“Havana Syndrome”: US diplomats suffer sonic attacks through microwave energy

Havana Syndrome: Many US diplomats stationed in Cuba have reported of developing mysterious and puzzling symptoms leaving scientists and intelligence agencies scratching their heads. The US State Department has sanctioned in a report that these have most likely been caused by “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy.” The report was published on Saturday by National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Havana Syndrome, as the condition has popularly come to be known as, emerged first in 2016 among US federal personnel stationed in Havana, Cuba. The symptoms reported range from headaches, nausea, dizziness to blurred vision among others. In the past the possible reasons for this were explained as mosquito fumigation and noisy crickets. But the report by National Academy of Sciences has suggested it to be due to radio frequency energy. 

The report states, “After considering the information available to it and a set of possible mechanisms, the committee felt that many of the distinctive and acute signs, symptoms, and observations reported by state department employees are consistent with the effects of directed, pulsed radio frequency energy.” 

The complains after being reported in diplomats in Cuba, have also been mentioned among those stationed in China. 

The report was presented by the 19 member committee of medical experts on request of the State Department. 

Though the report doesn’t mention deliberate use of the microwave energy, it mentions that it could be used for notorious purposes. “The mere consideration of such a scenario raises grave concerns about a world with disinhibited malevolent actors and new tools for causing harm to others, as if the U.S. government does not have its hands full already with naturally occurring threats.” 

Researchers also revealed reports of brain analysis of a diplomat, Mark Lenzi, who was stationed in Guangzhou, China in 2017. Lenzi had reported of unexplained symptoms like headache, irritability, memory and sleep related problems. The MRI shows 20 brain regions of having extremely and abnormally low volumes. These regions are those associated with memory, motor skills and emotions – explanatory of Lenzi’s symptoms. Three regions also showed to have bigger volumes. 

Majority of the cases of these “sonic attacks” have been documented from 2016 and 2017, with few reported later as well. 

Officials from Cuba have consistently rejected the allegations of these attacks. Citing the complexity of the aforesaid attacks, US government had long suspected involvement of a third nation as well. In August 2017, Russia was included in this list on behest of suspected involvement. Russia has in past used microwave technology. There has been “significant research in Russia/USSR into the effects of pulsed, rather than continuous wave exposures.”