A “New York Times” story noted the makeup of Joe Biden’s team assembled to combat Covid-19, including ” . . . . Dr. Luciana Borio, a vice president at In-Q-Tel, which invests in intelligence technology, was a member of Trump’s National Security Council until he disbanded the office charged with responding to pandemics and bioterrorism threats, Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, the director of the center for infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, advised the George W. Bush administration after the 2001 anthrax attacks. . . .” As discussed in FTR #718 (among other programs) In-Q-Tel (at which Dr. Luciano Borio serves as a vice-president) is the CIA’s high tech venture capital arm. In FTR #1139, we examined the 2001 anthrax attacks as a possible provocation, generating momentum for the invasion of Iraq and expansion of U.S. biological warfare capabilities. Osterholm launched an enfeebled rhetorical attack on Kris Newby’s expose of Lyme Disease as a bio-weapon. We examined Ms. Newby’s expose in FTR #‘s 1135, 1136 and 1137.
The program begins with discussion of operational links between the Nazi/GOP milieu analyzed in FTR #1159 and elements we have analyzed in the context of the destabilization of China. (For the convenience of the listener and reader, key points of that discussion are included in the broadcast and below in this description.)
In FTR #‘s 1103, 1143, 1144, 1153 and 1154, we detailed the presence of OUN/B‑connected elements in Hong Kong and working in a propaganda role vis a vis the Uighurs in Xinjiang province. In Hong Kong, elements of the Azov Battalion and Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) have been active in conjunction with the “pro-democracy” movement in Hong Kong (under the auspices of an EU NGO.)
German national and End Times Christian Adrian Zenz, a fellow with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, has been the go-to figure for Western media on the alleged persecution of the Uighurs in Xinjiang Province. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is a subsidiary element of the Captive Nations Committee and the OUN/B.
In previous programs, we examined in detail the activity of Peter Daszak and his EcoHealth Alliance–an organization crafted to “prevent” future pandemics, yet networked with the Pentagon and other national security bodies in work disturbingly suggestive of biological warfare research.
Joining Daszak in a commission assembled by the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet is Jeffrey Sachs, economic adviser to Bernie Sanders and AOC and the principal economic adviser to Russian president Boris Yeltsin. Sachs’ advice drove the Russian economy back to the Stone Age.
In this program we detail the strong, eugenicist overlap between “mainstream” anti-abortion organizations and their closely linked white supremacist colleagues. Seeking to maximize the birth rate of “Aryan” offspring and their percentage in the world’s population, they may be seen as being part of a political continuum which includes the Third Reich.
” . . . . Coexisting in abortion opposition is . . . . a white supremacist ideology that only desires to prevent white women from obtaining abortions, but uses universal opposition to abortion as a pragmatic screen for its goals. As Kathleen Belew, author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement in Paramilitary America, told The Nation in an interview in September, for white supremacists, ‘opposing abortion, opposing gay rights, opposing feminism, in white power discourse, all of this is tied to reproduction and the birth of white children.’ . . . Tim Bishop, a representative of the white nationalist Aryan Nations, said, ‘Lots of our people join [the anti-abortion movement]…. It’s part of our Holy War for the pure Aryan race.’ . . . . ”
Central to our analysis is a speculative, yet terrifying biotechnological element–gene drive technology. We have spoken about this in numerous previous programs.
” . . . . Gene drives have been dubbed an ‘extinction technology’ and with good reason: gene drive organisms are created by genetically engineering a living organism with a particular trait, and then modifying the organism’s reproductive system in order to always force the modified gene onto future generations, spreading the trait throughout the entire population. . . .”
” . . . . the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is forcing dangerous gene drive technologies onto the world. BMGF is either the first or second largest funder of gene drive research (alongside the shadowy U.S. military organisation Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [DARPA] ). . . .”
Just imagine what such technology–applied to human reproductive capacity–could do when deployed by fascist and Nazi elements in the military/medical establishment!
The emergence of such a development is being facilitated:
” . . . . a private PR firm called Emerging Ag, was paid US$1.6 million by the BMGF. Part of their work involved coordinating the ‘fight back against gene drive moratorium proponents,’ as well as running a covert advocacy coalition to exert influence on the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the key body for gene drive governance. After calls in 2016 for a global moratorium on the use of gene drive technology, the CBD sought input from scientists and experts in an online forum. Emerging Ag recruited and coordinated over 65 experts, including a Gates Foundation senior official, a DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) official, and government and university scientists, in an attempt to flood the official UN process with their coordinated inputs. . . .”
At the conclusion of the program we present a very disturbing hypothetical concept: we fear that the effort to find viral pathogens around the world and make them more infectious via gain-of-function manipulations is intended to realize a global, eugenicist, exterminationist and white supremacist agenda by creating pandemics in the Third World, profit enormously by making vaccines to treat those pandemics and introduce gene drive technology into those populations via the vaccines in order to diminish reproduction in those populations.
The mRNA and DNA vaccines being produced by the DARPA-supported Moderna and Inovio firms should be considered in connection with this nightmarish working hypothesis.
This post supplements and is intended to call attention to FTR #‘s 1157, 1158 and 1159. A consummately important article about Peter Daszak (right) and the EcoHealth Alliance provides troubling insights into the uneven professional track record of Daszak and the profound involvement of the organization he heads with the Pentagon and other U.S. national security establishment institutions. Exemplifying EcoHealth Alliance’s work is a Pentagon contract with Tanzania, researching CCHF–Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever. ” . . . . EcoHealth Alliance has a $5‑million Pentagon contract, ‘Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever: Reducing an Emerging Health Threat in Tanzania.’ Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne disease, originally only infecting animals. . . . There was only ever one case of CCHF in Tanzania, and that was in 1986. . . . Gain-of-function research on CCHF is being conducted at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) . . . . (The National Bio and Agro Defense Facility will take over the mission of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center and become the lead facility for Foreign Animal Disease research.) . . .”
A noteworthy development in the Covid-19 “op” concerns the selection of experts to oversee The Lancet’s investigation of the origins of the SARS CoV‑2.
In FTR #1156, we looked at the involvement of known U.S. intelligence cut-outs–notably USAID–and their funding of programs ostensibly aimed at preventing epidemics. Those programs involved the “Gain-of-Function” mutation of bat-borne coronaviruses, creating novel “chimeric” viruses that never existed before.
The ostensible purpose was to “prevent” future epidemics. We wondered in FTR #1156 if those ostensible epidemic “prevention” programs may have masked epidemic propagation programs, rather like Unit 731.
Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance was selected to lead the project.
His perspective would, on the surface, appear to be less than objective, in as much as he championed the very type of GOF experiments that are at the center of this inquiry.
Of interest, as well, is the selection of Jeffrey Sachs, an economist, member of the [Bernie] Sanders Institute, economic adviser to Bernie Sanders, economic adviser to AOC and, most importantly, head of the [partly] government financed Harvard Institute of International Development which (as advisers to Boris Yeltsin) drove the Russian economy back to the Stone Age.
Sachs has no medical or scientific credentials.
A consummately important article about Daszak and the EcoHealth Alliance provides troubling insights into the uneven professional track record of Daszak and the profound involvement of the organization he heads with the Pentagon and other U.S. national security establishment institutions.
EcoHealth Alliance looks disturbingly like an organization that fronts for elements and individuals involved with biological warfare research.
“Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, is a top scientific collaborator, grantwriter and spokesperson for virus hunters and gain-of-function/dual-use researchers, in labs both military and civilian.
Daszak works with dozens of high-containment laboratories around the world that collect pathogens and use genetic engineering and synthetic biology to make them more infectious, contagious, lethal or drug-resistant. These include labs controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense, in countries in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa.
Many of these labs are staffed by former biological weapons scientists. (See Arms Watch’s reports.) Before the Biological Weapons Convention was ratified, this research was called what it is: biological weapons research. Now, it’s euphemistically called gain-of-function or dual-use research.
Gain-of-function research to alter coronaviruses for the infection of humans goes back to 1999 or earlier, years before the first novel coronavirus outbreak. On behalf of the U.S. government, often the military, Daszak scours the globe for animal pathogens and brings them back to the lab to be catalogued, investigated and manipulated. . . .”
Key points of analysis and discussion include:
1.–EcoHealth Alliance contracts with the Pentagon in Tanzania, South Africa, Georgia and Malaysia, as well as the U.S.
2.–” . . . . A recent Wired magazine article quoting Daszak described how a virus collected in 2012 was found to be a 96-percent match to SARS-CoV‑2 in 2020 . . . ‘a lack of funding meant they couldn’t further investigate the virus strain now known to be 96 percent genetically similar to the virus that causes Covid-19’ . . . .”
3.–Daszak’s claim that they couldn’t further investigate that virus because of a lack of funding is dubious, in that recent grants to the organization are on top of ” . . . . $100.9 million that EcoHealth Alliance has received in government grants and contracts since 2003. . . .”
4.–Daszak does not explain how that virus (discovered in 2012) turned into SARS-CoV‑2. ” . . . . Some scientists say it would take 50 years for RaTG13 [the virus in question–D.E.] to turn into SARS-CoV‑2. . . .”
5.–Daszak is heavily networked with the Department of Homeland Security: ” . . . . the Department of Homeland Security’s National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) . . . . gave Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance a $2.2‑million contract (2016–2019) to create a ‘Ground Truth Network’ of ‘subject matter experts’ who could provide ‘contextual information pertaining to biological events.’ . . . .”
6.–The intellectual and professional track record of Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance is porous. EcoHealth Alliance floated a canard about Ebola potentially traveling to the U.S. ” . . . . an EcoHealth Alliance spokesperson, spread a false (not to mention racist and xenophobic) narrative, one that subsequently would be thoroughly debunked, that bushmeat smuggled to the U.S. from Africa could transmit Ebola to Americans. . . .”
7.–Daszak missed the boat badly with regard to SARS: ” . . . . It is commonly accepted that the SARS pandemic began in 2002, when humans caught a bat virus from civet cats at a wet market in Guangdong, China. But Daszak and his collaborators admit they have no evidence to explain how the virus leapt from bats to civets to humans. . . .”
8.–” . . . . SARS-CoV was found in civets at the Guangdong wet market, but civets aren’t the natural reservoir of this virus. Bats are. Only the civets at the market—and no farm-raised or wild civets—carried the virus. None of the animal traders handling the civets at the market had SARS. . . .”
9.–” . . . . When Daszak and his collaborators at the WIV searched the cave in Yunnan for strains of coronavirus similar to human versions, no single bat actually had SARS. Genetic pieces of the various strains would have to be recombined to make up the human version. Adding to the confusion, Yunnan is about 1,000 kilometers from Guangdong. . . .”
10.–” . . . . So, how did viruses from bats in Yunnan combine to become deadly to humans, and then travel to civets and people in Guangdong, without causing any illnesses along the way during this 1,000 kilometer trip? . . .”
11.–Daszak and the EcoHealth Alliance were deeply involved with a USAID and NIH funded joint WIV/University of North Carolina project we have covered extensively in past programs. ” . . . . The two institutions also worked as collaborators under another $2.6‑million grant, ‘Risk of Viral Emergence from Bats,’ and under EcoHealth Alliance’s largest single source of funding, a $44.2 million sub-grant from the University of California at Davis for the PREDICT project (2015–2020). . . .”
12.–” . . . . It’s the $44.2‑million PREDICT grant that EcoHealth Alliance used to fund the gain-of-function experiment by WIV scientist Zhengli Shi and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Ralph Baric. Shi and Baric used genetic engineering and synthetic biology to create a ‘new bat SARS-like virus . . . that can jump directly from its bat hosts to humans.’ . . .”
13.–” . . . . The work . . . published in Nature in 2015 during the NIH’s moratorium on gain-of-function research, was grandfathered in because it was initiated before the moratorium (officially called the U.S. Government Deliberative Process Research Funding Pause on Selected Gain-of-Function Research Involving Influenza, MERS and SARS Viruses), and because the request by Shi and Baric to continue their research during the moratorium was approved by the NIH. . . .”
14.–” . . . . As a condition of publication, Nature, like most scientific journals, requires authors to submit new DNA and RNA sequences to GenBank, the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information Database. Yet the new SARS-like virus Shi and Baric created wasn’t deposited in GenBank until May 2020. . . .”
15.–” . . . . why is the government focusing on just one of EcoHealth Alliance’s projects, when the organization has received $100.9 million in grants, primarily from the Department of Defense, to sample, store and study bat coronaviruses at labs around the world? Coronaviruses, both those that have been collected from animals and those that have been created through genetic engineering and synthetic biology, at all of these labs should be compared with SARS-CoV‑2. . . . .”
16.–” . . . . Daszak’s collaborators working under contracts with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) aren’t allowed to conduct gain-of-function research unless specifically approved to do so by the Potential Pandemic Pathogen Care and Oversight (P3CO) committee. This committee was set up as a condition for lifting the 2014–2017 moratorium on gain-of-function research. The P3CO committee operates in secret. Not even a membership list has been released. . . .”
17.–Exemplifying EcoHealth Alliance’s work is a Pentagon contract with Tanzania, researching CCHF–Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever. ” . . . . EcoHealth Alliance has a $5‑million Pentagon contract, ‘Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever: Reducing an Emerging Health Threat in Tanzania.’ Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne disease, originally only infecting animals. . . . There was only ever one case of CCHF in Tanzania, and that was in 1986. . . . Gain-of-function research on CCHF is being conducted at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) . . . . (The National Bio and Agro Defense Facility will take over the mission of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center and become the lead facility for Foreign Animal Disease research.) . . .”
Program Highlights Include: The prominent role in the Sanders Institute and AOC’s advisory team of Jeffrey Sachs, whose HIID team of advisers (with government funding) sent Russia back to the Stone Age, economically; the “handoff” to Jeffrey Sachs and his HIID of Russia and other former Soviet Republics by the Gehlen/GOP Nazis manifesting through the Free Congress Foundation; review of the operational political continuum stretching from the Third Reich, through the OSS, the CIA and the GOP; review of the roles of Allen Dulles, William Casey, Resorts International and Donald Trump in that continuum.
In past programs, we have briefly noted that military and [ostensibly] civilian programs officially involved with “epidemic prevention” might conceal clandestine biological warfare applications designed to create epidemics.
This program further develops that inquiry
The official distinction between “offensive” and “defensive” biological warfare research is academic.
In that context, one should note that the official title of Unit 731, the notorious Japanese biological warfare unit was “the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army.”
Noteworthy in that general 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.”
In FTR #1130, we noted the role of four-star general Gustave Perna in Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed,” instituted by General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Whether the program serves as cover for military research seems a reasonable question to ask, under the circumstances.
In our last program, we weighed New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s thoughts about a white-supremacist minority grouped around the GOP. Blow saw those interests working to preserve their privilege in a number of respects.
This program asks, in effect, if the global equivalent of Blow’s malefactors might be doing something similar with the Covid-19 “op” and related, overlapping clandestine operations. How might the interests we saw in FTR #1128
Selected excerpts of a Whitney Webb article provide insight into the possible offensive nature of programs ostensibly aimed at preventing epidemics. Like Unit 731 (see above), “Epidemic Prevention” may well be masking “epidemic creation.”
In connection with that possibility, the DARPA focus on gene-driving technology is frightening and fraught with devastating possibilities.
Whether or not gene-driving impacts DARPA assisted Covid-19 vaccine development by Moderna and Inovio, the Pentagon underwriting of these firms is of concern.
Some interesting points raised by Dr. Daniel R. Lucey are particularly important in light of the information we have developed in the past about gain of function experiments.
Lucey’s points of inquiry–although not discussed in this article–are particularly important when considered in conjunction with the joint U.S./Chinese program to investigate bat-borne coronaviruses, a program whose American funding apparatus involved USAID, a frequent front for CIA operations.
The gain of function experiments we discussed in FTR #‘s 1116, 1117 and 1121 involving adapting the H5N1 avian flu virus to ferrets is worth contemplating in the context of information indicating that the SARS Cov‑2 virus is particularly infective for ferrets.
Was part of the modified H5N1 flu virus adapted to SARS Cov‑2?
A key factor spurring our suspicion concerning genetic-engineering of one or more variant of the Covid-19 virus concerns a 2015 Gain-of-Function experiment. This should answer Dr. Lucey’s query.
“. . . . Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, last week (November 9) published a study on his team’s efforts to engineer a virus with the surface protein of the SHC014 coronavirus, found in horseshoe bats in China, and the backbone of one that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice. The hybrid virus could infect human airway cells and caused disease in mice. . . . The results demonstrate the ability of the SHC014 surface protein to bind and infect human cells, validating concerns that this virus—or other coronaviruses found in bat species—may be capable of making the leap to people without first evolving in an intermediate host, Nature reported . . . .”
Critics have flagged Gain-Of-Function research as dangerous. Proponents are not dissuaded, including Peter Daszak. “. . . . But Baric and others argued the study’s importance. ‘[The results] move this virus from a candidate emerging pathogen to a clear and present danger,’ Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, which samples viruses from animals and people in emerging-diseases hotspots across the globe, told Nature. . . .”
Of more than passing interest is the disclosure that the project on bat-borne coronaviruses conducted in the Wuhan laboratory was a joint U.S./Chinese project, and that Ralph Baric was a key American partner in the project.
This is the undertaking about which we have reported and discussed extensively in the past! ” . . . . One of Dr Shi’s co-authors on that paper, Professor Ralph Baric from North Carolina University, said in an interview with ‘Science Daily’ at the time: ‘This virus is highly pathogenic and treatments developed against the original SARS virus in 2002 and the ZMapp drugs used to fight ebola fail to neutralise and control this particular virus.’ . . . .”
We note that the WIV project co-funded by USAID involved genetic manipulation of bat-borne coronaviruses.
” . . . . Now Dr Richard Ebright, an infectious disease expert at Rutgers University (USA), has alerted the public to evidence that WIV and US-based researchers were genetically engineering bat viruses to investigate their ability to infect humans, using commonly used methods that leave no sign or signature of human manipulation. Ebright flagged up a scientific paper published in 2017 by WIV scientists, including Shi Zhengli, the virologist leading the research into bat coronaviruses, working in collaboration with Peter Daszak of the US-based EcoHealth Alliance. Funding was shared between Chinese and US institutions, the latter including the US National Institutes of Health and USAID. The researchers report having conducted virus infectivity experiments where genetic material is combined from different varieties of SARS-related coronaviruses to form novel ‘chimeric’ versions. . . .”
In May, the Trump administration terminated the funding for the project. A key point of analysis was set forth by Dr. Christine Johnson: ” . . . . Virus samples in labs are almost never still infectious, after being frozen in nitrogen during the collection process and then inactivated in the lab to preserve their genetic sequence. . . .
Continuing coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic–almost certainly a biological warfare project crafted by the U.S. national security establishment–the broadcast centers on the dual function of “epidemic prevention” and “epidemic causation” and supplementing a Charles Blow op-ed piece in “The New York Times.”
Building on the concept (discussed many times in the past) that the difference between “offensive” and “defensive” biological warfare research is academic, we note that credentialed observers have cited Pentagon “vaccine” research as a cover for offensive BW research. In addition, we observe that numerous, overlapping programs ostensibly aimed at “preventing” epidemics may well mask efforts at generating them.
One of the most notorious and advanced biological warfare programs in history was Japan’s Unit 731, melded into the U.S. biological warfare program at the end of World War II. The program was officially labeled: “the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army.”
Revisiting the consummately important Whitney Webb article about Pentagon research into bat-borne coronaviruses, we note:
1.–The DARPA research is ostensibly aimed at preventing pandemics but–very possibly–masking preparations for offensive biological warfare projects.
2.–The Pentagon is researching “gene-driving”–a biotechnological development that can permanently alter the genetic makeup of entire population groups and lead to the extinction of other groups.
3.–The Pentagon research is heavily networked with companies using DNA and mRNA vaccines for Covid-19.
The fundamental point of analysis and discussion in this program, and the next, concerns the use of “Epidemic Prevention” to mask exterminationist offensive biological warfare programs to entrench, expand or introduce a white-supremacist/First World Domination dynamic in the U.S. and abroad.
Is this the legacy of Unit 731, nominally an “Epidemic Prevention” program?!
A column by Charles Blow correctly notes that the right-wing is working to “lock-in” power. Blow’s observation is far more important when the context is expanded to include the full-court press against China and the effects of Covid-19 in the U.S.
Not a superpower at this point in time, China has made rapid, remarkable progress:
1.–In 1981, 88% of the Chinese population lived in poverty. That was down to 0.7% in 2015.
2.–The Chinese middle class was 4% of their population in 2002. By 2018, that was up to 31% of their population.
3.–In 2000, just 2% of the Chinese population had access to the internet. That was up to 29% by 2009.
With the stunning progress made by China, in combination with their enormous population, the nation will be a major power in the future.
Because they are not white and because their system of state capitalism is at loggerheads with the neo-liberal dogma to which the West is enthrall, that country will be brought to heel. The anti-China push by the West is fundamentally white supremacist in nature.
Pursuant to discussion of the Charles Blow column, Mr. Emory reads the headlines and bylines from a number of New York Times articles underscoring how the pandemic is working against two trends that Blow cites as inimical to continued GOP control.
The pandemic is badly damaging the fortunes of urban centers and education, both at the public school and university levels. In that regard, the pandemic is accomplishing what the Charles Blow column enunciates.
Some interesting points raised by Dr. Daniel R. Lucey are particularly important in light of the information we have developed in the past about gain of function experiments.
Lucey’s points of inquiry–although not discussed in this article–are particularly important when considered in conjunction with the joint U.S./Chinese program to investigate bat-borne coronaviruses, a program whose American funding apparatus involved USAID, a frequent front for CIA operations.
The gain of function experiments we discussed in FTR #‘s 1116, 1117 and 1121 involving adapting the H5N1 avian flu virus to ferrets is worth contemplating in the context of information indicating that the SARS Cov‑2 virus is particularly infective for ferrets.
Was part of the modified H5N1 flu virus adapted to SARS Cov‑2?
Another subject worth contemplating concerns Gilead Sciences, Tamiflu and the prognostications concerning a “twindemic” this fall, with influenza and Covid-19 combining to overwhelm the health system.
Might we see an enhanced H5N1 avian influenza this fall, providing enormous profits to Gilead Sciences, which, as we saw in FTR #1138, made an enormous amount of money (for itself and former Chairman of the Board Donald Rumsfeld) developing Tamiflu to negate the possibility of an H5N1 pandemic?
A key factor spurring our suspicion concerning genetic-engineering of one or more variant of the Covid-19 virus concerns a 2015 Gain-of-Function experiment performed by Ralph Baric, employed in a joint U.S./Chinese experiment partly financed by USAID (a front for CIA activity in the past) and NIH (used by both CIA and the Pentagon in the past). In that project, Baric: ” . . . . published a study on his team’s efforts to engineer a virus with the surface protein of the SHC014 coronavirus, found in horseshoe bats in China, and the backbone of one that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice. The hybrid virus could infect human airway cells and caused disease in mice. . . . The results demonstrate the ability of the SHC014 surface protein to bind and infect human cells, validating concerns that this virus—or other coronaviruses found in bat species—may be capable of making the leap to people without first evolving in an intermediate host . . .”
Of more than passing interest is the disclosure that the project on bat-borne coronaviruses conducted in the Wuhan laboratory was a joint U.S./Chinese project, and that Ralph Baric was a key American partner in the project.
This is the undertaking about which we have reported and discussed extensively in the past! ” . . . . One of Dr Shi’s co-authors on that paper, Professor Ralph Baric from North Carolina University, said in an interview with ‘Science Daily’ at the time: ‘This virus is highly pathogenic and treatments developed against the original SARS virus in 2002 and the ZMapp drugs used to fight ebola fail to neutralise and control this particular virus.’ . . . .”
In past programs, we have briefly noted that military and [ostensibly] civilian programs officially involved with “epidemic prevention” might conceal clandestine biological warfare applications designed to create epidemics. The official distinction between “offensive” and “defensive” biological warfare research is academic. Noteworthy in that general 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.” In FTR #1130, we noted the role of four-star general Gustave Perna in Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed,” instituted by General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Whether the program serves as cover for military research seems a reasonable question to ask, under the circumstances. One should note that the official title of Unit 731, the notorious Japanese biological warfare unit was “the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army.”
As the title indicates, this program presents political and historical foundation for the exponential expansion of American biological warfare infrastructure following the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Important background information comes from the Whitney Webb article about DARPA spending on bat-borne coronaviruses.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors–a CIA “derivative”–and The Washington Times (owned by the Unification Church) helped develop disinformation about SARS CoV‑2 coming from a Chinese Biological Warfare lab. Both were instrumental in hyping the anthrax attacks as authored by Saddam Hussein, as well. The Washington Times also presented information floated by Steven Hatfill that foreshadowed subsequent charges that Saddam Hussein was developing bioweapons and was behind the 2001 anthrax attacks.
In addition, the Project For a New American Century was advancing an agenda in which genetically-engineered biological warfare technology as essential to continued American global dominance.
As will be seen below, a key functionary in the PNAC milieu was former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former chairman of the board of Gilead Sciences.
In FTR #‘s 1135, 1136 and 1137, we relied heavily on the Kris Newby’s Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons. In that book, Ms. Newby networked with a group of experienced, Cold War biological warfare professionals whom she termed “the Brain Trust.” They were convinced that Fort Detrick scientist Bruce Ivins–the “lone nut” who conveniently committed suicide and was fingered as the sole perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks–was framed. ” . . . . Among other subjects, they discussed . . . technical details on why they believed that their colleague Bruce Ivins had been framed as the anthrax mailer . . . .”
Much of the program centers on the 2001 attacks and the suspicion that focused on Steven Hatfill as a possible perpetrator of them. Although exonerated in the attacks, Hatfill was the focal point of considerable suspicion in connection with the event. Our suspicion is that he is an operative of one or another intelligence agency, CIA being the most probable.
We suspect that the anthrax attacks were a provocation aimed at justifying the invasion of Iraq and spurring development of the U.S. biological warfare capability.
Of particular note is the apparent “operational Teflon” worn by Hatfill. Although circumstantial evidence pointed in his direction, he appeared to be altogether “off limits” to investigative elements of Alphabet Soup. Don Foster noted the unusual treatment accorded to Hatfill by the powers that be.
Of significance, as well, are the numerous examples of foreshadowing of the forensic circumstances of the anthrax attacks, as well as other “false alarm” incidents that occurred before and after the fatal attacks. It requires little to see statements and articles by notables such as Bill Patrick and the seemingly ubiquitous Steven Hatfill as laying a foundation of credibility for subsequent events.
Note that the National Institutes of Health have also partnered with CIA and the Pentagon, as underscored by an article about a BSL‑4 lab at Boston University.
1.–As the article notes, as of 2007, the U.S. had “more than a dozen” BSL4 labs–China commissioned its first as of 2017. a tenfold increase in funding for BSL4 labs occurred because of the anthrax attacks of 2001. Those attacks might be seen as something of a provocation, spurring a dramatic increase in “dual use” biowarfare research, under the cover of “legitimate” medical/scientific research. In FTR #1128, we hypothesized about the milieu of Steven Hatfill and apartheid-linked interests as possible authors of a vectoring of New York City with Sars COV2: ” . . . . Before the anthrax mailings of 2001, the United States had just two BSL4 labs—both within the razor-wire confines of government-owned campuses. Now, thanks to a tenfold increase in funding—from $200 million in 2001 to $2 billion in 2006—more than a dozen such facilities can be found at universities and private companies across the country. . . .”
2.–The Boston University lab exemplifies the Pentagon and CIA presence in BSL‑4 facility “dual use”: ” . . . . But some scientists say that argument obscures the true purpose of the current biodefense boom: to study potential biological weapons. ‘The university portrays it as an emerging infectious disease lab,’ says David Ozonoff, a Boston University epidemiologist whose office is right across the street from the new BSL4 facility. ‘But they are talking about studying things like small pox and inhalation anthrax, which pose no public health threat other than as bioweapons.’ . . . The original NIH mandate for the lab indicated that many groups—including the CIA and Department of Defense—would be allowed to use the lab for their own research, the nature of which BU might have little control over. . . .”
As noted in past programs, Gilead Sciences is very well-connected professionally, with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (among other political luminaries) serving on its board of directors. Rumsfeld was chairman of the board from 1997 until he left in 2001 to become George W. Bush’s Secretary of Defense.
Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense during the period in which the 2001 anthrax attacks occurred.
During the post‑9/11 period of exploding government investments in biodefense programs, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was still holding onto massive amounts of Gilead stock, which was increasing in value dramatically. What kind of relationship did Gilead develop with the US biodefense national security state during this period? That seems like a pretty important question at this point in time.
The U.S. government was among the customers whose purchases drove up the Gilead earnings and stock price: ” . . . . What’s more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world’s biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. . . .”
Several years into his tenure at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld made a killing on the sale of Gilead Sciences’ stock, which rose exponentially in value following its development of Tamiflu as a treatment for H5N1 avian flu.” . . . . The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m last year. During this time the share price trebled. Mr Rumsfeld sold some of his Gilead shares in 2004 reaping – according to the financial disclosure report he is required to make each year – capital gains of more than $5m. The report showed that he still had up to $25m-worth of shares at the end of 2004, and at least one analyst believes his stake has grown well beyond that figure, as the share price has soared. . . .”
Donald Rumsfeld was a signatory to the 1998 letter to President Clinton by the Project for a New American Century. That letter advocated a harder line against Iraq. ” . . . . Rumsfeld has strong ties to the Intelligence Community, as well as to the Atlantic Institute, and is a member of the Bilderberg group. He is a financial supporter for the Center for Security Policy. Rumsfeld was one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, Project for the New American Century (PNAC) letter sent to President William Jefferson Clinton. . . .”
DARPA and the Pentagon have into the application of genetic engineering in order to create ethno-specific biological warfare weapons, as discussed by the Project for a New American Century.
In past programs and posts, we have noted that DARPA was researching bat-borne coronaviruses. One can but wonder to what extent the PNAC doctrine helped spawn the DARPA research into coronaviruses and, possibly, the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continuing discussion about drug treatments for, and vaccines to prevent, Covid-19, this program sets forth information about the ongoing professional massaging of Gilead Sciences’ anti-viral remdesivir. Only modestly successful against SARS Cov‑2 (the virus that causes Covid-19), remdesivir has been propelled to the forefront of treatment regimens for the pandemic.
Of particular interest are the circumstances surrounding the CDC’s closure of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The USAMRIID–located at Ft. Detrick–had hosted Gilead Sciences’ animal trials of remdesivir. Remdesivir was developed to combat Ebola, and was a failure in its initial professional iteration.
In March of 2019, rhesus macaques were infected with Ebola at the USAMRIID as part of a project to allow remdesivir to be marketed as an Ebola treatment without meeting the professional standards of human testing. ” . . . This agreement was made possible through a 2018 Natural History Study (NHS) of Ebola virus conducted by USAMRIID in close collaboration with Gilead Sciences, Inc., the sponsor of remdesivir development . . .”
Many of the safety violations cited by the CDC in its critique of USAMRIID safety and security procedures concerned “non-human primates” infected with one or more “select agents” that were not named. The term “select agent” refers to a pathogen being used in laboratory procedures. Whether the “select agent” was Ebola, and whether the safety lapses were in connection with the remdesivir/rhesus monkey trials was not disclosed.
” . . . . Several of the laboratory violations the CDC noted in 2019 concerned ‘non-human primates’ infected with a ‘select agent’, the identity of which is unknown — it was redacted in all received documents, because disclosing the identity and location of the agent would endanger public health or safety, the agency says. In addition to Ebola, the lab works with other deadly agents like anthrax and smallpox. . . ..”
If, for the sake of argument, SARS-CoV‑2 research was indeed taking placing there was a very real risk of it escaping.
Remdesivir failed in its human trials as a treatment for Ebola: ” . . . . The antiviral drug remdesivir, made by Gilead, underperformed ZMapp. . . . Remdesivir and ZMapp have been dropped from the trial. . . .”
Following that dismal performance against Ebola, Gilead Sciences recast remdesivir as a broad spectrum antiviral, a marketing approach that has led to the drug being authorized to treat Covid-19.
In that professional reincarnation, it demonstrated altogether modest success in Covid-19 trials that were professionally criticized and which were badly skewed from a methodological standpoint.
After a tightening of professional methodological standards at the USAMRIID, it was disclosed that most of the institution’s operatives are private contractors! From the standpoint of institutional security, the broad use of private contractors renders USAMRIID subject to penetration by any number of potential miscreants. ” . . . . ‘A majority of our laboratory workers are contractors–putting teeth in the contracts to ensure they’re following the shalls, wills and musts are things we’ve done in the interim,’ said [Brigadier General Mike] Talley. . . .”
As noted in past programs, Gilead Sciences is very well-connected professionally, with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (among other political luminaries) serving on its board of directors. Rumsfeld was chairman of the board from 1997 until he left in 2001 to become George W. Bush’s Secretary of Defense. The firm’s stock has been heavily invested in by hedge funds, including Robert Mercer’s Renaissance Technologies. Gilead Sciences’ stock has been a major driver of the stock market’s performance.
Several years into his tenure at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld made a killing on the sale of Gilead Sciences’ stock, which rose exponentially in value following its development of Tamiflu as a treatment for H5N1 avian flu. ” . . . . The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m last year. During this time the share price trebled. Mr Rumsfeld sold some of his Gilead shares in 2004 reaping – according to the financial disclosure report he is required to make each year – capital gains of more than $5m. The report showed that he still had up to $25m-worth of shares at the end of 2004, and at least one analyst believes his stake has grown well beyond that figure, as the share price has soared. . . .”
The U.S. government was among the customers whose purchases drove up the Gilead earnings and stock price: ” . . . . What’s more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world’s biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. . . .”
(Recall that the H5N1 virus is one of the gain-of-function experiments that was suspended in 2014 and then greenlighted by the Trump administration in 2017. Those experiments engineered the virus to infect ferrets, a maneuver that made the virus communicable by upper respiratory activity. One can but wonder if those G‑O-F experiments were connected to the recasting of remdesivir as a broad spectrum antiviral.)
During the post‑9/11 period of exploding government investments in biodefense programs, Rumsfeld was still holding onto massive amounts of Gilead’s stock, which was rapidly increasing in value. What kind of relationship did Gilead develop with the US biodefense national security state during this period? That seems like an important question at this point in time.
In FTR #1136, we noted that the medical and scientific interests in charge of Lyme Disease treatment and diagnosis were not only financial beneficiaries of the therapeutic status quo, but were also tasked with discrediting Lyme patients and physicians who challenged that status quo. In light of the evidence that Lyme Disease was the outgrowth of biological warfare research, the professional relationship between governmental institutions involved with BW research and biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms profiting from the treatment of diseases those institutions develop and deploy is worth contemplating!
Previous broadcasts have documented the skewed, preferential treatment of remdesivir by powerful political and financial players with significant investment in the success of remdesivir.
The program concludes with three updates of previous lines of inquiry”
1.–Past programs have highlighted possible vectors into Wuhan for the SARS CoV‑2. We note that there was a workshop held at the Wuhan lab in early November of 2019, featuring scientists and bio-lab professionals from around the world. This conference may have been among the opportunities to spread the virus, and/or a co-vector and/or cross-vector. ” . . . . The workshop is designed for laboratory managers and directors, research and laboratory staffs mainly from developing countries who plan to carry out infectious disease research in biosafety facilities. The workshop will address key aspects of biosafety and provide practical training in high level biosafety laboratories (BSL). This workshop will invite a group of well-known scholars and experts from related fields at home and abroad to provide the theoretical and practical courses. . . .”
2.–As noted in past programs the Wuhan Institute of Virology was engaged in bat-borne coronavirus research, which included the genetic modification of such organisms. That research was a joint U.S./Chinese undertaking, with the U.S. funding coming from institutions which have fronted for American intelligence and the Pentagon. That joint U.S./Chinese undertaking was terminated by the Trump administration in May! In addition: ” . . . . Many of the scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology have been trained by the U.S. government’s PREDICT project. . . . USAID’s PREDICT project . . . will end this September after 10 years and two six-month extensions as USAID launches a new project that applies the data PREDICT collected. . . .”
3.–Other broadcasts have explored the Wuhan World Military Games–a military sports competition–as a possible vectoring vehicle. We update that path of inquiry with discussion of the U.S. delegation as a possible vectoring agent for the spread of the disease in the U.S. ” . . . . Contrary to the Pentagon’s insistence, however, an investigation of COVID-19 cases in the military from official and public source materials shows that a strong correlation exists in COVID-19 cases reported at U.S. military facilities that are home bases of members of the U.S. team that went to Wuhan. Before March 31, when the Pentagon restricted the release of information about COVID-19 cases at installations for security reasons, infections occurred at a minimum of 63 military facilities where team members returned after the Wuhan games. Additionally, the U.S. team used chartered flights to and from the games via Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Washington was one of the earliest states to show a spike in COVID-19. . . .” We also note that the U.S. delegation contained: ” . . . . nine public-affairs officers . . . and two State Department personnel, according to DOD documents. . . .” “Public affairs officer” is a common cover for CIA personnel.
Further developing the links between biological warfare research and the Lyme Disease establishment, we review information from FTR #585.
At every turn, Lyme disease research is inextricably linked with biological warfare research. Divided into the “Steere” and “ILADS” camps, the Lyme disease research community is split between the view that the disease is “hard-to-catch, easy-to-cure” and the diametrically opposed view that the disease is very serious and produces long-term neurological disorder. The Steere camp diminishes the significance of the disease and is closely identified with biological warfare research. At the epicenter of Lyme disease research (and the Steere camp) are members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, or EIS. EIS personnel are to be found at every bend in the road of Lyme disease research.
The Borrelia genus has long been researched as a biological warfare vector. Note that Unit 731 personnel and their files were put to work for the United States after World War II, much like the Project Paperclip scientists from Germany. ” . . . borrelia were known for their ability to adopt different forms under conditions of stress (such as exposure to antibiotics). Shedding their outer wall, (which is the target of penicillin and related drugs), they could ward off attack and continue to exist in the body. . .”
Much of the program is devoted to excerpting and analysis of a 2013 posting by Elena Cook. This discussion of “Spirochete Warfare,” in turn, makes liberal use of material from a 1944 text about Japan’s biological warfare program. This book “Japan’s Secret Weapon,” contains a great deal of information about Japanese pioneering of the use of spirochetes as biological warfare organisms.
This material is to be considered in the historical and political context of the incorporation of the key personnel and files of the notorious Japanese Unit 731 biological warfare division into the U.S. BW program after World War II.
Apparently decades ahead of their Allied counterparts, Japanese use of spirochetes encompassed a number of important points to consider.
1.–The Japanese understood that “cell-wall deficient spirochetes, ” “granule” and “L‑forms” had tremendous significance for biological warfare. ” . . . This WW2-era book helps to confirm what some investigating the history of Lyme disease have long suspected; that the official denial of the devastating pathogenic nature of the granule and other ‘L‑forms’(1) of Lyme-causing Borrelia, is related to their biological warfare significance. . .”
2.–” . . . To put it bluntly, Newman’s book provides cogent circumstantial evidence that many Cell-wall deficient forms of Borrelia are in fact weaponized spirochetes, nurtured, cultured and optimized for aerosol delivery. . .”
3.–According to author Barclay Newman, a combined Japanese and Nazi biological warfare offensive against Hawaii using the spirochetal disease leptospirosis against Hawaii two or three years before the attack on Pearl Harbor: ” . . . . ‘Nazi and Japanese scientists cooperated in warfare against or with spirochetes — in Hawaii.’ (original author’s italics). What he is referring to is an exceptionally virulent outbreak of the spirochetal disease leptospirosis, also known as Weil’s disease, and known at the time in Germany as ‘slime fever’. With official reports of 44% mortality from the outbreak, Newman states: Consult the authorities, and you will find out that, very definitely, so high a mortality is attained only by Japanese strains of spirochetes of slime fever. . . .”
4.–According to Newman, the Japanese had concluded that spirochetes, although very close to bacteria in form, were not actually bacteria and therefore: ” . . . . a spirochete can also break itself into many tiny granules, each as small as the invisible molecule of a virus, and each capable of recreating a new spirochete. . . .”
5.–Again, according to Newman: ” . . . The Japanese have reported that you can increase the virulence, or killing power, of these spirals by growing them in flesh and blood, of guinea pig or man. . .” This is interesting to consider in light of the evidence of Lyme Disease as the product of biological warfare. Might some of the “tests” have had the goal of “growing” such organisms in humans? ” . . . The resistance of many spirochetes, including borrelia, to culture in vitro remains a problem for lab scientists even today. . .”
6.–The “granule” spirochete form was found by the Japanese to have great value for aerosolized BW applications: ” . . . Inada has reported that the Japanese know how to get virus-like, quite invisible particles or spirochete-fragments from special cultures of spirochetes of infectious jaundice. The Japanese say that such infinitesimals can be used to infect animals and men, by spraying droplets containing these spirochete-creating bits into the air, or spreading them through water, or scattering them in mud or damp soil. . . .”
7.–The above-mentioned leptospirosis or “slime fever” may have been used as a “softening-up” agent prior to Japanese invasions in World War II” ” . . . ‘Immediately before the Japanese invasions of China, Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies, and the Malay States, and shortly before the Japanese invasion of India and the Japanese strokes at Australia, the very first outbreaks of slime fever were reported from every one of these areas’ . . .”
8.–The Japanese had discovered the application of infection via multiple pathogens. This may have figured into the development of Lyme Disease as well. ” . . . Fujimori (sic) was testing out the effects of spreading two different parasites into the same guinea pig at the same time. The Japanese discovered that one parasite promotes the lethal action of the other. . . .”
9.–The Japanese developed with spreading spirochetal disease via spraying droplets into the eyes of targets. We wonder if Willy Burgdorfer’s possible Lyme infection from diseased Rabbit-urine may have stemmed from this technology? This is discussed below. ” . . . ‘Sometimes the Japanese think up the damnedest experiments, such as the transmission of syphilis by spraying the spirochetes into the air or into the eyes of animals or volunteers. Infection is thus accomplished. . . . if you want to speculate further about the possibilities of spirochete warfare, you can be sure that the Japanese know how to spread any spirochete disease . . . by spraying droplets laden with specially cultured spirochetes. . . .”
10.-Among the diseases apparently harnessed for BW use by the Japanese was African relapsing fever. Willy Burgdorfer did his graduate thesis about this tick-borne spirochetal disease and it was researched at length by his mentor Rudolf Geigy. (Geigy’s possible role as an I.G. Farben intelligence agent and Paperclip recruiter is discussed in FTR #1135. Note that some forms of Borrelia Burgdorferi–a primary causative agent of Lyme Disease–resemble the spirochete that causes relapsing fever. ” . . . Relapsing fever is caused by the Borrelia genus of bacteria, and is generally transmitted to man either by lice, or by the bite of a tick. It is worth noting, too, that recent investigations into the genetic make-up of Lyme borrelia have found some strains apparently more closely related to relapsing fever Borrelia than to Borrelia burgdorferi, long considered the only borrelia capable of causing Lyme disease. . . .”
Next, the program details Rudolf Geigy’s work on relapsing fever. We suspect that his interest in such afflictions was not as benign and altruistic as his defenders maintain. As mentioned above, Lyme Disease “discoverer” and biological warfare veteran Willy Burgdorfer did his graduate thesis on relapsing fever.
Again, as mentioned above, Willy Burgdorfer contracted what he felt was Lyme Disease after urine from an infected rabbit splashed into his eyes. We wonder if some of the techniques of using aerosolized spirochete granules might have been involved in Willy’s accidental infection? ” . . . .While he was rinsing off one of the trays in the sink, Lyme-infected rabbit urine splashed into his eyes. A few weeks later, on April 13, he noticed five Lyme bull’s-eye rashes under his armpit and on his torso. . . .”
In an unpublished manuscript, Willy Burgdorfer noted not only the persistence of Lyme Disease but its ability to remain dormant in the nervous system: “. . . . It is now clear that Borrelia burgdorferi can persist within the nervous system for years, causing progressive illness, and increasing evidence suggests also that the spirochete can remain latent there for years before producing clinical symptoms. . . .”
Lyme disease is difficult to diagnose, another factor that makes it ideal for BW use. Might the Japanese Unit 731 research into spirochetal warfare described by Barclay Newman have figured into some of the boiler-plate research that went into the development of Lyme Disease? ” . . . Lyme’s ability to evade detection on routine medical tests, its myriad presentations which can baffle doctors by mimicking 100 different diseases, its amazing abilities to evade the immune system and antibiotic treatment, would make it an attractive choice to bioweaponeers looking for an incapacitating agent. Lyme’s abilities as ‘the great imitator’ might mean that an attack could be misinterpreted as simply a rise in the incidence of different, naturally-occurring diseases. . . .”
There is experimental evidence that infection with Borrelia burgdorferi can produce the amyloid plaques symptomatic of Alzheimer’s Disease. ” . . . Here is hypothesized a truly revolutionary notion that rounded cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi are the root cause of the rounded structures called plaques in the Alzheimer brain. Rounded “plaques’ in high density in brain tissue are emblematic of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). . . .”
The program concludes with more experimental evidence of the production of amyloid deposits characteristic of Alzheimer’s Disease: ” . . . To determine whether an analogous host reaction to that occurring in AD could be induced by infectious agents, we exposed mammalian glial and neuronal cells in vitro to Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes . . . Morphological changes analogous to the amyloid deposits of AD brain were observed following 2–8 weeks of exposure to the spirochetes. . . These observations indicate that, by exposure to bacteria or to their toxic products, host responses similar in nature to those observed in AD may be induced. . . .”
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