Report on mysterious health ailment that affected US government workers clashes with conclusion by panel of scientists last year

A review by US intelligence agencies could not conclude that a foreign adversary was behind “Havana syndrome,” a mysterious health ailment that affected US government workers overseas, the Washington Post reports.

The determination in a report authored by seven intelligence agencies clashes with a conclusion reached by a panel of expert scientists last year, which found pulsed electromagnetic energy and ultrasound could be behind the mysterious symptoms that include headaches, nausea and ringing in the ears – which in some cases has grown debilitating for those affected.

Seven intelligence agencies participated in the review of approximately 1,000 cases of “anomalous health incidents,” the term the government uses to describe a constellation of physical symptoms including ringing in the ears followed by pressure in the head and nausea, headaches and acute discomfort.

Five of those agencies determined it was “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible for the symptoms, either as the result of purposeful actions — such as a directed energy weapon — or as the byproduct of some other activity, including electronic surveillance that unintentionally could have made people sick, the officials said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the findings of the assessment, which had not yet been made public.