According to Politico, the country’s previous administration claimed that more than 40 American diplomats have been affected by “acoustic attacks” in Havana since November 2016. Investigations into the incident have intensified over the past several weeks.
According to TASS, some representatives of the American authorities investigating the so-called possible “directed energy” attacks on US personnel abroad believe that the “Russian GRU” may allegedly be involved in such activities. At the same time, there is no confirmation of “the link between Russian military intelligence and incidents with directed energy”.
According to the Politico newspaper, there is no consensus among the intelligence community on this matter, no official definition has been adopted, but American lawmakers have been told that the investigation has intensified in recent weeks.
According to a congressional official who participated in the intelligence briefing, the US intelligence community is focused “on the possible involvement of the GRU,” the report said.
According to the publication, the mention of the GRU as a suspect is due to the fact that the US administration is trying to reassure lawmakers of its commitment to completing the investigation and bringing those responsible to justice. The head of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, now receives daily updates on the progress of the investigation.
The previous US administration claimed that more than 40 American diplomats have been injured in Havana since November 2016 as a result of some external influence called “acoustic attacks” in the American press. The United States authorities held Cuba responsible for these incidents. In September 2017, in light of the incident, the United States recalled 60% of its embassy staff in Havana to their homeland, and then demanded that Cuba reduce the number of its diplomatic mission in Washington by 15 people.
Havana has repeatedly denied involvement in the incidents with American diplomats. In October 2017, Cuban experts also claimed that the United States could have mistaken the chirping of crickets or cicadas for “acoustic attacks”.
In the spring of 2018, there were reports in the United States that a consular officer in Guangzhou could have been subjected to an “acoustic attack” similar to those from which, from the point of view of the Washington administration, American diplomats in Cuba had suffered. In turn, the PRC government stressed then that it had not found signs of an “acoustic attack” on a consular officer.