House Intel Chair Moves to Blow Up CIA-Led Havana Syndrome Findings After Trump Hints At Secret Weapons

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) is calling on the U.S. intelligence community to retract a controversial 2023 assessment that concluded Havana Syndrome was not caused by hostile foreign action, escalating pressure to revisit one of the most contentious national security mysteries of the past decade.

In a post on X, Crawford said the declassified Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Anomalous Health Incidents — the government’s term for Havana Syndrome — was deeply flawed and had caused harm to affected personnel.

“ICAs carry a great deal of weight, particularly when declassified as part of a public messaging effort, as was done with the AHI ICA,” Crawford wrote. “This flawed document has caused serious harm to some of our nation’s bravest.”

The 2023 assessment, led by the CIA and supported by six other intelligence agencies, concluded that it was “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible for the symptoms reported by U.S. diplomats, intelligence officers and other government personnel overseas. The report was intended to close the door on years of speculation that the condition may have been caused by a directed-energy or microwave weapon deployed by a hostile power.

Crawford and other critics have long argued that the assessment suffered from major methodological weaknesses and prematurely dismissed evidence suggesting the possibility of hostile action. Havana Syndrome symptoms — which vary among victims — have included ear pain, dizziness, migraines, memory loss, cognitive impairment, fatigue and hearing problems.

The renewed push comes amid fresh reporting and political developments that have revived questions about the original conclusion.

Earlier this month, reporting by independent journalist Sasha Ingber indicated that the Pentagon has been testing a device believed by some to be capable of producing Havana Syndrome–like symptoms, a revelation that has fueled skepticism about the intelligence community’s dismissal of a weapon-based explanation. There remains debate inside and outside government over whether the device is in fact linked to the incidents.

President Donald Trump further stoked speculation last week when he hinted in an interview that U.S. forces may have used a similar system in a recent operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

“The Discombobulator. I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Trump said, adding that it “made [enemy] equipment not work.”

Crawford’s demand also followed the recent death of Mike Beck, a former National Security Agency counterintelligence official who was forced into early retirement in 2016 after developing a rare form of Parkinson’s disease. Beck had argued that his condition may have been caused by exposure to a microwave or directed-energy weapon — a claim echoed by hundreds of other U.S. personnel who have reported Havana Syndrome–like symptoms.

Crawford said Beck’s case underscores systemic failures in how the intelligence community has handled Anomalous Health Incidents.

“It has been clear that the IC’s handling of AHIs has been deeply flawed, failing the brave men and women who have served our country across the globe,” he said. “We must correct the way we have treated some of our bravest.”

The House Intelligence Committee has continued to press the issue. A subcommittee led by Crawford previously issued a report criticizing the 2023 ICA, arguing it lacked “analytic integrity and thoroughness” and should not have been released in its declassified form.

Since then, Crawford’s team has conducted at least 17 major interviews and depositions, consulted with senior Trump administration officials and made a criminal referral in the matter in September, signaling that the investigation is expanding beyond policy disagreements into potential misconduct.

While most intelligence agencies have stood by the 2023 assessment, other bodies — including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine — have previously concluded that the symptoms were consistent with exposure to “directed, pulsed radio-frequency energy.”

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