2022-01-20
Please refer to media reports.
In a July 2021 interview [*], CIA Director Bill Burns stated: "I am absolutely determined to get to the bottom of the question of what and who caused this". "And I take very seriously what they've experienced and the threat that these kind of incidents posed".
He added: “There are probably a couple of hundred since Havana in 2016. There are probably a couple of hundred incidents across the U.S. government and across the globe. Of those couple of hundred, there's probably about 100 in which my colleagues, my officers and family members have been affected.”
The CIA has created its own task force which is led, as it was reported in July 2021, by the CIA official who had led the Bin Laden investigation [*].
CIA Director Says He Is Escalating Efforts To Solve 'Havana Syndrome' Mystery
2021-07-22, NPR
Transcript: NPR's Full Conversation With CIA Director William Burns
2021-07-22, NPR interview with CIA Director
Main points:
➡️ Visited Walter Reed on first week in office.
➡️ Tripled CIA medics focused on these issues.
➡️ Reduced waiting time for Walter Reed to less than two weeks.
➡️ Task force - appointment of senior officer who led bin Laden operations.
➡️ Couple of hundred incidents across U.S. government and across the globe. Half are CIA officers and family members.
➡️ On causation: "The National Academy of Sciences, a year ago, in a very extensive report that they did, suggested that the most plausible theory for what caused this was some form of directed energy, and that sort of narrows, then, the number of potential suspects who could have used this, have used it historically and have the reach to do this in more than one part of the world"
Havana Syndrome Task Force to Be Led by Veteran of Hunt for Bin Laden
2021-07-21, WSJ (membership access)
"We are working closely under the auspices of the NSC with our interagency partners, especially the CIA, DOD, the State Department and others".
FBI director Chris Wray comments on AHI during congressional hearing for FBI funding
2021-06-23