Blinken assigns two veteran diplomats to lead ‘Havana syndrome’ response at State

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced

Friday the appointment of two veteran diplomats to oversee the State Department’s efforts on “Havana syndrome,” and the deployment of “new technology” to help understand the cause of the mysterious health incidents.

Blinken named

Jonathan Moore, a career foreign service officer, to coordinate the overall State Department response, and Margaret Uyehara as senior care coordinator to ensure affected diplomats receive top medical treatment.

He also said the department had deployed new technology to posts across the globe that may help the government understand what is causing the incidents, a frustrating riddle for three consecutive administrations and the U.S. intelligence community.

“People have been profoundly, profoundly affected by this,” Blinken said in his first speech on the incidents. “It’s very, very powerful, and it only reinforces in me the absolute conviction that we need to do everything possible for our people — to care for them, to protect them.”

“We will get to the bottom of this,” he added.

Blinken emphasized that the symptoms being reported by U.S. government staff are real and damaging.

Diplomats have “experienced serious physical consequences, including persistent headaches and hearing loss. They’ve also experienced psychological harm, including trauma, anxiety, depression,”

Blinken said. “They’ve been affected — their careers have been affected. Their families and colleagues have been affected, too.”

Blinken said a new partnership with Johns Hopkins University began last month that will enhance care options for diplomats experiencing symptoms, and encouraged personnel to report any episodes as quickly as possible, highlighting an email address recently set up that will allow diplomats and their family members to report incidents or ask questions anonymously if they prefer.

President Joe Biden’s administration has not been able to provide an explanation for the incidents that similarly baffled the former

Trump and Obama administrations after they first emerged at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba in 2016.

The U.S. government suspects, but has not been able to confidently determine the episodes are attacks on American personnel by a foreign adversary.

But the president’s team believes it is getting closer to identifying who is responsible and understanding what mechanism is being used to cause the mysterious health episodes reported by over 200 diplomats,

CIA operatives and national security officials in Washington and overseas.

U.S. personnel stationed around the world have reported symptoms of sudden vertigo, dizziness, nausea and headaches. Some of them have shown physiological signs of brain injuries, and some have come down with symptoms at the same time as others in their immediate vicinity.

The State Department is “developing, obtaining and deploying new technology to the field” that is helping them understand what is causing the incidents, Blinken said, without being more specific.

“New technology is helping us more quickly and thoroughly evaluate a variety of potential causes of these incidents, and we’ve distributed across posts so that we can respond rapidly,” he said.

The department has also taken steps in recent months to standardize training and care for victims, incorporating new guidance into their overseas security seminars and standardizing their medical assessments.

The State Department also began a voluntary program over the summer allowing employees and their families to collect baseline health information, which doctors can then use as a point of reference if they experience symptoms later on in the field.

“We have sent a very clear signal throughout our bureaus and elements within the department that every single report has to be taken extraordinarily seriously,” a senior administration official told Mcclatchy before the announcement. “Those investigating should follow standard guidance, and to report them up the chain.”

Both Moore and

Uyehara have decades of experience overseas, particularly in eastern Europe.

Moore recently was principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and has in the past served at the U.S. Embassy to Belarus and as acting director of the State Department’s Office of Russian Affairs.

Moore said he would “believe and respect those who come forward.”