Reese Erlich
Cuba has no motive to attack U.S. diplomats at the exact time U.S.-Cuba relations were improving and helping the Cuban economy. Here, a privately owned snack bar in Havana, reflecting one of the island's many economic reforms.
The story was straight out of a science fiction movie: Somebody in Cuba aimed a super sophisticated “sonic weapon” at U.S. diplomats here in Havana, inflicting hearing loss, dizziness, nausea, severe headaches, and brain damage similar to a concussion.
From December 2016 through February 2017, twenty-two American diplomats heard strange sounds in their homes and hotel rooms, Trump Administration sources told CNN. “The device was so sophisticated, it was outside the range of audible sound, the official said,” CNN reported. “And it was so damaging, the source said, that one U.S. diplomat now needs to use a hearing aid.”
President Donald Trump quickly blamed the Cuban government for the attacks. “I do believe Cuba's responsible,” he said at a Rose Garden press conference. “I do believe that.”
Other administration officials blamed the Russians or rogue elements in the Cuban government
I went back to Cuba a year later to find out what happened to the sonic weapon story. As it turns out, the United States has produced no evidence that an attack even took place, let alone one directed by the Cuban government. The FBI made four visits to Cuba and could find no indications of an attack, according to Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake, who visited Havana this month.
“This whole thing is bullshit,” one reporter living in Havana told me.
But the bullshit had serious consequences. The United States used the incident last September to expel fifteen Cuban diplomats from their Washington Embassy and withdrew half the staff from the U.S. Embassy in Havana.
“This whole thing is bullshit,” one reporter living in Havana told me. But the bullshit had serious consequences.
All the U.S. consular staff were evacuated, except for one person handling emergency visas. Cubans must now travel to U.S. consulates in Colombia or Mexico to apply for visas, costing them thousands of dollars on top of the already existing processing fees.
The Trump Administration issued warnings that U.S. visitors to Cuba won't be safe in the hotel where the alleged attacks took place. To date, no tourists have reported coming under sonic weapon attack.
The Cuban government interviewed 300 people living near the homes of U.S. diplomats along with workers at the Hotel Capri where the attacks allegedly took place. Not one person heard the noises claimed by the diplomats nor did they suffer any of the symptoms.
Independent scientists noted that a sonic weapon that caused hearing loss, if it even existed, would have to be mounted on a truck in front of the diplomat's house.
Sonic waves can't cause a concussion, according to Jürgen Altmann, a physicist at the Technische Universität Dortmund in Germany told the New York Times. “I know of no acoustic effect that can cause concussion symptoms. Sound going through the air cannot shake your head.”
The sonic weapon theory proved so ridiculous that the administration has quietly stopped citing it. The U.S. now speculates that some virus or other medical attack may have been responsible.
So what's really going on? The medical ailments may be rooted in psychosomatic illness. One person can experience symptoms, and in the pressure-cooker environment faced by some diplomats, could attribute the problems to an attack. Others then attribute different, unexplained symptoms to a similar attack.
The sonic weapon theory proved so ridiculous that the administration has quietly stopped citing it.
I contacted my old friend Dr. Wendel Brunner, the former public health director of Contra Costa County in Northern California, who has experience in the field.
“Maybe it is some other, perfectly normal illness, infection, or contamination that is compounded by anxiety of staff being in a tense situation in Cuba,” he told me.
The diplomats’ physical symptoms may be real, he noted, but fear and anxiety may have led to attributing all kinds of symptoms to a non-existent attack.
“I am sure lots of visitors to Cuba have dizziness, headaches, etc., but we don't hear about it because they don't work in the Embassy.”
“It seems all too convenient that the Embassy is under mysterious attack at a time when the Trump Administration wants to disrupt relations with Cuba,” Dr. Brunner added.
The Cuban government certainly has no motivation to debilitate U.S. diplomats. The alleged attacks began in December 2016, just as the U.S. and Cuba were rushing to solidify their newly established relations, an agreement that benefited the Cuban economy.
The Russian government, which the U.S. has speculated is a possible attacker, have no reason to wreck U.S.-Cuban relations. Besides, no third party could engage in such attacks on foreign diplomats without the knowledge of the tightly controlled Cuban intelligence agencies.
No third party could engage in such attacks on foreign diplomats without the knowledge of the tightly controlled Cuban intelligence agencies.
Rightwing Cuban Americans in Florida and New Jersey would certainly benefit from disrupting U.S.-Cuban relations. They opposed President Barack Obama's openness to Cuba and pressured Trump to scale back U.S. visits to the island.
“There is an anti-Cuban mafia in Miami, and we are victims of their dirty work that involve certain people very close to the governing circles of the United States,” said Col. Ramiro Ramírez, the Cuban official responsible for security of diplomats.
But to date the Cubans have offered no evidence that the rightwingers were responsible. So for now, we have to await more evidence before the cause of the illnesses might be explained.
The Trump Administration has declined to make any of the victims available for press interviews or to have their medical records evaluated by independent sources.
One thing is certain. U.S. visitors to Cuba are in no danger of being zapped by sonic weapons in their hotel rooms. Come on down and see for yourself.
Reese Erlich has visited Cuba fifteen times since 1968. He is a freelance reporter and author specializing in international news. This column, Foreign Correspondent, appears twice monthly. Follow him on Twitter or on Facebook.