Directed-energy could explain unsolved ‘Havana Syndrome’ cases, U.S. intelligence panel finds

A panel convened by the U.S. intelligence community has assessed that the core symptoms of some unsolved “Havana Syndrome” cases cannot be explained by mass hysteria or psychosomatic effects alone, and could be caused by pulsed electromagnetic or ultrasonic energy.

The panel, which consists of medical experts and scientists both inside and outside the government, did not attempt to attribute the incidents to a specific device or operator. It instead examined “causal mechanisms” and found that the effects of the mysterious illness are “genuine and compelling,” according to an executive summary declassified this week and released Wednesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

It found that psychological factors or mass hysteria on its own “cannot account for the core characteristics” of Havana Syndrome, the inexplicable phenomenon first detected among U.S. diplomats serving in Havana, Cuba, in 2016.

In a joint statement, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and CIA Director William Burns said “a subset” of cases “cannot be easily explained by known environmental or medical conditions and could be explained by certain external factors.” Among the hundreds of cases the U.S. government has assessed in recent years, however, the majority have been explained by known phenomena.

Emphasizing that “information gaps” still exist, the executive summary states that the effects of anomalous health incidents, or AHIs, “could be due to external stimuli.” They added that the victims whose cases remain unsolved, many of whom have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, experienced symptoms that are “unlikely to be caused by a functional neurological disorder,” and that directed-energy exposure could be a cause.

“Pulsed electromagnetic energy, particularly in the radiofrequency range, plausibly explains the core characteristics,” according to the executive summary of the panel’s findings. “For all the pathways” that electromagnetic energy could harm an individual, “sources exist that could generate the required stimulus, are concealable, and have moderate power requirements.”

Ultrasonic waves are another plausible explanation, the summary added, “but only in close-access scenarios and with information gaps.” Such energy can be generated through a “portable” device with a “tight beam” focused on an individual, it continued. The experts panel did independent testing in which “researchers were exposed to high power ultrasound beams and subsequently experienced some of the core characteristics.”

The intelligence community’s latest assessment comes as lawmakers and victims alike have pressed the Biden administration for a more comprehensive response to the incidents, which have afflicted hundreds of American diplomats and intelligence officials on every continent except Antarctica. U.S. officials spanning three presidential administrations have struggled to understand the incidents.

“Moving forward, the work of the IC Experts Panel will help sharpen the work of the IC and broader U.S. government as we focus on possible causes,” Haines and Burns added in their joint statement. “We will stay at it, with continued rigor, for however long it takes.”

Wednesday’s report, issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, also comes a day after President Joe Biden officially designated senior National Security Council official Maher Bitar as the governmentwide coordinator for Havana Syndrome, as required by the annual defense policy bill that he signed in December. He also directed agencies to issue “updated guidance to the elements of your workforce who are determined to be at risk of exposure to” Havana Syndrome by the end of the month.

Separately, the State Department has issued its own guidance to diplomats and Foreign Service officers, particularly those posted in countries where suspected cases have risen sharply.

The panel assessed what best explained the occurrence of four “core characteristics” of Havana Syndrome, such as vertigo, intense ringing and pressure in the ears and loss of balance or directionality. The group also only considered a “mechanism” as feasible if it was technically possible to use, concealable, could produce the suffered effects, and if other evidence didn’t directly rule one out.

“It’s more than theory,” said an intelligence official familiar with the panel’s work. The group tested a device that combined “biological effects and clinical effects,” and gathered first-hand accounts of “what it was like to be in the beam” of an ultrasound device. Their accounts were “consistent” with those outlined by some victims, the official added.

The IC report also resoundly ruled out “mass psychogenic illness” as a cause of the symptoms suffered by Americans serving abroad, though they said “psychosocial factors may compound some of the incidents with core characteristics.”

The panel has obtained thousands of classified documents as part of its work, and some of the members were also involved in a National Academy of Sciences study published in 2020 that found pulsed microwave energy to be the most plausible cause.

The experts panel, which has not yet completed its work, was not looking for an attribution for the incidents, such as a foreign actor or weapon; rather, the interagency group zeroed in on the plausible environmental, scientific and medical explanations for the symptoms.

Its work complements recent findings by another intelligence agency that examined the attribution question.

Last month, the CIA released an interim finding that pushed back on the notion that a U.S. adversary is deliberately targeting hundreds of Americans serving abroad in a worldwide campaign. But the agency did not rule out the possibility that a foreign government or weapon is responsible for the smaller number of unsolved cases.

Members of Congress downplayed and dismissed the CIA’s interim assessment, questioning in particular its inconclusive nature. At the time, Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) said “it might have been better” if the CIA findings were released “simultaneously” with the IC experts panel’s assessment.

As possible cases of Havana Syndrome have spiked in the past year, top intelligence officials have briefed the congressional intelligence committees about the ongoing effort to determine the cause. POLITICO previously reported that lawmakers were told behind closed doors that U.S. investigators believe the incidents stem from directed-energy attacks at the hands of a foreign power, likely Russia.