Abstract
This article analyses the saga of the alleged ‘sonic attacks’ directed against US diplomats between 2016 and 2018. It summarises the key developments, and examines the various theories put forward to explain the phenomenon. Analyses by major science- and medicine-based journals are evaluated, and inconsistencies highlighted. The background of troubled US–Cuba relations during the Trump administration is also assessed as a contributing factor to the widespread attention. Finally, some general thoughts on lessons learned from the ‘sonic attacks’ incidents are offered.
Highlights
This article analyses the saga of the alleged ‘sonic attacks’ directed against US diplomats between 2016 and 2018
Lovelorn crickets or a new weapon? ‘Concussion without the symptoms of concussion’ or mass hysteria? Perhaps mysterious viruses or chemical agents? Rogue sectors of Cuban intelligence or Russian spies keen to disrupt the Obama–Castro fence-mending initiatives? There has certainly been a plethora of symptoms, explanations and theories about events affecting American diplomats and family members based in Havana in 2016–18
The Trump administration has reimposed strict regulations on Americans travelling to the island and published travel advisories about potential health dangers to visiting Americans, resulting in a decrease of some 40 per cent of Americans travelling by traditional programmes to Cuba in 2018
Summary
Starting in late 2016, and lasting until the fall of 2017, 26 American diplomats and family members (and later 14 Canadians) complained of a variety of medical symptoms. This came to an end in November 2016 with the election of Donald Trump He had recognised the value of the Obama initiative (after over 50 years of a failed policy by Washington of regime change), while later (and campaigning in Miami) his approach evolved into a hardline attack on Cuba. Flake, who had been a supporter of the Obama approach to Cuba, had been briefed by both FBI and Cuban sources on events in the US embassy, and stated that there was a lack of credible evidence of any ‘sonic attacks’ His Republican colleague from Florida sent an angry tweet: ‘It’s a documented FACT that 24 US govt officials & spouses were victims of some sort of sophisticated attack while stationed in Havana’ (Ordoñez 2018). With Washington continuing to exert pressure upon the Cuban government – referring constantly to the ‘sonic’ or ‘acoustic’ attacks
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