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There Is a Good Chance You Have "Havana Syndrome"

A new intelligence assessment finds a foreign actor "highly unlikely."

Key points

  • The U.S. Intelligence community believes that the "Havana Syndrome" symptoms are real, but have common causes.
  • In any given week, most people experience several symptoms of "Havana Syndrome."
  • The panic over secret energy weapons targeting Americans is waning.

After spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to investigate claims that American intelligence officers and diplomats were the victims of targeted attacks with a mysterious "directed energy weapon," a new report has found no evidence that such a weapon ever existed or any foreign government was involved. The symptoms began in Cuba and later spread to U.S. diplomats around the world. In fact, based on intelligence intercepts, it appears that the spy agencies of other countries were mystified and confused by the claims. The report states that claims of an attack are “highly unlikely.”

These conclusions were always going to be the case if the investigation was honest and thorough because the studies that were used to suggest an attack took place were flawed. In one instance, a 2019 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found brain anomalies in victims from Cuba. While these findings were widely reported as confirming “brain damage” in patients, a closer look would have revealed that the authors also admitted that the differences were not so significant as to rule out the possibility that they were from individual variation. Many news reports failed to mention this and that similar anomalies can be caused by exposure to long-term stress. Brain changes are not the same as brain damage.

In their report on the new findings, the Associated Press headline reads, “US finds no ‘Havana syndrome’ link to foreign powers, but 2 spy agencies say it’s possible.” It is also possible that people are being abducted by space aliens and chupacabras are real, but according to the new report, it is "highly unlikely." So, why are news agencies like the Associated Press continuing to emphasize the possibility that "Havana Syndrome" was the result of a foreign attack despite a consensus to the contrary within the intelligence community? For one, The Associated Press is one of many news agencies that has repeatedly carried reports suggesting that these were real attacks. The same is true of certain intelligence agencies, which for years claimed that a foreign actor was almost certainly behind the health issues reported. Such an about-face can be viewed as damaging to their credibility. However, honestly reporting the facts as we know them—without embellishment and speculation—can help to restore their credibility and standing.

And let’s not forget that the U.S. Congress continues to spend tens of millions of dollars in health care for "victims," which the new report was careful not to criticize. “No IC [Intelligence Community] component calls into question the experiences or suffering of USG [US Government] personnel and dependents. All components recognize that USG personnel and dependents experienced genuine, sometimes painful and traumatic, physical symptoms and sensory phenomena and honestly and sincerely reported those events as possible AHIs [Anomalous Health Incidents].”

So how does the intelligence community explain the array of symptoms in victims that includes headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, forgetfulness, difficulty concentrating, confusion, depression, insomnia, tinnitus, balance problems, head pressure, and ear pain—and this is just a partial list? Several years ago, a study in New Zealand led by health psychologist Keith Petrie at the University of Auckland asked 1,000 people to identify from a list any symptoms they had experienced over the previous week. The average person reported five. About 38 percent reported back pain, 36 percent noted fatigue, and 35 percent experienced headaches. Nearly 30 percent said they had trouble sleeping, while 15 percent had difficulty concentrating, and 13 percent reported memory problems. Roughly 8 percent noted nausea and dizziness.

These are many of the exact symptoms reported by Havana Syndrome patients!

"Havana Syndrome" was the result of an array of health complaints that became redefined under a new label in the wake of sensational media reports.

References

Baloh, Robert W., and Bartholomew, Robert E. (2020). Havana Syndrome. Cham, Switzerland: Copernicus Books.

Bartholomew, Robert E., & Weatherhead, Paul (2024). Social Panics & Phantom Attackers: A Study of Imaginary Assailants. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.

Merchant, Nomaan (2025). Intel agencies: No sign adversaries behind ‘Havana syndrome.’ The Associated Press. January 11.

Petrie, Keith J., Kate Faasse, Fiona Crichton, and Andrew Grey. "How common are symptoms? Evidence from a New Zealand national telephone survey." BMJ open 4, no. 6 (2014): e005374.

Ragini V, Swanson, RL, Parker D, Ismail A, Shinohara RT, Alappatt JA, et al. Neuroimaging findings in US government personnel with possible exposure to directional phenomena in Havana, Cuba. JAMA. 2019;322(4):336-347.

Steinbuch Y. Cuba ‘sonic attacks’ changed US diplomats’ brains, study finds. The New York Post. 23 July 2019.

Updated Assessment of Anomalous Health Incidents, as of December 2024. January 10, 2025. Unclassified. ICA 2025-00008-B.

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