00:00 Hi, you are watching in depth with me Ela.
00:03 In a perhaps rare move, the Indian government has told the Karnataka High Court that it
00:08 will look into the matter of the Havana Syndrome in response to a Bengaluru residents recent
00:13 petition.
00:15 The petitioner had approached the court requesting a writ of mandamus for an inquiry on Havana
00:20 Syndrome in India.
00:22 So, what exactly is this syndrome?
00:26 Havana Syndrome is a colloquial name given to a set of symptoms such as dizziness, hearing
00:31 loss, headaches, vertigo, nausea, memory loss and possible brain injuries that has mostly
00:38 impacted US officials.
00:55 Symptoms are said to vary in type and severity, but often are reported to include the sudden
01:00 onset of severe headaches, difficulty concentrating, auditory disturbances, and even memory loss.
01:07 According to the victims, the symptoms were brought on by a piercing, high-pitched sound
01:12 as if they had been caught in an invisible beam of energy.
01:17 It was first reported in late 2016 by the US State Department personnel stationed in
01:22 the Cuban capital Havana and hence the name Havana Syndrome.
01:27 Over 1,500 cases have been documented across 96 countries.
01:33 Officially, such set of unexplained symptoms are referred by the USA as anomalous health
01:39 incidents.
01:41 Countries from which American officials have reported similar incidents include Colombia,
01:46 Russia, China, Austria, Serbia and Uzbekistan.
01:50 In India too, its first incident was reported in 2021.
01:56 Cases ascribed to the Havana Syndrome have also been reported from within the US.
02:02 The most astonishing fact about the Havana Syndrome is that it is said to only affect
02:07 the US officials, especially those who have affiliations with intelligence agencies.
02:13 No officials from other countries have perhaps ever reported such array of mysterious symptoms
02:19 except the few incidents of Canadian embassy staffs in Havana.
02:24 And that is why the US officials feared that some foreign power is in play who is deliberately
02:30 trying to target US intelligence officers and belittle US intelligence operations.
02:36 So, after an investigation, the US National Academies found that the most plausible explanation
02:43 was that the US officials were being attacked by directed, pulsed radio frequency energy,
02:49 which in other words mean, microwave attacks.
02:54 This technology dates back to the US-Soviet Cold War when high-powered beams were designed
02:59 to disable electronics.
03:01 During the Cold War, beams of microwaves were aimed at the US Embassy building in Moscow
03:07 from at 1953 to 1976.
03:11 But electronics or electronic communications were not disrupted during the 2016-2017 Havana
03:19 attacks.
03:20 Suggesting either that the power levels were lower than required or microwave-directed
03:25 energy weapons weren't used.
03:28 No concrete explanation was provided and this accentuated the fear in the US intelligence
03:33 community.
03:35 Few months back, a report that reviewed Havana Syndrome by the US intelligence community
03:42 found it very unlikely that a foreign adversary or energy weapon was behind it.
03:48 Of the seven intelligence agencies that undertook the investigation, five determined that available
03:54 intelligence consistently points against the involvement of US adversaries in causing the
03:59 reported incidents.
04:01 Till date, nothing conclusive has been proven about this syndrome.
04:07 It only adds to the intriguing world of Deep State, espionage and intelligence community
04:12 that have always been shrouded in mysteries.
