(RightWing.org) – In 2015 under former President Barack Obama, diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba were reestablished, and the State Department opened an embassy in Havana. In 2016, some who were posted there and their families (plus some Canadians) began complaining of various medical problems. Since the initial report came from officers of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), release of the information to the public was delayed. The mysterious ailment was named for the location of “patient zero,” but other incidents were reported in China, Russia, and Vietnam.
Havana Syndrome
Many people who fell victim to this strange phenomenon reported hearing sounds described as buzzing, piercing squeals, and low-pitched humming, as their first symptoms. Those who did not report any of the tinnitus-type symptoms instead felt a sensation of either pressure or heat around their ears.
A number of those impacted by the sounds reported they seemed to be coming from a particular direction and would stop with a small change in location or position. Other adverse effects experienced included dizziness, disorientation, visual distortion, migraine-like headaches, and fatigue.
No Foreign Actors
The federal government has classified these experiences as anomalous health incidents (AHIs), and the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI)/National Intelligence Council (IC) issued an updated assessment on the issue on March 1. The declassified report is an overview of the determinations put forth by seven different intelligence agencies that are part of the United States government.
Although there was no firm agreement among the groups involved, the report says that “most IC agencies judge it as ‘very unlikely’ a foreign adversary played a role.” When applied to the scale included from 0 (almost no chance) to 100 (almost certainly), collectively, they only assign a 20-35% chance this was an attack by another government.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued a statement expressing his concerns that the IC is “potentially rushing to a conclusion” when there are far too many unanswered questions. He seemed unconvinced by the assessment that the AHI symptoms were likely a result of “pre-existing conditions, conventional illnesses, and environmental factors” and vowed to keep digging until a complete picture is formed.
Peer-Reviewed Study
Part of Rubio’s doubt seems to come from a study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released in 2020. The researchers involved came to the conclusion the complaints lodged by the State Department employees were “consistent with the effects of directed, pulsed radio frequency (RF) energy.”
The committee that provided the consensus report includes experts from many fields, including medical doctors, and they say they also considered potential exposures to things like insecticide, diseases such as Zika, which was an epidemic in Cuba from 2016-17, and possible psychological issues. After looking into all the different facets, they determined that the “most plausible” source of the described illnesses was directed RF energy.
Rubio was not the only lawmaker to question the veracity of the latest report, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) issued a press release saying the “report is a brazen precursor” to President Joe Biden’s desire to remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. It appears the Democrats and the mainstream media are trying to move the idea of an intentional attack into the realm of conspiracy theories, much as they did with Hunter’s laptop and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
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