Diplomats in Cuba experience mysterious ‘sonic harassment’
Investigators baffled as Canadian and U.S. staff in Havana suffer headaches, nosebleeds, dizziness
OTTAWA— It’s a sonic whodunit, with international ripples.
Canadian and U.S. diplomats serving in Cuba have been afflicted by a weird sonic blast that has affected their health and put police agencies in both countries on a hunt for the culprit.
“A conspiracy theorist could have a field day,” a former Canadian diplomat familiar with Cuba said.
“This has been so strange and bizarre from the very beginning,” he said, speaking on background because of the sensitivity of the issue.
In March, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department began to hear reports about “bizarre” symptoms — headaches, nosebleeds, dizziness, ringing in the ears — affecting a number of its diplomats working in Havana.
Canadian diplomats and family members were affected in the incidents, suggesting that residences may have been targeted as well as official embassy buildings.
A Canadian government official, who spoke on background, declined to give firm numbers on how many were affected, but said, “it was not a one-off.”
But he added that Canadians involved in the incidents are in “fine health” now and there has not been a reoccurrence.
“Clearly, whatever happened affected the Americans more deeply,” the official said.
It’s not clear whether it was some form of electronic surveillance gone awry or a deliberate attempt to target diplomats. Nor is it clear who is behind the attacks. Cubans? Russians trying to make mischief?
“What’s difficult to determine is what the cause was and then, who caused it . . . Anything is possible,” the official said.
However, he said the Cubans have been “very eager” to collaborate with the investigation since being alerted to the incidents.
The RCMP is investigating, working in collaboration with the U.S., including the FBI, and Cuban officials.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that 21 U.S. diplomats have been victims in the mystery attacks. And it reported that the attacks had a “laser-like specificity” seemingly able to target specific parts of a building.
During the incidents, diplomats felt vibrations and heard noises such as ringing, high-pitched chirping, grinding — and sometimes nothing at all.
The union that represents U.S. diplomats said it has met with 10 personnel who have suffered health effects from what it called “sonic harassment” against the U.S. embassy in Havana.
Diagnoses include mild traumatic brain injury and permanent hearing loss, with symptoms including loss of balance, severe headaches, cognitive disruption and brain swelling, the American Foreign Service Association said.
The association called on Washington to ensure care for those affected and “to work to ensure that these incidents cease and are not repeated.”
Its counterpart in Canada — the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers — offered no details on the incidents, saying only that it works closely with the Foreign Affairs Department to “address this and other health and safety issues” affecting diplomats working abroad.
Contrary to earlier published reports, the Canadians did not suffer hearing loss.
The Canadian diplomat said he suspects some sort of technical mistake in a surveillance operation is to blame, rather than a deliberate campaign to target and harm diplomats.
“I think you had a surveillance operation that technologically went wrong, some sort of equipment malfunction, some mistake,” he said.
He said that surveillance is a fact of life for diplomats posted abroad.
“The Americans run massive signals intelligence operations around the world and spy on everybody. The Russians spy on everybody, the Chinese, the French, the Israelis, you name it,” he said.
And yes, even the Canadians, keeping tabs on the activities of some foreign diplomats in Ottawa, he said.
“We provide medical care and concern to those who believe that they have been affected by it.” HEATHER NAUERT U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
“If you’re a foreign diplomat, especially in a place like Cuba, in your daily life you have to assume that there are surveillance activities,” he said.
“They can be more or less intrusive, they can be more or less electronic,” the former diplomat said.
He said that it defies logic that the Cubans would deliberately target Canada, with whom they have long enjoyed warm relations, or Americans, at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump is re-evaluating the past administration’s policy of warming ties with the Caribbean nation.
He said the Cubans were always respectful of diplomatic personnel and property.
“There is no plausible motive to launch an aggressive campaign to do harm to foreign diplomats,” he said.
Last month, the U.S. State Department said American personnel in Cuba had suffered a “variety of physical symptoms” in incidents that date back to late 2016.
“Initially, when they started reporting what I will just call symptoms, it took time to figure out what it was, and this is still ongoing. So we’re monitoring it. We provide medical care and concern to those who believe that they have been affected by it and we take this extremely seriously,” spokesperson Heather Nauert told an August briefing.
She admitted at the time of the briefing that American officials were in the dark about the cause of the incidents. “We’re taking that situation seriously and it’s under investigation right now,” she said.
Yet, the U.S. government forced two Cuban diplomats to leave the embassy in Washington, apparently because two American diplomats were forced to return home from Havana.