By Jill Erzen

U.S. agents secretly purchased a portable microwave weapon capable of causing brain injuries like those reported in Havana Syndrome cases, according to a new investigation by “60 Minutes.”

The device — small enough to carry in a backpack and powerful enough to send a beam through walls and windows — was reportedly obtained from a Russian criminal network in a covert 2024 operation funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.

U.S. officials tested the still-classified weapon for more than a year at a military laboratory. Experiments on rats and sheep produced injuries similar to those reported by American diplomats, intelligence officers and military personnel who say they were “struck by an unseen force.”

Since 2016, hundreds of possible Havana Syndrome incidents have been reported around the world — and even inside the U.S. Some reportedly occurred near the White House and at CIA headquarters in Virginia.

Victims describe sudden attacks that feel like a powerful force striking the head.

One former Air Force officer told “60 Minutes” he was hit five times in five months in 2020, all in his own home in northern Virginia.

“The second attack, I was standing in my kitchen looking out at the back woods, and it felt like an immediate vice on my head. Immediately disoriented, confused and dizzy,” he said.

“The fifth one was by far the worst … I woke up with a full body convulsion. The worst pain I have ever felt. It felt like a vice gripping my brain stem was there,” he said.

Others reported piercing ear pain, vertigo, ringing in the ears, headaches and lasting neurological damage.

‘People all over the country’ are getting sick

Millions of people report headaches, insomnia, heart palpitations and other symptoms when exposed to electromagnetic radiation (EMR).

Scientists often describe clusters of symptoms linked to high exposure to electromagnetic fields as EMR Syndrome, “microwave syndrome” or RF sickness.

According to Miriam Eckenfels, director of the EMR & Wireless Program at Children’s Health Defense, the “60 Minutes” report highlights a key detail: The weapon appears to rely on specific patterns of pulsed radiofrequency (RF) radiation.

“The piece shows that Havana Syndrome is linked to ‘unique’ pulsation and modulation of RF radiation,” Eckenfels said. “That’s important because 5G technology also relies on pulsation and modulation.”

She said the overlap helps explain why people around the country report experiencing symptoms after exposure to wireless infrastructure.

“We’re hearing from people all over the country who say they’re getting sick at an increasingly fast pace when exposed to 5G towers and antennas,” Eckenfels said.

Symptoms of Havana Syndrome mirror EMR sickness 

Scientists have suspected for years that microwave radiation could be responsible for at least some of the Havana Syndrome injuries.

“The most plausible explanation for a subset of these cases was a form of radio frequency or microwave energy,” said Dr. David A. Relman, a physician at Stanford University who led government investigations into the mysterious illness in the early 2020s.

Microwaves, part of the electromagnetic spectrum, power everyday technologies, including radar, Wi-Fi and cellphones. Researchers have studied their biological effects for decades.

Relman said earlier research — much of it conducted in the former Soviet Union — explored how pulsed microwave energy could disrupt the brain and nervous system.

Those experiments showed the radiation could trigger “loss of consciousness to seizures to memory lapses, inability to concentrate, headaches, intense pressure, pain, disorientation, difficulty with balance,” Relman said.

Many of those symptoms closely match what Havana Syndrome victims report.

“When you produce pulses like this, you can actually stimulate electrically active tissue like brain tissue,” Relman said.

Eckenfels said the list of symptoms also mirrors those reported by people suffering from EMR exposure.

“The symptoms we hear from Havana Syndrome victims — tinnitus, cognitive impairment, brain fog, trouble sleeping, hearing loss, headaches and dizziness — are all well-documented symptoms of EMR sickness linked to radiofrequency radiation from cellphones and towers,” she said. “The parallels are striking, and we should be paying attention.”

However, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reviewed the illnesses reported by U.S. diplomats in Cuba in 2016 and later in China, and stopped short of blaming microwave weapons.

According to its 2020 report, there were “multiple hypotheses” as to what caused the symptoms, “but evidence has been lacking, no hypothesis has been proven and the circumstances remain unclear.”

Pentagon introduced weapon using targeted waves in 2001

According to “60 Minutes,” the weapon obtained by U.S. investigators can operate silently and does not produce the noticeable heat associated with a microwave oven.

The device can be programmed to emit rapidly pulsing electromagnetic waves and can be controlled remotely from hundreds of feet away. Investigators say the beam can penetrate materials such as glass and drywall.

Classified videos reviewed by investigators appear to show possible attacks.

In one clip, two FBI agents were dining with their families in an Istanbul restaurant when a man carrying a backpack walked in. Suddenly, everyone grabbed their heads in pain.

The idea of using electromagnetic energy as a weapon is not new.

In 2001, the Pentagon introduced the Active Denial System, a directed energy crowd-dispersal weapon that uses millimeter waves instead of microwaves to create an intense burning sensation on the skin of people hundreds of yards away.

A directed energy weapon uses highly focused energy, not a solid projectile, to damage its target.

5G cellular networks use higher-frequency millimeter wave transmissions.

Unlike the crowd-control weapon, the microwave weapon described in the “60 Minutes” report appears designed to affect the brain and nervous system rather than the skin.

Wider concerns about microwave radiation

The Havana Syndrome investigation has also renewed attention to research on the health effects of microwave and millimeter-wave radiation.

A 2015 study by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers found that excessive exposure to millimeter waves could produce burns “like those produced when a person touches hot objects or flames.”

Other research suggests possible neurological effects.

In a 2022 study in the journal Medicinsk Access, Swedish researchers reported that two people living beneath a newly installed 5G base station developed symptoms associated with “microwave syndrome.”

The symptoms, which included headaches, dizziness and sleep problems, improved after they moved to a location with lower radiation levels.

‘This is a massive CIA cover-up’

Despite the growing evidence, the U.S. Intelligence Community has maintained that it is “very unlikely” that a microwave weapon is responsible for the Havana Syndrome incidents.

Many victims strongly dispute that finding.

Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos experienced a sudden attack in a Moscow hotel room in 2017, he told “60 Minutes.”

“I woke up in the middle of the night… with incredible vertigo,” he said. “The room was spinning. I had a blinding headache. … It was a terrifying feeling.”

Polymeropoulos later retired because of ongoing health problems, including migraines, vision issues and cognitive difficulties.

“This is a massive CIA cover-up,” he said.

Relman said the government’s response to his investigations troubled him.

“What really unnerves me is the confidence with which others have dismissed or ignored this work,” he said.

“When we began our work, we were … told nothing in the scientific literature will support the idea that microwave energy can do things like this. … And it almost seems as though consistency was more important than objectivity,” Relman said

Watch the ‘60 Minutes’ report here:

Related articles in The Defender

• Report on ‘Havana Syndrome’ Prompts Call for More Research Into Health Impact of 5G
• Wireless Radiation Sickness Gets a New Name: ‘EMR Syndrome’
• 5G Radiation Causes ‘Microwave Syndrome’ Symptoms, Study Finds
• ‘Every American Wearing a Wearable’ Is Not a Vision We Share

The post ‘60 Minutes’ Investigation Fuels Debate Over RF Radiation and 5G appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.

 

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