House Foreign Affairs Committee urge CDC, NIH to lead investigation into attacks on US Embassy in Cuba

Bipartisan leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Tuesday to lead the investigation into sonic attacks on personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba.

The State Department reported that an unspecific sonic device had been used to carry out attacks on U.S. personnel at the embassy in August. In September, the department said there were no definitive answers about the cause or source of the alleged attacks that impacted 24 U.S. citizens.

U.S. Reps. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Eliot Engel (D-NY), the chairman and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, are awaiting an update from the State Department on the alleged attacks. In the meantime, the lawmakers urged CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald and NIH Director Francis Collins to apply “all available resources” to discover the cause and medical impact of the attacks in a letter sent on Tuesday.

“For the health and safety of Americans serving abroad — not only in Havana but around the world — we urge (the CDC and NIH) to offer to take a leading role in investigating these incidents,” the letter stated.

The lawmakers concluded the CDC and NIH’s expertise is “needed now more than ever” to determine what happened to the U.S. personnel in Cuba.