Havana Syndrome: Is Russia to blame?
A bombshell report has blown a hole in the government’s claim that no foreign hand is behind Havana Syndrome, said Tom Rogan in the Washington Examiner—and it points the finger straight at Russia. The intelligence community last year ruled it “very unlikely” that enemy operatives were to blame for the mysterious neurological illness first documented in 2016 among diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba. Some 1,500 cases have since been recorded in 96 countries, with sufferers reporting dizziness, headaches, and memory loss; some heard odd sounds before the onset of the condition. Now CBS’s 60 Minutes, Germany’s Der Spiegel, and Russian dissident site The Insider have collected evidence that members of a Russian intelligence unit were often in proximity when the syndrome struck, and that some were rewarded for work on “nonlethal acoustic weapons.” Many of the Americans afflicted had done work related to Russia, said The Washington Post in an editorial. Clearly, U.S. intelligence must reopen its investigation and “conduct a full, aggressive inquiry.”
“Be skeptical,” said Robby Soave in Reason. The report “combines breathless alarmism about foreign malfeasance” with claims of sci-fi weaponry to advance a beloved media narrative: “Everything is Russia’s fault.” But inquiries by medical experts and U.S. intelligence have concluded Havana Syndrome “is not real.” Its victims are afflicted by symptoms with many possible causes—including mass hysteria, or as the FBI terms it, “social contagion.” The report overlooks one glaring issue, said Sharon Weinberger in The Wall Street Journal: the “technical implausibility” of a portable weapon that could inflict such symptoms while leaving no other traces. A microwave weapon, often cited as the most likely explanation, would have to be refrigerator-size or larger. Then there’s the “seeming absurdity” of Moscow “zapping diplomats and spies” for no reason “other than harassment.”
There is another plausible explanation, said
The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. “Pulsed radio-frequency energy and focused ultrasound” could be transmitted by portable devices. Still, officials seem “intent on discounting” the possibility we’re under attack. Why? Maybe the intelligence community “doesn’t want to scare its personnel” or fears the “brawl with Vladimir Putin” that would result if Russia were implicated. But this new evidence deserves more than a cursory dismissal. “Something isn’t right with this story,” and the American public “needs better answers.”