A diplomat from the United States who claimed to have been hurt in China is now suing the State Department for discrimination. Canada has 27 diplomats, military officers, and their families suing the government for $40 million regarding incidents in Cuba.
A former U.S. intelligence officer is now suing the Defense Department over an incident that occurred decades ago in overseas. He believes it is part of the same mystery. Court records obtained by NBC News have shown.
In interviews, diplomats and other officials stated that the number of cases is growing to well over 200.
“Fighting an Invisible Enemy”: The Voices of Havana Syndrome will be streamed on NBC News NOW Friday, December 24, at 4 p.m. ET. Available on Peacock Dec. 27.
A law signed by President Joe Biden in October will force the U.S. to do something it has never done before: determine who is a legitimate victim to a phenomenon, possibly a deliberate attack, that it can’t explain.
Cheryl Cruise, a twenty-year veteran of State Department, said that she would not have retired if she hadn’t been injured. She also said that the government is not meeting workers’ health care needs. It’s depressing and aggravating and I’m not alone.”
Cheryl Cruise
NBC News: Cheryl Cruise is a State Department veteran of 20 years.
Cruise was the acting ambassador’s deputy at the U.S Embassy in Havana during the 2017 incidents. He is now speaking publicly as part of a new NBC News digital documentary called “Fighting an Invisible Enemy”: The Voices of Havana Syndrome.
This digital documentary examines how the U.S. responds to unexplained incidents. Government employees in over a dozen countries reported a variety of symptoms, including memory and balance problems, hearing and vision impairments, concussions, and concussions. Sometimes these symptoms are accompanied by inexplicable sounds and physical sensations.
NBC News has been told by officials from several U.S. national security agency that they believe the incidents were caused or triggered by a microwave weapon.
The State Department used to call the incidents “targeted attack” in 2017. However, it now calls them “anomalous medical incidents”. The injuries were consistent with direct microwave energy effects, according to a National Academies of Science report from last year.
“We know Russia is one nation-state that has the technology. There are others,” stated Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who repeatedly urged the government to consider “Havana Syndrome” more seriously.
Russia and Cuba consistently deny any involvement. Russia’s foreign ministry dismissed the allegations as “absurd”, “paranoid” and “paranoid”, saying that Russia had repeatedly denied any involvement in this matter.
Other U.S. officials are skeptical due to a lack of solid intelligence that proves who did it and how. Some have also questioned whether mass hysteria could be to blame.
The U.S. Embassy Havana 2017
The U.S. Embassy in Havana, 2017.Alexandre Meneghini / Reuters File
“Everything kinda went black”
Cruise was one of the original four Cuban victims who spoke with NBC News in the digital documentary. In 2015, the U.S. had not established formal relations with Cuba, 90 miles south of Florida. Cruise was present on the day that the U.S. flag over the newly opened U.S. Embassy was raised as part of the Obama administration’s historic approach to Cuba.
Cruise claims that it was not until a year later when she was sitting on the couch in Havana reading a book, when she felt a buzzing sound from her left side. The exhaustion soon followed by the feeling of being “pushed from the top to the ground”.
Cruise stated, “I could feel my brain shutting off. It was almost like everything went black.”
Cruise stated that she was able to listen to recordings of other staffers reporting similar incidents as they happened.
Cruise stated, “And I’m like: ‘Wow! That’s the sound that I heard.'” “That was the beginning of me trying to convince people to believe in me.”
The State Department had enlisted the University of Pennsylvania to assess evacuated diplomats. They believed her and diagnosed her injuries as being similar to others in the growing “Havana Syndrome” victims.
Cruise claims she decided to retire in 2018 after her medical problems didn’t improve significantly. However, she was then excluded from the additional health benefits Congress passed next year. She is now trying to find a neurologist that will treat her under workers’ comp.
For those who are seeking benefits, the government’s unwillingness to classify who is or not a “confirmed Havana Syndrome case”, which has yet to be diagnosed or explained, is a problem.
Mike Beck, a former counterintelligence agent with the secretive National Security Agency sued the Defense Department Wednesday over its decision not to classify information regarding whether he was struck overseas by a high powered microwave weapon in 1996.
Beck later developed a rare form of Parkinson’s Disease that was very early in the onset. He claims that his situation is comparable to that of “Havana Syndrome” victims.
Beck was seeking workers’ compensation in 2014 when the NSA issued a rare statement confirming that it had intelligence indicating that a hostile country Beck visited during that period was linked to “a high powered microwave system that may be able to weaken or intimidate or kill an enemy over a time without leaving any evidence.”
According to a brief statement, the weapon was “designed to heat up the living quarters of a target.” The country in which Beck was serving is still unknown.
Beck claimed that the NSA did not have any evidence that such a weapon was used against him. This caveat, Beck stated, has hindered him from securing workers’ comp. Beck is suing to get more information from the government, including an email where he claims a top NSA official agreed that his Parkinson’s disease was work-related.
“The truth is that this mystery has it’s origins and answers within Intelligence Community and most information remains classified,” stated Mark Zaid, Beck’s attorney. Zaid also represents Cruise and other U.S diplomats who were injured in Cuba or elsewhere.
He stated that “until the classified information is pried loose there will be nothing more than conspiracies or allegations dominating the conversation.”
