Experts brief Pentagon on ‘neuroweapons’ after Cuban embassy attacks: report

Top defense officials were reportedly briefed Tuesday by researchers on the injuries suffered by 26 U.S. diplomats and their families in Havana, and the “neuroweapons” that could be responsible.

Dr. James Giordano, chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program at Georgetown University and one of the three experts conducting the briefing, detailed the findings to CBS News.

{mosads}”We got a number of questions, all of them with regard to what could be going on, what’s the nature of the stimulus, what was the nature of the damage, was this the only one like this, what other neuroweapons might be available,” Giordano said.

He added that there was some concern about the attacks constituting a new kind of warfare.

“I think there was some interest in the idea of brain sciences as forming at least one vector to the new battle space that was of concern and of consideration,” he said.

A spokesperson for Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said that while the officials were “intrigued by the subject,” they asked no questions.

Although some agencies have reported that officials believe Russia is behind the Cuban attacks, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert denied on Tuesday that any new information on these suspicions had been found.

“We have seen sort of a firestorm of reports out there today assigning blame to the Russian government, according to some unnamed U.S. government officials. I would caution you all to be very skeptical of those officials’ statements right now,” Nauert told reporters.

 

“As you should be aware, the investigation continues into what has caused what we have called ‘health attacks’ on our State Department employees who have been working in Cuba. There is no known cause, no known individual or group believed to be responsible at this time. We are looking into it. Our position has not changed. The investigation is ongoing. We have not assigned any blame and we continue to look into this.”

 

—Morgan Chalfant contributed.