Once Upon a Time in Havana

Get Outta My Head 

So, what is Havana Syndrome?

While it’s (thankfully) not a highly contagious virus taking over the world, the condition has been apprehensively referred to as “unexplained health incidents” (as said by The U.S. Department of State) or even more terrifying — "attacks" (as said by the director of the CIA). And, not surprisingly, the symptoms are just as disturbing.
 
Sufferers often report that the first indicator is waves of pressure to the head or the abrupt emergence of a loud sound, which can't be heard by other people. The sound is compared to cicadas or even a grating noise, and follows a person while they're indoors — only ceasing when an outside door is opened.
 
Headaches, nausea, and hearing and memory loss sometimes follow. A number of patients experienced lasting effects, including a diplomat who now requires a hearing aid.
 
One especially notable experience was Aubrey Lee’s. On March 17, 2017, the career Foreign Services officer was washing dishes at home when she was suddenly bombarded by a burst of pressure in her head, followed by a stabbing pain that was worse than anything she’d ever felt.
 
The initial symptoms left her in a panic because she’d heard rumours of her colleagues falling ill to “sonic attacks.” By morning, she struggled to read, felt dizzy, lost her balance, and even stumbled into things. The after-effects lasted weeks, and she continued to feel like she was moving while standing still and struggled to sleep more than one or two hours a night.
 
Patients in Cuba partook in a study, which revealed the victims had experienced a form of brain injury similar to concussions seen in soldiers who were struck by roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan —  only with no external impact or other markers to explain how the trauma occurred.
 
The examination team at the University of Pennsylvania was led by neurosurgeon Dr. Douglas Smith, who said, “None of us have ever encountered anything like this before.” There’s no official consensus on how or why this condition occurs, but there are plenty of theories.

Havana Bad Time 

The American embassy in Havana is a six-storey tower that was built in 1953 and neglected after closing in 1961, when diplomatic relations between the two countries were suspended.
 
In March 2016, then-President Barack Obama visited Havana to celebrate the reparation of relations that had occurred back in 2015. Obama was quoted saying he had “come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas,” after over half a century of hostility with Cuba.
 
Following this, Obama and Raúl Castro (Cuba's former president) agreed to reopen their embassies and repair their relationship — which had been broken when Fidel Castro seized power. Reopening the embassy would generate opportunities for the CIA to expand its efforts where Russia and China were increasingly influential, so naturally, American officials requested an ease in restrictions for how many U.S. diplomatic personnel were permitted to work in the country.
 
Cuba resisted, fearing exactly that: a larger number of staff would allow for more opportunities to bring in spies and human rights officers who may work alongside dissidents. Additionally, Republicans in American Congress opposed re-establishing a relationship, so they blocked funding for the positions, resulting in only 54 of the agreed upon spots being filled.
 
The distrust continued as American officials worried that anything purchased in Cuba could contain surveillance devices, so they had everything shipped in — even the furniture. All that effort went to waste, as less than two years after reopening, the embassy almost shutdown when Havana Syndrome struck and staff were retracted for their own safety.
 
Initially, staff at the embassy assumed they were being targeted by the Cuban government (or a faction in opposition to the reparation of relations), but as cases spread worldwide, that theory dissipated.
 
Russia, on the other hand, is still a leading suspect in the attacks, with senior officials of the Trump and Biden administrations allegedly in agreement. Evidence from communication intercepts compiled during the ongoing investigation by the FBI, CIA, and other agencies back this theory — but there's not enough meat to form a conclusion.
 
Due to the lack of hard evidence, a growing trail of bread crumbs is refocusing all eyes on the most likely culprit: microwaves.

Weaponized Kitchen Appliances 

Most experts were baffled by the attacks, but James Lin, a professor at the University of Illinois, had experienced a similar phenomenon decades prior. He had heard the noises Havana Syndrome sufferers described for himself, and he wasn’t the first scientist to take notice of the phenomenon, either.
 
During the Second World War, official personnel reported hearing noises inside their heads, which only started when a radar was turned on nearby and began sending microwaves skywards.
 
Subsequently, Dr. Allan H. Frey put the "Frey effect” (also known as the "microwave hearing effect") up for public knowledge in 1961, when he published a paper arguing the nature of these sounds. He believed that microwaves have a strange interaction with the human nervous system, however, the cause remained unclear.
 
This research supported Professor Lin’s experiments, which he began conducting at the University of Washington after he heard of the first reports. In a controlled environment, he allowed a colleague to shoot microwave pulses at his head at random. Whenever Lin heard a sound, he pressed a switch.
 
Results showed that a single pulse sounds like a zip, while a series of pulses sounds like a bird chirping, and he determined that the sounds were produced from within his head. He theorized the soft tissues of the brain were absorbing the energy and converting it to a pressure wave inside the head, which the brain then interpreted as a sound. He also concluded that high-powered, pulsed microwaves were the source of the sounds, rather than the low-power continuous waves that come from modern microwaves.
 
A number of papers have been published in favour of the theory, including one by the National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine, which deduced that specifically directed and pulsed RF energy could be to blame. A co-author of the JAMA study is also in agreement, though U.S. intelligence is still unsure.
 
The speculation around directed-energy weapons has further raised eyebrows in the direction of Moscow, with worries that history is repeating itself. (If you didn’t know, a medical study has proven that beams of microwaves were aimed at the U.S. embassy in Moscow during the Cold War.)

Blood Tells No Lies 

As quickly as trails run cold, new ones are found. Evidence continues to trickle in, especially now that data is being collected and analyzed more systematically.

Just this year, blood markers were found in victims, indicating a brain injury. These markers disappear over time, and previously, testing was not done soon enough. But with new policies in place, medical experts are able to assess patients much more quickly and therefore find more answers.
 
Today marks five years since the first attacks, and uncovering the truth behind the inexplicable Havana Syndrome has become a top national security priority — and potentially the most difficult challenge U.S. officials have had to face yet.