A senior Defense Department official who attended last year’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, had symptoms similar to those reported by U.S. officials who have experienced “Havana syndrome,” the Pentagon confirmed Monday.
The injuries to U.S. government personnel or their families were part of a “60 Minutes” report Sunday that suggested Russia is behind the incidents, one of which took place during the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius.
“I can confirm that a senior DOD official experienced symptoms similar to those reported in anomalous health incidents,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday. Singh referred questions on whether Russia had a role to the intelligence community, which is still investigating.
The official, who was not identified, was not part of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s official traveling delegation to Vilnius, Singh said, but was there “separately, attending meetings that were part of the NATO summit.”
Singh did not say whether the affected defense official had to seek further medical care, retire or cease performing duties, citing medical privacy.
In February the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in its 2024 threat assessment found that it was “unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible for causing the mysterious ailments but noted that U.S. intelligence agencies had varying levels of confidence in that assessment.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday the department has confidence in that assessment.
“It has been the broad conclusion of the intelligence community since March 2023 that is unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible for these anomalous health incidents,” Miller said.
“It’s something that the intelligence community has investigated extensively and continues to look at. We will look at new information as it comes in and make assessments inside the State Department and with our intelligence community.”
The foremost Cuba-based researcher of the incidents, Mitchell Valdés-Sosa, told The Associated Press that the “60 Minutes” report had failed to provide any scientific basis to substantiate the existence of the Havana syndrome. Valdés-Sosa, director of Cuba’s Center for Neuroscience, is the de facto spokesperson on the issue for the Cuban health ministry, which arranged the interview.
“I think that this journalistic investigation does not provide serious elements, especially that there is a new illness caused by a mysterious energy,” he said. “The symptoms are very varied: balance problems, sleep problems, dizziness, difficulties concentrating, and many diseases can cause them.”
In the past, Valdés-Sosa hasn’t disputed that diplomats become ill, but suggested that many of the cases consisted of ordinary illnesses that were erroneously blamed on the supposed phenomenon due to the high degree of public attention.
The ailment which affected US diplomats in recent years has been linked to a Russian intelligence unit.
They may have been targeted by Russian sonic weaponry, according to a joint investigation by The Insider, Der Spiegel and CBS's 60 Minutes.
Moscow has denied the accusations. US officials previously said it was unlikely a foreign power was to blame.
But in their assessment of "anomalous health incidents" (AHIs) - which was delivered last year - they did not give any alternative explanation, frustrating those who have been affected.
The American officials also acknowledged there were varying levels of confidence in the assessment between the different intelligence agencies involved.
The phenomenon gets its name from Cuba's capital Havana - where the first case was detected in 2016 - though the new report suggests the first cases may have happened in Germany two years earlier.
Other cases have been reported around the world, from Washington to China.
On Monday, the Pentagon said that a senior defence department official attending meetings at last year's Nato summit in Lithuania had experienced symptoms similar to Havana syndrome.
American personnel struck with the condition - including White House, CIA and FBI staff - have complained of dizziness, headaches, difficulty concentrating and an intense and painful sound in their ears.
However, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study published last month said MRI scans had failed to detect evidence of brain injuries in dozens of US personnel who reported AHIs.
There has long been a suspicion that those affected have been hit by directed energy or microwaves fired from hidden devices - a possibility that was acknowledged in an earlier US intelligence report.
The fresh media investigation alleges that members of a specific Russian military intelligence unit - known as 29155 - may have targeted the brains of US diplomats with "directed energy" weapons.
It says there is evidence that places members of the unit in cities around the world at times when US personnel reported incidents.
The secretive unit undertakes foreign operations and has been linked to incidents including the attempted poisoning in the UK in 2018 of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy.
As part of the investigation, The Insider - a Russia-focused site - reported that an officer in the 29155 unit had been rewarded for their work related to the development of "non-lethal acoustic weapons".
One victim of the syndrome - an FBI agent - told 60 Minutes about her experience of being hit by a powerful force at her home in Florida 2021.
"Bam, inside my right ear, it was like a dentist drilling on steroids," she told the programme. "That feeling when it gets too close to your eardrum? It's like that, times 10."
The woman - known as Carrie - said she ultimately passed out, and later had issues with memory and concentration.