Shaheen Statement on New Directed Energy Attack Task Force Officials
**Last month, Shaheen led a bipartisan letter to Secretary of State Blinken urging the immediate appointment of an official to address directed energy attacks**
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, issued the following statement in response to the U.S. State Department’s announcement that Ambassador Jonathan Moore will serve as the Senior Advisor to the Health Incident Response Task Force (HIRT), in addition to Ambassador Margaret Uyehara leading efforts to support care for affected personnel. The Health Incidents Response Task Force is responsible for addressing the mysterious brain injuries afflicting federal employees and their families as a result of directed energy attacks.
“I welcome Secretary Blinken’s announcement, which is a positive step forward for U.S. personnel and their family members who for years have suffered from serious health effects due to directed energy attacks,” said Shaheen. “While we cannot necessarily see their injuries, they are real and deserve the same attention and urgency as wounds that are visible. These individuals and their loved ones were injured while serving their nation – the U.S. owes them every resource to get well and stay healthy, which is why the responsibilities of the Senior Advisor to the Health Incident Response Task Force are so critical. I will do everything in my power to assist Ambassadors Jonathan Moore and Margaret Uyehara and ensure the concerns of those targeted are heard, that they receive timely and comprehensive care and that every measure is taken to uncover the causation of these attacks.”
The announcement follows Shaheen’s recent bipartisan call to the State Department, urging the immediate appointment of an official to address directed energy attacks.
Senator Shaheen has stood by government employees and their families who have suffered from these mysterious injuries, and leads efforts in Congress to provide them critical health benefits. She recently introduced new bipartisan legislation, the Directed Energy Threat Emergency Response Act, with Senator Collins to reform the U.S. government’s investigation and response to suspected directed energy attacks and improve access to care for impacted individuals. Specifically, the bill would require the President to designate a senior national security official to organize a whole-of-government response and direct the heads of relevant agencies to designate senior officials to lead their agency’s response. Shaheen successfully added key provisions of this legislation in the SASC-approved National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year (FY) 2022. In the FY2021 NDAA that became law, Shaheen successfully included language to expand a provision in law that she previously wrote to provide long-term, emergency care benefits to all U.S. Government employees and their dependents who were mysteriously injured while working in China and Cuba. Shaheen’s measure to amend the law followed her letter with Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) in May 2020 calling on the administration to interpret the law as intended by Congress.
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