A mysterious disease called “Havana Syndrome” has caused severe headaches, nausea and possible brain damage to US diplomats, with many officials convinced they are continuing attacks using electronic weapons.
US Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday delayed her visit to Vietnam by several hours after the US embassy in Hanoi reported a possible case involving “acoustic incidents”, raising concerns that she could be a target.
Harris eventually went to Hanoi, and the State Department said it was investigating a case the US government officially calls an “unusual health event,” or AHI.
It was the most recent of dozens of such cases reported by US diplomats and intelligence officials since 2016, first in Cuba, then in China, Germany, Australia, Taiwan and Washington itself.
In July, The New Yorker magazine reported that dozens of cases had been reported among US officials in Vienna, Austria, since early 2021.
Amid concerns of a powerful rival, possibly Russia, escalating attacks, the State Department has warned thousands of its diplomats about the threat, as well as conducting extensive medical checks on those traveling abroad to prevent future attacks. to better measure any effect of
“We take each report extremely seriously and are working to ensure that affected employees receive the care and support they need,” a spokesman for the department said.
The number of reported incidents has been kept secret among US officials.
Following the Hanoi incident, Mark Polymeropoulos, a former CIA operative who himself was a victim in Moscow in 2017, said the volume of attacks was increasing.
“It seems to me that our adversaries are sending a clear message that they are able to reach not only our intelligence officers, diplomats and US military officials,” Polymeropoulos said in the Cipher Brief open source report on Wednesday. That they can get from our senior VIPs.”
Microwave Attack?
The syndrome has affected US officials almost equally.
However, in 2017, Canadian diplomats and their families in Havana reported several cases of their own among Americans, months after the first.
In some cases, people have reported hearing focused, high-pitched or loud sounds that have made them nauseous.
Sometimes victims had bloody noses, headaches and other symptoms that resembled bruising.
The events were poorly understood and gave rise to theories that they were caused by a weapon that used focused microwaves, ultrasound, venom or even the cricket’s reaction.
But for many years, senior government officials dismissed the complaints, judging them to be symptoms of people under stress or reacting with hysteria to unknown stimuli.
Nevertheless, former President Donald Trump’s administration pulled American staff out of Havana and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington, indicating that either the Cuban or Russian government was behind the attacks.
In late 2020, the National Academy of Sciences studied the available cases and concluded that they represent a distinct set of symptoms unlike any other known disorder.
His report noted that there was a wide variation among known cases, not all tied to a perceived sharp, directed sound.
But it said the best explanation would be pulsed, guided microwaves.
In March, the CIA created a task force to study the problem. But on August 9, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, after a meeting of senior cabinet officials, said he was stunned.
Officials unanimously agreed that “identifying the cause of AHI, providing the highest level of care to those affected and preventing such incidents from continuing is a top priority,” Haines said.
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