President Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that provides funding for the treatment of U.S. officials who have suffered brain injuries and other symptoms consistent with what’s known as “Havana Syndrome,” the source of which remains a mystery.
Biden on Oct. 8 signed into law the Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks (HAVANA) Act, which Congress passed unanimously last month, providing funds for the treatment of more than 200 government employees who say they have been affected by the syndrome.
“Civil servants, intelligence officers, diplomats, and military personnel all around the world have been affected by anomalous health incidents,” Biden said in a statement, vowing to get to the bottom of what’s causing the symptoms and who’s behind the strange phenomenon that lawmakers in both parties have speculatively described as “directed-energy attacks.”
“Some are struggling with debilitating brain injuries that have curtailed their careers of service to our nation. Addressing these incidents has been a top priority for my administration,” Biden added.
The new law authorizes the CIA director, the secretary of state, and other agency heads to provide medical and financial help to the victims who have suffered brain injuries as a result of what could be intentional attacks by hostile foreign powers.
U.S. authorities have struggled to understand the mysterious incidents since they were first noted in 2016, when diplomatic and intelligence personnel in Cuba first began reporting disturbing symptoms, including head pressure or vibration, and dizziness, sometimes followed by visual problems and cognitive difficulties.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the U.S. government is “determined to get to the bottom as quickly as possible of the attribution and cause of these incidents,” with the intelligence community “in the lead on that.”
“They have launched a large-scale investigation into the potential causes. They’re actively examining a range of hypotheses, but they have not made a determination about the cause of these incidents or who is responsible,” Psaki added.
By Tom Ozimek
