The GOP-led House Intelligence Committee sent criminal referrals to the Trump Justice Department earlier in September related to the congressional panel’s scrutiny of the federal government’s alleged mishandling of the mystery behind the so-called “Havana Syndrome” — officially termed anomalous health incidents (AHIs).
A spokesperson for the GOP-led House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) who declined to be named due to the sensitivities surrounding the HPSCI investigation, told Just the News over the weekend that the committee’s ongoing inquiry into AHIs has scrutinized the response by the U.S. intelligence community (IC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and has identified a number of potentially illegal actions — which were referred to the Justice Department earlier this month. The spokesperson did not identify the exact target of the criminal referral.
The U.S. government has been investigating the unusual symptoms reported among its personnel serving abroad. If a foreign adversary is behind the AHIs, speculation has centered on Russia, China, and Cuba as possible culprits. Symptoms tied to alleged AHIs have included sound or pressure in one ear or on one side of the head and nearly simultaneous signs such as vertigo, the loss of balance, headaches, and ear pain.
Intelligence community questioned by lawmakers
The HPSCI spokesperson said additional criminal referrals might still be sent to the DOJ, particularly related to HPSCI’s review of the IC’s potential obstruction of the House committee’s inquiry into Havana Syndrome.
The House Intelligence CIA Subcommittee released an unclassified interim report in December 2024 arguing that a foreign foe might be behind AHIs and that leaders of U.S. spy agencies had wrongly dismissed this hypothesis. The subcommittee was chaired by Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., who now chairs the full intelligence committee. The December report seemed to jolt Biden intelligence community leaders into opening the door to the chance that a foreign foe could indeed be behind the AHIs.
“Since joining the House Intelligence Committee in 2017, investigating reported Anomalous Health Incidents impacting our intelligence officers, service members, and diplomats stationed around the world has been a top priority of mine personally and remains one of my top priorities as Chairman,” Crawford told Just the News in a statement this weekend. “As I have said before, the Biden administration’s IC was wrong in its intelligence assessment on AHIs, and we are working to set the record straight. The IC generated and utilized the NIH study’s invalid results to prop up the highly flawed 2023 intelligence community assessment.”
Crawford continued: “Among the many issues involved, the withholding of medical care to force participation in this human subject research study, as directed by personnel in the IC, betrayed those desperately seeking help. We will deliver the truth these victims and the American people deserve after being gaslit by the intelligence community for so long.”
Hellbound and Down 