Trump reveals to The Post secret 'discombobulator' weapon was crucial to Venezuelan raid on Maduro

[vanessa_ca]

15. Havana Syndrome

Pentagon bought device through undercover operation some investigators suspect is linked to Havana Syndrome

CNN Expansion DC - November 2021, Shoot ID: 1089822 , 11/15/2021, Natasha Bertrand
Natasha Bertrand
Updated Jan 12, 2026

The Defense Department has spent more than a year testing a device purchased in an undercover operation that some investigators think could be the cause of a series of mysterious ailments impacting US spies, diplomats and troops that are colloquially known as Havana Syndrome, according to four sources briefed on the matter.

A division of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, purchased the device for millions of dollars in the waning days of the Biden administration, using funding provided by the Defense Department, according to two of the sources. Officials paid “eight figures” for the device, these people said, declining to offer a more specific number.

The device is still being studied and there is ongoing debate — and in some quarters of government, skepticism — over its link to the roughly dozens of anomalous health incidents that remain officially unexplained.

-snip-

The device acquired by HSI produces pulsed radio waves, one of the sources said, which some officials and academics have speculated for years could be the cause of the incidents. Although the device is not entirely Russian in origin, it contains Russian components, this person added.

-snip-

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/13/politics/havana-syndrome-device-pentagon-hsi