The United States is pulling more than half its diplomatic personnel out of Cuba and warning Americans not to visit in response to mysterious sonic incidents that sickened 21 embassy staffers and their families, senior U.S. officials said on Friday.
U.S. Pulling Embassy Staff From Cuba in Wake of Mystery Attacks
Have you all read about this ye t? I find this to be a unique and perhaps scary glimpse into what the future of warfare holds in store for us. Not scary like Nuclear War, but scary because it can happen on any street anywhere in the world, in theory. I remember reading about sonic bullets like 20 years ago, but never really heard anything about it since. It seems they've moved on to more efficient uses for sound as weaponry. Anyway, here is the text from the article.
SEP 29 2017, 10:46 AM ET
U.S. Pulling Embassy Staff From Cuba in Wake of Mystery ‘Attacks’
In addition to ordering all non-essential personnel and their families to leave, the U.S. will also suspend the processing visas in Cuba, the officials said.
The U.S. is maintaining diplomatic relations with Havana, and the staff reduction is meant to ensure the safety of Americans, the officials added.
Cuba has repeatedly denied any involvement in the baffling incidents, and the U.S. has still not determined who is behind them.
The departure plan, which was first reported by the Associated Press, emerged three days after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with the Cuban foreign minister in Washington to discuss the incidents that began in the fall of 2016 and continued even after the U.S. expelled two Cuban diplomats in May.
"The conversation was firm and frank and reflected the United States' profound concern for the safety and security of its diplomatic personnel," the State Department said after the meeting.
"The Secretary conveyed the gravity of the situation and underscored the Cuban authorities obligations to protect Embassy staff and their families under the Vienna Convention."
The union that represents foreign service workers says employees have been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury and permanent hearing loss and have suffered from headaches, loss of balance and cognitive problems.
They reported bizarre acoustic or sonic events at their homes and at a Havana hotel, but investigators have not determined a cause or motive for what Tillerson has termed "health attacks."
"We don't know what it was. We don't know who's done it," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said at a briefing Thursday.
Cuba has said it is not behind the incidents and has not allowed a third party to carry them out. At one point, it took the unusual step of inviting the FBI to Havana to investigate, according to Cuban sources.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R.-Fla., complained on Twitter Friday that the U.S. response didn't go far enough.
"So Castro regime allows attacks on Americans forcing us to drawdown to keep them safe but he gets to keep about same # of people here?" he wrote.
U.S. embassy staffers have not spoken publicly about the incidents, but one vented on social media last month that Washington wasn't doing enough to protect diplomats and their families still in Havana.
"Make America great again one brain injury at a time," he wrote in a Facebook post.
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Keep it civil folks. Other than that, feel free to get after it.