Secretary of State Blinken Pushes Back against ‘Havana Syndrome’ Response Critics

  • Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed back Thursday against criticism from lawmakers that the State Department has not given enough attention to a series of mysterious health incidents among U.S. personnel, commonly known as “Havana syndrome.”
  • Responding to a letter written by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and signed by several other Democratic and Republican senators, Blinken said that the phenomenon “has my full attention and that of the leadership of the department.”
  • “The national security departments and agencies are devoting significant resources to understand what happened and who is responsible,” Blinken wrote in a letter obtained by McClatchy. “We do not yet know the cause of these incidents or whether they may be attributed to a foreign actor. But we are leaving no stone unturned to get the answers.”