“If the facts are confirmed and if the effects are indeed caused by a physical device, I find the microwave explanation far more likely than a sonic attack.”
US Spies & the Havana Syndrome
INTEL TODAY (October 3 2017)
October 3 2021 — On this day four years ago, INTEL TODAY coined the expression “Havana Syndrome” which is now universally used, both by mainstream media and the research community. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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“It’s real. It’s affecting our officers. It’s affecting others around the community, in government, and we’re going to figure it out.”
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen
Annual Intelligence and National Security Summit (Sept. 14 2021)
A Google search of the words “Havana Syndrome” brings about 11 million results!
“Havana Syndrome” has entered the lexicon of widely different people: intelligence officers, military, scientists, lawmakers, journalists, judges, lawyers as well as various kind of artists.
Why did I coin this new expression and what does it mean?
As soon as I heard about this rather unusual story, I immediately made a connection between the Havana attacks and the old story of the Microwave Syndrome, thus the conflation Havana Syndrome.
The ‘Havana Syndrome’ reference — whether it is real or not — is widely accepted by the medical community.
“Havana syndrome describes a series of bothersome and sometimes debilitating symptoms that first were described in the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, in 2016. The condition was initially dismissed as mass hysteria or a reaction caused by stress, but it has been suggested to be caused by ultrasonic or microwave energy used as a weapon. Symptoms are like those of a mild head injury such as headache, nausea, dizziness, confusion, and difficulty concentrating, among other symptoms. These symptoms have mostly been reported by diplomats, intelligence officers, military personnel, and others deployed on foreign soil.” [Medical Definition of Havana Syndrome — Medicinenet.com]
In fact, ‘Havana Syndrome’ has become so popular that the online Merriam Webster dictionary uses ‘Havana Syndrome’ as an example of the word syndrome, and the name may enter the Collins dictionary next year.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA Director William J. Burns have both made firm commitments to determining the cause of the Havana Syndrome.
Microwave spying seems plausible and there is a handful of players who may have ‘Means, Motives and Opportunity.’ But so far, there is little intelligence and even less evidence.
Time will tell… But it these attacks are real, there will be hell to pay.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff made this very clear this week when he told reporters:
“If a nation-state actor is behind it or more than one nation-state actor, and these are deliberate attacks where their efforts are undertaken with the knowledge that they’re causing people physical injury, I’m also confident there’ll be very serious repercussions.”
Stay tuned!
“The source of the ‘Havana syndrome’ must be found. National security demands it.”
Washington Post Editorial (September 30 2021)
REFERENCES
For the record — The expression “Havana Syndrome” was coined by Dr. Ludwig De Braeckeleer and appeared for the first time in a story published by the Intel Today blog on October 3 2017. [Here is the tweet] Why would Wikipedia dispute such a simple fact?
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On This Day — And thus a new syndrome was born [Havana Syndrome – October 3 2017]
Intel Today 