Mystery continues to surround the strange attacks on U.S. diplomats in Cuba. More than 20 Americans suffered what appears to be a “sonic” attack that in some cases led to serious injuries. While the actual physical source of these attacks remains unknown, the culprits behind them is not so much of a mystery.
Cuba’s Castro dictatorship has a long history of harassing and attacking U.S. diplomats. From placing urine in their mouthwash to murdering their pets, Cuban counterintelligence has shown itself to be a real and consistent threat to American personnel stationed in Cuba. Nevertheless, the usual suspects have sprung up to defend the apartheid Castro regime in a shameless attempt to shift the blame away from the most conspicuous suspect.
It is obvious the Cuban dictatorship neither possesses the resources nor the smarts to create a high-tech sonic weapon. What they do possess in copious amounts, however, is malice. Anyone who has threatened them or challenged their stranglehold on power knows this. Those who say it makes no sense for the Castro dictatorship to attack American diplomats are obviously unaware of their unbounded malice or they are brazenly ignoring it. Like the proverbial scorpion on the frog’s back, the Castro regime will sting its carrier even if it means certain death because that is what scorpions do.
I have no doubt the Castro dictatorship is directly behind these attacks on U.S. diplomats. However, based on what we know at this time, I do not believe they intended to cause the serious injuries their attacks induced.
My theory is that their original intention was to make the Americans extremely uncomfortable and make life in Cuba a veritable nightmare. The headaches and nausea they expected from the attacks would make for miserable diplomats who would have a hard time carrying out their duties. Eventually, they would transfer out because of the discomfort and the U.S. would have to bring new people in, creating a revolving door of personnel who never get settled or comfortable and therefore, can never be effective in their roles.
But as usual, Cuban State Security took it a bit too far. The intensity of the attacks were too high and/or they carried them out for far too long. The intended results went beyond headaches and nausea and into the realm of hearing loss and actual brain damage.
The weapon they used likely played a role in this miscalculation as well. It is quite possibly an old Soviet Cold War era experimental weapon, as reported yesterday in this story from Politico:
Two intelligence officials tell POLITICO they’re confident that the attacks were conducted with an “energy directed” or “acoustic” device, possibly similar to one used by Soviet intelligence in Havana more than four decades ago, but remain unsure of its exact nature…
Of particular interest to federal officials is the former Soviet technique of using radio waves, like microwaves, to target U.S. signals collection in Moscow. In the 1970s, amid escalating spy tensions between the United States and Russia, the Soviets targeted the U.S. embassy in Moscow with radio microwaves in an effort to disrupt U.S. radio surveillance of Russian interests in post Cold-War Moscow, according to multiple Cold War-era recountings. The incident, known as the “Moscow Signal,” was never formally solved — after the U.S. embassy installed screens in its compound, the issue went away.
The use of energy waves or sound as weapons can be a particularly nasty form of covert attack. Not always audible to the human ear, the mysterious devices have surfaced in rumors periodically in Cold War spy history. Answers have remained as ambiguous. As far back as the 1970s Moscow Signal incident, medical professionals suspected the use of such mysterious weapons could lead to brain damage, blood disorders and hearing impairments in exposed personnel — symptoms nearly identical to what targeted U.S. officials are experiencing now.
The old, unrefined technology combined with the Cuban regime’s malice was a recipe for disaster, of which Americans became the victims.
You can read more about this at Hot Air.