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FTR#1411 This program was recorded in one, 60-minute segment.
Introduction: Mr. Emory has taken the remaining five of his six articles on the Covid-19 “Op” out from behind the paywall in his Patreon paywall.
This broadcast features the third of Mr. Emory’s articles, dealing with vaccines.
Discussion and Analysis Includes: The development of vaccines for biological warfare agents as offensive BW weapons; Moderna’s financing by DARPA; The central role of an unnamed Pentagon official known only as “The Major” in the development of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine; Moderna product-development chief Monclef Slaoui’s role as head of Operation Warp Speed (the Trump regime’s Covid-vaccine development program); Slaoui’s sale of 155,000 shares of Moderna stock immediately following the announcement of his position in Operation Warp Speed; The dominant role of the military in Operation Warp Speed; The military’s use of Palantir to administer Operation Warp Speed; Moderna’s use of the Resilience firm to develop the nano-particle lipids for their Covid booster (nano-particle lipids are the vehicle for introducing the mRNA into cells); Resilience’s founding by Robert Nelson, a key player on the national security and biotechnology scenes; The central role of Luciana Borio in Resilience; Borio’s position as a key Trump regime official charged with “Bio-Defense;” Borio’s links to In-Q-Tel (the CIA’s venture capital arm); Resilience Board member Chris Darby (the former CEO of In-Q-Tel) and his links to the CIA; The role of CIA-linked venture capitalists like Joe Lonsdale (co-founder of Palantir) and Drew Oetting in financing and directing Resilience; The Pentagon’s development and launching of a massive “Black Propaganda Operation” directed at the Philippines, claiming the Chinese Covid vaccines were ineffective; The potentially-revealing, blockbuster lawsuit filed by Moderna against Pfizer-BioNTech, claiming that the latter infringed on the spike protein element of coronaviruses that the former developed in 2015!
The Covid-19 Op, Part 3: Vaccines
In an interview with The Tehran Times, Jeffrey Sachs opined that the emergence of Covid-19 was probably the result of dangerous research conducted by the U.S. (Sachs was the head of Lancet’s commission on the origins of the pandemic.)
We examined this assertion at length and detail in the first article in this series.
Sachs noted that the U.S. was involved in dangerous manipulation of virus: “ . . . . The U.S. government was sponsoring a lot of dangerous genetic manipulation of SARS-like viruses and has not yet honestly revealed the nature of that work. There are worrying signs that this research may have created SARS-CoV‑2, the virus that causes Covid-19 disease. We can suspect this because U.S. scientists declared the intention to manipulate viruses in a way that could have created the virus. . . .” (1)
When pressed by the interviewer about the possibility that the emergence of the virus stemmed from biological warfare research, Sachs stated that, in his opinion, the emergence of the virus from a U.S. biological lab stemmed from vaccine research.
“ . . . . I do not believe that Covid came from bio warfare research. More likely, it came from research to create drugs and vaccines. Either way, we need to know more. . . .” (2)
Missing from Sachs’ analysis is the expert opinion that the development of a vaccine for a biological warfare agent can be seen as an indication of the deliberate creation of a biological warfare agent.
Vaccine Development as a Precursor to Biological Warfare
Experts have long seen the development of vaccines by the military as a screen for, and harbinger of, biological warfare research.
Noteworthy in that context is the observation by Jonathan King (professor of molecular biology at MIT), that Pentagon research into the application of genetic engineering to biological warfare could be masked as vaccine research, which sounds “defensive.”
“ . . . . King, who has chaired the microbial physiology study section for the NIH, believes that without intensive independent scrutiny, the Pentagon is free to obscure its true goals. ‘The Defense Department appears to be pursuing many narrow, applied goals that are by nature offensive, such as the genetic ‘improvement’ of BW agents,’ King says. ‘But to achieve political acceptability, they mask these intentions under forms of research, such as vaccine development, which sound defensive.’ . . .” (3)
King’s views on the interrelationship between vaccine development and biological warfare were echoed by MIT colleague Harlee Strauss: “ . . . . The production of vaccine against a stockpiled BW weapon must be considered an offensive BW project. According to MIT scientists Harlee Strauss and Jonathan King, ‘These steps—the generation of a potential BW agent, development of a vaccine against it, testing of the efficacy of the vaccine—are all components that would be associated with an offensive BW program.’. . .” (4)
The dynamics noted by King and Strauss should be borne in mind with regard to Covid and, in particular, the central role played in the development of a coronavirus vaccine by the military.
The Military, Moderna and Operation Warp Speed
Operation Warp Speed was the name for the crash program to develop a coronavirus vaccine. It was dominated by the military.
“ . . . . Scores of Defense Department employees are laced through the government offices involved in the effort, making up a large portion of the federal personnel devoted to the effort. Those numbers have led some current and former officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to privately grumble that the military’s role in Operation Warp Speed was too large for a task that is, at its core, a public health campaign. . . .” (5)
General Gustave Perna co-chaired the project, and was assisted by another (newly-retired)
General: “ . . . . ‘Frankly, it has been breathtaking to watch,’ said Paul Ostrowski, the director of supply, production and distribution for Operation Warp Speed. He is a retired Army lieutenant general who was selected to manage logistics for the program by Gen. Gustave F. Perna, the chief operating officer for Operation Warp Speed. . . .” (6)
Of significance in this context is the fact that the military was able to track the delivery of vaccines in precise fashion: “ . . . . Vaccine makers will be alerted when the [vaccine kits] arrive at an immunization site so they know to ship doses. Once the first dose is given, the manufacturer will be notified so it can send the second dose with a patient’s name attached several weeks later. . . . The military will also monitor vaccine distribution through an operations center. ‘They will know where every vaccine dose is,’ Mr. [Paul] Mango said on a call with reporters. [Mango is the deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services and the main spokesman for Operation Warp Speed.–D.E.] . . .” (7)
The detailed, comprehensive precision with which the military was able to oversee vaccine distribution and administration was a product of Palantir’s central participation in Operation Warp Speed.
Co-managing Operation Warp Speed was General Gustave Perna, a four-star general. Perna became a key employee of Palantir, the alpha-predator of the electronic surveillance landscape.
“ . . . . Perhaps Perna’s name sounds familiar. It should. He oversaw the effort to produce and distribute the first coronavirus vaccines . . . Perna was a month from retirement in May 2020 when he got a Saturday morning call from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. . . .” (8)
Palantir itself was deeply involved in Operation Warp Speed: “ . . . . Then he met Julie and Aaron. They told him, ‘Sir, we’re going to give you all the data you need so that you can assess, determine risk, and make decisions rapidly.’ Perna shut down the process immediately. ‘I said great, you’re hired.’ Julie and Aaron work for Palantir, a company whose name curdles the blood of progressives and some of the military establishment. We’ll get to why. But Perna says Palantir did exactly what it promised. Using artificial intelligence, the company optimized thousands of data streams and piped them into an elegant interface. In a few short weeks, Perna had his God view of the problem. . . .” (9)
The alpha-predator of the electronic surveillance landscape, Palantir will figure prominently in discussion presented below about the role of Palantir in the professional and fiscal landscape of the development of the Resilience firm.
Moderna utilized Resilience in the production of one of its coronavirus vaccines.
Trump appointed the head of product development for Moderna as the head of Operation Warp speed, the project to develop Covid vaccines in record time. As we have seen, partnering with Slaoui to lead the project was Gustave Perna, a four-star general.
The co-head of Operation Warp Speed was Moncef Slaoui, who sat astride product development for Moderna. ” . . . . As the chairman of the Moderna board’s product development committee, Dr. Slaoui might have been privy to the early indications of tests of whether the company’s approach appeared promising . . . .” (10a)
“ . . . . Following Moncef Slaoui’s Friday appointment as a co-leader of the Warp Speed program, he’s set to sell about 155,000 shares in Moderna, according to press reports. . . .” (10b)
Of interest is the “undisclosed program” Slaoui referenced: “ . . . . At Friday’s event, Slaoui said he was ‘confident’ in that goal after viewing early data from an undisclosed program. . . .” (11)
Of interest in the context of the observations of King and Strauss is the fact that Moderna’s covid vaccine development was overseen by an unnamed Pentagon official, nicknamed “The Major.”
“. . . . Moderna’s team was headed by a Defense Department official whom company executives described only as “the major,” saying they don’t know if his name is supposed to be a secret. . . . .” (12)
The fact that the firm’s fortunes are inextricably linked with the national security establishment looms ever larger. DARPA, termed “The Pentagon’s Brain” in a recent book by Annie Jacobsen, has financed the development of Moderna’s vaccine, which was selected for mass distribution to treat the pandemic.
“. . . . The second pharmaceutical company that was selected . . . to develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus is Moderna Inc., which will develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus of concern in collaboration with the U.S. NIH. . . . Moderna’s mRNA treatments, including its mRNA vaccines, were largely developed using a $25 million grant from DARPA and it often touts is strategic alliance with DARPA in press releases. . . .” (13)
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Moderna’s “pole position” in Operation Warp Speed concerns a lawsuit the company launched against Pfizer/Biontech. Moderna claims patent infringement by their mRNA vaccine competitor, trespassing on the spike protein technology it patented in 2015!
Moderna vs. BioNTech: Revealing the U.S. Origins of Covid?
A fascinating and potentially revealing lawsuit filed by Moderna against Pfizer/BioNTech may prove revealing in a way unforeseen by the plaintiffs (Moderna).
Moderna asserts that the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA coronavirus vaccines are infringing on Moderna’s patents. What’s eyebrow-raising in this lawsuit is the timeframe of Moderna’s claims. The company is arguing that Pfizer’s vaccine copied work Moderna had already done on coronavirus vaccines involving human trials going back to 2015 and 2016. Beyond that, Moderna asserts the full-sequence coronavirus spike protein used in Pfizer’s vaccine was developed by Moderna years before the pandemic. (14)
The biggest set of questions to be answered in this lawsuit involve Moderna’s collaborative role in the broader US-government-funded gain-of-function research being lead by the EcoHealthAlliance, in collaboration with labs around the world.
So was Moderna – which was funded by DARPA – at all involved in this other NIH-funded coronavirus-related gain-of-function work? The circumstantial evidence sure points in that direction.
Above all, there’s the part of the lawsuit claiming that Pfizer effectively stole the full-sequence coronavirus spike protein sequence Moderna had worked out years earlier.
What is Moderna talking about when claiming that it already developed a coronavirus spike protein years earlier? Recall how Moderna was criticized back in 2020 over its decision to file a patent in Feb 2020 for a “Betacoronavirus vaccine” – a broad-spectrum vaccine designed for non-COVID coronaviruses – without acknowledging the US governments role in that research. Pfizer/BioNTech filed a patent for a similar “universal coronavirus vaccine” back in June. (15)
It appears that’s what Moderna is referring to when it claims to have developed a coronavirus spike protein sequence years before the pandemic. That raises the obvious question: was Moderna part of the whole EcoHealthAlliance gain-of-function research on coronaviruses back in their 2015–2016 period? (16)
Gain-of-function research was technically banned in the US from 2014 until the Trump administration lifted the ban in 2017. Recall also how Baric’s gain-of-function work that was started before the moratorium was put into place was allowed to continue under a special exemption.
If Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine development involved the use of viruses being generated by Ralph Baric under an exemption to the gain-of-function moratorium, that would obviously be a very sensitive area of research. (17)
In the lawsuit, Moderna claims it successfully carried out human trials on a coronavirus vaccine as far back as 2015. It would seem that Moderna’s coronavirus-related vaccine research was being kept under wraps during this period. (18)
We have to ask if the extreme secrecy around its work during this period may have been driven by the controversial nature of developing coronavirus vaccines using gain-of-function coronaviruses generated by the EcoHealthAlliance network. Circumstantial evidence points in that direction.
Moderna is apparently suing over patents it developed during its mostly-still-secret DARPA collaboration. Collaboration that might be directly related to the mostly-still-secret US-government-financed international collaboration dedicated to making and studying novel coronaviruses. (19)
Again, we emphasize the following very interesting detail in Moderna’s complaint: the company is asserting that Pfizer and BioNTech copied Moderna’s full-length spike protein formulation for a coronavirus, which Modern claims to have created years before the emergence of COVID-19! (20)
Recall how the sharing of the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV‑2 by Chinese researchers with the global community allowed for Moderna to and its NIH collaborators to design the vaccine in just two days with just that spike protein sequence information.
Once again, Moderna is suing Pfizer over the alleged theft of a coronavirus spike protein sequence developed years earlier, we have to ask whether or not this part of the lawsuit is related to the “universal coronavirus” vaccine Pfizer and BioNTech started testing back in June.
This is a confusing part of the lawsuit since, as we’ve been told, it was the SARS-CoV‑2 spike protein sequence that was at the heart of the mRNA COVID vaccine developed in record-breaking time back in January of 2020.
Note that, although it does not appear that Moderna’s work developing the spike protein in 2015 and 2016 is a focal point in the suit, it does appear that the work is an element in the research Moderna contends was involved in the alleged infringement: “ . . . . Moderna said on Friday that it was not seeking damages for activities before March 8 and that none of the patents relate to intellectual property generated during Moderna’s collaboration with the National Institutes of Health on Covid-19, which it said began only after patented technologies were proven successful in 2015 and 2016. . . .” (23)
Again, Moderna’s filing is confusing, because the following passage does seem to indicate that Moderna’s frankly suspicious and revealing (and apparently) DARPA-financed work on the spike protein 2015. “ . . . . Moderna said that Pfizer copied two features of its patented technology. . . . Moderna said it was the first company to validate this technology in human trials in 2015, and that neither Pfizer nor BioNTech had its level of experience in developing mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases. . . .” (24)
Again, the firm’s work on the spike protein in 2015 and 2016 does appear to figure in the suit, although the filing seems to deny that, as indicated above. “ . . . . Second, Moderna claims that Pfizer and BioNTech copied its full-length spike protein formulation for a coronavirus, which Moderna had created years before Covid-19 emerged. . . .” (25)
The discovery process in this lawsuit may well shed light on U.S. development of the vaccine.
The next section of our discussion is also taken from the article The Moderna File.
Although the pandemic was well underway by the time Moderna partnered with Resilience, the corporate relationship highlights the fundamental role of the national security establishment in vaccine development.
Once again, the observations of Jonathan King and Harlee Strauss should be borne in mind.
Partnering with the CIA (Moderna Shows “Resilience”)
The company manufacturing the mRNA for Moderna’s boosters is consummately important and all but overlooked. “ . . . . messenger RNA for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines, including its recently reformulated Omicron booster, has been exclusively manufactured by a little known company with significant ties to US intelligence. . . .” (26)
The CIA-linked company is National Resilience, often referred to simply as Resilience. It’s genesis and development are inextricably linked with the national security establishment. Exemplifying this relationship is venture capitalist Robert Nelsen.
“ . . . . Resilience was co-founded by Biotech venture capitalist Robert Nelsen, who is known for listening ‘to science’s earliest whispers, even when data are too early for just about anyone else.’ Nelsen was one of the earliest investors in Illumina . . . . that is believed to currently dominate the field of genomics. As mentioned in a previous Unlimited Hangout investigation, Illumina is closely tied to the DARPA-equivalent of the Wellcome Trust known as Wellcome Leap, which is also focused on ‘futuristic’ and transhumanist ‘medicines.’ Nelsen is now chairman of National Resilience’s board, which is a ‘Who’s Who’ of big players from the US National Security State, Big Pharma and Pharma-related ‘philanthropy.’ . . . .” (27)
The apparent prime mover of Resilence is a woman named Luciana Borio: “ . . . . he revealed in one interview that the idea for the company had actually come from someone else – Luciana Borio. In July of last year, Nelsen revealed that it was while talking to Borio about ‘her work running pandemic preparedness on the NSC [National Security Council]’ that had ‘helped lead to the launch of Nelsen’s $800 million biologics manufacturing startup Resilience.’ At the time of their conversation, Borio was the vice president of In-Q-tel, the venture capital arm of the CIA that has been used since its creation in the early 2000s to found a number of companies, many of which act as Agency fronts. Prior to In-Q-Tel, she served as director for medical and biodefense preparedness at the National Security Council during the Trump administration and had previously been the acting chief scientist at the FDA from 2015 to 2017. . . .” (28)
Ms. Borio is not the only In-Q-tel operative linked to Resilence: “ . . . . Borio is hardly Resilience’s only In-Q-Tel connection, as the CEO of In-Q-Tel, Chris Darby, sits on the company’s board of directors. Darby is also on the board of directors of the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation. Darby was also recently a member of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), where members of the military, intelligence community and Silicon Valley’s top firms argued for the need to reduce the use of ‘legacy systems’ in favor of AI-focused alternatives as a national security imperative. . . .” (29)
Worth mentioning in passing is Mr. Darby’s apparent meaning of “legacy systems”: “ . . . . Among those ‘legacy systems’ identified by the NSCAI were in-person doctor visits and even receiving medical care from a human doctor, as opposed to an AI ‘doctor.’ The NSCAI also argued for the removal of ‘regulatory barriers’ that prevent these new technologies from replacing ‘legacy systems.’ . . .” (30)
More about Resilience and its profound links with the national security establishment: Introducing Drew Oetting: “ . . . . Another notable board member, in discussing Resilience’s intelligence ties, is Drew Oetting. Oetting works for Cerberus Capital Management, the firm headed by Steve Feinberg who previously led the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board under the Trump administration. Cerberus is notably the parent company of DynCorp, a controversial US national security contractor tied to numerous scandals, including scandals related to sex trafficking in conflict zones. Oetting is also part of the CIA-linked Thorn NGO ostensibly focused on tackling child trafficking that was the subject of a previous Unlimited Hangout investigation. . . .” (31)
Oetting’s network involves the genesis of Palantir, deeply involved with both Gustave Perna and Operation Warp Speed. “ . . . . Oetting is also the co-founder of 8VC, a venture capital firm that is one of the main investors in Resilience. 8VC’s other co-founder is Joe Lonsdale and Oetting ‘started his career’ as Lonsdale’s chief of staff. Lonsdale is the co-founder, alongside Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, of Palantir, a CIA front company and intelligence contractor that is the successor to DARPA’s controversial Total Information Awareness (TIA) mass surveillance and data-mining program. . . .” (32)
The elements and individuals set forth above are only some of the major intelligence connections of Resilience. What significance they may have is a matter of conjecture: “ . . . . It is certainly telling that the normally publicity hungry Moderna has said so little about its partnership with Resilience and that Resilience, despite its ambitious plans, has also avoided the media limelight. Considering Moderna’s history and Resilience’s connections, there may be more to this partnership that meets the eye and concerned members of the public would do well to keep a very close eye on Resilience, its partnerships, and the products it is manufacturing. . . .” (33)
At minimum, we can view the inextricable link between Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine development and the apparently deliberate creation of SARS CoV‑2 as reinforcing the observations of King and Strauss with regard to vaccine development as a component of offensive biological warfare development.
King/Strauss Doctrine Expanded: Palantir and Its Tentacles
Recapping important points of information, we note that professor Sachs [perhaps deliberately diplomatically] that the development of SARS CoV‑2 in a U.S. lab: “ . . . . More likely, it came from research to create drugs and vaccines. . . .” (34)
Decades ago, MIT professor Jonathan King “who has chaired the microbial physiology study section for the NIH” cited vaccine development for infectious BW agents as signs of clandestine offensive biological warfare capability. (35)
King’s warnings about the significance of Pentagon vaccine research were echoed by his MIT colleague Harlee Strauss: “ . . . . The production of vaccine against a stockpiled BW weapon must be considered an offensive BW project. According to MIT scientists Harlee Strauss and Jonathan King, ‘These steps . . . are all components that would be associated with an offensive BW program.’. . .” (36)
This frames the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, as well as the institutions and individuals involved with it in a critically important framework.
Key points of analysis and discussion of the significance of the national security establishment’s involvement with Covid vaccine development include:
- DARPA funding for Moderna’s Covid vaccine.
- The executive function of the mysterious Pentagon official known only as “the major”. He was pivotally involved in the firm’s Covid vaccine development.
- The role of Moderna’s chief of product development for Moderna as the co-chief of Operation Warp Speed.
- The role of the military in Operation Warp Speed: Four-Star General Gustave Perna was the co-head of the project.
- Perna’s efforts were brought to fruition by Palantir, the Alpha Predator of the electronic surveillance landscape.
- Palantir was able to deliver to the military a “God’s‑Eye View” that permitted the Pentagon to know the whereabouts and status of every shot administered by Operation Warp Speed.
- The development of the nano-particle lipids of Moderna’s more recent vaccines by a CIA-linked corporation—Resilience.
- The heavy overlap between the milieux of Resilience and those of both the CIA and Palantir. Note in particular the executive-level involvement of people with backgrounds in the CIA’s In-Q-Tel, which financed Pandemic Insurance program with Metabiota. Metabiota, in turn, is linked to EcoHealth Alliance.
Perhaps the most significant, damning information concerning the development of Covid concerns information that might come to light in Moderna’s lawsuit against Pfizer/BioNTech over alleged patent infringement on the spike protein developed by Moderna in 2015.
That spike protein allowed Moderna to develop a vaccine for SARS CoV‑2 within two days of the release of the virus’ genome by Chinese authorities.
Discovery in that lawsuit might yield some vital information about the deep Pentagon involvement with Moderna’s vaccine development. Just how deep was it?
Clearly the information presented here is in a speculative context. Nonetheless, it is altogether damning and is unlikely to be the focal point of “full disclosure.” This may be all we get!
Taken together with the other points of inquiry set forth in this projected five-part series, the fact that development of a Covid vaccine was realized largely through the national security establishment is suggestive and sinister.
Afterword
Revealingly, a Pentagon “black propaganda” effort to discredit Chinese efforts to disseminate vaccines and other anti-pandemic technology is to be weighed against the material disclosed in the other articles in this series.
A very important story was carried by Reuters, setting forth this propaganda gambit.
We summarize key aspects of this very important article.
When we read about the highly unethical nature of the following secret Pentagon-run covert psychological operation revealed last week, it’s worth keeping in mind that, on some levels, none of this is new. There’s a disturbingly robust history of wildly unethical covert military programs.
But at the same time, it’s hard to read about this operation without arriving at the conclusion that this is bad, even by the disturbing standards of covert psychological operations. So bad, in fact, that we never actually get a coherent justification for the program: The Pentagon ran multiple psychological operations via social media from the spring of 2020 to the summer of 2021 designed to convinced global audiences that the Chinese Sinovac COVID vaccine was dangerous and should be avoided. And in the case of Muslims, there was a special message about how China’s vaccine was made with pork gelatin (it’s not).
Beyond that, suspicions about the safety of face masks, testing kits, and other resources to fight the COVID pandemic donated by China to developing countries were similarly targeted in the operation. For over a year as the pandemic was unfolding, the Pentagon was secretly trying to convince populations across Asia that they were better off without the Chinese masks, test kits, and vaccines. Which seems like a massive wildly unjustifiable crime.
So what’s the explanation for this policy? Well, we are told that the initial impetus was anger over the suggestions Chinese officials made back in March of 2020 that the SARS-CoV‑2 virus actually came from the US and was trafficked to the Wuhan via infected military athletes in Wuhan in October of 2019. A scenario that, as we’ve seen, has been buttressed by the claims of numerous athletes from multiple countries who competed at the games.
The diplomatic goodwill China was generating throughout the region with its pledges to provide its vaccine to developing countries along with other supplies like masks and test kits. It was a generous policy that, as we’ll see, stood in stark contrast to the approach the US took with the US-developed mRNA vaccines where the pharmaceutical companies were allowed to “play hardball” with developing countries and try to extract as high a price as they could get away with.
The Philippines, in particular, became a point of palpable US concern, especially after a July 2020 speech by President Duterte when he shared that he has made “a plea” to President Xi that the Philippines be at the front of the line for accessing China’s vaccine when it became available. In the same speech, he vowed that the Philippines would no longer challenge China’s in the South China Sea. Days later, China announced that it would prioritize the Philippines for the vaccine as part of a “new highlight in bilateral relations.” As one senior US officer put it, “We didn’t do a good job sharing vaccines with partners. So what was left to us was to throw shade on China’s.”
Keep in mind that, while the US did eventually make vaccines available to the Philippines, it wasn’t really available there until early 2022. China’s Sinovac, on the other hand, was made available to the Philippines in March of 2021. So there was close to a year when that was the only option for the country. And as we’re going to see, the psyop turned out to be pretty effective. Despite its early access to China’s vaccine, the Philippines had one of the lowest vaccination rates in the world. Mission accomplished?
And while that grossly cynical and unethical explanation of opposing China’s diplomatic pandemic overtures does go further in explaining the motive for this covert policy, there are some other highly troubling policies that pre-date the COVID pandemic that should be kept in mind. First, then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper signed a secret order in 2019 that elevated the Pentagon’s competition with China and Russia to the priority of active combat. In addition, 2019 was also the year when a congressional Pentagon spending billed explicitly authorized the military to conduct clandestine influence operations against other countries, even “outside of areas of active hostilities.” Finally, 2019 was also the year Trump authorized the CIA to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media designed to turn public opinion against the government.
Summing up: In the months leading up to the emergence of the pandemic in Wuhan, the US effectively declared a covert regime change policy against China. Subsequently, just months into the pandemic, we find this grossly unethical psyop designed to encourage people across Asia to turn away Chinese pandemic assistance. Global public health was an afterthought, which is important to keep in mind when asking the “could they really have done something that evil?” question regarding the accusations about the US deliberating trafficking the virus to China. There was a secret regime-change war afoot.
Another aspect of that secret 2019 order by Esper is that it removed the State Department’s check on psychological operations, allowing the Pentagon to override State Department concerns. That’s notable given that we are told at least six senior State Department officials responsible for the region objected to the psyop. Which is also notable in that it indicates the State Department was well aware of it at the time.
Another interesting aspect of all of this is that it appears that a contractor, General Dynamics IT, was used alongside psychological warfare soldiers at the base in Tampa, Florida, where these operations were conducted.
General Dynamics IT just won a new $493 million contract back in February of this year to continue providing clandestine influence services for the military.
The Biden administration formally ended the program in early 2021. Disturbingly, and in a story we first saw back in September of 2022, after the Pentagon decided to finally audit this social media covert influencing program, its primary complaint appeared to be sloppy tradecraft that allowed journalists and social media companies to identify the fake accounts.
Also note that we are getting hints in this report that there is a lot more under this rock. Like vague statements about how when the Biden administration ended this anti-vax psyop, the order also included ending the campaigns against the vaccines of “other rivals”. We have no idea who those other rivals may have been, but it’s not hard to imagine the anti-vax campaign extending to Russia.
Finally, it’s important to keep in mind another dimension to this story: this trashing of a rival vaccines was taking place at the same time the US was effectively backing what was still a highly experimental new form of mRNA vaccines under woefully inadequate safety testing conditions.
The mRNA vaccine that not only could end up making companies like Moderna billions of dollars in profits directly from the vaccine, but had the potential to launch a whole now multi-trillion-dollar mRNA-based field of medicine. The stakes in the global ‘vaccine race’ went far beyond diplomacy and geopolitics.
As we have seen, the suit by Moderna against Pfizer/BioNtech may disclose possible biological warfare applications before Covid actually manifested.
The black propaganda operation against China was clearly part of the US’s secret war to destabilize the Chinese government. A secret war launched in 2019, months before the pandemic officially started, that soon enveloped all of Asia in a campaign to encourage the spread of the virus as China’s diplomatic cost. Many would consider such a war utterly unthinkable if the Pentagon wasn’t openly admitting it at this point. A consideration that makes the effort the kind of secret war where scenarios involving the intentional release of the virus in China are a logical, ‘unthinkable’ step. (37)
Key points of this important article include:
- “ . . . . The U.S. military launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China’s Sinovac inoculation – payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk. . . .”
- “ . . . . It [the operation] aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation. . . .”
- “ . . . . Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for China is the virus. ‘COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China!’ one typical tweet from July 2020 read in Tagalog. The words were next to a photo of a syringe beside a Chinese flag and a soaring chart of infections. Another post read: ‘From China – PPE, Face Mask, Vaccine: FAKE. But the Coronavirus is real.’. . .”
- “ . . . . After Reuters asked X about the accounts, the social media company removed the profiles, determining they were part of a coordinated bot campaign based on activity patterns and internal data. . . .”
- “ . . . . The U.S. military’s anti-vax effort began in the spring of 2020and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before it was terminated in mid-2021, Reuters determined. Tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China’s vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy: amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China’s shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law. . . .”
- “ . . . . The effort to stoke fear about Chinese inoculations risked undermining overall public trust in government health initiatives, including U.S.-made vaccines that became available later, Lucey and others said. Although the Chinese vaccines were found to be less effective than the American-led shots by Pfizer and Moderna, all were approved by the World Health Organization. Sinovac did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Academic research published recentlyhas shown that, when individuals develop skepticism toward a single vaccine, those doubts often lead to uncertainty about other inoculations. . . .”
- “ . . . . In the wake of the U.S. propaganda efforts, however, then-Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte had grown so dismayed by how few Filipinos were willing to be inoculated that he threatened to arrest people who refused vaccinations. . . .”
- “ . . . . When he [Duterte] addressed the vaccination issue, the Philippines had among the worst inoculation rates in Southeast Asia. Only 2.1 million of its 114 million citizens were fully vaccinated – far short of the government’s target of 70 million. By the time Duterte spoke, COVID cases exceeded 1.3 million, and almost 24,000 Filipinos had died from the virus. The difficulty in vaccinating the population contributed to the worst death rate in the region. . . .”
- “ . . . . The campaign also reinforced what one former health secretary called a longstanding suspicion of China, most recently because of aggressive behavior by Beijing in disputed areas of the South China Sea. Filipinos were unwilling to trust China’s Sinovac, which first became available in the country in March 2021, said Esperanza Cabral, who served as health secretary under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Cabral said she had been unaware of the U.S. military’s secret operation. ‘I’m sure that there are lots of people who died from COVID who did not need to die from COVID,’ she said. . . .”
- “ . . . . To implement the anti-vax campaign, the Defense Department overrode strong objections from top U.S. diplomats in Southeast Asia at the time, Reuters found. Sources involved in its planning and execution say the Pentagon, which ran the program through the military’s psychological operations center in Tampa, Florida, disregarded the collateral impact that such propaganda may have on innocent Filipinos. . . .”
- “ . . . . Clandestine psychological operations are among the government’s most highly sensitive programs. Knowledge of their existence is limited to a small group of people within U.S. intelligence and military agencies.Such programs are treated with special caution because their exposure could damage foreign alliances or escalate conflict with rivals. . . .”
- “ . . . Over the last decade, some U.S. national security officials have pushed for a return to the kind of aggressive clandestine propaganda operations against rivals that the United States’ wielded during the Cold War.Following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, in which Russia used a combination of hacks and leaks to influence voters, the calls to fight back grew louder inside Washington. . . .”
- “ . . . . In 2019, Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, Reuters reported in March.As part of that effort, a small group of operatives used bogus online identities to spread disparaging narratives about Xi Jinping’s government. . . .”
- “ . . . . To Washington’s alarm, China’s offers of assistance were tilting the geopolitical playing field across the developing world, including in the Philippines, where the government faced upwards of 100,000 infections in the early months of the pandemic. . . .”
- “ . . . . Duterte said in a July 2020 speechhe had made ‘a plea’ to Xi that the Philippines be at the front of the line as China rolled out vaccines. He vowed in the same speech that the Philippines would no longer challenge Beijing’s aggressive expansion in the South China Sea, upending a key security understanding Manila had long held with Washington. . . .”
- “ . . . . U.S. military leaders feared that China’s COVID diplomacy and propaganda could draw other Southeast Asian countries, such as Cambodia and Malaysia, closer to Beijing, furthering its regional ambitions. A senior U.S. military commander responsible for Southeast Asia, Special Operations Command Pacific General Jonathan Braga, pressed his bosses in Washington to fight back in the so-called information space, according to three former Pentagon officials. . . .”
- “ . . . . The commander initially wanted to punch back at Beijing in Southeast Asia. The goal: to ensure the region understood the origin of COVID while promoting skepticism toward what were then still-untested vaccines offered by a country that they said had lied continually since the start of the pandemic. . . .”
- “ . . . . But in 2019, before COVID surfaced in full force, then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper signed a secret order that later paved the way for the launch of the U.S. military propaganda campaign. The order elevated the Pentagon’s competition with China and Russia to the priority of active combat, enabling commanders to sidestep the State Department when conducting psyops against those adversaries. The Pentagon spending bill passed by Congress that year also explicitly authorized the military to conduct clandestine influence operations against other countries, even ‘outside of areas of active hostilities.’. . .”
- “ . . . . By 2010, the military began using social media tools, leveraging phony accounts to spread messages of sympathetic local voices – themselves often secretly paid by the United States government. As time passed, a growing web of military and intelligence contractors built online news websites to pump U.S.-approved narratives into foreign countries. Today, the military employs a sprawling ecosystem of social media influencers, front groups and covertly placed digital advertisements to influence overseas audiences, according to current and former military officials. . . .”
- “ . . . . In regions beyond Southeast Asia, senior officers in the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations across the Middle East and Central Asia, launched their own version of the COVID psyop, three former military officials told Reuters. Although the Chinese vaccines were still months from release, controversy roiled the Muslim world over whether the vaccines contained pork gelatin and could be considered ‘haram,’ or forbidden under Islamic law. . . .”
- “ . . . . It targeted Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, a country that distributed tens of millions of doses of China’s vaccines and participated in human trials.Translated into English, the X post reads: ‘China distributes a vaccine made of pork gelatin.’. . .”
- “ . . . . And in February, the contractor that worked on the anti-vax campaign – General Dynamics IT – won a $493 million contract. Its mission: to continue providing clandestine influence services for the military.
The true dimension and scope of the Covid “op” is discernible within the framework of this gambit. The term Mr. Emory coined in his first series on Covid—“Bio Psy-Op Apocalypse” applies.
In addition, the outlines of U.S. imperial gambits in the Pacific theater from creation of the “Uighur Persecution” meme (38) to the use of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s anti-China stance and ongoing utilization of the Golden Lily treasure from World War II (39) to fund covert operations and enrich key players in the West’s political and national security landscapes.
Notes
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37.– “Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic;” by Chris Bing and Joel Schechtman; reuters.com; June 14, 024.



Looking Back from 1984

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