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May 22, 2024 05:22
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- Jon Pod Van Damm
- Apr 6, 2009
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THE POSSESSION OF WEALTH IS IN AND OF ITSELF A SIGN OF POOR VIRTUE. AS SUCH:
1 NEVER TRUST ANY RICH PERSON.
2 NEVER HIRE ANY RICH PERSON.
BY RULE 1, IT IS APPROPRIATE TO PRESUME THAT ALL DEGREES AND CREDENTIALS HELD BY A WEALTHY PERSON ARE FRAUDULENT. THIS JUSTIFIES RULE 2--RULE 1 NEEDS NO JUSTIFIC
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Havana syndrome ain't going away!
quote:
https :// www . vice. com/en/article/m7gyxq/havana-syndrome-podcast
A new investigative podcast from VICE World News uncovers deeply held secrets about the world of global espionage.
by Jon Lee Anderson
The Russian Embassy in Havana, Cuba, February 2022. Photo: Ramon Campos Iriarte
HAVANA – For some, it began as a loud noise, like the sound of grinding metal. Others heard something that sounded more like a giant swarm of cicadas. Then, the intense pressure to their ears and head kicked in, which caused headaches, nausea and vertigo. If the person experiencing this bizarre affliction tried to move – to “get off the x” – the noise and pressure would suddenly cease. But the physical symptoms would linger for days, and in some cases, years.
The series of incidents described above were first reported in Havana, Cuba in late 2016 by US spies and diplomats stationed there. Doctors who initially treated these patients could not come up with a diagnosis for the symptoms many continued to suffer from. Some just called it “The Thing.”
In the years since, reported incidents have spread beyond Havana, to places like Vienna, London, Moscow and even in the vicinity of the White House. The medical community remains baffled by what “The Thing” is. Some question whether it is real at all, and have suggested it might be a case of widespread psychogenic illness – also known as hysteria.
quote:
Doctors who initially treated these patients could not come up with a diagnosis for the symptoms many continued to suffer from. Some just called it “The Thing.”
In late 2018, my colleague Adam Entous and I teamed up to find out exactly what happened to these spies and diplomats. The resulting New Yorker piece – “The Mystery of the Havana Syndrome” – uncovered many new details about incidents, as well as the timeline of events that led up to the initial reports in Cuba. But years later, we – along with the rest of the world – are still asking: what is Havana Syndrome? Is it real? And if it is real, who – or what – is causing it? And perhaps the most frustrating question of all: why is it taking the US government so long to solve it?
Our new podcast Havana Syndrome aims to answer those questions.
Reporters Jon Lee Anderson and Adam Entous, the hosts of the new podcast Havana Syndrome. Photos: Ramon Campos Iriarte
In following the trail of clues, we uncovered some deeply-held secrets about the world of global espionage that could provide the key to finally solving the mystery.
In our reporting, we traveled to Havana to visit the scene of several early incidents; we visited London where two White House staffers reported Havana Syndrome symptoms in a hotel located just blocks from Buckingham Palace; we paid a visit to Vienna, where the second largest outbreak of reported Havana Syndrome cases led to the dismissal of the local CIA station chief; and we retraced the steps of a national security official who reported an incident within shouting distance of the Oval Office.
The home of Patient Zero in Havana, Cuba, February 2022. Photo: Ramon Campos Iriarte
In 2013, an idealistic young speechwriter for President Barack Obama named Ben Rhodes set out to change the course of history, engaging in secret talks with the communist government of Cuba to mend fences between the two countries. In December 2014, he accomplished this goal when President Obama and President Raúl Castro jointly announced the restoration of relations between the United States and Cuba for the first time in 50 years. “It was the highpoint of my life,” Rhodes told us. “My daughter was born on December 11th, and this was December 17th.”
But Rhodes’s success also provided new opportunities for US spies. “Once you have that up close and personal access,” then-CIA Director John Brennan told us in a surprisingly candid interview, “it affords you new opportunities as far as your intelligence objectives are concerned.” In other words: the CIA saw the historic "rapprochement" as an opening to conduct more successful espionage in Cuba, a country with a reputation for being among the most difficult in the world for foreign spies to penetrate.
A former CIA officer named Tony – a pseudonym for security reasons – stationed undercover in Havana spoke exclusively to us for the podcast. He said Cuban intelligence would regularly place guards outside his home and used camera surveillance to track his every movement. Sometimes, they’d even come into his home. “They'd defecate in your house, cut your internet lines, they would drain your water cisterns. They'd flatten your tires or do some sort of damage to your car.”
In late December 2016, Tony experienced what he believed to be a new form of harassment. “This loud sound just blasted into my bedroom,” he explained. “And then the severe, severe ear pain started.”
Tony rolled off his bed to get away from the sound and pressure. But shortly thereafter, he began experiencing bizarre symptoms including headaches, nosebleeds and dizziness. Other CIA officers, as well as diplomats in the US embassy, reported similar incidents and health problems. Initially the US government suspected that the Cubans were somehow involved in causing these health problems or knew about them. They reached out to the Cuban leadership to seek answers. President Castro himself denied any involvement.
quote:
“This loud sound just blasted into my bedroom. And then the severe, severe ear pain started.”
In August 2017, Tony, Tina and their affected colleagues were flown to the US and secretly taken to a medical facility at the University of Pennsylvania for treatment. The team there concluded that their ailments were in fact real – likely not the result of any mass psychogenic illness – and that the victims must have suffered from a form of traumatic brain injury, similar to a concussion. But what could cause a concussion without leaving behind any physical evidence? That remains unknown.
But to Tony, the swiftness with which his physical condition devolved after that incident remains baffling. “I was at the top physical, psychological, emotional place I could have ever been in my life,” he told us. “I was just a force to be reckoned with and I was gung ho to do my job. And within six months, I was a zombie and nonfunctional as a human being.”
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Today we are sharing an episode from one of our newest series – Havana Syndrome. In 2016, a mysterious, debilitating illness begins to afflict American diplomats and spies working abroad – first in Cuba, and then around the world. Victims report crippling neurological symptoms. Some describe the feeling of being hit by an invisible, directed pressure while they were stationed on government property, or sometimes standing in their own homes or hotel rooms. Is this bizarre illness the result of a weapon? Is it mass psychosis? Or something else entirely?
Award-winning journalists Jon Lee Anderson and Adam Entous take listeners to the heart of this saga in Havana Syndrome, a new podcast from VICE World News. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Havana Syndrome is hosted and reported by Jon Lee Anderson and Adam Entous, and produced and reported by Julia Nutter, Jesse Alejandro Cotrell and Ramon Campos Iriarte. Edited and executive produced by Annie Aviles and Kate Osborn. Original composition and sound design by Steve Bone. Production support from Pran Bandi.
Janet Lee is Senior Production Manager for VICE Audio. Fact Checking by Nicole Pasulka. Charles Raggio is the head of VICE Audio.
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Transcript
Episode 8. Deny Everything, Admit Nothing (final episode)
37:26
Jon Lee Anderson:
As for the cases that happened after Havana well if Russia had the technology and it had worked in Havana why not take it on the road especially if your goal in life is to gently caress with the U.S. At that point it's not even about going after specific CIA officers it's about messing with our heads anywhere they can.
Adam Entous:
I hear what you are saying Jon Lee but I really think we need to stick with the facts and there are just that many of them. What do we know. We know we have a a bunch of people who say they've been hurt but the CIA hasn't been able to find any communications intercepts in which officials in Russia or Cuba talk about what they did and I want to be honest I think it's very strange that they haven't been able to collect anything like that. I think the events in Ukraine raise further doubts about assumptions that the Russians could be so disciplined. Look at the way the Russians have been operating in Ukraine, they are so sloppy and yet we are supposed to believe that they were able to disguise these activities for so long against our, against our CIA personnel around the world.
The CIA also told us that they are continuing to rigorously investigate the causes of the incident but they added that quote we have not so far developed credible intelligence linking a foreign state actor or weapon to any incident. The CIA's investigation into Havana Syndrome hasn't stopped. Just a few months ago I spoke to a source with deep knowledge of what the CIA has been able to turn up. And a couple of things they said stood out to me.
One they confirmed a rumor I've heard that in some suspected Havana Syndrome cases the cause was probably a technical failure. Some of those secure skiffs had faulty HVAC systems which increase pressure inside the skiff and that caused some people to hear a sound, have ear pain and get dizzy. So for at least these cases it wasn't a secret weapon it was an equipment malfunction.
The other thing I learned that even though the government has narrowed down the list of potential cases there are about two dozen that they still can't explain and some of those cases are in fact outside of Havana meaning Havana Syndrome remains a global mystery. On top of that we have learned about a number of incidents that happened in the 80's and 90's that have peaked the interest of various U.S. government agencies. I know that investigators have spoken to some of the people involved to see if there might be a connection but in other cases that I know of these investigations have been strangely passive. One patient offered to give the government audio recordings that he took immediately after his incident but the government for reasons I don't understand won't even take them.
Jon Lee Anderson:
Looking at how much we have learned I think back to something else Dr. Andrew told us.
Dr Andrew:
Someone else made the prescient comment of this gonna be like Moscow Microwaves and we don't have time to deal with this.
Adam Entous:
Meaning meaning an investigation that actually goes anywhere never reaches a conclusion.
I don't know what they meant frankly. I think maybe it was just a matter of time and manpower drain. They were extremely busy they were always understaffed. I think they genuinely believe that this was not likely a real thing and that they just didn't have time to deal with this and needed to nip it in the bud as they said.
<mysterious music begins playing>
Jon Lee Anderson:
I think it's pretty safe to say that Havana Syndrome is not an isolated incident and I also think it's likely that there are some U.S. government officials who are aware of this but have chosen to remain silent.
Adam Entous:
Maybe but I'm not going to sign on to that claim.
<60's lounge spy music begins playing>
A source once told me something that really stuck in my mind. Intelligence is an imperfect science, it's what you know, and it can change in the blink of an eye.
Jon Lee Anderson:
To me despite the Americans going back in to Cuba the Havana Syndrome has already been incredibly effective for whomever unleashed it. As a tactic or a covert weapon it's brilliant, leaves no hard trace, has a major physical and psychological impact and even if there are only a handful of quote unquote true cases its caused a far and wide ripple effect. Freaked out US officials. All they had to do it seems was hit us in a few key places from there the alarm that it caused did much of the rest of the work. Like maybe this is a both and situation meaning yes our people were hit with something and also there are some cases that were psychogenic.
If I was foreign adversary behind this I would be pretty satisfied. This worked out pretty drat well for them. To top it all off our officials have been left relatively defenseless without a smoking gun we can't come out and declare war on anyone and we kind of look like wimps complaining of some mysterious ailment that there is no hard evidence for it except for the symptoms and we haven't even come out and said as much. So we're basically sitting ducks waiting for the next Havana Syndrome.
<60's lounge spy music continues playing>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3QnpyRKZpM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8mwCrHuHYA
quote:
Part 2
12:40
<ominous mysterious music>
Alyssa Farah Griffin:
When it happened at the White House it really occurred to me that this could be a threat.
I was working in the White House communications director office which is a small office of the west wing. It faces out over Lafayette Park. I remember thinking great it's happening again.
Dr Sanjay Gupta:
Alyssa Farah Griffin has quickly become one of the best known faces in republican politics. Having served in prominent communication roles at the White House and the Pentagon during the Trump administration. But behind the scenes starting in 2016 Alyssa found herself on the job privately struggling with concerning health episodes which she is now sharing publicly for the first time.
Alyssa Farah Griffin:
I remember telling my mom and this was my dream job I said I don't think I can stand this job because I can not go to work and risk feeling like this and being in severe disorienting discomfort.
Dr Sanjay Gupta:
It first began in her highly secured office in the Pentagon where Farah Griffin says on multiple occasions she experienced a sudden onset of symptoms much like the health incidents years earlier in Havana.
Alyssa Farah Griffin:
To describe it as deeply uncomfortable is an understatement. Severe sinus pressure, as well as like pressure in my ears and then pain and then kind of a steady often humming sound. I chalked it up initially to an allergy but as it consistently went on and my ability to do my job was impacted by it I did eventually raise it up. Nobody said oh yeah this is Havana Syndrome because it is unclear and it remains unclear but there was something that was happening that was a medical issue that was altering my ability to do my job.
Dr Sanjay Gupta:
After receiving an otherwise clean bill of health from her personal doctor in the spring of 2020 Farah Griffin left the Pentagon to take on a new role at the White House where she says one day to her surprise while sitting at her desk just feet away from the oval office it happened again.
Alyssa Farah Griffin:
It hit me like a wave where I just immediately felt disoriented and dizzy and it lasted about 30 minutes. It was just striking. I remember I went home that night and I said to my husband this is scary this happened again I don't understand what's going on.
Dr Sanjay Gupta:
That seems really frightening to me as a citizen.
Jon Pod Van Damm has issued a correction as of 23:32 on Jan 25, 2023
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Jan 25, 2023 23:22
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Oct 21, 2021 18:13
