"Havana Syndrome"... a mysterious weapon to target US intelligence officers, and Russia is in trouble

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New testimonies of officers in the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other officials revealed that they were exposed to mysterious health symptoms during missions outside the United States, in incidents that revived debate about the possibility of them being targeted with unknown weapons, amid renewed accusations that Russia was behind some of these incidents, and doubts about the possibility of withholding evidence related to the case within American institutions.

One of the cases dates back to April 2019, when a CIA officer, who was on a business trip to London, woke up with a severe headache that he described as the most severe in his life, accompanied by severe sweating and a disturbance in balance. The next day, he had difficulty remembering the names of his colleagues and following a discussion during a work meeting, before continuing to experience symptoms that included mental confusion, loss of balance, and increased ringing in the ears.

In September of the same year, during a business trip to the Polish capital, Warsaw, the officer suffered another bout of acute pain, which he later described as being similar to being repeatedly hit on the head with a baseball bat. Although the attacks later subsided, he suffered for years from chronic nerve pain, fatigue and other health problems.

These cases are known as "Havana Syndrome", named after the Cuban capital, which witnessed the first mass reports of the phenomenon, after American diplomats there reported unusual symptoms, which included the sensation of strange sounds, pressure, and pain, followed in some cases by health symptoms that lasted for long periods.

Over time, dozens of CIA officers in various locations around the world reported similar cases, which were officially called “abnormal health incidents.” A number of those affected believed that the symptoms may have been caused by a Russian intelligence operation that used an unknown weapon that relied on sound energy or pulsed microwave waves, with the aim of injuring or intimidating American agents.

However, this hypothesis faced scientific and intelligence objections, as researchers believed that the evidence was not sufficient to prove the existence of a portable weapon capable of causing these injuries, pointing out that symptoms such as dizziness, pain, and cognitive disturbances may result from multiple causes, including environmental factors, toxic materials, and some sound effects, in addition to the possibilities of a psychological explanation for the symptoms.

In 2022, a committee of scientific experts formed by the US government concluded that the signs and symptoms of these incidents are real and convincing, and that they may be caused by external influences. However, a US intelligence assessment issued the following year concluded that the available information did not consistently indicate the involvement of US opponents in these incidents, and considered that the possibility of a Russian campaign being behind them was “extremely small.”

However, the controversy returned to the forefront after this assessment was later withdrawn during the administration of US President Donald Trump, as it was considered to be based on a flawed analysis, which reopened the debate regarding the evidence on which previous official estimates were based.

According to an investigation published by the British newspaper "The Guardian", journalists Michael Rhee and Oriana Zale de Grandos, who are producers of the "60 Minutes" program on the American CBS network, are preparing to issue a book presenting testimonies and evidence that they say supports the possibility of Russia's involvement in some cases of Havana Syndrome, in addition to accusing parts of the US government and intelligence services of withholding potential evidence related to the case.

The investigation quoted David Relman, a Stanford University professor who chaired the government scientific committee on Havana syndrome in 2022, as believing that a group of cases can be explained, more likely, by exposure to pulsed microwave energy. He pointed out that the committee reviewed patient records and more than a thousand confidential documents related to the case, adding that the totality of the evidence it reviewed might lead to belief in the existence of a possible cover-up.

The two journalists said that they began following up on the case after reports emerged of the infection of employees at the US Embassy in the Cuban capital, Havana, following the resumption of diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana during the era of former US President Barack Obama. They explained that a former American diplomatic official confirmed to them the validity of the cases, and linked them to people who said they had been exposed to these symptoms.

As the scope of the investigations expanded, similar reports appeared between American diplomats in China and other locations around the world, before journalists were contacted by people who worked, or are still working, on secret missions for the CIA. The two journalists said that the stories of a number of these people were remarkably similar, even though they did not know each other.

The investigation indicated that a number of suspected cases were linked to people who worked on files that intersected with Russian interests. The locations mentioned in the testimonies included Cuba, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, and Vietnam, in addition to officers who worked in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, during the events of 2014, which Russian President Vladimir Putin described as a coup supported by the United States.

The investigation also reported cases dating back to before the emergence of Havana Syndrome in Cuba, including the case of Mike Peck, a counterintelligence official with the US National Security Agency, who said that he fell ill during a temporary mission in the 1990s to inspect an American diplomatic facility and ensure that it was free of eavesdropping devices.

The investigation also included the testimony of a researcher who worked at one of the American defense institutes. She said that she felt unusual symptoms during a visit to Belgrade, which included dizziness, nausea, and a feeling of loss of balance. She also noticed a disturbance in the screen of a government laptop that later stopped working. She added that in the following weeks she suffered from weakness, difficulty speaking, severe pain, and disturbances in concentration, before she was forced to leave her job, noting that she did not link her experience to Havana Syndrome until a long time later.

In another case, Mark Polymeropoulos, a former CIA official, described suffering a severe headache, dizziness, and ringing in the ears during a visit to Moscow in December 2017, where he met with officials from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Polymeropoulos said he woke up at night in his hotel suffering from severe dizziness and a severe headache, initially believing he was suffering from food poisoning. After his return to Washington, his migraines continued, while he had difficulty convincing his superiors that his symptoms were linked to other reported cases. He also explained that the secret nature of his duties made it difficult for him to inform doctors of the details of his movements and the circumstances surrounding his injury.

The renewal of these testimonies returns the issue of Havana Syndrome to the circle of controversy within the American intelligence and scientific circles, between those who believe that some cases may reflect the potential use of advanced technologies to target workers in the security and diplomatic services, and those who stress that the available evidence is still insufficient to prove Russian responsibility or identify a single mechanism that explains all cases.