HAVANA SYNDROMEHavana Syndrome Not Caused by Directed-Energy Weapons: U.S. Intelligence

In 2016 in Havana, Cuba’s capital, a growing number of U.S. diplomats reported symptoms of unexplained ailment. Over the next five years, employees in many other U.S. embassies complained about identical symptoms, which included dizziness, nausea, headaches, ringing ears, and disorientation.

A comprehensive investigation by several agencies of the U.S. intelligence community has now concluded that the symptoms of what came to be called the Havana Syndrome were not the result of an adversary nation using energy or radiation weapons against the embassies where employees complained of the symptoms.

The U.S. intelligence community’s investigation, which included scientists, engineers, military experts, and medical professionals, said that the symptoms were probably the result of previous illnesses or other diseases or environmental factors.

Our People in Havana
After more than two dozen U.S. diplomats living and working in Havana, Cuba and their relatives began to complain of puzzling headaches, hearing loss, dizziness, and nausea in 2016, the Department of State reduced the embassy staff to a bare minimum, a process which was repeated in several other U.S. embassies around the world.

What was puzzling to both intelligence analysts and medical professionals was not only the similarities of the symptoms – among people of different ages, backgrounds, and medical histories – but also the fact that all of them indicated that the symptoms started after hearing a strange sound or feeling strong pressure in their heads.

U.S, officials did not rule out that what was happening was a result of a deliberate attack by an adversary nation, but from the start the notion of an “energy weapon” was treated with skepticism.

In all, several U.S. intelligence agencies investigated well over a thousand individual cases of diplomats who served in dozens of countries. The majority of the agencies looking into the matter concluded that it was “highly unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible for the symptoms. The intelligence community, however, acknowledges that there are still gaps in its assessment, and it stresses that it is difficult to assess with accuracy the level of development of various energy- or radiation-weapons in the arsenals of Russia, China, North Korea, or Iran, the countries identified as the main suspects if there were deliberate attacks on U.S. embassies.

Medical experts working with the intelligence community said that environmental and social factors have been identified which could plausibly explain many of the complaints reported by those affected.

Energy Weapons
Last year, an independent panel of experts concluded that at least some of the cases of Havana syndrome could have been triggered by a targeted use of electromagnetic radiation, or pulse. The CIA, without referring specifically to the many complaints by American diplomats, published a report which said that there were “several plausible ways” to employ electromagnetic impulses from a certain spectrum frequency in such a targeted manner. Other hypotheses, such as the use of chemical or biological substances, were considered not plausible given the symptoms reported.

The State Department said that the number of reported cases of “abnormal health incidents” has decreased since 2021. The current findings of the secret services “do not in any way question the experiences and symptoms that our colleagues and their family members have reported in recent years,” the State Department said.

The White House echoed the State Department’s words, adding that regardless of the conclusions of this investigation and future ones, the affected diplomats and their family members will continue to receive additional financial and medical support.

Many of those affected insist that they have been the victims of a deliberate attack, and Russia is often mentioned as the likely source of the attacks. Many of the diplomats concerned have also accused the U.S. government of downplaying the symptoms in the past.