OPINION:
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A few weeks back, I made a rare visit to the CIA for a friend’s retirement ceremony. I walked into the headquarters in Langley and greeted the security officer while looking up at the stars on the Memorial Wall. When I departed, I repeated the same ritual, just as I had done for decades as a staff officer.
The Memorial Wall is a poignant reminder of the courageous CIA officers who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our nation. It is also a call to action for those who continue to serve, to honor our fallen heroes by relentlessly advancing the CIA’s mission to protect the country from attack.
With that as a prelude, recall that just this past April, a U.S. government staff officer died after being stricken first with Havana syndrome and then with bile duct cancer.
The staff officer was reportedly afflicted with Havana syndrome while on an official assignment in Europe. Like many others who have been targeted, she felt a sudden change of air pressure and intense pressure in one of her eyes at the moment of attack. She suffered vision loss and received extensive medical treatment, which revealed asymptomatic Stage 4 cancer.
Zoe means “life” in Greek, which sums up the staff officer’s vivacious personality. She was known for being compassionate and selfless, a trusted friend and highly respected colleague, with tremendous substantive expertise and a deep patriotic commitment to serving our nation.
Havana syndrome, which authorities now refer to more vaguely as “anomalous health incidents,” was first detected in 2016, when U.S. diplomats serving in Cuba reported experiencing vertigo, headaches, fatigue and hearing loss. Since then, U.S. officials serving in China, South Asia, Europe and even Washington have reported symptoms related to the mystifying condition.
Retired CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos, who was medical treated for Havana syndrome at Walter Reed Hospital, was in Moscow on official travel in 2017 when he awoke in his hotel room with severe nausea and vertigo. The National Academies of Sciences concluded in a December 2020 report that “directed, pulsed radio-frequency energy” was the most “plausible mechanism” to explain what was happening to U.S. personnel in so many places.
KGB operative-in-the-Kremlin President Vladimir Putin, who also served as director of Russia’s Federal Security Service, is no stranger to cloak-and-dagger espionage. He ordered the attack using the banned chemical weapon Novichok against Russian defector Sergei Skripal, a former military intelligence officer, and against the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Mr. Putin also turned FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko into a human dirty bomb by poisoning him with polonium-210 in 2006 in London.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Greg Edgreen, who led the Department of Defense investigation of Havana syndrome claims, recently stated he was confident Russia was behind the attacks. Investigative journalist Christo Grozev concluded that Russia’s GRU military intelligence’s Unit 29155, known for its expertise in surveillance, explosives and poisoning techniques, likely carried out the hits.
When he was nominated for the job, CIA Director William Burns emphasized it was his duty to “ensure that my colleagues get the care that they deserve and that we get to the bottom of what caused these incidents and who was responsible.” The CIA’s January 2022 interim report, however, could not pinpoint any state or non-state actor responsible for the mysterious cases, an intelligence gap that has yet to be filled in.
Nevertheless, President Biden in 2021 signed the Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks (HAVANA) Act, which authorizes one-time lump-sum payments to those who suffered from anomalous health incidents, including “acute injury to the brain” and other traumatic brain injuries. More research is needed to determine whether cancer might be another consequence of Havana syndrome attacks.
As for the staff officer who died in the spring, it is, of course, up to the CIA whether publicly to disclose her intelligence affiliation — if indeed there was one. More important, however, is what happens behind the scenes at the agency.
Inscribed in stone in the CIA’s headquarters lobby are the words: “Ye Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Make You Free.”
If the staff officer had served at the CIA, then Mr. Burns might have considered adding a star to honor her sacrifice on the Memorial Wall, even if the “Book of Honor” beneath the Memorial Wall would have displayed only the year of death.
The star would inspire CIA officers to never give up their quest to determine who was responsible for these horrific attacks so we can ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice, and the attacks never happen again.
• Daniel N. Hoffman is a retired clandestine services officer and former chief of station with the Central Intelligence Agency. His combined 30 years of government service included high-level overseas and domestic positions at the CIA. He has been a Fox News contributor since May 2018.
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