You may have heard about “Havana Syndrome,” a strange phenomenon where U.S. government employees began suffering from mysterious illnesses, possibly from a secret weapon invented by an adversary. The whole controversy became enveloped in politics and questionable science. Today, we’re off to Havana to hear from the lead scientist on Cuba’s assessment, who tells how the story unfolded there.
The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.
“Havana Syndrome,” named after the first reports in Cuba’s capital, was a mysterious illness said to impact more than 1,500 U.S. government employees in Cuba and around the world starting in 2016.
Dr. Mitchell Joseph Valdes-Sosa is director of the Cuban Center for Neuroscience. He led Cuba’s investigation.
Sharyl: So, knowing everything that you know now, what do you think this is a story of?
Dr. Mitchell Joseph Valdes-Sosa: I think this is a tremendous story. Not the story that originally many people saw, you know, Flash Gordon, mysterious kind of weapon. That is immediately a headline story, right? But that’s not true. But the other story is just as interesting. It is, “How could science be sidelined for seven years?”
Victims of “Havana Syndrome” reported headaches, dizziness, a loud sound in their ears, even memory loss.
The History Channel clip: They’re having neighbors over for drinks. And suddenly, they hear this sound. And it fills the air, and it sounds kind of like cicadas. Only it’s a more piercing, metallic sound.
As rumors spread, more cases surfaced. Media reports and experts fueled speculation that Russia or China had deployed some sort of secret, new weapon.
Valdes-Sosa: The narrative that was accepted very widely is that a group of diplomats or spies that were in the American embassy had been attacked by some mysterious energy weapon that produced a new syndrome, a new disorder, with brain damage, with damage to the hearing. And this same kind of attack later generalized to other countries and was reported over a dozen countries around the world, including the U.S.
Sharyl: At first, did Cuban authorities treat this as though there might be something to it? Were they concerned?
Valdes-Sosa: Yes. Yes. The first reaction, and officials, including some from the Ministry of Foreign Relation, is that this had to be looked in very seriously. The problem is, as more and more research was carried out from the very first moment, things didn’t make sense.
He says Cuba’s Academy of Sciences convened a team of experts: neurologists, ear specialists, epidemiologists, engineers, and physicists.
Valdes-Sosa: And everybody agreed that microwaves were impossible. Sound was impossible. There was no known source. Now the problem is that, if you look at all the energy sources, sound so loud to harm somebody, you first would have the destroy all the ear — everybody had their ears intact, but they could have a little hearing problem — to damage the brain. Second, microwaves — you had to burn the skin to get to the brain. Third, ultrasound. Right? You’d have to place the probe next to the person. If a sound is very widespread, you can’t focus it. So we looked at each and every one of the sources, and it didn’t fit into what was described. But the diplomats were saying, “I was in a room, and I was targeted specifically from outside the room.” But it’s not possible with any energy source we know of.
Valdes-Sosa and his team published their findings in 2021.
Valdes-Sosa: Saying that we believe that the whole narrative was false, because it’s impossible. Then, the conclusion reaches, there’s no real basis to this whole narrative of the “Havana Syndrome.”
The report fell on deaf ears, he says, largely due to the strained political relationship between Cuba and the U.S.
Then, last March, a U.S. intelligence community assessment of cases in over 90 countries admitted there was no evidence to support the theory that “Havana Syndrome” was caused by some sort of secret weapon.
PBS NewsHour newsclip: Today the intelligence community has assessed it was likely not the work of a foreign adversary.
Valdes-Sosa: I’m willing to take the leap if there’s evidence of another source saying, “This needs an explanation.” But the question is, “What needs explanation?” Because if there’s no brain damage, if there’s no hearing loss, if there’s no new syndrome, if there’s no evidence of any perpetrator, then why do I have to search for a mysterious— and make that leap.
Sharyl (on-camera): In 2021, by the way, Congress passed a law offering victims $180,000 each.
Watch video here.
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First off. Did the victims GET that $180,000 that was passed in the law. I missed that.
Second. I am on board with all the lies about Covid. Lab leak. 6 feet separation. Vaccine problems. I think the Gov did itself enormous damage with Fauci running things. (Which is why I think Trump is a bad choice as nominee this time. Get someone who would have not given Fauci all that power to cover up his own crimes.)
Having said that. Since Havana Syndrome is proven to not have any basis, it makes me wonder about all the fuss over Long Covid. I think we read the symptoms and start to think we have it ourselves.
I know I blame all my health problems on Covid even though it’s likely they are just due to normal ageing.
There are many frequencies that can affect the human body in different ways. There is no scientific study to determine which frequency or frequencies may affect the body and in which way. The range is so great it would take years to evaluate each and every one out to a 2-3-4 decimal point. Hard to believe so many people were affected with no medical conclusions(s)?
Was Congress on a guilt trip, giving away that money?
I don’t understand this article. To me it seems that we are relying on a foreign adversary to be truthful with us.
Everyone admits (the foreign source and the victims) that the apparent weapon used was either a completely new innovation or was based on already known science.
But then the foreign source (Dr. Valdes-Sousa, representing an adversary of ours, ie the Cuban government) bases his conclusion that a new weapon is unlikely by using evidence of what is already known in his analyzing.
But, if this was indeed a new weapon, then that would mean that the analyses he uses are flawed.
It’s a bit like saying “airplanes can’t fly because they are heavier than air”, so, therefore, airplanes can not indeed fly.
The problem with this guy is he is ignorant. He says a microwave would burn the skin. It shows he doesn’t understand what a microwave is. He acts like it is one wavelength, and it is always the exact same penetration. a wavelength of 30cm will be much different from a wavelength of one mm. And IMO, this is not microwaves.
Havana Syndrome is being done by the hidden, private sector intel op, funded by old money elites, which is taking over the US. Sharyl thinks it was DOJ who targeted her, but it was really that thing’s assets in DOJ.
Why is it Sharyl has not covered Bill Binney’s last interview with Bill Still? Binney cannot leave his basement, after that intel op blew holes through steel shielding he installed using a directed energy weapon which I myself have seen employed, and which I believe, applied differently, may cause Havana. It appears to somehow impart a charge to materials, before somehow blowing a focused EM field through the area, which dumps its energy into inductively moving the charged materials at the site.
Dos anybody really think this thing is hitting Trump staffers on White House grounds, and it is not targeting a myriad of other Americans? I have like fifteen or twenty people on my website which are all under this.