The U.S. intelligence community has determined it was unlikely that a foreign adversary is responsible for a series of anomalous health incidents (AHI) plaguing intelligence and diplomatic staffers across the globe.
A review conducted by intelligence agencies for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and released Wednesday probed a series of health incidents initially dubbed “Havana Syndrome” after government employees first reported experiencing mysterious neurological ailments there in 2016.
But the review attributed those conditions to other factors and noted that intelligence agencies – with varying degrees of confidence – deemed it was unlikely that a U.S. adversary had such capabilities.
“Available intelligence consistently points against the involvement of U.S. adversaries in causing the reported incidents,” the report states.
“There is no credible evidence that a foreign adversary has a weapon or device that is causing AHIs.”
It’s a complex challenge for the intelligence community and their champions in Congress, many of whom have lobbied for long term care for those who suspect they were the victims of possible attacks.
In the years since the first reports, some 1,000 government employees have stepped forward with complaints of symptoms ranging from vertigo, insomnia, nausea, and intense headaches.
An initial study of those who made complaints suggested that they could be the result of a “directed energy” weapon.
Wednesday’s report questioned the result of a preliminary health study from the National Institutes of Health noting that it did not find consistent symptoms and instead posited that the range of ailments could be due to “preexisting conditions, conventional illness, and environmental factors.”
The report stated that early theories about the illnesses “were not borne out by subsequent medical and technical analysis.”
“This shift is notable because the initial medical opinions formed a central part of the IC hypothesis that U.S. personnel had sustained injuries that were unlikely to be explained by natural or environmental factors,” it reads.
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