A senior diplomat in the U.S. Embassy in Finland says he’s the victim of whistleblower retaliation by the State Department and wants Congress to investigate. According to a report in Punchbowl News, Mark Lenzi says he’s being forced out of his diplomatic post after publicly asking Congress to let him provide a classified briefing on Havana syndrome.
According to documents and emails provided to Punchbowl, the department is asking Lenzi to sign pre-drafted cables that say he’s requesting a “curtailment of tour of duty” for “personal reasons.”
Punchbowl reported that Lenzi refused to sign the cable and asked the congressional Foreign Affairs and Foreign Relations committees to investigate.
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The chairman of the House committee said members are looking into it while the top Democrat on the Senate panel said they provided Lenzi with resources to help him navigate the situation.
Lenzi was diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after experiencing Havana syndrome. He and his family were medically evacuated from China in 2018.
Symptoms of the disputed Havana syndrome include headaches, tinnitus, blurry vision, vertigo, cognitive dysfunction and more. The State Department paid Lenzi and his family more than $1 million for their ailments.
The exact cause of Havana syndrome is unknown.
In Lenzi’s op-ed to Congress, he wrote it was caused by, “Pulsed microwave standoff attacks by Russian military intelligence operatives.”
Lenzi’s claim aligns with the findings of a “60 Minutes” investigation that cited a study that said, “directed, pulsed (radio frequency) energy appears to be the most plausible mechanism in explaining these cases.”
That could be caused by a focused beam of microwaves or acoustic ultrasound. A 2023 intelligence report found it did not result from the actions of a foreign adversary.
The exact number of people who have experienced the phenomenon is unknown, but at least 334 Americans have qualified for care in the military health system due to their symptoms.
