Authorities believe that external energy, more specifically pulsed electromagnetic energy, is a plausible explanation for some of the cases reported among American officials known as the Havana Syndrome.
A new U.S. intelligence community report said that the symptoms were genuine and compelling and most likely came from an external source. There has long been a contentious debate over whether or not the symptoms affected American staff worldwide about whether the illness was caused by some kind of device or was purely psychological in nature.
Mysterious Havana Syndrome
While the panel of experts was investigating the main source of the symptoms, they were not looking into who might be responsible for the illness. The Havana Syndrome began in Havana, Cuba, in 2016, hence its name. At the time, several U.S. intelligence officers and diplomats began having an array of unusual symptoms.
Initially, government authorities largely dismissed the claims and refused to acknowledge the existence of the illness. However, in the last year, officials have taken the situation much more seriously and U.S. officials are encouraged to report similar symptoms they may be experiencing, as per BBC.
The panel of experts has limited their suspicion to electromagnetic energy and, in limited circumstances, ultrasound, to explain the mysterious illness. They said that the two sources could have caused the key symptoms found among people who reported having Havana Syndrome.
One intelligence official familiar with the panel's work said that they were able to learn a lot about the illness amid the investigation. The official spoke anonymously under terms that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence set. He also noted that, while there was no specific known mechanism for the cases, the majority of people who quickly reported the symptoms and got treated recovered in a short amount of time.
The intelligence report supports a previous finding from late 2020 where a National Academies of Science report found that "directed, pulsed radiofrequency energy" was the most plausible source of the Havana Syndrome cases, CNN reported.
External Energy Source
However, the possibility that the illness has been caused by external energy has renewed concerns over a potential foreign power being responsible for the disease. The CIA previously released a report saying that it was highly unlikely that a foreign country was mounting a global attack targeting U.S. personnel.
Many of the victims who have reported having the illness have criticized the intelligence agency's findings. However, the CIA did not explicitly rule out a third party being the source of the illnesses. Authorities said that foreign powers could have been responsible for some of the cases.
A professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University, David Relman, chaired the previous study that suggested pulsed radiofrequency energy as the source of the illness. He and his team worked with the intelligence community's panel of experts in the recent investigation.
The Washington Post reported that the panel included personnel from within and outside the U.S. government, some having expertise in science, medicine, and engineering. The federal government gave the members access to classified information on reported incidents and trends. They also met with individuals who shared their experiences with the disease as well as their medical records.
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Mysterious Havana Syndrome 'Unlikely' To Have Been Caused by Foreign Actor, CIA Interim Report Says