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NPR published an article on October 21, 2021 that may be the first detailed reporting on a possible crossover link between Moscow Signal and Havana Syndrome. Titled "Long before Havana Syndrome, the U.S. reported microwaves beamed at an embassy," the story led with details of a 1996 attack on NSA personnel on TDY in "a hostile country."
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| Hypothetical Embassy in "a hostile country" |
"In 1996, Michael Beck and a colleague at the National Security Agency were sent to a 'hostile country' on a brief assignment. After being detained at the airport for about an hour, they were allowed to go, but they knew they were being closely watched. A few days into the assignment, Beck woke up at his hotel feeling terrible. 'It was extreme fatigue and weakness. I was a bowl of jelly and couldn't get moving,' said Beck. He was suspicious of the cause, but the symptoms went away. A full decade later, Beck was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson's disease at age 46. At almost exactly the same time, his colleague from that trip, Chuck Gubete, received the very same diagnosis. Gubete, who died several years later, had a family history of Parkinson's, but Beck didn't. Beck came to believe that his illness was caused while on that trip, and he filed a workers' compensation claim with the NSA. As part of the process, the NSA sent Beck a short but striking letter in 2014: 'The National Security Agency confirms there is intelligence information from 2012 associating the hostile country to which Mr. Beck traveled in the late 1990s with a high powered microwave system weapon that may have the ability to weaken, intimidate or kill an enemy over time and without leaving evidence,' the letter said. 'This weapon is designed to target the living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system,' the letter added. The letter also said that it had no evidence that such a weapon "if it existed" had or had not been used against Mr. Beck.
Beck, now living in Maryland, is still battling to prove his claim. The country he traveled to remains classified. But his attorney Mark Zaid notes that the NSA letter was written in 2014 — two years before the first Havana Syndrome cases were reported. 'Here we have an unclassified document from a U.S. intelligence agency admitting it knows of this before Havana,' Zaid said." [Note: Perhaps not coincidentally, an article appeared in Rossiyskaya Gazeta on April 12, 2012 on the same subject].
The identity of the “hostile country” is still classified, but Beck told CBS News in 2019 that the incident in 1996 that made him and his colleague sick occurred in neither Cuba nor China, thus narrowing the field of potential suspects quite a bit – most likely, to one: Russia.
See also blog bibliography item 8A: "Havana Syndrome: NSA Officer's Case Hints at Microwave Attacks since 90s."
Postscript: On June 28, 2023, Courthouse News reported that NSA had prevailed against Beck in a lawsuit to release classified information on his case. The court appears to have disregarded NSA's 2014 admission that the "hostile country" had a microwave weapon that might affect a person's health. The decision seems to give weight only to the fact that there is no evidence the "hostile country" used such a weapon on Mr. Beck and not to NSA's original admission that the "hostile country" did indeed have such a weapon. I'll be interested to see the legal fallout from this.
I have a feeling this case is not over. See Blog bibliography item 72:
https://www.courthousenews.com/nsa-prevails-on-ray-gun-foia/
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