Pulsed microwaves or ultrasound beams “plausibly” might have caused so-called Havana Syndrome injuries now thought to have affected about two dozen CIA and State Department employees, according to a newly released US intelligence community expert report.
The redacted report, however, fell short of definite conclusions, suggesting that psychology may also “cause some other incidents or contribute to long-term symptoms” of the incidents.
Starting in late 2016 and into the next year, about two dozen CIA and State Department personnel in Cuba began reporting dizziness, vertigo, trouble concentrating, and related symptoms, often initiated after hearing sharp grinding noises, that came to be called “Havana Syndrome.” The symptoms spread to Canadian diplomats and then worldwide, particularly in the last year, after the US Defense Department asked its personnel to report similar cases. Some news reports late last year claimed hundreds of injuries, with some national security news reporters, citing intelligence sources, claiming that Russian spies were attacking US diplomats worldwide with clandestine pulsed microwaves.
In January, however, a US intelligence community report assembled by the CIA concluded that there was no massive worldwide campaign, and that most of the reported injuries were explainable. Only about two dozen were truly concerning and bore further investigation, perhaps being the results of attacks of some kind.
The expert panel report released Wednesday is a complement to that report, looking only at possible mechanisms for the injuries in those remaining cases. Essentially it finds that pulsed microwaves or ultrasound beams were “plausibly” causes for the injuries, meaning they were not impossible (as opposed to “likely”) explanations, and that researchers should examine them further.
“We will stay at it, with continued rigor, for however long it takes,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and CIA director William Burns said in a joint statement regarding the report on the “Anomalous Health Incidents,” as syndrome cases are now termed by the US government. The Biden administration had announced on Tuesday that it was appointing a central point person to create policies for addressing reports of syndrome-like injuries that are scheduled for release later this month.
