NEW: illnesses in diplomats and CIA officials in China, Russia, & Cuba “adding to suspicions that Russia carried out attacks worldwide. Some see Russia as the most likely culprit given interest in fracturing relations among Washington, Beijing and Havana.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/us/politics/diplomat-attacks-havana-syndrome.html?referringSource=articleShare

MORE: U.S. Office of Special Counsel is pursuing two investigations into the State Department’s conduct.
In an April 23 letter viewed by The Times, special counsel officials said investigators had “found a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing” by the State Department.

Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania declined to discuss details but dismissed the idea of a psychological illness, saying the patients they treated had sustained a brain injury from an external source.

“This is a deliberate, high-level cover-up,” Mr. Lenzi (one of the victims) said. “They have hung us out to dry.”

Some senior officials at the State Department and former intelligence officers said they believed Russia played a role. The country’s intelligence operatives have seeded violence around the world, poisoning enemies in Britain and fueling assaults on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

“Mr. Lenzi, who has an extensive background working in the former Soviet Union, said classified material pointed to the country that had carried out the attacks, but the State Department denied him access to the documents.”

Top officials “know exactly which country” was responsible, Mr. Lenzi said, adding that it was not Cuba or China but another country “which the secretary of state and president do not want to confront.”

Commerce officer Catherine Werner experienced vomiting, headaches and dizziness for months. State Department took action only after Ms. Werner’s mother, an Air Force veteran, used a device to record high levels of radiation in her daughter’s apartment. The mother also fell ill.

A shocking follow-up to NYT’s summer report that the Trump Administration is ignoring Russian bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan.