No "There" There

After a years long investigation, the US intelligence community has determined that whatever it might be, "Havana Syndrome" is not the result of activity by entities hostile to the United States.

Even if this is some sort of mass psychosomatic effect, it's still real people suffering real effects who need real help, and the physical injury is real.

My guess is that it is something like the red rash that plagued flight attendants at Eastern Airlines in 1980.  It turned to be caused by red inks on the life vests used in safety demonstrations at the start of flight.

It should be noted that if it is something like the Eastern Airlines incident, the intelligence community is likely not particularly well equipped to investigate the phenomenon.

Then again, considering there recent performance, neither is the CDC.

The mysterious ailment known as “Havana syndrome” did not result from the actions of a foreign adversary, according to an intelligence report that shatters a long-disputed theory that hundreds of U.S. personnel were targeted and sickened by a clandestine enemy wielding energy waves as a weapon.

The new intelligence assessment caps a years-long effort by the CIA and several other U.S. intelligence agencies to explain why career diplomats, intelligence officers and others serving in U.S. missions around the world experienced what they described as strange and painful acoustic sensations. The effects of this mysterious trauma shortened careers, racked up large medical bills and in some cases caused severe physical and emotional suffering.

………

Seven intelligence agencies participated in the review of approximately 1,000 cases of “anomalous health incidents,” the term the government uses to describe a constellation of physical symptoms including ringing in the ears followed by pressure in the head and nausea, headaches and acute discomfort.

Five of those agencies determined it was “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible for the symptoms, either as the result of purposeful actions — such as a directed energy weapon — or as the byproduct of some other activity, including electronic surveillance that unintentionally could have made people sick, the officials said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the findings of the assessment, which had not yet been made public.

As an aside, until there is someone willing to go on the record, this story is already longer than it should be.  When the source is the government, "Official Leaker" stories like this should not get the depth or prominence this article got.

………

One of the officials said that even in geographic locations where U.S. intelligence effectively had total ability to monitor the environment for signs of malicious interference, analysts found no evidence of an adversary targeting personnel.

“There was nothing,” the official said. This person added that there was no intelligence that foreign leaders, including in Russia, had any knowledge of or had authorized an attack on U.S. personnel that could explain the symptoms.

Clearly the leakers have official approval to release this information.

Still the suggestions of hostile action were always dubious.

If I were to make a guess, and as my reader(s) know, I always uninformed ones, my guess would be something like an insecticide or fungicide used in transport, or contaminated briefing materials. (Paper manufacturing produces dioxin, for example)