“Havana Syndrome” Again

CNN today, with a very hedged headline, tells us that a division of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations  has acquired a mechanism that “some investigators suspect is linked to Havana Syndrome.” Here we go again, but I think this is worth calling out.

“Havana Syndrome” covers a range of symptoms ranging from dizziness to headaches to nausea. It was named for a cluster of cases at the US Embassy in Havana. Other reports spread around the world, mostly from members of the diplomatic and intelligence communities. The symptoms were blamed on a postulated mechanism that projected microwaves directionally. But no mechanism was found, nor was a connection between microwaves and the reported symptoms was ever found. Medical examination of the sufferers showed no brain damage.

As far as I know, no new cases have been reported in the past five years or so.

All this points to a sociogenic cause. The symptoms are real, but they arise from anxiety or stress and spread by social contact, including hearing about it in the news. I would point particularly to the lack of new cases once the news stories subsided, but the other evidence is persuasive.

In 2021, I wrote up the questions that must be answered to make a case for malign forces using a mechanism to damage people’s brains in an article in Foreign Policy. None of those questions have been answered. At that time, I figured out how to make a very low-power microwave generator that could fit in a very large backpack. CNN says that HIS paid eight figures for the thing they acquired! Damn.

Now let me speculate. If “Havana Syndrome” is indeed sociogenic, this speculation might prevent some things from happening.

I’ve seen at least two reports of suspicious devices with unknown purpose used by ICE agents. Here’s one. It’s not uncommon to have such reports. We haven’t yet seen some of the crowd control devices like the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), which produces painfully loud sound and is sometimes confused with the (so far nonexistent) microwave device. LRADs have been used against crowds in other protests.

So it’s Homeland Security that has this very expensive device, whose capabilities are not given by the CNN article, and ICE is part of  Homeland Security. And we have a very few reports starting to show up of mysterious devices being used by ICE.

Is Homeland Security setting things up so that people will believe that they have the “Havana Syndrome” device in hand and are using it? I don’t know, but I think we all should be aware that it would not be extraordinary for such claims to start appearing.

And that “Havana Syndrome” is most likely a sociogenic illness.

Photo by Nathan Cima on Unsplash