American defense officials have dedicated more than a year to analyzing equipment obtained through an undercover acquisition that certain investigators suspect caused unexplained medical conditions plaguing US intelligence personnel, diplomats, and service members – a phenomenon known as Havana Syndrome, four briefed sources told CNN.
During the Biden administration's final weeks, Homeland Security Investigations purchased equipment for millions of dollars using Pentagon funds, two sources disclosed. Officials spent "eight figures" on the acquisition, these individuals stated, but refused to specify further.
Examination of the equipment continues amid persistent debate and skepticism within parts of the government about whether it is linked to roughly a dozen unexplained medical incidents with no official answers, CNN reported.
Sources told CNN that HSI's acquired equipment produces pulsed radio waves, which officials and researchers have theorized for years might cause the incidents. Though not entirely Russian-manufactured, the equipment incorporates Russian components, an individual noted.
Officials have struggled to understand how equipment powerful enough to cause reported injuries could be portable, a briefed source stated. The equipment fits within a backpack, this individual revealed.
Acquiring the equipment has reignited contentious and painful government debate about Havana Syndrome, officially termed "anomalous health episodes," according to CNN.
The mysterious condition first appeared in late 2016 when American diplomats stationed in Havana began reporting symptoms consistent with head trauma – dizziness and severe headaches among them, CNN reported. Subsequent years brought cases documented worldwide.
Over the following decade, intelligence agencies and the Defense Department sought to determine whether these officials had experienced directed-energy attacks by hostile nations, CNN reported. Senior intelligence officials publicly stated insufficient evidence supported that conclusion, while victims argued the US government gaslit them and ignored substantial evidence of Russian attacks on American personnel.
Defense officials nevertheless deemed their findings serious enough to brief House and Senate Intelligence Committees late last year, including details about the acquired equipment and testing, CNN reported.
Officials now worry primarily that if the technology proves viable, it may have proliferated, according to multiple sources who spoke to CNN. This means several countries could possess access to equipment capable of inflicting career-ending injuries on American officials.
CNN could not determine where or from whom HSI purchased the equipment, though HSI maintains extensive collaboration with the Defense Department for global operations. The agency has broad authority to investigate customs violations, including probes into the proliferation of US-controlled technology overseas.
A former Homeland Security official characterized these investigations as "the single biggest collaboration point between HSI and the US military."
When American forces discovered US technology in Afghanistan or Iraq, raising questions about regional component arrival, they consulted HSI, the official explained.
How the US government learned of the equipment's existence and how it purchased it remain unclear, CNN reported.
Havana Syndrome and its cause have remained frustratingly opaque to intelligence and medical communities. Medical professionals face challenges, including the continued absence of clear "anomalous health incidents" or AHIs definitions. Tests were conducted, sometimes extensively, after symptoms began, hampering understanding of the physical process, according to CNN.
An intelligence panel investigating AHI causes stated in 2022 that certain episodes could "plausibly" have resulted from "pulsed electromagnetic energy" emitted externally, CNN reported.
Yet in 2023, intelligence agencies announced publicly they could not link cases to foreign adversaries, ruling it unlikely that unexplained illness resulted from targeted enemy campaigns, according to CNN. Through January 2025, broader intelligence community assessments maintained that symptoms were very unlikely to stem from foreign actors, even as an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence emphasized that analysts cannot "rule out" the possibility in limited cases.
This stance has persistently enraged victims, many firmly believing intelligence exists providing definitive evidence of Russian responsibility for their symptoms, some severe enough to force retirement, CNN reported. Victims have treated the equipment's acquisition as potential vindication, according to CNN.
Marc Polymeropoulos, among the first CIA officers publicly disclosing injuries he claims he sustained in a Moscow attack in 2017, told CNN: "If the [US government] has indeed uncovered such devices, then the CIA owes all the victims a f*cking major and public apology for how we have been treated as pariahs."
