The Hot Screen confesses to being fascinated by a Cold War-style mystery that’s taking place in Cuba. As Politico summarizes, a couple dozen American officials and a handful of Canadians “reported hearing high-pitched sounds and exhibited symptoms reflective of a concussion, including dizziness, nausea and memory issues.” These incidents began shortly after Election Day 2016, and continued until August of this year. Part of the strangeness is that no one knows quite what happened to the victims. The number one possibility for a while was the use of some sort of electronic device, such as an acoustic or microwave device, against the diplomats. Under this explanation, it seemed the incidents could have been the result of a surveillance operation gone wrong or even intentional malicious attacks on the officials.

There are also eerie and disconcerting details, including the experience of some diplomats of hearing a sound in one part of a room, only for it to disappear a mere few feet away. And new reports indicate that the U.S. government is beginning to back off the sonic attack hypothesis. As it turns out, medical examinations have uncovered changes to white matter in some of the victims’ brains — changes that experts believe wouldn’t be caused by sonic means. Another article I read suggested that chemical exposure might be the culprit; I assume that under that scenario, the noises the diplomats have reported hearing could be a type of aural hallucination caused by the effects of such exposure. . .

Assuming these are attacks, the question of motive and perpetrator remains obscure. There are theories that a rogue faction of Cuban intelligence may be behind the incidents, perhaps as a way of derailing improvement in U.S.-Cuban relations; the U.S. is also looking at whether Russians are involved. The mix of unknown means and indeterminate intent, along with the apparent lack of progress in getting to the bottom of it after so many months, is truly odd.