{"id":6884,"date":"2022-01-23T13:09:07","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T13:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/?p=6884"},"modified":"2022-09-05T20:39:05","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T20:39:05","slug":"cias-havana-syndrome-conspiracy-implodes-here-are-medias-worst-fake-news-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/cias-havana-syndrome-conspiracy-implodes-here-are-medias-worst-fake-news-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"CIA\u2019s \u2018Havana Syndrome\u2019 conspiracy implodes: Here are media\u2019s worst fake news stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The CIA admitted US spies\/diplomats aren\u2019t being attacked by foreign adversaries. \u201cHavana Syndrome\u201d is mass hysteria. Here are the top corporate media outlets that spread this bogus conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For five years, major corporate media outlets have cited anonymous US government officials to baselessly accuse Russia, China, and\/or Cuba of attacking Washington\u2019s spies and diplomats with \u201cpulsed microwave weapons,\u201d \u201cdirected-energy arms,\u201d or other exotic technologies that might as well have been lifted from a B science fiction movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was never an iota of evidence for this ridiculous conspiracy theory, which has now totally collapsed, but it spread like wildfire through the mainstream press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As recently as November 2021, the Washington Post \u2014 one of the US intelligence community\u2019s most reliable media partners \u2014 broadcast an extraordinary threat to the world: \u201cCIA director warns Russian spies of \u2018consequences\u2019 if they are behind \u2018Havana Syndrome\u2019 incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Havana<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A year before that, in December 2020, the New York Times promoted a bizarre conspiracy theory: \u201cReport Points to Microwave \u2018Attack\u2019 as Likely Source<\/a> of Mystery Illnesses That Hit Diplomats and Spies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US newspaper-of-record quoted an official report, commissioned by the State Department and conducted by the United States\u2019 brightest scientific minds, that concluded that a group of North American spies and diplomats allegedly suffering from \u201cdizziness, fatigue, headaches, and loss of hearing, memory and balance\u201d had been targeted by \u201cdirected, pulsed radiofrequency energy\u201d weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Havana<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This January, however, natsec reporters\u2019 favorite conspiracy theory hit a curb at 90 miles an hour, flipped over, and exploded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCIA says \u2018Havana Syndrome\u2019 not result of sustained campaign by hostile power<\/a>,\u201d NBC News reported on January 19. In an internal assessment, the spy agency admitted that there was no evidence of foreign attacks, and it ruled out the possibility, saying there were other medical explanations for the symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is clear that top US intelligence officials approved the leak of this story, because the article was co-authored by Ken Dilanian, a veritable CIA roadie who was once disowned by his former employer the LA Times for doing unethical propaganda on behalf of the spy agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIA officially conceding that Russia, China, and Cuba are not attacking its spooks with scary ray guns should put in the nail in the coffin of an outlandish conspiracy theory that, over five years, has been promoted by basically every major English-language media outlet, including the most respected newspapers in both the United States and Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multipolarista reviewed this onslaught of fake news coverage and found that \u201cHavana Syndrome\u201d conspiracies were eagerly promoted by the following establishment networks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n