Senate Intelligence Committee criticizes CIA’s treatment of ‘Havana syndrome’ patients

A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report released Friday slammed the CIA for its treatment of patients with a mysterious ailment known as “Havana syndrome,” determining that “many individuals faced obstacles to timely and sufficient care.”

A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report released Friday slammed the CIA for its treatment of patients with a mysterious ailment known as “Havana syndrome,” determining that “many individuals faced obstacles to timely and sufficient care.” The report outlines 11 recommendations for the CIA to implement to address key concerns such as a lack of an “established clear and documented policies, guidance, and criteria for how it refers AHI (anomalous health incidents) reporters to facilitated treatment programs.” The recommendations also include developing written policies for medical care and benefit programs associated with AHIs, conducting a comprehensive organizational assessment of the CIA’s response to AHIs, and reestablishing a standard post-AHI evaluation to all AHI reporters who request one. Examples of insufficient care outlined in the report included patients who “experienced delayed, denied, or pre-conditioned care,” including “long wait times to access facilitated treatment options; were denied facilitated care by a CIA care adjudication board; perceived that their access to facilitated medical care was contingent on their willingness to participate in a NIH clinical research study.” A spokesperson for the CIA told CNN that during the periods covered in the report, the agency worked to both understand the problem and investigate the “possibility that foreign actors were harming US government personnel and their families.” “In that environment, supporting our officers and their families required us to dynamically adapt our programs and processes to changing needs and circumstances. Whether, in hindsight, we could have done better is for others to evaluate, but our commitment to ensuring that our officers and their families had access to the care they needed has never wavered,” the spokesperson said, emphasizing that the agency has “no greater responsibility than to care for the health and safety of our people.” The mysterious illness first emerged in late 2016, when a cluster of diplomats stationed in the Cuban capital of Havana began reporting symptoms consistent with head trauma, including dizziness and extreme headaches.