US botched initial response to diplomats' brain injuries in Cuba: Declassified report

US botched initial response to diplomats'
brain injuries in Cuba: Declassified report
The Secretary of State has now "elevated" an official to better coordinate.
ByConor Finnegan
February 11, 2021, 5:52 PM
• 10 min read

00:0803:41

The State Department mishandled its initial response to the mysterious health
incidents that have affected U.S. personnel in Cuba, according to a newly released
review.

The previously classified report, which was completed in June 2018, is at times
heavily redacted, but it provides new key details about the Trump administration's
response to what have been called "health attacks" on diplomats and spies, including
similar incidents in other countries, and the CIA's decision to shut down its
mission in Havana.

The Biden administration is reviewing the United States' policy toward its
communist neighbor Cuba, including whether to re-staff the embassy after former
President Donald Trump's State Department ordered the departure of almost all
American personnel.

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But to ensure the issue of health attacks receives top billing, Secretary of State
Antony Blinken just this week "elevated" the official coordinating the U.S.
government response to a "senior level position," a State Department spokesperson
told ABC News.

U.S. personnel have been battling the U.S. government to provide greater support to
them, including for the lingering health issues that many suffer under what has
become known as the "Havana syndrome." Medical doctors have found the
Americans suffered traumatic brain injuries, with symptoms ranging from
headaches and vision problems to cognitive deficits and dizziness.

     Adalberto Roque/AFP via Getty Images

Inside the U.S. embassy in Havana, Aug. 7, 2015. President Barack Obama unveiled a breakthrou...Read More

The internal report, written by an Accountability Review Board (ARB) after a four-
month investigation, is highly critical of the Trump administration's response,
including veiled swipes at then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The report, which

was provided to Tillerson's successor Mike Pompeo on June 7, 2018, was
declassified and released to the National Security Archive at George Washington
University.

"The Department of State's response to these incidents was characterized by a lack
of senior leadership, ineffective communication, and systemic disorganization," the
report found, with no senior official in charge and activity "stove-piped and largely
ad hoc."

In May 2018, shortly after Pompeo took over, the department launched an
interagency task force to better coordinate the government's response -- a year and a
half after the first Americans began experiencing symptoms in November 2016.

Prior to the task force, the failure to designate an "official at the Under-Secretary
level to manage the response" was the "single most significant deficiency in the
Department's response," the ARB said, citing as well the confusion over who was
authorized to act given that Trump left so many top posts vacant at the department.

To prevent similar problems, Blinken's "high-level official will be empowered to
advise senior Department leadership, coordinate the Department's interagency
response to the health security incidents, and to provide continuing support to
affected personnel," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday. He
declined to provide more details on the role at this time, including who will fill it.

Blinken has previously said the issue would be a top priority, and he is being
regularly briefed on the issue, the spokesperson added.

"The priority is making sure that our diplomats are safe and secure, but also that we
find out who is responsible, if a state actor or others are responsible, having
accountability and making sure that we put the protections in place so that our folks
are safe and secure," Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during
his confirmation hearing. He said that he'd also brief the committee within weeks of
being confirmed -- a meeting which hasn't happened yet.

By the time the report was shared with Blinken's immediate predecessor Pompeo,
the department still had not identified a cause behind over two-dozen employees
falling ill.

     Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters

The U.S. flag flies next to security guarding the U.S. embassy in Havana, Jan. 12, 2021.

"The mechanism for the cause of the injuries is currently unknown. We do not know
the motive behind the incidents, when they actually commenced, or who did it," the
report said.

Price confirmed Thursday that remains the case.

"The U.S. Government is working to determine what happened to our staff and their
families and to ensure the well-being and health of our officials going forward. That
investigation remains underway, it remains a high priority," he said during the
department's daily briefing.

There were other deficiencies in the Trump administration's initial response,
according to the ARB.

While Tillerson ordered the departure of non-emergency personnel, leaving just a
skeleton crew behind, the report said the department never conducted a risk-benefit
analysis to determine the appropriate staffing levels -- a break with department
procedure.

The ARB said senior department leaders could not explain why, except to suggest
one possibility, which is redacted.

The panel also found it difficult at times to trace what action was taken and why
because of the "informal" ways Tillerson and his team communicated with senior
officials.

"Normal Department reporting channels and methods were routinely disregarded in
the response to the Cuba incidents," it said, which "contributed to the lack of
coherence in the response."

Tillerson was accused during his one-year tenure of siloing himself on the building's
seventh floor with a small coterie of advisers.

The ARB itself was long delayed by the Trump administration, which didn't convene
it until early 2018 -- over a year after the first incidents and only after months of
pressure internally and from Congress. The panel interviewed over 100 officials,
reviewed thousands of documents and even traveled to Cuba for its classified
investigation.

Its report had not been released, although members of Congress were briefed, and
the State Department released a fact sheet about what recommended measures had
been adopted.

"As the Biden administration assumes responsibility for the continuing
investigations into the 'Havana Syndrome,' complete transparency is needed to
clarify what actually happened," said Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the
National Security Archive, which obtained the declassified report through a
Freedom of Information Act request.

Beyond Cuba, the report noted that similar incidents have been reported
"elsewhere" -- in Uzbekistan, China and one redacted country -- although the
department at the time only acknowledged the evacuation of some personnel from
China.

Marc Polymeropoulos, a now-retired CIA officer, has spoken publicly about his
"health attack" in Russia, awakening in the middle of the night to vertigo, dizziness
and tinnitus. He's said another CIA colleague traveling with him at the time and
other officers working on issues related to Russia elsewhere around the world have
suffered similar health problems.

The State Department report confirms for the first time that the CIA withdrew its
personnel from the U.S. embassy in Cuba in September 2017 "for the foreseeable
future." It's unclear if any have returned to the post, and CIA spokesperson Nicole de
Haay declined to answer specific questions Thursday.

"CIA's first priority -- has been and continues to be -- the welfare of all of our
officers," said de Haay.

The CIA's involvement may have also made the U.S. response more difficult, as the
spy agency was reticent in sharing information about its affected personnel, the
report said.

"Both at Post and in Washington, response to the incidents was characterized by
excessive secrecy that contributed to a delayed response," it said, calling for
"complete transparency and prompt notification regarding any episode that results
in harm or increased danger for USG (U.S. government) employees."

ABC News' Cindy Smith and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.