting that its posture was closer to that of the Javan Leopard.

However, Wiratno said that there is a good chance that the Javan tiger could have survived in Ujung Kulon since it has long been a conservation area. He said they would be setting up numerous camera traps throughout the area to get better photographic evidence so they could make a confirmation.

There have been numerous alleged sightings and evidence of the Javan tiger over the years, but previous research expeditions failed to produce concrete proof of its continued existence.

Source: Coconuts Jakarta
https://coconuts.co/jakarta/news/declared-extinct-decades-ago-javan-tiger-may-just-
spotted-javas-ujung-kulon-national-park/

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Hidden in the shadows outside of civilization, monsters are believed by some to exist.

According to folklore, a large primate stalks the Pacific Northwest and a giant reptile lurks in the depths of a Scottish lake.

And in South Texas, people carefully watch the skies for Big Bird, a flying creature that terrorized the area in 1976.

“This bird’s got a habit of going after people,” said Guadalupe Cantu III, an eye witness. “This is strictly a nighttime bird, though. ... From 11 o’clock on, everybody’s bait.”

While most scientists would write off a man-hunting bird as pure myth, a group of researchers takes such accounts seriously. The researchers are called cryptozoologists.

“It’s considered a pseudo science,” said Ken Gerhard, 38. “I like to call it a frontier science.”

A Houston-based cryptozoologist, Gerhard is researching a book that will focus on the Big Bird. He will speak about his research before the Brownsville Enlightenment Society at 7 p.m., Tuesday at Shoney’s Restaurant. The meeting is free to the public.

While other zoologists might consider the existence of such a large unknown species impossible, Gerhard and others keep an open mind.

“Cryptozoology is the search for animals that have not yet been verified by science,” Gerhard said. “Most people are familiar with the marquee animals – Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster and Big Bird. ... The less glamorous side would include a new species of beetle.”

In 2005 several new birds, plants and other species were discovered in the Foja Mountains of Papua, New Guinea. Scientists announced 27 new species earlier this year, discovered in California national park caves. Large creatures have also been revealed recently, with the first photographs of a live giant squid taken in 2004.

“New species are discovered all the time, a lot of people don’t understand that,” Gerhard said. “Cryptozoologists feel that those ‘real scientists’ aren’t doing a good enough job.”

Don Farst, executive director of the Gladys Porter Zoo, remembers the excitement in January 1976 when people would ask about giant birds and livestock-attacking beasts. He said nothing was ever proved, but he can understand why some believe in unknown animals.

“Nothing is impossible,” he said. “But I usually believe that either I or somebody that I trust has seen, and preferably photographed next to something of a known size.”

There’s always more to learn, according to Lynn David Livsey, president of the Brownsville Enlightenment Society, a group that discusses new discoveries and unknown phenomena on a weekly basis.

“We pretend like we know but really we don’t,” he said. “I remain open-minded on the subject.”

The Big Bird has been compared to local owl-witch legends, but Gerhard said many real creatures began as myths.

“A lot of animals discovered in the last century were original folklore animals,” he said, adding this was true of the gorilla. “They were giant hairy wild men and back in the late 1800s were considered to be folklore. ... It made the transformation from folklore into reality.”

Gerhard said certain areas of wilderness remained unexplored by men, which obviously provided the potential to discover new species of animals.

“I can’t say these animals are there, but I can say the potential is there,” Gerhard said.

Aside from the Big Bird sightings in Brownsville in 1976, there were sightings in Robstown and Rio Grande City in 1975, Swinney Switch in the 1950s and San Benito in the 1940s. McAllen, Harlingen and Los Fresnos also claimed witnesses.

San Benito in particular seemed a hotbed for Big Bird reports. Many residents of the La Paloma Colonia have heard of the creature they call the demon bird.
“As a child I heard it one Christmas eve, really Christmas day at 1 o’clock in the morning,” said Cantu, now 50. “It made more and more noise so my grandfather went out and cussed it. ... It was a strange noise, like a couple of cats, like one voice mixed with another voice.”

As a child in San Benito, Cantu had heard of the bird, but he was surprised by its size and that it showed no fear of guns or dogs.

The bird Cantu saw seemed to stand about 8 feet tall and was solid black, although parts of its body seemed to reflect more light. It was stood vertically with stooped shoulders.

“With the face I thought I was looking at a skeleton, but it was the eyes and nose (of a skull),” he said. “It did not flap its wings, it just glided.”

Alex Resendez, 66, saw the creature three times in the 1970s. Twice he caught fleeting glimpses of the beast over Brownsville, and the third time, he saw it in broad daylight near his rural McCook area home.

“I never seen a bird that big,” he said. “He was brownish, like dirt. ... He does not have long legs and does not stand like other birds.”

What struck him most were the bird’s large eyes that shone like black glass, with red markings underneath. The beak was also peculiar.

“You have to look close because his beak is very transparent,” Resendez said. “If you see it real fast, you’re going to think he ain’t got no beak.”

In all, the brown bird seemed to stand over 4 feet tall. After being spooked by a charging bull, the bird spread its large wings and pushed off the ground with its feet.

“He was very swift, very nice, like a glider,” Resendez said. “This bird, he never flaps his wings.”

The wing underside was surprisingly colorful to Resendez, appearing with blue and white stripes.

“It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Descriptions of Big Bird often follow the same pattern: it is dark in color, featherless or smoothly feathered, has a long thin beak or no beak at all, short legs and long tail.

Farst took a pragmatic approach.

“At certain times of year we have wood storks here, which are large gangly birds, about 4½ feet tall,” he said. “They are more black and white than brownish and have a long curving bill.”

He offered alternative possibilities such as a sand hill crane or brown pelican, but said the distinctive features described by witnesses don’t always match with known animals.

As several cattle mutilations were reported in 1976, Resendez believes they might be related to the Big Bird sightings.

“I thought maybe this bird goes after these cows, drives his beak in there, takes samples, then goes upstairs where maybe there is a UFO,” he said. “It’s so well made, nobody could tell it was a robot, but I don’t know.”

Gerhard has heard theories ranging from a giant owl to a giant bat, but he has his own ideas.

“The other theory that I’m pursuing with my book is probably a little more out there,” the cryptozoologist said. “That’s the possibility of living pterosaurs.”

Winged reptiles and contemporaries of the dinosaurs, pterosaurs are believed to have met extinction more than 64 million years ago, but some cryptozoologists see the creatures as possible Big Bird explanations.

“It seems to jibe with most of the reports I’ve collected,” Gerhard said, adding that the Kongamato of Africa and Ropen of Papua, New Guinea, both supposedly mythical creatures, are said to have reptile-like features.

Farst doubts a large flying reptile could go undiscovered, but said there are some birds that behave similarly to the Big Bird.

“The best and biggest flying birds that we have would be like the Andean Condor from South America,” he said. “They can jump and launch themselves into the air to take off, but usually they do this off the side of a cliff.”

Gliding without a cliff, or preliminary flapping, would be highly unusual, he said.

“That would indicate that it would be something that we don’t have in this world at this time,” he said. “If I had to bet any of my hard earned money, I would be willing to bet odds of a 1,000-to-1 against there being a critter like this. .... I wish you’d prove me wrong. I’d love to see something like this.”

Livsey believes Big Bird to be an actual bird, albeit one not known to modern man. The extinct Teratorn is believed to have wingspans over a dozen feet.

“This does have to be a monster or a giant flying reptile,” he said. “I believe we’re talking something terrestrial here. I do believe in UFOs, and I was a witness to a UFO event, but I do not believe this was some kind of extra-terrestrial.”

Source: The Brownsville Herald
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ts_more.php?id=70671_0_10_0_C