Cuba mystery grows: New details on what befell US diplomats

THE bizarre attacks come out of nowhere and leave victims with lasting injuries. But no-one can explain what’s going on or why the victims are being hit.

UNITED States diplomats are sustaining curious brain injuries while posted in Cuba and the US government can’t figure out exactly what’s behind the astonishing international mystery.

The attacks allegedly began in late 2016 and were initially thought to perhaps be inflicted by some sort of unknown targeted sonic weapon.

The affected diplomats have sustained permanent damage to their hearing, mild traumatic brain injuries, and possibly even damage to their central nervous system.

The mystery over the bizarre situation only continues to deepen with baffled US officials claiming the facts and the physics don’t add up.

This week, the Associated Press spoke with a number of US and Cuba personnel with insight into the investigation around the alleged attacks and the revelations only make everything seem weirder.

At least some of the curious incidents were confined to specific rooms or even parts of rooms with laser-like specificity, the report said, detailing the experience of one US diplomat who was targeted by the unknown weapon.

“The blaring, grinding noise jolted the American diplomat from his bed in a Havana hotel. He moved just a few feet, and there was silence. He climbed back into bed. Inexplicably, the agonising sound hit him again. It was as if he’d walked through some invisible wall cutting straight through his room,” the AP reported.

Pretty soon, the diplomat was exhibiting speech problems and hearing loss. So far there have been 21 further victims reporting similar symptoms, including problems concentrating and recalling certain words.

The attacks seem to come at night and are delivered in short bursts.

The lobby of the Hotel Capri in Havana, Cuba. Picture: Desmond Boylan

Aside from their homes, officials said Americans were attacked in at least one hotel, the recently renovated Hotel Capri, steps from the Malecon, Havana’s iconic, waterside promenade. Picture: Desmond Boylan

‘MYSTERY AFTER MYSTERY AFTER MYSTERY’

Cuba has a storeyed history with its powerful neighbour to the North. Cuba’s capital city Havana lies just 144 kilometres south of Florida’s island city of Key West.

The United States and Cuba restored diplomatic relations in July 2015, which had been severed in 1961 during the height of the Cold War. However the US continues to maintain its commercial, economic, and financial embargo with the country which makes it illegal for US corporations to do business with Cuba.

Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA official who served in Havana long before America reopened an embassy there is mystified by the spate of curious ailments befalling US diplomats in the country.

“None of this has a reasonable explanation,” he said. “It’s just mystery after mystery after mystery.”

Suspicion initially focused on a sonic weapon however the diagnosis of mild brain injury is considered unlikely to result from sound.

The Trump administration still hasn’t identified a culprit or a device to explain the injuries. So far it continues to confound the FBI, the State Department and US intelligence agencies involved in the investigation.

Muddying the waters further is the fact that a handful of Canadian diplomatic houses in Cuba were also affected and unlike the US, Canada has maintained friendly relations with the island state for decades.

The US investigators have explored a range of theories around who’s behind the whole thing. They range from attacks perpetrated by a rogue faction of Cuba’s intelligence services, or with the help of a third party country like Russia, to far less nefarious explanations such as the possibility of an advanced espionage operation gone horribly wrong.

The bizarre attacks continue to confound the FBI, the State Department and US intelligence agencies involved in the investigation. Picture: Saul Loeb

SOME VICTIMS HEARD AND FELT NOTHING

The personal accounts of victims, as well as their resulting injuries, vary.

Some felt vibrations, and heard sounds — loud ringing or a high-pitch chirping similar to crickets or cicadas. Others heard the grinding noise. Some victims woke with ringing in their ears and fumbled for their alarm clocks, only to discover the ringing stopped when they moved away from their beds, the AP reported.

Yet others heard nothing, and felt nothing only to have symptoms appear later.

Sound and health experts are just as baffled as investigators. Targeted, localised beams of sound are possible, but the laws of acoustics suggest such a device would probably be quite large and not easily concealed. And no single, sonic gadget seems to explain such an odd, inconsistent array of physical responses.

“Brain damage and concussions, it’s not possible,” said Joseph Pompei, a former MIT researcher and psychoacoustics expert. “Somebody would have to submerge their head into a pool lined with very powerful ultrasound transducers.”

For its part, Cuba has tried to say very little on the matter. It has however previously put out a statement denying any involvement in the mysterious attacks.

“Cuba has never, nor would it ever, allow that the Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic agents or their families, without exception,” the statement said.

The US flag flies at the US embassy in Havana, Cuba. Picture: Desmond Boylan