Senators Urge Pentagon Not to Weaken Havana Syndrome Investigation Team

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D‑N.H.) and Susan Collins (R‑Maine) have sent a bipartisan letter warning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth against relocating or downgrading the Pentagon’s cross‑functional team that handles 'Anomalous Health Incidents' (Havana Syndrome), saying such a move would undercut care and research for affected U.S. personnel. The senators are responding to internal discussions about moving the team out of the Office of the Under Secretary for Policy and into the research and engineering directorate, a shift critics fear would sideline its coordinating role on medical care, Havana Act compensation claims and directed‑energy research. A senior congressional official told CBS the team serves as a crucial "central repository" for more than 300 known patients in the military health system and many more across the government, and former CIA officer 'Adam,' who served in Havana, called dismantling the expert group "either incompetence or a cover‑up." The article notes that over 1,500 AHI cases have been reported worldwide and that while a 2024 intelligence assessment deemed a foreign adversary "very unlikely" responsible for most incidents, technical panels still see pulsed electromagnetic energy as a plausible cause for a subset of cases. The Pentagon did not comment on the reorganization plans, and veterans’ and intelligence‑community circles online are already warning that downgrading the team would send a chilling message to afflicted personnel who have struggled for years to have their symptoms taken seriously.