According to media reports, US intelligence does not assume that a “foreign adversary” is responsible for the so-called Havana syndrome among US diplomats. That is the preliminary conclusion of years of intelligence investigations into the mysterious illnesses of embassy workers, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing secret service officials.
There is still no plausible explanation for the cases. It was a frustrating “puzzle”, according to the newspaper, citing an official. Secret services are open to new ideas and evidence.
mysterious headache
Since 2016, several US diplomats living in Havana, Cuba, and their families have been complaining of mysterious headaches, hearing loss, dizziness and nausea. Embassy personnel were then reduced to a minimum. Similar complaints were later reported elsewhere in the world, including Vienna. The US government has not ruled out that this could be some kind of attack – but it has always emphasized that it does not know what is behind it.
According to the Washington Post, seven American secret services have already checked well over a thousand cases in nearly a hundred countries. Five of those authorities concluded that it was “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary using an energy source was responsible for the symptoms. One of the officials committed to the “unlikely” rating, another abstained. Last year, an independent panel of experts came to the conclusion that some cases of Havana syndrome could have been triggered by some type of targeted use of electromagnetic radiation.
Many of those affected claim they were victims of a premeditated attack. Repeatedly, Russia is mentioned as a possible cause of the complaints. According to the Washington Post, the current report almost completely contradicts this thesis. The diplomats involved have repeatedly accused the US government of downplaying the symptoms.