Investigation: Havana syndrome in American diplomats is caused by Russian intelligence services using microwave weapons

Joint investigation by journalists The Insider, 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel have uncovered evidence that unexplained health problems (called Havana syndrome) among American diplomats are linked to Russian intelligence agencies. In particular, we are talking about unit 29155 of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of Russia, which used microwave weapons against diplomats.

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Havana syndrome is a collection of a number of neurological symptoms including dizziness, nausea, headaches and hearing problems. This phenomenon was first observed in November 2016 among some employees of the US and Canadian embassies in Havana, Cuba, and members of their families, and in subsequent years was repeated among several hundred US diplomats, military and intelligence officials in various countries around the world.

A year-long journalistic investigation based on intercepted Russian intelligence documents, metadata and eyewitness accounts revealed that senior members of Unit 29155 received awards and political inducements for work related to the development of “non-lethal acoustic weapons” (a term used in the Russian military). scientific literature to designate sonic and radio frequency weapons).

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Members of the Russian intelligence services assigned to Unit 29155 travel undercover. Investigative journalists found that they were present in various locations around the world immediately before or during reports of abnormal health incidents among American diplomats.

29155 Division

The Insider, 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel found documented evidence that Unit 29155 was experimenting with sonic weapons technology. These technologies, according to experts, are the likely cause of the mysterious Havana syndrome. It has so far affected more than a hundred American intelligence officers, officials and diplomats, as well as several Canadian officials.

Unit 29155 is notorious in the US intelligence community.

“Their scope of lethal operations and sabotage is global,” said a former senior CIA officer. “Their mission is to support Vladimir Putin’s imperial dreams.”

The unit deals with assassinations, sabotage and political destabilization campaigns around the world. Its members are responsible for poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia in 2018 in Britain. In 2015, members of the unit poisoned Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev.

Unit 29155 used Serbian mercenaries to stage a coup in Montenegro ahead of the country's NATO membership in 2016. But the coup failed. The intelligence service is responsible for a series of explosions at ammunition and weapons depots in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

Members of the group have repeatedly tried to destabilize the situation in Ukraine. The activities of unit 29155 are devoted exclusively to so-called kinetic, that is, violent operations.

Havana syndrome in Georgia

Havana syndrome includes a variety of symptoms, including: chronic headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, insomnia, nausea, persistent psychophysiological disturbances and, in some cases, blindness or hearing loss. Many victims said that in just a minute their condition changed from completely normal to unbearable: severe headache, pressure in the skull, vomiting. Most patients were diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries. Others have such severe cognitive and vestibular consequences that they can no longer live or work normally. They left government service for medical reasons.

On October 7, 2021, Joy, an American nurse and the wife of a U.S. Embassy employee in Tbilisi, was taking laundry out of the dryer when her attention was completely absorbed by a sharp ringing sound. It reminded her of shell shock after a bomb explosion, as it is portrayed in Hollywood films - the hero hears only a ringing in his ears and nothing else.

“The sound pierced my ears, it felt like it was coming through a window into my left ear,” Joy recalls. “I immediately felt a heaviness in my head and a piercing headache.”

She ran from the laundry room into the bathroom adjoining the master bedroom. She vomited there.

Joy (not her real name) has suffered from headaches every day for the past three years. She has had two surgeries on her inner ear. She will need a third surgery to correct the rapid deterioration of her temporal bone, a condition she says the neurosurgeon cannot explain.

Perhaps it all started much earlier, or the Frankfurt attacks

Although Havana syndrome was first discussed in 2016, there is evidence that attacks occurred as early as November 2014. Then employees of the American consulate in Frankfurt (Germany) were injured.

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One of the victims, sources said, was a US consulate employee identified by The Insider as Taylor (not his real name). His symptoms began with an intense feeling of pressure that spread to his head and neck. Nausea then set in, followed by a "high-pitched squeal." He went to the bathroom, where he collapsed unconscious on the floor. On November 4, 2014, German doctors diagnosed him with vestibular neuronitis. After returning to the United States, Taylor was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.

A few weeks before the attack, Taylor said he encountered a tall, muscular man with a military bearing. He stood across the street from the consulate's apartment complex and was "acting suspiciously."

Radiation and sound

Pulsed microwave radiation is one of two technologies that scientists consider a possible cause of Havana syndrome. The second is acoustic sound. Any of these technologies may cause the victim to hear sounds, hums, and clicks (the Fry effect).

Russia has been experimenting with both technologies for decades.

In fact, in the scientific literature these two phenomena are combined into the general category of "wave weapons". A 1974 Soviet patent was issued to a military unit that developed (and claimed to have successfully tested) “a non-lethal device for inducing sleep in a target through the use of radio waves.” And senior members of unit 29155 were given the task and were rewarded for successfully testing “non-lethal acoustic weapons.”

In 2010, a research institute in Russia was conducting "development of basic technologies to create a new generation of sonar and acoustic weapons," according to a document obtained by The Insider. This modern program built an "experimental model/prototype" of a portable ultrasonic non-lethal weapon for installation on commercial vehicles. The radial range of this device was limited to ten to twelve meters.

In September 2022, the US intelligence community published a classified report entitled "Abnormal Health Incidents: An Analysis of Potential Causal Mechanisms." The report states that one of the likely causes of these symptoms is microwave energy. Another option is ultrasound, a high-frequency form of inaudible acoustic energy.

It can enter the body through the ear canal or other parts of the head, causing potential disruption to the central nervous system, especially the inner ear, where sound is sensed. Both microwave and ultrasound energies can damage brain cells and also open the blood-brain barrier, causing proteins from damaged cells to leak into the cerebrospinal fluid and then into the bloodstream. These so-called biomarkers are metabolized by the body over a period of hours or days. This means that a person struck by an acoustic weapon would need to have their blood drawn almost immediately after the attack to detect this type of evidence of injury.

Yet it remains unclear exactly how the attacks were carried out and whether different types of devices were used. The limiting factor when using ultrasonic weapons is distance. Sound waves travel poorly through air and through solid objects. This means that any device of this type will have to get at least 10-12 meters closer to its target.

Another form of directed energy that travels further and can penetrate thicker materials such as walls and metal barriers is pulsed microwave energy. A US intelligence community panel concluded that this type of energy can “disrupt” membranes and capillaries, damaging the myelin sheaths surrounding neurons and the blood-brain barrier.

The authorities' response

The US government - and the CIA in particular - is hiding its knowledge of the source of Havana syndrome. First, the release of all intelligence information about Russian involvement could be so shocking as to convince the American people that Moscow has committed an act of war against the United States. Of course, the US will respond, and the consequences will be devastating for the world.

Second, recognizing that Havana syndrome is caused by a foreign adversary could make recruiting for the CIA and State Department more difficult. After all, how many Americans would be willing to serve their country overseas knowing that their next laundry session or morning walk to the embassy could result in permanent physical and mental illness?

The State Department has not yet found anything better than to distribute a memo about the Havana syndrome to employees of foreign missions.

Cases of Havana syndrome appear to have subsided in recent years. Although multiple former and current US officials have said that a senior US Department of Defense official was targeted as recently as July 2023 at a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Other reports have noted an increase in cases in Vienna in the second half of 2021, months before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

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