State Department officials are “deploying technology” to diplomatic posts around the world to detect the origin of mysterious ailments known as “Havana Syndrome” amid congressional complaints that the health incidents are not being taken seriously enough by the administration.
“We’re developing, obtaining, and deploying technology to the field to protect our personnel,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday. “New technology is helping us more quickly and thoroughly evaluate a variety of potential causes of these incidents, and we’ve distributed it across posts so that we can respond rapidly to new reports.”
Blinken was at pains to demonstrate that State Department leaders regard “Havana Syndrome” as a real phenomenon. The mysterious rash of apparent brain injuries afflicting U.S. personnel, first detected in Cuba, has been attributed variously to causes as wide-ranging as a novel weapon deployed by a foreign adversary or merely crickets — and the nature of the reported symptoms complicated initial efforts even to describe the ailments.
“People have been profoundly, profoundly affected by this,” Blinken told reporters in an unscripted exchange after his prepared remarks. “And when you sit down with our people and hear what’s happened to them, how they’ve been affected, it’s very, very powerful.”
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That message in recent weeks has been greeted with skepticism on Capitol Hill, where a bipartisan bloc of senators have faulted the State Department for being “insufficiently engaged in interagency efforts to find the cause of these attacks, identify those responsible, and develop a plan to hold them accountable.” Some of the lawmakers have spoken openly about their suspicion that Russia might have the capability to carry out such attacks.
“We know there are several states that have this kind of technology,” New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Foreign Relations Committee Democrat, said last month. “Russia certainly is one of the countries that … [has] had the technology, probably longer than anybody, maybe even longer than the United States. And so, figuring out who else has it and whether they have the global reach to be able to do these kinds of attacks is another piece of what we have got to look into.”
Blinken touted the appointment of two senior State Department officials who are tasked with investigating reports of health incidents and coordinating care for the individuals with persistent symptoms.
“The task force and I believe and respect those who come forward in reporting incidents and will be relentless in our efforts to provide them the care that they need, just as we take measures to educate and protect our broader workforce,” Ambassador Jonathan Moore, the newly appointed head of the Health Incident Response Task Force, said Friday in an appearance alongside Blinken. “Sir, to reiterate your message, I want to underscore that every report will be taken seriously by me, our health and security professionals, and the leadership of the department.”
Blinken’s team added that the department has “taken a number of important steps, none of which we can detail publicly, to protect our personnel,” according to a separate fact sheet.
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“We will do absolutely everything we can, leaving no stone unturned, to stop these occurrences as swiftly as possible,” Blinken said. “And while I can’t go into all the ways we’re doing that, I want to assure you that we’re pursuing every possible lead and sparing no resources, including when it comes to protecting personnel around the world.”
