Havana Syndrome Victims to Receive Financial Support Under New Law - The Wall Street Journal
The law Mr. Biden signed, the Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks (HAVANA) Act, enables the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the secretary of State and other agency heads to provide financial compensation to individuals affected by the incidents. Many say they have shouldered significant out-of-pocket medical costs.
“Civil servants, intelligence officers, diplomats and military personnel all around the world have been affected by anomalous health incidents,” Mr. Biden said in a statement, using the U.S. government’s term for the attacks. “Some are struggling with debilitating brain injuries that have curtailed their careers of service to our nation. Addressing these incidents has been a top priority for my administration.”
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Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who helped write the legislation, said that with the law’s enactment, “Havana Syndrome victims will finally receive the financial assistance and medical support that they deserve.”
Mr. Biden’s signing of the law comes as senior administration officials say his administration has issued new guidance to government national security personnel, including at the White House National Security Council, on what to do if they suspect they are under attack. The guidance instructs individuals, if they feel the sudden onset of sound, heat or pressure to the head, to move away from the area.
A senior official described the guidance, first reported by McClatchy Newspapers, as part of a broader White House effort on the issue, which includes ensuring quicker medical attention for those affected, standardizing reporting and evaluation of cases across agencies, and aggressively investigating who and what is behind the incidents.
Attacks have been reported against U.S. officials serving overseas, and in some cases their families, in Austria, China, Colombia, Germany, Serbia and elsewhere. An official traveling with CIA Director William Burns in India in September reported symptoms, and Vice President Kamala Harris temporarily delayed her arrival in Hanoi in August, following reports of an incident there.
In December, a panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said that the abrupt onset of symptoms was most consistent with “a directed radio frequency (RF) energy attack” rather than inadvertent or environmental exposure. But it also said that more research was needed, noting the illness was “unlike any disorder in the neurological or general medical literature.”
A senior CIA official said this week that U.S. intelligence agencies haven’t conclusively determined how the attacks are being conducted, nor who is responsible. “We’ve developed interesting leads, but nothing that causes us to come to any firm conclusions,” the official said.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines is overseeing a panel of intelligence analysts and outside scientific experts tasked with determining the mechanism used in the attack. The panel’s work is expected to conclude later this fall.
Former CIA and State Department officials said that until recently, their reports of symptoms weren’t taken seriously by agency leaders, which forced them to seek care on their own. Some have had to resign from government over the health issues.
“For too long, too many of us have been treated as adversaries and not partners by our own agencies,” said Robyn Garfield, a Commerce Department officer who was injured in Shanghai in 2018 and leads a Havana Syndrome victim advocacy group. “That needs to stop and we need to remain united to protect the workforce, determine the source of the attacks and also continue with our important work.”
Corrections & Amplifications
Havana Syndrome attacks have been reported in Colombia and other countries. A previous version of this article misspelled the name of the South American nation as Columbia. (Corrected on Oct. 8)
Write to Warren P. Strobel at [email protected]
source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/havana-syndrome-victims-to-get-u-s-support-under-new-law-11633717099
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