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Pentagon Purchases a Device Allegedly Linked To Havana Syndrome (cnn.com) 72

Posted by BeauHD from the well-how-about-that dept.
"Since the United States reopened its embassy in Cuba in 2015, a number of personnel have reported a series of debilitating medical ailments which include dizziness, fatigue, problems with memory, and impaired vision," writes longtime Slashdot reader smooth wombat. "For ten years, these sudden and unexplained onsets have been studied with no conclusive evidence one way or the other. Now comes word that a device, purchased by the Pentagon, has been tested which may be linked to what is known as Havana Syndrome." From a report: A division of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, purchased the device for millions of dollars in the waning days of the Biden administration, using funding provided by the Defense Department, according to two of the sources. Officials paid âoeeight figuresâ for the device, these people said, declining to offer a more specific number. [...]

The device acquired by HSI produces pulsed radio waves, one of the sources said, which some officials and academics have speculated for years could be the cause of the incidents. Although the device is not entirely Russian in origin, it contains Russian components, this person added. Officials have long struggled to understand how a device powerful enough to cause the kind of damage some victims have reported could be made portable; that remains a core question, according to one of the sources briefed on the device. The device could fit in a backpack, this person said.

[...] One key concern now for some officials is that if the technology proves viable it may have proliferated, several of the sources said, meaning that more than one country could now have access to a device that may be capable of causing career-ending injuries to US officials. Further reading: 'Havana Syndrome' Debate Rises Again in US Government
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Pentagon Purchases a Device Allegedly Linked To Havana Syndrome More

Pentagon Purchases a Device Allegedly Linked To Havana Syndrome

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  • Just Bought It? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kunedog ( 1033226 ) on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @10:15PM (#65922800)

    Now comes word that a device, purchased by the Pentagon, has been tested which may be linked to what is known as Havana Syndrome."

    IMO this does not justify calling it a "Pentagon device" in the headline, causing clickbait-grade implications.

    • Yeah I had to read it a few times to work out if I'd read it wrong. Very disingenuous I thought they did it to themselves.

      • Re: Just Bought It? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by cusco ( 717999 ) <brian.bixby@gm a i l.com> on Wednesday January 14, 2026 @01:53AM (#65923014)

        Actually they did. 'Havana Syndrome' (which was actually encountered in several locations around the world including an executive conference center in (IIRC) Switzerland) appears to have been caused by the resonance of multiple ultrasonic devices interacting. It's called IntraModulation Distortion, and one of the most likely culprits is the anti-eavesdropping equipment which can broadcast ultrasonic signals at well over 120 decibels. This has been known since at least 2018 but spooks being spooks they prefer to believe they're under attack by some superspy agency than by their own poorly configured electronics.

        https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-... [ieee.org]

        Now what this piece of expensive scrap metal that Fatherland Security just paid for is unknown. Probably an upgraded version of the ADE651.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

        • Re: Just Bought It? (Score:5, Informative)

          by whit3 ( 318913 ) on Wednesday January 14, 2026 @02:04AM (#65923022)
          Sonic "Intramodulation distortion" does NOT stress brain tissue. Sonics aren't what is being discussed here, but radio. It's just not possible to transmit enough sonic energy through atmosphere to get into a skull. Delicate imaging with safe ultrasound levels requires good solid transducer coupling or the skull just... stops it cold. Solids can transmit very loud sounds. So can liquids. Air, not so much (and it'd hurt your ears, not the grey matter of your brain).

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by kackle ( 910159 )
            Yes, but there are paths to the brain (and its equally important brain stem) which are not skull-protected--the ear canals, eyes, under the jaw and for that matter, through the nasal sinuses. One woman said she heard something unusual that changed as she turned her head before it all happened. One woman said it happened during sleeping when one would be parallel to the ground, allowing a path through the jaw. Just thinking out loud...

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by GoRK ( 10018 )

            Nonlinear accoustics is a thing; there's not technically an upper limit for the amount of energy you can drive a transducer with though I would assume it would be extremely difficult to couple enough energy through to cause any real damage. I know personally that it can sound quite loud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

            I also have little confidence this sort of thing is involved here; Occam's razor says it's a big nothing burger so I'm gonna stick with that until someone brings something concrete forward

    • It's a pentagon plot device to make you have a vague sense of fear of very intelligent, yet very stupid and bad people out there.
    • Bought from who though?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by zlives ( 2009072 )

        the Blindspot set storage facility, TBH their device was bigger than backpack, but was still in development.

  • Very misleading headline (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @10:18PM (#65922806) Journal

    This is a very misleading headline based on what the article says. The summary makes it sound like the Pentagon had this device in Havana and their own device caused this syndrome. That's not the case at all.

    The Pentagon purchased the device as part of their investigation, and they tested the device and determined it could be the cause of the injuries and symptoms. It contains Russian components, but that doesn't mean that Russia deployed it or even made the complete device (although that is likely).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      What remains a mystery is how it could be deployed without being detected and located, and why it was wasted on relatively unimportant employees.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        And how it supposedly penetrated Faraday cages in poured concrete walls in basement rooms (the original location it was reported).

        • Agreed. If the cause was pulsed RF radiation it would have been detected years before this. The RF spectrum around an embassy is probably one of the most studied and analyzed environments outside an active war zone. Suggesting that a secretive pulsed RF signal was transmitted toward the embassy without being detected is just imaginative speculation. Extremely sensitive spectrum analyzers are recording continuously inside and outside the embassies.

          Past analysis has extensively studied the RF spectrum aro

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by unrtst ( 777550 )

            I think you give embassy security far too much credit. A pulsed signal, possibly using interference for amplification, on a band we can't hear, from a mobile source(s)... not being able to find it wouldn't surprise me.

            An analogy would be dozens of embassy agents wearing IR goggles, scouring the inside and outside for the embassy looking for faint glows of anonymous heat signatures of electronics, while at the same time failing to notice the huge flame thrower and spot light aimed toward the embassy walls.

            A huge flame throwing and spotlight... like the sun? Hide in plain sight - good luck pointing your camera at the sun seeing much.

        • I don't think it did. Did you see what they forked out for it? It's a more profitable scam for whoever sold them the thing than Red Mercury was, and just as dangerous.

          • If it's purely RF, and not a directed microwave thing (your microwave is 2.45GHz, and all of us are fine even standing near one), it should be easy to peel apart and figure out what the hell the thing is.
            Test the thing in a controlled setting... a group of people staged at distances, if it is maybe distance-related. If it's RF, it'd need a heckuva power supply that'd have to be plugged into the wall (at that level, it'd need a two-wheel dolly to move around ("Mommy, what's that thing?"). And, if it's RF-b

    • yah terrible description, even worse title for this post

    • and they tested the device and determined it could be the cause of the injuries and symptoms.

      Nothing in the article says that.

      • From the summary:

        Now comes word that a device, purchased by the Pentagon, has been tested which may be linked to what is known as Havana Syndrome.

        • This is nitpicking, but the sentence does not claim that it was 'determined' as you stated. It doesn't posit a connection, just states two properties 1. the device was tested and 2. it may be linked to Havana syndrome.
        • You are recombining two clauses and changing their relationship.br> They have tested a device [comma] which may be linked.
          You restructured as they have tested a device [and determined] it may be linked.

          That is incorrect.
          If that's a mistake- that's one thing. But it sounded to me like you were trying to read your own beliefs into the sentence.

    • This whole thing is clickbait, "russian components" implies that russia made it. There are still electronic components that are source from russia, components from russia means nothing.

      • Remember, most Russian military devices rely on US and Western-sourced chips and whatnot. Unless the thing has megawatt klystron tubes or some Cold War-era Marx generator attached to it, I highly doubt that "Russian components" was anything more than BS propaganda thrown in to get the crazies worked up. Already I see lots of intelligent discussion, but nobody is doing much more than one-upping each other or focusing on a narrow aspect of the whole phenomenon. I recommend a bit of research and an open mind
  • So few hard facts. This is just another story to create fear, uncertainty, doubt and a vague pretense to bomb more people somewhere, anywhere, please!

  • Mind-boggling (Score:3)

    by ve3oat ( 884827 ) on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @10:22PM (#65922818) Homepage
    So, an apparently portable device that can affect people apparently no matter where they worked in the embassy, and apparently or probably located at some distance from the embassy ... So, the rate of diminishment of the supposed radiation would be 1/r^2, I guess. So some kind of focussing process must be used to direct all that energy at the embassy. But it is still portable? And how does it affect anyone nearer to it than the embassy? No word about wavelength, so I suppose microwaves or shorter. So, lots of questions here.
    • The imagination can be impacted at nearly infinite distance

    • Maybe maybe not. The Havana Syndrome sufferers didn't suddenly get better leaving the embassy. Whatever problem they had persisted. It may not be the case of getting sick wherever in the embassy they worked, they may have all gotten sick in one very localised common area that could have been targeted. An obvious target would be the parking lot or the front door since those are open spaces that do less to attenuate radio waves. Not much is known here about what exposure is required for what duration.

  • I hope they didn't get snookered. If this "syndrome" is real, there's probably a very low-tech and more rational explanation for this.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Yeah, it's called IntraModulation Distortion, caused by the interaction of multiple ultrasonic devices resonating.

      https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-... [ieee.org]

  • So many things to click... (Score:3)

    by skogs ( 628589 ) on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @11:39PM (#65922896) Journal

    I clicked at least 5 of those links...none were to the actual current article.

    Shame on the submitter and editor here mixing the end of biden administration, 2015, and other random stuff.

    Dude just give me the article in question where USA bought a device from SOMEWHERE that looks like it might be the thing that did the thing.

  • Tens of millions of dollars to cause some discomfort in your enemy and occasionally get one of them to quit?

    Doesn't seem like an effective use of spending for Russia or Cuba.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      Doesn't seem like an effective use of spending for Russia or Cuba.

      True, but it wouldn't be the first time those countries spent money in sub-optimal ways.

  • It's an E-Meter connected to a dowsing rod.

    • Someone just sold it for 8 figures to the DoD. Get Rich Or Die Trying.

      • Yeah... I doubt the Russians have the capability to make an undetectable beam weapon capable of getting through concrete and faraday cages and probably lead panels etc.

        However, the capability to bamboozle some random government person struggling with diffuse health problems by telling them what they wanted to hear and selling them a junk gadget? That is a proven Russian capability. It's what they do in their free time!

    • Does it beep? I don't think it's legit unless it beeps.

  • I always wondered about this book...

    https://archive.org/details/Bu... [archive.org]

    and if someone has used modern components, with more power, and some optimizations to create some radio/ultrasonic gun to point and click.

    --Josh K.

  • Havana syndrome doesn't exist. It's a psychosomatic mass hysteria. Havana syndrome hasn't been "conclusively proven" false, only because it's virtually impossible to prove a negative. Several scientific bodies looked into it and found it to likely be psychosomatic. Intelligence agencies and the State department looked into it several and determined that it couldn't possibly just be in their heads and so issued multiple wildly differing theories with little to no evidence in their favor.

  • After all, physical effects can easily be detected. I mean, I can just run a wire from my $700 oscilloscope, set it to FFT and get everything, including a much higher noise-floor is somebody does UWB. For mechanical, use a small Piezo as converter and do the same thing. Yes, these will not be good measurements, but they are more than enough for detecting anything stronger than the normal noise floor.

    Pure magnetic or electrical does not have range. Gravitational cannot be done without huge masses. Weak and s

  • This comes right after conspiracy circles have been saying people reported nose bleeding and incapacitation from ultrasonic weapons during the operation on maduros capture.
  • Probably just another scam, someone cobbled together a do-nothing but looks plausible device and sold it to the Pentagon.
  • What an absolute pity if one the last communist governments on earth falls just a few years before robots/AI take all jobs. And toppled by a regime about to go full fascist by nulling the 2026 elections.
    Trump aims to strangle Cuba, but Cubans say this only punishes them https://english.elpais.com/int... [elpais.com]
  • There is no verified proof that a Pentagon device causes Havana Syndrome. There is a small-scale report that such a device is being tested and some investigators are curious about it, but the link is far from established. Headlines implying a clear connection are overstated according to the evidence currently available. Everyday people across the globe are experience a superset of symptoms that are attributed to autonomic dysregulation.

  • https://theins.ru/en/politics/... [theins.ru]
    "A yearlong investigation by The Insider, in collaboration with 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel, has uncovered evidence suggesting that unexplained anomalous health incidents, also known as Havana Syndrome, may have their origin in the use of directed energy weapons wielded by members of Russian GRU Unit 29155. Members of the Kremlin’s infamous military intelligence sabotage squad have been placed at the scene of suspected attacks on overseas U.S. government personnel and t

  • Is it powered by red mercury? :)
  • Probably what was used in Venezuela.
    https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2... [redstate.com]

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