As the Trump administration turns the screw on Cuba in an attempt at regime change, media are showing renewed interest in Havana Syndrome, the discredited theory that U.S. officials and secret agents are being targeted by a heretofore unknown directed energy weapon, making them sick.
CBS News' flagship political affairs show, "60 Minutes" aired another special on Havana Syndrome Sunday. The episode concentrated on profiling supposed victims of the mystery ailment, and claimed that the U.S. government had purchased a directed-energy weapon from a "Russian criminal network," and that they had begun testing this weapon on animals.
The show claimed that hundreds of American officials have been targeted by U.S. adversaries, yet the government remains reluctant to even look into the matter properly.
CBS' claims were picked up and amplified across the press, including by The Hill, MSN, The New York Post, Newsmax, AOL, and The Daily Telegraph.
The first reported illness happened in Havana in 2016, and since has spread all over the world. U.S. officials - few of whom are willing to go on the record - report a wide variety of symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, and nausea. Many believe they have been targeted by a futuristic microwave ray or sound cannon.
Successive official and academic studies have cast doubt on the validity of these claims. And when the Associated Press published recordings of the "sonic weapon" American servicemen stationed in Havana gave them, a far more mundane culprit was identified: crickets. The sound was unmistakably the high-pitched, screeching mating call of the short-tailed cricket.
The incident provoked uproars of laughter in Cuba. The Cuban Academy of Sciences later concluded that the idea of a microwave attack was "not scientifically acceptable in any of its components," and has survived largely because of "sensationalist media coverage" and a "biased use of science."
Bay of Pigs 2.0
Nevertheless, corporate media is once again reviving the idea of Havana Syndrome, and at a highly opportune time in U.S.-Cuba relations. The Trump administration has launched an all-out campaign against Cuba, aiming for regime change on the Caribbean island.
On February 25, a Florida-registered boat full of armed Cuban-Americans entered Cuban waters. Their intent was to land and carry out attacks on the island. When they were intercepted by the Cuban Coast Guard, they fired upon the boat, but were overpowered. Four of their number died in the failed operation, and six more were wounded. Cuban authorities published images of assault rifles, explosive devices, bulletproof vests, telescopic sites, and camouflage uniforms they seized.
At the same time, President Trump has significantly tightened the blockade around the island, cutting off international trade and punishing entities continuing to do business with Havana. He announced that any country sending oil to Cuba would be punished with a 10% increase in tariffs.
As a result, the Cuban economy has floundered. The country is highly dependent on oil imports for electricity production, and prolonged blackouts are now an everyday occurrence. Cuba is facing a critical shortage of fuel and necessary goods, such as medical supplies. Solidarity activists from around the world are rushing to attempt to make up the shortfall.
U.S. sanctions, official documents admit, are designed to "bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government", through "economic dissatisfaction and hardship." "Cuba is going to fall soon," Trump told CNN last week.
Trump has also forced countries around the region to cut off their healthcare partnerships with Cuba. Cuban doctors have been told to leave a dozen Caribbean and Central American nations, much to the detriment of their local populations, who rely on them for medical treatment. More than 605,000 Cuban healthcare professionals have provided free healthcare in 165 countries, performing around 17 million surgeries and saving an estimated 12 million lives.
The U.S. has sought to overthrow the Cuban government since the Revolution of 1959, which brought Fidel Castro and the Communist movement to power. Local authorities have documented at least 5,780 separate U.S.-backed terrorist attacks against their country, killing more than 3,400 people and leaving thousands more injured or disabled.
Perhaps the most notable of these was the 1981 Dengue Fever epidemic, where the U.S. introduced the deadly disease to the island as a form of biological warfare. 158 people were killed, including 101 children.
Don't Believe The Hype?
Thus, the return of the Havana Syndrome story comes at a highly convenient time for war planners in Washington, busy as they are attempting to foment regime change on the island 90 miles south of Miami.
Another reason to be skeptical of this particular narrative is that it is based upon testimonies of U.S. officials working in organizations whose job it is to plant false information into the public domain. Moreover, many of the national security state mandarins who provide the backbone of the allegations insist on remaining anonymous, despite the lack of danger to themselves.
No weapon has ever been found, no perpetrators identified, and it is difficult to see why America's adversaries would go to such great trouble to mildly to moderately inconvenience its agents.
Moreover, some experts question the plausibility of the science behind the claims. "Nobody has detected microwaves, acoustic waves, etc. that could cause the symptoms. The issue is not resolved nor is it likely to be unless more information is forthcoming," Kenneth Foster, Professor Emeritus of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, told MintPress in 2021, adding:
"I have been unable to come up with a plausible exposure scenario where pulsed microwaves could produce the reported effects. So far more than 300 people around the world have reported 'symptoms' and it is beyond belief that someone could be beaming microwaves at them at sufficient intensity to produce effects without it being noticed."
Some have drawn parallels between Havana Syndrome and the Yellow Rain phenomenon of the 1980s. While patrolling in the area, U.S. forces in Southeast Asia noticed a yellow substance on leaves. Immediately fearing the worst, they suspected they had been attacked by chemical weapons, even though no casualties were recorded. State Department officials promoted the idea, formally accusing the Soviet Union of supplying weapons of mass destruction to Communist forces in the region. The story became a national scandal lasting for much of the early 1980s, only for the U.S. to admit, years later, that the yellow substance on the leaves was actually honey bee feces.
National Security State Media
CBS News' own ties with the national security state should also not be ignored. Last year, the Ellison family took over the network, in what would be the first piece of a major media empire that now includes CNN and TikTok.
Larry Ellison, currently the world's sixth-richest individual, made his fortune by founding tech giant Oracle. He got his start in the tech industry as a contractor for the CIA. Indeed, Oracle itself is named after Project Oracle, a CIA endeavor Ellison worked on in the 1970s. For some time, the CIA was Oracle's only customer, until it began branching out and winning contracts with other departments of the national security state.
Since its very beginning, Oracle has acted as the privatized face of the CIA, allowing Langley to outsource its work to an officially private company. This relationship continues until the present day. In 2020, the CIA awarded Oracle a slice of a multibillion-dollar cloud computing contract. Two years later, it won a $9 billion contract with the Department of Defense to provide hi-tech weapons systems to the military.
Ellison is a vocal supporter, top political funder, and close confident of President Trump, who personally approved his takeover of TikTok. "I like Larry Ellison," Trump said, calling him a "great guy." Indeed, he has so much influence over the White House, that one Trump insider described him as the "shadow President of the United States."
As expected, Ellison quickly turned CBS News into an overtly pro-Trump outlet, installing prominent "anti-woke" crusader Bari Weiss at the network's editor-in-chief. It should hardly surprise those watching carefully, then, that it is now resurrecting dubious narratives about Havana Syndrome that could serve as a casus belli. In war, they say, truth is always the first casualty.
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