01x01 - Invisible Enemies

[bunniefuu]

Tonight on "expedition files"

In the Arizona wilderness,

Travis walton is taken by

forces beyond our understanding.

Travis! Travis!

Now, new evidence suggests

the supposed alien abduction

might actually be true.

At the turn of the century,

aviator Charles Lindbergh's family

is destroyed in the most

horrifying way imaginable.

And a recent theory about

the identity of a suspect is

almost too terrible to imagine.

And, at this very moment,

American spies and diplomats

are under siege from

a mysterious enemy.

For the first time ever,

I'll uncover extraordinary

revelations behind

these terrifying attacks.

In the corridors of time

Are mysteries that defy explanation.

Now, I'm traveling through history itself,

on a search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh gates,

and these

are my "expedition files."

I was nine years old when

my neighborhood Nemesis,

Jimmy Donovan, walked up to

me in the school yard and punched

me square in the face it hurt.

It's not pain I'll forget,

and I won't forget who did it

either, Jimmy Donovan.

But disturbingly, some

attackers are unknown,

hurting us without ever

revealing who or what they are.

Tonight, we study

the files of three people

whose brutal attackers remain unknown.

From a terrifying ufo abduction

in the Arizona wilderness,

to an unimaginable crime

that shocked the nation,

to a shadowy super

weapon first fired at innocent

American diplomats in Cuba.

For each of our three stories,

the question remains the same

who was behind these shocking attacks?

We begin here, just after

dark, in the white mountains of

Arizona, in the fall of 1975.

When we get back, remind

me that we need to put some

gas in the chainsaw for the

For these seven young

men, it's a night they'll both

never forget, and also

struggle to remember.

They've been working all day,

chopping down the pine trees

that cover these mountains.

What they don't know is that

their drive back to town will

become a road trip like no other.

One of these men will

suddenly vanish in jaw-dropping

circumstances, setting

off one of the most gripping

and bizarre missing

person cases in history.

Pretty soon, people all across

the country and the world will

be asking, "what really

happened to Travis walton?"

Travis, get back!

In the summer of 1975,

Travis walton is a member of

a seven-man logging

crew hired to thin out trees

in the apache-sitgreaves national forest.

They're a tight-knit, hardworking group.

Then, several months into

the job, on November 5th,

as they head back to town,

everything in their world changes.

As they drive along

the rocky forest road that

they've traveled countless times

before, suddenly, the men are

stunned by a large, mysterious object

floating in the sky.

What the hell is that?

While fear grips the rest of the crew,

something inexplicably

draws Travis walton

towards the light.

- Travis

- Come back here! -Travis!

- Travis!

- Travis, come back!

Hey, Travis, come on back here, man!

- Travis!

- Travis!

- Travis!

- Travis!

Trav

drive on.

Drive!

Gripped with panic, his

friends flee the scene.

Travis! Travis!

15 minutes later, when

the light appears to be

gone, they return to the

site to find nothing, no craft,

no light, no Travis

their friend has vanished.

So they race to the nearest

phone to call the sheriff,

Chuck Ellison.

Our friend's been taken.

Though he's skeptical,

sheriff Ellison accompanies

the men back to the scene.

- Travis!

- Travis!

Travis! Travis, come back!

Travis!

- Travis!

- Travis!

But after a search that

drags late into the night,

they're forced to call off the hunt

as the temperature plummets.

If Travis is out there somewhere,

he's in for a brutally cold night.

Over the next five

days, the sheriff's office

and volunteers

frantically search the area.

In an odd moment that would

become relevant decades later,

the logging foreman and

others recall an investigator

using a geiger counter.

When they test the men's hard

hats, the needle jumps way up.

But let's file that away for

now, because this small logging

crew is about to have

their feet held to the fire.

Three days after Travis goes missing,

the sheriff's department

administers polygraph tests

for the six loggers.

The men deny any involvement

in Travis's disappearance,

and they all recount the

same bright light in the sky.

They pass with flying

colors, but there's still

no explanation for where

Travis walton could be.

Five days after Travis's disappearance,

his brother-in-law receives a call.

Hello? Who is this?

It's Travis.

He's stumbled to a

payphone on the outskirts

of a small town about 10 miles

from where he disappeared.

Travis, buddy, you're gonna be ok.

When they find him, all

he remembers is waking up

earlier that night, lying flat on the road,

with a light above him that disappeared.

But in the days to come,

Travis would remember

more and more.

And what he remembers

transforms this from a simple

missing persons case

to an out-of-this-world

alien abduction nightmare,

unlike anything anyone

had heard before.

When the word gets out to

the public, newspapers all over

the world run with the story,

creating a feverish interest

that will last decades.

But doubters also come

out of the woodwork.

The loggers are accused of

fabricating an elaborate hoax

to get them off the hook from

running behind schedule on

their logging contract.

Other skeptics write it off

as ball lightning, a run-in with

a military craft,

drug-induced hallucinations,

or simply a drunken prank.

But Travis and the

rest of the logging crew

stand by their story.

And none of the alternative

theories can be proven.

But if it all really happened,

where is the evidence?

Well, some of the best

evidence is Travis himself.

Blood tests taken soon after

Travis's return come back

completely clean for

drugs and any intoxicants.

Though he is dehydrated

and a few pounds lighter,

five nights of no food

in the forest should have

left his body much more malnourished.

You're gonna be ok.

And perhaps the most amazing thing

is that Travis survived at all.

At night, the forest can reach

below freezing temperatures.

Few could survive such

an ordeal wearing just jeans

and a flannel shirt.

Another point in Travis's favor

is that he, just like the other

crew members, takes a polygraph test.

He too passes.

So, at the very least,

Travis believes his own story.

And as days turn to

weeks, months, years,

and even decades,

Travis's story always stays

remarkably consistent,

never changing or shifting

like lies sometimes do.

And Travis seemed genuinely

honest that the event had

affected him deeply when I

sat down with him 40 years later.

For years, the memory

was so clear that every time

I recounted the events,

that I would re-experience

that level of fear, my

Heart and respiration would

go way up, and I would just be

drenched in sweat after

describing what had happened at

- that time.

- Well, thank you

for letting us consider the facts.

Thank you for sharing your story with us.

I really appreciate it.

The Travis walton story has

been a mystery for 50 years,

but it may not be a

mystery for much longer.

Thanks to an unexpected find

at the original site, we may be

able to reveal the

remarkable truth of his story.

Was Travis walton

really abducted by aliens,

as he and his friends claim?

It's a question that has

puzzled the public for decades.

But now, there may finally be an answer.

In 2014, ufo researcher

and former federal agent

Ben Hansen returns to the

clearing site of the original incident

with Travis by his side to

try and uncover any remaining

evidence of the so-called ufo encounter.

They located the exact spot

of the supposed abduction.

And as it turned out,

they found compelling

new evidence that Hansen

thinks could be the smoking g*n.

I regard the Travis

walton incident as the most

well-documented case of

alleged ufo abduction in history.

But a lot of people dismiss

ufo cases because they say,

"there's no video of it.

There's no hard evidence."

In my previous career as

law enforcement investigation,

you have to approach things

very methodically, as if you're

going to present this in court.

So when I went back with

Travis to the scene of the original

1975 incident, it was very

important that we actually

process the scene like a crime scene.

We quarantined an area, a boundary.

We defined it. We mapped it out.

We gridded it out.

And that's when we

discovered that the area that was

surrounding where the craft was

hovering had trees that seemed

to have grown like exponential growth

compared to the other trees.

And on one side of the

tree, it's thicker, meaning

those rings after 1975

were spaced further apart.

But they also had an

unusual quality about them.

They were all pointing towards

one specific point in the middle.

No matter where those trees

were, they were growing thicker

and bigger facing the side

where the craft was hovering.

After the 1975 event,

there were high levels of

radiation that were

documented over ground zero,

where the craft had been hovering.

I started to research

radiation, and I came across

a couple of papers.

Now, these academic

papers were written

after the chernobyl

incident in the Soviet union.

Now, when the leak and

the radiation had spread,

most people would

assume any living organism

within that radius is dead.

But if you also remember,

think about radiation

and its ability to mutate.

And what they found was there

was a certain type of pine tree,

and these trees were

growing much, much quicker

because there was

residual radiation left at the scene.

So I thought this is compelling,

because with the Travis walton

case, the side of the trees

facing where the craft was is

where the exponential

growth and the wide tree rings

were occurring.

So is it possible that

the propulsion system,

or this discharge, or

whatever the effects of this

craft had, had then radiated

the trees, but only on the side

facing where the craft was?

And for years to come, it

caused this unusual growth?

So now we have evidence that

seems to support the idea that

something quite unusual

happened in the forest

that night.

Will this remarkable new

discovery silence the doubters

and finally prove the

most high-profile case

of alien abduction in history?

Studying the data, it certainly

does seem to show something

beyond our understanding

happened, and it happened in

the very same place

and at the very same time

as Travis's alleged alien attack.

But was Travis walton

taken by extraterrestrials?

His controversial story

has perplexed the public for

50 years, and in all that

time, Travis himself has never

wavered from his account.

Meanwhile, science has

come a long way on the question

of extraterrestrials.

Experts now theorize

there could be 40 billion

earth-sized planets in our galaxy alone.

There is a growing consensus

that it is not only possible,

but likely, that alien life does exist.

Our next file takes us from

a tale of alien abduction to

the story of a kidnapping

at the hands of someone

much more human

and much more sinister.

It's march 1st, 1932.

In a New Jersey suburb, a

man is putting his young son

down to sleep for the night,

but this is no ordinary father.

He is world-renowned aviation

pioneer and American hero,

Charles Lindbergh.

And the baby is his only son, Charlie Jr.

What Lindbergh doesn't know

is that soon, his son

will vanish into thin air.

The tragic tale of the

Lindbergh baby kidnapping

captivated and confounded the nation.

And now, nearly a century

later, new analysis of evidence

is revealing overlooked

suspects with darkly disturbing

motives who may have

gotten away with m*rder.

On an icy, stormy evening,

an intruder slips through

the window of Charlie

Jr.'s second-floor nursery.

And just like that, the boy is gone.

When Charles and Anne Lindbergh

discover their son is

missing, they're terrified.

They call the New Jersey state police.

When detectives arrive,

they find an envelope with

a ransom note inside.

The kidnapper wants

$50,000 for the safe return of

Charlie Jr they also

find muddy footprints,

but there's no blood and no fingerprints.

Investigators also discover

a ladder with a broken rung,

suggesting the kidnapper snapped it

while climbing up or down.

When the press catches

wind of the kidnapping,

it sets off an international firestorm.

Not a single bed is overlooked

in the search for the most

famous baby in the world.

Because Charles

Lindbergh is a living legend.

In 1927, Lindbergh

becomes the first aviator to fly

nonstop from New York to

Paris across the Atlantic ocean.

After he lands, he becomes

the most famous man

on the planet.

And with so much fame

comes incredible fortune.

Lindy becomes one of

the wealthiest celebrities in

the world, making the

Lindbergh family a target.

Stealing Charles Lindbergh's

son is an audacious crime,

and police have little to go on.

They launch a nationwide

manhunt to locate the kidnapper

and return Charlie Jr. home safely.

Desperate to get his son back,

wealthy Lindbergh agrees to pay

the $50,000 ransom for junior's release.

But to catch the

kidnapper, the FBI marks

the serial numbers on the money

used for the ransom payment.

The trap is set.

If so much as a single

bill is deposited in a bank,

investigators will be

able to trace it back to.

Charlie's kidnapper.

The kidnapper receives

the ransom and reveals that

the boy is at wood lawn cemetery,

at whittemore and fremont.

But when investigators arrive,

there is no sign of the boy.

Charles and Anne are devastated.

It's a shocking setback.

But detectives begin to

wonder, is there more to this case

than meets the eye?

Months later, the kidnapping case takes

a horrifying turn.

Just four miles from the flyer's estate,

Charlie Jr. is found dead in the forest.

And when detectives look

closely at the boy's body,

there is little trace of

blood, and Charlie has

a hole in his skull.

Even more alarming, several vital organs

are missing.

Investigators want to know,

how did Charlie Jr. suffer

such ghastly injuries?

What they uncover will

outrage the nation, but a fresh

analysis of the autopsy report

almost a century later has

inspired a controversial new

theory that suggests an even

more twisted and macabre

motive for the young boy's death.

If accurate, the identity

of the suspected k*ller is

almost unthinkable.

Months after the disappearance

of Charles Lindbergh's

young son, he turns

up dead, just miles from

the family estate.

And the condition of the

boy's body is disturbing.

There's a hole in his

skull, which is also crushed.

There is little sign of blood.

And in a bizarre twist,

some of his organs

appear to be missing.

Looking at all the

evidence, detectives believe

the kidnapper dropped

Charlie while descending from

the nursery when their wooden

ladder broke, creating the hole

in junior's skull.

Police suspect that within

minutes, the child dies from

the massive impact, and

the abductor abandons.

Charlie's body in the forest.

They suspect the toddler's

internal injuries are caused by

wild animals.

When the press gets a hold of the story,

outrage spreads from coast to coast.

The son of america's greatest

living hero dies in a grisly,

brutal m*rder.

And police still can't find Charlie's k*ller.

It isn't until two years

later that some of the FBI's

marked bills from the ransom

are spent at a gas station

in New York City.

Agents trace the money back

to the man who buys the fuel,

German carpenter

Bruno Richard hauptmann.

You are under arrest.

Looking into hauptmann's background,

detectives are surprised.

They see no connection between

Bruno and the Lindbergh family.

However, when they search

hauptmann's old junkyard shack,

they fined over $14,000

in marked ransom bills.

Bruno is arrested for the

kidnapping and m*rder of

Charles Lindbergh Jr., but

hauptmann asserts he's innocent.

Around the world, newspapers

hail hauptmann's case

the trial of the century.

He wanted that money

so he could, and he did,

live a life of luxury and ease

so he wouldn't have to work.

He quit his job the day

he collected the $50,000,

the very day!

During his trial, Bruno's attorney claims

the case against hauptmann is weak.

Bruno testifies the money

found in his garage belongs to

a deceased business partner.

Bruno's wife, Anna, testifies

that hauptmann was with

her the night of the kidnapping.

And Bruno's attorney

reminds the court that none of

hauptmann's fingerprints

are ever found on the ladder,

the ransom note, or inside

the Lindbergh nursery.

But to the jury, the

marked ransom bills are

compelling evidence.

Bruno Richard hauptmann

is found guilty of m*rder.

And on April 3, 1936,

he dies in the electric chair.

America is relieved.

Justice has finally been

served for the terrible m*rder of

Charles Lindbergh's poor baby son.

But many begin to wonder,

did authorities execute

the wrong man?

In the years following Charlie's death,

biographers discover

Lindbergh was obsessed

with his son's physical appearance.

Authors contend, when

Charlie is born in 1930,

his aviator father is unhappy

with junior's large head

and deformed toes on his right

foot, symptoms of the condition

known as rickets.

Some allege that

Lindbergh, america's rugged,

handsome hero fears his

own son looks like a weakling.

Charles Lindbergh is

also a believer in eugenics,

a now discredited science

based on the theory that one could

use selective breeding to rid the world of

genetically inferior humans.

And Lindbergh was known to

have a close relationship with

the nefarious godfather

of eugenics, Alexis carrel.

This leads a group of academics

to come up with a new theory

for Charlie's disappearance.

In 2020, forensic

pathologist Dr. Peter speth

conducts new analysis

on the forensic

evidence from the m*rder,

and what he finds is disturbing.

When I looked at the autopsy report,

there was something

that caught my attention.

The body, when it was

found, was in a state of

advanced decay, and

the organs were gone,

but what struck me was the face.

The forehead

was so well preserved.

And the skin on the right foot

was white, and yet, the

legs were skeletonized.

How did that happen?

How was it possible to preserve

the face and the right foot?

It suggests chemicals.

So I began to research

what do taxidermists use to

preserve the hide.

They use what is called

tannic acid, or tannin.

Now I became interested

in who had knowledge of

tannic acid, and I hit pay dirt.

Alexis carrel.

As we know, Alexis carrel

is the godfather of the sinister

theory of eugenics, who

Lindbergh counted as

a close friend.

Dr. Speth speculates

that this evidence points to

a harrowing possibility.

I believe that Charles

Lindbergh and Alexis carrel

carried out surgical procedures

to solve some of these many

problems that chas Jr.

Had because he's abnormal

and then failed.

So they personally

were involved in the k*lling

of that child.

Many find this theory

too shocking to believe.

However, there is compelling

evidence supporting

Dr. Speth's claims.

Why then preserve the

face and the right foot?

Well, if the body's in advanced decay,

how are you gonna identify the baby?

And what are the two

identifying features?

One, the prominent forehead,

and secondly, the overlapping

toes on the right foot.

Dr. Speth further speculates

that Lindbergh was certain that

he wanted the body of Charles

Jr. recovered, so that no one

would come out later in life

claiming they were the lost boy.

There's no doubt this

is a highly controversial

allegation, but there's one

more detail that may fuel

this theory even more.

Charles Lindbergh was leading

the investigation and telling

the state police what

they could or could not do.

He had the baby cremated

and put out an order that none

of the evidence would ever undergo

further scientific investigations.

To this day, the governors,

the Attorney General,

and state police have been

upholding that.

Charles Lindbergh was

a larger-than-life icon

who changed the world forever.

But he was also a very complex figure,

living a life of contradictions.

Will we ever know what really

happened that stormy night

in 1932?

Most Lindbergh authors, scholars,

and historians dismiss

this unsettling theory

as too lurid to believe.

My own take is that

the evidence to support it

is highly circumstantial.

What cannot be doubted,

though, is the true tragedy

here, the senseless

death of an innocent child.

We now take you from

the historic tragedy of

the Lindbergh baby to an as*ault on

American diplomats and

secret agents in modern day.

Welcome to paradise.

But it's a paradise that's soon to be lost.

It's 2016 on the island of Cuba in a quiet,

upscale neighborhood considered

the Beverly Hills of Havana.

It's a popular location

for foreign diplomats

and us embassy workers,

but soon, they'll be

seemingly attacked

by something terrifying,

something beyond all comprehension.

Doug Ferguson and Kate husband

are a married couple working at

the us embassy in Havana.

They're enjoying a

relaxing evening after work.

What they don't know is

that their world is about to be

turned upside down.

As they prepare for dinner, a

high-pitched sound suddenly

fills their home, and it feels

like something is drilling into

their skulls and somehow

piercing their brains.

Is it all in their heads?

Or are there far more

sinister forces involved?

Embassy workers Doug

Ferguson and Kate husband

are suffering the worst

headaches of their lives after

a high-pitched noise penetrates

their home in Havana, Cuba.

But Kate seems to get the worst of it.

She deals with a constant

state of vertigo, nausea,

as well as brain fog.

What they're experiencing

doesn't have a name yet.

At work, Doug makes

a shocking discovery

the same strange things

are happening to his co-workers.

Dozens of us embassy workers

in Havana are experiencing

the same strange collection

of symptoms dizziness,

trouble sleeping, vomiting,

and short- and long-term memory loss.

This is definitely not the office flu.

The media catches wind,

and the mystery illness is

dubbed "Havana syndrome."

But it's not just limited to Havana.

Cases with similar

symptoms start popping up,

affecting us employees

all around the world.

There are incidents in

Poland, Taiwan, Australia,

Colombia, Tbilisi, Georgia, and Moscow.

All the victims are either

state department employees,

CIA intelligence officers, or their families.

Is this all just a strange coincidence,

or are dark forces at work?

December 2017,

CIA officer Marc

polymeropoulos is in Moscow,

visiting intelligence contacts.

Little does he know he's

about to get taken out by

an invisible attack.

I wake up in the middle of the

night in early December 2017

in a hotel room in Moscow,

and something really

extraordinary is happening.

My ears are ringing.

I have tinnitus, which is very disorienting.

It's a sound that never stops in your ear.

I have an incredible case of vertigo.

The room is spinning uncontrollably.

I'm physically sick.

I have a splitting headache,

a migraine, and I'm realizing

that something is going on

much more than food poisoning.

Something is happening to me,

which was something

that was very disconcerting,

because I've been shot at in places like

Iraq and Afghanistan.

I put my life at risk numerous times.

This is a feeling I've

never experienced before,

because I had no control

over what was happening.

I was terrified.

It seems Mark is the latest

victim of Havana syndrome.

One year since cases began,

people start asking the obvious

question, if American

diplomats and spies are

the only people affected,

could this be some sort of

targeted attack?

The us state department

is eager to find answers

and sets up a study at the

university of Pennsylvania.

In march of 2018, 21

victims from Havana,

including Doug Ferguson

and Kate husband,

are flown to Philadelphia

and put through a battery

of tests at university of.

Pennsylvania's center

for brain injury and repair.

Paging doctor

The doctors are looking

for any possible causes of

Havana syndrome, a virus,

neurotoxins, even mass hysteria

or group psychosis.

What they find is even more bizarre.

Scans reveal brain damage in

these patients, consistent with

what you'd expect to see after a series of

repeated concussions.

But none of these patients

have sustained any kind of

physical head injury.

For some victims, like

Doug Ferguson, he'll make

a full recovery nine

months after the attack.

But his wife, Kate, is told

that her brain looks as though

it's aged 25 years almost overnight

and is forced into medical retirement.

And then researchers at

the university of Pennsylvania

come to a truly shocking conclusion.

They believe they've

determined the cause of all of this

microwave radiation.

Researchers point to the

screeching cricket sound

that often accompanies

Havana syndrome.

It's consistent with something

called "the frey effect,"

the sound microwave radiation makes

when it penetrates your skull.

And exposure to microwaves

results in the excruciating

symptoms that line

up with those reported

by syndrome victims.

The penn study doesn't pinpoint

where the microwaves come from,

but at the end of their report,

they do mention that Russia has

been developing capabilities

around microwave weapons.

Ok, feels like they might have

buried the lede on that one,

but come on, the idea that

Russian spies are sh**ting

beams of microwave

energy at Americans?

It sounds like something

out of a Sci-Fi movie

or a cheap spy novel except it isn't,

because they've already done it.

American attorney Mark

zaid, who represents

more than two dozen victims of

Havana syndrome, is leading

the campaign to find answers to

this mysterious illness.

I was provided an unclassified

memorandum by NSA

in October 2014, two

years before Havana,

that revealed the existence of

intelligence information

concerning a foreign adversary,

quote, "with a high-powered

microwave system weapon that"

"may have the ability to weaken,

intimidate, or k*ll an enemy

over time and without leaving evidence."

Despite this testimony,

the government continues to

deny that Havana syndrome

is a real medical condition.

In summer of 2020, my

symptoms are getting much worse.

And so I make a decision

to go public with my story,

because I was so

desperate for healthcare.

The agency is refusing

to send me to a doctor.

Again, it's the notion, all I

want to do is see a doctor.

For over eight years,

Havana syndrome has affected

American diplomats

and officials, but its origin,

and indeed its very

cause, are still shrouded in

controversy and mystery.

Then, in march of 2024,

a bombshell investigative

report is published, perhaps revealing all.

Long before Travis walton,

the idea of aliens captivated

pop culture all the way back to

the pulp magazines of the '20s

and Orson welles' famous radio

broadcast of "w*r of the worlds"

in the '30s.

But in 1959, Soviet

astrophysicist iosif shklovsky

dropped a cosmic

bombshell that sent ufo fever

into a global frenzy.

He suggested that phobos,

one of Mars's moons,

might actually be an artificial satellite.

That's right, a martian death star.

Shklovsky believed the

strange orbit and low density of

the moon were clues that it

was a secret spacecraft built by

an advanced civilization

of ancient extraterrestrials.

And even though his bold

theory was categorically debunked,

it did nothing to diminish

our collective obsession with

the hope that we aren't completely alone

in the universe.

The truth is out there, right, guys?

Starting in Havana, Cuba,

in 2016, cases of a strange

sickness affect over 200

Americans working for

the government all around the world.

Many victims believe

it's a deliberate attack,

but us authorities remain

stubbornly unconvinced.

A new investigative

report could change all that.

October 2021, in Tbilisi, Georgia, a quiet

eastern European town

along the Russian border.

The wife of an American

diplomat is home,

doing laundry.

Suddenly, as acute ringing

fills her ears, her head feels

like it's in a vice grip, and a knife is

stabbing her brain.

Panicked, she sees a car

outside she doesn't recognize.

Standing next to it is a tall,

well-dressed young man.

She locks eyes with him

before he turns and leaves.

For three years, she suffers with

the painful effects from that day.

Severe daily migraines,

hearing problems,

and two major surgeries to repair holes

in her ear canal that

her doctors can't explain.

She doesn't know what happened

to her, but she's convinced

the man she saw outside

her home played a part.

It's a face she can't forget,

but never expects to see again.

March 2024, investigative journalist

christo grozev is working

on his biggest story yet,

trying to uncover the

origins of Havana syndrome.

As part of his investigation,

he is interviewing the diplomat's wife.

We want to see if you

can identify this man.

And shows her a picture

of a young, blonde man.

She is instantly filled with fear and dread.

It's the man she knows is

responsible for her three years

of t*rture and torment.

The man in the picture

Albert averyanov, a Russian military

intelligence operative.

He's part of a secret unit

inside Russian military

intelligence, known only

by its code number, 29155.

In march of 2024,

grozev and his magazine,

"the insider," released

the shocking findings

of their investigation.

Grozev uncovers a secret

Russian cable, showing members

of unit 29155 receiving awards

for work on the development of

non-lethal acoustic weapons.

After 10 years of confusion

and suffering, this document

and the entire investigation

possibly confirm the cause

and the culprits behind

Havana syndrome.

This issue becomes very problematic,

because in my view,

and I think in the view

of many others, this is an act of w*r.

And so it then calls

into question, what does

the United States

government do about this?

Perhaps that's one of the

reasons they don't want

to get to the bottom of it,

because then the

question, as you sit around

the national security council

or in the white house is,

"what do we do?"

Officially, the us government still says

they do not believe Havana

syndrome is caused by

any kind of weapon.

The CIA, the house

intelligence committee,

and the national

intelligence council all state

that there's no conclusive evidence

a foreign adversary is

responsible for the phenomenon.

But try telling that to Kate

husband, Marc polymeropoulos,

and the hundreds of others

who are convinced they've

suffered and are still suffering due to

some kind of secret attack.

So, is a Russian intelligence

operation really to blame

for Havana syndrome?

And are we standing

on the precipice of a new

and terrifying kind of warfare?

Hopefully, the answers

will soon be definitively

on the record.

But be warned, the truth

could be extremely painful.

I'm Josh gates.

Until next time, travel adventurously.