Sonic attack may be a surveillance ‘screw-up’

16 Americans suffering ‘acoustic injuries’ in Cuba could be victims of a bugging op gone wrong

MORE than a dozen Americans working at the US embassy in Havana have now suffered symptoms from a suspected “acoustic attack”, the state department has confirmed.

Americans stationed in Havana complained of trouble with their hearing earlier this year and some were forced to leave Cuba due to medical issues.

The US believes that a hidden “sonic device” caused the problems, but Cuba has denied being behind any attack.

The state department first revealed their concerns on Aug 9.

Heather Nauert, a department spokesman, would only say that there had been an “incident” involving an unknown number of officials.

Now, the department has confirmed that 16 US government employees and family members have been affected, significantly increasing the scale of the scare that has baffled experts. “We take this situation extremely seriously,” said Ms Nauert.

Cuba is investigating the US allegations. The state department has not blamed Cuba for the attacks, but did ask two Cuban diplomats to leave Washington in May.

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

Citing a source familiar with the incidents, CBS said officials were investigating whether the diplomats were targets of some form of sonic attack directed at their homes. The officials reported being unwell between last autumn and this spring. The devices are believed to be inaudible, high frequency pieces of equipment placed near the residences of the diplomats. John Sipher, who spent 28 years in the CIA’S national clandestine service, said he suspected that the symptoms were likely caused by a surveillance effort that went wrong.

“These efforts, while designed to further surveillance and eavesdropping and not to cause malicious damage, nevertheless risked or resulted in residual physical harm to diplomats,” he said on the Just Security website.

James Lewis, a former US diplomat who now works as an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that if the surveillance equipment was “misconfigured, it could produce inaudible noise”. He suggested that Cuban intelligence agents may have set up surveillance on US communications “and it screwed up”. He suggested that if the intention was to intimidate, they would have gone about it a different way.

“They’ll superglue your car – the key – that’s a popular one,” he said. “Or they’ll pop your tyres. If you’re going to harass people, there are a lot more ‘fun’ ways to do it.”

Another theory is that Russia could have planted the devices to listen to US conversations. British officials are not believed to have been affected.

‘These efforts, designed not to cause malicious damage, nevertheless resulted in residual physical harm’