The Quiet War: Invisible Attacks | What's Behind Havana Sydnrome & Anomalous Health Incidents

🗓️ Event: The Quiet War: Invisible Attacks | What's Behind Havana Syndrome & Anomalous Health Incidents 📅 Date: April 15, 2026 ⏰ Time: 7:00 PM EDT 📍 Location: Van Metre Hall Auditorium, Mason Square, 3351 N Fairfax Dr, Arlington, VA 🎓 Hosted by: Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University What if America’s adversaries have found a way to target US personnel—without leaving a trace? Recent reporting by The Insider, CBS 60 Minutes, and Sasha Ingber has reignited one of the most contentious debates in national security: Anomalous Health Incidents (AHIs), often called “Havana Syndrome.” Since 2016, US diplomats and intelligence officers have reported sudden, disorienting neurological symptoms—frequently while serving overseas. New investigative findings point to the reported US acquisition—via foreign sources—of a portable device capable of emitting pulsed radio frequency energy and producing AHI-like effects under laboratory conditions. These claims stand in tension with the US Intelligence Community’s recent assessment that there is no credible evidence linking AHIs to a foreign adversary capability. These claims raise a fundamental question: what if the Intelligence Community got it wrong? Should that assessment now be revisited? And how should we evaluate claims that elements within the intelligence system may have constrained or shaped the investigation? This event brings together two journalists at the center of the latest reporting and a former Central Intelligence Agency officer directly affected by AHIs to examine the evidence, challenge competing narratives, and confront the implications for US intelligence and accountability. Moderator: John Sipher – Former CIA senior leader in Russia operations; Hayden Center Senior Fellow; co-host of Mission Implausible, an iHeartRadio podcast; Atlantic Council Non-Resident Senior Fellow. Featured Speakers: Christo Grozev – lead investigator at The Insider of Russian intelligence clandestine operations and security threats, contributor to Der Spiegel, former lead Russian researcher and executive director at Bellingcat. Marc Polymeropoulos – Former CIA senior operations leader & Anomalous Health Incident survivor; MS NOW national security contributor; co-host of Eyes on Geopolitics, a Team House podcast; author. Michael Weiss – Editor at The Insider, investigator of Russian intelligence services and covert operations; curator of The Lubyanka Files, an anthology of still-classified KGB training documents; former CNN investigative reporter, author.   The Hayden Center is located at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government in Arlington, VA. General Hayden, our founder and former Director of both the CIA and the National Security Agency, has been a distinguished visiting professor at Schar School for 16 years. Consider honoring General Hayden by supporting the Hayden Center with a donation. Please click http://tiny.cc/2884101 and fill out the form. Thank you for your generosity. For more about the Hayden Center, visit our website at haydencenter.gmu.edu.