Some answers on the record
 |
| State Department officials testify before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations |
This morning at 10:00am the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing on attacks against U.S. diplomats in Cuba presided by Chairman Senator Marco Rubio and Ranking Member Senator Robert Menendez along with five other members. Following their testimony the three State Department officials answered questions from the Senators. Many questions remain but that 24 U.S. officials and their dependents were seriously harmed in Cuba between November 2016 and September 2016 remains an established fact.
Testimony of
Senior Bureau Official
Francisco
L.
Palmieri
before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western
Hemisphere
on “Attacks Against U.S. Diplomats in Cuba:
Response and
Oversight”
January 9
, 2018
Chairman Rubio, Ranking Member Menendez, and distinguished members of the
Committee: thank you for the opportunity to
speak
about the
attacks against U.S.
diplomats in Cuba and the
Department of State’s
efforts in response.
At the outset,
I want to thank you for your concern for the
safety and security of our diplomatic
personnel
in Havana. As you know, that is
Secretary Tillerson’s top priority
. It is
mine as well.
I
am pleased to be here today with
my colleagues from the Bureau of Diplomatic
Security and the Bureau of Medical Services, with whom
the Bureau of Western
Hemisphere Affairs
ha
s
worked closely on this complex issue.
I would
also like to emphasize up front that the investigation into these health
attacks is ongoing.
I understand that there are ongoing discussions within the
committee regarding this matter, and the fact is, t
here is still much we do not
know, including who or what is behind the injuries to our personnel. We have the
best
experts in the government and the private sector working to help us
understand
it.
At every step in our response to these events, we have worked
closely with our medical and technical experts in evaluating health conditions and
the nature of the
attacks.
I will
walk you through a
general
timeline
,
which will
describe
our
diplomatic
engagement with the Cubans
on this issue
,
and
review
many of
the
actions
we
have
taken to
date
.
Then
,
I
will defer to my colleagues to address the security and
medical
issues.
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
2
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.
Separately, we launched
a government
-
wide
effort
to find the cause and culprits
behind these
attacks
. Apart from the investigation, we have met with
U.S.
interagency partners
more than
a dozen times to discuss and refine our response to
these attacks.
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 o
n 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.
Prior to the Secretary
’s decision to institute Ordered Departure, our Embassy held
17
t
own
h
all meetings with American staff
.
Since the
return
of U.S. diplomats to
Washington
,
we have held a number of meetings with
them.
Secretary Tillerson
personally
met with
these
evacuees to explain
his decision to institute
Ordered
Departure, and we have organized a number of
meetings
to address evacuees’
3
concerns
.
The well-being
of the 24 confirmed victims, as well as the well
-
being of
all of our evacuees
and those remaining in
Havana,
continues to
be our priority, as
does the ongoing investigation.
With that
,
I will turn it to my colleagues to discuss their areas of expertise. Then I
will be happy to answer your questions.
STATEMENT BY
Todd J. Brown
Department of State
Assistant Director,
International Programs Directorate,
Bureau of Diplomatic Security
BEFORE THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON WESTERN HEMISPHERE, TRANSNATIONAL
CRIME, CIVILIAN
SECURITY, DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND
GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES
January 9
, 2018
Good
morning
Chairman Rubio
, Ranking Member Menendez,
and other
distinguished members of the Committee.
Thank you for your invitation to appear today to discuss the
health attacks
involving U.S. diplomatic personnel
and their families
in Havana.
Along with my
colleagues, I share your concerns regarding the safety and security of
our
personnel
in Cuba
,
and welcome any discussion that may lead to
a
better understanding
of
this issue and
stronger
safeguard
s
for
our employees.
From
a security and
investigative
standpoint,
we
continue to
work
with
Embassy Havana to
aggressively
counter, mitigate
,
and
better
understand
who and
what
are
causing injuries to our diplomatic staff.
Unfortunately, this remains a
perplexing case.
Our
Regional Security Officer at
Embassy
Havana
first became aware of
potential
health
attacks
involving
Embassy personnel in
late
December 2016
.
In
the early stages of trying to understand what may
have
be
en
occurring
,
Post
leadership and supporting
offices
in Washington
believed it was
likely
a form of
harassment by
forces hostile to the United States and our presence in Cuba
.
As more incidents
were
reported
in early 2017
and greater
awareness of
the
seriousness of symptoms became known
,
our
level of
concern and mitigation
efforts
rose exponentially
. After senior level meetings with Cuban officials
in
February
outlining Cuba’s
responsibility to protect diplomats under
the Vienna
Convention
, the Regional Security Officer
received confirmation from
Cuban
counterparts that the Cuban government was conducting its own investigation into
the matter.
Senior
U.S.
officials
on
Embassy
Havana’s
Emergency Action Committee
met frequently
as part of our ongoing
attempt to
better understand the nature of the
apparent attack and protect staff.
Among other things, the
Embassy deployed
recording
devices in
staff
residences
in an effort to better identify
or capture the
possible source behind
the
threat
, as many victims had associated the attacks with
an acoustic event
.
After further investigative
attempts
and expert analysis
failed to identify the
cause or perpetrator, t
he Federal Bureau of
Investigation opened a case in early
May. An FBI team
has
since
visited Havana several times and met with Cuban
officials.
The FBI’s investigation has interviewed victims and conducted surveys
of the residences and hotel rooms. However, the investigation remains ongoing
and we would refer all specific questions concerning the investigation to the FBI.
Thank you
.
I will be glad to answer any questions you may have.
ATTACKS
ON U.S. DIPLOMATS IN CUBA: RESPONSE AND OVERSIGHT
TESTIMONY OF
CHARLES ROSENFARB, M.D.
MEDICAL DIRECTOR
BUREAU OF MEDICAL SERVICES
U.S
.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
BEFORE
THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON WESTERN HEMISPHERE, TRANSNATIONAL
CRIME, CIVILIAN SECURITY,
DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND
GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES
SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
JANUARY 9
, 2017
Chairman
Rubio
,
Ranking Member Menendez,
and Distinguished Members of the
Committee:
Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the Department’s response
to
the
recent health attacks
in Havana
.
I
will
be describing the
evolution
of the
medical
response and
what
we currently know about the health effects.
From the individual and public
health perspective,
managing
this
evolving
situation
is
challenging.
Mission personnel describe a
multitude of symptoms
,
many of which
are not easily quantifiable and
not easily attributable to a specific
cause
.
The
sharing of information that occurs in
a small, tight
-
knit community has
helped identify more
affected personnel
,
but
, as typically is the case with any
community outbreak, also
can
complicate
an epidemiological investigation
.
However,
the most challenging factor
is
the
lack of certainty about
the causative
agent and
,
therefore
,
the precise mechanism of
the
injuries
suffered.
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
2
symptoms to
their
exposures
with
unusual sound
s
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 t
he
symptoms
first reported
primarily
affect
ed
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 early July, my office convened a panel of academic experts
to review t
he
case histories and the test results
gathered to date. Although the assembled group
identified that
some of
the symptoms
and findings
could be caused by other things
such as
viral
illnesses, previous head trauma, aging,
and
even stress
, the consensus
was that the patterns of injuries
that had so far been noted
were most likely related
to trauma from a non
-
natural source.
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.
I would
like to
now
describe the
health effects
identified
so far.
While the
descriptions of the
reported
auditory
sensation
s
have varied, all medically
-
confirmed cases have described some combination of
the following
symptoms
beginning
within minutes to
hours of the event
:
sharp, localized ear pain
; dull
unilateral headache
; tinnitus in one ear
; vertigo; visual focusing issues;
disorientation
; nausea
; and extreme fatigue
.
In many
of the
patients, the acute
symptom
s resolved within days to weeks,
but other
health issues
emerged
that
were
more persistent.
These have
included
:
cognitive problems, including
difficulty with
concentration, working
memory, and attention
; recurrent headache
;
high
-
frequency unilateral hearing loss; sleep disturbance
; and imbalance walking
.
As
in
the acute phase, the duration and severity of these later symptoms have
varied widely.
Defining the
prognosis for the confirmed cases
is extremely difficult since
no
precise analogue
for this possibly
novel
syndrome
exists
.
Some patients remain
symptomatic months after their exposures.
The
persistent
symptoms
have
improved
to varying
degrees
in all individuals, some after extended
rehabilitative
therapy, some
over time
without treatment.
Ten
of the 24 patients have returned to
either full or part
-
time work, while others continue to receive treatment
with an
anticipation of return to duty
.
However,
at this time
we are unable to state
whether
or not
the
injuries may result in adverse
long
-
term consequences to the individuals’
future health or functional abilities.
All
government
personnel
who travel
to Havana
on official duty
now
receive
a detailed medical briefing and are
encouraged to undergo
pre-deployment
screening
including
baseline audiograms
and neurocognitive
testing
.
W
e
have
formally requested assistance from
the Centers for Disease Control
for
performing
a broader epidemiological
analysis and
providing
appropriate medical information
to the American public.
Discussions
have also been held
with the National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
at the
National Institutes of Health
regarding its participation
in the ongoing
medical
investigation
.
I look forward to your questions
.
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