Outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has pulled reports on Havana Syndrome. According to Gabbard, assessments of the anomalous health incident (AHI) did not meet analytic standards.
The memo detailing the retraction says the reports featured “selective exclusion of intelligence” and omitted “information necessary to understand source quality and reliability.”
Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) wrote on X that the retraction is a win for the “AHI victim community, analytic integrity, and for the American people.”
“These flawed, fraudulent, and manufactured Intelligence Community Assessments (ICA) have caused significant harm to some of our nation’s bravest. ICAs carry a great deal of weight, particularly when declassified as part of a public messaging effort, as was done with the AHI ICA,” he said. “The assessment was deliberately manufactured and used to discredit some of our nation’s bravest and impede their access to medical care. As was the case with other high-visibility intelligence assessments, it fell far short of analytic integrity standards. Today’s action by @DNIGabbard is a glimmer of hope for our nation’s intelligence officers, service members, and diplomats stationed around the world who have defended this country in austere locations and subsequently had the nation they served turn its back on them.”
“Thank you to Director Gabbard for keeping her commitment to this Committee and me, and for her overall willingness to do the right thing. I am incredibly grateful.”
The Biden administration released a report at the end of Biden’s term suggesting that U.S. spy agencies doubt foreign adversaries are responsible for the majority of AHIs. The assessment represented a significant shift from earlier speculation that suggested hostile actors, such as foreign governments, could be targeting American personnel using advanced energy weapons.
