WASHINGTON, January 13. /TASS/. As part of an undercover operation, the Pentagon acquired a device that allegedly causes the so-called Havana syndrome and carried out over a year of tests with it, CNN reported citing sources.

According to them, the Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, acquired the device for several million dollars provided by the military department, shortly before the inauguration of the current president Donald Trump in January 2025. CNN sources said they paid "eight figures," but stopped short of revealing the exact figure.

The TV channel explained that the device generates pulsed radio waves, which, according to some officials and scientists, could be the driver of previously reported so-called "acoustic attacks." CNN sources claim that the device contains Russian components, but that it is not fully Russian-made. The authorities are trying to understand how equipment powerful enough to cause the harm reported by some victims could have been made portable. One of the TV channel's sources said that the device fits in an ordinary backpack.

Experts continue to study the device and are looking for its connection to dozens of bizarre incidents that the authorities have not been able to explain. According to CNN, some Washington administration officials are skeptical about this equipment. However, the United States fears that if this technology proves effective, it may spread around the world. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) declined to comment on this information to CNN. The sources did not inform the TV channel from whom the device was purchased. It is also unclear how the US government found out about the existence of this device.

Intelligence and medical findings

In March 2023, the American intelligence community acknowledged it was "very unlikely" that US adversaries had used "directed energy" against victims who suffered from the so-called Havana syndrome. It also called it unlikely that any country, including Russia, could have purposely given Havana syndrome to a number of American civil servants. Intelligence, in fact, ruled out the possibility that Russia, China, Cuba, or any other country or group of individuals were behind the unexplained cases.

In the United States, the media and officials usually explain that the syndrome is caused by some kind of "acoustic attacks" or the effects of "directed energy." The American authorities claimed that as a result of some kind of external influence in Havana, more than 40 US diplomats have been affected since November 2016. Washington blamed Havana for the incidents. Cuba has repeatedly denied involvement. In October 2017, Cuban experts also said the United States could have mistaken the chirping of crickets or cicadas for "acoustic attacks." In recent years, similar symptoms have been reported in American government employees around the world.

In mid-March 2024, the US National Institutes of Health published a specialized study in which they admitted that they had not found significant brain damage in American civil servants who experienced symptoms of Havana syndrome.