60 Minutes Havana Syndrome report finds U.S. tested energy weapon

This week, *60 Minutes* reported on the Havana Syndrome, a mysterious constellation of injuries including cognitive difficulties, vision impairment, and balance issues that have affected high-ranking officials in the United States government both domestically and abroad.

For nine years, producers Oriana Zill de Granados and Michael Rey, along with correspondent Scott Pelley, have investigated what victims describe as an invisible force that suddenly overwhelms their senses. Symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and vomiting occur while victims are at home, walking to their cars, or even asleep in their beds. Some victims believe they were attacked with an energy weapon and targeted because of their government roles.

“When we first heard all of these stories, it sounded odd and hard to believe—that some invisible ray gun was hitting these people and hurting them,” Zill de Granados told *60 Minutes* Overtime.

However, this week *60 Minutes* revealed a significant development: the U.S. government acquired a directed energy weapon from a Russian criminal network and is believed to be testing it on animals.

“We now believe there are directed-energy weapons that can do this, and we believe that in a subset of the large body of cases, that’s what happened,” Zill de Granados said.

### Investigating Havana Syndrome: Links to Russian Intelligence

*60 Minutes* Overtime spoke with Zill de Granados and Rey about their ongoing investigation, which uncovered connections between Havana Syndrome incidents and Russian intelligence. More than 65 victims have come forward believing they were targeted by a directed energy weapon.

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### Targeting Americans (March 17, 2019)

In 2019, Pelley first reported on American officials stationed in China who claimed to have been struck by an invisible force while in their homes. Among them was Mark Lenzi, a State Department security officer who worked at the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, China.

Lenzi described hearing bizarre sounds in his apartment in 2017—an odd noise like a marble circling down a metal funnel. He heard this sound four times, always at the same place and time above his son’s crib at night.

Shortly after, Lenzi, his wife, and their children began experiencing symptoms including cognitive decline, vision and hearing difficulties, headaches, and other issues. Lenzi discovered his neighbor, Catherine Werner, a U.S. Commerce Department trade officer, had experienced similar phenomena.

Werner told *60 Minutes* she awoke one night feeling intense pressure on her temples and heard a low, humming sound. Her symptoms later included vomiting and nosebleeds.

“Both families’ health was going downhill rapidly,” Zill de Granados explained.

Rey shared with *60 Minutes* Overtime that Lenzi still struggles and requires ongoing treatment for his cognitive, balance, vision, and hearing issues.

Lenzi believed he was targeted specifically because of his work using top-secret equipment that analyzed electronic threats to diplomatic missions.

“This was a directed standoff attack against my apartment. It was a weapon,” he said.

The *60 Minutes* team also found another family in Shanghai, China, with similar experiences. Robyn Garfield, a Commerce Department official, and his wife, Britta, reported strange nighttime sounds followed by memory loss, impaired vision, and balance problems affecting themselves and their two children.

“We went on a walk and [my daughter] just fell on her face. It was very abnormal. She never does that. And then a second time she completely lost her balance and just fell to the side,” she told Pelley.

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### Targeting Americans (February 20, 2022)

In 2022, the *60 Minutes* team reported on domestic incidents affecting high-level government officials in Washington, D.C.

One victim, Troye, described feeling a “piercing feeling” on the side of her head, accompanied by vertigo, nausea, and severe dizziness while walking near the Ellipse, south of the White House.

“It was very much the feeling of vertigo and dizziness. I felt like I couldn’t really walk. It was like I had a depth perception issue where I couldn’t figure out where the ground was,” she explained. “I felt like I was just going to fall right into the ground.”

*60 Minutes* also interviewed former CIA Director William Burns, who acknowledged the challenges in pinpointing the source of these incidents.

“We’re not at a position yet where we can offer hard evidence that would connect all those dots,” Burns said when asked about frustrations from victims who believe they know exactly what happened.

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### Canadian Diplomats and Havana Incidents

*60 Minutes* Overtime also examined cases involving two Canadian diplomats stationed in Havana, Cuba. Both said they were attacked in their homes and that their children suffered symptoms including nosebleeds, fainting, vision problems, and dizziness afterward.

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### Targeting Americans (March 31, 2024)

In 2024, the third installment of “Targeting Americans” revealed a major breakthrough with the help of investigative journalist Christo Grozev. Grozev is known for identifying the operatives behind poisonings of prominent Russian figures, including Alexey Navalny and Sergei Skripal.

Grozev uncovered the existence of Unit 29155, a top-secret Russian intelligence unit made up of assassins and saboteurs. This elite team employs countersurveillance methods, explosives, poison, and advanced technology.

Grozev explained that this unit had been engaged in empirical tests of a directed energy weapon, specifically for “potential capabilities of non-lethal acoustic weapons.” He produced an email he described as a “receipt” for services provided to the Russian government, representing some of the closest evidence available.

“As we built a database of victims, we started to see most of these people worked on issues related to Russia in their jobs,” Rey told *60 Minutes* Overtime.

Greg Edgreen, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency’s investigation into the Anomalous Health incidents, noticed a similar pattern.

“This was happening to our top 5 to 10 percent performing officers across the Defense Intelligence Agency, and consistently, there was a Russia nexus,” he said.

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### Targeting Americans (March 8, 2026)

For their latest report, the *60 Minutes* team met Chris and Heidi, who requested anonymity. Chris, a retired lieutenant colonel who worked with highly classified spy satellites, described being struck by an unseen force five times within five months near Washington, D.C.

“The fifth one was by far the worst,” Chris told Pelley. “I woke up with a full-body convulsion, the worst pain I have ever felt. It felt like a vice gripping my brainstem.”

Heidi was nearby for the last two attacks. During one incident, she awoke with severe joint pain and later discovered that the bones in her shoulder were dissolving—a condition called osteolysis that required surgery.

Chris believes they were targeted by a foreign adversary while serving their country.

“I think it’s time we as a country come to grips with the fact that the game has changed. Our adversaries are now able to reach out and touch us here in the United States, specifically at our homes,” he said.

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### Scientific Investigations and Government Response

Dr. David Relman, a Stanford University professor of medicine, was appointed to lead two government investigations into the incidents. His panels consisted of doctors, physicists, engineers, and other experts. Their reports in 2020 and 2022 proposed that a plausible explanation for a subset of cases was exposure to radiofrequency or microwave energy.

Relman noted that extensive research on weaponized microwaves has been conducted, primarily in the former Soviet Union. The effects documented ranged from loss of consciousness and seizures to memory lapses, headaches, intense pressure, pain, disorientation, and balance issues—the same symptoms reported by Havana Syndrome victims.

Years after the panels submitted their findings, Relman suggested that such a weapon may have caused the injuries; however, he believes the idea was dismissed by federal officials.

“When asked if his studies were downplayed by the U.S. government, Relman responded: ‘By parts of the U.S. government, absolutely. And not only downplayed but dismissed, in some cases, buried.’”

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### A New Weapon and Continuing Investigations

Zill de Granados revealed another key development: over four sources informed the team about a newly discovered weapon in the U.S. arsenal. This device reportedly employs the same technology that Relman’s panels theorized could cause Havana Syndrome symptoms.

Confidential sources disclosed that the U.S. acquired this weapon from a Russian criminal network and has tested it in a military laboratory for over a year. Tests on rats and sheep produced injuries consistent with those observed in human victims.

For this report, the Department of Defense declined to comment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, overseeing 18 agencies including the CIA, stated that a new review of the Havana Syndrome cases will be “comprehensive and complete,” and affirmed their commitment to “delivering the truth.”

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### Upcoming Book Release

Zill de Granados and Rey have co-authored a book titled *The Havana Syndrome: Secret Weapons, a Government Cover-Up, and the Greatest Spy Mystery of Our Time*, to be published by Penguin Random House in September. It is now available for pre-sale.

“Our biggest hope with writing this book is that the *60 Minutes* stories tell part of the story, but we wanted to tell the full story,” Zill de Granados said.

“And part of that story is looking into the cover-up, which we believe has taken place within the intelligence community,” Rey added. “We’re trying to pull out more of the victims’ stories to give much more detail about how this happens, what happens, the impact on families, and the impact on government. We did it for the victims,” Zill de Granados explained, “because they deserve to have their true stories told.”

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*Video produced by Will Croxton. Edited by Nelson Ryland.*
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-havana-syndrome-report-finds-u-s-government-tested-energy-weapon/

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