A high-ranking US Defence Department official was attacked with a “Havana Syndrome” weapon during a NATO summit in Vilnius last July.
This was reported on Monday as a joint investigation by The Insider, a Riga-based media group focused on Russia, Germany’s Der Spiegel and CBS’s 60 Minutes.
Later, the Pentagon confirmed that a high-ranking official attending the NATO summit in Vilnius was experiencing symptoms similar to those reported by people who experienced “Havana Syndrome”.
This information is being used by investigators as evidence that the weapon is still in use, although there have been fewer reports of “Havana Syndrome” in recent years.
Lithuania’s State Security Department said on Tuesday it had no comment yet on the use of a “Havana Syndrome” weapon against a high-ranking US official during the NATO summit in Vilnius last year.
The Defence Ministry also told BNS that it had no data on the incident and therefore “cannot comment in more detail, confirm or deny such assessments“.
“Havana Syndrome” was first reported in 2016, when US diplomats in the Cuban capital began complaining of symptoms such as nausea after hearing ear-splitting noises at night. All this led to speculation of a possible attack by a foreign power using an unnamed sonic weapon.
A year-long investigation claims to have uncovered evidence suggesting that the unexplained health symptoms may be linked to the use of “directed energy weapons” by members of the Russian military intelligence unit 29155.
This Russian military intelligence unit is responsible for operations abroad and has been blamed for several incidents outside of Russia, including the attempted poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.
On Monday, Moscow dismissed these allegations as unfounded.
US intelligence said in 2022 that intense directed energy from an external source could have caused some cases of “Havana Syndrome”, officially known as anomalous health interference (AHI). However, in March 2023, intelligence agencies concluded that “there is no credible evidence that any foreign adversary possesses a weapon or assembly device that causes AHI”.
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