As lawmakers demand answers from the two top Pentagon leaders on issues ranging from the botched U.S. exit from Afghanistan to surreptitious direct contact with an adversary, U.S. defense chief Lloyd Austin shifted focus toward what one insider terms a "convenient fakeout."
Austin on Wednesday sent a memo to all Department of Defense personnel, advising them to be on the lookout for Anomalous Health Incidents (AHI), otherwise known as Havana Syndrome.
A 2020 report by the National Academies of Science found "directed, pulsed, radiofrequency energy" was the most plausible explanation for the symptoms, which first were reported by American government personnel stationed in Havana, Cuba.
Although some 200 American officials have reported since 2016 that they were hit with the syndrome, Austin's note comes at a time when he and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley are under scrutiny over numerous recent events that they personally have been involved in.
Could the calls to China actually have been a carefully planned media diversion ?