A U.S. adversary is not engaged in a sustained global campaign aimed at harming or collecting intelligence on hundreds of American diplomats serving abroad, according to an interim CIA finding on the so-called Havana Syndrome.
But there remain a significant number of cases that the agency cannot yet attribute to a specific source. The interim finding, described to POLITICO by three intelligence officials, does not rule out the possibility that a foreign actor or a sophisticated weapon is behind a specific, smaller number of mysterious incidents that have stumped U.S. officials for more than five years.
The new CIA-prepared interim finding assesses that the vast majority of reported cases can be explained by medical, environmental or technical factors — including previously undiagnosed illnesses — and that it is "unlikely" that a malicious state actor is inflicting purposeful harm on U.S. diplomats on a far-reaching, worldwide scale. The broader intelligence community has varying levels of confidence in that assessment.
"There's no one explanation" for the large number of reported cases around the world, a senior CIA official said, insisting "we don't see a global campaign by a foreign actor." There are still unresolved cases, the official continued, and the CIA is still open to the notion that a nation-state or specific device is causing symptoms such as headaches and nausea — if the agency finds evidence to that effect.
[...] "We would definitely not rule out the possibility of foreign-actor involvement in some discrete cases," the official said, adding that "we have not identified a causal mechanism, a novel weapon, that's been used at this point" on a worldwide scale, including a long-suspected directed-energy weapon.
FECA Program Issues Guidance on Coverage of 'Havana Syndrome'
The Federal Employees Compensation Act program has issued guidance on coverage of what it calls the "anomalous health incidents" known as Havana Syndrome [...] Federal employees experiencing such symptoms should file a standard claim form "as current understanding of AHIs are that they are specific events that occur over a single day or work shift" and should designate that as the specific cause, it says. Such claims are to be reviewed by a special claims unit which will consider "medical evidence submitted to determine if any medical conditions have been diagnosed in connection with the AHI incident."
Also at NYT.
Previously: "Havana Syndrome": U.S. Baffled After New Cases in Europe
Related Stories
'Havana syndrome': US baffled after new cases in Europe
Four more US diplomats working in Geneva and Paris have fallen ill with a suspected neurological illness known as "Havana syndrome", US media report. Three diplomats became sick in the Swiss city and one in the French capital last summer, with some 200 people affected over five years.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the American government was working to get to the bottom of the mystery. There are fears an adversary may have targeted diplomats with microwaves. Mr Blinken said the issue had been raised with Russia but no determination had been made.
[...] A more innocent, but also unproven, theory is that those who got sick suffered from a mass condition brought on by some stressful underlying situation.
Havana Syndrome could be caused by pulsed energy devices – US expert report
A US intelligence report by a panel of expert scientists has named pulsed electromagnetic energy and ultrasound as plausible causes for the mystery Havana Syndrome symptoms suffered by US diplomats and spies in recent years.
The report found that a group of cases could not be explained by health or environmental factors or by psychosomatic illness. It also said that devices exist with “modest energy requirements” which were concealable and could produce the observed symptoms and be effective over hundreds of meters or through walls.
The panel, established last year by the director of national security, Avril Haines, and the CIA director, William Burns, said the investigation was not tasked to identify a culprit, but in a statement accompanying the report, Haines and Burns said it would help sharpen the search for the origins of they mysterious ailments.
“We will stay at it, with continued rigor, for however long it takes,” they said.
Previously:
"Havana Syndrome": U.S. Baffled After New Cases in Europe
CIA Finds No Evidence of a Foreign Adversary Causing "Havana Syndrome"
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @07:23PM (1 child)
Not a foreign adversary. Its the CIA itself.
(Score: 2) by Username on Friday January 21 2022, @08:42PM
Probably the FBI investigating whether or not russian hookers were urinating on them.
Though, more likely it's israel, south korea or the philippines. The allies that are the most dependent on the united state.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @07:28PM (3 children)
So it was entitled civil servants abusing their gold-plated medical insurance after all?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @07:33PM (2 children)
Bah!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @07:46PM
> Bah!
... wrote the civil servant browsing SN during work hours.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @09:05PM
You're overdosing the Sheep Drench again Runaway.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @07:48PM (1 child)
.......on THEM.
It's pretty simple.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 22 2022, @02:05AM
It was a serious comment you piece of shit, fuck you GLOWNIGGER.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @07:49PM
We've all been hearing about this Havannah Syndrome for years now. Now they say, it's highly unlikely it's a state actor, yet, they don't rule out a foreign adversary for some of the cases?
So, taken to a logical conclusion, it's possible a lot of the cases are placebo and can be explained; but, that still leaves some cases unexplained. Which seems to be exactly what the snippet says. Though, it is unlikely it would be anyone BUT a state actor, who'd have the ability to do that stuff.
So, it's either a state actor, the U.S. itself, or... *drum roll*
Aliens, people. It's aliens. They want us to stop fucking around. ...lol
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 21 2022, @09:17PM (10 children)
If the CIA published the anonymized demographics of the afflicted, me might find a pattern.
socialist
progressive
millennial
woke
privileged white people
voted for Biden
couldn't find the countries they are assigned to on a map until weeks after they arrived in said countries
never missed a meal in their lives
own two or more iDevices
lactose intolerant
sensitive to peanuts
seafoof intolerance
gluten intolerance
frequents Starbucks
uses a debit card for $2.00 purchases, never keeps cash on hand
watches CNN as primary news source
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @09:22PM (5 children)
Havana Syndrome has been around throughout the entire Trump Administration, starting in 2017.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 21 2022, @09:36PM (4 children)
Thanks. They voted for Hillary AND Biden.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @09:43PM (3 children)
You're letting your primary SN identity go to total shit eh apk?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 22 2022, @07:06AM (2 children)
Runaway is the run way Havana syndrome. Dissyness, loss of cognitive function, sexual attraction to other species. It all fits.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 22 2022, @07:08AM (1 child)
They have already gotten to aristarchus. He no longer can post comments. He has been "cancelled" by SN, and foreign powers, most likely. Probably Brits.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 22 2022, @08:07AM
I think they need to downmod more AC's, it is the only way to prevent aristarchus from rising from the dead!
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday January 21 2022, @11:39PM
It's a given almost all government desk jobs are filled by 20s-40s non-STEM college grads so you're just double dipping into a selection bias pool.
compiling...
(Score: 5, Touché) by captain normal on Saturday January 22 2022, @02:11AM
As a friend, I have to tell you, you really need to go into Defox.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 22 2022, @07:03AM
I have a very low tolerance for seafoof but I don't think I have Havana syndrome.
Hey, how come we can call it Havana syndrome, but we can't call the real thing China virus.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 22 2022, @01:51PM
I'm honestly not sure what you were going for with that. You started out pretty anti-left, and the 'voted for Biden' jab pretty much cemented that. But then you go on to list quite a few things that are pretty synonymous, in my mind anyway, with right-leaning Republican voters. Yet 'voted for Trump' didn't make the list. What gives?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @09:41PM
Diplomatic centers are prime targets for corrections to historic events, and these incursions result in vague symptoms for those closest to the point of divergence.
I figure we should at least try for some entertaining conspiracies, CIA testing on embassies seems a bit risky for weapons research.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @10:24PM
... it clearly was the hifructose corn syrup withdrawl that the embassy staff experienced when posted outside the US. Case closed.
(Score: 5, Funny) by krishnoid on Saturday January 22 2022, @12:09AM (1 child)
My stake in the ground is that a lowest bidder put in some kind of radio-frequency jamming or active scanning into all the diplomatic offices, which constructively interfered and set up standing waves in certain spots in the (possibly shielded or RF-reflective) rooms, causing long-term office residents to slowly start experiencing problems after extended exposure.
I say this based on zero actual evidence that I'm privy to, but hey, I'm picking something and going with it for now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 23 2022, @12:36AM
What about sitting waves. Or waves that are lying flat
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 22 2022, @02:07AM
Fuck you CIA NIGGER COLLABORATORS.