“Sonic Attack” on Diplomats in Havana Remains a Mystery

The US doesn’t blame the Cuban government for causing the incident, although it does believe that Havana hasn’t fulfilled its obligation to protect US personnel on the island enough.

By Cubaencuentro

HAVANA TIMES — The alleged “sonic attack”, which several US and Canadian diplomats suffered several months ago, could have caused brain damage, according to a CBS News broadcast on Wednesday, which stated it had access to medical reports on the case.

A US doctor who assessed US and Canadian diplomats “diagnosed them with conditions as serious as mild traumatic brain injury, and with likely damage to the central nervous system,” reported CBS news.

The diplomats claimed they had suffered symptoms ranging from nausea and hearing loss to headaches and balance disorders, noted the EFE news agency.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cuban Government are investigating these incidents in Cuba, which took place in late 2016 according to the US Department of State, which CBS and CNN agree on, and which continues to take place this year.

The US government hasn’t specified the nature of the attack, and it hasn’t wanted to confirm press reports which indicate that these diplomats were victims of a “sonic attack” with “sonic devices”, which led to hearing loss.

On Monday, CNN affirmed that the victims were more than 10 US diplomats and family members, and five Canadians.

According to this same network, two US diplomats who were treated in the United States “suffered long-term injuries including hearing loss as a result of the attacks and were unable to return to Cuba,” while others decided to leave the island after what had happened.

“In some of the attacks, a sophisticated sonic weapon that operated outside the range of audible sound was deployed either inside or outside the residences of US diplomats living in Havana,” and they caused “immediate physical sensations including nausea, headaches and hearing loss,” CNN reported.

Other attacks made a “deafeningly loud sound similar to the buzzing created by insects or metal scraping across a floor, but the source of the sound could not be identified,” the TV channel added on its website.

This month, the Cuban government announced that it had begun an “exhaustive, top priority and urgent investigation” and has increased security measures for US personnel on the island, when the US reported what had happened to its diplomats last February.

While the US does not blame the Cuban government for causing this incident, it did decide to expel two Cuban diplomats working at the Cuban Embassy in Washington, in May, as it believes that Havana didn’t fulfill its obligation to protect US personnel on the island.