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CIA director "fuming" after Havana syndrome strikes team member in India
A US intelligence officer traveling in India earlier this month with CIA director William Burns reported experiencing a mysterious health incident and symptoms consistent with so-called Havana syndrome, according to a report by CNN. The officer received immediate medical care upon returning to the US.
The case raises fears that such incidents are not only increasing, but potentially escalating, unnamed officials told CNN and The New York Times. The new incident within Burns' own team reportedly left the CIA chief "fuming" with anger.
The director's schedule is tightly guarded, and officials do not know if the affected intelligence officer was targeted because the officer was traveling with the director. If the health incident was an attack carried out by an adversarial intelligence agency—as feared—it's unclear how the adversarial agency learned of the trip and was able to prepare an attack. It's also possible, however, that the officer was targeted for other reasons and without knowledge that the officer was traveling with the director.
[...] The incident is the second high-profile case in less than a month. On August 24, another so-called "anomalous health incident" affecting US embassy staff in Hanoi, Vietnam, came to light. It is still unclear how many staff members were affected in that incident, but NBC News reported that two US personnel were medevaced out of the country.
Previously:
US Embassy Employees in Cuba Possibly Subjected to 'Acoustic Attack'
U.S. State Department Pulls Employees From Cuba, Issues Travel Warning Due to "Sonic Attacks"
Latest Explanation for Cuban Embassy Symptoms: Microwave Weapons
"Sonic Attack" Recording Made by Diplomats is Actually a Recording of Crickets
Mysterious health "attack" cases rise to 130, US officials confirm
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday September 23 2021, @12:42PM (5 children)
How many are these now? The Havana syndrome attacks are starting to rack up. It has been reported over multiple countries, multiple postings, extended periods of time. So either someone is following them around which would at least sort of imply that it's a big player (or opponent) or it's something new and cool that they are lugging around themselves and doing to themselves even thou that would be quite stupid to try and blame on someone else.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Dr Spin on Thursday September 23 2021, @12:45PM (1 child)
Cuba is now the worlds largest super-power.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 1, Redundant) by looorg on Thursday September 23 2021, @01:04PM
No they are not. That said it's not like they are inconsequential either, or doesn't have big red nefarious super-power(ish) friends. Did some searching and it appears they are now investigating over 200 cases in total of this "Havana syndrome" all over the globe. The name is just from the current starting position -- Cuba, Canada, USA, India, Austria ... list goes on. So if it's some kind of device it travels around (or there are more then one of them). Could it be a side effect of some device the CIA (or some other lovely three letter agency) has installed at their own location?
In May it was just 130 cases, so in just four months they found another 70 cases to investigate. Not necessarily tho that those 70 cases happened in the last couple of months. Just that they are finding more and more of them.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/21/havana-syndrome-cia-officer-india [theguardian.com]
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/13/havana-syndrome-brain-injury-130-incidents [theguardian.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 23 2021, @01:14PM
Remember, these are bureacrats. Once one figures out how to get some extra paid holidays, word travels around quickly and next thing you know the entire civil service is trying to game the system.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 23 2021, @05:05PM
China could do it. Their military doctrine [defense.gov] has been pursuing unconventional warfare against America for several decades now. Economic warfare, cyberwarfare, psyops, and others in addition to conventional forces. Congress publishes white papers on it that are publicly accessible. Stratfor [stratfor.com] has covered it for years, too.
In other words, China has been gunning for the United States for a long time across many avenues. Using a microwave weapon to disrupt American diplomats falls entirely within that spectrum.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday September 23 2021, @07:32PM
But they all must hang out at HQ once in a while, right?
Just something to think about. If someone's spraying cans of "super raid", assuming multiple enemies who don't usually cooperate all over the world suddenly teaming up james bond villainy style seems less likely than one staged hit at the Wash DC Christmas party one year, and then chronic neurological symptoms sit in years later.
Kind of like the HIV/AIDS thing. Suddenly all these dudes dying in rando hospitals and rando apartment buildings all over, no point in trying to find targetted hits, the problem seems to be they were all in the same bathhouse in SF at the same time years ago. THEN it all makes sense. Likewise I suspect all these poor CIA bastards were all in the same diversity class or christmas party or war briefing or whatever back in 2015 and nobody has noticed it yet. I'm not saying they gave each other super AIDS but more likely some hired help sprayed a can of SuperRAID to "clean the banquet table" or fumigate the kitchen or something, and six years later they're all dying slowly all over the world.
I would further theorize they all seem to be of a similar organizational level, nobody is talking about rando IT guys or lunchroom cooks or receptionists dying. So it was probably a briefing that hit them all at once a couple years back, not some rando "all hands on deck" HR training or holiday party.