Tell me about the Havana Syndrome...

Where it started: Back in late 2016, US officials in Havana began reporting a variety of strange symptoms:

“They described hearing harsh mechanical sounds and/or experiencing uncomfortable pressure, like the sensation of driving fast in a car with one window partially down. Some sufferers have said that when the symptoms first emerged, it felt like they were being hit with a beam of energy. Vertigo, vision problems, and difficulty concentrating have also been reported. Hearing loss followed the auditory symptoms for some of the diplomats and agents, with some cases intense enough that employees were forced to end their tours early and return to the US for study and outpatient treatment.”

The damage: The attacks temporarily debilitate a person—making them incapable of functioning. But the long term effects of the syndrome vary widely. Some report only temporary symptoms while others continue to struggle with constant headaches, insomnia and hearing problems. And in some cases, the effects are felt only in certain locations. US neurologists have used MRIs to look at the brains of 40 Havana Syndrome patients: 

“They found no signs of physical impact to the victims’ skulls—it was as if the victims had ‘a concussion without a concussion,’ one specialist told me—but the team found signs consistent with damage to the patients’ brains: the volume of white matter was smaller than in a similar group of healthy adults, which indicated that something structural in the brain had been affected.”

But the tissue damage was consistent with that caused by a bomb blast or car accident. 

Where it spread: 

• Ever since, around 200 State, CIA and Defense officials have reported similar symptoms around the world—including Russia, Poland, Austria, Georgia, Taiwan, Colombia, China, Kyrgyzstan, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan. 
• There has even been a reported case in the United States—where a National Security Council member was targeted just outside the White House. At least four Trump officials have reported similar symptoms. 
• And around mid-August, two US officials in Berlin complained of similar symptoms—the first in a NATO country. The doctors diagnosed a brain injury usually seen in people exposed to shockwaves from explosions.
• Most recently, Vice President Kamala Harris’ flight to Vietnam was delayed by three hours by a report of a “recent possible anomalous health incident”—which is the language used by the US government to describe a case of the Havana Syndrome.
• The worst hit is Vienna where two dozen US intelligence officers, diplomats and other government officials have reported symptoms.

And what’s causing this?

For the longest time, the cause remained a complete mystery—and the symptoms were initially brushed aside as psychosomatic illnesses. Then officials settled on sonic weapons (using ultrasound) as a likely source, but that theory too was discarded “because sound waves at frequencies outside of the range of human hearing cannot cause concussion-like symptoms.” US officials finally commissioned the National Academies of Sciences to investigate the syndrome.

The report: was released in December, and did not establish a definite cause. But it said the following: “The committee felt that many of the distinctive and acute signs, symptoms and observations reported by employees are consistent with the effects of directed, pulsed radio frequency (RF) energy”—which are also used in microwaves. The report pointed out that microwave beams could alter brain function without causing “gross structural damage.” It also noted that there had been “significant research” in Russia/USSR into the use of such weapons. 

Point to note: The investigation essentially eliminated other possible causes—virus, poison, mass hysteria—and settled on the most likely: “We looked at possible mechanisms and found that one was more plausible than the others and entirely consistent with some of the most distinct clinical findings.”

The chief suspect: Russia though there is no definitive proof: 

“Their working hypothesis is that agents of the GRU, the Russian military’s intelligence service, have been aiming microwave-radiation devices at US officials to collect intelligence from their computers and cell phones, and that these devices can cause serious harm to the people they target.”

What’s the India connection?

Back in November, Jin Canrong—a professor of international relations at a Beijing university—made global headlines for claiming that China had used microwave weapons to force Indian troops to retreat in Ladakh: 

• He said that their military had aimed the weapon from the bottom of two strategic hilltops—turning each into “a microwave oven.” 
• Jin said: “In 15 minutes, those occupying the hilltops all began to vomit. They couldn’t stand up, so they fled. This was how we retook the ground.” 
• The reason for using such a weapon: to duck the mutually agreed no-shooting rule on the India-China border. 
• In sum: “We didn’t publicise it because we solved the problem beautifully. They [India] didn’t publicise it, either, because they lost so miserably.”
• Point to note: The symptoms described by Jin sound remarkably similar to that of Havana Syndrome patients.

But, but, but: The Indian Army strongly denied the reports, tweeting: “Media articles on employment of microwave weapons in Eastern Ladakh are baseless. The news is FAKE.”

Are these microwave weapons for real?

Microwave weapons essentially “focus high frequency electro-magnetic pulses or beams at targets and cause irritation and pain by heating up any human tissue in its way.” And experts say such weapons could “focus energy on a small area, heating it a minute amount and causing ‘thermoelastic pressure wave’ that travels through the brain, causing damage to soft tissue.” They use microwave frequencies to disrupt brain function without any burning sensation—and without causing permanent damage. More importantly, it doesn’t need to be a big bulky weapon:

“You can certainly put together a system in a couple of big suitcases that will allow you to put it in a van or an SUV. It’s not something that you need to have enormous amounts of space or equipment to do it.”

Known experiments: According to Times UK, the US deployed a vehicle-mounted version called an Active Denial System in Afghanistan ten years ago—but it was withdrawn without being used in combat. Back in 2004, there was a prototype codenamed Medusa—designed to fit inside a car—but that has now been shelved. In 2014, a Chinese company unveiled the WB-1, a millimeter-wave weapon designed to heat water under your skin. Again, there is no actual evidence that it has been deployed by Beijing. 

OTOH: A number of leading experts have challenged the National Academies of Sciences report—which linked the Havana Syndrome to microwave weapons. First off, they dismissed the scenario as just plain silly: 

“The report does not make a coherent argument why microwaves should be involved… Maybe someone went to the trouble to truck in a large microwave transmitter to cause the employees to hear ‘clicks,’ but there are simpler ways to harass people than that.”

The other likely cause: a mass psychogenic illness: 

“This can occur when people in a group perceive the same symptoms, despite no external cause. Its supporters believe that there is no underlying disease, even though the symptoms are real and distressing.”

The stress of working in Cuba could have sparked the early cases, but it has now spread through the US diplomatic community. The NAS report could not eliminate this as a cause: “The hardest to set aside is the psychological, social explanation.”

Point to note: There are also many who question the feasibility of microwave weapons:

“Sceptics of the microwave weapon theory have pointed to decades of US efforts to build such a device during the cold war and since, without any confirmed success. They have also argued that a weapon capable of inflicting brain injury from a distance would be too unwieldy to use in urban areas.”

The bottomline: We don’t know if microwave weapons are real—what is scary is that given the world we live in, they very easily could be.

Reading list

New York magazine has the best overview of the Havana Syndrome. New Yorker looks at the long struggle within US intelligence circles to take it seriously—while Economist takes a more sceptical view. New York Times looks at the renewed focus on solving the mystery under the Biden administration. Times UK (paywall) has the most reporting on the use of Chinese microwave weapons in Ladakh—but for a non-paywall version, check out The Week’s curation of the reporting. The Guardian has a very good report on the feasibility of microwave weapons.