[News Terms] The Mystery of 'Abana Syndrome'

Trump Administration Judges Intentional Attack Targeting US
Cause Unknown Despite Investigations by CIA and Intelligence Agencies
Spiegel Reports Possible Use of Russian Special Forces Sonic Weapon

'Havana Syndrome' is an unexplained illness experienced by U.S. diplomats, military personnel, and intelligence officers. It is a neurological disorder accompanied by various physical symptoms such as tinnitus, headaches, nausea, hearing loss, cognitive impairment, and brain damage. It was first identified among staff working at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, the capital of Cuba, in 2016, and was called Havana Syndrome or the Cuban mystery illness.

Victims uniformly reported experiencing these symptoms after hearing unknown sounds. Because of this, the Trump administration at the time judged it to be a deliberate attack targeting U.S. diplomats, leading to the withdrawal of staff from Havana in 2017 and the expulsion of Cuban diplomats from the United States.

The photo is not related to the article content. [Photo by Pixabay]

Between 2017 and 2021, symptoms were also reported in China, Russia, Georgia, Poland, Taiwan, Australia, Uzbekistan, Washington D.C. in the United States, Austria, Vietnam, India, Germany, Colombia, and other locations.

U.S. intelligence agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) began investigations in 2017, but the cause remains unclear. Possible causes suggested include high-frequency energy or sonic attacks, mass psychogenic illness (conversion disorder caused by psychological factors?mass hysteria), pesticide inhalation or infection, and drug neurotoxicity. There was even a claim that the unknown sounds were actually cricket chirping.

At the request of the U.S. government, a research team from the University of Pennsylvania conducted a study on 40 diplomats who experienced these symptoms while stationed in Cuba. They concluded that the brain tissue of these individuals appeared to have sustained widespread and persistent injury, publishing their 2018 findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The New York Times (NYT) reported on December 5, 2020, that a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report suggested that headaches experienced by some U.S. embassy staff in China and Cuba were likely caused by high-frequency energy attacks, including microwave radiation. The NASEM expert committee considered other causes such as chemical exposure or infectious disease but found them unlikely, concluding that the victims' symptoms were more consistent with high-frequency energy attacks.

William Burns, CIA Director (center), is preparing to leave after a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing held at the Capitol in Washington DC on the 11th of last month.
[Photo by AP/ Yonhap News]

The CIA and ODNI have stated that Havana Syndrome is caused by an attack and have mentioned Russia, which had researched and developed microwave weapons capable of damaging brain nerves, as a possible perpetrator. However, Russia denied any involvement, and some have refuted these suspicions due to a lack of scientific evidence.

The Biden administration has actively pursued clarifying the reality of this syndrome under the leadership of the White House National Security Council (NSC) since 2021. In October of that year, President Biden signed the Havana Act, providing victims of Havana Syndrome with enhanced medical services and financial support under the law.

On the 1st (local time), the U.S. Department of Defense announced that a senior U.S. defense official who attended the NATO summit held last year in Lithuania exhibited symptoms similar to Havana Syndrome.

Department of Defense Deputy Spokesperson Sabrina Singh said at a briefing that the individual was "separate from the Defense Secretary's delegation attending the NATO summit." Regarding the cause of the symptoms, she added, "The investigation is being led by intelligence agencies including the ODNI, and inquiries should be directed to those agencies."

In its '2024 Threat Assessment' report released in February, the ODNI stated that the likelihood of a foreign adversary causing Havana Syndrome is low, but noted that the confidence levels among U.S. intelligence agencies regarding this assessment vary.

In response, CBS's investigative program '60 Minutes,' online media Insider, and the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported yesterday, based on joint investigations, that the sonic weapon developed and deployed by Unit 29155, a special forces unit under Russia's military intelligence agency, the Main Directorate of the General Staff (GRU), is highly likely to be the cause of Havana Syndrome.