The Trump regime has used the so-called and unexplained "sonic attacks" on American diplomatic personnel in Cuba as an excuse to roll back the normalization of relations established under President Obama, but another similar attack recently occurred on American foreign service members on the other side of the globe.
CBS News reports that a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) employee and his wife were hit by a similar attack in the former Soviet state of Uzbekistan.
In September, the officer and his wife reported, according to one source familiar with the incident, what may have been at least one acoustic attack similar to those experienced by the diplomats in Havana. [...]
Now, two U.S. security sources say the September incident in Tashkent raises concerns Russia may be involved, and could have had a hand in the attacks targeting U.S. government personnel in Cuba-another country where Russia has also exerted growing influence.
"The Russians have been rebuilding their relationship—it deteriorated dramatically after the end of the Cold War," according to William Leogrande, a foreign policy professor at American University who focuses on Cuba. Now, "They have a strong presence in Cuba and an historic relationship with Cuban intelligence that might give them the kind of freedom to operate that would provide an opportunity."
The State Department is saying very little about the attack in Uzbekistan, but that's hardly surprising. They've said virtually nothing about the attacks in Cuba or identified a culprit. We only know about these incidents thanks to the diligent reporting of the Associated Press, Reuters, and other networks.
Like many other others, I suspected the Russians were responsible for the attacks in Cuba as they're the only country with the technology, spycraft, and motive for undermining our relations with Cuba.
In the near future I expect we'll learn that the Trump regime knew all along that Cuba couldn't have been responsible for the original attacks but used the attacks as a pretext to dump our relations anyway. I can't imagine that would surprise anyone.