A spokesperson for the Pentagon has confirmed {that a} senior official from america had reported signs akin to so-called Havana Syndrome after attending final yr’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Sabrina Singh made the announcement to reporters on Monday, a day after a gaggle of stories shops pointed to hyperlinks between the mysterious ailment and alleged Russian operatives.
“I can verify {that a} senior DOD [Department of Defense] official skilled signs just like these reported in anomalous well being incidents,” Singh mentioned.
Reviews of Havana Syndrome stretch again to 2016, when US embassy employees in Havana, Cuba, began to report unexplained signs together with ringing ears, migraines, vertigo and cognitive dysfunction.
Different situations involving diplomats with comparable signs have since been reported elsewhere, together with in China and Austria.
Consultants have been attempting to decide what could have induced the signs, with some speculating that overseas adversaries may have directed vitality waves on the diplomats to trigger their illnesses.
Nonetheless, in 2023, the US intelligence group concluded that it was “most unlikely” {that a} “overseas adversary is accountable” for the reported instances.
Nonetheless, a information investigation launched on Sunday raised questions on whether or not Russia was certainly concerned within the mysterious well being incidents — and whether or not the US authorities has been too fast to dismiss attainable hyperlinks.
The report was the product of a joint investigation by the US information present 60 Minutes, the German newspaper Der Spiegel and The Insider, an investigative information outlet focussed on Russia.
It highlighted proof suggesting that members of a Russian army unit identified by the quantity 29155 have been current a number of occasions when US officers reported signs in keeping with Havana Syndrome.
The Insider reporter Christo Grozev mentioned he discovered paperwork exhibiting a member of the 29155 unit obtained a bonus for engaged on the “potential capabilities of non-lethal acoustic weapons”.
The Insider additionally indicated that the purported assaults could have began years earlier than the signs have been detected in Havana. It pointed to incidents in November 2014 in Frankfurt, Germany, when US consulate officers reported comparable signs.
The Russian authorities denied the experiences on Monday, calling them “baseless” and “unfounded”.
“This isn’t a brand new matter in any respect. For a few years, the subject of the so-called Havana Syndrome has been exaggerated within the press,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned.
“However nobody has ever printed or expressed any convincing proof of those unfounded accusations wherever.”
Final month, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, a US authorities company, discovered no proof of mind accidents or different “organic abnormalities” in authorities workers allegedly stricken with Havana Syndrome.
However it did notice that “these signs are very actual, trigger vital disruption within the lives of these affected and may be fairly extended, disabling and tough to deal with”.
Chatting with the present 60 Minutes, a counterintelligence agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation — recognized solely by her first identify, Carrie — described her expertise coping with Havana Syndrome in Florida.
“It was like a dentist drilling on steroids,” she mentioned. “It was like a high-pitched, metallic drilling noise, and it knocked me ahead — like a 45-degree angle.”
In 2021, the US Congress handed the Serving to American Victims Stricken by Neurological Assaults (HAVANA) Act to supply compensation for presidency workers affected by signs associated to the mysterious well being incidents.
Additionally on Monday, White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefly addressed the experiences, reaffirming that the administration of President Joe Biden would proceed to push for sources to examine the supply of the signs.
“We’ve taken this very critically,” she mentioned, whereas deferring particular inquiries to the intelligence group.
“We’re going to proceed to stress the significance of prioritizing, ensuring that personnel are protected. And we’re going to do all the things that we are able to. That is one thing that this president believes is vital,” she added.
“Look, we’re going to proceed to do a complete examination of the consequences right here that we’re seeing and the potential causes of AHI [anomalous health incidents].”
