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US embassy employees in Cuba possibly subject to 'acoustic attack'

(CNN)The US believes several State Department employees at the US embassy in Havana were subjected to an "acoustic attack" using sonic devices that left at least two with such serious health problems they needed to be brought back to the US for treatment, several senior State Department officials told CNN.

One official said the employees could have suffered permanent hearing loss as a result.

The employees affected were not at the same place at the same time, but suffered a variety of physical symptoms since late 2016 which resembled concussions.

The State Department raised the incidents with the Cuban government over the course of several months and sent medical personnel to Havana, but have not been able to determine exactly what happened.

"It can be quite serious," one official told CNN. "We have worked with the Cubans to try and find out what is going on. They insist they don't know, but it has been very worrying and troublesome."

The FBI is now looking into the matter, the officials said.

"It's very strange," one official said.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert on Wednesday said that "some US government personnel" working at the US embassy in Havana, Cuba on official duty reported some incidents that were causing "physical symptoms." But she could not elaborate on the nature or cause of the incidents.

"Because there are a variety of symptoms, there could be a variety of sources," one US official said. "That is why we are being very careful here with what we say. There is a lot we still don't know."

For years US diplomats in Havana complained that they suffered harassment from Cuban officials and frequently had their homes and cars broken into. But diplomats said that after the US and Cuba restored full diplomatic ties in 2015, the campaign of harassment stopped.

Some of those affected chose to return to the US, said Nauert, prompting the administration to expel two Cuban diplomats from the embassy in Washington in May.

"The Cuban government has a responsibility and an obligation under the Geneva convention to protect our diplomats," Nauert told reporters, "so that is part of the reason why this is such a major concern of ours."

"We felt like we needed to respond to the Cubans and remind them of their responsibility under the Vienna convention," one of the officials said. The officials were not declared "persona non-grata" and may be allowed to return back to the United States if the matter is resolved.

Those affected were State Department employees, Nauert said, and no American civilians were affected. The State Department is taking these incidents "very seriously," she added, and is working to determine the cause and impact of the incidents.

A statement from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday categorically denied any Cuban involvement in the mistreatment of US diplomats in Cuba, and said the decision to expel Cuban diplomats was "unjustified and unfounded."

"The Ministry emphatically emphasizes that Cuba has never allowed ... Cuban territory to be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, without exception," the statement said in Spanish.

Tillerson Alone In Defending Trump’s Jerusalem Move That ‘World Is Against’ – Talking Points Memo

BRUSSELS (AP) — It’s a go-to catchphrase when U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is called on to explain his boss on the world stage: “America first is not America alone.” Yet as President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, Tillerson on Wednesday stood all by himself.

The onslaught came from all sides as Tillerson, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, got an earful from many a U.S. ally on Trump’s Jerusalem move. So far, not a single country — other than Israel, of course — has thrown its support behind the declaration. Even Tillerson’s own State Department has conceded the announcement could sow unrest throughout the Middle East.

Turkey’s top diplomat, Mevlut Cavusoglu, was unsparing in criticism that was far harsher than any the U.S. is accustomed to from a NATO ally.

“The whole world is against this,” Cavusoglu told reporters as he awaited Tillerson’s arrival for their meeting. He said he’d already told Trump’s chief diplomat that it was a “grave mistake.” Cavusoglu said he planned to “tell him again.”

That time-tested “special relationship” with Britain? Not so special as to prevent Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson from putting Tillerson on the spot. After the two shook hands, Johnson used the occasion to suggest it was time for Trump’s Mideast peace team to put up or shut up.

“Clearly this is a decision that makes it more important than ever that the long-awaited American proposals on the Middle East peace process are now brought forward, and I would say that that should happen as a matter of priority,” Johnson said as Tillerson stood uneasily a few feet away.

Trump, in a speech Wednesday, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and said he’d start the process of moving the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv. The Palestinians and essentially every country see that as undermining future Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that would include Jerusalem’s fate — just as the Trump administration purports to be working to broker the ever-elusive deal.

Asked about Trump’s decision, Tillerson urged critics to “listen carefully to the entirety of the speech.” While the decision directly affects his department, Tillerson acknowledged his role was relatively minimal. He said Trump’s Mideast peace team, led by the president’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, had shared the decision with him so he could “give them guidance on areas that I thought would be challenging to address.”

“They’ve done the hard work to try to address those,” Tillerson said, insisting there remains “a very good opportunity for peace to be achieved, and the president has a team that is devoted to that entirely.”

Tillerson has tried throughout his tenure to soften the president’s isolationist-tinged foreign policy by explaining that the U.S. still seeks to lead and build strong partnerships with likeminded nations. He also has echoed Trump in describing how the U.S. feels burden-sharing has gotten out of balance in recent years.

There are few signs America’s foreign partners are buying it. At EU and NATO meetings this week, Tillerson got earful after earful about Trump’s hampering of the Iran nuclear deal, withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and stated disdain for the United Nations, to name just a few examples.