In early 2022, CIA formally concluded, after reviewing over a thousand possible cases, that AHIs were not the result of hostile foreign action, without entirely ruling out such a possibility in a few cases. Following up, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in March 2023 announced that most IC agencies concluded it was “very unlikely” that AHIs were caused by a foreign adversary, without explaining the analysis leading to such a conclusion. That information was kept classified, out of public view. “Trust us, we know” was the ODNI message, which didn’t go down well with many intelligence personnel who have had their lives and careers damaged, often ruined, by whatever is causing AHIs.

However, Biden’s IC leadership, with its official denials, had the rug pulled out from under them by the recent one-two punch by CBS News’ 60 Minutes and a deep-dive by The Insider, which together made a compelling case that Russia is behind Havana Syndrome, and has been for decades. This tracked with the spook rumor mill, which for years had fingered Moscow, in particular its Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, known as GRU. This new reporting convincingly concluded that GRU’s sinister Unit 29155, its nasty wetwork shop, was behind AHIs, attacking in dozens of locations worldwide, including inside the United States.

The response of IC leadership to this bombshell was…nothing.