The CIA has dismissed its official in Vienna, accused of not having taken seriously cases of the mysterious "Havana syndrome" in his team and within the embassy, the
Washington Post
reported Thursday (September 23)
.
Dozens of cases, both among CIA employees and diplomats and their families, have been reported in Vienna recently, but the official in question has taken the information with skepticism and has been insensitive, according to the report.
Post
, citing sources within US intelligence.
Read alsoIn Cuba, the mystery of the "supersonic" attacks against American diplomats
A CIA spokesperson interviewed by AFP refused to confirm or deny the information.
He assured that the agency was taking seriously dozens of possible cases of the mysterious disease in US diplomatic missions around the world, including in Vienna, where the United States has a large embassy.
The visit of the Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris to Vietnam, delayed by several hours at the end of August by an
"abnormal health incident"
reported by the American Embassy in Hanoi, had shone the spotlight on this phenomenon on which Washington no still could not shed light.
It all started when in 2016 the first American diplomats stationed in Cuba began to complain of unease.
But the case did not come to light until 2017, when Donald Trump recalled most of his diplomats from Havana to respond to this new threat.
More than twenty US government employees and members of their families are involved in Cuba between late 2016 and May 2018, as well as Canadian diplomats.
Read alsoAcoustic attacks: the mysterious symptoms of American employees in China
In 2018, similar symptoms hit a dozen other American diplomats in China. Cases are successively reported in Germany, Australia, Russia, Taiwan and even Washington. Last July,
The New Yorker
newspaper
already reported the existence of more than twenty cases in Vienna, Austria, since the beginning of the year.
The diplomats concerned suffered from a variety of ailments including problems with balance and dizziness, coordination, eye movement, as well as anxiety, irritability and what victims called
"cognitive fog"
.
Brain damage has even been diagnosed.
According to a report from the American Academy of Sciences,
"directed radio wave energy"
is the most likely cause of these symptoms.
From the start, U.S. officials have wavered, with some officials downplaying symptoms sometimes attributed to stress, others privately mentioning possible attacks and suspecting countries like Russia.
