CIA is obstructing justice and witness tampering in Havana Syndrome cover up, attorney says

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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is witness tampering and obstructing justice over a major coverup surrounding Havana Syndrome, according to Washington, D.C., attorney Mark Zaid.

Zaid has represented many in law enforcement and the intelligence community who have become a victim of Havana Syndrome, also known as AHI (Anomalous Health Incidents).

Sen. Ron Johnson who believes he may be a victim of an AHI attack spoke to the Wisconsin Law Journal Monday.

“Based on how often I have personally experienced federal agency coverups in my investigations, a coverup by the CIA in this matter wouldn’t surprise me at all. I will be interested in finding out what will be revealed in the upcoming hearing,” Johnson said.

Zaid will be one of a handful of individuals testifying before Congress on May 8.

One of the many of Zaid’s current clients is an intelligence community whistleblower.

Zaid noted, the whistleblower is not part of the separate FOIA litigation, which seeks the release documents that would shed light on Havana Syndrome.

The whistleblower filed an “urgent concern” complaint with the ICIG that was deemed credible, according to Zaid, who noted it was forwarded to the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

“We have been publicly raising serious and legitimate questions, which the U.S. Government has provided no real substantiative answers,” Zaid said during an interview with the Wisconsin Law Journal on Friday.

The lawsuit seeks disclosure of the whistleblower complaint that accused the US government, especially of CIA, of obstruction of justice and witness tampering, Zaid said.

“One of the conclusions in this document is that the CIA is deliberately withholding information from sister agencies in order to prevent those agencies from conducting further investigations,” Zaid said.

Zaid said his May 8 Congressional testimony will focus on AHIs / Havana Syndrome.

“The walls of opportunity to be on the right side of history are closing in on the government. There is going to be some very difficult decisions reached by our intelligence community to come forward and reveal what they know,” Zaid said.

When asked by the Wisconsin Law Journal to provide specific examples of the CIA’s alleged witness tampering and obstruction of justice, he said most of that information is classified.

“There is nothing specific that wouldn’t be either classified or that I couldn’t share because of sources,” Zaid said.

“But I can say this: as part of a current FOIA lawsuit I’m handling we learned CIA was withholding significant AHI documents from DOD,” Zaid added.

On May 8, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, led by Chairman August Pfluger (R-TX), will hold a hearing to receive testimony from experts and former government officials regarding anomalous health incidents (AHIs), also known as ‘Havana Syndrome,” according to a written statement from the House Homeland Security Committee.

“I will be making it clear within an unclassified record of just how much the U.S. government is deliberately covering up the information it posssesses regarding this subject matter of AHI,” Zaid said.

Zaid notes he has not seen everything because of the nature of how intelligence work is very compartmentalized.

“I’ve been in this business too long to not understand the information that I am not aware of. However, based on what I have seen, learned and been told, the U.S. government is covering up what it knows about AHIs, and is particularly being perpetrated by one of more foreign adversaries,” Zaid said.

According to Zaid, those adversaries are likely Russia, China, and Iran, which was recently reported on CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

“This your typical spy vs. spy tactics. We don’t know motive or intent, we just know what the result is,” he said.

According to Zaid, the energy weapons that cause Havana Syndrome are designed to “incapacitate, harass, intimidate, and interfere with the duties and responsibilities of intelligence officers.”

“We liken it to the slashing of tires,” Zaid said, noting that in the case of the CIA, it interferes with case officers’ ability to meet with assets who provide critical information to the U.S. government to keep the nation safe.

“What could be better than for our adversaries to even incapacitate our intelligence community, so they lie in bed all day and can no longer report to work,” Zaid added.

As previously reported, CIA employees around the world, including in Wisconsin and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, are among the latest possible targets of Havana Syndrome.

‘Two weeks after returning from a CODEL to Moscow, on July 25, 2018, I suddenly lost hearing in my right ear together with significant loss of balance.  I was evaluated by neurologists from NIH and Walter Reed Medical center.  The only explanation was a temporary loss of blood flow to one of my cranial nerves, cause unknown,” Johnson said during an interview with the Wisconsin Law Journal on May 6, 2024.

Other possible targets are civilians.

Civilians

Zaid said throughout his legal career he has seen a number of civilians impacted, mainly family members of the intelligence community. This includes many children whose parents work in the intelligence community.

Zaid noted the civilians he represents are family members of governmental employees.

“I am not engaging in claims outside of federal government. However, it would make sense from an intelligence perspective for the adversary, in order to confuse us, to hit civilians who have nothing to do with the federal government. It would be a strategic distraction for the adversary,” Zaid said.

“It’s the stuff of spy novels and movies. How best to distract from what this is, but driving down some suburban street who happen to be picking up newspaper,” Zaid added.

Pets

Yes, even dogs have been zapped by the energy weapon, according to various intelligence reports.

Why the coverup?

“There are multiple reasons for the cover up,” Zaid said, noting, “any one of which could be understandable,” he added.

Zaid noted, “from one agency to the next, those explanations may have different consequences and significance.”

“It’s not that I don’t understand why the cover up is continuing, I’m just simply not going to allow it to continue,” Zaid said Friday.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, one possible theory behind the cover up is that it was the CIA who first developed and deployed the weapon.

Transparency

On Tuesday, April 30, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (defendants) responded to the James Madison Project (plaintiff’s) request to release hundreds of documents that would shed light on possible multi-agency government coverup over Havana Syndrome.

Zaid also represents the James Madison Project.

“The responsive documents appear to implicate the equities of numerous agencies, ODNI wrote in its response, noting, “In fact, most of the responsive documents were not generated by ODNI but rather were provided to the Inspector General during the investigation at issue.”

According to court documents, the ODNI has sought consultation from 10 different federal agencies or federal government organizations regarding a subset of the responsive records.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, on April 26, 2024, the director of National Intelligence filed a request in federal court seeking a two-business-day extension of time — until April 30, 2024, in a request to make public records that will likely shed light on some of mystery behind Havana Syndrome.

According to the April 30 response, the ODNI is providing the identity of the agencies with outstanding consultations and the number of pages associated with each consultation.

“ODNI also notes that certain pages pending consultation are undergoing review by multiple agencies simultaneously,” court documents noted.

The Central Intelligence Agency provided an estimated response date of July 31, 2024, for a consultation request concerning 32 pages of records.

Another agency who’s mere existence is classified is referred to in court documents a “Agency B.”

Agency B provided a July 15, 2024, response date to produce 42 pages of documents.

Zaid said in all of his years of working in intelligence community legal issues, this is a first for him.

“The most interesting aspect in that response is that the government is claiming that one or more agencies identities when associated with AHI is itself classified,” Zaid noted.

“I have never once seen the government’s position that the agencies identity are classified merely because it’s tied to AHI,” Zaid said.

The U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has provided the ODNI with an updated response date estimate of May 15, 2024, for a consultation concerning five pages of records.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) provides an estimated response date of May 3, 2024, for the completion of two consultations that collectively encompass 31 pages of records.

The ONDI once again expressed the need to make referrals in this litigation, and it has anticipated doing so by May 10, 2024, according to court documents.