Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s team contradicted reports that a U.S. government employee suffered an “acoustic attack” in a former Soviet satellite state.
“There has been no incident in Uzbekistan,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert tweeted Tuesday.
That was in response to claims an employee with the U.S. Agency for International Development was targeted while stationed at the American embassy. The CBS report made an analogy between the rumored attack in Uzbekistan and ailments afflicting two dozen American diplomats who were targeted while working in Havana, Cuba.
“In September, the officer and his wife reported, according to one source familiar with the incident, what may have been at least one acoustic attack similar to those experienced by the diplomats in Havana,” CBS reported.
That allegation stirred suspicions that Russia, which has a friendly relationship with both Cuba and Uzbekistan, might have played a role in the attacks in each country.
A State Department official disputed that suggestion.
“We can confirm that no personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan have been diagnosed with the conditions that have been observed in Cuba,” the official told CBS.
Nauert’s public denial went further, denying any incident took place at all. The sequence of attacks in Cuba continues to bedevil American officials, as an investigation has failed to produce an explanation of who carried out the attacks and how it was done.
“The whole thing is just weird and unsettling,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told the Washington Examiner following a classified briefing on the matter in October. “It just doesn’t add up.”
