There Is Cherry-Picking, and Then There Is Dr. Robert Bartholomew.

Beyond the Falsified Psychogenic Illness Hypothesis of The Havana Syndrome.

Some things never get old. Among those, is "The pot calling the kettle black".

We know Dr. Bartholomew from his one-sided writings insisting on the psychogenic mechanism of the Havana Syndrome among the members of the Intelligence Community. He did it without seeing a single patient, and without taking into consideration the abundance of the evidence saying otherwise.

I had the pleasure of having a very civil conversation with Robert in 2022 during which I asked him (and I am paraphrasing): If there were objective findings of brain injury in these patients, would you agree that your Psychogenic Illness Hypothesis is no longer valid? To which Robert answered: “Yes, but it’s simply not there.”

Yet, every validated patient with “Havana Syndrome” has a diagnosis of either Traumatic Brain Injury, or Encephalopathy. But we don’t have to concern ourselves with arguing with Dr. Bartholomew. His hypothesis has been falsified, and we are moving on.

Today I am are going over his most recent blog in “Psychology Today” in which he accuses former CBS News investigative journalist Catherine Herridge in cherry-picking information.

The story by Catherine Herridge erupted on December 30 2024. It’s called “Government Gaslighting: When America’s National Security Agencies Betray their Own Operative.” (btw good luck googling this story, it has been largerly scrubbed off the interwebs). But her post on X can still be found:

This is not the first time the CIA has been implemented in meddling with the Investigation into the Havana Syndrome, both in terms of the intelligence findings, and also clinical research.

In December of 2024, both the House and the Senate Intelligence Committees issued Reports pointing fingers at the Agency’s inadequate response to the problem, and describing direct hindering with the investigative efforts! See Rep. Rick Crawford Report.

Attorney Mark Zaid told Salon about another Whistleblower (“Active suppression of witnesses”: CIA lied about "Havana Syndrome," whistleblower documents reveal”):

This whistleblower complaint represents the most significant and lawful disclosure of information that undermines the public posture of the Intelligence Community, and specifically the CIA, concerning AHIs. The CIA … is engaged in the active suppression of witnesses, and actions which may constitute obstruction of justice and witness tampering as define in federal statute. Congress and the FBI were among the government institutions that were either lied to or had information withheld from them.

Another reporting, this time by Julia Ioffe - “CIA Whistleblower discourage FBI Investigation.”

How about meddling in the Clinical Research into the Havana Syndrome? CNN Reports: “NIH cancels ‘Havana syndrome’ research, citing unethical coercion of participants”. CIA coerced specific patients into participating in the study, which skewed the results in order to attempt invalidating the conclusion of the previous study which showed the difference in the MRI results between the Havana Syndrome victims and control.

But there is no bigger fan of the CIA than Dr. Robert Bartholomew! And I think perhaps this is the moment in time when I should simply stop following his work.

Finally, the Bartholomew’s article ends with the list of References:

Out of the 6 references, one is Cathrine Herrige’ Reporting, and three are Dr Bartholomew’s own publications.

When you cherry-pick your sources, you shouldn’t accuse others in the selectivity bias.