The US National Institutes of Health's latest announcement that it would stop investigating the "Havana Syndrome" — a mysterious illness marked by hearing loss, dizziness, nausea, migraines, fatigue and other symptoms that was supposedly afflicting US diplomats posted abroad since 2016 — means Washington finally admitted that the whole thing was a self-orchestrated lie to groundlessly smear other countries and impose sanctions on them.

The mysterious illness was so named because the symptoms were first reported by US diplomats posted in the Cuban capital of Havana, making Washington claim that Cuba was using a "secret weapon".

In fact, a number of US intelligence agencies jointly announced in March 2023 the results of an investigation into the mysterious ailment, saying it may have been caused by environmental factors, undiagnosed medical conditions or stress. The results overturned a finding more than a year ago by a team from the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which linked the syndrome to "directed" radio frequencies. But this has not stopped US politicians and media from using it to repeatedly politicize medical and scientific issues.

The US has a long tradition of fabricating lies to discredit and suppress other countries, or to justify its violence and plunder around the world; the "Havana Syndrome" is just another example of its decades-old lying targeting countries it does not like. As former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who once served as CIA director, said, "we lied, we cheated, we stole."

After all the US presented a test tube containing washing powder as evidence of "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, while labeling China's mechanized cotton fields in Xinjiang as places of "forced labor".

A number of international companies have fallen victim to the US' suppression and bullying for "endangering US national security".Washington has blown the fake whistle literally everywhere, from staging the "White Helmets" video of false-flag air strikes and chemical attacks on civilians to pave the way for its military intervention in Syria, to openly supporting rioters and stirring up trouble in Hong Kong. It has groundlessly accused the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China of creating debt traps for partner countries, in total disregard of the fact that the US is the biggest de facto creator of international debt problems.

However, lies are only lies, and truth ultimately prevails. The "Havana Syndrome" farce should serve as a reminder to the US that it should stop fabricating lies to smear other countries to avoid a bigger loss of its fragile credibility.V