Catherine Herridge has reported a striking new allegation in the Havana syndrome investigation: since early August, a senior official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and a senior defense official involved in directed energy technology have reported being targeted. According to Herridge, the incidents involved suspicious vehicles that may have contained a directed energy device. That word matters. The report raises the possibility of attacks on U.S. soil, but the material made public so far does not establish that the vehicles carried a device or that an attack occurred.
I understand that since early August a senior official within ODNI, and a senior DoW official involved in directing energy technology have reported being targeted.
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) September 22, 2026
These incidents involved suspect vehicles which may have contained a directed energy device.
I asked the CIA,… https://t.co/fnqQxoyyi4
The cars are the part of this story that demands the closest scrutiny. A vehicle could allow someone to approach a target, move away quickly and change locations. But a suspicious car near someone who becomes ill is not, by itself, evidence that the car caused the illness. Investigators need to establish where the vehicles were, who occupied them, whether any equipment was detected, and whether medical findings and other records support the reported sequence of events. Those are questions that can be investigated without dismissing the officials’ accounts.
Herridge’s reporting also refers to a government analysis of a suspected device described as “far advanced.” Even if that analysis is accurate, it does not yet connect the device to these particular vehicles or incidents. The broader intelligence picture has been contested: a publicly released 2025 assessment said most U.S. intelligence agencies continued to judge foreign involvement in anomalous health incidents very unlikely, while two agencies had become more open to the possibility of a foreign capability. Neither that assessment nor the new allegation should be treated as the final word on the reported car incidents.
Herridge says she sought comment from the CIA, defense and homeland security officials, and the DNI’s office about the device analysis and suspected domestic attacks. She reported that the CIA acknowledged receiving her questions but that she had received no substantive response. Silence does not confirm the allegations, yet these claims warrant a clear accounting from the agencies that can examine the evidence.
If the vehicles were used to target officials, the implications for their safety and national security would be grave. If the evidence points elsewhere, the people who reported symptoms still deserve a careful investigation and appropriate care. The public deserves to know what investigators can substantiate about the cars, the suspected device and any connection between them. That is where this potentially explosive story must go next.