The truth behind the alleged acoustic attacks
27 October 2017
For reasons of Cuba
Extensive technical expert examinations were carried out on audio samples
On February 17, the State Department and the US Embassy in Havana reported for the first time to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the diplomatic headquarters of Cuba in Washington, the occurrence of alleged acoustic attacks between November 2016 and February 2017 .
As reported by the US authorities, these incidents occurred with the use of long-range sonic devices and caused health effects on officials of the diplomatic headquarters and their families.
What is an acoustic attack? It is defined as acoustic attack the emission of high decibels of sound to generate different physical and cognitive reactions for purposes of neutralization, through the use of non-lethal weapons or equipment available in the market.
The emission of high decibels of sound can cause different physical and cognitive reactions
In Cuba there is no such technology and it is prohibited to import commercially any equipment with these functions, so that its introduction to the country could only be carried out illegally.
The investigation
From the first notification of the alleged acoustic events, the Cuban authorities assumed with great seriousness the information transferred by the Americans. An exhaustive investigation was carried out, indicated by the Cuban government's top management, in which multiple training, expert, technical and operative actions were carried out to clarify alleged incidents in a new area, since there are no precedents for this type of aggression in Cuba, or in other parts of the world.
In compliance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law in force in Cuba, investigative file No. 10/17 was filed, in order to clarify a possible offense against the Chiefs and diplomatic representatives of foreign states.
In this regard, Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Estrada Portales, Chief of the Criminal Investigation Section of the Ministry of the Interior, revealed a group of training actions developed, including: taking statements to witnesses living in areas adjacent to places of occurrence of facts; the issuance of dispatches to different institutions to certify matters of interest to the investigation; measurements of the radioelectronic and sonorous spectrum in the zones of occurrence of the facts, as well as the taking of specifically sound samples in those environments.
Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Estrada Portales, Chief of Criminal Investigation Section of the Ministry of Interior.
He also said that when American authorities handed in samples of those that had been collected by them at the alleged acoustic events, expert reports were made.
A Permanent Working Group was established, responsible for the investigative process, in which various specialties of the Ministry of the Interior took part, and a committee of experts in acoustic subjects was constituted, integrated by specialists of the Ministries of Science, Technology and Environment and of Public health.
Immediately, in view of the situation posed by the United States, the Cuban government, in compliance with its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, increased all necessary measures to prevent any action against US diplomats.
In this regard, Lieutenant Colonel Estrada Portales said that "in exchanges with officials of the United States Embassy, they have recognized that they appreciate the increase in security and protection measures, and requested that they be maintained in order to guarantee the tranquility of its diplomatic officials in our country. "
Equipment, patients, intentions, noises ...?
The State Department, through a diplomatic note, reported that the alleged sonic attacks were conducted from long-range acoustic equipment, and did not provide further information.
However, in the investigation deployed by the Cuban authorities, no information or elements were found that indicated the existence of any sound-emitting equipment such as that described by the United States. Neither were intentions or plans to enter the country these devices by air or sea borders, where surveillance was reinforced in coordination with the General Customs of the Republic.
The United States government has also publicly handled that its diplomats had presented a variety of symptoms such as: nausea, dizziness, facial pain, abdominal pain, hearing impairment, cognitive problems and even brain damage experienced under very different circumstances and contexts. presumed use of multiple devices.
Recognized scientists of the world, authors of numerous researches in different fields of knowledge such as medicine and physics, associated with sonic phenomena, have supported several hypotheses that cast doubt on the occurrence of alleged acoustic attacks.
These specialists, linked to prestigious academic institutions and research centers, consider it unlikely that the great variety of symptoms have been caused by a known equipment, and explain that it is not possible to cause brain damage from these incidents.
They claim that hearing loss can only be caused by exposure to audible sources and that there are no medical precedents of this condition because of inaudible sounds, as they insist on presenting US authorities and media.
They argue, furthermore, that there are no infrasonic weapons capable of provoking the described conditions, which has been demonstrated in experiments with animals. Such damages could only be caused by the use of powerful equipment of large dimensions, which would affect several people in a certain range of action and not selectively as claimed by the Americans.
Despite alleged damage to health, no official of the Embassy went to hospital where they usually receive medical attention.
"And so far no unit of our health system, no patient has come to us with that symptomatology associated with being allegedly assaulted by a sound gun," confirmed Dr. Martha Beatriz Martínez Torres, who is a specialist in Otorhinolaryngology and a member of the committee of experts created for the investigation.
MsC. Martha Beatriz Martínez Torres, Specialist in Otorhinolaryngology, 31 years of experience.
In this regard, Lieutenant Colonel Estrada Portales commented that a response was received from the Municipal Health Department of Playa, where they certified that patients had not been treated for pathologies that could be associated with acoustic attacks or anomalous noises of high decibels. "In addition, it was reviewed if some of the people living in the neighborhoods of the houses where these attacks were supposed to have been affected, treated in their health areas, with negative results," he added.
During the investigation, 20 witnesses, neighbors of the houses of allegedly beaten diplomats, were interviewed, who stated that they had not heard any strange noises or presented any health or hearing problems similar to those reported by US diplomats.
The Chief of Criminal Investigation Section confirmed that all the witnesses underwent a thorough medical examination, and none had any hearing health conditions that might relate to the facts being investigated.
For her part, the specialist in Audiology, Dr. Álida Suárez Landrián explained that as part of the work the witnesses were audiometric tests were performed to people neighboring the places supposedly involved in hearing disorders. "None of these hearing tests proved positive to an acoustic trauma, that is, that the audiometric curve was negative for acoustic trauma. On the other hand, stapedial reflexes were also performed and all were negative as well, "he said.
Dr. Alida Suárez Landrián, Audiologist, Specialist in Comprehensive General Medicine.
For the experts it is striking that the neighbors of the place have not been affected or at least perceived the alleged noises.
Dr. Martha Beatriz Martínez Torres, an otolaryngologist, states that if there is more than 90 decibels inside a house or a room, the exterior must have a higher number in the hearing frequency. "What are we saying with this? It means that not only would the person who is in a house or a place be affected, but that the whole environment, all the people who are in the outside environment, would also suffer. "
According to international standards, the group of experts in acoustic subjects made measurements of environmental noise at different times and areas surrounding the residences of US diplomats, but no anomaly was detected.
For its part, the Central Laboratory of Criminalistics of the Ministry of the Interior also carried out long-term acoustic monitoring and performed random noise recordings, which provided results within normal parameters.
Among the limited cooperation actions by the US side, was the late delivery of some sound samples allegedly linked to the facts reported, hence they received a comprehensive expert technical report.
In this sense, Lieutenant Colonel Juan Carlos Molina Campos, Telecommunications Engineer, said that after the analysis of the signals of the three recordings delivered by the Americans, "it can be said, without a doubt, that the people who made these recordings did not were subjected to a high level of sound pressure ", because in order to be harmful to people they must be exposed to" levels of more than 80, 90, 100 decibels of signal ".
Lieutenant Colonel Juan Carlos Molina Campos, Telecommunication Engineer at the Ministry of Interior.
Dr. Carlos Barceló Pérez said: "The levels we measure are in the order of about 74 decibels, and that level does not take the area of traumatic hearing damage, because for there to be damage traumatic, require levels above 120, 130 decibels. But clearly, what's in the recording, the sound levels do not even remotely approach the levels that would cause hearing damage. "
The parameters established by the American Academy of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery in relation to damage in humans exposed to acoustic weapons are found in intensities above 90 decibels. In none of the cases, the audio samples delivered exceeded these levels, demonstrated technical, expert and scientifically.
Although the use of technical means to perform these alleged aggressions was not verified intentionally, during the rigorous analysis, the recordings showed coincidences with the sounds emitted by some species of insects, especially crickets and cicadas.
Lieutenant Colonel Molina Campos revealed the following: "We did a test, we took a recording in a park of our capital and we characterize it. We applied the same techniques of digital processing that we applied with the audio samples that we were given, to the sound we recorded from the cicada, and coincidentally we could verify that it is also a sound that is about 7 kilocycles, that has approximately equal bandwidth about 3 KHz and that audibly is very similar. We also compared spectra of all the signals provided with the spectrum we recorded and evidently this common noise is very similar to the noise of a cicada. "
These insects inhabit coastal, rural and urban areas throughout the Cuban archipelago and were identified in the field test conducted in areas bordering the residences of US diplomats.
North American researchers recognize that the noise caused by a group of cicadas can reach 90 decibels; while those produced by crickets can record an intensity of 95 decibels.
In both cases, prolonged exposure to these sounds can lead to hearing loss, irritation, and hypertension.
The Cuban researchers demonstrated through a deep study the similarity between the sound samples delivered and the sound of those insects. This result was presented to the US counterpart as the plausible cause of some reported sound incidents.
So far, the United States has not responded to the information provided, however, authorities in that country, quoted by international media on condition of anonymity, have noted that the alleged noises resemble the sounds of these insects.
Timely response to "suspicions"
Two suspected acoustic attacks were reported on April 25. This time, US officials informed the Cuban Foreign Ministry about sonic assaults in rooms at the Hotel Capri, where a diplomat from the embassy was staying and one of the doctors who arrived in the island to examine the hypothetical victims of the alleged incidents.
Regardless of the fact that several days elapsed between the alleged events and the complaint, the Cuban authorities carried out rigorous investigative investigations. Locals, surrounding areas and other distant areas were inspected, and no physical footprints or material evidence of research interest were found.
The management and services staff and several guests stated that they had not heard strange sounds or presented any symptoms due to exposure to noise.
As part of the analysis, sound samples were taken which recorded a predominantly silent environment and checked the airtightness of the windows in the rooms. In addition, an experiment was developed by which sounds of higher frequency and power were emitted than those recorded in the American audio samples, and it was corroborated that they could not be audible inside either of the two premises.
In this regard, Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Pico Abello, the first criminal expert of the Ministry of the Interior, explained: "In the radius of the areas outside the installation of up to 150 meters there is no building at the level of the rooms that allows to place a sound source even at a power of 120 decibels that is considered harmful to the human ear, or that may register with the window closed in these rooms and cause harmful noise pollution to the guests.
Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Pico Abello, First Criminal Inspector of the Ministry of the Interior.
Given a presumed uncertainty of aggression against US diplomats, security measures and personnel protection, as well as the restriction of movements in Cuban territory and the limitation of travel for officials and relatives to the largest of the Antilles, had to be adopted.
However, the behavior turned out to be totally different. One example of this was that after February 17, when they reported the attacks for the first time, and until the 26th of that month, US diplomats notified the Cuban Foreign Ministry of 15 trips out of the capital for recreational purposes. On the other hand, between February and June, the United States Embassy requested a total of 293 visas, 158 of them for relatives and friends of the officials accredited in the Island, who also moved freely in the country on recreational trips.
Faced with this situation Lieutenant Colonel Estrada Portales drew attention to a specific topic. He revealed that "at the time of reporting these incidents by the United States Embassy, the Head of the Department of Diplomatic Security of the MININT called an interview to the Head of the Security Area of that headquarters, and inquired with him about the occurrence of the facts , in order to specify data to develop our investigation, it turned out that this official did not know the occurrence of those facts.
He added: "It is very significant for two fundamental reasons: one, it turned out later that the Chief of the Security Area who was unaware of the occurrence of the events was reported as one of the attacked; and the second of such importance as the first, is that he did not know the occurrence of attacks against his officials and relatives, when his role in Cuba is precisely to preserve these officials and family.
Obstacles to research
During this period of investigation, the lack of willingness of the US authorities to cooperate in the clarification of the facts was evidenced, as they did not facilitate the delivery of the necessary information, nor did they cooperate with the investigative efforts of the Ministry of the Interior.
In practice, only the extemporaneous access of Cuban investigators to the buildings allegedly affected and the delivery of new samples of alleged sound assaults have only been experienced.
In this sense, Lieutenant Colonel Estrada Portales said: "The United States authorities blamed Cuba for the investigation, determination and elimination of these events, without assuming full responsibility as the affected country to participate in the investigation. They have not given access to either the investigators or the facts because they reported months, days and hours after they occurred, neither the victims nor the witnesses. There is no way to know what a victim can bring without interviewing her. "
"The US authorities, however, have not agreed to either interview the victims or even provide us with the statements that were asked of them, not only for their use in the strict sense of the police investigation, but also to contribute them to the experts, to the scientists, to the specialists who could analyze what these victims referred on the occurrence of the facts denounced.
US diplomats affected by alleged acoustic attacks were the main evidence to be evaluated by Cuban experts for the clarification of the facts. However, the US government denied access to these people and moved them to their territory, preventing them from being given an expert opinion.
The United States also failed to facilitate the exchange between Cuban scientists and researchers and the State Department medical team that visited the island to assess alleged damage to diplomats.
"We were all the time willing to attend these patients, to investigate what had happened. The Cuban Health System has all the resources, but the cooperation was really null and we only had communications, which in our opinion are not expert, about what had happened, "said Dr. Manuel Jorge Villar Kuscevic, specialist of II Degree in Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery.
For its part, the medical report delivered by the US authorities with the assessment of the 20 people allegedly affected by exposure to loud noises, has a single page, is very general and lacks the technical elements required in this type of reports.
Dr. Villar Kuscevic added that they developed all the research from incomplete data. "We have not really had information that is scientific and reliable for us to come to a conclusion in any sense," he said.
Dr. Manuel Jorge Villar Kuscevic, Specialist of II degree in Otorhinolaryngology, 26 years of experience.
For her part, Dr. Álida Suárez Landrián, said: "The only thing we have received from the counterpart were not specific opinions. We performed vestibular studies, audiometric studies, but where are the studies ?, where are the results of those studies? If we do not see the studies, we do not see the results of the studies, how can we talk that such damage existed or did not exist? We do not have a scientific basis, nor a solid basis for a diagnosis. "
"We have not had the possibility of doing a physical and otorhinolaryngological exam and in general we do not know the whole health environment that surrounds these people," said Dr. Martha Beatriz Martínez Torres.
It was also recurrent throughout the process the lack of opportunity to report alleged acts by the US authorities. All were informed late in spite of the fact that the Department of Diplomatic Security of the Ministry of Interior authorized five exclusive telephone numbers for the US Embassy in Havana to report directly any incident.
In this sense, Lieutenant Colonel Estrada Portales commented: "The authorities of the United States have informed all the facts in a late and partial manner. On April 25, they reported an incident allegedly occurred 30 days before, on March 30. On April 6 at 2:00 p.m., the embassy reported an incident that occurred allegedly at night hours the day before, when our forces came to the scene to conduct the investigation, did not allow them access to the victims or to the interior of the place of the fact. With this they hindered the development of the police actions that correspond for the clarification in spite of the delay of the information ".
Although the alleged sonic attacks are linked to areas and technologies little known to Cuba, the US authorities have not acceded to the Cuban proposal to perform technical exchange at the expert level, nor have they facilitated the use of their technologies in the field of sonic and infrasonic records.
It is contradictory that the United States did not want to cooperate fully at this level, when positive experiences are known in areas of security such as drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism, most in a scenario where there were no diplomatic relations, which shows results when there is a will real policy.
An example of this was the bilateral cooperation in the area of Information and Communications Technologies in the year 2013, when cyberattacks were registered against technological and military installations in the United States. In this incident Cuban machines were previously controlled from the outside, in function of using the national infrastructures as bridges and presenting to the Island as an alleged attacker.
At that time bilateral exchanges were carried out at a technical, operational and political level, which allowed for a rapid clarification of the facts and even the carrying out of investigative investigations by the US authorities.
In this regard, Lieutenant Colonel Estrada Portales reflected: "As has been reiterated to US officials, this is a research in full development. But in order to be successful, full and responsible participation of the authorities of that country is essential; that allow access to their experts, who have been participating, as they have said, in the investigation on their part; that allow access to the testimony of the witnesses, to allow access to the real saying of the victims about what happened and what were the symptoms and other details that are essential for the police actions to be developed, in addition to the actions to be carried out by the group multifactorial expert who is participating in this research. "
Today, after repeated requests from the Cuban side, it has only been possible to establish cooperation with US specialized agencies to investigate the alleged facts.
So far it has not been possible to exchange with the medical team that examined the alleged victims, or with experts in technological and acoustic subjects.
In that sense, during the months of June, August and September of 2017, three meetings were held in the island between specialists from the United States and their Cuban counterparts. The exchanges took place in a constructive and professional atmosphere, in which the US side expressed its intention to cooperate more substantively in the investigation of the alleged incidents.
The members of the delegation of the United States, stated that they do not have evidence to confirm the occurrence of the aforementioned attacks, and raised the hypothesis about the origin of the health affectations mentioned by their diplomats.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert has publicly acknowledged that her government has been unable to determine the cause or a culprit in alleged sound events.
The American researchers said they do not rule out the possibility that the symptoms experienced by diplomats were triggered by other causes unrelated to the so-called acoustic attacks, hence the investigations continue. They also recognized the role played by Cuba in the investigative process.
Concludes Lieutenant Colonel Estrada Portales: "In exchanges with US officials, they have recognized that Cuba has no responsibility in the execution of the attacks that they are denouncing. They have also recognized that Cuba is a place where they have historically carried out their diplomatic activity in a quiet and protected manner and that our country has always guaranteed the necessary measures for the development of this work by the officials of the United States Embassy. "
Partial conclusions of the investigation
The Cuban authorities deployed all the investigative possibilities based on the information provided by the US side.
• There was no evidence to indicate the occurrence of the alleged acoustic attacks;
• It has not been possible to establish investigative hypotheses about the origin of these facts, which by their nature are eminently sensorial and leave no traces or traces, an aspect supported by the representatives of the specialized agencies of the United States that traveled to Cuba.
• Neither possible authors nor persons with motivation, intention or means to perform this type of actions have been identified. In the work carried out by the Cuban team of investigators and in the information provided by US officials, the incidence of suspected persons or means in or around the places of occurrence has not been established.
• The Cuban medical and scientific team, after an expert technical analysis of the sound samples delivered by the United States, certified that it was impossible for them to cause the health effects described by the diplomats.
Throughout the investigative process, Cuban authorities have kept up-to-date with their US counterparts through verbal notes delivered to the US embassy, diplomatic and security meetings.
Political manipulation
The politicization of this issue, evidenced in recent decisions by the US government to minimize its diplomatic personnel in Cuba and to request the departure of 15 officials from the Cuban Embassy in Washington, without it being based on evidence or conclusive results of the investigation in progress, only benefits a small group of the extreme right anti-Cuban, headed by Senator Marco Rubio, who persists in maintaining the hostile policy against the Island, to the detriment of the genuine national interests of the United States and its people, who have given signs of support for the normalization of relations between the two countries.
Rubio, an opponent of any approach to Havana recently sent along with four other senators, a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, calling for the expulsion of all Cuban diplomats in Washington and the eventual closure of the Cuban embassy in Cuba, in retaliation for alleged "acoustic attacks".
The decision to reduce US diplomatic personnel in Cuba led to the rejection of Barbara Stephenson, president of the American Foreign Service Association, a union that represents American diplomats and groups 16,000 members. The official said that the health problems alleged do not justify a large-scale withdrawal.
This position has been backed up by prominent US politicians and personalities who called the White House's reaction excessive and erroneous. They considered that this meant a return to failed Cold War policies and that it responded to the interest of some individuals in disrupting the standardization process.
The implementation of these measures, along with others such as the indefinite suspension of bilateral meetings in the island, the visit to Cuba of official delegations, restrictions on the issuance of visas from the US consulate in Havana and the alert to US travelers not to visit Cuba, constitute a setback in bilateral relations, as they impede exchanges and cooperation in various areas of common interest, especially in limited economic ties and in the area of migration.
This situation, caused by political interests, jeopardizes the preservation of the national security of both countries, as it would affect agreements on migration and enforcement and enforcement, with a direct impact on confronting transnational crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking, cyber attacks, human trafficking, among others.
Throughout revolutionary history, it has been demonstrated that Cuba fulfills its international obligations with rigor and seriousness, including the protection of all diplomats, without exception.
In addition, it is universally recognized as a safe destination. An analysis of the company Data World, published in early April 2017 and based on travel warnings issued by the State Department over the past seven years, revealed Cuba as one of the most secure countries for US tourism. In that period, the State Department did not address any of its security warnings for our country, nor did it view the Island in the list of the 25 most dangerous nations for the physical integrity of its citizens.
In the last two years, since the beginning of the process of normalization of relations, the number of US visitors to Cuba has increased, and only in this year more than half a million are registered, not counting the trips of Cubans resident in that country. countries that amount to more than 320 thousand.
The Island would never attack or permit the use of its territory to affect US diplomats or citizens, or any country in the world.
However, more than 150 attacks have been carried out against diplomatic missions and Cuban entities in nearly 20 countries, including the Cuban Embassy to the United Nations and Cuba's then Interests Section in Washington. These terrorist acts, carried out by groups based in the United States, have left a considerable number of diplomatic officials dead or injured, most notably Félix García Rodríguez, who was assassinated on 11 September 1981 in New York City.
Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, the island has been the direct target of constant assaults of all kinds sponsored by different US administrations, which practiced state terrorism.
The sabotage of La Coubre and the El Encanto store, the mercenary attack by Playa Girón, the detonation of a Cuban civil aircraft in mid-flight and the bombings in different hotels and tourist centers of the country, among other aggressions, marked the suffering of a whole village, with a balance of 3 478 fatalities and 2 099 physically incapacitated for life.
In spite of these permanent aggressions against the Cuban people, the Revolution has maintained as a principle respect for the physical and moral integrity of all human beings.
As has been reiterated on a number of occasions, Cuba is willing to continue negotiations on bilateral issues with the United States on the basis of equality and absolute respect for our sovereignty and independence. Cuba and the United States can cooperate and coexist in a civilized way, despite the profound differences, and promote the benefit for both peoples.
The Reasons of Cuba
http://razonesdecuba.cubadebate.cu/arti ... acusticos/
Google Translator
