Havana Syndrome

From Katie Bo Williams and Jeremy Herb's 4-29-21 CNN report entitled "US Investigating Possible Mysterious Directed Energy Attack Near White House":

Federal agencies are investigating at least two possible incidents on US soil, including one near the White House in November of last year, that appear similar to mysterious, invisible attacks that have led to debilitating symptoms for dozens of US personnel abroad.

Multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that while the Pentagon and other agencies probing the matter have reached no clear conclusions on what happened, the fact that such an attack might have taken place so close to the White House is particularly alarming.

Defense officials briefed lawmakers on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees on the matter earlier this month, including on the incident near the White House. That incident, which occurred near the Ellipse, the large oval lawn on the south side of the White House, sickened one National Security Council official, according to multiple current and former US officials and sources familiar with the matter.

In a separate 2019 episode, a White House official reported a similar attack while walking her dog in a Virginia suburb just outside Washington, GQ reported last year.

Those sickened reported similar symptoms to CIA and State Department personnel impacted overseas, and officials quickly began to investigate the incident as a possible “Havana syndrome” attack. That name refers to unexplained symptoms that US personnel in Cuba began experiencing in late 2016 – a varying set of complaints that includes ear popping, vertigo, pounding headaches and nausea, sometimes accompanied by an unidentified “piercing directional noise” [...].

The attacks eventually led to a dramatic drawdown of staff at the outpost in Havana under the Trump administration. Personnel in Russia and China reported similar, unexplained incidents. Though there’s no consensus as to what causes the symptoms, one State Department-sponsored study found they likely were the result of microwave energy attacks.

To read Williams and Herb's entire article, click HERE.

From Julian Borger's 5-2-21 GUARDIAN article entitled "Havana Syndrome: NSA Officer’s Case Hints at Microwave Attacks Since 90s":

When the first reports surfaced of a mysterious disorder that was afflicting dozens of US diplomats in Cuba, Mike Beck’s reaction was one of recognition and relief.

Beck, a retired National Security Agency counterintelligence officer, was at his home in Maryland, scrolling through the day’s news on his computer when he spotted the story, and remembers shouting out to his wife.

“I got excited because I thought: well, it’s coming out now that it’s not a mirage,” Beck said. “I felt bad for the victims but thought: ‘Now I’m no longer one of one. I’m one of many.’”

Beck had been forced into retirement in late 2016 by a rare early-onset, non-tremor form of Parkinson’s disease, and he had evidence, supplied by the NSA and the CIA, that he could have been the victim of a deliberate attack from a microwave weapon.

After years of lonely struggle, he now feels vindicated. Last December the National Academy of Sciences published a report finding that the scores of CIA and state department officials affected by “Havana syndrome” in Cuba, China and elsewhere, were most likely suffering the “effects of directed, pulsed radio frequency energy”.

To read Borger's entire article, click HERE.

More on the Capitol Riot Arrests

From Olivia Rubin's 4-23-21 ABC News report entitled "Number of Capitol Riot Arrests of Military, Law Enforcement and Government Personnel Rises to 52":

As authorities investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continue to pore over images and video of the riot, they've encountered a distressing trend: A growing number of alleged perpetrators had previously served their country.

At least 52 active or retired military, law enforcement, or government service employees are among the over 400 suspects arrested for their alleged actions at the Capitol, according to an ABC News investigation based on military records, court records, interviews, and publicly available news reports. The arrests include over half a dozen ex-police officers and multiple former elected officials -- and represent some of the most significant and violent charges brought in connection with the deadly insurrection.

To read Rubin's entire article, click HERE.

Rose O'Keefe Appears on THE OUTER DARK

Rose O'Keefe, the head of Eraserhead Press (publisher of my recent collection of novellas, WIDOW OF THE AMPUTATION & OTHER WEIRD CRIMES), was interviewed by Anya Martin on THE OUTER DARK podcast earlier this month. Here's THE OUTER DARK's description of the episode:

In our first full-episode publisher spotlight, Anya Martin interviews Rose O’Keefe, publisher at Eraserhead Press, the world’s leading publisher house of bizarro fiction with an international following for 400+ titles in its main line and four imprints Deadite Press, Fungasm Press, Lazy Fascist Press, and New Bizarro Author Series. The free-ranging no-holds-barred conversation includes the origins of Eraserhead Press as a writers’ collective in the punk/DIY/zine world of 1999, leveraging the print-on-demand revolution to success, the fun of being a writer’s ‘first fan’, the evolution of Bizarro and how its embrace of Weirdness differs from and intersects with Weird fiction, the rise of genre fluidity, her personal journey facing leadership challenges to expand diversity and inclusion, lessons learned and proactive ways to address and prevent sexual harassment/abuse at cons, Eraserhead publishing news and spotlight on new releases (1:09:53), updates on 2021 submissions status and the future of BizarroCon, Rose’s non-press-related reading recommendations, and her personal passion for Argentine Tango. This episode was recorded on Tuesday April 6, 2021.

To listen to the entire show, click HERE.

MY ADVENTURES IN HYPERSPACE

Last night I returned to Solaris BlueRaven's HYPERSPACE radio show to discuss my latest books, BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD and WIDOW OF THE AMPUTATION & OTHER WEIRD CRIMES. If you have a Dark Vault Insider subscription, you can listen to the entire show by clicking right HERE.

 

 

 

Alan Moore Endorses BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD!

I'm very pleased to announce that my latest novel, BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD, just received the following blurb from none other than writer/magician Alan Moore (author of WATCHMEN, V FOR VENDETTA, FROM HELL, VOICE OF THE FIRE, JERUSALEM, etc.). Since I first encountered Moore's writing at the tender age of fourteen, I couldn't have been happier when he volunteered this endorsement: 

“Blending intertextual rampage through the horror-movie canon with engrossing noir mystery and a backdrop of Hollywood esoterica, Robert Guffey serves up an intoxicating pulp cocktail that will leave you wanting more. A crepuscular treasure from a fascinating author.”

--ALAN MOORE

If you want to learn more about this "crepuscular treasure," you can buy a copy of BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD (available in trade paperback and eBook formats) right HERE!!!

GUARDIAN: "Attack of the Drones"

From Amelia Tait's 4-18-21 GUARDIAN article entitled "Attack of the Drones: The Mystery of Disappearing Swarms in the US Midwest":

At twilight on New Year’s Eve, 2020, Placido Montoya, 35, a plumber from Fort Morgan, Colorado, was driving to work. Ahead of him he noticed blinking lights in the sky. He’d heard rumours of mysterious drones, whispers in his local community, but now he was seeing them with his own eyes. In the early morning gloom, it was hard to make out how big the lights were and how many were hovering above him. But one thing was clear to Montoya: he needed to give chase.

As he approached the drones in his car, they “took off very fast” and Montoya tried to follow. He confesses hitting 120mph before losing track of them. “They were creepy, really creepy,” he says. “I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s almost as if they were watching us.”

That night, Vince Iovinella, deputy sheriff at Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, received more than 30 calls from locals reporting drones “zipping around all over the place” – Iovinella himself saw one with red, white and green lights that he also tried to chase. “It outran me,” he recalls.

Meanwhile, neighbouring Nebraska and Kansas were also dealing with their own mysterious drone swarms. From December 2019 to January 2020, residents of the three states were perturbed by multiple sightings of numerous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with wingspans of up to 6ft flying between 6pm and 10pm in grid formations. On the same night that Iovinella was receiving calls, a Nebraska deputy reported seeing 30 to 50 drones in the sky. Witnesses were alarmed by the size and speed of the vehicles. “It got to the point that we were fixing to take up arms,” says Mike, 39, from Lindon, Colorado, who wishes to retain partial anonymity.

But as quickly as the drones came, they disappeared. “That was it, they were gone,” Montoya says. More than a year later, no one knows who was behind the drones. Despite an investigation involving the FBI, US Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), there are no official answers. Amazon, Google and Uber have denied involvement, and so did a local air force base. “Somebody’s doing something and nobody’s saying anything about it,” Montoya summarises. But even “somebody doing something” is now up for debate: one reporter claims the drones never existed at all.

What really happened in the sky above the American Midwest in those fateful winter months, and what can the incident tell us about new technology and old fears?

Did the mystery drones really exist and, if so, why can’t anyone find out who was behind them? Is a new type of conspiracy theory being born? Are drones the new UFOs?

To read the entire article, click HERE.

BOX O' WIDOWS

Upon receiving a large box brimming with contributor copies of my latest collection, WIDOW OF THE AMPUTATION & OTHER WEIRD CRIMES, I plopped down on my front lawn, surrounded by all my faithful pink companions. We immediately began rereading "our" book cover-to-cover. I say "our" book because my little friends insist on teasing me. You see, they tell me they're the ones who dictated the book to me late at night while I lay sprawled on the front lawn, half-naked and dreaming. But I refuse to believe them this time. I think they're dissimulating again. The feathery ones are staring at me right now, even as I write this, lying to me with their blank, dead, pinpoint eyes that seem to collapse in upon themselves with every passing second, like roiling black holes at the center of the universe—entrances to other worlds far darker and stranger than our own. If anything happens to me, remember to contact the authorities. Tell them the Feathery Pink Ones are responsible. Contact the leaders of the free world. Alert the Men Who Know Things. For God's sake, keep watching the lawns. They might be coming for you next.