Federal agencies failed to investigate Havana Syndrome, ignored crucial evidence and withheld information, attorney says during Congressional hearing

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“It is evident that numerous federal agencies have failed to fully undertake substantive investigations, have deliberately delayed collecting or ignored crucial credible evidence that would lead down a particular pathway towards implicating a foreign adversary, and/or have intentionally withheld information even from sister agencies so as to influence and manipulate their decision-making process,” said Washington, D.C., attorney Mark Zaid at a May 8, 2024, Congressional hearing.

Zaid testified before Congress on Wednesday about a widespread federal government coverup.

Currently, Zaid represents two dozen Anomalous Health Incidents (AHI), also known as Havana Syndrome, victims and their families, he said Wednesday. He also represents whistle blowers from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), National Security Agency (NSA), Department of State, Department of Commerce, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to Zaid, the National Security Agency (NSA) confirms that there is intelligence information from 2012 that a high-powered microwave system weapon may have had the ability to weaken, intimidate, or kill an enemy over time and without leaving evidence. The 2012 intelligence information indicated that this weapon is designed to bathe a target’s living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system.

Zaid noted one of his first AHI clients was a NSA employee.

“My original AHI client, Michael Beck, was a long-standing and decorated NSA employee who was injured during the mid-1990s at a still classified overseas location and, we believe, developed a rare form of Parkinson’s disease as a result.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, on May 8, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, led by Chairman August Pfluger (R-TX), held 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.

On Wednesday, Zaid opened his remarks by expressing gratitude the hearing was taking place.

“It is the first in over a half-decade and it was long overdue,” Zaid said, during opening remarks Wednesday.

“It is essential that transparency and truth control the course of this discussion,” Zaid said, noting, “Neither sentiment, unfortunately, has been present during every Administration since the 1950s, regardless of the political party in power.”

During Zaid’s Wednesday testimony he cited specific examples of how the U.S. intelligence community has been impacted.

“There is intelligence, scientific and medical evidence that substantiates the existence of AHIs, and the attacks upon American personnel overseas and domestically by a foreign adversary,” Zaid said Wednesday, noting it is ” technology that was invented decades ago and has obviously evolved over time, and it continues to do so.”

History

Zaid quoted a CIA official in describing how the technology came into play.

“It may well be that the microwave bombardment of the embassy began as a way to counter communications equipment on the roof, recharge Soviet listening devices, or disrupt American surveillance devices, like those listening in on the conversations of Soviet officials talking to each other while riding in their limousines. But once the Russians realized that the radiation was causing health effects—and their scientists have studied this extensively—they continued to radiate the embassy and began to weaponize the use of microwaves, developing smaller microwave transmitters that could be directed against individuals,” Zaid noted a CIA official said.

Next steps

“Today’s (May 8, 2024) hearing is not going to solve the controversy that AHI presents. At best, it will raise important questions that prompt the Committee to continue moving forward towards obtaining answers, especially given the clear relationship to its homeland security jurisdiction. But there are many steps Congress can take, both immediate and over the long-term, to address AHI issues,” Zaid said.

Steps:

• Ensuring continual and consistent health care for AHI victims from qualified medical professionals;
• Ensuring proper and immediate implementation of and funding for the Havana Act of 2021;
• Investigating as part of the Committee’s primary jurisdiction why law enforcement and other domestic homeland agencies have not been permitted to pursue AHI leads concerning criminal attacks on American personnel and instead CIA analysts; and
• Requiring the Executive Branch to develop comprehensive protocols providing U.S. personnel and their families with proper warnings and guidance as to risks involved and how best to report any incidents.

In closing Wednesday, Zaid said, “This hearing is hopefully just the beginning of many to come that will further pursue the objective of exposing the truth concerning AHIs. Those of our public servants and their family members who have been harmed must be cared for, and most importantly their current and future peers must be protected from adversarial attack going forward,” Zaid said.

“It is time for the U.S. government to be on the right side of history,” Zaid concluded.

Zaid also said, “he is committed to working with Congress to help address the concerns we are discussing today, and I welcome the opportunity to try and answer your questions in an unclassified manner, and to providing you with classified responses in the proper secure setting.”

Last week, Zaid said the CIA is witness tampering and obstructing justice over a major coverup surrounding Havana Syndrome.

According to Zaid, the CIA is deliberately withholding information from sister agencies in order to prevent those agencies from conducting further investigations.

On Wednesday, Zaid noted it has been an honor and privilege to have represented federal AHI victims and their family members for more than a decade.

During Wednesday’s testimony, Zaid said, “The overwhelming majority of evidence concerning AHIs is hidden behind classified walls and you will need to doggedly pursue those avenues if you truly want to understand the truth,” noting that Wednesday’s hearing “can only present a sliver of relevant information regarding a topic that primarily exists in the shadows.”

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.