Madrid/The US government has been testing a secretly acquired device for a year that can cause the mysterious symptoms known as Havana syndrome. This is stated by American media, such as cnn either CBS Newsfrom several knowledgeable sources, in separate notes published this Tuesday.
According to one of these informants, the device produces pulsed radio waves, the type of energy that some specialists have attributed as the cause of the incidents, which affected hundreds of US diplomats deployed not only in Cuba but in other parts of the world. The same sources say that the device, which is the size of a backpack, “has Russian components,” although “it is not exclusively Russian in origin.”
The device, these reports continue, was purchased by a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with funds from the Department of Defense in the last days of the Administration of the previous president, Joe Biden – who left office on January 20, 2025 -, for a million-dollar amount, which exceeded “eight figures”, although the sources did not reveal the specific number.
“The device is still being studied and there is an ongoing debate”
Both CNN and CBS attempted to seek confirmation from the Pentagon, DHS and CIA, but they declined to comment. “The device is still under study and there is ongoing debate (and in some parts of the Government, skepticism) about its link to the approximately dozens of anomalous health incidents that remain officially unexplained,” says the CNN note, which suggests that nothing is yet clear on the matter.
Symptoms described by patients who have reported being victims of Havana syndrome, officially called “abnormal health incidents” (AHI), include chronic headaches, vertigo, tinnitus (auditory sensation that consists of perceiving sounds that do not come from external sources), insomnia, nausea, psychophysiological deterioration and, in some cases, blindness or hearing loss.
The appearance of these health incidents in American and Canadian diplomats in Havana was one of the reasons why the normalization with Cuba initiated by Barack Obama when he was president of the United States did not continue. In 2017, in his first term, President Donald Trump decided to suspend consular services in Havana and reduce diplomatic personnel on the Island to a minimum.
The Government of Cuba always denied any responsibility, and launched a commission of experts that found no scientific or criminal evidence.
Meanwhile, the Government of Cuba always denied any responsibility, and launched a commission of experts that found no scientific or criminal evidence linking the symptoms with possible sonic attacks, microwaves or other deliberate action.
On March 1, 2023, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Avril D. Haines, released a report prepared by seven intelligence agencies of the United States in which they stated that it was “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary would cause the so-called Havana syndrome.
However, an investigation of The Insider, 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel published in April 2024 stated that the illness could have its origin in “directed energy” weapons carried out by the Central Intelligence Department of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU, for its acronym in Russian). The report presented, for example, the testimony of victims who saw members of the feared Unit 29155 of Russian military intelligence at the site of the attacks.
In addition, it presented as evidence the fact that high-ranking members of the unit received “awards and political promotions” for work related to the development of “non-lethal acoustic weapons”, that is, “directed energy”, sound or radio frequency devices, which can cause “acoustic effects” in the brains of victims.
The 2023 ODNI report had also been criticized by experts such as Marc Polymeropoulosformer high-ranking CIA officer and himself a victim of the disease. In an interview with América TeVé that same year, he said that he considered himself “betrayed” by the report and insisted on pointing out to Cuba and Russia as responsible for the attacks.
“It has all the characteristics of an active Russian measure. It is what a successful action would look like, the kind that causes fear to the adversary”
“I would say that it has all the characteristics of an active Russian measure. It is what a successful action would look like, one of those that causes fear to the adversary, takes people away from their work and distracts,” the former intelligence agent then told the Miami network.
Another report, published on December 5, 2024 by the Congressional Permanent Intelligence Committee of the United States, harshly questioned the investigation of the Office led by Haines. According to the document, subtitled Is the Intelligence Community hiding the true reason for this phenomenon?the conclusions of the body in charge of investigating the case are “dubious at best, and misleading at worst.”
A subcommittee appointed by the House of Representatives of Congress reopened the investigation into the Havana syndrome after considering that the conclusions of the Intelligence Community (IC), including the CIA – which ensures that no foreign agents are involved in the case – were unreliable, “lacked analytical integrity and were very irregular in their formulation.”
“The IC has attempted at all times to frustrate the investigative efforts of the subcommittee to discover the truth. Despite this, the subcommittee has found data that illustrates the problems that arose in the process of preparation, review and publication of the Intelligence Community report,” added the congressional subcommittee, which urged the authors to urgently publish a new evaluation that correctly included all the information collected.
Although at that time, a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence refuted the conclusions of this congressional subcommittee before the American press, it was precisely on those dates when, according to CNN and CBS sources, the Pentagon acquired the mysterious device that is still being studied.
