By Ken Dilanian -
NBC News
The FBI has promised that employees who have symptoms consistent with Havana syndrome have access to medical care after a former agent who suffered from headaches almost daily was turned away when he requested tests and treatment, according to documents obtained by our network. sister NBC News.
In an email last month, an FBI official told a former agent who had reported possible symptoms of brain injury that “unfortunately the FBI is not authorized to give any medical advice and there is no medical program in place for employees. current and / or retired. "
The agent began suffering from migraines and dizziness about a decade ago, after a stay abroad, in a country close to Russia.
["It is as if I had aged 20 years": those afflicted by the Havana syndrome break the silence]
Asked about the claim, the FBI responded in a statement confirming the email, saying it was "a part of a larger exchange taken out of context and does not reflect the FBI's commitment to supporting its staff, both current and former." .
The statement amounted to the FBI's first formal acknowledgment that some of its current or former employees might have symptoms of Havana syndrome, which got its name after a group of diplomats and CIA officers reported the symptoms in 2016 in the United States embassy in Cuba.
Although the bureau did not confirm or deny the existence of cases at the FBI, NBC News has previously reported that several FBI staff members have reported symptoms, including some who had been stationed in Vienna.
The statement notes that while the FBI "does not have the authority to provide direct medical treatment, we now have a process to guide current and former employees to the interagency medical evaluation and treatment options available to them."
Tourists in convertible classic cars on the Malecón next to the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, on Oct. 3, 2017.Desmond Boylan / AP
The statement does not indicate when the FBI implemented the policy.
The language of the email, issued in October, suggests it was not in effect last month.
[A possible case of the "anomalous" Havana syndrome delays Kamala Harris' tour to Vietnam]
The statement added that the issue of Anomalous Health Incidents (IAH), as the US government calls the mysterious set of symptoms affecting up to 200 current or former government employees, "is a top priority for the FBI, as the protection, health and well-being of our employees and colleagues in the federal government is paramount. "
The statement adds that "the FBI has sent a message to its staff on how to respond if they experience AHI, how to report an incident and where they can receive medical evaluations for symptoms or persistent effects."
In the past year, U.S. government agencies have encouraged employees to report any possible symptoms, and some of those that have come forward have health effects that began to occur before the 2016 incidents in Havana.
Several US officials said not everyone who has come forward fits the profile of the Havana cohort.
At the same time, brain injuries can be difficult to diagnose, so officials have encouraged anyone who suspects something is wrong to report it.
The former FBI agent explained he was stationed at an embassy that was the subject of an alleged Russian wiretapping operation that disrupted communications for two weeks, and asked not to be identified because he was concerned it could affect the way the FBI handles his case. .
He began experiencing symptoms soon after, and has lived with headaches, dizziness, and fatigue almost daily for the past decade.
[Diplomats lament the lack of attention to the mysterious attacks of the 'Havana syndrome']
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine claimed in a report last year that some of the observed brain injuries were consistent with the effects of directed microwave energy, which, according to the report, Russia has long studied.
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A team of medical and scientific experts who studied the symptoms of up to 40 employees of the State Department and other public administrations concluded that nothing similar had been documented in the medical literature, according to the report of the National Academies of Sciences.
Many reported hearing a loud sound and feeling pressure on their head, then experiencing dizziness, unsteadiness when walking, and visual disturbances.
Many suffered effects that weakened them for a long time.
NBC News reported in 2018 that US intelligence officials viewed Russia as a prime suspect in what some of them assess as deliberate attacks on diplomats and CIA officials abroad.
But in the nearly three years since then, spy agencies have not uncovered enough evidence to pinpoint the cause or culprit of the health incidents.
US officials cannot assure you that these are intentional attacks or even that they are the result of human activity.
[Canadians are also baffled by the illness of their diplomats in Cuba]
Although some intelligence officials are strongly suspicious of Russia, the longer intelligence agencies investigate without finding convincing evidence, the more doubts arise about that conclusion.
Experts say it is difficult to imagine that a secret Russian program to harm American spies and diplomats could go completely unnoticed by the $ 80 billion American intelligence apparatus, which regularly hacks Russian communications, conducts surveillance of Russian officers and recruits Russians to spy for America.
Russia has consistently denied any guilt.
At a public forum in September, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen suggested that the agency has made some progress, but not enough.
[Doctors find changes in the brains of US diplomats who fell ill from a mysterious sound in Cuba]
“Have we come close to finding a solution?
I think the answer is yes, but not close enough to make the analytical judgment that people are waiting for, "he said.
