Pentagon Hires Firm to Investigate Havana Syndrome, the Mystery Illness Leaving CIA Officers and US Diplomats with Headaches, Dizziness and Memory Problems

A private surveillance company that once demonstrated its ability to track American intelligence officers has been brought in to help the Pentagon investigate Havana syndrome, the unexplained illness reported by CIA officers and US diplomats worldwide.

Documents obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request show that Virginia-based Anomaly 6 is now assisting the Pentagon's Anomalous Health Incidents Cross Functional Team, the official military task force examining the illness.

What Is Havana Syndrome

The illness first surfaced in 2016, when US and Canadian diplomatic staff in Havana, Cuba, began reporting sudden, unexplained symptoms after some described hearing a piercing or grinding noise.

Since then, government personnel have described headaches, dizziness, memory problems, vertigo and hearing difficulties, with more than 1,500 anomalous health incidents reported across dozens of countries by CIA officers, State Department staff, military personnel and their families.

The cause remains unresolved. A 2023 assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found that most of the seven agencies involved considered it 'very unlikely' that a foreign adversary was behind the reported incidents, though the report noted that confidence levels varied between agencies.

A Firm With a Controversial Pitch

Anomaly 6 buys bulk smartphone location data harvested from ordinary users through apps and advertising networks. In a 2022 business pitch, the company demonstrated that its data was precise enough to track the daily commutes of CIA and NSA employees between their homes and agency headquarters.

That same pitch reportedly showed the firm could track foreign military assets abroad, an application with obvious appeal to the Pentagon.

It is not publicly known why the Air Force selected Anomaly 6 for the Havana syndrome task force. Procurement records show the contract, called Project Yellowfin, is worth close to $6 million (£4.5m) and runs through September.

Redacted Contract Reveals Fragments of Anomaly 6's Role

The Air Force redacted most of the document before its release, leaving only fragments describing the firm's role.

According to the surviving text, the task force will draw on Anomaly 6's 'expertise in location intelligence' to help 'identify actors and activities of interest'. The company is also required to produce data visualisation material that briefers can use to show 'geographical distribution, temporal patterns, patterns of life, and interconnectivity of events and actors'.

That focus on identifying 'actors' may reflect the belief, held by some Havana syndrome patients, that a foreign government is using a covert weapon against them. In its earlier pitch, Anomaly 6 specifically highlighted its ability to track Chinese and Russian military personnel, two countries repeatedly named in foreign-adversary theories about the illness.

The Air Force did not respond when asked whether Anomaly 6's data had fed into the 2023 intelligence assessment or contributed to any conclusions about a foreign link.

Oversight Change at the Pentagon

In February, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth restructured the task force, placing it under the Office of the Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering, now led by former Uber executive Emil Michael.

Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, has argued that when the government buys location data from brokers rather than obtaining it through a warrant, it treats commercially available information as exempt from the Fourth Amendment protections that would otherwise apply. The Air Force did not respond to questions about how Anomaly 6's data will be used within the Havana syndrome investigation.