(NewsNation) — The widow of a former counterintelligence officer says the federal government won't compensate her family for wages her husband lost after sustaining debilitating injuries from a "directed energy weapon" 30 years ago.
Mike Beck, 65, died in January after years of declining health that he blamed on technology used by an adversarial nation. He said he and his partner were hit by a DEW overseas, with both subsequently developing Parkinson's; Beck was later diagnosed with dementia.
"He was a patriot. He worked hard. He never compromised his security," Beck's wife, Rita Cicala, told "Katie Pavlich Tonight" on Friday.
Cat out of the bag? Pentagon embraces 'directed energy weapons'
Beck was also among the first federal employees to complain of so-called "Havanna Syndrome," a range of neurological disorders linked with foreign service.
The phenomenon was once met with skepticism, but body-damaging energy weapons that use lasers, sonic waves or microwaves are no longer the stuff of spy novels. The Pentagon has even successfully tested some forms of directed energy against missiles and drones.
"The microwaves really will disrupt the network effects of the brain," neuroscientist James Giordano says of one type of DEW. "There'll be an initial set of effects that tend to worsen as various aspects of the brain and nervous system become far more disrupted, deteriorated, over time."
Cicala said her family has fought the federal bureaucracy to recognize what happened to her husband, but the Department of Labor recently balked at approving compensation for wages Beck would have earned if his career hadn't been cut short. The agency incorrectly said Beck had sustained a knee injury, she noted.
Cicala said she hopes her continuing battle helps other government employees who have been targeted by DEWs "because they're young. They're in their 30s, and they don't deserve to be suffering."
More recently, a cluster of suspected DEW attacks against federal staff has been linked with crippling brain and neurological injuries. At least three incidents, beginning in 2020, have involved U.S. government personnel in Northern Virginia, and at least one incident occurred at a government facility.
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