Cuban ‘sonic attack’ directed at envoy’s bed

DIPLOMATS who fell victim to the Cuban “sonic harassment attacks” were targeted in specific rooms or even a part of a room, reports have suggested.

The state department said this week that 21 US diplomats were affected, and several Canadians. The incidents took place from last autumn until this spring. One new incident, though, reported on Sept 1, took place in August. Yesterday it emerged that the “attack” – of which Cuba denies any knowledge – was in one case a blaring, grinding noise that jolted an American diplomat from his bed in The Capri, a Havana hotel popular with tourists.

The diplomat, according to AP, moved just a few feet, and there was silence. He climbed back into bed – and then the sound hit him again. “None of this has a reasonable explanation,” said Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA official who served in Havana. “It’s just mystery after mystery after mystery.”

The FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating, but they are yet to find any evidence. Several of the diplomats left Cuba to return to the US for treatment. Diagnosis of mild brain injury among some victims has confounded the US authorities.