A leaked letter purportedly written by a senior US navy official and printed on social media on Monday highlights stark contradictions within the authorities’s method to victims of Havana syndrome – a mysterious sequence of well being incidents affecting personnel at embassies and consulates abroad.
The letter, dated 24 March 2024 and signed by air pressure Brig Gen Shannon O’Harren, reassures victims of the “anomalous well being incidents” (AHIs) that the protection division believed that their experiences and signs have been actual whereas promising them high quality healthcare that by no means got here.
It was posted on X by the Canadian investigative journalist Catherine Herridge three days after a declassified Senate report into AHIs revealed that one other authorities entity, the Central Intelligence Company (CIA), mishandled and downplayed the incidents, which occurred in Cuba, China and a lot of European nations.
These affected suffered complications, dizziness and cognitive points, typically accompanied by uncommon sensory experiences.
“We imagine your experiences are actual, and we’re unwaveringly dedicated to proceed to supply high quality look after you and those that are eligible,” O’Harren, assigned to the protection division’s AHI cross-functional crew, wrote.
“Relaxation assured, we’re persevering with our efforts … to research the reason for AHIs, to look at experiences and research totally, and to look after and deal with you with respect and compassion via this course of.”
O’Harren reportedly wrote the letter, addressed “Expensive Colleagues”, following two Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH) research printed in March that mentioned victims didn’t present discernible bodily harm or alteration.
Individually, intelligence businesses decided no international adversary was prone to have been concerned – and distanced themselves from experiences linking the incidents to moveable microwave weapons developed by Russia and China.
The Senate report revealed that the “high quality care” promised by O’Harren didn’t occur. Almost 100 CIA-affiliated people who reported signs confronted “delayed, denied or pre-conditioned care” and struggled to entry advantages, the report mentioned.
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General, it concluded that the CIA’s response to the incidents, experiences of which originated in Havana in 2016 and unfold rapidly to US diplomatic services in quite a few different nations, was flawed and inconsistent.
Greater than 1,500 episodes of Havana syndrome have been reported globally, however victims looking for remedy or different assist have been routinely denied or their functions challenged. Purposes by CIA workers for staff compensation have been authorised at a fee of 21%, in contrast with 67% for different departments that didn’t contest claims so aggressively, the report famous.
The Guardian has been unable to independently confirm the authenticity of the O’Harren letter, and the protection division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Herridge, a contract veteran investigative reporter beforehand employed by Fox Information and CBS Information, didn’t reveal how she obtained the letter.
A separate submit by Herridge on Monday featured an interview with a former intelligence officer who described struggling career-ending accidents and who accused the federal government of “gaslighting” the American public over Havana syndrome.
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