Back in 2016, the "Havana Syndrome" made dozens of Americans posted in Cuba feel woozy. They had vertigo, fatigue, headaches, and memory problems, and some had hearing loss. Some had to take early retirement. Later, American employees in China and other countries had the same affliction.
Right from the start, the Americans suspected the cause of "Havana Syndrome" was radio waves -- radiofrequency, as it's known -- deployed with malice by a hostile foreign government. Now a research study has made a near certainty of that suspicion. The attacks were made with carefully target radio waves - specifically microwaves.
Nineteen experts from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that “directed, pulsed radiofrequency energy” was “the most plausible mechanism” to explain the illness." Apparently, employees were targeted individually.
More ominous, Russia is the most likely source of the technology, and as the New York Times put it, "The question of Moscow’s possible culpability is a thorny one, given the sensitivities around President Trump on any matters involving Russia or President Vladimir V. Putin."
In 2016, Donald Trump left federal employees in Cuba instead of evacuating them. The Federal government hasn't talked about the problem since 2018. Even though the State Department commissioned the study, they said little about it since it was finished, in August. The National Academy of Sciences posted it on Saturday after a few copies were leaked on Capitol Hill.
Foot-dragging is a well-worn tactic for the Feds when they're facing a potentially large liability. Agent Orange wasn't confirmed as a carcinogen for years, leaving American vets sick and subject to accusations that the illness was faked. The 9/11 first responders had lung problems and cancer from the World Trade Center site, but it took months and years for their illnesses to be acknowledged and their medical costs covered.
Similarly, in these recent incidents the diplomats, CIA members, and other employees also felt that the government let them down. “My government looked the other way when they knew I and my family were injured,” said a diplomatic security officer who had Havana Syndrome in China. “This report is just the beginning and when the American people know the full extent of this administration’s cover-up of the radiofrequency attacks in China in particular they will be outraged.”
We agree, and we wish him good luck.
Since it appears out Government has known conclusively about these attacks for months, why hasn’t Trump acted? Why didn’t he call out Russia? Was he afraid to do so? Does he not care about the health of American Diplomats?
Since the Trump Administration only recently released the report, and only to a few members of Congress, were the insiders right to leak it?
Do you think public outrage will help those who still suffer from the Havana Syndrome? Or are we so wrung out from outrage that we'll let this slip by without investigation of the president and secretary of state?
Is it even possible that Russia hid its actions from Donald Trump? Was he possibly taking secret action to punish Russia?
How likely is it that Joe Biden can cut back such malevolent treatment of federal employees abroad?
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