According to media reports, the US secret services do not assume that a “foreign adversary” is responsible for the so-called Havana syndrome among American diplomats. This is the provisional conclusion of years of intelligence investigations into the mysterious illnesses of embassy staff, the reported among others Washington Post citing intelligence officials. There is still no plausible explanation for the cases. It was a frustrating “puzzle,” the newspaper quoted an employee as saying. The secret services are open to new ideas and evidence.
Since 2016, numerous US diplomats and their families living in Cuba’s capital Havana have complained of mysterious headaches, hearing loss, dizziness and nausea. The embassy staff was then reduced to a minimum. Similar complaints were later reported elsewhere in the world. 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.
Seven US intelligence agencies now have the Washington Post according to more than a thousand cases in almost 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 authorities committed to the rating “unlikely”, 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 kind of targeted use of electromagnetic radiation. Many of those affected claim that they were the victims of a premeditated attack. Again and again, Russia is mentioned as a possible cause of the complaints. The Washington Post According to the current report, this thesis is almost completely contradicted. The diplomats concerned have repeatedly accused the US government of downplaying the symptoms.