State Department, CIA establishes federal payment rules for victims of "Havana Syndrome"

American diplomats suffering from mysterious neurological distress, partly known as Havana Syndrome According to thedraft rule, intelligence officers may be subject to federal compensation ranging from approximately $ 140,000 to $ 187,000. Issued by the State Department on Friday. The guidelines are a step forward forsuffering from the syndrome, but concerns about different treatments for victims of poorly understood conditions continue. 

According to State Department texts, current employees, ex-employees, and their dependentsare "eligible brain injuries." May be subject to. A one-time, tax-exempt, one-time payment fixed to the government's senior salary level. 

Base level payments are currently $ 140,475. Victims who do not indicate potential for reemployment, are approved for social security disability insurance, or require a full-time caregiver can receive up to $ 187,300. These amounts, such as federal salary levels, can change over time.  

Guidelines are unanimously passed by Congress and finally required by law signed by President Biden. The year known as the HAVANA Act. It approved funds for victim compensation and appointed the Federal Office to regularly renew its members for reported cases. The law allowed the Department of State, the CIA, and other agencies with affected personnel to establish their own eligibility criteria for compensation. The compensation has nothing to do with or replaces the provision of medical care to the victims, US officials emphasized. 

The CIA has also established its own criteria for affected personnel, but they remain categorized. For those familiar with this issue, agency guidelines are fairly similar to those drafted by the State Department, with an internal process to connect with ex-employees interested in reviewing standards and determining eligibility. Said it will be implemented.  

"The CIA is working with ministries and agencies to develop guidelines and implement these authorities as part of a coordinated process through the National Security Council," the CIA said. Said Tammy Thorpe, Director of Public Relations. "We are grateful to Congress for continuing to support the CIA's workforce, including through the HAVANA Act."  

The symptoms of Havana Syndrome include severe headaches and nausea. , Dizziness, ringing in the ears, cognitive impairment, etc. The syndrome was first identified among US and Canadian officials stationed in Havana, Cuba in 2016, but the cause is unknown. Several government-led investigations have determined that directional high-frequency energy is the most appropriate cause of the condition and that it is unlikely to be due to psychosomatic disorder or mass hysteria.  

Some victims and lawmakers are convinced that the incident was the result of a deliberate attack by a hostile government using directed-energy technology, but that view is No clear public evidence has emerged to confirm.   

The illness, which the Biden administration calls an "abnormal health incident," has been reported by American soldiers and diplomats in dozens and hundreds of new cases. Therefore, it attracted attention. In recent years, an intelligence officer who has been active overseas. Reports have been made from all populated continents, with a cumulative total of around 1,000 since 2016.  

Investigators then found another explanation for the majority of them. We focused on cases, and a few unexplained cases. In some of the most serious cases, American officials suffered from neurological symptoms that forced them to end their careers.  

When the State Department rules appear in the Federal Register, they contain US text. Government laws and regulations are subject to 30-day public comments coordinated by the Office of Management and Budget. Officials said they were expecting a great response from the victims and their families. Some victims have suffered from incapacitating symptoms for years and are paying for diagnosis and medical care. CIA guidelines will not be published in public comments.   

"Ministry has been focused on developing compassionate and consistently applicable regulations to ensure fair treatment throughout the U.S. Government. ", Said a spokesman for the National Security Council. He said. "We continue to promise that individuals reporting AHI will have access to medical care and will scrutinize the causes of these cases, regardless of whether the individual meets the eligibility criteria of the HAVANA Act. Continue. ” 

While thanking Congress for attention to illness and increased resources, some victim groups may qualify for whom and at what level. They have expressed concern about potential discrepancies between government internal standards, such as whether they exist. compensation. They said a lack of understanding of the causes and symptoms of the condition, and a lack of standardized screening or testing for it, could complicate efforts to determine eligibility.  

"There must be no discernible difference between the standards used and the implementation of the provisions of the HAVANA Act between relevant US government agencies," said Moscow in 2017. Trip to. "We hope that Congressional oversight will make the standards for personnel injured by the AHI as comprehensive as possible. It would be tragic if some were left behind."   

The Department of State's draft rule states that the Department of State "sought to establish a standard that it believes to broadly include the types of injuries reported by targeted individuals."  

The long-awaited guideline is in the midst of saying that people familiar with this issue are reducing the number of reported cases. The number of reported cases has skyrocketed as public awareness of the situation over the past year has increased, but current and former officials familiar with this trend have seen that new reports have dropped significantly since the beginning of 2022. It states that it did. 

Officials spoke on condition of anonymity, refused to provide a drop-off explanation, but acknowledged that some scenarios were possible. They said the number of reports could have declined naturally after public attention peaked. If a hostile actor is behind the incident, you may have changed course. Or there may be some degree of "restigma" in which the victim is discouraged from moving forward.  

In January, the CIA Task Force, dedicated to understanding the case, published theinterim report. Foreign actors "run a sustainable global campaign, harming US personnel with weapons and mechanics." The Task Force is said to be still scrutinizing about 20 "priority" cases that remained unexplained and did not exclude foreign actors, but is currently expected to update the report. not.   

Another report,, was published by a panel of experts convened by the Director of National Intelligence a few weeks later. Stated. Explained "plausibly" by pulsed electromagnetic energy, it reaffirms previous investigations into its most probable physical causes. The panel did not consider attribution-related questions, including whether the incident was the result of a deliberate attack. 

In:
• Cuba
• Havana Syndrome
• China