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Toll of U.S. staff hurt in mysterious Cuba incidents now 21 -official

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials are aggressively investigating what caused symptoms ranging from hearing loss to mild brain injury in 21 people linked to the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, a State Department official said on Thursday.

 

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing that no new incidents had been reported since late August but testing continued, with 21 people saying they had been injured in what some media accounts have called an "acoustic attack."

 

"We are, at the State Department, very deeply concerned about what has taken place and what has happened to our American personnel who have been serving at our embassy in Cuba," Nauert said. "This has certainly turned out to be a difficult situation for some of our people."

 

The incidents, which began in late 2016, were first confirmed by a U.S. official in August. Nauert said at that time 16 people had been injured.

 

Some of those had returned home for testing and treatment, Nauert said, while others had been tested in Cuba, where the embassy has a fulltime medical officer.

 

News media have reported that Americans and Canadians working in Cuba have been diagnosed with hearing loss, nausea, headaches, balance disorders and conditions as serious as mild traumatic brain injury and damage to the central nervous system.

 

"The investigation into all of this is still underway. It is an aggressive investigation that continues and we will continue doing this until we find out who or what is responsible for this," Nauert said.

 

She said U.S. diplomatic security personnel had been able to look through the rooms of some of those injured and conducted searches but still had not determined the cause of the injuries.

 

Nauert said people were still being tested and it was possible the number of injured personnel would rise.

 

(Reporting by David Alexander; editing by Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-15

 

[attrayant]

Sounds like a case of mass psychogenic illness to me.

Edited September 15, 2017 by attrayant

[Dustdevil]

No, you should listen to former CIA operative Robert Baer, a very knowledgeable and reliable pundit,  who says this kind of thing had been going on for years in former Eastern Bloc nations and Moscow, only without damaging people's hearing. They normally use the acoustic waves to point at windows and listen in to conversations, even from "safe" rooms. It looks a bit to me like the Cubans were given the equipment but then didn't know how to use it properly, or else they were so mean-spirited that they wanted to deliberately injure American Foreign Service personnel (knowing full well that every embassy has intelligence officers among its staff). Or it could be some malevolent third party like North Koreans. Do they have diplomatic relations with Cuba? I'm too lazy to look it up.

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, Dustdevil said:

Or it could be some malevolent third party like

the Russians?

Russia is Cuba's leading creditor and the two countries maintain close economic ties with each other. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba–Russia_relations

It was Obama that opened the embassy and the following US investment in Cuba that could wean Cuba off Russian debt.

 

[attrayant]

What do the Russians have against the Canadians?

[Srikcir]

6 minutes ago, attrayant said:

What do the Russians have against the Canadians?

What do the Russians have against the Americans?

21 people linked to the U.S. Embassy in Cuba

[attrayant]

I said Canadians, not Americans.  Canadian diplomats also seem to be "targeted", so if we're going to concoct conspiracy theories about covert Russian X-Files type operations against the Americans, it needs to be expanded to include the Canadians.  Canada has had pretty good relations with Cuba throughout the American embargo.  So I ask again: what possible beef do the Russians have (all of a sudden) with the Canadians?

 

I'd also like to hear speculation about a possible mechanism.  What could possibly cause such a thing?  People claiming a sonic attack are suggesting some sort of directed energy weapon.  The science and physiological effects of infrasonics has been well understood for the past few decades.  That would also be too easy to detect.

[Scott]

Quite a few years ago, I remember reading about the Russians bouncing microwaves off the US Embassy in Russia.    I don't recall it amounting to anything, but it was an issue.  

 

I have no idea who it would be, though.  

[Srikcir]

4 minutes ago, Scott said:

Quite a few years ago, I remember reading about the Russians bouncing microwaves off the US Embassy in Russia.    I don't recall it amounting to anything, but it was an issue.  

 

I have no idea who it would be, though.  

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