A U.S. intelligence review has concluded the so-called "Havana syndrome" — an ailment that has afflicted U.S. diplomats, military personnel, and intelligence officers worldwide for years — did not result from the actions of a foreign adversary or energy weapon, according to The Washington Post.
The Post report, citing two intelligence officials familiar with the review, also "shatters a long-disputed theory" that hundreds of American personnel were "targeted and sickened by a clandestine enemy wielding energy waves as a weapon."
The symptoms were first reported at the U.S. Embassy in Havana in 2016, the Post reports.
According to a 2022 report from NBC News, a panel of scientific experts working for U.S. intelligence agencies determined that pulsed electromagnetic energy, or microwave energy, stood out as the most plausible explanation for the symptoms.
These findings expanded on a 2020 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Some victims, according to NBC News, reported hearing a sound from a particular direction or feeling pressure in one ear; and others eventually suffered from vertigo.
During the study, NBC News said the panel quickly "ruled out" high-powered ultrasound beams as a potential cause. At that point, microwave energy had become the most likely source of discomfort among U.S. personnel, since it's low-powered and can penetrate walls.
That conclusion also had merit, according to NBC News, since a number of Havana syndrome victims "reported feeling the sensation of being hit by an invisible blast or pressure wave while inside their apartments or homes."
The new intelligence assessment, according to the Post, "caps a years-long effort by the CIA" and other federal agencies to explain why intelligence officers, career diplomats, and other serving U.S. missions around the globe kept experiencing "strange and painful acoustic sensations."
In some cases, the trauma was so intense, it forced government workers to willingly step away from their work after incurring physical and emotional suffering.
The Post reports that seven intelligence agencies participated in the review of 1,000 cases of "anomalous health incidents," a government term used to describe a "constellation of physical symptoms" including ringing in the ears followed by pressure in the head, along with nausea, headaches, and acute discomfort.
"There was nothing," one official told the Post of the panel's findings. Additionally, the same source said there was no intelligence of any foreign leader — including China or Russia — having knowledge, or even authorizing an atmospheric attack on U.S. personnel.