The US Defense Department has spent more than a year testing a device bought during an undercover operation that some investigators believe could be linked to Havana syndrome. The equipment was purchased for millions of dollars by Homeland Security Investigations with Pentagon funding and is capable of producing pulsed radio waves, a suspected cause of the mysterious illnesses reported by American diplomats, intelligence officers, and military personnel. Officials remain divided over whether the device is truly connected to the cases.
In 2016, several American diplomats stationed at the US embassy in Havana, Cuba, began suffering a range of medical issues, including migraines, fatigue, vertigo, anxiety, dizziness, memory lapses, and cognitive impairment. Soon afterwards, US diplomatic, intelligence, and military officials stationed in other overseas locations complained of the same symptoms. A mystery illness had struck, but the cause was unclear. Eventually, the malady was given a name: Havana syndrome. Later, a number of US government representatives attributed the incidents to sonic attacks by unidentified foreign adversaries, a notion largely dismissed by the White House.
But in March 2024, a joint investigation by several media outlets reignited the controversy by suggesting a sinister Russian intelligence unit under the direct control of President Vladimir Putin was behind the bizarre assaults. But is this a new and worrying real-time reality, or just Cold War fantasy?
Click through and find out more about the strange sickness known as Havana syndrome.