CNN: USA Managed to Acquire Secret Device That Causes Havana Syndrome

The USA has managed to acquire a device that may be the cause of a series of mysterious illnesses among American spies, diplomats, and military personnel, known as “Havana syndrome.”

CNN reported on this, citing four sources familiar with the matter.

The device, which can be placed in a backpack, generates pulsed radio waves. It is not entirely of Russian origin, but contains Russian components.

The Pentagon reportedly tested the device for over a year, purchased during a covert operation worth millions of dollars at the end of the Biden administration.

The device is still being studied. According to one source familiar with the device’s operation, the Americans have long struggled to figure out how to make a portable device powerful enough to cause the damage reported by some victims.

The acquisition of this device has reignited discussions within the US government about “Havana syndrome,” officially known as “anomalous health episodes.”

Havana syndrome

The mysterious illness first appeared in late 2016, when a group of American diplomats in the Cuban capital of Havana started reporting symptoms characteristic of head trauma, including dizziness and severe headaches. In the following years, cases of the mysterious illness were reported around the world.

Over the next decade, the US tried to determine whether these officials were victims of some kind of targeted energy attack by enemies.

At the same time, senior intelligence officials publicly stated that there was insufficient evidence to support such a conclusion, while the victims claimed that the US government had manipulated them and ignored important evidence that Russia had attacked American government officials.

“One of the key concerns for some officials now is that if the technology proves viable, it could spread, several sources said, meaning that more than one country could now have access to a device that could damage the careers of US officials,” CNN reported. It is also unclear how the US government learned of the device’s existence in order to purchase it.

In 2024, a joint investigation by CBS News, The Insider, and Der Spiegel discovered that Russian military intelligence may have been involved in a series of attacks on US intelligence officials and senior officials using a mysterious device.

Journalists noted that in many cases of “Havana syndrome” being recorded, strange individuals were seen near the victims, behaving unnaturally and in some cases with strong accents.