In an ongoing saga, United States intelligence officers stationed in foreign countries have been experiencing mysterious and debilitating head injuries that are suspected to be the result of vicious and clandestine energy attacks. Victims have developed symptoms consistent with "Havana syndrome," including severe headaches, fatigue, and hearing loss among other effects.
In one case from 2017, an intelligence officer stationed in Guangzhou, China experienced headaches, memory loss, sleep problems, and more. An MRI released by researchers revealed that the officer had "20 brain regions with 'abnormally low' volumes, including regions involved in memory, emotional regulation and motor skills."
These effects are suspected to be the result of targeted energy attacks using directed microwave energy, involving some kind of weapon which "aims pulsed radiofrequency energy at its victims." Late last year, the National Academy of Sciences published a report entitled "An Assessment of Illness in U.S. Government Employees and Their Families at Overseas Embassies" which identified microwave energy as the likeliest culprit of the symptoms experienced by the officer in Guangzhou as well as others stationed around the world. "Overall, directed pulsed RF (radio frequency) energy, especially in those with the distinct early manifestations, appears to be the most plausible mechanism in explaining these cases among those that the committee considered," the report states.
In a briefing to the senate Intelligence Committee this week, officials from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made it clear that they believe these kinds of energy attacks to be ongoing, and revealed that there have been many more victims of these suspected microwave attacks than was previously known. This revelation was part of the reason that the senate briefing turned contentious, "as senators demanded more information about the mysterious incidents from the CIA and accountability for how the agency has handled them" CNN reported last week. "The classified briefing was one of the most contentious in the committee's recent memory, according to the two sources familiar with the briefing."
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According to reporting, the CIA bungled early cases in this rash of energy attacks and mishandled the initial stages of the investigation by failing to provide adequate medical care to victims, who were not taken seriously, and failing to coordinate a response with other government offices. In the heated senate briefing, some members of the Intelligence Committee suggested that the CIA had deliberately hidden key information from Congress. "There's a mysterious, direct energy weapon that is being used. And it is causing, in some cases, permanent traumatic brain injury. And yet the personnel involved -- there have been other attacks around the world -- have had a difficult time getting both the medical care and the financial help that they need from the CIA. And that is outrageous," Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a member of the Intelligence Committee, was quoted as saying.
In part because of these missteps at a critical early juncture, the US government has a long way to go toward addressing the issue and putting a stop to the attacks, which seem to be spreading both in number and in area. The Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan statement which acknowledged that the problem is not only not under control, it's getting worse, stating that the "pattern of attacking our fellow citizens serving our government appears to be increasing."
Some of the most recent cases revealed by the CIA in the briefing room took place not in China or Cuba, but in Europe, suggesting that the problem may be growing. In fact, federal agencies are even currently investigating a possible incident consistent with the greater rash of targeted energy attacks that took place near the White House. This incident, in which a National Security Council staffer developed symptoms in line with Havana syndrome, is only one of at least two such incidents currently being investigated on US soil.
The new CIA director Bill Burns, appointed by President Joe Biden, has pledged to make investigating these attacks a priority, but it's clear that it's a monumental task with a lot of legwork yet to be done, and it's starting out on contentious footing, with Congress demanding that the CIA take accountability for the sorry state of the investigation thus far.
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
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Haley Zaremba is a writer and journalist based in Mexico City. She has extensive experience writing and editing environmental features, travel pieces, local news in the… More