Let’s Talk About the Alleged Attacks on the Health of U.S. Diplomats in Cuba
The State Department has used as a pretext to undermine relations between the two countries
In the worst style of a fantasy novel, this story was cooked at the State Department in early 2017. According to its officials, a mysterious illness was causing damage to the health of diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, and without providing any evidence, Washington announced on August 9 of that year the withdrawal of two workers from the Cuban headquarters in the U.S. capital.
From then on, in order to hinder relations between the two countries, the snowball of a scandal sustained by dirty tricks began to roll, as Rolling Stone magazine would describe this maneuver.
On August 11, 2017 the New York Times quoted an “informed person about the situation” who claimed that, “the diseases seemed to be caused by some kind of sonic wave machine”. The newspaper’s contribution to the scandal was to stamp the term “sonic attacks” on it, which had not been used by the US authorities before, during or after this campaign.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described the diseases as “health attacks” and clarified; “We have not been able to determine who to blame”:
Worrying manipulation by the State Department
The way in which the U.S. government has dealt with this issue is worrying, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, U.S. director of Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, told Dominio Cuba.
The State Department’s behavior has been characterized by a total lack of transparency, adds Fernández de Cossío:
These episodes have served as a pretext for the United States to use them as a justification to tarnish the image of Cuba as a safe destination for visitors:
Scientists don’t believe the Washington version
The scientific community has dismissed the State Department’s version and has seriously questioned both the idea that concussion or brain damage can occur without physical harm and the method used to arrive at those conclusions.
Dr. Mitchell Valdés-Sosa, Director General of the Cuban Neuroscience Center and one of the experts who participated in the extensive investigation into the alleged damage to U.S. diplomats in Havana, told Dominio Cuba:
The information provided by the American authorities was very limited, and in fact, at the beginning of this investigation a kind of medical summary was given, but very, very little, with very few elements, which made it difficult to reach any conclusions. Despite repeated requests from the Cuban side, no detailed information has been provided at any time.
Who says what?
Translated: Alicia Jrapko y Bill Hackwell
