US State Department without Evidence against Cuba

By Fernando Ravsberg

HAVANA TIMES — Washington is changing its tune as Diplomatic Security Assistant Director, Todd Brown, accepts that a sonic weapon might not exist but he does say that US diplomats in Havana could have been targets of a “viral” attack. Of course, he didn’t offer a hint of evidence to back up his statement.

The problem is that the FBI report states that its Operational Technology Division “tested the hypothesis that air pressure waves via audible sound, infrasound or ultrasound could be used to clandestinely hurt US citizens in Cuba, and found no evidence.”

A few days before, Republican Senator Jeff Flake had already confessed to AP journalists the fact that, after four FBI trips to Cuba, “US authorities haven’t found any evidence of US diplomats in Havana being victims of attacks.”

The CIA weighed in against the FBI’s conclisions. That’s because the first “victims” were CIA agents, who were spying in Havana disguised as diplomats… “wow, what a coincidence” Les Luthiers comedy group would say.

Another person to immediately throw themselves into the counter-attack was Cuban American Senator Marco Rubio. He claimed that US officials “know full well that the method used in the attacks is still being questioned, but there were victims of some sort of sophisticated attack, there’s no doubt about that.”

Thus, he recognizes the fact that he has no idea whether a weapon like this exists but nevertheless, he is still a strong advocate of the “sonic attacks”. He has become the creature’s adoptive father and is looking to pressure Trump so that the blame falls on Cuba’s government. 

Some people are asking what happened with Canadian diplomats. Karen Foss, a Canadian diplomat in Cuba has already responded to this query: “Many of the symptoms are similar to signs of extreme stress, and there is the possibility that there could be mental health effects caused by the fear of being targeted.”

In US media, the balloon seems to be deflating after “exclusive” recordings of crickets, scratching blackboards, tourists with pins and needles in their feet were presented and insinuating that there are mysterious weapons here in Cuba that are able to violate the laws of physics.

The “sonic Maine” is already sinking and they could let it sink, after having already achieved their fundamental goal: to roll back the detente between Cuba and the US, which was a result of successful negotiations between presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama.

After 60 diplomats left the US embassy, things are even worse off than they were before the rapprochement process. Now, it will be impossible to give out 20,000 visas per year, Washington’s commitment to Havana in its agreements, in order to ensure organized, legal and safe immigration.

This maneuver creates serious problems for ordinary Cubans, especially the fact that visas are no longer being granted on the island; now they must seek a visa in Colombia or Mexico and so they first need a visa to get to one of these countries.

Cuba’s most dynamic industry, tourism, will also suffer. The alleged threat of sonic attacks, plus the lack of consular services and US citizens being banned from traveling as individuals has made many US people cancel their trips.

This “Maine” seems to be targetting ordinary Cubans, these are the people who can no longer emigrate or visit their families. They are the entrepreneurs who lose out the most in tourism given the fact that US citizens prefer to stay at and eat in private businesses.

AirBnB, the company which put up thousands of US citizens in Cuban homes in 2016, has almost disappeared from the national market. Now, Trump is forcing US citizens to travel in groups and the only option for group holidays, because of the number of rooms needed, are State-run hotels.

This all seems to form a part of its economic war against Cuba and it seems to chase after the same objectives that the US Department of State outlined decades ago: to create hunger, misery and desperation among ordinary Cubans to push them to revolt against the government.

It’s the strategy of attacking the innocent, of pushing civil population to its limit so as to reach their political ends. The world calls these kinds of actions “terrorist”… when the people who are suffering the consequences aren’t from the US or Europe.