In January of 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended U.S. diplomats who had come forward to report suspected incidents. “Their pain is real,” he said then. “I have no higher priority than the health and safety of each of you.”
At that same time, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said it was “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible for the AHIs reported. Some published reports have suggested that the symptoms were characteristic of “mass psychogenic illness.” The declassified report rejects that, finding that the AHIs “do not fit criteria for mass psychogenic illness.”
Of particular concern was the evidence that some of the cases occurred on American soil. In 2019 a White House official reported symptoms while walking her dog in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C.
