President of the United States believes Castro is responsible for attacks on U.S. diplomats

Update on the sonic attacks that have harmed at least 22 Americans in Cuba 

The U.S. Embassy in Havana emptied of non-essential personnel

Today the President of the United States in a news conference in the White House Rose Garden said, "I do believe Cuba is responsible" for the health attacks on U.S. diplomats. The past week has been difficult for Castro regime apologists. The attempt to discount the "sonic attacks" as simply the overactive imagination of paranoid diplomats was blown out of the water when the Associated Press released the audio of the noise associated with the attacks on October 12, 2017. On the same day White House Chief of Staff John Kelly stated: "We believe that the Cuban government could stop the attacks on our diplomats."

The official timeline remains unknown, but news reporting indicates that beginning in November 2016 U.S. diplomats suffered injuries to their health following odd sounds being directed at them. The story did not go public until August 9, 2017 when CBS Radio was going to break the story leaked by angry victims, who believed that not enough had been done, and that the State Department was ignoring their suffering. This led to the question: did downplaying the attacks encourage more of them?  As days passed the number of diplomats impacted increased. The last attacks were apparently in August of 2017 according to news accounts.

The Castro regime, at first claiming ignorance, denied ever being involved in attacks on diplomats, then called it a case of mass hysteria.  This blog highlighted the Cuban dictatorship's prior record of targeting U.S. diplomats by Cuban state security agents who murdered their pets, replaced mouthwash with urine, and in 1996 endangered the life of Robin Myers trying to crash into her car repeatedly with other vehicles and nearly ran her off the road (the manner in which they began the attack that ended in the deaths of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero in 2012.)

On December 17, 2014 President Obama claimed that the previous policy was static and had not achieved anything, but his policy not only coincided with a rise in repression in Cuba, the deaths of high profile dissidents, but also this insidious attack on U.S. diplomats. The same day that the President announced the normalization of relations with the Castro regime this blog made the following observation:

One hopes that the mistakes made by the Bush Administration in taking North Korea off the list are not repeated with Cuba. The belief that removing North Korea from the terror sponsor list would improve its behavior did not manifest itself after the fact. Rewarding the hardline and rogue elements in the Castro regime is unlikely to improve the dictatorship's behavior to the contrary it may worsen.

Cuba was taken off the list of state sponsors of terrorism in May of 2015 and Obama paid an official visit to Cuba in March of 2016. In January of 2017 Cuban troops being reviewed by Raul Castro chanted how they would repeatedly shoot President Obama so many times in the head that they would make a lead hat. Meanwhile to date 22 American diplomats and or their dependents have been victims of sonic attacks that has caused hearing loss, brain trauma and brain swelling.

Without guarantees that the attacks will end the United States reduced U.S. embassy officials in Cuba by 60%  on September 29, 2017 and asked 15 Cuban diplomats to leave the United States on October 3, 2017 for the sake of parity.

This story is not going away.

Sonic attacks against U.S. diplomats in Cuba?

US expelled 2 Cuban diplomats in May for actions against US diplomats in Havana

Were U.S. diplomats targeted and harmed by a sonic weapon in Havana?
 
Spokesperson Heather Nauert in a State Department briefing today revealed that two Cuban diplomats were expelled from the United States on May 23, 2017 in response to "incidents in Cuba." Cuban diplomats have had a checkered history in their postings overseas and reducing their number on U.S. soil is a positive development. In Cuba the totalitarian state security apparatus spies on everyone and carries out active measures against both foreign and domestic actors. According to U.S. officials five U.S. diplomats were targeted by a "sonic weapon" that led to "severe hearing loss" that led to some of them canceling their tours and returning early to the United States.

Cubans have played hardball before. U.S. diplomat Robin Meyers was subjected to cars being used against her as weapons by state security agents on February 23-24, 1996. The Miami Herald reported on it on November 24, 1996 after she had been expelled from Cuba:

"On Friday, Feb. 23, she was driving home from the U.S. interests section when a white Soviet-built Lada nearly sideswiped her car. She wrote off the near-miss to faulty brakes. Then it happened again. And again. She doubled back to the mission and had a U.S. security agent escort her home. The next day, she left for work, comfortably sandwiched between two U.S. escort cars. But another Lada, stuffed with her now-familiar baby sitters, tried to break into the chain of cars. She fled through an intersection on a changing light. The Lada tried to follow but was too late, and was slammed by an oncoming car."

This type of arranged accident was an innovation of the East German spy agency, known as the Stasi, who trained the Cuban State Security service known as "G2" and one of its standard tactics. Diplomats working in Cuba should not underestimate the dictatorship nor should those visiting the island for recreation or business.