FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson takes part in a news conference with Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland (not shown) on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Blair Gable

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will convene a new high-level investigation into the harm that Washington says U.S. diplomats in Havana suffered in unexplained health attacks, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.

Tillerson has decided to convene an Accountability Review Board, a special panel that evaluates cases in which U.S. diplomatic personnel or facilities have been damaged abroad, Francisco Palmieri, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told a Senate hearing.

The new probe will be in addition to other U.S. government investigations already under way, including one by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Cuban government has denied any role in the incidents, which Washington says injured 24 diplomats and family members, and is conducting its own investigation.</s>WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will convene a new high-level investigation into the harm that Washington says US diplomats in Havana suffered in unexplained health attacks, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday (Jan 9).

Tillerson has decided to convene an Accountability Review Board, a special panel that evaluates cases in which US diplomatic personnel or facilities have been damaged abroad, Francisco Palmieri, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told a Senate hearing.

The new probe will be in addition to other US government investigations already under way, including one by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Cuban government has denied any role in the incidents, which Washington says injured 24 diplomats and family members, and is conducting its own investigation.</s>U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will convene a new high-level investigation into the harm that Washington says U.S. diplomats in Havana suffered in unexplained health attacks, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Rex Tillerson says Cuba still risky despite FBI doubts over sonic attack

Tillerson has decided to convene an Accountability Review Board, a special panel that evaluates cases in which U.S. diplomatic personnel or facilities have been damaged abroad, Francisco Palmieri, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told a Senate hearing.

The new probe will be in addition to other U.S. government investigations already under way, including one by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Cuban government has denied any role in the incidents, which Washington says injured 24 diplomats and family members, and is conducting its own investigation.</s>The government will not send American staff back to the U.S. Embassy in Havana yet, a U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday amid concerns over what Washington calls attacks that have sickened two dozen diplomats.

WASHINGTON: The government will not send American staff back to the U.S. Embassy in Havana yet, a U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday amid concerns over what Washington calls attacks that have sickened two dozen diplomats.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity before a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday about the State Department's handling of the health problems.

Three department officials were to testify at the hearing chaired by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American and strong critic of the Cuba's communist government.

Although the United States has not formally accused the Cuban government of being responsible for the health problems that affected 24 U.S. diplomats and family members in the past 18 months, President Donald Trump has said Havana was to blame.

The U.S. government says victims have suffered hearing loss, dizziness, fatigue and cognitive issues. Washington reduced its embassy to a skeleton staff in September.

After decades of hostility between the United States and Cuba, the U.S. Embassy reopened in 2015 as part of moves by former President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, to mend ties. Relations have been strained since Trump took office last year, with the new administration saying Obama made too many concessions to Havana and reversing some of the measures taken under the rapprochement.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Associated Press last week that he was not convinced "deliberate attacks" are over, and said he would not put diplomats in harms way.

In a Fox News interview Tuesday morning, Rubio said Havana is one of the most tightly controlled cities in the world.

"There is no way you can conduct sophisticated attacks targeting American government officials in Havana without the Cuban government at least knowing about it," Rubio said.

"You can't have people in Havana if we cannot guarantee their safety."</s>WASHINGTON—Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will order a special panel to investigate the U.S. response to mysterious illnesses that have stricken American diplomats and their relatives in Havana.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department have been probing the incidents in recent months after the administration said they resulted from attacks.</s>(CNN) More than a year after US diplomats in Havana, Cuba, began reporting to embassy officials that they were hearing bizarre noises and experiencing a range of physical symptoms, the State Department and federal investigators have been unable to attribute the source or cause of the ailments, which they've determined, simply, "were most likely related to trauma from a non-natural source."

At least 24 diplomats and family members were affected, some with damage that they may carry for years, officials testified at a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.

The officials detailed how personnel came to experience a variety of symptoms including sharp ear pain, headaches, ringing in one ear, vertigo, disorientation, attention issues and signs consistent with mild traumatic brain injury or concussion. In nearly all cases -- 24 in total -- the ailments were preceded by some sort of "acoustic element," such as a "high-pitched beam of sound" or a "baffling sensation akin to driving with the windows partially open in a car."

Todd Brown, the State Department's diplomatic security assistant director for international programs, admitted the US cannot guarantee the safety of its remaining diplomats in Havana -- reduced in number since the threat emerged -- because it still doesn't understand the nature of the incidents, and is providing guidance to staff based on what affected personnel have experienced so far.

Dr. Charles Rosenfarb, a medical director for the agency, said staff have been advised to move away from any strange sounds they hear, since the duration of exposure appears correlated to the severity of symptoms.

That advice seemed to frustrate the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who compared the directive to the hide-under-your-desk air raid drills that were supposed to protect school kids in the event of a nuclear attack in the Cold War.

All the affected US personnel have experienced some improvement over recent months, said Rosenfarb, with 10 returning to work either full time or part time.

The subcommittee's chairman, Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, faulted the State Department for its failure to form an Accountability Review Board to review the incident and for what he called its slow response to cases reported in late 2016 and early 2017.

In his testimony, Francisco Palmieri, the acting assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, assured the senator that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has now decided to form an ARB, which will convene after Congress has been formally notified.

The Accountability Review Board is an internal State Department mechanism to review security incidents involving diplomatic personnel. The most well-known recent review board followed the deadly attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

Echoing Rubio's criticisms, Menendez cited a "bureaucratic, inadequate and troubling" response at the State Department and US Embassy over the past year.

"The failure of leadership at the department and at post, the sluggish reaction to the initial reports of afflicted personnel, the aloof response of the medical team at the State Department, silence from diplomatic security to the rest of the department is simply staggering," said Menendez.

Both Rubio and Menendez cast doubt on the Cuban government's claims of ignorance when it comes to the cause of the incidents, as well as their more recent efforts to discredit the accounts of affected diplomats.

The idea that such an attack would go unnoticed by Cuban security officials in heavily surveilled Havana, said Rubio, was "outside the realm of reasonable -- it's ridiculous."

Menendez, for his part, said it was "unfathomable" that Cuban elements were not either involved or at least aware of more than they were admitting to.

That skepticism is shared by the State Department. At a briefing Tuesday afternoon, the agency's undersecretary for public diplomacy, Steve Goldstein, said bluntly, "We believe that the Cuban government has the answer to this, and that they should be doing more to assist us in bringing this to resolution."

Goldstein also told reporters the State Department is not currently considering returning to full staffing levels at the embassy.

The Cuban government has called the alleged attacks "science fiction" and complained that Washington has not shared much in the way of medical details or let their investigators inspect the diplomatic residences where many of the incidents took place.

Tillerson told reporters at a news conference last month that the US is "convinced these were targeted attacks."

While the secretary has not accused the Cuban government of being behind the incidents, he said he holds the government responsible for allowing them to continue.

"What we've said to the Cubans is [it's] a small island, you got a sophisticated security apparatus, you probably know who's doing it, you can stop it," Tillerson said in December. "It's as simple as that."

But the inability of the US government to pinpoint the direct cause of the incidents has unsettled US lawmakers, investigators and diplomatic officials.

In his opening remarks, Brown, the State Department security official, acknowledged that, "unfortunately, this remains a perplexing case."

Rosenfarb, for his part, admitted that, "managing this evolving situation is challenging."

"Mission personnel describe a multitude of symptoms, many of which are not easily quantifiable and not easily attributable to a specific cause," he said.

However, Brown suggested that an acoustic cause was still a possibility.

"I don't know that I would rule it out entirely," he said. "The acoustic element could be used as a masking piece."

"I'm not claiming that it's acoustic," he clarified. "I just know there's been an acoustic element associated with the sensations and the feelings."

Over the weekend, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona -- who was spotted at the hearing but did not directly question the officials -- told CNN, "The Cubans bristle at the word 'attack.' I think they are justified at doing so. The FBI has said there is no evidence of an attack. We shouldn't be using that word."

Several Canadian diplomats were also affected.</s>US investigators are looking at a range of theories, including the possibility of a “viral” attack, to explain what sickened American diplomats last year who were stationed in Havana, the State Department said on Tuesday. A new investigation will also be orderd by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

American experts have yet to determine who or what was behind the mysterious incidents, which left diplomats with symptoms indicative of a “mild brain injury”.

But they saw no evidence it was a case of “mass hysteria” among the 24 affected US personnel and family members, a senior State Department medical official told a Senate hearing.

State Department officials testified that it was “incomprehensible” that Cuba’s Communist government would not have been aware of what occurred or who was responsible, though they stopped short of assigning direct blame to Havana.

Cuban officials, who are conducting their own investigation, have denied any involvement or any knowledge of who or what was behind it.

The administration of President Donald Trump, which has partly rolled back a detente with Cuba, responded last year by sharply drawing down US embassy staff in Havana and expelling some Cuban diplomats.

Francisco Palmieri, acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said the Cuban government was responsible for the security of US diplomatic personnel on the island “and they have failed to live up to that responsibility.”

Asked whether it was possible that the Cuban government would have been unaware of any attacks, he said: “I find it very difficult to believe that. Cuba is a security state, the Cuban government in general has a very tight lid on anything and everything that happens in that country.”

Cuban investigators say US allegations of sonic attack are ‘science fiction’

The Cuban government has accused the Trump administration of slander for saying Havana was holding back information.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will open a new high-level investigation into the matter, Palmieri said. He is convening an Accountability Review Board, a panel that evaluates cases where US diplomatic personnel or facilities have been damaged abroad.

The new probe will be in addition to other US government investigations already under way, including one by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Todd Brown, diplomatic security assistant director at the State Department, said that as well as the possibility of a acoustic or sonic attack, US investigators were also considering whether people might have been deliberately exposed to a virus. But he offered no details.

“I do know other type of attacks are being considered in a connection with this,” he said. “There’s viral, there is ultrasound, there’s a range of things that the technical experts are looking at.”

Experts have argued that an acoustic attack seems implausible, given that would have caused an extremely loud noise in the neighbourhood, which was not the case.

Cuban officials have dismissed as “science fiction” the notion that some kind of sonic weapon was used and have accused the Trump administration of politicising the matter.

Symptoms suffered by the diplomats have included hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, headaches and fatigue, a pattern consistent with “mild traumatic brain injury,” said Charles Rosenfarb, medical director of the State Department’s Bureau of Medical Services.

A US official said earlier on Tuesday that the government will not send staff back to the US embassy in Havana yet. The United States pulled out more than half of its personnel there last autumn, citing safety fears.

“I don’t think we can say categorically that we can guarantee that they would be safe from this (if staffers return),” Brown told the hearing.

It was chaired by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American and strong critic of Cuba’s communist government.

After decades of hostility between the United States and Cuba, the US embassy reopened in 2015 as part of moves by former President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, to mend ties.

Relations have been strained since Trump took office last year, with the new administration saying Obama made too many concessions to Havana and reversing some of the measures taken under the rapprochement.</s>The Accountability Review Board is an internal State Department mechanism to review security incidents involving diplomatic personnel. The most well-known recent review board came after the deadly attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

Bodde was most recently the US ambassador to Libya between November 2015 and his retirement at the end of last year. He has also served as ambassador to Nepal and Malawi. He joined the Foreign Service in 1981.

Officials acknowledged Bodde's panel will have a difficult mission painting a picture of events in Havana with little evidence beyond the health problems of the 24 diplomats and their family members affected.

"We don't know what happened, how it happened or who did it," one of the officials said. "All we know are the consequences. It's going to be tricky."

This official said that a debate exists within the US government as to whether technology even exists that can cause the symptoms suffered by the diplomats, but added the fact that only diplomats in certain houses and hotel rooms were affected has left little doubt that the diplomats were targeted. "Unless aliens beamed in from Venus, they were attacked," the official said. Officials say the Cuban government has cooperated and with the FBI investigation, with another official describing Havana's cooperation as "forthcoming." Texas Rex stands his ground in the face of Trump administration chaos "They did exactly what we would have done in this situation," the second senior State Department official said. Although the US doesn't believe the Cuban government directed the attacks, the officials said there is a strong suspicion some rogue elements of the Cuban security apparatus must have been involved. "This took place while people were sleeping," this official said. "Whoever was doing it knows where these people's bedrooms were or what hotel room they were in. But because we can't identify the technique or technology used, it allows the Cubans to say they are not involved and that the Americans don't have any idea what happened." Indeed, after Tuesday's hearing on Capitol Hill, in which the State Department and federal investigators said have been unable to attribute the source or cause of the ailments, the Cuban foreign ministry issued a statement saying, "months of thorough probes have proven that there has been no attack." The Department of State has no evidence whatsoever that allows it to affirm that there has been attacks against its diplomats in Havana, or that Cuba could be responsible for or be aware of actions carried out by third-parties wrote Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, Cuba's Director General for US Affairs. "I categorically reiterate that the Cuban government has no responsibility whatsoever in the health conditions reported by US diplomats." Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: 'I intend to be here for the whole year' Officials say they suspect if and when the Cubans do find out what happened, they will put a stop to the attacks, but will not tell the US or make the revelations public because they don't want to admit they have rogue elements in the ranks. "We just have to see a long period of no attacks," the first official said. Although the last known incident occurred last August, the official noted: "These symptoms sometimes have a period to emerge so we can't say yet that it's over. Until then it would be irresponsible to send our diplomats back."</s>The United States is to review how the State Department has responded to alleged attacks on the health of 24 diplomats and family members in Havana, officials said Tuesday.

The State Department had come under renewed pressure to form an "accountability review board" as the mystery surrounding the brain trauma suffered by the envoys has only deepened.

Initially officials suggested the Americans had been targeted by some sort of acoustic weapon, although news reports now say the FBI has been unable to confirm this theory.

Nevertheless, summoned to appear before a Senate panel to brief perplexed US lawmakers, State Department officials insisted the evidence still points to some kind of attack.

"This was not something conducted by a fly-by-night operation," Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American Republican, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"Whatever happened to these people happened as a result of some sophisticated technology that quite frankly is so sophisticated that we don't understand it," he said.

Both the State Department officials and Rubio agreed that Cuba, with its powerful surveillance state, must have either been behind the attacks itself or at least know who was.

"The Cuban government knows who it was, because they watch them every day," Rubio told reporters.

"They just won't say who it was because it was either rogue elements in the regime, or a third party country."

Havana has fiercely denied this, accusing the Americans of withholding information about the victims of the incidents that would allow it to fully investigate.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's State Department has insisted that it will protect the medical privacy of its personnel and warned Cuba it will be held responsible.

Officials told Rubio's panel that Tillerson decided last month to launch a review into how his department had responded to the mystery, and had planned to inform Congress in the coming days.

The first suspected attack was traced back to November 2016, and the last two took place in mid-August 2017, after Washington had protested to Havana and withdrawn some staff.

Charles Rosenfarb, a doctor and director of the State Department bureau of medical services, told senators the symptoms were mixed but consistent with brain trauma.

The victims -- at least 24 Americans, a mix of US embassy personnel and their dependants -- suffered headaches, hearing loss, disorientation and some loss of cognitive ability.

Some recovered from the most acute symptoms, Rosenfarb said, but the severity, range and recovery time was mixed and its not yet clear whether any have suffered permanent injury.

"They associated the onset of these symptoms with unusual sounds or auditory sensations," Rosenfarb said.

"Various descriptions were given; a high-pitched sound, an incapacitating sound, a buffeting sensation akin to driving with one window open or just an intense pressure in one ear."

Medical experts and FBI agents launched investigations and high-frequency recording devices were installed in diplomatic residences, allowing a mystery sound sample to be captured.

But US scientists have no idea what kind of weapon or agent could cause the symptoms, or whether the sounds heard were a by-product of the attack or its means of delivery.

Rosenfarb said the only similar case he was aware of were suspicions during the Cold War before 1976 that US diplomats in Moscow were hurt by Russian microwave transmitters.

But acting assistant sectary of state Francisco Palmieri refused to say in an unclassified hearing whether Washington has approached the Russians over the Cuba incident.

"There is a long history and pattern of Cuban harassment of diplomats in Havana," Palmieri said, declining to speculate on why or if Raul Castro's regime had chosen to escalate.

"In whatever case they are responsible for the safety and security of US diplomats stationed in Havana ... and they have failed to live up to that responsibility," he said.</s>The United States would be “putting people intentionally in harm’s way” if it sent diplomats back to Cuba, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says in an Associated Press interview , even as a new FBI report casts doubt on the initial theory that Americans there have been hit by “sonic attacks.”

Following months of investigation and four FBI trips to Havana, an interim report from the bureau’s Operational Technology Division says the probe has uncovered no evidence that sound waves could have damaged the Americans’ health, the AP has learned. The report, dated Jan. 4, doesn’t address other theories and says the FBI will keep investigating until it can show there’s been no intentional harm.

Tillerson said he’s not convinced that what he calls the “deliberate attacks” are over. He defended his September decision to order most U.S. personnel and their relatives to leave Cuba and said he won’t reverse course until Cuba’s government assures they’ll be safe.

“I’d be intentionally putting them back in harm’s way. Why in the world would I do that when I have no means whatsoever to protect them?” Tillerson told the AP on Jan. 5. “I will push back on anybody who wants to force me to do that.”

“I still believe that the Cuban government, someone within the Cuban government can bring this to an end,” Tillerson added. Washington has never claimed Cuba perpetrated the attacks but has insisted the island’s communist-run government must know who did. Cuba adamantly denies both involvement and knowledge of any attacks.

Tensions over the issue are apparent in Congress, with critics of the Cuban government at odds with supporters of closer U.S. ties. And within the Trump administration, the CIA, whose spies were affected while working under diplomatic cover, has chafed at the lack of FBI progress, several officials have told the AP in recent months, while a few lawmakers briefed on the probe have questioned whether the FBI even agrees with the State Department that anyone was attacked.

The State Department has said previously the most recent “medically confirmed” case of an American being affected occurred Aug. 21. Tillerson didn’t cite any more recent incidents, but pointedly stressed he was “not sure they’ve ended.”

The AP has learned at least one additional embassy worker who reported similar symptoms since that date has been sent for medical testing. The symptoms were determined to be unrelated.

Tillerson’s comments and the FBI report illustrate how befuddled the U.S. still seems about the mystery in Havana, more than a year after embassy workers started reporting illnesses including hearing loss, vision problems and memory issues. Symptoms often followed unexplained sounds in diplomats’ homes that led investigators to suspect a futuristic sonic weapon. The U.S. has said 24 government workers were harmed. Canada has reported some of its diplomats were affected, too.

The FBI report, which hasn’t been released publicly, is the clearest sign to date of the U.S. ruling out the sonic weapon theory. The report says the FBI tested the hypothesis that air pressure waves via audible sound, infrasound or ultrasound could be used to clandestinely hurt Americans in Cuba, and found no evidence. Infrasound waves are below the range of human hearing. Ultrasound is above.

In October, the AP published a recording of the high-pitched chirping sound some diplomats heard. Officials cautioned then they weren’t sure whether the sound itself harmed Americans, or was perhaps the byproduct of something else that did. Last month, the AP reported doctors discovered brain abnormalities in patients who were being treated after returning from Cuba. But since the patients hadn’t been tested before working in Cuba, outside experts raised questions.

For Cuba and its U.S. supporters, frustration is growing about Washington’s aggressive response and lack of answers. In addition to pulling out all but “essential personnel,” the Trump administration last year expelled 15 Cuban diplomats and warned Americans to avoid the island. Havana sees those steps as harming U.S.-Cuba relations and damaging its critical tourism industry, all without any proof anyone was attacked.

By law, Tillerson must form an “accountability review board” after any serious injury to diplomats overseas. One highly publicized example was after four Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

Tillerson has signed off on the new review board, U.S. officials said. The State Department wouldn’t comment, saying it would announce any decision after Congress is notified.

That could come as early as Tuesday, when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing about the “attacks on U.S. diplomats in Cuba.” Top officials from the State Department’s medical unit, Diplomatic Security and Western Hemisphere division will testify.

Over the weekend, Sen. Jeff Flake, a longtime proponent of closer U.S. ties to Cuba, said high-ranking Cuban officials told him that the FBI has found no evidence of attacks and that classified U.S. briefings left him with no reason to doubt Cuba’s account.

But Sen. Marco Rubio, a vocal critic of Cuba’s government, declared on Twitter it was a “documented FACT” that U.S. personnel were “victims of some sort of sophisticated attack” and U.S. officials briefed on the matter know that “full well.”

Yet other lawmakers briefed by Tillerson say they were discouraged the Trump administration couldn’t or wouldn’t answer basic questions on the investigation.

The FBI, which leads broader law enforcement cooperation with Cuba, insists it’s doing everything possible in a place where it has little or delayed access to suspected crime scenes.

Tillerson, in the AP interview, said he was satisfied with the U.S. response.

“I’ve met with the victims, I’ve met with their families,” Tillerson said. “”I’m concerned about their health and wellbeing, and that trumps everything in my book.”

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An anonymous senior State Department official says that United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson decided to convene a special-panel Accountability Review Board to further investigate the "attacks" at the U.S. embassy in Havana.