“The former head of the Pentagon’s investigation into the mysterious health incidents known as Havana Syndrome told the CBS investigation show 60 Minutes he believes Russia was behind them and was attacking U.S. officials abroad and at home.”[1]
This television show, in partnership with The Insider (a Russian exile media outlet) and a German magazine (Der Spiegel), reported on new evidence connecting a possible domestic incident of Havana Syndrome to Russia and identified a Russian military intelligence unit, identified as 29155, as the possible culprit of some of the suspected attacks.
60 Minutes also reported that at last year’s NATO summit in Lithuania a senior Pentagon official suffered an “anomalous health incident” (the U.S. term for Havana Syndrome) that required medical care.
Greg Edgreen, who ran the investigation into Havana Syndrome for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency from 2021-23, said that as a result of the incidents, U.S. officers abroad have been “neutralized.” When asked by the show’s host if he thought the United States is being attacked, he answered, “My personal opinion, yes, by Russia” because there are “no barriers on what Moscow will do.”
“Sources told the [Miami] Herald that many of the officers injured were involved in work related to Russia or were stationed in places where Russian spies could work with ease, like Cuba, China, Vietnam and most of Europe. Some incidents in Hanoi, Bogota, London and India happened ahead of or during the visits by senior U.S. officials.
This blog previously has published posts about the Havana Syndrome.[2]
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[1] Torres, Russia is behind Havana Syndrome, attacks on U.S., former lead Pentagon investigator says, Miami Herald (April 1, 2024); Russia would be behind the ‘Havana Syndrome’, according to an investigation, Diario de Cuba (April 1, 2024),
[2] Search for posts about HAVANA SYNDROME, dwkcommentaries.com.
Reactions to Claims that Havana Syndrome Is Real
The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee is asking U.S. intelligence agencies (Office of Director of National Intelligence, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the FBI) about the new claim that Russia has been involved in the Havana Syndrome matter. And the House Intelligence Committee has decided to open a formal inquiry into the matter.
The Russian government dismissed the report on the “60 Minutes” televison program as “baseless. “This is not a new topic. For many years so-called Havana syndrome has been exaggerated in the press, and from the very beginning it was linked to accusations against the Russian side. But no one has ever published or expressed any convincing evidence of these unfounded accusations anywhere. Therefore, all this is nothing more than baseless, unfounded accusations by the media.”
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs alleged that the recent U.S. claims about the Havana Syndrome were intended to present the Cuban Government as a threat to U.S. national security for a nonexistent disease. And the Director of the Cuban Neuroscience Center said there was no scientific basis for the new U.S. claims.
A Washington Post editorial asserted, “The U.S. intelligence community needs to conduct a full, aggressive inquiry that takes into account all aspects of the incidents — sometimes easier said than done in such investigations. It must include everything: counterintelligence information, case investigatory data, clinical data, and possible concepts of operation for the attacks based on plausible mechanisms and devices identified by earlier research. It needs access to all the available intelligence — including anything previously buried or ignored — and be unbound by preconceived notions about what happened.”
This editorial concluded with the following: “Along with the new information, there are compelling reasons to dig deeper. If the incidents are a deliberate attack, the perpetrator must be identified and held to account. Along with sending a message to those who might harm American personnel, the United States needs to show all those who might join the diplomatic and intelligence services that the government will protect them abroad and at home from foreign adversaries, no matter what.”
Here are the citations for these sources:
Torres, Senate Committee seeks answers from spy agencies after bombshell Havana Syndrome report, Wash. Post (April 2, 2024), https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article287325600.html; Luscombe, ‘Havana syndrome’ linked to Russian unit, media investigation suggests, Guardian (April 1, 2024),
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/01/havana-syndrome-linked-to-russian-unit-media-investigation-suggests; Cuba’s MINREX says that ‘there is no Havana Syndrome’, but rather a ‘Washington Syndrome,’ Diario de Cuba (April 3, 2024), https://diariodecuba.com/cuba/1712138419_53885.html; Editorial, ‘Havana syndrome’ might have been a Russian attack. The U.S. can’t stop investigating, Wash. Post (April 1, 2024), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/01/investigate-havana-syndrome-russia/.
Other Reactions to Claims that the “Havana Syndrome” Is Real
New York Times
Two months before the “60 Minutes” show, a New York Times reporter (Julian E. Barnes) reported that “the House Intelligence Committee is investigating how U.S. spy agencies examined cases of Havana syndrome.” This investigation will look at the spy agencies’ analysis and the integrity of their work.” This investigation was announced in a February 8, 2024, letter to Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, from U.S. Representative Rick Crawford (Rep., Ark.). This letter also mentioned that the Committee had received relevant information from whistle-blowers and intelligence community officers. (Barnes, Congress to Examine U.S. Spy Agencies’ Work on Havana Syndrome, N.Y. Times
(Feb. 12, 2024), https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/us/politics/congress-to-examine-cias-work-on-havana-syndrome.html?searchResultPosition=2
A month later, Barnes reported, “New studies by the National Institutes of Health failed to find evidence of brain injury in scans or blood markers of the diplomats and spies who suffered symptoms of Havana syndrome, bolstering the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies about the strange health incidents. Yet “Dr. David Relman, a prominent scientist who has had access to the classified files involving the cases and representatives of people suffering from Havana syndrome, said the new studies were flawed. Many brain injuries are difficult to detect with scans or blood markers, he said. He added that the findings do not dispute that an external force, like a directed energy device, could have injured the current and former government workers.” (Barnes, New Studies Find No Evidence of Brain Injury in Havana Syndrome Cases, N. Y. Times (Mar. 18, 2024), https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/us/politics/havana-syndrome-brain-studies-nih.html?searchResultPosition=1.)
Wall Street Journal Editorial
An April 2 Wall Street Journal editorial stated,“An impressive investigation Sunday on CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ aired evidence tying so-called Havana Syndrome to an elite Russian intelligence unit. Yet America’s intelligence agencies say they can’t find evidence that the mysterious neurological symptoms are caused by a foreign adversary. Something isn’t right with this story.”
“Havana Syndrome was first documented in 2016 among government personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba. Some 1,500 cases have since been reported around the world and in the U.S. As with many neurological conditions, the symptoms are diffuse and include tinnitus, vertigo, headache, dizziness and cognitive dysfunction.”
“Victims report that their symptoms started immediately after hearing a pulsating noise. CBS reported evidence that many officials were struck while or after focusing on Russia, and it also found links to events and Russian spies. Commerce Department diplomatic official Robyn Garfield said he and his family began suffering symptoms after hearing noises at night while living in Shanghai.”
“A former Homeland Security and counterterrorism adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence said she was struck by a “piercing feeling” on the side of her head while walking down the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the West Wing. Afflicted officials say the noises dissipated when they changed locations.”
“Some scientists have posited that the phenomena can be explained by exposure to directed, pulsed radio-frequency energy, which can be transmitted by portable devices. This seems plausible. We’ve long known that electromagnetic waves can travel great distances and penetrate objects. That’s how cellular service, bluetooth, radio and Wifi work.”
“Researchers have also found that pulsed radio-frequency and magnetic fields can stimulate electric currents in the brain. Electromagnetic pulses and focused ultrasound are being studied to treat myriad diseases. The Food and Drug Administration has approved transcranial magnetic stimulation for major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.”
“It doesn’t require a major logical or scientific leap to suspect that pulsed radio-frequency energy could be harnessed for harmful purposes. A panel of experts from within and outside the U.S. government with access to classified documents concluded in 2022 that pulsed radio-frequency energy and focused ultrasound were plausible explanations.”
“Yet U.S. intelligence assessments of Havana Syndrome—officially described as ‘anomalous health incidents’ (AHI)—have repeatedly played down the likelihood it is caused by a foreign enemy and suggested the symptoms might be psychologically induced.”
“A March 2023 report by the National Intelligence Council concluded ‘symptoms reported by US personnel were probably the result of factors that did not involve a foreign adversary, such as preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses, and environmental factors’ because they were diffuse and lacked a clear causal mechanism.”
“The report said the symptoms might also plausibly be explained by “social factors” such as group psychology in which complaints of illnesses can spread among members of a community. In other words, federal employees are as easily spooked as the girls claiming to be tormented by witches in 17th-century Salem, Mass.”
“The Director of National Intelligence’s annual threat assessment in February said ‘most IC agencies have concluded that it is very unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible for the reported AHIs.’ The report did acknowledge that intelligence agencies have ‘varying confidence levels because we still have gaps given the challenges collecting on foreign adversaries.’”
“These assessments appeared to be bolstered by National Institutes of Health studies published last month, which didn’t find abnormalities among sufferers on clinical and brain-imaging tests. But an editorial by Stanford microbiologist David Relman in the Journal of the American Medical Association noted flaws in the NIH studies.”
“All of this makes us and others wonder why the intelligence community is so intent on discounting that Havana Syndrome could be caused by Russia. It’s possible the IC doesn’t want to scare its personnel, sources and Americans, especially since the government doesn’t seem to know how to prevent the incidents.”
“Acknowledging that a foreign adversary has the capability to harm Americans with a new weapon also won’t please the U.S. public. The intelligence community may also worry, perhaps at the request of senior officials, about the implications if Russia is to blame. The U.S. might have another brawl with Vladimir Putin to handle.”
“Yet the ‘60 Minutes’ report is compelling, and troubling, enough to warrant more than a non-transparent dismissal from the government. In this age of institutional mistrust, the public needs better answers.”
Editorial, U.S. Intelligence and Havana Syndrome, W.S. J. (April 2, 2024), https://www.wsj.com/articles/havana-syndrome-cbs-60-minutes-u-s-intelligence-community-russia-963bed2a?mod=opinion_lead_pos4
COMMENT: U.S. Defense of Its Position on the Havana Syndrome
On April 1, 2024, Matthew Miller of the U.S. State Department at a press conference reafffirmed the Government’s confidence in its intelligence service’s prior conclusion that there were no foreign agents behind the health incidents associated with Havana Syndrome while saying “it is something that the intelligence community has investigated exhaustively and continues to analyze.”
Nevertheless, Miller said “the US Government will examine ‘new information as it arrives and we will make evaluations within the State Department and with our intelligence community.’” He also pointed out that the U.S. Govrnment had helped affected Americans by reimbursing medical expenses and providing free treatment.
The White House spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre at a press conference said it has been important for Joe Biden’s Administration to protect its employees and highlighted the priority given “to investigations into the causes of the [abnormal health] incidents. This was an order from the president to various departments in the federal government to ensure that federal employees who reported these symptoms and their families received support and medical care.”
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The US reacts to the investigation into the ‘Havana Syndrome’ by defending its intelligence service, Diario de Cuba (April 2, 2024), https://diariodecuba.com/internacional/1712071030_53869.html;
State Dep’t, Department Press Briefing—April 1, 2024, https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-april-1-2024/#post-548988-DEPARTMENT.
CoMMENT: U.S. Senate Seeks Answers about Havana Syndrome
On April 1 the U.S. Senate Select Intelligence Committee asked “U.S. intelligence agencies about the information reported by three media outlets over the weekend about Havana Syndrome pointing to possible Russian involvement, including cellphone data placing Russian military intelligence operatives near some of the incidents.”
A spoleswoman for the Committee’s Vice Chair, Senator Marco Rubio (Rep., FL), said, “The Committee has made requests for more information based on the reporting from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the FBI. We continue to look into the anomalous health incidents and the intelligence community’s response to these events.”
On April 1, ”the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department all said . . . they stood by a March 2023 intelligence assessment concluding that it was ‘very unlikely’ that a foreign adversary was responsible for Havana Syndrome.”
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Torres, Senate committee seeks answers from spy agencies after bombshell Havana Syndrome report, Miami Herald (April 3, 2024), https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article287325600.html.