All language subtitles for Conspiracies.and.Coverups.S01E06.Invisible.Weapon.of.War.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

It's an invisible weapon.

Can't see it.
Can't hear it.

Nobody knows you were there.
To the world, nothing happened.

A family got sick.

Find the router.
Find the family.

- Make the hit.
- Leave.

And no wonder it's so hard
to prove this.

Let's face it.
There are so many

government conspiracies,
it can be hard to tell

what's real
and what's not.

My name is Andrew Bustamante,

and I am a former covert
CIA intelligence officer.

And I'm going to pressure test
the most sensational,

ripped-from-the-headlines
conspiracy theories out there

to help you separate fact
from fiction.

It came just after
the new year.

The American surgical attack
on Venezuela that captured

President Nicolas Maduro.

We all remember
hearing the story.

Nearly 100 foreign soldiers
decimated by

a small strike team
of special operators

in and out in
less than 30 minutes.

But then in the aftermath,
we remember hearing about

something else
just as striking.

Venezuelan soldiers attacked

by some kind of invisible,
powerful weapon

that left them on
the ground bleeding

from their nose
and vomiting blood.

As these reports spread online,
it wasn't long before they were

tied to other strange attacks.

Attacks that began
more than a decade ago.

Only this time,
the targets weren't

foreign soldiers,
they were Americans.

It's even got a name,
"Havana Syndrome."

American diplomats serving
in Cuba may have been the target

of deliberate attacks.

Several suffering symptoms
that the State Department has

not elaborated on.

Since the attacks
became public, the U.S.

has pulled out more than half
its diplomatic personnel

from Havana.

Were American diplomats
and intelligence officers

targeted by the same kind of
invisible weapon that

could have been used
in Venezuela?

Some U.S. intelligence agencies
have downplayed the idea

for years, but other parts of
the U.S. federal government

and the victims themselves
believe otherwise.

Every single person I have met
thinks it's real and thinks

that there is a culture of
conspiracy to cover it up.

Are we really under threat
from some kind of new,

devastating, invisible weapon?

What isn't the government
telling us, and why?

On this episode,

I'll pressure test
the plausibility,

capability, and evidence of
such a weapon to separate

the fact and fiction.

I want a firsthand account
of an attack from

a fellow former spy suffering
from Havana Syndrome.

And as soon as I walked
into the room,

I experienced vertigo.
The room was spinning.

I'll track down one of
the world's top experts

on this secret technology.

These are a wireless system
for shaking in the brain.

Conduct never-before-seen
targeting demonstrations.

It sees right through
your walls.

I mean, that, that's just wild.

And meet an expert with
a radical alternate take on

these conspiracy theories.

This is a global experiment
in mass psychogenic illness.

All to answer the question,
is Havana Syndrome the result

of secret, invisible weapon
technology, like what's been

reported in Venezuela,
or just a powerful story that

spread faster
than the evidence?

One week after
the Maduro capture,

the White House press secretary
retweeted what appeared to be

an interview with a Venezuelan
soldier with an account of

the mysterious attack,
which may have been based on

this video posted online.

The response on
social media was explosive.

Had the U.S. just deployed
a new, secret weapon?

In situations like this,
information often comes in

pieces from
sources, officials,

and public statements.

And it's not always clear
what's been confirmed

and what hasn't.

And when you strip it down,
it all comes back to a single

unverified source.

No photos, no video,
no independent confirmation.

Just a story that, at least
online, is starting to

feel real.

So if I want to know whether
this kind of weapon exists,

I need to go back to
where it all began.

The mysterious attacks

targeting American diplomats
in Cuba.

They get these
really weird symptoms.

We don't know what it is.

In the fall of 2016,
a number of American diplomats

based in Cuba came down
with a mysterious illness

after incidents in which it felt
like they were being attacked

by an invisible force.

We can confirm that at least
16 U.S. government employees

have experienced
some kind of symptom.

Some said the attack
began with a noise, followed by

a range of symptoms
like vertigo, hearing loss,

loss of memory and focus.

I woke up with
a full body convulsion.

The worst pain
I have ever felt,

it felt like a Vise gripping
my brain stem.

I could actually feel my brain
shutting down, like it just,

everything kind of went black.

Respected State Department
and CIA officials were

telling similar stories
of being attacked.

But without anyone actually
seeing a weapon, even some of

their colleagues had doubts.

You would expect at some point
you would find something,

some type of evidence.

Meanwhile, as more victims
emerged to tell their story,

many grew increasingly
frustrated with

the government's muted response
and its explanations,

which often pointed to
environmental factors,

stress, or anxiety.

As a result, some began calling
it a cover-up that reached

the highest levels
of government.

The symptoms described
were strikingly similar to

the Venezuelan
soldier's account.

Neurological symptoms,
sudden onset,

no visible weapon.

If there is a connection,
I want to dig deeper into

a specific attack to determine
the motive behind them.

And I've tracked down someone
who is willing to

tell her story.

I'm here to meet with
a woman named Alice,

who describes herself
as a Havana Syndrome survivor

and a whistleblower.

She's only been out of
the agency for a few years,

but she believes that
she may have been pushed out

because of her condition.

Not every person who experienced
Havana Syndrome effects

was in Cuba.

Alice was based in
a West African country

when she claims she was hit.

Can you just take me back to

what life was like the day
before everything started?

I was working for the whole
day, and at night, I came home,

and then I heard the noise.

It was kind of a low,
pulsating sound,

almost like a reverb.

And I asked my spouse
at the time, like, "Hey,

do you hear that weird noise?"
And he said, "What noise?"

And that should have been
the first clue

that something was up.

And so I went back into
the room that I had been in,

and as soon as I walked
into the room,

I experienced vertigo.
The room was spinning.

I had a lot of pressure
in my left ear, a lot of pain.

I got less and less conscious.

My, like, field of vision
was narrowing.

I knew I needed to get
out of the house,

and I opened the door expecting
to hear the sound outside,

and it was quiet.

And that was terrifying,
because I assumed the sound was

coming from outside, of course,
and that that was odd, too.

So I got back into the house
and I went up the stairs,

turned the lights off
and I stayed below the window

and tried to go to sleep.

And then next morning,
I woke up and I had work to do.

By that afternoon,
I couldn't walk straight.

I was really dizzy.
I felt like I was on a boat

and I knew something was
really wrong.

So the next morning, I went
into the embassy medical unit,

and I'll never forget,
this woman went immediately to

call my boss and start
the process of medically

evacuating us to America
straight away.

Wow.

What are some of the types of
long-term physical symptoms?

For me, some of the biggest
things are chronic migraines,

five days a week.

I've been in the ER a couple
times in the last month.

Um, insomnia.

My cognitive processing is
not what it used to be,

and that's really hard
because it's so essential

to our identities.

I found out after the fact

that there had been multiple
people affected

in the region, including in
the country I was in before me.

But I didn't know it
at that time.

Cases of American government
officials experiencing

invisible attacks have been
reported in about

a dozen locations after Havana,
including Guangzhou, China,

Moscow, Austria,
Colombia,

Syria, and even here
in the U.S.

in Washington, D.C.,
just outside the White House.

For a lot of us, it
became apparent from the get-go

just how consistent
our experiences were.

So you're saying that,
essentially, people reported

the experience of
being attacked?

- Yeah.
- Individualized, intentional.

But also there were a number
of key trends in terms of

what people worked on.

There was an abundance of
people that were experts on

the Russian target that had
all served together in Ukraine

in 2014.
Interesting, right?

- So among that
group of people...
- Mm-hmm.

...there's also parallels
in what they were experts in?

- Correct.
- I think the world talks about

these possible attacks as if

they are
tactical attacks, right?

"I want to hurt you right now."

But you're layering in this
question that makes me wonder

if it also isn't a strategic
attack, a long-term

attack.
- And I think
you're spot on.

The Russians,
they're incredibly creative

and quite good at doing things
that can really affect a person,

but not necessarily kill them.

Because there's a psychological
warfare advantage.

Yeah, for sure.

It's kind of
a perfect weapon, right?

Russia is often the first
suspect because they've done

things like this before.
During the Cold War,

U.S. officials discovered that
something was being directed at

the American embassy in Moscow
from a nearby building.

Hidden somewhere in
this apartment building across

the street are instruments
American experts believe are

aiming microwaves at
the upper floors of the embassy.

The incident became
known as the Moscow Signal.

For decades,
something invisible was aimed

at the embassy, but no one
could say for sure why.

The motives are
still being debated.

It may have been to jam
our eavesdropping devices.

The official explanation was
that the signal was too weak

to cause harm.
But not everyone believed that,

because for years those signals
weren't just filling the air,

they were focusing
on a single building.

And that raises
a much bigger question.

If decades ago, something like
that could be aimed

at a building, could it be aimed
at a person today?

And if something like that is
behind what happened to Alice,

it would mean someone knew
exactly who she was,

where she was, and knew
when to strike.

Because a weapon that could
have been used on Alice

and Havana victims doesn't just
hit a building,

it hits a person.

So I need to find out whether
someone could actually track

and target a person like Alice
without her ever knowing.

And that's something
I can test.

Coming up,

a private investigator
who specializes in tracking

and targeting individuals.

If you're connected to
technology in any way,

I will find you.
- Will show me

how people like Alice
could find themselves in

the crosshairs of a dangerous
secret weapon.

2
I'm testing the connection
between top-secret weapons

like the one used in Cuba
and Havana Syndrome.

Alice, a fellow former
covert CIA operative,

makes a plausible case
that the attacks were not

environmental
or imagined incidents.

But now I'm going to
push that further and test

if you're a foreign adversary

bent on attacking
American operators

living and working undercover
around the world,

how would you identify them,
track them, and target them?

I'm on my way to meet with
a good friend of mine who lives

a very private life.

He's got a job that's pretty
high stakes, so he keeps

a very small digital online
footprint intentionally.

So to truly carry out
an experiment that tests

whether or not an individual
can be targeted when they don't

want to be targeted,
he's the perfect candidate.

Matt, give me a sense of
what you think your level

of security, your level
of privacy is?

My whole household, my wife,
myself, my kids,

we're pretty under the radar,
at least I think so.

I have no social
media accounts.

I really try to stay
off of online platforms

just in general.

You're one of the most private
people that I know, so I would

love to fold you in on this.
- I'd be happy to help.

So just live your daily life
like normal.

And then what we'll do is we'll
meet up again in a couple days,

and I'll tell you what we are
or are not able to find out.

If you want to locate someone
who doesn't want to be found,

Jake Gray is your man.

Welcome, man.

Thanks for having me.

A former law
enforcement officer, he's hunted

terrorists, cartel members,
and sex traffickers,

and now works in
private intelligence.

I'm really trying to dig deeper
into the Havana attacks that

have been reported,
not only by the press,

but also by individuals
in government.

Can you tell me how technical
evidence kind of cascades,

how you build a big picture
from just a little bit

of information?

We start targeting signals
interception, right?

It's tracking cellular devices,
watches, tablets.

Then we start doing
dump-and-breach datas.

Then we send guys out
and figure out what the area

is like,
what their house is like.

Is surveillance an option?
Is a single target an option?

Where we use tech like
RF sniffers to track people

in their houses.

Utilizing all that information
brings together a totality of

the target and how
we would act after that.

What percentage of people would
you say actually have

a technical profile that
you couldn't identify?

Outside of your tribesmen,
right, like that don't even

know what technology is,
you know, it's probably

less than a percent
that we can't touch.
- Less than 1%?

Yeah, basically if you're
connected to technology

in any way, I will find you.

Many Havana Syndrome
victims were living overseas

and undercover, in other words,
tough to find,

but not that tough
for Jake to find.

He's showing us how
with our guinea pig, Matt.

The first step is geolocating
Matt's phone

and tracking its movements.

Then Jake puts boots
on the ground to follow

the digital breadcrumbs
to identify him.

From there, Jake can begin to
unlock his online history

and create a profile, which may
be enough to target him.

So, we have here
geolocation data that

we talked about before.

Able to target devices from
that phone number you gave me.

If we zoom in here,
this is where he lives.

If you follow these dots that
were dropped from the device,

he takes this route here
down this road

all the way till he gets

to where we've established
his place of employment's at.

- Wow, look at all that data.
- Just here.

And we think these are
lunch spots right down the road.

What else did this give you?

So, we have a few
interesting places

which you have these signals
here which goes to a school,

you know where his kids are,
and if he's gone and we wanted

to target that, we could.

I know this guy,
his number one priority is

protecting his kids,
and you found his kids' school.

- Yep,
- That's like every
person's nightmare.

- Yeah,
- What do we do next?

Physical surveillance,
at this point.

We go to his house,
his work, figure out

where we can truly target him
and something that we can use

to do that as an RF sniffer.

What does that mean in
layman's terms?

So, everybody that has internet
has a Wi-Fi router, right?

That Wi-Fi router just pushes
out RF frequencies, which are

like little, you know,
imagine like little waves

moving through your house
at all times.

The RF sniffer measures
the disturbance in those waves,

and I can follow those
disturbances or that person

through their house.

- In real time?
- In real time.

And we're gonna do that
to our target?

Yep.

Most Havana Syndrome victims
say they were hit at home

and targeted very precisely.

Remember Alice heard the noise

her husband standing
next to her didn't hear?

And I asked my spouse
at the time, like, "Hey,

do you hear that weird noise?"
And he said, "What noise?"

Assuming there was
a weapon, it must have had

pinpoint accuracy.

So we're heading to Matt's
house, where Jake is going to

show me how he uses his
RF sniffer to target individuals

room by room.
- It's right up here.

Yep, right up here on
the other side of that truck.

I see it.

This feels creepy, man.
That's my friend in there.

And I'm in a blacked-out car
across the street.

All right.
What's next?

We're gonna break out
the RF sniffer, see if we can

capture some movement.
- All right.

- You ready?
- Yeah, let's do it.

What is the sniffer
doing right now?

Right now,
I'm setting up the, uh,

the prompt for it to attack
the router to then run

its code, run its script to
send us back the signals that

we're looking to intercept.

So here you go, OK?

Jake's showing me how
each green dot represents

a different person
in the house.

We can tell where they are
based on how close they are to

the red dot, the Wi-Fi router.

This isn't a weapon,
it's a tracking tool,

but it proves how precisely
a house's occupants can

be mapped.
- You see how
it's going down?

Exactly.
That lower right quadrant is

very clearly that corner

of the house.
- Yep.

Every time that red dot jumps,
it's essentially picking up on

another movement in the house.
- Correct.

So it's always a red dot,
but it could be jumping from

person to person.
- Person to person.

So if we wanted
to hit a target

with some kind of weapon,

we would want to aim for
the room with the router,

and we want to aim now because
that's where the most activity

is happening.

If your goal is to not care
about collateral damage, yeah.

Wow.
But this is what it looks like.

We don't see a face.

We don't see
a physical description.

- We get a dot.
- You get a dot.

I can see how an adversary
would take the shot.

This is
an invisible weapon, so

to the world, nothing happened.
A family got sick.

Can't see it, can't hear it.
Nobody knows you were there.

If we wanted to hyper-isolate
our target even more...

- Mm-hmm.
- ...how would we do that?

Find a choke point to where
it's strictly him.

Do you see a choke point
in his pattern of life?

- I do.
- Where?

Where he parks every single
day when he goes to work.

He parks in the same spot
every day?

Same spot, and it's basically
three walls and one exit.

So you want to try to get him
at work instead?

That's where I would do it.

Nobody expects it in
the middle of the day, either.

Man, he's in a, he's in
a kill box.

Coming up, Matt learns just
how vulnerable we all are.

We did find
a potential school.

Yeah, that's where
my kids go to school.

- And then...
- Could it be possible

that these types of things

could have been so rapidly
weaponized, so easily scaled,

and so covertly used?

Well, I think the answer
is evident.

2
It will be the very next left
down, down to a parking area.

And his car is usually parked
all the way to the right.

It's a black SUV.
Right there.

- See that black SUV?
- Yeah.

- That's him.
- OK.

We're demonstrating
how to find and target someone

who doesn't want to be found.

The case in point is my friend
Matt, who's about to discover

just how vulnerable he is.

Sorry to interrupt lunch hour.

I know, that was a surprise.
I'm glad it was you.

So I want to
introduce you to Jake.

- Hi, Jake.
- Jake, Matt.

- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, Jake.

So I tasked Jake with doing
what he could to try to collect

as much as possible off of you.
- Yeah, OK.

And I'm just gonna let Jake
present what he found.

All right.
I'm curious.

Yeah, so we were able to see
quite a few things.

So, if we scroll down here,
you know, like you have this

kind of stretch of where
your office building is.

- Wow.
- Right?

You can see
where I have lunch.

- See where you have lunch.
- Where I get coffee.

Where you get coffee.

The interesting thing
that we did find is

a potential school that you're
dropping your kids off at.

Yeah, I mean, that's where
my kids go to school.

Yeah, so, and this is what
we use to say, like,

"Hey, you think you're being
locked down, it only takes

a few things for us to be able
to target you or your family."

One of the things I asked Jake
to do was to treat you like

a true target.

We were actually at your house,
and we use what we call is

a RF sniffer, which connects to
your Wi-Fi router, attacks it,

and tracks you
walking around your house.

It sees right through
your walls.

I mean, that it's just wild.

Based off of what you've seen
today, how confident are you

that a person can be
targeted individually?

Um,

It makes me think that it
would be relatively easy

to target someone
with that level of detail.

That's disconcerting,
I would say.

It can be shocking to learn
how vulnerable we all are

to a technologically
advanced adversary.

This test shows me that
if someone wanted to target

a person like
Alice, they could.

Tracking them is possible.

But that doesn't answer
the question, what kind of

invisible weapon could
effectively debilitate

a human being?

Which means we're not just
looking for a weapon,

we're looking for
a form of energy.

So the question is, what kind?

Could sound be
part of the answer?

We already know it can
be weaponized.

Over the past two decades,
police departments

across the United States have
deployed what's called an LRAD,

or long-range acoustic device,
which basically makes

a painfully loud noise.

Just recently,
the Minnesota State Patrol has

been accused of using an LRAD
against ICE protesters.

I hereby declare this
to be an unlawful assembly.

Immediately disperse.

Officials maintain that this
is only being used for

crowd control, not as a weapon.
But the internet disagrees.

Hey guys, on today's episode
of Fascism in America,

we're gonna be talking about
the latest shiny toy

in the authoritarian tool belt

that's being deployed
against citizens.

So, on the surface,
this looks like

exactly what people
are describing.

A device that uses sound to
target and disperse a crowd.

But there's a difference
between something that's loud

and something that can actually
cause the kind of damage

reported in Havana.

I'm reaching out
to Dr. Joe Pompei,

a man who's created

an acoustic tool that's used
for commercial purposes,

to find out if an acoustic
weapon could be created

that's strong enough to bring
an army to its knees.

I don't think there's ever
such thing as a sonic weapon.

For airborne sound waves,
99.99% reflect

right off of you.
They can't go through windows.

They can't go through walls
in any substantial sense.

So they're not going to be
received by somebody indoors,

and they're certainly not going
to penetrate the body enough to

cause any physiological damage
other than perhaps to

the hearing system.

It's interesting
because you can understand

how people would be afraid of
a weapon they can't see,

and audio and sonic weapons are
very clearly something that

you wouldn't be able to see.

Another possibility is
radio frequency.

That could absolutely do
damage, and those would go

through walls, and those could
go into the body, absorb

and cause all kinds of problems.

Here's where
this leaves me.

Sound can be directed, it can
be powerful, but it doesn't

appear to match the kind of
injuries being reported

in Havana.

Radio frequency can penetrate
the body and potentially cause

real damage, but is there
anything else that can

scramble our brains?

To find out, I tracked down
a neuroscientist who examined

the original Havana victims.

I was contacted in late 2016
by some folks in

the Department of State
and said, "Look, we've got
these cases,

about two dozen individuals,
and we really don't know

what's happened to them.

They all seem to have
very similar signs and symptoms.

They seem to be evidencing what
appears to be a concussion,

but no concussion.
- What conclusions did you reach

after this two-year study?

Well, we ruled
a lot of things out.

I mean, there are a lot of
things that could be possible.

Is it possible they were
exposed to some chemical,

some environmental chemical,
a pesticide, for example?

Is it possible they were
exposed to something at work,

some device?

No, no, because the rooms in
which they were working,

other individuals were not
coming up with the same

signs and symptoms.

So the only probabilities that
these individuals are exposed

to some form of energy,
microwaves, for example.

Microwaves can become
a very cryptic form of attack

because microwave energy
essentially disrupts

the actual mechanisms
of the neurological membranes

and in so doing can,

quote, "rewire,"
if you will, the brain.

Could it be possible that
these types of things

could have been so rapidly
weaponized, so easily scaled,

and so covertly used?

I think the answer
is evident.

Recall the Moscow signal when
microwaves were believed to be

directed at
the U.S. Embassy in Moscow

during the Cold War.

A secret weapon
that can't be seen,

does neurological
and physiological harm.

What it essentially does is it
changes the battlescape.

The nature of conflict
remains the same,

but its character changes.

Dr. Giordano is saying
that the science is there,

but science alone doesn't
prove a weapon exists.

At this point, here's what
holds up and what doesn't.

There's evidence that
microwaves can affect

the human body.

They can be directed and they
could explain some of

the symptoms we've seen.

But we still don't have direct
evidence of a weapon being used

in the real world.

Even though most people will
claim to have never seen

the kind of weapon that was
reported in Havana, I'm about

to meet with a scientist
who says he understands

the microwave technology
the Russians have been using

and may even have evidence
of the weapon itself.

Coming up...

This thing looks like
a shoulder-fired weapon.

You can be hit,
you can't protect yourself

under the circumstances
that they choose to hit you.

And then an expert who
sees things very differently.

This is a global experiment
in mass suggestion.

2
In our quest to determine if
Havana Syndrome is the result

of an advanced, secret
and invisible microwave
technology,

or a powerful story
that's spread faster than

the evidence, I need to know
whether or not that energy can

be targeted to focus
on a single individual.

So I've invited one of
America's top scientists

specializing in pulsed
microwave technology.

When somebody talks about
a high-power microwave,

how is that different from

the microwave that sits
in my kitchen?

Really high-power microwaves
are made to operate at

extremely high powers.

Tens, hundreds, thousands
of megawatts,

but because of that,
short pulses.

And that's the basis of
what's happening, I believe,

with Havana Syndrome.

Imagine you have this intense
power and it hits the side of

your brain and you get
an almost instantaneous heating

of a thin layer in your brain.
It will initially expand.

It'll overshoot like a spring.

It'll come back
and then it'll return

and you can oscillate
for a while.

That can basically
convert the incoming

electromagnetic energy
into a sound wave.

These pulsed high-power
microwaves are

a wireless system
for shaking the brain.

And that would do so much
damage over time.

You can go
all the way from damage

to lowercase disorientation

and some of
the other cognitive effects

that they've experienced.

It's obviously, according to
some of the sufferers of

these attacks, done some
real, long-term damage to them.

Dr. Swegle tells me that even
though microwaves are silent,

the oscillation they cause in
the brain can be experienced

as a sound, which may be why
many Havana Syndrome victims

describe having
heard a noise.

How mobile are
these devices really,

and what do they look like?

This is an example sitting on
a desktop of a commercial device

that's being sold
by the Russians.

This is not that large
a system sitting there.

You can make it to operate
off a car generator.

A friend of his
took this picture

where devices like this
are made.

This device
can generate intense
pulses of radiation

and be optimized for
anti-personnel operations.

This thing looks like
a shoulder-fired weapon,

which means for sure
I could position it in a van,

put it in a car,
put it in a room,

in a window across
the street from a target.

You can be hit.

You can't protect yourself
under the circumstances that

they choose to hit you.

When you hear about victims of
Havana Syndrome,

do you believe their story?
Do you doubt their story?

They have suffered something.

Do I believe it could be
high-power microwaves?

I believe there's a very good
chance microwaves could have

produced this and that devices
that are out there could have

been adapted to do that job.

The idea of the government
beaming something into

your head is one of the oldest
conspiracy theories out there.

As far back as 1927,
a science fiction novel called

"The Tissue-Culture King"
imagined a man who wore

metallic headgear
to protect himself

from outside mental influence,

what would eventually evolve
into the pop culture image

we all know today--
the tinfoil hat.

Today, those ideas show up in
online communities that believe

they're being targeted
by so-called energy weapons

and had thoughts beamed
into their minds.

But there's little evidence to
support those claims at scale.

And that's where things
get complicated.

How do you investigate,
let alone prove something,

when the injuries are
in people's heads?

When symptoms are real,
but the cause is invisible,

it becomes incredibly difficult
to separate what's possible

from what's provable.

In a case like Havana Syndrome,
that line matters.

And once that line starts to
blur, even experts can disagree

on what's really happening.

I've come across somebody
who studies how rumors

turn into mass hysteria
and is poking holes in

the Venezuela story--

medical sociologist
Robert Bartholomew.

Dr. Bartholomew, I'm trying to
better understand what may have

happened in Venezuela and how,
if at all, it's different from

what has been reported
about Havana Syndrome.

The media report, which was
endorsed by the White House
press secretary,

claimed that
when the U.S.

went in there in early January,
they used a sonic weapon,

and it made Maduro's troops

bleed from their noses
and their ears, and they fell

to their knees
and incapacitated them.

When you look at the actual
interviews on state TV

of the soldiers
who were there

when the explosions occurred,

the symptoms that happened were

not examples of some type
of sonic device.

We seek out patterns.

We're meaning-
oriented creatures.

And that's what happens here.

What happened in Venezuela
is a great example of

what's been happening
with Havana Syndrome.

When it first came out,
the doctors at

the American State Department
went for

the most exotic hypothesis
early on.

And they've issued alerts
to their diplomats

all over the world
to be on the lookout

for mysterious symptoms.

And they had this laundry list
of symptoms-- headache,

nausea, insomnia,
ringing in the ears,

depression, nosebleeds,
and on and on.

Most people have these symptoms
in any given week

in their life.

And lo and behold,
people started reporting

these symptoms.

This is a global experiment
in mass suggestion.

They're just redefining
an array of ambiguous symptoms

that people have all the time.

There's a great saying
that I think applies

to Havana Syndrome--
"Speak of the devil

and he is bound to appear."

It was nothing to do with
pulse microwave radiation.

You know, for me,
this is the power of a story,

the power of belief.

And at the end of the day,
you have to follow the facts,

not as we hope them to be
or want them to be,

but as they are.

Bartholomew's theory is that
there just isn't hard evidence

that the Russians or our own
government have ever used

a weapon like this.

They've never been
caught in the act.

On the other hand,
I've heard from multiple

credible witnesses, including
my own former colleagues,

who believe that they were
under some kind of attack,

not just experiencing
heartburn or vertigo.

And if that's true, it raises
a second question.

If something like this is
happening, why hasn't it

been acknowledged?
One possibility?

Escalation.

Acknowledging an attack
like this could be real

would potentially
escalate a conflict

with an adversary like Russia.

The other possibility?

That we have a weapon like this
ourselves, and we want to be

able to use it.

Which brings us
back to Venezuela,

where the White House
suggests that

we did use
just such a weapon.

The claim of a so-called
mystery weapon traces back to

a single anonymous account,
one that was amplified online...

Whatever was sent at them made
them fall to their knees

and vomit blood.

...and was echoed
at the highest levels,

but was never
independently confirmed.

So, whatever happened
that night,

there's no clear evidence
that it was

a new kind of weapon at all.

Which means that if I'm going
to figure out if a weapon

like this could be real,
I need real evidence.

Not just other claims,
but something that's actually

been tested.

And I'm about to get
a major piece of intel

that might
finally provide it.

I'm sending you the link
to the article right now.

OK.

"Researcher skeptical of Havana
Syndrome tested the weapon

on himself?" Is this real?
- It's amazing.

2
So far in my investigation,
I've tested how someone

like Alice could be targeted
and whether sound

or microwave energy could
explain what people experienced.

But there are still gaps
in what I can actually prove.

At CIA, my wife Jihi

was what's known as a
clandestine targeting officer,

which means
she doesn't hunt people

in the field.
She identifies targets,

maps their world and figures
out how we can reach them

without ever being caught.

When we were stationed together
and I was operating in

the field, I always had perfect
confidence knowing that Jihi

had already built a clear
profile and picture of

whoever I was chasing.

So when she tells me that
she found something, I know

it's worth paying attention.

- Hey, girl.
- Hey, babe.

So I found this super
interesting article that

talks about the pulse weapons

that we were
talking about earlier.

I'm sending you the link
to the article right now.

OK.

"Researcher skeptical of Havana
Syndrome tested the weapon

on himself?" Is this real?
- It's amazing.

Yes!

"In 2024,
a Norwegian researcher

"skeptical that pulsed energy
weapons could do damage to

human brains built a device
and tested it on himself."

And what kind of device
did he build?

A machine capable of emitting
powerful pulses

of microwave energy.

He suffered neurological
symptoms similar to those of

Havana Syndrome.

Who would test this
on themselves?

He tested it because he was
convinced that it didn't work,

that you couldn't actually
affect somebody biologically

with one of these machines.

Oh my gosh, I doubt
he is skeptical anymore.

This is the strongest
laboratory evidence that

I've seen yet, that this weapon
not only exists,

but that there are
people with symptoms

tied to exposure
to the weapon.

Wow.

The Norwegian researcher gave
us the strongest evidence yet

of what a pulsed energy device
can do, but that's in

a controlled setting.

It proves that this kind of
effect is possible,

but it still leaves the biggest
question unanswered.

Is this happening
in the real world now?

So after investigating,
here's where I land.

On the topic of Venezuela,
until the U.S. government

acknowledges
the details of the weapon,

we'll never know.

In reality, it traces back to
a single anonymous claim

amplified online and echoed
at the highest levels of

government for what
could plausibly be

propaganda reasons.

But Havana is different.

I've spoken to people I trust,
and their experiences

are consistent.

Their symptoms are real,
and those symptoms are

only happening
to specific people

who held sensitive positions in
operations around the world.

Something happened to them.

It wasn't just in their heads.

Now, the question is, what?
A sonic weapon?

As we've learned,
that's unlikely.

But what about
microwave energy?

That's where things get
interesting, because we've

learned that pulsed
microwave energy can
affect the human body,

but possibility is
not proof.

If a weapon like this were
being used, we'd expect to find

something concrete.

A device, a signal, some kind
of physical evidence

that appears again and again.

And so far, we haven't.

We have a theory
that makes sense.

We have a technology
that could explain it.

But we don't have any evidence
to close the case.

And without proof,
you can't act,

and without action,
whatever caused this

could still be out there.