Photo: YAMIL LAGE / AFP / Getty Images
More than a dozen CIA officers serving in multiple overseas locations have returned to the United States to seek medical attention this year after reporting symptoms consistent with “Havana syndrome.” , the mysterious and debilitating disease believed to have already affected dozens of American personnel since 2016, as current and former officials and people familiar with the matter revealed to CBS News.
The new incidents suspected of being sonic attacks occurred in the first months of 2021 , and at least one occurred in March, according to three sources.
In many cases, officers felt so ill, so suddenly , that they required an emergency medical evacuation, said two people familiar with the case. Recent incidents have taken place on three continents, according to one of the people.
The reported cases are the latest of what lawmakers from both parties have said are is a “growing” pattern of alleged “attacks” on US officials, that have included diplomats , intelligence officers and military personnel, and that have sparked various government investigations at the CIA, the State Department, and the Pentagon.
A White House spokesperson said the cause of the incidents is an area of ”active investigation” and that the National Security Council (NSC) has been coordinating a “government-wide effort” since the inception of the Biden Administration to determine who is responsible and ensure that those affected receive medical evaluations and appropriate care.
Congress Demands Action
Both Republican lawmakers and Democrats recently expressed their frustration with the CIA in particular, for what they see as an obfuscation of the scope and severity of a problem whose existence has been known for years.
Last Wednesday, a CIA intelligence team was strongly reprimanded by members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who reacted angrily to the lack of responses from officials and the agency’s faltering progress.
Senators demanded that CIA officials who may have delayed officers who reported feeling ill to receive urgent medical treatment be held accountable.
What is the so-called Havana syndrome
People affected by Havana syndrome have reported a variety of neurological symptoms , including verti go, dizziness, earache and popping, nausea and severe and persistent headaches. Some have been found to have traumatic brain injury (TBI).
The syndrome gets its name from the earliest known instances of the disease, which in 2016 and 2017 sickened more than one dozen officials from the US embassy and intelligence services in Cuba.
An evaluation by the National Academies of Sciences, completed at the request of the State Department and published late last year, it said that the “most plausible” cause of officials’ symptoms was “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy.”
Although the Russian government is widely believed to be behind the incidents, the US government has not made any official attribution and US intelligence agencies have not reached a conclusion on its origin, according to current and former US officials inf
Some US officials have also informally blamed China, where, in 2017, American diplomats fell ill with similar symptoms.
However, current and former US officials familiar with government investigations have also warned that significant unknowns remain about the incidents, including at least two that were reported that took place on U.S. soil. Officials said it was unclear if all the incidents are connected and if all are the result of actual targeted energy attacks.