The Havana Syndrome Mystery: Directed Energy Attacks Move from Conspiracy Theory to Intelligence Reality
19/01/2026
In the late autumn of 2016, a diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Havana heard a sharp, cricket-like sound in his residence, followed by a sudden increase in pressure in his head, persistent dizziness, and severe headaches. He was not the only one to experience this. Over the following months, more than twenty U.S. diplomatic personnel and intelligence officers in Cuba reported similar symptoms: unexplained sounds, a sensation of pressure in the head, and subsequent persistent neurocognitive dysfunction, including memory loss, balance issues, and visual problems. These incidents were collectively referred to as Havana Syndrome. For nearly eight years, their cause remained shrouded in mystery—was it a psychological condition, an environmental factor, or a state-led covert attack?
Now, a series of internal investigations disclosed by CNN is pushing the answer in a more confrontational direction. Over the past year or more, the U.S. Department of Defense has spent tens of millions of dollars to acquire a device believed to be capable of generating pulsed radio frequency waves through a covert operation, and is conducting urgent testing and analysis on it. This device, not entirely Russian-made but containing Russian components and portable in an ordinary backpack, appears to be the crucial piece of the puzzle that has long perplexed the U.S. intelligence community: a directed energy weapon potentially used to target American personnel overseas. This discovery may not only rewrite the rules of modern espionage but also elevate the already white-hot gray-zone conflict between the U.S. and Russia to a new dimension of physical and physiological harm.
From Diplomatic Scandals to National Security Crises: The Evolutionary Trajectory of the Syndrome
The story of Havana Syndrome began in Cuba, but it is far from ending there. The initial cases were concentrated among U.S. embassy personnel in Havana from 2016 to 2017, with a strikingly consistent spectrum of symptoms: most victims first perceived a distinct sound or pressure in the head, followed by acute onset of headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, nausea, and some experienced cognitive difficulties such as brain fog and memory decline. Medical examinations revealed that some victims showed signs of mild traumatic brain injury or vestibular system dysfunction, which pathophysiologically differs from typical psychiatric disorders or common environmental illnesses.
The physical evidence of symptoms and the global pattern of spread are key to refuting the early theory of mass psychogenic illness. If it were merely stress or anxiety, it would be difficult to explain why such similar neurological abnormalities occurred in isolated individuals across different continents and at different times. Subsequently, reports spread like a virus. In 2018, personnel at the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou experienced similar cases; from 2020 to 2021, suspected incidents involving diplomats, intelligence officers, and even military personnel emerged in Vienna, Austria; Berlin, Germany; and even the suburbs of Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital. The list of victims included high-level officials, such as former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer Marc Polymeropoulos, who claimed he was attacked in a Moscow hotel room in 2017, resulting in severe vertigo and vomiting, which forced an end to his career.
The reaction within the U.S. government went through a long process from confusion and division to gradually becoming serious. In 2020, a report from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences pointed out that directed pulsed radiofrequency energy is the most plausible cause of the illness. However, as of early 2023, an official conclusion from the U.S. intelligence community, after months of assessment, still appeared cautious and even contradictory: it considered it highly unlikely that a foreign adversary was behind most of the reported cases, yet it could not provide a clear explanation for a series of specific, severe cases. This ambiguous stance sparked strong dissatisfaction among the victim groups, who believed that the government chose to ignore or even cover up evidence to avoid difficult geopolitical confrontations.
The Secret $10 Million Deal: Unveiling the "Weaponized" Radio Frequency Equipment
CNN's in-depth investigation pierced through this layer of window paper. The report reveals that during the final stages of the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Defense provided funding as high as eight figures (tens of millions of dollars) to the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) under the Department of Homeland Security for a covert undercover operation—purchasing a device believed to be potentially related to Havana Syndrome. This massive transaction itself conveys a sense of urgency and specificity far beyond ordinary scientific research projects.
The core feature of this device directly addresses the heart of the issue: it can generate pulsed radio frequency energy. This is precisely the attack mechanism that independent scientists and intelligence analysts have speculated about for years. Radio frequency energy itself is ubiquitous, but pulsed radio waves with specific frequencies, extremely high power, and precisely modulated and directional emission can theoretically penetrate building walls, causing interference or damage to the human nervous system within a specific area, particularly the vestibular system and the brain regions responsible for processing hearing and balance. Such an attack can be silent, with victims possibly only sensing pressure or hearing phantom sounds directly generated by nerve stimulation.
The inclusion of Russian components provides a potential hardware link for geopolitical allegations. Although the device is not entirely manufactured in Russia, the origin of its key components suggests a technological lineage or supply chain connection. Russia has a long history of research in directed energy weapons, including microwave and radio frequency weapons, with related experiments dating back to the Soviet era. The use of non-lethal directed energy devices for intelligence purposes—such as dispersing crowds, disrupting electronic equipment, or affecting personnel—has been a topic discussed in open academic and military literature. A backpack-portable device perfectly meets the needs of covert operations: it is easy to transport, quick to deploy, difficult to trace, and capable of producing seemingly natural medical symptoms.
The Ministry of National Defense conducted continuous testing on this device for over a year, indicating that it is not merely a one-time curiosity. The focus of the analysis undoubtedly lies in: Does its output characteristics match the medical features of reported cases worldwide? Can its effective range, penetration capability, and energy waveform reproduce the encounters described by victims? These test results will serve as decisive scientific evidence in determining whether Havana Syndrome is a weapon attack or an unknown disease.
The Ambiguous Boundaries of Intelligence Warfare: Denial, Narrative, and Strategic Deterrence.
The Havana Syndrome incident is essentially a conflict occurring in the gray zone of intelligence warfare. Its most notable feature lies in plausible deniability. Even if an attack genuinely occurs, the attacking party can easily attribute the symptoms to environmental factors, psychological stress, or personal health issues. This ambiguity provides perfect cover for the perpetrators while creating a significant dilemma for the victim country's government: how to publicly accuse a hostile major power in the absence of conclusive evidence? Making hasty accusations could trigger uncontrollable diplomatic or even military escalation, while remaining silent would mean betraying one's own personnel.
Long-standing disagreements within the U.S. government reflect this strategic dilemma. Some officials and agencies tend to adopt the views presented in studies such as the 2023 *International Journal of Social Psychiatry*, considering Havana Syndrome as a socially constructed label used to summarize a series of pre-existing health issues, environmental reactions, and stress symptoms. This interpretation is politically safer, avoiding direct confrontation with countries like Russia or China. However, increasing physical evidence and the highly specific backgrounds of the victims (mostly core intelligence and diplomatic personnel) are making explanations based on coincidence or psychology increasingly less convincing.
Secretly purchasing and testing suspected weapon equipment marks a substantial shift in the U.S. response strategy. This action itself serves multiple purposes: first, evidence collection, attempting to obtain conclusive technical evidence; second, technical countermeasures, understanding the attack principles to develop protective equipment (such as detection sensors or protective materials) and medical countermeasures; finally, strategic deterrence, signaling to potential adversaries that the United States is taking this seriously and has begun acquiring relevant technological capabilities, which may increase the risks and costs for opponents if they continue using such means.
Former CIA officer Mark Polymereopoulos's angry question—if the U.S. government truly discovered such a device, the CIA owes all victims a massive and public apology—represents the voices of the victim community and some insiders. What they demand is not only medical answers but also political acknowledgment and accountability. This incident has evolved into a crisis of trust regarding whether the government has fulfilled its basic duty to protect its overseas personnel.
Unfinished Investigations and the Shadow of the Future
Although the emergence of this mysterious device has provided the most specific clue to the puzzle, the story of Havana Syndrome is far from over, and instead opens up more complex questions.
Firstly, confirming scientific causality still faces a high threshold. Even if it is proven that the device can produce similar effects, establishing direct operational chain evidence linking it to the hundreds of reported cases worldwide is still required. This necessitates a precise combination of intelligence work and forensic science, presenting immense difficulty. Whether the U.S. intelligence community can ultimately produce an undisputed assessment report pointing to specific state actions remains unknown.
Secondly, the challenges posed by international law and diplomatic norms are entirely new. If directed energy attacks are confirmed, this would constitute a novel, unconventional form of inter-state aggression. Existing international law contains significant ambiguities in classifying such non-lethal yet long-term brain-damaging attacks as acts of armed aggression, use of force, or interference in internal affairs. How should one respond? Should it be through equivalent covert operations, or through public economic sanctions and diplomatic expulsions? This requires the United States and its allies to forge a new policy consensus.
Finally, this shadowy conflict foreshadows a form of future great power competition. In an era where the risk of full-scale hot war is extremely high, competition among major powers is increasingly shifting to emerging domains such as space, cyberspace, cognitive, and biotechnology. Directed energy attacks, precisely located at the intersection of physics, biology, and intelligence, are becoming an ideal gray zone tool due to their relatively low cost, high concealment, and ability to cause lasting harm. They target not only individuals but also aim to erode the morale of rival intelligence agencies, create fear, and consume their vast medical and investigative resources.
From Havana to Moscow, from Guangzhou to Vienna, those mysterious sounds and the ensuing suffering may not merely be individual misfortunes but also a footnote of an era: the games between nations are breaking through the boundaries of traditional battlefields and diplomatic halls, invading the most private living spaces and the most intricate neural networks of the human body. Regardless of the final conclusion, the device that the United States spent tens of millions of dollars to retrieve has already brought a disturbing reality to light: the technological frontier of modern espionage is challenging our traditional definitions of attack, harm, and even war itself. For global diplomats and intelligence personnel, the front lines they inhabit may be more invisible than ever before, yet also closer than ever.
Reference materials
https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/havana-syndrome-device-government