Cuba on U.S. diplomats’ health: No way it’s sonic weapons—maybe it’s stress
Miami Herald
HAVANA—Cuban investigators have discarded widespread speculation that a sonic weapon is to blame for damaging the health of two dozen American diplomats stationed in Havana.
Among their own theories? That stress over shifting U.S.Cuba relations could have exacerbated health problems.
Initial news reports in August, citing unnamed U.S. officials, blamed a mysterious host of symptoms on attacks using a “covert sonic device.”
In an exclusive interview with the Miami Herald, five top members of the Cuban team investigating the incidents described their hypotheses and preliminary findings in a case that threatens to put U.S.-Cuba relations in the deep freeze.
Based on the still-limited evidence that’s been shared by the FBI, the State Department and their own investigation, the Cuban researchers said they don’t believe health symptoms suffered by U.S. Embassy personnel were caused by a sonic weapon or sound waves.
A State Department spokesman said in response to Herald queries about the Cuban theories: “We still do not have definitive answers on the source or cause of the attacks. The investigation into the attacks is ongoing.”
Unless the U.S. shares more data on their investigation, Cuban investigators said, what caused the health symptoms may remain an unsolved mystery.
When the State Department said recently that it had received 19 unconfirmed reports from American travelers to the island who complained of health symptoms similar to those experienced by diplomatic personnel, Cuban investigators said they learned about it not from U.S. officials but by reading it in the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald.
“Without cooperation, we’re not going to get anywhere,” said Dr. Manuel Jorge Villar Kuscevic, an ear, nose and throat specialist and coordinator of the Cuban expert committee looking into the diplomats’ health problems.
In rejecting the sonic attacks theory, Cuban investigators point out that not all the Americans suffered hearing loss. If a sonic weapon or sound waves intense enough to produce the array of symptoms were employed, all the diplomats would have shown auditory damage, they said.
“For a sound to be forceful enough to give you a concussion, people would end up deaf,” said Dr. Mitchell Joseph Valdes Sosa, head of the Cuban Center for Neuroscience.
“We have discarded the idea that the damages could be produced by any type of sound—much less by any type of sonic weapon,” said Villar.
If some type of advanced, classified weapon is involved in the alleged attacks, it might further complicate the investigations. Cuba wouldn’t want the United States to know it has access to such a covert device, and Washington wouldn’t admit it to Havana either.
“We’re not real keen on providing the perpetrators of this a lot of knowledge about what they’ve done,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told The Associated Press in January.
Diplomats began reporting headaches, dizziness, hearing problems and ear pain in December 2016 and January 2017, Dr. Charles Rosenfarb, director of the Department of State’s Bureau of Medical Services, said at a Senate subcommittee hearing in January.
As early as November 2016, some diplomats said they heard strange sounds in their homes that accompanied the onset of symptoms.
Some described “a highpitched beam of sound, a “baffling sensation” similar to driving in a car with the windows partially open, or intense pressure in one ear, said Rosenfarb.
The Cuban investigative team said security and protection—both visible and invisible—have been stepped up at the U.S. Embassy and 42 diplomatic homes. The Cubans are continuing their investigation, and the team said it is close to publishing a scientific summary of its work.
Later incidents were reported at the Capri and Nacional hotels in Havana. Cuban investigators said those reports involved room No. 823 at the Nacional. It offers an expansive view of the sea and is outfitted with two double beds, two rocking chairs, heavy drapes, a Samsung television, a capsule coffee maker, a mini-bar and a closet safe.
The two rooms at the Capri are on the 15th and 17th floors. After checking them out and finding nothing suspicious, the rooms at both the Capri and Nacional were returned to the hotels’ inventory and are now being rented to guests, the Cuban investigators said. They chose the Nacional as the site for their interview with the Herald.
The two hotels are included in the State Department’s most recent travel advisory for Cuba. Because diplomats’ “safety is at risk, and we are unable to identify the source of the attacks, we believe U.S. citizens may also be at risk,” the advisory said.
Cuban investigators say they are absolutely serious about trying to find what could have caused the range of symptoms reported by the United States and to determine whether any criminal activity was involved. Acts against the diplomatic corps and chiefs of mission are serious crimes in Cuba with stiff penalties, said Lt. Col. Roberto Hernandez Caballero, a criminal investigator in the Interior Ministry.
However, with no access to the affected diplomats who have returned to the United States, Villar said, all that Cuban doctors had to work with was a document from the American doctors who had seen them. It was a synopsis of the ailments suffered by the diplomats.
It did not include audio- grams, MRIs, cat scans or a statistical summary or tables indicating how many of the symptoms each patient had, said Valdes Sosa, of the Cuban Center for Neuroscience.
The list of symptoms, said Villar, could respond to a number of different illnesses, including inner ear infections, hypertension, epilepsy, toxicity by drugs or alcohol, diabetes, cancer and other ailments.