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Two intelligence agencies now say energy weapons are possible cause of Havana Syndrome.
New information has led two U.S. intelligence agencies to alter their views on the cause of mysterious head injuries suffered by overseas government officials, and they now believe at least some of the cases may have been the result of enemy directed energy attacks, according to a new government report made public Friday.
The two agencies, not identified by name in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence report, now say a radio frequency (RF) or other type of directed energy weapon is a possible cause for a small number of the many so-called “anomalous health incidents,” or AHIs, identified since 2016 that have come to be known as Havana Syndrome.
But five other U.S. spy agencies are standing by earlier assessments that it is unlikely foreign actors caused the conditions suffered by scores of diplomats, intelligence personnel and some military attaches, mostly working outside the United States.
The new intelligence mentioned in the updated assessment is “possibly related to” AHIs, the report said. The new assessment is based on work by counterintelligence analysts, medical doctors, scientists, engineers and experts in foreign weapons research at seven different intelligence agencies that were not named publicly.
The AHI incidents have come to be known popularly as Havana Syndrome after U.S. Embassy personnel in Cuba first experienced unexplained injuries in 2016. Other cases were reported in China and in Europe.
Key congressional Republicans Friday criticized the ODNI report, saying the new information only strengthened the case that hostile foreign powers were behind the attacks, and said the Biden administration was trying to cover up the facts.
“This updated assessment by ODNI concerning new intelligence on anomalous health incidents … continues the Biden administration’s cover-up,” said House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner, Ohio Republican. “This new intelligence, I believe, should completely change the assessment of our adversaries’ capabilities and the risks to our personnel. This will not age well for the Biden administration.”
Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford, chairman of the panel’s CIA subcommittee who led an investigation into the issue, said the Biden administration “doubled down on misleading the American people” on AHIs, appealing to the incoming Trump administration to address the long-running controversy.
“As I’ve said before, the evidence shows that a foreign adversary is likely responsible for several of the roughly 300 reported AHI cases,” said Mr. Crawford. “Not only are AHI-affected Americans being denigrated by this ’new’ assessment, but the [intelligence community’s] conclusions continue to ignore the very serious process problems I’ve previously highlighted.”
The latest report is an update of a March 2023 assessment that made similar conclusions. One key difference in the new published assessment is the exclusion of possible causes for the AHIs.
The earlier assessment claimed that likely causes of AHIs were “preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses, or environmental factors” in the victims. The lack of that language may reflect ongoing criticism of the intelligence agencies over their handling of the personnel issue.
The finding of personal medical or environmental roots in the problem angered many victims, who have said they remain convinced their conditions are the result of some type of brain-affecting weapon.
A report by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee subcommittee made public last month said the earlier AHI assessment lacked “analytic integrity” and was produced in “highly irregular” ways.
The interim House subcommittee report stated that “it appears increasingly likely … a foreign adversary is behind some AHIs.”
A CIA official recently went public with charges that the agency is covering up foreign involvement in what she said were directed energy brain attacks.
Both China and Russia are known to be working on such sonic, radio frequency and microwave weapons. China’s military is pushing ahead with research on sound weapons for use in waging cognitive warfare — the use of unconventional tools and capabilities to alter enemy thinking and decision-making, The Washington Times reported in October.
The sound weapons and other nonlethal arms are said to be capable of incapacitating enemy forces by disrupting neurological functions without causing visible injury.
A National Security Agency document from 2014 revealed that Russia has microwave weapons suspected in the covert attacks on U.S. intelligence officials and diplomats. The document said two NSA counterintelligence officials working in Russia in 1996 may have suffered debilitating brain-related injuries after a suspected microwave attack.
The new ODNI assessment said that unspecified foreign adversaries are making progress on such arms.
“Two [intelligence community] components have changed their judgments since 2023 based on new reporting that they evaluated to indicate that foreign directed-energy research programs have been making progress,” the report said.
Progress by adversaries on possible weapons such as a pulsed radiofrequency (RF) energy weapon or a prototype device that may have caused the AHI symptoms in a small number of cases prompted the two agencies to challenge the official view that no foreign actors are involved in any of the cases, the report said.
“One component assesses it is likely a foreign actor has an RF, anti-personnel capability, and that this capability can cause biological effects consistent with some of the symptoms reported as possible AHI,” a DNI official said in a briefing for reporters, reflecting a finding of the new assessment.
The other newly skeptical agency said there is a “roughly even chance” that foreign actors have a capability for causing some AHI symptoms, he said.
The report said foreign adversaries are conducting research and development of novel weapons, “especially those using RF energy,” and studying ways to “harm humans” in ways similar to those with symptoms of AHIs.
Medical research cited in the assessment found that U.S. personnel and family members in Havana Syndrome cases “do not have a consistent set of physical injuries,” the report said. However, all agencies involved in the new study could not rule out the possibility of foreign actors behind a small number of AHIs, the report said, based on an inability to fully study all the reported incidents.
Five agencies said in those cases the cause could be harassment by foreign actors using acoustic devices or a nonlethal incapacitating chemical agent, instead of a novel weapon, the report said.
The DNI official defended analysts behind the assessment, who he said were working under pressure and focused on just one critical aspect of the problem.
“Our analysis is focused only on considering foreign responsibility and the intelligence does not link a foreign actor to these events. Indeed, it points away from their involvement. And analytic integrity is saying just that,” the official said.
Intelligence judgments that environmental factors or the medical conditions of victims are a likely cause has not changed since the 2023 assessment, the official said.
But the official declined comment when asked what environmental factors could have caused the symptoms reported by the affected officials.
Victims of AHIs have reported hearing unusual sounds at residences and then suffering from headaches, dizziness, nausea, hearing loss, mild confusion and emotional distress.
An FBI agent operating in Florida also reported being targeted with some type of directed-energy weapon and experienced an AHI after interviewing a Russian national suspected of engaging in intelligence work, CBS’s “60 Minutes” reported in march.
Intelligence community components “continue to assess that it is either ’very unlikely’ or ’unlikely’ that any foreign actor caused any of the events reported as possible AHIs, because intelligence reporting points away from key U.S. adversaries being involved, and [intelligence community] targeting, collection and investigations have not linked any foreign actor to any reported incident,” the report says.
According to the report, intelligence agencies will continue to gather information that might reveal foreign efforts to harm government personnel. The focus is on foreign weapons programs, using counterintelligence to investigate health incidents, and supporting laboratory biological research on the problem.
The intelligence community “is supporting [U.S. government-]affiliated lab research on whether RF signals can cause bioeffects consistent with those reported as possible AHIs,” the report said. “The majority of results have historically shown no harmful bioeffects; however more recent, limited studies have produced mixed preliminary results.”
The DNI official defended the integrity of the analysis in the face of recent House GOP criticisms, and said analytic objectivity and sound tradecraft were used to reach the report’s conclusions.
“The goal of our analysis is to find out what happened to them, not to question whether they had medical symptoms,” the official added.
Ryan Clarke, an open-source intelligence expert who has studied China’s novel weapons, said that “the strategic reality is that the Chinese Communist Party has the most advanced, geographically and technologically distributed and offensively-oriented NeuroStrike program in the world, with an extensive evidence base to prove this that ranges from laboratory experiments to corporate product brochures,” a reference to brain-affecting warfare capabilities.
“There are also multiple official [Community Party and People’s Liberation Army] and other official doctrinal and other strategic publications that specifically highlight the criticality of NeuroStrike for China to severely degrade its enemies and prevail in any conflict.”
Russia also is expert in these unconventional arms and it is possible China and the Russian government of President Vladimir Putin are conducting joint operations, he said.
“If the CCP and Putin regime aren’t involved and these phenomena cannot be explained by preexisting conditions, conventional illness or environmental factors, then we do not appear to have any concrete explanation at all,” Mr. Clarke said.
(Washington times)