“People don't understand what this kind of brain damage can do to you,” Tina Onufer said. “So it's very easy for people to be dismissive and say, 'But you look fine.' But the reality is, I'm not.”
— a mysterious set of symptoms, some of which are linked to brain injuries, that by now have afflicted as many as 200 American diplomats, intelligence officers and other personnel around the world.
During the Trump administration, top officials, including CIA Director Gina Haspel, did not treat Havana Syndrome as a high priority, and some officials in the CIA were openly skeptical, current and former intelligence officials say. For the past eight months, under President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Tony Blinken and CIA Director William Burns, the federal government has stepped up its efforts to investigate the cause while smoothing the way for the afflicted to get treatment.
Some officials believe that if directed energy is the culprit, it may have begun as a method of collecting intelligence that has now been weaponized, multiple sources told NBC News.CIA officers and State Department employees deployed overseas are now given the option of baseline blood testing, so that if they are struck by the syndrome doctors can have a basis of comparison.
One of the confounding elements of Havana Syndrome is that many apparent victims experienced it differently.
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