On October 22, a public report about Cuba’s investigation of the cause of the medical problems experienced by some U.S. diplomats in Havana was made by the Cuban officials in charge.[1]
They “forcefully denied that their government was to blame. Any claim that Cuba is responsible “is completely false,” said Col. Ramiro Ramirez, chief of diplomatic security for the Cuban Interior Ministry.
He added that its investigation has involved nearly 2,000 people, “including law enforcement agents, criminologists, mathematicians, audiologists and the best scientists in our country.” They have examined rooms in two hotels where some American embassy staffers lived, scoured a neighborhood where many had homes, and interviewed 300 neighbors and conducted dozens of medical exams to see if others outside the diplomatic cadre were affected. They also analyzed air and soil samples, looked into whether insects could be the culprit and considered a range of toxic chemicals and the possibility of electromagnetic waves.
Cuba also denied that it possesses any technology to do what is alleged and “has never produced these type of weapons,” according to Lt. Col. Jorge Alazo, head of the criminal division of the Interior Ministry.
As for the possibility that a third country, like Russia, wanted to cause trouble, Col. Ramirez said, “We don’t have definitive answers yet but Cuba has never allowed, nor would we ever allow, our territory to be used in this way.”
The Cubans further noted that the U.S. has refused to share the medical records of the diplomats or let the Cubans speak to U.S. doctors who examined the affected diplomats or permitted them into the homes of U.S. diplomats to conduct tests.
From the U.S., Joe Pompei, a former MIT researcher who is the founder and president of Holosonics, a sound technology company, said, “There’s never been any kind of physiological response that reflects the symptoms that have been reported that has ever been caused by sound waves of any type.”
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[1] Reuters, Cuban investigators say U.S. sonic attack allegations ‘science fiction,’ (Oct. 24, 2017); Mitchell & Murray, Cubans Forcefully Reject Blame for U.S. Diplomats’ Mystery Ailments, NBC News (Oct. 24, 2017). A list of previous posts on this topic are listed in the “U.S. Diplomats Medical Problems in Cuba” section of List of Posts to dwkcommentaries–Topical—Cuba.