Havana SyndromeRush to Stop “Havana Syndrome”
In 2016, dozens of diplomatic staff at the U.S. and Canadian embassies in Havana began experiencing a sudden onset of health troubles with no apparent cause. It was suspected they had been exposed to a high-intensity burst of energy or sound waves. Known as Havana syndrome, today there are at least 200 CIA, State Department, and Pentagon personnel stationed overseas who have been affected. But cause, suspects unclear as scores of U.S. spies, diplomats, security staff hit by mysterious neurological injuries overseas.
In 2016, dozens of diplomatic staff at the U.S. and Canadian embassies in Havana began experiencing a sudden onset of health troubles with no apparent cause. They reported a variety of symptoms, including vertigo, nausea, vision and hearing difficulties, memory loss, and headaches. Many said they felt something pressing or vibrating around them or heard noises just before the symptoms appeared, leading some to suspect they had been exposed to a high-intensity burst of energy or sound waves.
Known as Havana syndrome, today there are at least 200 CIA, State Department, and Pentagon personnel stationed overseas who have been affected. (President Biden signed a bill on Friday providing financial help to victims.) Intelligence agencies have been unable to determine what’s behind the incidents, although some officials believe they are the result of attacks by a U.S. adversary. Now, a recent flurry of high-ranking U.S. diplomats, spies, and security aides have been treated for Havana syndrome, possibly signaling an escalation of some sort, intelligence analysts say.
“Perhaps this is a message sent — that nobody is immune to this,” said former CIA senior operations officer Marc Polymeropoulos during a Harvard Kennedy School talk last week with Paul Kolbe, director of the Belfer Center’s Intelligence Project, and Adam Entous, staff writer at the New Yorker, who started reporting on the topic in 2018.
The most recent victims include a U.S. diplomat in Serbia who was evacuated by the CIA last month, according to a Wall Street Journal report, and an aide traveling with CIA Director William Burns in India who developed symptoms. In August, Vice President Kamala Harris’ trip to Vietnam was delayed after two officials at the U.S. embassy in Hanoi became ill. The CIA replaced its Vienna station chief for failing to adequately respond to reports of Havana syndrome-like symptoms by two dozen intelligence officers and diplomats this summer. Police in Vienna are investigating the incidents.
The cause of these illnesses has not been identified, but one theory is high-intensity microwaves may be to blame. Russia has a well-documented history dating back to Josef Stalin of using microwaves against the U.S. to disrupt intelligence operations. An assessment of Havana embassy victims by the National Academies of Science in 2020 said “directed, pulsed Radio Frequency energy” was the “most plausible” primary source of those injuries. Private companies sell weapons systems that use directed energy to knock out drones.
