Gabbard, Ratcliffe Pressed to Declassify Revised Havana Syndrome Report Before June 30 Departure

Marc Polymeropoulos, a 26-year CIA veteran who became one of the first U.S. officials to speak publicly about Anomalous Health Incidents, is calling on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to declassify a revised intelligence assessment on AHI before she leaves office [POLITICO]^[1][2]. Polymeropoulos, who retired from the CIA in 2019 after being diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury following a 2017 incident in a Moscow hotel room, has spent years contending that the U.S. intelligence community concealed evidence that a Russian directed-energy weapon caused his injuries and those of other affected personnel ^[1][3]. The push comes as Gabbard's tenure nears its end: she submitted her resignation effective June 30, citing her husband Abraham's diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer ^[4][5].

The formal intelligence backdrop matters. A 2023 interagency assessment concluded it was "very unlikely" that a foreign adversary was responsible for AHI cases ^[6][7]. That assessment, produced under Biden-era leadership, has been a focal point of contention between AHI victims and the intelligence community ^[3][7]. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence challenged that conclusion in a December 2024 unclassified summary, and the National Security Council placed the prior judgments under formal review a month later ^[8]. During Senate confirmation proceedings in early 2025, both Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe testified that the Biden-era assessment should be rescinded, but no formal action has followed [POLITICO]^[12]. The Washington Times reported in December 2025 that Ratcliffe had specifically promised during his own nomination hearing to "aggressively review" CIA analysis on AHI cases to determine whether directed-energy weapons were responsible ^[12].

Independently, investigative reporting and government procurement activity have kept the issue active. A joint investigation by CBS News' 60 Minutes, The Insider, and Der Spiegel published in April 2024 identified members of the GRU's Unit 29155 as potential operatives linked to AHI incidents ^[9]. The intelligence community's formal position as of January 2025 remained that foreign involvement was unlikely, though officials acknowledged they could not rule it out in a subset of cases ^[10][11]. In late 2024, Homeland Security Investigations, using Department of Defense funding, acquired a miniaturized portable device containing Russian-manufactured components that generates pulsed radio waves, which some investigators believe may be capable of producing AHI-consistent symptoms ^[13][14]. The Pentagon tested the device for over a year; results have not been made public ^[13].

Polymeropoulos, who has briefed both the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in closed sessions on his experience ^[15], says he and other victims have been working through former colleagues to pressure Gabbard to release the revised report before her departure. He told POLITICO he has not met directly with Gabbard on the matter [POLITICO]. According to POLITICO, an ODNI spokesperson, Olivia Coleman, said the DNI is working to ensure the "review of AHI intelligence is fulsome and accurate," and a separate ODNI official, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive ongoing policy matter, stated the office is "actively working" to declassify additional AHI material before June 30 [POLITICO].

The HAVANA Act of 2021, which Polymeropoulos helped advocate and which passed both chambers unanimously, authorizes compensation and medical benefits for intelligence and diplomatic personnel who suffer qualifying AHI injuries ^[15]. That statutory framework, combined with the unresolved attribution question, has sustained a years-long dispute between victims and the agencies responsible for their care. Since 2015, more than 1,000 U.S. government personnel across the world have reported symptoms linked to AHI, and some government workers and researchers have long alleged the cases were caused by a foreign adversary deploying directed-energy technology against American personnel.

Gabbard's successor in an acting capacity will be Aaron Lukas, her principal deputy director, a career CIA officer who served in the first Trump administration at both ODNI and the National Security Council ^[16][17]. Whether Lukas will continue Gabbard's stated effort to declassify additional AHI material is not known. The window for releasing a revised, public-facing assessment now compresses to roughly three weeks, making Polymeropoulos's public campaign a time-sensitive pressure effort on a question that has divided the intelligence community for nearly a decade.