(Adnkronos) – Robert James Woolsey, a national security expert who led the CIA for two turbulent years after his appointment by President Bill Clinton, has died at the age of 84. According to several newspapers, Woolsey, who became CIA director in early 1993, died Tuesday at his home in Washington. His wife, Conchita Sarnoff Woolsey, told newspapers that the death was caused by a stroke. She told the Washington Post that his health had deteriorated in recent years due to “Havana Syndrome,” a mysterious condition reported by some US diplomats and other government personnel. Symptoms, which include headaches, balance problems, and difficulty concentrating and sleeping, were first reported in Cuba in 2016, hence the syndrome’s name.
Woolsey left the CIA in early 1995. Among the criticisms he had received were those from people who believed that insufficient sanctions had been imposed on the superiors of Aldrich Ames, the CIA defector who had confessed to revealing classified Western intelligence information to the Soviet Union and Russia. Ames, a career CIA officer, admitted to receiving $2.5 million from Moscow for disclosing US secrets from 1985 until his arrest in 1994.
