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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/cia-says-havana-syndrome-not-result-sustained-global-campaign-hostile-rcna12838
CIA says 'Havana Syndrome' not result of sustained campaign by hostile power
In about two dozen cases, however, the agency can’t rule out foreign involvement, including many of the cases that originated at the U.S.
Embassy in Havana beginning in 2016.
Image: US Embassy, Havana
The U.S. Embassy in Havana on May 20.Yamil Lage / AFP via Getty Images file Jan. 19, 2022, 8:05 PM PST / Updated Jan. 20, 2022, 6:50 AM PST
By Ken Dilanian and Josh Lederman
In a new intelligence assessment, the CIA has ruled out that the
mysterious symptoms known as Havana Syndrome are the result of a
sustained global campaign by a hostile power aimed at hundreds of U.S. diplomats and spies, six people briefed on the matter told NBC News.
In about two dozen cases, the agency cannot rule out foreign
involvement, including many of the cases that originated at the U.S.
Embassy in Havana beginning in 2016. Another group of cases is
considered unresolved. But in hundreds of other cases of possible
symptoms, the agency has found plausible alternative explanations, the
sources said.
Exclusive: ‘Havana Syndrome’ victim speaks out
DEC. 22, 202102:01
The CIA declined to comment.
The idea that widespread brain injury symptoms have been caused by
Russia or another foreign power targeting Americans around the world,
either to harm them or to collect intelligence, has been deemed
unfounded, the sources said.
People who have experienced possible Havana Syndrome symptoms and have
been briefed on the assessment have expressed deep disappointment, the
sources said. Some have pointed out that the CIA’s findings are
considered an interim assessment and that they were not coordinated with
other agencies, including the Defense Department.
“CIA just kind of struck out on their own,” a person briefed on the findings said.
In a statement, a group that represents U.S. officials who have reported suspected incidents said, “The CIA’s newly issued report may be labeled ‘interim’ and it may leave open the door for some alternative
explanation in some cases, but to scores of dedicated public servants,
their families, and their colleagues, it has a ring of finality and repudiation.”
“We have reason to believe the interim report does not even represent
the consensus of the full CIA,” said the group Advocacy for Victims of
Havana Syndrome, “instead reflecting the views of a subset of officials
most interested in resolution and closure.”
Nonetheless, almost no one who has been working closely on the issue is surprised that many recent cases of what the Biden administration calls “anomalous health incidents” have plausible explanations unrelated to possible hostile acts. When government agencies began urging any
employee who had suffered unexplained headaches and dizziness to report
it, it was inevitable that many of the cases would not fit the
parameters of what doctors had identified in the diplomats and spies who suffered brain injuries.
“Even two dozen cases is a lot of cases if Americans were attacked,” one person briefed on the findings said.
There is an intensive intelligence gathering and analytical effort to
resolve those cases, officials said.
Starting in late 2016, U.S. diplomats and spies serving in Cuba began
reporting bizarre sounds and sensations followed by unexplained
illnesses and symptoms, including hearing and vision loss, memory and
balance problems, headaches and nausea.
Over the years, many hundreds of U.S. officials have come forward
reporting suspected incidents in more than a dozen countries, NBC News
has reported.
U.S. officials say hundreds of Americans reported possible cases of
Havana Syndrome
JULY 20, 202101:20
NBC News reported in 2018 that U.S. intelligence officials considered
Russia a leading suspect in what some of them assessed to have been
deliberate attacks on diplomats and CIA officers overseas. But in the
three years since then, the spy agencies have not uncovered enough
evidence to pinpoint the cause or the culprit of the health incidents.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said in a
report in 2020 that some of the observed brain injuries were consistent
with the effects of directed microwave energy, which the report said
Russia has long studied.
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Russia has consistently denied any involvement.
A team of medical and scientific experts who studied the symptoms of as
many as 40 State Department and other government employees concluded
that nothing like them had previously been documented in medical
literature, the National Academies of Sciences report said. Many
reported hearing a loud sound and feeling pressure in their heads and
then experiencing dizziness, unsteady gait and visual disturbances. Many suffered long-standing debilitating effects.
U.S. officials have long said they cannot say for sure that they were intentional attacks or even that they were the result of human activity.
But privately, CIA Director William Burns had referred to the incidents
as attacks. One of Burns’ aides suffered symptoms during a trip to New
Delhi in 2020.
Nonetheless, Burns and the director of national intelligence, Avril
Haines, have endorsed the findings, the sources said.
The CIA report aims to address a concern that has grown more intense as
more and more cases have been reported: that a U.S. adversary had
managed to harm hundreds of Americans in dozens of countries while
evading detection by the U.S.
U.S. officials stressed that the interim report was not a final
conclusion of the broader Biden administration or the full intelligence community. The White House National Security Council has convened a task
force involving outside medical and scientific experts that is also
examining Havana Syndrome and is expected to release some findings in
the near future, officials said. The Defense Department, the FBI and the
State Department are all still working to investigate the origins of the syndrome and how to mitigate it, the officials said.
Early victims of ‘Havana Syndrome’ speak out about ongoing health struggles OCT. 13, 202104:26
Instead, the interim CIA report is focused narrowly on the number of
incidents that are believed to be potentially attributable to a foreign
actor, officials said.
Still, the report marks a significant change of tone from the Biden administration, which has made a point of demonstrating that it is
taking the incidents more seriously than the Trump administration did
and has repeatedly emphasized the need to take victims seriously.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in comments on MSNBC last week,
recalled having met with State Department employees who have come
forward reporting incidents.
“I’ve heard them. I’ve listened to them. You can’t help but be struck by
how these incidents disrupted their lives and their well-being,” Blinken said. “We’re doing everything we can to care for them.”
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
U.S. officials said the CIA report does not change the Biden
administration’s broader approach to Havana Syndrome, including the
emphasis on eliminating stigma, encouraging employees with suspected
incidents to come forward and ensuring proper medical care for those
affected.
Ken Dilanian
Ken Dilanian is a correspondent covering intelligence and national
security for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
Josh Lederman
Josh Lederman is an NBC News correspondent.
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