"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
Showing posts with label Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Show all posts
Three State Department officials testified this morning before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the subject of the 2016-2017 attacks on U.S. diplomats and dependents stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba that seriously impacted 24 of them. The three officials who testified are: Senior Bureau Official
Francisco
L.
Palmieri Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs; Assistant Director Todd J. Brown of the International Programs Directorate, Bureau of Diplomatic Security; and Dr. Charles Rosenfarb, Medical Director for the Bureau of Medical Services. The objective of the hearing announced at the outset by Senator Marco Rubio was to "establish the facts of what has occurred and conduct oversight on the
conduct and activities of the United States Department of State." Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Palmieri provided a general timeline:
In late
2016
,
some members of our diplomatic community serving at U.S. Embassy
Havana
complained
about
hearing
strange
noises
and a variety of unexplained
physical symptoms
.
As the Department investigated, we began to see signs
suggesting
that
these
events
–
initially
in
diplomatic residences
, and later, at hotels
–
may have begun as early as November
2016.
As soon as we
identified
a pattern connecting these
unusual events with certain
health symptoms, U.S. officials approached the Cuban government
in mid-February
to demand
it
meet
its
obligations under the Vienna Convention to protect
our personnel. The Cubans denied involvement
,
offered their cooperation
,
and
opened their own investigation.
Since then we have engaged the Cubans
more
than
20
times, from the working level to the highest level of the
Cuban
government, both here in Washington and in Havana.
In addition to our diplomatic efforts, we prioritized the medical care of our
personnel. State Department and private medical experts examined more than 80
post employees and their families, both in the United States and in Havana. Dr.
Rosenfarb will provide you with additional details.
[...]
The
attacks
initially appeared to occur in clusters, but starting in late March
,
sporadic
attacks
continued
until
late
April and then seemed to stop
.
Beginning i
n
mid
-
April
,
we
allowed
anyone serving at Embassy Havana who did not feel safe at
post to return to the United States.
W
e
also
expelled two Cuban diplomats
in May
in order
to underscore the Cuban government’s responsibility to protect our
personnel
.
After a period without any
attacks, there were
two additional
attacks
reported in
close proximity in late August
, which
were medically confirmed in September
.
Based on the resumption of these attacks,
Secretary Tillerson ordered the departure
of non
-
emergency personnel from post on September 29. The Secretary
assessed
this was the only way to significantly reduce the risk to our diplomats and their
families.
As a follow-on to the Ordered Departure decision,
we expelled 15 more
Cuban
diplomats
in October
to ensure equity in the
impact on our respective operations
and to underscore to Cuba its
obligation to
stop the
attacks
.
These decisions
–
both
to draw down our personnel at Embassy Havana and to expel Cuban diplomats
–
did
not signal a change in policy.
Hearing on attacks of U.S. diplomats in Cuba on January 9, 2017
Dr. Charles Rosenfarb, Medical Director for the Bureau of Medical Services provided an overview of the seriousness of the injuries.
Individuals
first
visited
our medical unit
in Embassy Havana
in
late
December 2016 and
January 2017
reporting
various symptoms
including headache,
ear pain, dizziness, and hearing problems
.
They associated the onset of these
symptoms to
their
exposures
with
unusual sounds
or auditory sensations
.
Various
descriptions were given: “
a
high pitched beam of sound”;
an
“incapacitating
sound”; a “baffling sensation” akin to
driving with the
windows
partially
open in a
car; or just an intense pressure in one ear.
Since the
symptoms
first reported
primarily
affected
auditory
functions,
an
otolaryngologist
at the University
of
Miami,
highly experienced in
evaluating acoustic
injuries
in military personnel,
was identified to perform additional
assessments.
Between February and April of last year, this specialist evaluated eighty
members of the Embassy community
.
Of the individuals evaluated
in this initial
tranche,
sixteen
were
identified
to have
symptoms and medically verifiable clinical
findings of some combination
similar to what might be seen in patients
following
mild traumatic brain injury
or concussion.
[...]
In light of the emerging clinical parallels to
mild
traumatic brain injury,
the
nationally
-
recognized brain injury center
at
the University of Pennsylvania
was
identified
to provide detailed
reevaluations of
employees with prior exposures
and
to
evaluate
Embassy community members
who reported
new exposures.
As a
result of further evaluations
begun
in late August,
additional
individuals with
exposures that occurred prior to April 24 were added to the list of confirmed cases.
Two other individuals who reported exposures that occurred in mid-August 2017
were also medically confirmed as cases, bringing the total number of cases
to
24.
Disturbing new information that emerged out of the hearing. Senator Rubio [R] of Florida asked Senior Bureau Official
Francisco
L.
Palmieri why the Accountability Review Board (ARB) had not been set up within 60 -120 days of May 1, [2017 ]with the report that U.S. officials were suffering serious injuries in Havana, as required by law. Back in October of 2017 five House members asked for a timeline of the attacks and asked if the State Department had convened an ARB in response. Today the answer was given and it was a "no." Palmieri responded that the Secretary of State had decided to convene the Accountability Review Board (ARB) and would shortly notify Congress. Rubio pressed further and asked why the law had not been followed. Palmieri said that the Secretary had not convened it before because they did not know who the perpetrator was. Senator Rubio pointed out that the law did not require identifying the
perpetrator and that the ARB would seek to identify the parties
responsible. Early on the opinion of security professionals, according to Assistant Director Todd J. Brown, was that this was harassment carried out by the Cuban government.
Senator Marco Rubio (R) FL
Ranking member, Senator Robert Menendez [D] of New Jersey asked when the Chargé d'affaires was informed of the attacks and Senior Bureau Official
Francisco
L.
Palmieri responded that he had been informed of the attacks in late December of 2016. According to Todd J. Brown it was December 30, 2016 when it was brought to the attention of the regional security officer and noted in a report to Washington.This also raises the question, made by Senator Rubio, when was Secretary
of State John Kerry informed? Was President Obama informed? Senator Menendez asked when they became aware that brain trauma was involved and Dr. Charles Rosenfarb responded that the first patient was medically evacuated on February 6, 2017 and over the next two months evacuated 40 people.
Senator Robert Menendez (D) NJ
Meanwhile Senator Jeff Flake [R] of Arizona, who was present at the hearing today, has pushed a narrative that there were no attacks, trying to spin an FBI report leaked to the Associated Press. However the AP article does not say that there were no attacks but that the FBI "has uncovered no evidence that sound waves could have damaged
the Americans’ health" and that the report "doesn’t address other theories and says the FBI will keep investigating
until it can show there’s been no intentional harm."
Senator Jeanne Shaheen [D] of NH
During the hearing today, Senator Jeanne Shaheen [D] of New Hampshire raised the questions of the FBI report and the change during the Obama Administration to resume diplomatic relations and other commercial ties asked if it would be in Cuba's interests to carry out targeted attacks at such a time? This line of questioning was also continued by Senator Tom Udall [D] of New Mexico who also asked what would be their motive if the Cuban government were looking to increase ties with the U.S. Palmieri responded in both cases that he would not speculate on the Cuban government motives, but that considering the nature of the regime that exercises total security control it is inconceivable that they do not know what is going on and could not stop them from being repeated.
Senator Tom Udall [D] of NM
However to those making this argument there is a simple response. On January 2, 2017 Cuban troops in Havana marched in a parade over which Raul Castro presided chanting that they would repeatedly shoot President Obama in the head so many times that they would make a “hat of lead to the head.” This would indicate that the Castro regime had other priories beyond normalized relations and trade with American companies. This was something that I raised in December of 2014 when debating Senator Udall on Channel 4.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in an interview with the AP on January 5, 2018 rejected the idea of sending diplomats back to Havana.“I’d be intentionally putting them back in harm’s way. Why in the world would I do that when I have no means whatsoever to protect them?”
Tillerson told the AP on Jan. 5. “I will push back on anybody who wants to force me to do that. I still believe that the Cuban government, someone within the Cuban government can bring this to an end,” Tillerson added.
Senator Marco Rubio will be presiding over a public hearing titled "Attacks on U.S. Diplomats in Cuba: Response and Oversight" at the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues on January 9, 2018 at 10:00am. There are numerous questions that have not been answered but there is one fact that has been established that is disturbing. Twenty four U.S. government officials and their spouses based in Havana were the victims of 50 attacks between November of 2016 and September of 2017 that caused serious harm.
It’s a documented FACT that 24 U.S. govt officials & spouses were victims of some sort of sophisticated attack while stationed in Havana 1/3
It is also known that Canadian diplomats were also impacted and their diplomatic cables were describing the incidents as attacks, months before the U.S. publicly acknowledged them, on April 26, 2017. CBS News reported on these newly declassified cables on January 6, 2018.
This is bad timing for Senator Jeff Flake, who has worked for years in pushing normalized relations with the Castro regime, who on January 5, 2018 tried to spin that there was "no evidence of a sonic attack." Whether sonic or not, the fact remains that two dozen American government officials and their dependents have been harmed.
Tillerson said he's not convinced that what he calls the
"deliberate attacks" are over. He defended his September decision to
order most U.S. personnel and their relatives to leave Cuba and said he
won't reverse course until Cuba's government assures they'll be safe.
"I'd
be intentionally putting them back in harm's way. Why in the world
would I do that when I have no means whatsoever to protect them?"
Tillerson told the AP on Jan. 5. "I will push back on anybody who wants
to force me to do that."
Four months earlier on October 12, 2017 White House Chief of Staff John Kelly stated, "[w]e believe that the Cuban government could stop the attacks on our diplomats."
How did we get to this dismal point in U.S. - Cuba relations?
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.
Last year on January 2, 2017 Cuban troops
marched in a parade over which Castro presided chanting that they would
repeatedly shoot President Obama, the first African-American president, in the head so many times that they would make a “hat of lead to the head.”
In September of 2017, it was announced that non-essential U.S. personnel would be evacuated from the U.S. Embassy in Havana. Prior to December 2014, a fully staffed U.S. Interests Section (an embassy all but in name) in Havana had been doing a lot of good work in Cuba since 1977. There is now a skeleton crew.
Excerpt of Testimony of Mrs. Berta Soler, President of the Cuban Ladies in White Cuba,
before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee
Berta Soler testifies on Cuba in Washington, DC. Watch full hearing on US Foreign Relations Senate Committee website: 3 hours, 52 minutes, Soler from 2:58:25. (From Senate.gov)
February 3, 2015
We are presently living through a particularly defining moment for the future of our country in the wake of the recent announced reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States.
I am appearing here as the leader of the Ladies in White, a group of women activists who support change towards democracy in our country through non-violent means, inspired by the example of women such as Rosa Parks and Coretta King, among others, who with courage and determination blazed paths for the full enjoyment of civil rights in this country. Now 50 years after the events in Selma, Alabama, and testifying before a Subcommittee who mandate includes Global Women's Issues, it is a great honor and an historic opportunity for me to appear before you.
I also speak on behalf of numerous leaders and activists from Cuban civil society who have entrusted me with speaking for them before you. It is a civil society that is particularly repressed by the intolerance of a government whose exercise of power consists of the systematic violation of the human rights of the Cuban people. Just before I left Cuba to be here, last January 28th, the day we celebrate the birth of our Founding Father José Martí, dozens of activists were arrested in Havana and other provinces for attempting to place offerings of flowers at statues of José Martí. In its totalitarian vision, the dictatorship seeks a monopoly on our national identity through the use of force against all independent activists.
The most respected international human rights organizations have documented violations of human rights in Cuba. On October 23, 2013, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued an injunction on behalf of members of the Ladies in White, to afford protection in the face of systematic repression by Cuban authorities.
[...]
Our aspirations are legitimate because they are undergirded by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Cuba is a party, and the signed international pacts on civil and political rights which have not been ratified by the dictatorship. Our demands are quite concrete: freedom for political prisoners, recognition of civil society, the elimination of all criminal dispositions that penalize freedom of expression and association and the right of the Cuban people to choose their future through free, multiparty elections.
We believe these demands are just and valid. Even more importantly, for us they represent the most concrete exercise of politics, a step in the direction of democratic coexistence. Cuba will change when the laws that enable and protect the criminal behavior of the forces of repression and corrupt elements that sustain the regime change.
In the name of those who have been executed by the firing squads.
In the name of Cuban political prisoners.
In the name of the pilots from the humanitarian organization, Brothers to the Rescue, murdered on Fidel Castro's orders.
In the name of the victims from the "13 de Marzo" tugboat.
In the name of the victims of Cuba's Communist regime.
Excerpt of Testimony by Rosa María Payá,
Christian Liberation Movement and daughter of slain dissident Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas,
before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee
Rosa María Payá testifies on Cuba in Washington, DC. Watch full hearing on US Foreign Relations Senate Committee website: 3 hours, 52 minutes, Payá from 2:19:40. (From Senate.gov)
February 3, 2015
We Cubans want real changes, to design the prosperous country that we deserve and can build. The only violence here comes from the Cuban military against Cubans, that’s way the solution is a peaceful transition, not an appeasement.
The way that you can promote stability in the region is through supporting strategies that engage the popular will, to reach the end of totalitarianism with dignity for everyone. You have the opportunity to support the petition for a constitutional plebiscite in favor of multi-party and free elections, already signed by thousands of citizens in the Varela Project, as is allowed for the Cuban constitution.
There is an active campaign by Cubans from all over the globe, asking for rights for all Cubans and the Plebiscite, which is a first vote for the long-lasting changes
that Cuba needs.
On 22 July 2012, Cuban State Security detained the car in which my father, Oswaldo Payá, and my friend Harold Cepero, along with two young European politicians, were traveling. All of them survived, but my father disappeared for hours only to reappear dead, in the hospital in which Harold would die without medical attention.
The Cuban government wouldn’t have dared to carry out its death threats against my father if the US government and the democratic world had been showing solidarity. If you turn your face, impunity rages. While you slept, the regime was conceiving their cleansing of the pro-democracy leaders to come. While you sleep, a second generation of dictators is planning with impunity their next crimes.
That is why we hope that this Congress demands that the petition for an independent investigation, regarding the attack against Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero, be included in the negotiations with the Cuban government, and that we hear publicly what response is given to this point. Knowing the whole truth is
essential in any transition process, and to tolerate impunity is to endanger the lives of all Cubans wherever we live.
Don’t turn your backs on Cubans again; don’t earn the distrust of the new actors of our inevitably free future, in exchange for complicity with a gerontocracy who belongs to the Cold War era.
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