U.S. Official’s Brain Injury In China Matches Cuba Problem – Pompeo

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies during a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee May 23, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Wa...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies during a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee May 23, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP

 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that the brain injury sustained by an American official in China was “very similar” to those that affected US and Canadian diplomats in Cuba.

The US embassy in China issued a health alert Wednesday after a US government employee who had experienced an “abnormal” sound was diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI).

“The medical indications are very similar and entirely consistent with the medical indications that have taken place to Americans working in Cuba,” Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Pompeo said the US was moving medical teams to the area to work on the case.

“We are working to figure out what took place both in Havana and now in China as well,” Pompeo said.

He said the Chinese government has committed to helping in the case, under its responsibility to protect foreign diplomats.

In Cuba last year, 24 diplomats and their family members were left with mysterious injuries resembling brain trauma, which were suspected of being caused by a “sonic attack.”

Ten Canadian diplomats and their relatives also suffered a strange illness.

The US government has held Cuba responsible, arguing that Raul Castro’s authoritarian state must have either carried out the assaults or at least known who was behind them.

AFP