“Havana Syndrome”: The new study links Russia to the disease affecting American diplomats (Cuba responds with rejection)

“CBS’s 60 Minutes presented a new definition of ‘evidence’: unconfirmed guesses, conjectures and wild stories, with many adjectives,” Cuba’s deputy foreign minister wrote in English. Carlos Fernandez de Cosioon his account X, previously Twitter.

On the same platform, Johanna Tablada de la Torre, Deputy Director of the United States Department of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stressed that it is “an operation of disinformation, pure garbage, and does not even deserve an Oscar as a fictional short film.” . “An insult to the people and the truth”

For his part, the Kremlin spokesman said: Dmitry PeskovHe pointed out: “No one has published or expressed any convincing evidence of these baseless accusations anywhere. They are all nothing more than mere Unfounded accusations“.

Earlier, US officials said it was unlikely that a foreign power was responsible.

However, in the evaluation that was delivered last year “Unusual health incidents”No alternative explanation emerged, which generated frustration among those affected.

US agents acknowledged varying levels of confidence in the assessment of the various intelligence agencies involved.

The disease bears this name because it was… Havana The first case was discovered in 2016, although the new report indicates that the first cases may have occurred in Germany two years earlier.

Other cases have been reported around the world, from Washington to China.

More than a thousand reports have been made of this mysterious disease and dozens of cases are still officially considered unexplained. Amid the investigations, US lawmakers passed laws to support victims.

study National Institutes of Health (NIH) In the US, published last month, noted that an MRI revealed no evidence of this Brain injuries In dozens of people who reported experiencing “unnatural health incidents.”

It has long been suspected that those affected were beaten Directed energy or microwaves released from hidden devicesThis is a possibility that was recorded in a report by the American intelligence services in February 2022.

The new media investigation indicates that members of a specific Russian military intelligence unit, known as 29155The brains of American diplomats may have been targeted with “directed energy” weapons.

The media confirms that there is evidence of the presence of members of the unit in cities where American personnel reported symptoms of the disease.

The secret unit carries out operations abroad and has been linked to several incidents, including an attempted poisoning of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal In the United Kingdom in 2018.

As part of the investigation, he called the specialized Russian website The insider It was reported that an officer from Unit 29155 was rewarded for his work related to development “Non-lethal sonic weapons”.

Greg EdgrenA US military investigator who studies cases of the syndrome told the 60 Minutes television program that the common denominator among victims of the syndrome is “connection to Russia.”

“They worked against Russia, focused on it and did it very well,” he explained.

He also warned that the standards used by the United States to prove Russian involvement were too high because the country did not want to “face some very difficult facts.”

One FBI agent who was a victim of the syndrome said 60 minutes Her experience of feeling like she was hit by a powerful force at her Florida home in 2021.

“Bam, inside my right ear“It was like a dentist drilling but with a lot more force,” he told the programme. “That feeling when you get too close to eardrum? It's like this, multiplied by 10.”

The woman, known as Carrie, said she eventually lost consciousness and then suffered problems with memory and concentration.

In response to the report, US authorities told BBC partner CBS News that they would “continue to closely examine anomalous health incidents” but insisted that it was “unlikely that a foreign adversary was responsible.”

“We do not question the real experiences and symptoms reported by our colleagues and their families,” they said, reiterating that investigating incidents is a priority.