Listen to Havana Syndrome now on Apple Podcasts. One of the medals provided to VICE commends the anonymous officer for his “selfless service despite being targeted by unknown forces and subjected to unprecedented damaging attacks.” Austria and the US said Saturday they were investigating reports of US diplomats and other officials in Vienna falling sick with health problems similar to the so-called Havana syndrome. In the podcast, we reveal that after months of allegedly ignoring or downplaying the plight of its officers in Havana, the CIA changed course and suddenly gave the former officers a secret award. In response to the suspected outbreak of Havana Syndrome in Vienna, the CIA fired its local station chief for not taking the situation seriously enough. The CIA declined to comment on the record regarding what happened in the Austrian capital.īut former CIA officers we spoke with expressed the view that the agency still hasn’t done enough to support them. This was now the largest cluster of cases outside of Cuba, in a city famous for being a hotbed of spy activity since the Cold War. In July 2021, Havana Syndrome co-host Entous broke the news in the New Yorker that nearly two dozen cases of Havana Syndrome-like symptoms had been reported by spies and diplomats in Vienna, Austria. The doctor was initially charged with investigating the cases in Havana beginning in late 2016, before he himself came down with those same symptoms while visiting the city.Īt the US embassy in Moscow, “we had set up several secure rooms that were insulated against the three ways you can get information out,” former US ambassador to Russia Jack Matlock told us. They're just acting like a bunch of little girls, they need to man up, this is just stress,” said a former CIA doctor who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to speak on the record. Austria said on Saturday it was working with US authorities to investigate reports of diplomats and other officials falling sick with health problems similar to the so-called Havana syndrome. ![]() “I had colleagues who … immediately said, oh, this is crazy. The State Department wasn’t the only agency accused of ignoring or discrediting victims in the early days of the crisis. Shortly thereafter, Lenzi sent an angry email to almost 200 of his colleagues, as well as State Department leadership in Beijing and Washington, accusing US officials of “an attempted cover-up.” The State Department told us in an email, “Due to privacy concerns and for security reasons, we do not discuss specific individuals or events.” Lenzi said consulate leadership stonewalled him. Lenzi told us that before he was medically evacuated from Guangzhou, he confronted his bosses at the State Department, questioning why they had continued to house his family in the same building where his neighbour had gotten sick. Particularly alarming are revelations of at least two possible incidents in the Washington area, including one case near the White House in November in which an official reported dizziness.Īlthough some are convinced the injuries are the result of directed energy attacks, others believe the growing number of cases could actually be linked to “mass psychogenic illness,” in which people learning of others with symptoms begin to feel sick themselves.Even though reported Havana Syndrome cases spiked around the world, US officials back in Washington DC hesitated to devote resources to solving the mystery. ![]() Some have reported hearing a loud noise before the sudden onset of symptoms. People who are believed to have been affected have reported headaches, dizziness and symptoms consistent with concussions, with some requiring months of medical treatment. In May, officials said at least 130 cases across the government are were under investigation, up from several dozen last year. The problem has been labeled the “Havana Syndrome,” because the first cases affected personnel in 2016 at the U.S. negotiating team were among those suffering from injuries. Those talks are now in hiatus and it was not immediately clear if any members of the U.S. The city is currently the site of indirect talks between Iran and the United States over salvaging the nuclear deal that was negotiated there in 2015. Vienna has for centuries been a center for espionage and diplomacy and was a hub for clandestine spy-versus-spy activity during the Cold War. The Vienna cases were first reported Friday by The New Yorker magazine. The Vienna-based employees have reported suffering from mysterious symptoms since President Joe Biden was inaugurated, according to the officials. However, despite years of study there is no consensus as to what or who might be behind the incidents or whether they are, in fact, attacks. ![]() Some believe the unexplained injuries, which include brain damage, are the result of attacks with microwave or radio wave weapons.
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