A newly declassified US Senate report found that the CIA’s handling of mysterious health incidents known as Havana syndrome has been flawed and marred by inconsistent medical care, delayed compensation and communication failures – all while foreign adversaries remain “very unlikely” to be responsible.
Many cases of the syndrome have been reported, mostly among US officials posted abroad, and the phenomenon has led to theories they had been targeted by a hitherto unknown weapon using directed energy of some sort wielded by a hostile power.
While concluding that it was unlikely the illnesses stem from foreign adversaries, the report warns that there are “many unanswered questions” due to research gaps, and that “US adversaries are likely developing directed energy technologies that may plausibly explain some of the reported symptoms.”
The 18-page Senate intelligence committee report, released on Friday, revealed that nearly 100 CIA-affiliated individuals who reported these so-called “anomalous health incidents” (AHI) often faced “delayed, denied or pre-conditioned care” and struggled to access benefits.
The report particularly criticized the agency’s shift away from supporting affected personnel more than a year before its official conclusion that foreign adversaries were probably not responsible.
“Many AHI reporters experienced a significant moral injury as a result of how they perceived CIA’s treatment of them,” the report states, noting that medical providers observed this affecting patients’ recovery due to “increased stress about not being believed”.
According to the legislators, CIA employees who reported symptoms had lower success rates in obtaining workers’ compensation compared with other government agencies, with only 21% of CIA applicants approved versus 67% from other agencies. The report found the CIA chose to contest claims more aggressively than other departments, often declining to confirm basic facts about reported incidents.
Reports of the illness first began to percolate among US personnel in Havana in 2016. Affected individuals reported symptoms including headaches, dizziness and cognitive issues, sometimes accompanied by unusual sensory experiences.
But two National Institutes of Health studies published in March in the Journal of the American Medical Association found no significant physical differences between affected individuals and control groups.
According to the now-defunct NIH studies, which examined approximately 80 current and former US officials through brain imaging and clinical assessments, researchers found no significant differences in brain structure or function between affected individuals and control participants.
However, the studies did note higher rates of imbalance, fatigue, post-traumatic stress and depression among those reporting symptoms.
Those studies have since been shuttered after an internal investigation revealed some participants had been coerced to join.
As of earlier this year, a Government Accountability Office report found that 334 Americans had qualified for care in the military health system, though many struggled to access treatment. The Department of Defense has developed a trauma registry to collect patient data, but has only entered information for 33 patients thus far, the report noted.
Despite more than 1,500 reports of Havana syndrome globally, the underlying cause remains unclear – which gives the committee pause when it comes to widespread denials and challenges in health benefits.
“It can take years or even decades for some medical mysteries to be solved,” the report writes. “This committee does not want the [intelligence community] to repeat previous [US government] mistakes of withholding medical care and other support because it does not yet fully understand the mysterious health conditions its personnel are reporting.”
