AMBASSADOR/CUBA/STATE: “The U.S. State Department is set to announce Friday [9-29-17] that it is cutting staff at the U.S. Embassy in Havana as Washington investigates mysterious health attacks that have left more than 20 diplomats with dizziness, concussions, hearing loss and other symptoms.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said earlier this month that he was considering closing the U.S. Embassy in Havana. He met with Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez earlier this week to discuss the health incidents, which began late last year and have happened as recently as August.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Thursday that a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe is continuing and that officials haven’t identified a cause or source of the attacks.
Some officials have suggested a sonic device might be responsible for the attacks but such a device hasn’t been found.
The mysterious episodes began as the Obama administration was trying to do as much as it could to make its push to normalize ties with Cuba permanent, including by supporting a flurry of business deals.
Both Cuba and the U.S. reopened embassies in each other’s capitals in the summer of 2015 after they had been closed for more than 50 years. President Barack Obama loosened trade and travel restrictions as part of the normalization push, though President Donald Trump moved earlier this year to tighten them.”
-Felicia Schwartz, “U.S. to Reduce Staffing at Embassy in Cuba in Response to Mysterious Attacks,” The Wall Street Journal online, Sept. 29, 2017 10:39am