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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has ruled out in a new intelligence report that the mysterious symptoms known as Havana Syndrome are the result of a sustained global campaign by a hostile power targeting hundreds of US diplomats and spies, six people briefed told NBC News on the matter.
What is Havana Syndrome
The mysterious ailment known as “Havana Syndrome” began to affect US diplomats and intelligence officers in the capital of Cuba, Havana, at the end of 2016.
Victims reported the sudden onset of a variety of symptoms including headaches, nausea, memory loss, and other cognitive difficulties. The initial cluster of cases confounded medical experts.
More than five years later, about 1 have been reported,000 incidents among US personnel, in various countries such as Russia, China, Colombia, Uzbekistan and even the United States itself.
What does the CIA say about Havana Syndrome
Most of the 1,000 cases reported to the US government they can be explained by environmental causes, undiagnosed medical conditions or stress, rather than a sustained global campaign by a foreign power, CIA officials told The New York Times, describing the interim findings of a comprehensive study.
The agency continues its investigation into two dozen cases of Havana Syndrome that follow without explanation, in which the agency cannot rule out foreign involvement, including many of the cases that originated in the United States Embassy in Havana as of 1200.
Another group of cases is considered unresolved. But in hundreds of other cases of possible symptoms, the agency has found plausible alternative explanations, the sources said.
The idea that widespread symptoms of brain injuries have been caused by Russia or another foreign power targeting Americans around the world, either to harm them or to gather intelligence, has been deemed unfounded, sources cited by multiple US outlets said.
Reactions of people with these symptoms
The people who have experienced possible symptoms of Havana Syndrome and who have been briefed on the CIA assessment have expressed deep disappointment, the sources told NBC News.
Some have pointed out that the CIA findings are considered an interim assessment and were not coordinated with other agencies, including the Department of Defense.
“The CIA just went off on its own,” a person briefed on the findings told NBC News.
What is the United States doing about Havana Syndrome?
Last year, CIA Director William J. Burns appointed a top CIA official who played a leading role in the search for Osama bin Laden to head a government task force that investigates the incidents of Havana Syndrome.
Both Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have said that finding the root of the syndrome is a priority. The officials stressed to NBC News that the interim report was not a final conclusion of the Biden administration as a whole or the intelligence community as a whole.
Under the Havana Law, enacted by President Joe Biden in October, the administration has six months to establish a framework for making payments to affected individuals.
The White House has said that it seeks to develop a compensation system and better medical care for people with illnesses related to Havana Syndrome.
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