‘Havana Syndrome’ Likely Caused By Pulsed Microwave Energy, Government Study Says

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The mysterious neurological symptoms experienced by US diplomats in China and Cuba are consistent with the effects of directed microwave energy, according to a long-awaited report from the National Academies of Sciences that cites medical evidence to support the long conviction. date of US intelligence officials. .

The report, obtained by NBC News on Friday, does not conclude that the directed energy was delivered intentionally, by a weapon, as some U.S. officials have long believed. But it raises this disturbing possibility.

The report was transferred to Congress after bipartisan appeals led by US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire who is a prominent member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees. She issued the following statement: “The health effects of these mysterious injuries have plagued those affected. Their illnesses and suffering are real and demand a response from Congress. U.S. officials and their families – who have been targeted – have requested that Congress receive and consider this report, so I’m glad the State Department has heard our bipartisan call so we can get down to business. “

NBC News reported in 2018 that U.S. intelligence officials view Russia as a prime suspect in what some believe are deliberate attacks on diplomats and CIA officers abroad. But there was not – and there is not now – conclusive information pointing in that direction, said several officials who have been briefed on the matter.

A team of medical and scientific experts who studied the symptoms of some 40 State Department officials and other government employees concluded that nothing like this had previously been documented in the medical literature, according to the report of the National Academies of Sciences. Many said they heard a loud sound and felt pressure in the head, then experienced dizziness, unsteady gait and visual disturbances. Many have suffered from long-standing debilitating effects.

“The committee found that many of the distinctive and acute signs, symptoms and observations reported by (government) employees are consistent with the effects of pulsed and directed radio frequency (RF) energy,” the report said. “Studies published in the open literature over half a century ago and over the following decades by Western and Soviet sources provide full support for this possible mechanism.

While important questions remain, “the mere consideration of such a scenario raises serious concerns about a world with uninhibited malicious actors and new tools to harm others, as if the U.S. government didn’t already have its hands. full of natural threats, ”says the report, edited by Dr. David Relman, professor of medicine, microbiolology and immunology at Stanford, and Julie Pavlin, physician who heads the division of global health at the National Academies of Sciences in Washington.

In the past year, as first reported by GQ Magazine and The New York Times, a number of new incidents have been reported by CIA agents in Europe and Asia, including one involving Marc Polymeropoulos, who retired last year after a long and award-winning career as as case officer. He told NBC News he was still suffering from the effects of what he believes was a brain injury he sustained while traveling to Moscow.

A source directly familiar with the matter told NBC News that the CIA, using location data from cellphones, determined that some Russian intelligence operatives who had worked on microwave weapons programs were present in the same towns as CIA officers were suffering from mysterious symptoms. CIA officials consider this to be a promising lead but not conclusive proof.

The State Department, responding to the report, said “every possible cause remains speculative” and added that the investigation, which is now three years old, is still “ongoing.” While commending the National Academies of Sciences for undertaking this effort, the State Department offered a long list of “challenges to their study” and limitations in the data to which the academies had access, suggesting that the report should not be considered conclusive.

“While the above limits the scope of the report, they do not diminish its value,” the State Department said in an emailed statement. “We are pleased that this report is now released and that we can complete the data and analysis that could help us reach an eventual conclusion about what happened.

The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday evening. Russia has denied any involvement in the incidents.

The National Defense Authorization Act released this week included Shaheen language that will expand long-term emergency care benefits for affected U.S. government employees and their dependents. “Much more needs to be done to uncover the source of these incidents and ensure that no other public servant is suffering in this way,” said Shaheen, whose statement noted that “patients and public reports have indicated that these injuries are the result of an attack. “

The study looked at four possibilities for explaining the symptoms: infection, chemicals, psychological factors, and microwave energy.

“Overall, directed pulsed RF energy… appears to be the most plausible mechanism to explain these cases among those the committee reviewed. … The committee cannot exclude other possible mechanisms and considers that it is probable that a multiplicity of factors explains some cases and the differences between others.

The report says further investigation is needed.

© Alexandre Meneghini
Image: FILE PHOTO: Tourists in a vintage car drive past the U.S. Embassy in Havana (Alexandre Meneghini / Reuters)

Electromagnetic energy, including frequencies such as radio and microwaves, has been seen as a major possibility since the early days of the mystery. Early on, the researchers also considered the possibility that sound waves, toxins, or other mechanisms may have been involved, although no evidence is known to have emerged to support these theories.

Over the years, the FBI, CIA, US military, State Department Diplomatic Security Service, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have investigated the incidents. None drew any conclusions, and the State Department quietly stopped using the word “attacks” to describe what happened, as did Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and others. senior officials in the early days after the incidents were discovered. publicly in 2017.

Beginning in late 2016, American diplomats and other officials stationed in Havana began hearing strange sounds and experiencing bizarre physical sensations, and then became ill. The incidents resulted in hearing, balance and cognitive changes as well as mild traumatic brain injury, also known as concussion.

More than two dozen American workers who served in Cuba and a smaller number of Canadians have been confirmed to have been affected, in addition to a U.S. government employee in China who was found in 2018 to have exhibited similar symptoms. .

For some of the affected employees, these symptoms disappeared and people were finally able to return to relatively normal lives. For others, the effects have persisted and have posed a continuing and significant obstacle to their work and well-being, according to NBC News interviews with U.S. officials who have been assessed by the government as having been affected.

Cuba has categorically and systematically denied any knowledge or involvement in the incidents. In late 2018, NBC News reported that US intelligence agencies investigating the incidents considered Russia the prime suspect, based on interviews with three US officials and two other people with knowledge of the investigation.

Some outside medical experts not involved in the investigation speculated that the workers simply suffered from mass hysteria. But doctors who evaluated patients at the University of Pennsylvania, including using advanced brain imaging, found differences in their brains, including less white matter and connectivity in areas that control vision and hearing than similar healthy people.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, questioned in October about the investigation, said there was still no firm conclusion, although he bristled at the allegations that were raised by many affected diplomats according to which the State Department has taken insufficient measures to protect them and ensure care after being injured.

“We did a lot of work trying to identify how it all happened,” Pompeo said. “And we continue to try to determine precisely the cause of this while doing our best to make sure that we take care of the health and safety of these people.”

The report recommends that the State Department establish a response mechanism for similar incidents that allows new cases to be investigated faster and more efficiently.

• The NAS report details many of the challenges of their study: different data points collected by the several reference centers used by the Department; data collected from individuals tailored to their individual signs and symptoms, and at markedly different times for affected individuals; limited access due to potential security concerns or active investigations in progress; and, above all, limited access to personalized data, and work, instead, with collective or shared data. Although the above limits the scope of the report, it does not diminish its value.