Herridge reports six new suspected Havana Syndrome cases at Walter Reed, some involving directed-energy researchers

By: Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge)
Created: 2026-10-29T16:43:00-04:00 (America/New_York)
Last updated: 2026-10-30T17:30:00-04:00 (America/New_York)
Living page — updated in place as new primary drops land.

The short version

Catherine Herridge reports at least six new confirmed or suspected directed-energy brain-injury cases treated at Walter Reed since the summer, including people investigating the technology or reverse-engineering a device. Her continuing national-security reporting connects that cluster to earlier incidents involving directed-energy personnel and to the government’s examination of a suspect device.

Herridge is pursuing sources and requesting agency responses, while linking the story to official records, including the rescission of earlier intelligence assessments. The Oct. 30 follow-up coverage continued to relay her work; her original reporting supplies the new Walter Reed lead. The chronology below brings those developments together and shows the questions she is pressing government agencies to answer.

Independent journalist Catherine Herridge reported on Oct. 26 that since the summer, at least six people with “confirmed or suspected brain injuries from directed-energy attacks” have been treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., home of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, which treats traumatic brain injury. The count rests on sources she does not name (“I understand”). She wrote that Walter Reed did not immediately respond to her questions and that she would update if it did. A day later she added that the cluster stands out because those affected were working on directed-energy investigations, including the technology itself or reverse-engineering a device.

She describes the cases as “consistent with and reinforce” her September reporting. On Sept. 4 she reported more than two dozen suspected directed-energy attacks inside the U.S., including a cluster at an off-site intelligence and research facility in Northern Virginia. On Sept. 22 she reported, citing national security sources, that U.S. government analysis of a suspect device was “far advanced” toward attribution, and that two senior personnel on directed-energy projects, one at the Department of War and one at ODNI, had reported incidents in the Washington area. In both reports she said the CIA, ODNI, the Department of War and DHS gave no answers to her questions.

On NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich Tonight on Oct. 26 she went further while hedging. She called the people hit “a very specific target set that an adversary is going after.” Saying she wanted “to be very careful here, because it’s sensitive,” she described accounts of “two vehicles working in tandem, a small vehicle and then a larger sort of jeep-type SUV” that “triangulate the target.” She also described dogs convulsing at the moment of an incident. Then she said: “I don’t want to get too far here, but it has the makings of what may be a cell that’s operating in this area.”

As of 4:43 PM ET Oct. 29, no news outlet, agency or lawmaker has independently confirmed the six cases. Coverage so far relays her reporting. The official record cuts both ways. The intelligence community’s 2023 finding that a foreign adversary was “very unlikely” to be responsible was rescinded in June by then-DNI Tulsi Gabbard, but no replacement assessment has been published. Federal researchers who studied patients found no MRI-detectable brain injury, and some scientists attribute the symptoms to causes other than a weapon.

Research quality: Single-sourced on the new cases. The count, the Walter Reed treatment and the patients’ work all come from Herridge’s unnamed sources, and no one has confirmed or denied them on the record. The backdrop is better documented: the government’s purchase of a pulsed-radio-frequency device, the 2022 expert panel and the June 2026 rescission are confirmed by official records or several outlets. Herridge has reported on the subject continuously since at least December 2024, and her earlier details have been matched by others (the leaked DoD letter, the rescission). This report has not been matched yet.

What she reported, and on what basis

New cases: at least six since the summer, treated at Walter Reed, with “confirmed or suspected” directed-energy brain injuries. Source: unnamed. She did not say who made the diagnoses, what separates confirmed from suspected cases, or when and where the incidents occurred.
Who was hit: people working on directed-energy investigations, including the technology and efforts to reverse-engineer a device. She calls that the feature that sets the cluster apart. Earlier cases mostly involved officers working on Russia.
Senior targets: two senior personnel on directed-energy projects, one at the Department of War and one at ODNI, reported incidents in the greater Washington area (reported Sept. 22, repeated Oct. 26).
Attribution: national security sources told her analysis of a suspect device was “far advanced” and had a “distinct signature.” One said a foreign actor’s “fingerprints” were “all over it.” No country was named.
Responses: Walter Reed did not respond (Oct. 26). In September, she said the CIA confirmed receiving her questions and that neither the CIA nor the Department of War, DHS or ODNI answered them.

What other records show

Feb. 2022: an intelligence community expert panel found that pulsed electromagnetic energy, particularly radiofrequency, “plausibly” explains the core features of a subset of cases. Its chair, Stanford’s David Relman, told the Guardian in October that some cases are “most plausibly explained by exposure to pulsed microwave energy.”
Jan. 2026: CNN reported that Homeland Security Investigations bought a device that emits pulsed radio waves and contains Russian components, late in the Biden administration and with Pentagon money. CBS and 60 Minutes followed with reports on animal testing. The House Homeland Security Committee asked for a briefing. Sources told the Guardian the device is not believed to have been used in any incident.
June 11, 2026: Gabbard rescinded the 2023 assessment and its January 2025 update. An ODNI memo said they selectively excluded relevant intelligence, suppressed alternative analysis and relied on an “ethically flawed medical study” (CNN). The memo did not name a cause or release new evidence.

The other side

The 2023 assessment, the official position until June, said most agencies judged it “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible. It attributed symptoms “probably” to preexisting conditions, conventional illness and environmental factors. The January 2025 update kept five agencies at “very unlikely,” while one saw a “roughly even chance” that a foreign actor had used a novel weapon in some incidents.
NIH studies in JAMA (March 2024) found no MRI-detectable brain injury or blood-biomarker differences in patients compared with controls. Forty-one percent met criteria for functional neurological disorders. The lead imaging researcher said the absence of findings “does not exclude” that a brain injury occurred. ODNI’s June memo called the study ethically flawed.
Sociologist Robert Bartholomew and neurologist Robert Baloh have called the phenomenon mass psychogenic illness. Neuroscientist R. Douglas Fields has argued that the weapon theories “defy the laws of physics” (as summarized by the Guardian).
Former CIA Director Bill Burns said it is “simply not true that there was a ‘cover-up’ by the CIA” (Guardian, Oct. 10).
Len Ber, a physician who treats civilians reporting similar symptoms and supports the weapon explanation, noted on X that cases like the Walter Reed group are labeled suspected directed-energy injuries on the basis of medical evaluation, “not because the energy was detected.”

Has anyone confirmed it?

Not as of Oct. 29, 2026, 4:43 PM ET.

Walter Reed, the Defense Health Agency, ODNI, the CIA and the Department of War have made no public comment on the six cases, and Herridge has posted no update with a response.
Pickup is NewsNation, where Herridge reported it herself, along with Switzerland’s Blick and aggregator sites. All of them attribute the cases to her.
No member of Congress has made a public statement on the new cases.

Update, Oct. 30

Added Oct. 30, 2026. Nothing below changes the status of the original report: the cases remain unconfirmed by any official source.

On Oct. 29 the Daily Caller News Foundation (reporter Jillian Butler) published a follow-up, citing NewsNation, saying at least six new suspected cases are being treated at Walter Reed. It is a relay of the NewsNation and Herridge reporting, not an independent confirmation; it names no new sources.
DCNF wrote that investigators have not publicly established the cause of the injuries or identified a responsible party, and that Walter Reed did not immediately respond to its request for comment.
The DCNF headline says senior defense officials were “hospitalized”; its text says the patients are “receiving treatment.” We have not seen a source for inpatient admission.
DCNF quotes Herridge on NewsNation: “I anticipate that we probably will be learning more before the end of the year about ultimately the government findings.”
As of 5:30 p.m. ET Oct. 30, we have located no statement from Walter Reed, the Defense Health Agency, the Department of War or ODNI confirming or denying the cases. NewsNation’s own article could not be opened by our fetcher (HTTP 403).

Chronology of drops

2024-12-05 — House probe: foreign adversary “increasingly likely”; injured CIA officer calls the 2023 assessment a “betrayal” — Earliest post in her current Havana Syndrome reporting on X.
2024-12-30 — Leaked 2024 DoD letter to a patient: “We believe your experiences are real” — The Pentagon did not dispute the letter’s authenticity, according to the Guardian.
2024-12-30 — CIA whistleblower “Alice” alleges a cover-up; Labor Department accepted her brain injury as job-related
2025-04-22 — Neuroscientist and military adviser calls directed-energy attacks on U.S. soil “credible”; records on NSA officer Mike Beck
2025-06-17 — State Department security engineer Mark Lenzi alleges fraud and a cover-up
2026-02-12 — Exclusive: ODNI Director’s Initiatives Group findings discredit the Biden-era assessments — X article.
2026-02-26 — Retired Space Force officer “Chris” says he was hit five times at his Northern Virginia home in 2020; injuries recorded as service-connected — Part two (his wife, Heidi) followed March 5.
2026-03-19 — At a House Intelligence hearing, top intelligence officials agree the assessments should be recalled
2026-06-11 — Exclusive: ODNI official confirms Gabbard rescinded both assessments — CNN and others confirmed it the next day.
2026-07-26 — Former CIA officer James Erdman III alleges whistleblower reports that the CIA destroyed directed-energy records
2026-08-08 — New cluster: at least three incidents since 2020 involving government personnel in Northern Virginia, some investigating directed energy — “Confirmed through multiple sources.” CIA and ODNI did not respond.
2026-09-04 — Exclusive: more than two dozen suspected directed-energy attacks inside the U.S. — Includes a cluster at an off-site intelligence/research facility in Northern Virginia.
2026-09-22 — Exclusive X article: U.S. analysis of a suspect device is “far advanced” — Two senior directed-energy personnel reported incidents. No adversary named.
2026-10-26, 2:43 PM ET — Exclusive: at least six new cases treated at Walter Reed since summer — “There was no immediate response from Walter Reed to my questions.” · X metrics as of about 4:30 PM ET Oct. 29: 1,532 likes · 649 reposts
2026-10-26, 10:42 PM ET — On NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich Tonight: “I don’t want to get too far here, but it has the makings of what may be a cell” — Show clip posted by the program’s account. · X metrics as of about 4:30 PM ET Oct. 29: 3,657 likes · 1,448 reposts
2026-10-27, 6:39 AM ET — Follow-up: the people hit were working on directed-energy investigations, including reverse-engineering a device — X metrics as of about 4:30 PM ET Oct. 29: 2,645 likes · 970 reposts
2026-10-29 — Daily Caller News Foundation follow-up, citing NewsNation — Relays the six-case report; Walter Reed did not respond; cause not established.

Sources

Pointers to originals. We do not close-paraphrase their prose — read the primaries.

Open questions

Will Walter Reed, the Defense Health Agency or the Department of War confirm or deny that new suspected cases have been treated there since the summer?
Who classified the cases as “confirmed” or “suspected,” and on what clinical criteria?
Is the FBI or a counterintelligence unit investigating the Washington-area incidents and the vehicles Herridge describes?
Will ODNI issue a replacement assessment, and will the Director’s Initiatives Group findings be released?
What did testing of the government-acquired device show, and has it been linked to any incident?

Mainstream coverage note

No major U.S. outlet had matched, advanced or rebutted the Walter Reed report by Oct. 29. That fits a pattern in which officials decline to comment and other outlets wait for an on-record source. Some relays describe the 2023 “very unlikely” assessment as the standing official view without noting that it was rescinded in June, Blick among them.

Paywall / access notes

Her Sept. 22 X article opened first to subscribers and is now readable without a subscription.
Herridge posts are free on X.
The Wall Street Journal’s rescission story is paywalled and was not used.