‘Havana Syndrome’: the mysterious illness affecting US personnel abroad

‘Havana syndrome’ is an alleged set of medical symptoms experienced by U.S. government personnel abroad, mostly spies and diplomats, reported since 2016, when dozens where afflicted in Cuba, hence the name ‘Havana Syndrome’.

Later incidents were reported in China, Russia, Colombia, Austria, Uzbekistan, the United Kingdom and Poland, among others.

The symptoms people have reported are piercing pain, headaches, unexplained sounds, vertigo, vision loss, memory loss, insomnia, and even signs of brain damage.

Through years of investigations, the potential causes that have been proposed are varied and include ultrasound, pesticides, or even a mass psychogenic illness.

One panel investigating the incidents said that some of the episodes could “plausibly” have been caused by pulsed electromagnetic energy “emitted by an external source”.

However, a report issued early this year by a separate CIA task force found that it was “unlikely Russia or other foreign adversary is conducting a widespread global campaign designed to harm US officials”.

But although they don’t think of it as a “global campaign”, the agency said it does not rule out that a nation, including Russia, might be responsible for some of the cases, while most can have “mundane explanations, such as stress.”

“Pulsed electromagnetic energy, particularly in the radiofrequency range, plausibly explains the core characteristics, although information gaps exist,” the report stated. 

A CIA physician sent to Havana, Cuba, to investigate the mysterious health incidents that were impacting embassy and agency personnel in 2017, was struck by the same set of debilitating symptoms, he told CNN.

Some victims, including the CIA physician (pictured), raised concerns about how the agency handled the initial tranche of cases and alleged that their injuries were not taken seriously.

Photo: CNN

However, in October 2021, President Biden signed into law the bipartisan “Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks Act,” to provide care and compensation to government employees with symptoms.

After the Cold War, debates about the dangers of electromagnetic weapons became the near-exclusive realm of people ridiculed as conspiracy theorists.

In 2001, then Representative from Ohio, Dennis Kucinich, introduced legislation to ban the weaponization of “radiation, electromagnetic” or other energies against people, but it was dropped following media derision.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military continued developing such weapons, like the Active Denial System, or “Pain Ray”, which uses electromagnetic energy to cause a burning sensation without actually burning the skin.

On the other hand, there are thousands of U.S. citizens who call themselves “targeted individuals” who’ve reported similar experiences, including perceived attacks by remote-controlled weapons causing long-term illness.

Photo: Elisa Ventur/Unsplash

These people have been sounding the alarm for years about possible electromagnetic weaponry deployment on U.S. soil, but they’ve been derided as paranoid and delusional.

Photo: Tobias Tullius/Unsplash

A ‘Los Angeles Times’ journalist wrote a book about her father’s experience: a Mexican immigrant who believed the CIA experimented on him with electromagnetic weapons that caused him to collapse in pain and develop insomnia, among other things.

He believed the CIA was testing the weapons’ ability to dramatically alter behavior by targeting drug addicts. He was using crack at the time and quit because of this perceived intervention.

It wouldn’t be the first time either that the CIA conducted experiments on U.S. citizens. During the Cold War, they conducted a top-secret project named MK-Ultra that assessed the effects of drugs and electroshock therapy in hundreds of people.

The journalist also assures in an article, that after writing her father’s story, she received dozens of emails from others who claim to be victims of similar electronic torture.

Photo: Usman Yousaf/Unsplash

Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff who revealed his personal experiences of ‘Havana syndrome’ in ‘60 Minutes’, said that many stay silent for fear of being perceived as mentally unstable.

The White House has not said whether the investigation would include cases involving civilians. The victims’ legislation applies only to government personnel and their families.

Olivia Troye (first left), Mike Pence’s homeland security and counterterrorism advisor at the time, who also experienced ‘Havana Syndrome’, said that the government should create a centralized location for reporting cases, including by private citizens. 

“Investigators should scrutinize the United States’ own potential abuse of such technology, and collect testimony outside of U.S. government personnel”, Troye said on ’60 minutes’.

Photo: 60 minutes

In March 2023 the Defense Department said it’s funding experiments on animals to determine if radio frequency waves could be the source of the mysterious ailment.