- Written by James Fitzgerald
- bbc news
image source, Getty Images
The syndrome was first reported in 2016 by a diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.
A mysterious illness that has hit American diplomats in recent years has been linked to Russian intelligence.
Expatriate workers around the world suffering from “Havana syndrome” are reporting unexplained symptoms such as dizziness.
They may have been targeted by Russian sonic weapons, according to a joint investigation by Insider, Der Spiegel and CBS' 60 Minutes.
Moscow denies the accusations. U.S. officials have previously said it was unlikely a foreign power was responsible.
But an “abnormal health incident” (AHI) assessment released last year offered no alternative explanation, frustrating those affected.
U.S. officials also acknowledged that the reliability of the assessments varied among the various intelligence agencies involved.
The phenomenon's name comes from Cuba's capital Havana, where the first case was detected in 2016, but a new report suggests the first case may have occurred in Germany two years earlier. It suggests.
Other cases have been reported around the world, from Washington to China.
On Monday, the Pentagon announced that a senior Pentagon official who attended last year's NATO summit in Lithuania experienced symptoms similar to Havana syndrome.
U.S. personnel affected by the condition, including White House, CIA, and FBI personnel, have complained of dizziness, headaches, difficulty concentrating, and intense, painful sounds in their ears.
There have been more than 1,000 reports of this mysterious illness, with dozens still believed to have no official explanation. U.S. lawmakers have passed legislation aimed at helping victims.
But a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study published last month said MRI scans found no evidence of brain damage in dozens of U.S. employees who reported AHI.
There have been long-standing suspicions that those affected may have been affected by directed energy or microwaves emitted from hidden devices, a possibility that former U.S. intelligence agencies This was also acknowledged in the report.
A new media investigation claims that members of a certain Russian military intelligence unit known as 29155 may have targeted the brain of a US diplomat with a “directed energy” weapon.
The report said there is evidence that members of the unit were stationed in cities around the world when U.S. military officials reported the incident.
The secret unit operates overseas and has been linked to incidents such as the attempted poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Britain in 2018.
As part of the investigation, Russian specialist site Insider reported that officers from Unit 29155 received bounties for their work related to the development of “non-lethal acoustic weapons.”
A U.S. military investigator investigating cases of the syndrome told 60 Minutes that a common link among victims of the syndrome is a “Russian connection.”
Greg Edgreen explained, “There was an aspect where they countered Russia, focused on Russia, and did very well.”
He also said the U.S. official standard of evidence showing Russian involvement was too high because Russia did not want to “face the very hard truth.”
In response to media inquiries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Nowhere has anyone published or expressed any convincing evidence about these baseless accusations. Therefore, all of these are groundless. This is nothing but a false accusation.”
One of the victims of the syndrome, an FBI agent, spoke to 60 Minutes about his experience being attacked by a powerful force in his Florida home in 2021.
“Man, the inside of my right ear felt like I was being drilled with steroids at the dentist,” she said on the show. “That feeling you get when you're too close to your eardrum? It feels like 10 times worse.”
The woman, known as Carrie, said she eventually passed out and later had problems with her memory and concentration.
Following the report, U.S. officials told the BBC's U.S. partner CBS News that they “continue to closely investigate unusual health incidents,” but added, “There is a possibility that a foreign adversary may be responsible.” “is extremely low,” he reiterated.
But they said they “do not question the very real experiences and symptoms reported by our colleagues and their families” and said tackling such incidents was a priority.
John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, said the new allegations were “very concerning.”
“Frankly, when I was there, I don't think the government took it seriously enough,” he told CNN. “Since then, I don't think they've taken this issue seriously enough.”
But Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, a prominent Trump ally, trashed the report, writing about X: “I feel like a lot of journalists are losing their minds.”
