A special Russian intelligence unit could be behind a series of attacks that have left dozens of U.S. officials serving overseas with mysterious illnesses.
Russian intelligence unit 29155, a highly secretive military unit under the direct control of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has potential links to the mysterious cases of “Havana Syndrome” that have stricken more than 100 Americans since 2016, according to a report from CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
The report comes after a 2023 government report on the mysterious illnesses concluded it is “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary is responsible, despite over 100 Americans having symptoms scientists have said could be caused by a beam of microwaves or acoustic sound.
But many of the victims are skeptical of the report, expressing frustration that the U.S. government’s public position has been to downplay potential attacks on Americans.
Those doubts are shared by Greg Edgreen, a former Army lieutenant colonel who was the lead Pentagon investigator into what are officially known as “anomalous health incidents,” telling “60 Minutes” that the bar for proving a foreign country’s involvement is set too high and that evidence has consistently pointed to Russian involvement.
“Unfortunately, I can’t get into specifics, based on the classification,” Edgreen told “60 Minutes.” “But I can tell you, at a very early stage, I started to focus on Moscow.”
The potential attacks have targeted White House staff, CIA officers, FBI agents, military officers and family members, according to the report, with many of those suffering from the mysterious illnesses believing that they were targeted by a secret weapon capable of firing high-energy beams of microwaves or ultrasound.
According to Edgreen, the officials who were targeted were top performers and doing work that was focused on Russia.
“And consistently there was a Russia nexus,” Edgreen said. “There was some angle where they had worked against Russia, focused on Russia, and done extremely well.”
