WASHINGTON – The State Department on Friday named a new coordinator for its investigation into cases of Havana Syndrome, responding to increased pressure from lawmakers to investigate and respond to hundreds of brain injuries reported by diplomats and intelligence officers.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken appointed a high-ranking deputy, Jonathan Moore, to coordinate the department’s task force on the cases. He replaces Pamela Spratlen, a retired diplomat temporarily called back into service by Blinken before leaving in September.
Blinken also appointed retired ambassador Margaret Uyehara to lead efforts to directly support care for State Department employees.
Investigators have been studying a growing number of reported cases by U.S. personnel around the world and whether they are caused by exposure to microwaves or other forms of directed energy. People affected have reported headaches, dizziness, nausea, and other symptoms consistent with traumatic brain injuries.
Possibilities under consideration include the usage of a surveillance tool or a device intended to harm. The cases are known as “Havana Syndrome” dating to a series of reported brain injuries in 2016 at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.
After years of investigation, the U.S. government has still not publicly identified what or who might be behind the incidents or whether they are attacks. But leaders in the State and Defense departments and at the CIA have pushed employees to report possible brain injuries and in some cases removed leaders who were seen as unsympathetic to the cases.
“This is about the health and security of our people and there’s nothing we take more seriously,” Blinken said Friday.
Several hundred cases are under investigation. There have been multiple reports in recent weeks of potential incidents linked to visits by high-profile U.S. officials, including a case involving a member of CIA Director William Burns’ traveling party in India and incidents at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia, before a visit by Blinken.
The State Department said Friday that Deputy Secretary Brian McKeon had met with diplomats in Vienna to discuss possible cases reported this year in Austria.
Democrats and Republicans have pressed President Joe Biden’s administration to determine who and what might be responsible for the cases and improve treatment for victims, many of whom have long said government officials aren’t taking their cases seriously. Biden earlier this month signed a bill intended to improve medical care for victims.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said at a recent hearing that after speaking to victims, there was still “clearly a disconnect as to what is happening at the top levels of the State Department and how victims are being treated in some cases.”
Shaheen has introduced new legislation to fix what she described as differences in how various agencies are investigating and treating cases.
“There’s still not enough information that’s being shared, not enough coordination that’s being done,” she said in an interview. “There’s not a unanimity of response on how to deal with it.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks while announcing that Jonathan Moore, back, is the new coordinator for its investigation into cases of Havana Syndrome. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/POOL VIA AP
“A 2020 study by the National Academy of Sciences, also commissioned by the Trump administration, said directed microwave energy was most likely causing the health incidents, but more research was necessary for a conclusion.”
USA Today – Trying to make government double-talk seem like something, and failing, is not a good look. Governments have been microwaving each other for decades. Chances are our state department has their antennas pointed backwards. Is there anything John Bolton HASN’T blamed on Russia?
Michael Wilner McClatchy Washington Bureau TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON – National security officials at the White House were recently issued a warning: move away from the immediate area as soon as possible if you ever feel the acute onset of pressure, sound or heat in the head.
Policy staff at the Pentagon have been instructed to report any strange, sudden health symptoms without delay.
The U.S. government is sending a message to diplomats, national security staff and intelligence officers that ‘anomalous health incidents’ – also known as ‘Havana syndrome’ because it was first detected in Cuba – are serious, widespread and pose real danger to their health at home and abroad.
The new workplace guidance is part of a broader strategy by the Biden administration to act with greater speed, after finding that quicker action benefits the health of the victim and the investigation of the incident.
It is a shift in the U.S. response after years of skepticism in some corners of government about whether the strange health incidents are real and connected.
‘We need to believe our personnel who are coming forward,’ a senior administration official said. ‘People are facing real symptoms. We are very conscious that people are experiencing something very real, and it is having a real negative effect on their health. And we’re seeing better health outcomes the sooner we can respond to that.’
The official disputed that the syndrome may have been ‘mass hysteria,’ saying, ‘The physical effects we’ve seen in several cases are very, very real.’
The administration’s firm rejection that mass hysteria could explain the phenomenon comes as the theory has resurfaced in recent days, after a 2018 scientific report commissioned by the State Department was declassified and obtained by BuzzFeed.
And the new government guidance comes amid continued criticism from victims, lawmakers and diplomats that the State Department response, in particular, has been slow throughout the first nine months of the Biden administration.
In late September, a top State Department official overseeing its response to the phenomenon – who refused to rule out the possibility that mass hysteria was to blame in a conversation with victims – left her post amid internal disagreements with other Biden appointees, two officials told McClatchy.
While some cases after review do turn out to be unrelated to ‘Havana syndrome,’ there are enough convincing cases to establish a clear pattern, officials say.
Recent guidance to intelligence officers, military personnel and national security officials at the White House directs them to leave their immediate location with everyone around them as soon as they can if they feel symptoms.
U.S. officials have reported experiencing symptoms in Vietnam, Austria, Britain, Cuba and China, as well as the Washington area.
‘This administration believes that those affected by anomalous health incidents are to be believed, heard, and respected,’ a second senior administration official said. ‘We take each report we receive of an anomalous health incident extremely seriously, and we are bringing the U.S. government’s full resources to bear to determine the cause of these incidents and identify any foreign actor involved.’
Questions under Trump Top officials in the administration of former President Donald Trump were divided over whether the phenomenon was real.
The 2018 scientific report commissioned by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo found that a cluster of cases involving more than 20 personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba in 2016 was likely a ‘psychogenic’ incident – a psychological, rather than physical, phenomenon. A spokesperson for Pompeo did not respond to requests for comment.
U.S. officials now say the scientists behind that study had limited access to victims and evidence, and that new information has emerged since then. A 2020 study by the National Academy of Sciences, also commissioned by the Trump administration, said directed microwave energy was most likely causing the health incidents, but more research was necessary for a conclusion.
Those in the Trump administration who believed the phenomenon was real suspected Russia was the culprit. But they were left with the impression that Trump did not want to hear about it.
‘He was aware of it, but because of the whole problem with Russian collusion, until we had something more definite or actionable, I and others thought it would be counterproductive to keep raising it with him,’ John Bolton, national security adviser under Trump from 2018 to 2019, said in an interview.
Victims previously complained they were receiving insufficient care or were not being taken seriously. The Biden administration’s response has been to standardize the reporting process and encourage self-reporting as early as possible.
The National Security Council established two panels of experts this spring to investigate the mechanism behind the events, and how to protect U.S. personnel going forward.
‘First and foremost, they want to be believed, and they want agencies that they work for to take care of them – make sure they get treated, make sure that they get the benefit of the best medical advice right away,’ House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told McClatchy.
Schiff co-authored the Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks Act of 2021, or the HAVANA Act, which passed Congress last month and Biden plans to sign into law. It would subsidize care for victims and require the administration to report to Congress on the episodes.
Talk of consequences Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to Biden, and CIA Director Bill Burns have visited victims at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and have both lent urgency to the government review.
The issue was raised during Biden’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Switzerland in June.
Throughout the Trump administration and at the beginning of Biden’s term, officials suspected the health incidents could have been the byproduct of an intelligence collection operation – that a device meant to pick up data from an individual’s cellphone was inadvertently causing harm.
But government sources say the circumstances around recent cases suggest a greater strategic purpose.
‘Maybe there’s more evidence on it now,’ Bolton said. ‘It was more of a concern if they are targeting individuals directly, and they can do it at our embassies and consulates around the world. They can do it in peoples’ homes in Washington. They can do it a couple blocks from the White House.’
In 2016, the U.S. Embassy in Cuba was shut down amid a wave of mysterious medical symptoms.Emily Michot/Miami Herald/TNS
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