Pentagon Asks Personnel to Report Any Symptoms of Mysterious Ailments

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is asking each subject personnel, civilian officials and contractors to study immoderate anomalous wellness episodes akin to the illnesses that person befallen diplomats and C.I.A. officers astatine the American Embassy successful Havana, according to a caller departmentwide message.

The message, signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, is an effort to measurement up reporting from astir the globe, and successful the United States, to get attraction to those who request it and to assistance counterintelligence investigators stitchery much accusation astir the rash of episodes that person injured astatine slightest 200 Americans.

The memo, on with different documents provided to subject counterintelligence officials, lays retired suspected signs of the attacks from accounts of the injured, including heat, unit and noise. It besides details symptoms associated with the alleged Havana syndrome specified arsenic nausea, headaches, symptom and vertigo.

Crucially, defence officials emphasized, the memo, which was sent to 2.9 cardinal subject work members and Defense Department civilians, outlines however to respond: Quickly determination distant from the area.

“Timely reporting is indispensable and starts with knowing what to bash if you acquisition A.H.I.,” Mr. Austin wrote, utilizing the abbreviation for anomalous wellness incident.

Military unit indispensable past study the occurrence to the concatenation of command, information officers and aesculapian providers, Mr. Austin wrote.

The memo is portion of a governmentwide effort to cod much accusation astir the episodes and comes arsenic quality officials proceed to conflict to marque wide attribution connected who is responsible. Intelligence agencies are getting person to making immoderate conclusions, but the authorities is not adjacent capable to marque an “analytic judgment,” David S. Cohen, the lawman C.I.A. director, said this week.

“There’s a classical quality problem, and we are approaching it with the aforesaid techniques,” Mr. Cohen said astatine the yearly Intelligence and National Security Summit. “This is simply a superior issue. It’s real, it’s affecting our officers, it’s affecting others astir their assemblage and successful government.”

“We’re going to fig it out,” helium added.

There are assorted reasons the United States has struggled to place who, and what, is liable for the episodes. Officials person considered that quality services from aggregate countries could beryllium involved, each with varying motives and instrumentality causing the illnesses, according to immoderate U.S. officials.

Officials accent that the anticipation of aggregate adversaries remains lone a theory, and that quality officials person yet to gully hard conclusions.

But Cold War-era surveillance exertion developed by the Soviet Union proliferated to different countries, each of which has instrumentality that could punctual symptoms akin to erstwhile attacks.

In astatine slightest immoderate of the Havana syndrome cases, the exertion was utilized by the G.R.U., Russia’s subject quality agency, to eavesdrop but not to deliberately injure, according to immoderate American officials. But different aboriginal episodes look much similar deliberate attacks by the G.R.U., these officials said.

In different cases Russian quality whitethorn not beryllium progressive astatine all, beyond having shared the technology. Some quality agencies whitethorn person utilized faulty oregon severely calibrated microwave-based surveillance exertion and inadvertently injured the American officials they were spying on.

The archetypal batch of cases occurred astatine the American Embassy successful Havana successful 2016 and 2017. The adjacent radical occurred astatine diplomatic outposts successful China, a state wherever it would person been hard for Russian quality to operate, according to officials briefed connected the intelligence.

Since then, officials person tracked cases successful Europe and Asia.

Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the president of the House Intelligence Committee, said successful an interrogation this summertime that aggregate countries could beryllium progressive and that it was captious not to disregard assorted explanations.

“I don’t deliberation we tin exclude immoderate anticipation here, that determination are aggregate causes of these injuries and that determination are aggregate players progressive successful these injuries,” Mr. Schiff said. “I deliberation immoderate of that is feasible.”

The House is considering a Senate-approved bill that would grow assistance to existent and erstwhile authorities officials injured successful anomalous incidents and suffering from the Havana syndrome. A ballot scheduled successful July was delayed by partisan fighting, but immoderate officials accidental different accidental to ballot could travel by the extremity of the month.

In July, William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, told NPR that determination were astir 200 Havana syndrome cases, fractional of which progressive bureau personnel. Since then, further episodes person occurred, including 1 successful Vietnam that temporarily delayed Vice President Kamala Harris’s sojourn to the country. Other cases person been removed from study, with officials believing they bash not acceptable the syndrome’s pattern.

Additional reports tin assistance investigators larn much astir the attacks, observe patterns and get person to determining a cause, a elder defence authoritative said.

The Pentagon memo to the enactment unit was delayed for months arsenic officials installed procedures to amended analyse episodes and creaseless the way to aesculapian attraction for the injured.

While the astir superior cases among subject officials volition beryllium treated astatine Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, little sedate cases could beryllium treated locally.

In the memo, Mr. Austin urged work members and others to study immoderate episodes, peculiarly ones that person similarities to the Havana syndrome affecting diplomats and C.I.A. officers stationed successful Cuba.

Mr. Austin’s memo said the episodes had occurred “predominantly overseas.” But Pentagon officials and documents person acknowledged that portion that is the case, immoderate of the anomalies person occurred successful the United States.

Administration officials person antecedently said that 2 episodes successful the Washington, D.C., country could beryllium imaginable examples of Havana syndrome.

Throughout the year, White House and different authorities officials person tried to rise consciousness of the episodes and promote radical to study symptoms of the syndrome but besides debar creating panic.

The caller Pentagon proposal is based connected the acquisition of subject unit who person been injured and person symptoms of Havana syndrome.

That includes 1 case, successful the autumn of 2020, erstwhile a subject serviceman serving overseas pulled his conveyance into an intersection, then was flooded by nausea and headaches. His 2-year-old son, sitting successful the backmost seat, began crying. When the serviceman rapidly pulled distant from the intersection, his nausea stopped and the kid stopped crying, a concatenation of events that helped solidify the subject proposal that troops determination retired of the interaction country arsenic rapidly arsenic possible.