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Comment by einrealist | Hacker News Reader

If it is an attack, the question is 'why?'. It does not make sense. There is not much to gain.

I wouldnt be surprised if this is some sort of self-inflicted infection or poisoning issue.

> If it is an attack, the question is 'why?'.

To sour US-Cuban relations. Russia, Venezuela, China, and some others could plausibly be interested in doing it for that reason.

Isn't Trump Administration really interesses in this too?

Why would you harm your own people for that? That would not be easy to do. And it is treason. Just for reverting the relationship with the Cubans? There are other, more effective ways to do that, ways that don't require secrecy and harming anyone.

Edit: One explanation can be that the Trump administration itself wants to harm the Cuban relationship regarding embassy business and the health problems are just faked by a few loyal employees, enough people so the government can close the embassy. But that would only harm the business of this one particular embassy. In the political scheme, this does not make any sense.

Why? because whoever is doing it sees the opportunity.

Our state department and government are weak right now. They are understaffed, and the chances of serious investigation/prevention on this don't seem high.

Why, if you could test out a brand new technology AND eliminate some key foreign service officers from your main competitor geopolitically, why wouldn't you?

This is a crime of opportunity.

No, it does not make sense because personnel can be replaced and security can be increased. There is no lasting win to be gained.

To screw relations between Cuba and US for example.

If one wished to have some degree of control over USA diplomats, one could send them a secret message saying "I will do something bad in Cuba; my password is XYZ". Then later, one could send them demands with the same password. The State Department is probably more susceptible to this sort of coercion than e.g. the "Defense" Department.

Could be retaliation for dead Russian diplomats[1].

[1].http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-diplom...

How would injuring US diplomats help Putin cover up his murders of his own diplomats?

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