Inside the Ring: NSA Document Reveals Russians Had Microwave Weapon Suspected of Involvement in Attacks

NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

Since the 1990s, the Russian government has had the type of microwave weapons suspected of being behind covert attacks on U.S. intelligence officials and diplomats that led to what has become known as “Havana syndrome.”

A National Security Agency (NSA) document dated October 16, 2014, revealed the existence of the microwave weapon in an unclassified statement. The statement is related to an incident involving two NSA counterintelligence agents working in Russia in 1996 who later suffered disabling brain injuries after an alleged microwave attack.

The two officials, Chuck Gubete and Mike Beck, suffered from the now-familiar symptoms — dizziness and cognitive decline — that later afflicted U.S. diplomatic personnel in Havana in 2015. Gubete died several years ago, and Mr. Beck suffers from Parkinson’s disease, which he believes was caused by a stroke in Russia.

The unclassified document said the NSA confirmed intelligence information from 2012 about a microwave weapon in the possession of a “hostile country” that Mr. Beck visited in the late 1990s. NSA officials said the weapon is “a high-powered microwave weapon that may have the capability to weaken, intimidate or kill an enemy over time and without leaving a trace.”

“Intelligence information from 2021 indicates that this weapon is designed to bathe a target’s housing in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including damage to the nervous system,” the document states.

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

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

Mr. Schindler said in an article published this week in his Top Secret Umbra newsletter that the official denial by U.S. intelligence services that such weapons were used against people with Havana syndrome 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 that an annual threat assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that it was “highly unlikely” that cases of Havana syndrome — dubbed “anomalous health incidents,” or AHIs — were caused by attacks by hostile actors.

Haines said America’s adversaries, including Russia, are not engaged in a global campaign of causing abnormal health incidents. According to official intelligence services, the victims of the attacks, numbering in the hundreds, suffer from illnesses caused by “pre-existing conditions, conventional diseases and environmental factors.”

The finding has angered many intelligence officials and diplomats who believe they were attacked with a brain-targeting weapon. Intelligence agencies have come under increasing criticism from Congress and elsewhere for downplaying the possibility of attacks.

In March, CBS’s “60 Minutes” revealed new information linking Russia to the strokes. In the 1996 case, the two NSA agents in Russia were both shot and wounded while sleeping in a hotel. A decade later, they were diagnosed with an unusual early-onset form of Parkinson’s disease.

Mr. Schindler said he has interviewed more than a dozen current and former intelligence officers who said they were hit by the weapon. He believes the 1996 attack was the direct work of Russian and Cuban intelligence officers using weapons carried in their backpacks or microwave weapons deployed in vehicles.

Havana syndrome is different from past intelligence failures, he said.

“Here, the intelligence community leadership has conspired with the White House and whoever is actually leading the Biden administration to deny and cover up that hostile intelligence services are attacking and crippling Americans, primarily (intelligence community) personnel, around the world, including at home,” Schindler said.

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

The Russian microwave gun was developed by the Soviet KGB at the end of the Cold War, and American spies have identified many variants, Schindler said. The weapons have a range of up to several hundred meters, with the smallest backpack version capable of targeting people 100 meters or less away.

“It’s obvious to any veteran counterintelligence officer that Moscow and Havana systematically eliminate intelligence agents they fear,” he said. “As one victim explained to me, ‘If they can’t recruit you, they cripple you.’”

Mr. Schindler’s report does not mention that some of the Havana syndrome patients were working in diplomatic posts in China when they developed symptoms of brain damage.

The Washington Times reported in July 2023 that the Chinese military was developing high-tech weapons designed to disrupt brain function and influence government leaders or entire populations. These weapons could be used to directly attack or control brains using microwaves or other directed energy weapons in handheld guns or larger weapons that fire electromagnetic beams.

Mr Schindler revealed that Turkish intelligence had 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 create a commission to investigate whether incidents involving U.S. personnel were caused by hostile attacks or other factors.

A spokesperson 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 Derails US Plan for Pacific Police Initiative

Australian Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd has torpedoed US plans to establish a multinational policing initiative with strategic Pacific island nations, a move aimed at mitigating Beijing’s growing security influence in the region.

The ambassador’s opposition was revealed in a leaked conversation between Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who announced an Australian version of the policing program on August 27 in Tonga.

In a leaked video, Mr Campbell is heard telling Mr Albanese that the initiative is “fantastic”.

“I talked to Kevin (Rudd) about it and you know, we were going to do something like that and he asked us not to do it, so we didn’t do it,” Mr Campbell said.

Critics said the ambassador’s opposition was a sign that Mr Rudd, who has a reputation for favouring conciliatory policies towards China, was continuing to promote policies that seek to avoid offending Beijing.

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

A day after New Zealand journalist Lydia Lewis’ leaked X-rated conversation was published, leaders of several Pacific island nations endorsed a $271 million Australian police initiative that will seek to improve police training and create a regional mobile policing team as part of efforts to prevent China from expanding its security role in the region.

Leaders from Tonga, Fiji, Palau and Papua New Guinea said the program would help the island nations combat drug trafficking, illegal fishing and economic crime in a region spanning millions of square miles, Reuters reported from Sydney.

“The entire Pacific is the largest unpatrolled space on planet Earth,” Papua New Guinea 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 the Australian government has said China should not play a role in policing there.

China has sought to introduce its police system to the Pacific islands while working to develop infrastructure.

China’s Foreign Ministry said its policing efforts in the region were normal, in line with international law and did not target any third country.

Space Force general warns of space attacks from China, Russia

Chinese and Russian militaries are closely monitoring U.S. programs to protect satellites and space systems and could counter those measures with a full-scale attack, according to a senior Space Force general.

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

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

“Then, through proliferation, we partner with other entities to put more assets into orbit. This is a significant investment for the United States Space Force.”

General Guetlein acknowledged that this new approach might not work. Asked about the threat posed by masses of satellites in the event of a large-scale attack, he replied: “Yes, I think so.” Russia and China, he added, “are watching what’s happening in places like Ukraine and Gaza, and they understand how dependent the world has become on space.”

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

Russia is reportedly on the verge of deploying a space nuclear weapon that would be capable of destroying a large number of satellites in orbit.

Rep. Mike Turner, Republican of Ohio and chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, revealed the existence of Russia’s space-based nuclear weapon in February, calling it a “serious threat to national security.”

China has similar plans for space-based nuclear weapons, as reported in this space in June.

The Chinese Air Force’s Institute of Aerospace Studies reported that Chinese military researchers are studying the use of nuclear explosions in space against a large number of targets such as Starlink satellite swarms.

• Contact Bill Gertz on X @BillGertz.