Havana Syndrome: The Invisible Illness That Split American Intelligence

2026-06-20 · Signals & Sounds · 8 min read

It came, one officer said, like a beam of sound aimed directly at his head.

In December 2016 a CIA officer working under diplomatic cover in Havana was in his apartment when a piercing, high-pitched noise seemed to bore in from a single direction. Within days came dizziness, pressure headaches and hearing loss. He was the first documented case of what the world would come to call Havana Syndrome, though the United States government, weighing every word, insisted on the flatter and more careful label anomalous health incidents.

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