The State Department is not prepared to blame Russia or any other entity for a mysterious string of attacks on American diplomats based in Cuba, a top U.S. diplomat said Tuesday.
“There is no known cause; no known individual or group believed to be responsible at this time,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters. “We are looking into it.”
More than two dozen U.S. officials in Havana were stricken in a series of mysterious incidents, beginning in late 2016, which caused a variety of “cognitive issues.” The incident caused a breakdown in the rehabilitation of U.S.-Cuba relations, and then, another diplomat based in China suffered from something similar. Nauert’s update Tuesday downplayed a report that U.S. intelligence officials regard Russia as a prime suspect.
“The investigation is ongoing,” she said. “We have not assigned any blame and we continue to look into this.”
U.S. lawmakers suspected that Cuba played a role, either directly or indirectly, in the attacks on the officials.
“They own the island,” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told the Washington Examiner last year. “They know what’s going on there.”
The revelation that the incident had recurred in China created additional alarm and broader theories about what might be underway. CIA investigators might have found evidence to tip the scales toward Moscow.
“The suspicion that Russia is likely behind the alleged attacks is backed up by evidence from communications intercepts,” according to NBC. “If Russia did use a futuristic weapon to damage the brains of U.S. personnel, it would mark a stunning escalation in Russian aggression toward Western nations, compounded recently by the use of a military-grade nerve agent to poison an ex-spy and his daughter in Britain.”
Nauert threw cold water on that report, however. “I would caution you all to be very skeptical of those officials’ statements right now,” she said.
