NSA document reveals Russians had microwave weapon suspected in attacks

NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

Russia’s government since the 1990s has had the type of microwave weapons that are suspected in the covert attacks on U.S. intelligence officials and diplomats that have caused what has come to be known as “Havana syndrome.”

A National Security Agency document dated Oct. 16, 2014, revealed the microwave weapon in an unclassified statement. The statement is related to an incident involving two NSA counterintelligence officials working in Russia in 1996 who later suffered debilitating brain-related injuries after a suspected microwave attack.

The two officials, Chuck Gubete and Mike Beck, suffered from the now-familiar symptoms — dizziness and diminished cognition — that were later experienced by U.S. diplomatic personnel in Havana in 2015. Gubete died several years ago, and Mr. Beck has Parkinson’s disease, which he believes was caused by a brain attack in Russia.

The unclassified document states that NSA had confirmed intelligence information from 2012 about a microwave weapon held by a “hostile country” where Mr. Beck traveled in the late 1990s. NSA officials stated the weapon is “a high-powered microwave weapon that may have the ability to weaken, intimidate or kill an enemy over time and without leaving evidence.”

“The 2021 intelligence information indicated that this weapon is designed to bathe a target’s living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system,” the document states.

The NSA concluded there was no evidence the weapon was used against Mr. Beck.

The document was made public by former NSA counterintelligence official John Schindler.

Mr. Schindler said in an article published this week in his Top Secret Umbra newsletter that the U.S. intelligence community’s official denial of the use of such weapons against Havana syndrome sufferers represents “the greatest scandal in the history of American intelligence.”

The NSA document appears to contradict the official position of Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, who said in 2023 in an annual threat assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that it was “very unlikely” that cases of Havana syndrome — dubbed “anomalous health incidents,” or AHIs — were produced by attacks from hostile actors.

Ms. Haines has said America’s adversaries, including Russia, are not engaged in a global campaign causing anomalous health incidents. The official intelligence community view is that the victims of the attacks, numbering in the hundreds, are suffering from maladies caused by “preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses and environmental factors.”

The conclusion has angered many intelligence personnel and diplomats who believe they were attacked with a brain-targeting weapon. Intelligence agencies are coming under increasing fire from Congress and elsewhere for playing down the possible attacks.

In March, CBS’ “60 Minutes” reported new information linking Russia to the brain-injury attacks. In the 1996 case, the two NSA officials in Russia were both hit with a weapon while sleeping in a hotel. Ten years later, both were diagnosed with unusual, early onset of Parkinson’s.

Mr. Schindler said he has interviewed more than a dozen current and former intelligence officials who say they were hit with the weapon. He believes the 1996 attack was directly the work of Russian and Cuban intelligence operatives using backpack-carried weapons or vehicle-deployed microwave arms.

Havana syndrome is unlike past intelligence failures, he said.

“Here, the leadership of the intelligence community has conspired with the White House and whoever is really running the Biden administration to deny and conceal that hostile intelligence services are attacking and crippling Americans, mostly [intelligence community]  personnel, all over the world, including at home,” Mr. Schindler said.

Hundreds of Americans are victims of the attacks in more than a dozen countries, including reported cases in the D.C. area and Florida.

The Russian microwave gun was developed under the Soviet KGB late in the Cold War era, and U.S. spies have identified numerous variants, Mr. Schindler said. The guns have ranges of up to several hundred yards, with the smallest backpack version capable of targeting people at 100 yards or less.

“To any veteran counterspy, it’s evident that Moscow and Havana are systematically taking out [intelligence] personnel they fear,” he said. “As one victim explained to me: ‘If they can’t recruit you, they cripple you.’”

Mr. Schindler’s report made no mention that some of Havana syndrome sufferers were working at diplomatic outposts in China when they experienced brain injury symptoms.

The Washington Times reported in July 2023 that the Chinese military is developing high-technology weapons designed to disrupt brain functions and influence government leaders or entire populations. The weapons can be used to directly attack or control brains using microwave or other directed energy weapons in hand-held guns or larger weapons firing electromagnetic beam.

Mr. Schindler disclosed that Turkish intelligence has video evidence of a microwave attack on two visiting FBI agents. The video was obtained by NSA hackers.

The current version of the House intelligence authorization bill contains a provision to set up a commission to investigate whether the incidents affecting U.S. personnel are from hostile attacks or other factors.

A spokesman for the NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the NSA document.

Australian ambassador derailed U.S. plan for Pacific police initiative

Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, torpedoed American plans to set up a multinational policing initiative with strategic Pacific island nations, an initiative meant to blunt growing Beijing security influence in the region.

The ambassador’s opposition was disclosed in a leaked conversation between Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who announced an Australia-led version of the police program on Aug. 27 in Tonga.

Mr. Campbell is overheard on a leaked video telling Mr. Albanese that the initiative is “fantastic.”

“I talked with Kevin [Rudd] about it and so you know, we were going to do something like that and he asked us not to, so we did not,” Mr. Campbell said.

Critics said the ambassador’s opposition is a sign that Mr. Rudd, who has a reputation for favoring conciliatory policies toward China, continues to promote policies that seek to avoid offending Beijing.

The Australian Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A day after the leaked conversation was posted on X by New Zealand reporter Lydia Lewis, leaders of several Pacific Island nations endorsed the $271 million Australian police initiative that will seek to improve police training and create a mobile regional police team as part of effort to block China for expanding its security role in the region.

The leaders from Tonga, Fiji, Palau and Papua New Guinea said the program would help island states tackle drug trafficking, illegal fishing and economic crimes across a region spanning millions of square miles, Reuters reported from Sydney.

“The entire Pacific is the biggest unpoliced space in planet earth,” Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape told reporters in Tonga.

Australia and New Zealand have provided police support to the region in the past during crises, and Australia’s government has said China should have no role for policing there.

China has sought to introduce its police system into the Pacific islands along with efforts to develop infrastructure.

China’s Foreign Ministry has said its police efforts in the region are normal, aligned with international law and not targeting any third countries.

Space Force general warns on China, Russia space attacks

Military forces in China and Russia are closely watching U.S. programs to protect satellites and space systems and could counter those measures with a large-scale attack, according to a senior Space Force general.

Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, vice chief of space operations, told the recent Intelligence and National Security Summit that the Pentagon and Space Force are moving toward the use of large constellations of satellites that will make targeting satellites more difficult for Beijing and Moscow, both of which have developed several types of satellite-killing weapons.

“Proliferation means I’m now spreading out orbitology across multiple different orbits, so that they can’t just take out one satellite; they have to take out a bunch of satellites,” he said.

“Then through proliferation, we’re partnering with other entities to get just more assets on orbit. That is a significant investment for the United States Space Force.”

Gen. Guetlein acknowledged the new approach may not work. Asked if he regards masses of satellites to be at risk in the event of a large-scale attack, he said: “Yes, I do.” Both Russia and China, he added, “are watching what’s going on in places like Ukraine and Gaza, and they are understanding how the world has become dependent upon space.”

The comments were first reported by Air and Space Forces magazine.

Russia is said to be close to deploying a space-based nuclear weapon that would be capable of taking out a large number of satellites in orbit.

Rep. Mike Turner, Ohio Republican and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, disclosed the Russian nuclear space weapon in February, calling it a “serious national security threat.”

China has similar plans for nuclear space arms as reported in this space in June.

The Air Force China Aerospace Studies Institute reported that Chinese military researchers are examining the use of nuclear blasts in space against large numbers of targets such as Starlink satellite swarms.

• Contact Bill Gertz on X @BillGertz.