Earlier this week Buzzfeed revealed that back in 2018 a group of US scientific advisors concluded that recordings made by some alleged victims of Havana Syndrome were actually of a species of noisy crickets. The report suggested Havana Syndrome itself was likely a form of mass hysteria. However, the White House pushed back on that claim and today Politico has a story in which unnamed officials claim there is new evidence that Havana Syndrome is real.

The U.S. government’s investigation into the mysterious illnesses impacting American personnel overseas and at home is turning up new evidence that the symptoms are the result of directed-energy attacks, according to five lawmakers and officials briefed on the matter.

Behind closed doors, lawmakers are also growing increasingly confident that Russia or another hostile foreign government is behind the suspected attacks, based on regular briefings from administration officials — although there is still no smoking gun linking the incidents to Moscow.

So what is the evidence that has lawmakers convinced? Politico doesn’t really say because some of that is still classified. The general impression is that there is now significant medical evidence that people making these complaints have suffered serious brain injuries that couldn’t have been caused by mass hysteria.

“I think that’s quackery,” Rubio said of those who have argued that the symptoms are psychosomatic. “I’d invite them to explain that to the now-dozens of people who have suffered documented brain injuries that in many cases have made them incapable of ever working again.”

According to three people familiar with the matter, the Intelligence Committee’s review — based on weekly updates from the intelligence community — has continued to buttress a December 2020 report by the National Academy of Sciences which concluded that the most plausible explanation for the incidents was “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy.”…

Rubio, one of eight lawmakers privy to the most sensitive intelligence information, said the neurologists and U.S. officials who have examined the victims have found that they’re suffering from “very traumatic brain injuries” that likely came from an external force.

President Biden apparently agrees with Sen. Rubio. Today he signed legislation that will offer financial support to victims of Havana Syndrome.

The Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks Act, or Havana Act, passed unanimously in the Senate in June. After multiple delays, the House voted unanimously late last month to send the legislation to Biden’s desk.

“I want to thank Congress for passing it with unanimous bipartisan support, sending the clear message that we take care of our own,” Biden said in a statement. “We are bringing to bear the full resources of the U.S. Government to make available first-class medical care to those affected and to get to the bottom of these incidents, including to determine the cause and who is responsible.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), one of the authors of the legislation, has cast it as an attempt to help U.S. personnel who have had to “battle the bureaucracy to receive care for their debilitating injuries.” Collins was among those who attended Friday’s signing ceremony at the White House, which was closed to the press.

A former FBI counterintelligence director said yesterday, “these attacks have stepped-up in their brazenness.” He added that ultimately, “we need to lay hands on who’s doing this.” He’s right on both counts. If this is real then that means there are agents out there using some kind of real weapon on people. That weapon and the people responsible have to be found. Once that happens, everything else will fall into place.