Summary： Bolton’s statements come after retired Army lieutenant colonel Greg Edgreen told 60 Minutes that he is ‘confident’ that Russia is behind the attacks.
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has claimed that Russia is likely behind the mysterious Havana Syndrome that has afflicted more than 1,000 Americans. ‘When I was national security advisor, I was briefed on this,’ the former Trump administration official said on CNN on Monday. ‘I think there’s very likely some hostile adversary behavior here, whether it’s Russia, China , maybe somebody else, more than likely Russia.’
He added: ‘I don’t think the government, frankly, when I was there took it seriously enough. I don’t think they’ve taken it seriously enough since then.’ Bolton’s statements come after retired Army lieutenant colonel Greg Edgreen, who led the Pentagon investigation into the Havana syndrome incidents, told 60 Minutes that he is ‘confident’ that Russia is behind the attacks.
A US intelligence investigation whose findings were released last year found that it was ‘very unlikely’ a foreign adversary was responsible for the ailment, first reported by US embassy officials in the Cuban capital Havana in 2016. But Edgreen said the burden of proof under both the Trump and Biden administration was set impossibly high, explaining: ‘I think it was set so high because we did not, as a country, and a government, want to face some very hard truths…
‘Can we secure America? Are these massive counter intelligence failures? Can we protect American soil and our people on American soil? Are we being attacked and if we’re being attacked, is that an act of war?’ He also claimed that the attacks are part of a worldwide mission by Russia targeting US officials to ‘neutralize’ them. Research by The Insider, a Russia-focused investigative media group based in Riga, Latvia, reported that the Havana syndrome may be linked to energy weapons wielded by members of a Russian military intelligence sabotage unit.
Insider reported that members of a Russian military intelligence (GRU) unit known as 29155 had been placed at the scene of reported health incidents involving US personnel. They are alleged to have used sonic weapons to target their victims’ brains with radio frequencies, causing symptoms of Havana syndrome which include migraines, nausea, memory lapses, hearing loss, poor balance and dizziness. The year-long Insider investigation in collaboration with CBS documentary series 60 Minutes and Germany’s Der Spiegel also reported that senior members of Unit 29155 received awards and promotions for work related to the development of ‘non-lethal acoustic weapons’. Russia has previously denied any involvement and dismissed the allegations as ‘groundless’ today.
‘This topic has been talked up in the press for many years already. And from the very beginning most often it’s linked to the Russian side,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news conference. ‘But nobody has ever published any convincing evidence, so all this is nothing more than a groundless and unfounded accusation,’ he said. The Insider report said the first incident of ‘Havana Syndrome’ symptoms may have happened earlier than 2016, when US embassy staff in Cuba started complaining about pain in their ears and strong pressure in their heads.
It said ‘there were likely attacks two years earlier in Frankfurt, Germany, when a US government employee stationed at the consulate there was knocked unconscious by something akin to a strong energy beam’. More than 1,000 Americans have reportedly been affected by Havana syndrome – and there have also been cases of foreign officials claiming to have suffered similar symptoms.
State Department security officer Mark Lenzi, who worked in the US consulate in Guangzhou, China, told 60 Minutes that he and his wife started experiencing symptoms after hearing strange sounds – like a ‘marble’ going down a ‘metal funnel’ – in their apartment in 2017. He said he believes that him and his wife were targeted with a weapon using radio frequency energy for his work analyzing electronic threats to diplomatic missions using top-secret equipment.
Other staff members said they were struck while on US soil, also reporting of hearing bizarre sounds and experiencing head pain as well as memory loss, impaired vision and poor balance. Weapons using radio frequencies can be as small as a suitcase or as big as a tractor trailer and when used, can transmit the microwave energy through walls, glass and brick, physicist James Benford told 60 Minutes. Havana syndrome has its roots in the original cases beginning in November 2016 through June 2018 among 25 US diplomats stationed in Havana, Cuba. Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13260299/john-bolton-russia-havana-syndrome.html?ito=msngallery
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