WASHINGTON —
U.S. intelligence agencies charged with investigating the spate of brain injuries and other serious health ailments that have struck hundreds of officials remain unconvinced that the illnesses are tied to the work of a foreign adversary.
An updated intelligence assessment of what the U.S. government calls anomalous health incidents, or AHIs, released Friday calls the possibility that the health symptoms were caused by a foreign actor or weapon “very unlikely.”
The conclusion, endorsed by five of the seven U.S. intelligence agencies tasked with investigating the ailments, commonly known as Havana Syndrome, match the results of a 2023 assessment that found symptoms “were probably the result of factors that did not involve a foreign adversary, such as preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses and environmental factors.”
New information, described by officials as being “sensitive” in nature, only served to further support the 2023 findings, they said.
“The intelligence does not link a foreign actor to these events. Indeed, it points away from their involvement,” according to a U.S. intelligence official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss the latest findings.
“All IC [intelligence community] components agree that years of history collection, targeting and analytic efforts have not surfaced compelling intelligence reporting that ties a foreign actor to any specific event reported as a possible AHI,” the official said.
The new assessment contrasts, however, with a December House Intelligence subcommittee report, which accused U.S. intelligence agencies of sloppy work and attempting to “create a politically palatable conclusion.”
There is reliable evidence to suggest that some anomalous health incidents are the work of foreign adversaries,” CIA Subcommittee Chairman Rick Crawford, a Republican, said at the time.
On Friday, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, Republican Mike Turner, accused the new U.S. intelligence report of again falling short.
“This new intelligence, I believe, should completely change the assessment of our adversaries’ capabilities and the risks to our personnel,” he said.
Despite the disagreement, some of the evidence pointing to foreign involvement in Havana Syndrome injuries appears to be finding more credibility with some elements of U.S. intelligence.
Two of the seven agencies contributing to the latest assessment, which looked at intelligence gathered as recently as last month, now assess with “low confidence” that a foreign hand could be involved in a limited number of cases.
One of the agencies now judges “there is ‘roughly even chance’ a foreign actor has used a novel weapon or prototype device to harm a small, undetermined subset of the USG [U.S. government] personnel or dependents,” according to the declassified assessment.
The other agency concluded there is a “roughly even chance” that a U.S. adversary has developed such a weapon, although the report states even if that is the case, “it is unlikely a foreign actor has deployed such a weapon in any events reported as possible AHIs.”
The U.S. intelligence official who spoke with reporters described the change as “subtle,” arguing, “they shift from unlikely with low confidence to roughly even chance with low confidence.”
But White House officials Friday seemed to see the change as something more significant.
“Today’s updated Intelligence Community Assessment, which is the product of ongoing analytic efforts and includes a shift in key judgments by some intelligence components,” said National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett.
“[It] only reinforces why it is vital that the U.S. government continue critical research, investigate credible incidents and strengthen efforts to provide timely care and long-term clinical follow-up,” he said.
That includes ongoing research into the potential to weaponize pulsed electromatic energy.
A February 2022 report by a panel of experts warned that the core symptoms in a small number of Havana Syndrome cases were “distinctly unusual” and suggested some sort of device must be responsible.
“Pulsed electromagnetic energy, particularly in the radiofrequency range, plausibly explains the core characteristics,” the 2022 report said.
U.S. officials have, until now, mostly dismissed such claims, arguing that nothing in the available intelligence agencies or in medical studies supports that radiofrequency waves could be weaponized.
Medical research has “historically shown no harmful bioeffects,” according to the latest U.S. assessment.
But the new assessment noted, “more recent, limited studies have produced mixed preliminary results.”
“We have made it a priority to continue research in this area, to understand the effects of directed energy, which is an area that requires much more ongoing work,” a senior administration official told reporters, briefing on the condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. response.
“There’s a lot that we do not understand,” the official said. “We are gaining greater insight over time.”
The admission is not enough for some suffering from Havana Syndrome.
The new assessment “disgracefully continues to hide the truth behind a cloak of secrecy,” said Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represents dozens of victims.
Zaid said he has filed a request to declassify the full report and called on President-elect Donald Trump to “require full disclosure of what the government knows.”
“Evidence of the use of directed energy, particularly by Russia, of some form spans decades,” Zaid said in a statement shared with VOA. “The CIA has sought to cover up its knowledge through both Democrat and Republican administrations, and classified information exists that we have knowledge of that fundamentally contradicts today’s report.”
Others have challenged the U.S. intelligence findings on Havana Syndrome.
An investigation in April by CBS’s “60 Minutes” show, Germany’s Der Spiegel and The Insider said a review of travel documents and mobile phone records, along with eyewitness testimony and interviews with multiple U.S. officials and victims, shows that Russia is likely to blame.
Specifically, the investigation tied numerous reports of Havana Syndrome with the presence of members of Unit 29155 of Russia’s military intelligence service, known for its role in sabotage and assassinations. It found that members of GRU Unit 29155 had received awards and promotions for their work on sound or radio frequency-based directed energy weapons.
The U.S. intelligence official Friday, however, pushed back against the findings.
“The claims do not hold up to scrutiny,” the official said.
Cases of Havana Syndrome were first publicly reported among diplomats and other employees at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, in 2016. Symptoms range from nausea and dizziness to debilitating headaches and memory problems, with cases having been reported in Russia, China, Poland, Austria and the United States.
“These are our colleagues and friends,” said the U.S. intelligence official, stressing that the assessment’s failure to link to a foreign adversary is not meant to question the suffering of those afflicted.
“These personnel and their dependents experienced genuine, sometimes painful and traumatic, physical symptoms and sensory phenomena, and they honestly and sincerely reported those events as possible,” the official said.
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