US says electromagnetic energy may have caused ‘Havana Syndrome’

An intelligence committee investigating the cause of a series of mysterious incidents that have affected dozens of US officials around the world reported that some of the episodes could “plausibly” have been caused by “pulsed electromagnetic energy” emitted by an external source, according to an executive summary of the committee’s findings released last Wednesday.

However, the committee did not make a definitive determination, saying only that both electromagnetic energy and, in limited circumstances, ultrasound could explain the main symptoms — highlighting the degree to which the illness, known as “Havana Syndrome”, has remained one of the top most complicated mysteries of the intelligence team.

“We learned a lot,” said an intelligence official familiar with the committee’s work, speaking on condition of anonymity on terms set by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “While we don’t have the specific mechanism for each case, what we do know is that if you report quickly and get medical attention, most people are getting better.”

The finding largely confirms a late 2020 National Academies of Science report that found that “direct and pulsed radiofrequency energy” was “the most plausible mechanism to explain these cases” — but also failed to make a firm determination.

The so-called expert committee is made up of medical, scientific and engineering experts who have access to sensitive information about incidents. Officials stressed that their work was only focused on uncovering the potential mechanism behind what the government calls “anomalous health incidents” and did not examine who, if any, could be responsible.

An interim report released last month by a separate CIA task force examining who may be behind the episodes found that Russia or any other foreign adversaries were unlikely to be conducting a widespread global campaign aimed at undermining US officials. But the agency also did not rule out that a nation state — including Russia — could be responsible for about two dozen cases that investigators have been unable to explain through any other known cause.

‘Genuine and convincing’ cases

The scientific committee emphasized that the cases studied were “genuine and convincing”, noting that some incidents affected multiple people in the same space and clinical samples from some victims showed signs of “cellular damage to the nervous system”.

An executive summary of the committee’s work provided new details on how the government is categorizing the cases as possible Havana Syndrome, a clinically vague disease that has long eluded firm diagnoses because victims suffer from a diverse range of symptoms.

While officials declined to say how many cases the committee examined as part of its investigation, they said they had studied cases that met four “key characteristics”: the sharp onset of sounds or pressure, sometimes in just one ear or on one side from the head ; simultaneous symptoms of vertigo, loss of balance and earache; “a strong sense of locality or directionality”; and the absence of any known environmental or medical conditions that could have caused the other symptoms.

Victims reported being hit by this confluence of symptoms at embassies and personal homes around the world and, in at least one case, at traffic lights outdoors in a foreign country.

Both pulsed electromagnetic energy, “particularly in the radio frequency range,” and ultrasonic arrays can cause all four main symptoms, the committee found. Both can originate from “a concealable source”. But ultrasound cannot pass through walls, the committee found, “restricting its applicability to scenarios where the source is close to the target.”

RF power sources, on the other hand, are known, “can generate the necessary stimulus, are concealable and have moderate power requirements,” the committee said. “Using non-standard antennas and techniques, signals can be propagated through the air with low loss for tens to hundreds of meters, and with some loss, through most building materials.”

But intelligence officials familiar with the committee’s work emphasized that important information gaps remained, preventing them from reaching any firm conclusions.

“It’s frustrating, but we’re also persistent in helping to understand and elucidate what’s going on,” said an employee.

Part of the challenge, this person said, is that not only do cases vary, but the combination of the four key features is unique in the medical literature.

“When we focus on the key features, it’s just a unique combination that we don’t have a lot of experience with in the medical and clinical fields,” the official said.

And for ethical reasons, there are limited studies on the impact of radiofrequency or ultrasound energy on the human body. The expert committee was limited to reports of people who were exposed “inadvertently” and were willing to describe their symptoms.

“There is a paucity of systematic research on the effects of relevant electromagnetic signals on humans,” the report’s executive summary stated.

State Department report

A State Department-commissioned report by a separate group of outside scientists, completed late last year, also began circulating on Wednesday.

The group of consultants analyzed about 200 cases, finding that about 15% of the reported incidents they studied cannot be explained. Most cases are consistent with symptoms caused by pathophysiological or environmental factors, the committee concluded, largely confirming the CIA assessment. The report concluded that no single mechanism they studied can explain all incidents.

“The group found natural and credible explanations for these incidents in all but 20-30 of the approximately 200 cases, because the incidents and symptoms fall within the realm of common day-to-day occurrences or the symptoms can be explained in a different way. ways that are unrelated to the perceived incidents,” the report said.

Taken as a whole, the three sets of findings make it clear that most reported incidents can be explained. But studies so far do not present a clear picture of what lies behind the incidents that remain a mystery.

Federal officials stressed that the findings do not signal the completion of the US government’s efforts to get to the bottom of the mysterious health incidents.

“While this study is a valuable element of the Department’s efforts to understand the AHI [na sigla em inglês para incidente anômalo de saúde], it does not represent a conclusion to this effort: it is not a final answer. Along with our interagency colleagues, we continue our scientific research into the causes of AHI,” State Department Deputy Secretary for Administration and Resources Brian McKeon wrote to officials Wednesday.

McKeon also said the findings “do not question the fact that our colleagues are reporting real experiences and are experiencing real symptoms.”

Victory for victims’ advocates

In a victory for victim advocates, experts ruled out a cause for these four traits: so-called psychosocial factors. Some of the victims have long complained that the CIA did not take the reported symptoms seriously in the past, dismissing the cases as a psychosomatic episode or mass hysteria.

These four main characteristics cannot be explained by psychosocial factors “alone,” according to the report — although an intelligence officer explained that in some cases, a victim’s symptoms can be “compounded” by a stress reaction or other response. psychosocial.

The committee also ruled out “ionizing radiation, chemical and biological agents, infrasound, audible sound, ultrasound propagated over long distances, and mass heating by electromagnetic energy.”

The committee made seven recommendations, including developing better biomarkers that are “more specific and more sensitive for diagnosis and screening” of cases. He also recommended using “detectors” and obtaining “devices to aid research”. The details of these recommendations were heavily worded in the committee’s executive summary.

Finally, officials called for quick action from medical authorities whenever a case is reported, emphasizing that individuals who were treated immediately after an event improved.

“I think something the employee can do to help himself is to report immediately and get medical assistance,” the intelligence official said.

Neither the State Department nor the intelligence community report offered new clues as to whether a foreign adversary was behind the unexplained incidents.

“It is not possible to conclude at this time that the events analyzed by JASON are the result of intentional attacks that cause physical harm,” says the State report. “However, it is also not possible to rule out mechanisms that do not cause any physical harm, but that could constitute harassment and lead to health conditions and functional disorders, for example through unpleasant sounds or sensations of pressure.”

Authorities stressed that the intelligence community will continue to investigate.

“We continue to pursue complementary efforts to get to the bottom of anomalous health incidents – and provide access to world-class care for those affected,” said Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and CIA Director Bill Burns in a statement. joint statement. “We are making progress in both areas.”