R.I.P. Daniel Hopsicker
Over many years, it was Mr. Emory’s privilege and honor to have interviewed Daniel Hopsicker frequently and at length. In the wake of his passing from cancer on 8/22/2023 at the age of 72, we mourn the loss of this professional, and yet can be very glad for his having shared his work with us. Dr. Jeffrey Sachs “pretty convinced” Covid came from a U.S. Bio-Lab. WFMU-FM is podcasting For The Record–You can subscribe to the podcast HERE. Mr. Emory emphatically recommends that listeners/readers get the 32GB flash drive containing all of Mr. Emory’s 43 years on the air, plus a library of old anti-fascist books on easy-to-download PDF files.
FTR#1191 The Oswald Institute of Virology, Part 10: “A Politically Useful Tool”
The program begins with an excerpt that comes from the consummately important Whitney Webb article he has used on many occasions.
The Project For A New American Century’s Rebuilding America’s Defenses argues that biological warfare–particularly when twined with genetic engineering–can become a “politically useful tool.”
Indeed, as we have said so many times, if one is going to detach the second-largest economy from the world and alienate that country from others, the Covid-19 pandemic is, indeed, “a politically useful tool” for so doing.
(In FTR#1190, we examined the PNAC agenda, its codification in national security policy in a document largely crafted by Philip Zelikow. Zelikow headed the 9/11 Commission and was centrally involved in writing its flawed report, the systematic shortcomings of which could be said to characterize the commission as “The Omission Commission.)
Zelikow is now heading a commission to examine the Covid-19 pandemic, including the so-called “Lab-Leak Hypothesis.”
The program references this excerpt, designating Covid-19 as a “politically useful tool.”
As seen below, there are indications that the DARPA program was, indeed, looking at the exploitation of genetics in the application of biological warfare.
Next, we highlight an excerpt from an article that is featured in FTR#‘s 686 and 1115. ” . . . . 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.’27 Clearly, without an antidote or vaccine to protect attacking troops, the utility of a stockpiled BW agent would be seriously limited. . . .”
We then review material from FTR#1166, among other programs, looking at the development of Moderna’s vaccine, the drug remdesivir and military domination of the Operation Warp Speed Covid vaccine program.
They key consideration is: do these developments indicate the dynamic Strauss and King cite above?
At a minimum, they are no more than the proverbial six degrees of separation from being part of an offensive biological warfare program.
In previous posts and programs, we have noted that Moderna’s vaccine work has been financed by DARPA. We have also noted that the overall head of Operation Warp Speed is Moncef Slaoui, formerly in charge of product development for Moderna!
Of great significance is the central role of the military in the development of treatment for Covid-19:
1.–The program notes that: ” . . . . Remdesivir predates this pandemic. It was first considered as a potential treatment for Ebola, and was developed through a longstanding partnership between the U.S. Army and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . . .”
2.–Jonathan King, who has chaired the microbial physiology study section for the NIH has sounded the alarm about “vaccine research” masking offensive biological warfare research: “. . . . 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.–Moderna’s vaccine development was overseen by an unnamed Pentagon official: ” . . . . 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. . . . .”
4.–The pervasive role of the military in Operation Warp Speed (the Trump administration’s vaccine development program) has generated alarm in civilian participants:”. . . . 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–one of the principals in Operation Warp Speed–has chosen a retired Lieutenant General to oversee much of the program: ” . . . . ‘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.–The military will be able to trace the destination and administration of each dose: ” . . . . Military officials also came up with the clever idea — if it works — to coordinate the delivery of vaccines to drugstores, medical centers and other immunization sites by sending kits full of needles, syringes and alcohol wipes. Vaccine makers will be alerted when the 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. . . .”
Central to the inquiry about a laboratory genesis for the virus is Ralph Baric. In the context of some of his actions in conjunction with the development of vaccines and prophylactic measures in connection with biological warfare, we note that:
1.–Baric’s modification of a horseshoe bat virus to make it more infectious (in collaboration with Shi Zhengli and in an EcoHealth Alliance affiliated project) took place in North Carolina, not Wuhan. “. . . . Critics have jumped on this paper as evidence that Shi was conducting “gain of function” experiments that could have created a superbug, but Shi denies it. The research cited in the paper was conducted in North Carolina. . . .”
2.–Baric has been using related techniques to text remdesivir (in 2017) and the Moderna vaccine. This places him in a milieu inextricably linked to the military and pre-dating the pandemic. ” . . . . Using a similar technique, in 2017, Baric’s lab showed that remdesivir — currently the only licensed drug for treating covid — could be useful in fighting coronavirus infections. Baric also helped test the Moderna covid vaccine and a leading new drug candidate against covid. . . .”
The flimsy evidentiary foundation of the Trump/Biden “Oswald Institute of Virology” did it charge is evidenced by a new allegation coming from David Asher, senior fellow at the right-wing Hudson Institute and the former State Department adviser who co-authored a fact sheet last January on activity inside the lab as described in Katherine Eban’s “Vanity Fair” piece.
Note that:
1.–Asher reportedly told NBC News that he is “confident” that the Chinese military was funding a “secret program” that involved Shi Zhengli’s coronavirus research at the WIV.
2.–Shi reportedly worked with two military scientists at the lab. (Not surprising given that the vast bulk of BW research is inherently “dual-use.”
3.–Asher claims he was told this by several foreign researchers who worked at the WIV who saw some personnel there in military garb.
4.–IF true, the [alleged] members of this secret Chinese military biowarfare research team apparently didn’t think it was important to not wear military clothing during their secret research at a research facility intended for civilian use only.
5.–We aren’t told the identity of these foreign researchers who allegedly saw this.
6.–We aren’t told if Asher meant “foreign researchers”–non-Chinese researchers working at the WIV (so foreign to China) or Chinese researchers working at the WIV (so foreign to Asher).
7.–Shi’s research could be characterized as funded by the US military through the EcoHealth Alliance collaboration.
8.–Keep in mind that this remarkable claim is based on anonymous sources that may not exist but are are claimed by Asher to exist.
Asher’s anonymously-sourced allegations contrast with information from a Bloomberg News article about Danielle Anderson, a bat-borne virus expert who worked at the WIV as late as November 2019
Note that:
1.–Anderson would have been at WIV during the period when an outbreak from the WIV would presumably have taken place under a lab-leak scenario.
2.–Anderson is described as the only foreign researcher working at the WIV.
3.–If Anderson was the lone foreign researcher at the WIV, who are Asher’s “several anonymous foreign WIV researchers?”
A chilling article may forecast the potential deployment of even deadlier pandemics, as operational disguise for biological warfare and genocide.
Note that the sub-heading referring to the lab-leak hypothesis is followed by no mention of the lab-leak hypothesis, per se.
Is this a between-the-lines reference to impending biological warfare development and the deployment of another pandemic?
Note that the Army scientist quoted in the conclusion offers an observation that is very close to a Donald Rumsfeld quote reiterated by Peter Daszak in an article we reference in FTR#1170.
1.–From the Defense One article: ” . . . . ‘We don’t want to just treat what’s in front of us now,’ [Dr. Dimitra] Stratis-Cullum said. ‘I think we really need to be resilient. From an Army perspective. We need to be agile, we need to adapt to the threat that we don’t know that’s coming.’ . . .”
2.–From the article from Independent Science News: ” . . . . ‘There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns — there are things we don’t know we don’t know.’ (This Rumsfeld quote is in fact from a news conference) . . . . In the subsequent online discussion, Daszak emphasized the parallels between his own crusade and Rumsfeld’s, since, according to Daszak, the ‘potential for unknown attacks’ is ‘the same for viruses’. . . .”
We conclude with another “look back looking forward.”
In FTR#456, we noted the eerie foreshadowing the the 9/11 attacks by Turner Diaries author William Luther Pierce. Key aspects of that book, in turn, foreshadow aspects of the 9/11 attacks.
In 1998, the author of that tome,–William Luther Pierce–explicitly foreshadowed the 9/11 attacks which defined and cemented Dubya’s administration. “ . . . . In one chilling commentary Pierce, (after noting that Bin Laden and the rest of the lost generation of angry Moslem youth had it with their parents’ compromises and were hell bent on revenge against infidel America) issued this stark, prophetic warning in a 1998 radio address titled, ‘Stay Out of Tall Buildings.’ ‘New Yorkers who work in tall office buildings anything close to the size of the World Trade Center might consider wearing hard hats . . .’ Pierce warned.’ . . . The running theme in Pierce’s commentaries is—to paraphrase his hero Hitler—that Osama Bin Laden’s warning to America is ‘I Am Coming.’ And so is bio-terrorism.’ . . .”
In that context, we note that China is devastated by a WMD/Third World War in Turner Diaries.
FTR#1190 The Oswald Institute of Virology, Part 9: Covid-19 and The American Deep State, Part 3
Continuing analysis of the propagation of the “Lab-Leak Theory” of the origin of Covid-19 in the context of what Mr. Emory calls “The Full-Court Press Against China,” this program highlights how what the brilliant Peter Dale Scott has termed “The American Deep State” is proceeding with the institutionalization of the anti-China effort, blaming that country for the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular.
After noting that the (primarily Pentagon and USAID-funded) EcoHealth Alliance cut-out has used Defense Department money to research organisms that can be used as biological-warfare weapons, we discuss Steve Bannon and Peter Thiel’s anti-Chinese chauvinism with regard to the Silicon Valley.
Even as liberal commentators lament the spread of anti-Asian racism, the genesis of the phenomenon is not hard to fathom.
Next, we review the institutionalization of the anti-China scare by Steve Bannon, utilizing allies like the Falun Gong cult and Uighur jihadis, now mainstays of the Full-Court Press strategy.
Although Bannon and company are now being diminished as “crackpots, xenophobes, extremists” etc., the policies they have initiated are now being carried forward by the “respectable” Biden administration.
” . . . . Fear of China has spread across the government, from the White House to Congress to federal agencies, where Beijing’s rise is unquestioningly viewed as an economic and national security threat and the defining challenge of the 21st century. . . .”
It is this continuity, that illustrates and embodies the functioning of the Deep State.
Returning to a very important (albeit heavily “spun”), modified limited hangout article from Vanity Fair article, we further develop the continuity between the “extremist” Trump administration and the “respectable” Biden administration.
Developed by Trump national security aide Mathew Pottinger and Mike Pompeo’s State Department, the Lab-Leak hypothesis was eclipsed by officials worried about exposure of the very Pentagon, USAID funding of bat-borne coronavirus research and gain-of-function manipulations at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and elsewhere in China.
As it gains momentum under the “respectable” Biden administration, the suppression of the Lab-Leak hypothesis is being spun as an attempt to avoid using that hypothesis as an extremist, chauvinist political cudgel. (This is ironic, because that is precisely what it is intended to be!)
Key aspects of the Vanity Fair article:
1.–Pompeo State Department officials pursuing the lab-leak hypothesis were told to cover it up lest it shed light on U.S. government funding of research at the “Oswald Institute of Virology!”: ” . . . . In one State Department meeting, officials seeking to demand transparency from the Chinese government say they were explicitly told by colleagues not to explore the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s gain-of-function research, because it would bring unwelcome attention to U.S. government funding of it. . . . .In an internal memo obtained by ‘Vanity Fair’, Thomas DiNanno, former acting assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, wrote that. . . staff from two bureaus . . . ‘warned’ leaders within his bureau ‘not to pursue an investigation into the origin of COVID-19’ because it would ‘open a can of worms’ if it continued.’ . . . . As the group probed the lab-leak scenario, among other possibilities, its members were repeatedly advised not to open a ‘Pandora’s box,’ said four former State Department officials interviewed by ‘Vanity Fair’. . . .”
2.–The Vanity Fair article paints Trump, Bannon and company as loonies, whereas they were fundamental to the beginning of the full-court press against China: “. . . . At times, it seemed the only other people entertaining the lab-leak theory were crackpots or political hacks hoping to wield COVID-19 as a cudgel against China. President Donald Trump’s former political adviser Steve Bannon, for instance, joined forces with an exiled Chinese billionaire named Guo Wengui to fuel claims that China had developed the disease as a bioweapon and purposefully unleashed it on the world. . . .”
3.–Matthew Pottinger, a China hawk in the Trump administration, headed up a team to investigate the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis. Note that the gain-of-function milieu in the U.S. national security establishment was a retarding factor in the inquiry: ” . . . . By then, Matthew Pottinger had approved a COVID-19 origins team, run by the NSC directorate that oversaw issues related to weapons of mass destruction. A longtime Asia expert and former journalist, Pottinger purposefully kept the team small . . . . In addition, many leading experts had either received or approved funding for gain-of-function research. Their ‘conflicted’ status, said Pottinger, ‘played a profound role in muddying the waters and contaminating the shot at having an impartial inquiry.’ . . . .”
4.–Note that Lawrence Livermore scientists were involved with the genesis of the “China did it” hypothesis, after allegedly being alerted by a foreign source to look into their own files. ” . . . . An intelligence analyst working with David Asher sifted through classified channels and turned up a report that outlined why the lab-leak hypothesis was plausible. It had been written in May by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which performs national security research for the Department of Energy. But it appeared to have been buried within the classified collections system. . . .”
5.–Note, also, that Chris Ford, a China hawk, was working to suppress the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis: ” . . . . Their frustration crested in December, when they finally briefed Chris Ford, acting undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security. He seemed so hostile to their probe that they viewed him as a blinkered functionary bent on whitewashing China’s malfeasance. But Ford, who had years of experience in nuclear nonproliferation, had long been a China hawk. . . .”
6.–Ford spins his obfuscation of the “Oswald Institute of Virology” link to the U.S. as not wanting to reinforce right-wing crackpots within the Trump administration: ” . . . . Ford told ‘Vanity Fair’ that he saw his job as protecting the integrity of any inquiry into COVID-19’s origins that fell under his purview. Going with ‘stuff that makes us look like the crackpot brigade’ would backfire, he believed. There was another reason for his hostility. He’d already heard about the investigation from interagency colleagues, rather than from the team itself, and the secrecy left him with a ‘spidey sense’ that the process was a form of ‘creepy freelancing.’ He wondered: Had someone launched an unaccountable investigation with the goal of achieving a desired result? . . . .”
7.–The “China did it/Wuhan lab leak” hypothesis survived from the Trump administration and Mike Pompeo’s State Department to the Biden administration: ” . . . .The statement withstood ‘aggressive suspicion,’ as one former State Department official said, and the Biden administration has not walked it back. ‘I was very pleased to see Pompeo’s statement come through,’ said Chris Ford, who personally signed off on a draft of the fact sheet before leaving the State Department. ‘I was so relieved that they were using real reporting that had been vetted and cleared.’ . . . .”
8.–Avril Haines, whom we have cited in this series as a key participant in the Deep State shepherding of the “Lab-Leak Hypothesis,” looms large in the inquiry into the perpetuation of this propaganda meme: ” . . . . Inside the U.S. government, meanwhile, the lab-leak hypothesis had survived the transition from Trump to Biden. On April 15, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the House Intelligence Committee that two ‘plausible theories’ were being weighed: a lab accident or natural emergence. . . .”
In what may be shaping up to be a disturbing reprise of Philip Zelikow’s role in the events surrounding the 9/11 attacks and the resulting invasion of Iraq, Zelikow is positioned to preside over a commission to “investigate” the Covid-19 pandemic, ” . . . . an examination of the origins of the virus—including the contentious ‘lab leak’ theory. . . .”
We note that:
1.–The financial backers of the project include: ” . . . . Schmidt Futures, founded by Mr. Schmidt and his wife Wendy; Stand Together, which is backed by the libertarian-leaning philanthropist Charles Koch; the Skoll Foundation, founded by the eBay pioneer Jeff Skoll; and the Rockefeller Foundation. . . .”
2.–Former CIA and State Department chief under Trump Mike Pompeo is a protege of the Koch brothers.
3.–Zelikow’s 9/11 Commission presided over significant oversights and omissions: ” . . . . There is now evidence, much of it systematically suppressed by the 9/11 Commission, that before 9/11, CIA officers Richard Blee and Tom Wilshire inside the CIA’s Bin Laden Unit along with FBI agents such as Dina Corsi, were protecting from investigation and arrest two of the eventual alleged hijackers on 9/11, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi—much as the FBI had protected Ali Mohamed from arrest in 1993. . . .”
4.–PNAC (The Project for a New American Century) called for Rebuilding America’s Defenses: ” . . . . ‘The process of transformation,’ it reported, “even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.’ This was only one instance of a widely accepted truism: that it would take something like a Pearl Harbor to get America to accept an aggressive war. So the question to be asked is whether Cheney, Rumsfeld, or any others whose projects depended on ‘a new Pearl Harbor’ were participants in helping to create one. . . .”
5.–Zelikow helped draft the 2002 document that concretized the PNAC strategic goals: ” . . . . In 2002, the PNAC goals of unchallenged military dominance, plus the right to launch preemptive strikes anywhere, were embodied in the new National Security Strategy of September 2002 (known as ‘NSS 2002’). (A key figure in drafting this document was Philip Zelikow, who later became the principal author of the 9/11 Commission Report.) . . . .”
6.–PNAC’s paper foreshadowed what we feel underlies the pandemic: ” . . . . In what is arguably the think tank’s most controversial document, titled ‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses,’ there are a few passages that openly discuss the utility of bioweapons, including the following sentences: ‘…combat likely will take place in new dimensions: in space, ‘cyber-space,’ and perhaps the world of microbes…advanced forms of biological warfare that can ‘target’ specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.’ . . .”
7.–There are indications that the anthrax attacks that occurred in the same time period as the 9/11 attacks may well have been a provocation aimed at justifying the invasion of Iraq and spurring the development off biological weapons, as advocated in the PNAC document. Ft. Detrick insider Steven Hatfill was a suspect in the attack, although he appears to have worn “operational Teflon.” “. . . . Steven Hatfill was now looking to me like a suspect, or at least, as the F.B.I. would denote him eight months later, ‘a person of interest.’ When I lined up Hatfill’s known movements with the postmark locations of reported biothreats, those hoax anthrax attacks appeared to trail him like a vapor cloud. But in February 2002, shortly after I advanced his candidacy to my contact at F.B.I. headquarters, I was told that Mr. Hatfill had a good alibi. A month later, when I pressed the issue, I was told, ‘Look, Don, maybe you’re spending too much time on this.’ Good people in the Department of Defense, C.I.A., and State Department, not to mention Bill Patrick, had vouched for Hatfill. . . . In December 2001, Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a noted bioweapons expert, delivered a paper contending that the perpetrator of the anthrax crimes was an American microbiologist whose training and possession of Ames-strain powder pointed to a government insider with experience in a U.S. military lab. . . . Hatfill at the time was building a mobile germ lab out of an old truck chassis, and after S.A.I.C. fired him he continued work on it using his own money. When the F.B.I. wanted to confiscate the mobile lab to test it for anthrax spores, the army resisted, moving the trailer to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where it was used to train Special Forces in preparation for the war on Iraq. The classes were taught by Steve Hatfill and Bill Patrick. . . . Meanwhile, friends of Fort Detrick were leaking to the press new pieces of disinformation indicating that the mailed anthrax probably came from Iraq. The leaks included false allegations that the Daschle anthrax included additives distinctive to the Iraqi arms program and that it had been dried using an atomizer spray dryer sold by Denmark to Iraq. . . .”
8.–Two key Democratic Senators were targeted by weapons-grade anthrax letters prior to changing their opposition to the Patriot Act: “. . . . We should not forget that the Patriot Act was only passed after lethal weapons-grade anthrax letters were mailed to two crucial Democratic Senators—Senators Daschle and Leahy—who had initially questioned the bill. After the anthrax letters, however, they withdrew their initial opposition. Someone—we still do not know who—must have planned those anthrax letters well in advance. We should not forget, either, that some government experts initially blamed those attacks on Iraq. . . .”
The “Lab Leak Theory” has been promulgated by Michael R. Gordon, who was instrumental in advancing the Saddam Hussein WMD connection which helped lay the propaganda foundation for the Iraq War.
Will the “Zelikow Pandemic Commission’s” treatment of the Lab-Leak Theory function in such a way as to pave the way for U.S. war with China, by focusing blame for the pandemic on what Mr. Emory has called “The Oswald Institute of Virology”?
Encore for Philip Zelikow? (UPDATED ON 6/20/2021 and 6/21/2021)
In what may be shaping up to be a disturbing reprise of Philip Zelikow’s role in the events surrounding the 9/11 attacks and the resulting invasion of Iraq, Zelikow is positioned to preside over a commission to “investigate” the Covid-19 pandemic, ” . . . . an examination of the origins of the virus—including the contentious ‘lab leak’ theory. . . .” Backers of the project include the Rockefeller Foundation and a David Koch NGO (Ex-CIA chief and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is a Koch Brothers protege.) Zelikow’s 9/11 Commission presided over significant oversights and omissions: ” . . . . There is now evidence, much of it systematically suppressed by the 9/11 Commission, that before 9/11, CIA officers Richard Blee and Tom Wilshire inside the CIA’s Bin Laden Unit along with FBI agents such as Dina Corsi, were protecting from investigation and arrest two of the eventual alleged hijackers on 9/11, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi—much as the FBI had protected Ali Mohamed from arrest in 1993. . . .” PNAC (The Project for a New American Century) called for Rebuilding America’s Defenses: ” . . . . ‘The process of transformation,’ it reported, ‘even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.’ Zelikow helped draft the 2002 document that concretized the PNAC strategic goals: ” . . . . In 2002, the PNAC goals of unchallenged military dominance, plus the right to launch preemptive strikes anywhere, were embodied in the new National Security Strategy of September 2002 (known as ‘NSS 2002’). (A key figure in drafting this document was Philip Zelikow, who later became the principal author of the 9/11 Commission Report.) . . . .” ” . . . . In what is arguably the think tank’s most controversial document, titled ‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses,’ there are a few passages that openly discuss the utility of bioweapons, including the following sentences: ‘…combat likely will take place in new dimensions: in space, ‘cyber-space,’ and perhaps the world of microbes…advanced forms of biological warfare that can ‘target’ specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.’ . . .” There are indications that the anthrax attacks that occurred in the same time period as the 9/11 attacks may well have been a provocation aimed at justifying the invasion of Iraq and spurring the development off biological weapons, as advocated in the PNAC document. Ft. Detrick insider Steven Hatfill was a suspect in the attack, although he appears to have worn “operational Teflon.” “. . . . Steven Hatfill was now looking to me like a suspect, or at least, as the F.B.I. would denote him eight months later, ‘a person of interest.’ When I lined up Hatfill’s known movements with the postmark locations of reported biothreats, those hoax anthrax attacks appeared to trail him like a vapor cloud. But in February 2002, shortly after I advanced his candidacy to my contact at F.B.I. headquarters, I was told that Mr. Hatfill had a good alibi. . . . In December 2001, Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a noted bioweapons expert, delivered a paper contending that the perpetrator of the anthrax crimes was an American microbiologist whose training and possession of Ames-strain powder pointed to a government insider with experience in a U.S. military lab. . . .Hatfill at the time was building a mobile germ lab out of an old truck chassis, and after S.A.I.C. fired him he continued work on it using his own money. When the F.B.I. wanted to confiscate the mobile lab to test it for anthrax spores, the army resisted, moving the trailer to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where it was used to train Special Forces in preparation for the war on Iraq. The classes were taught by Steve Hatfill and Bill Patrick. . . .” Two key Democratic Senators were targeted by weapons-grade anthrax letters prior to changing their opposition to the Patriot Act: “. . . . We should not forget that the Patriot Act was only passed after lethal weapons-grade anthrax letters were mailed to two crucial Democratic Senators—Senators Daschle and Leahy—who had initially questioned the bill. After the anthrax letters, however, they withdrew their initial opposition. Someone—we still do not know who—must have planned those anthrax letters well in advance. We should not forget, either, that some government experts initially blamed those attacks on Iraq. . . .” The “Lab Leak Theory” has been promulgated by Michael R. Gordon, who was instrumental in advancing the Saddam Hussein WMD connection which helped lay the propaganda foundation for the Iraq War. Will Zelikow’s investigation help prime the pump for war with China? Will this be done by pointing blame for the pandemic on what Mr. Emory has called “The Oswald Institute of Virology”?
Reflections on the Capitol Riot, Part 1: Dubya’s Regime
Notable among the crocodiles shedding tears over the Capitol Riot was former President George W. Bush. Condemning the riot in one breath, he intoned that he would be attending the inauguration and that “ . . . . witnessing the peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of our democracy that never gets old,’ he added. . . .” What happened in Washington D.C. on 1/6/2021 was not fundamentally different from the “Brooks Brothers Riot” in Florida that aided the theft of the 2000 election. Organized by Trump flak catcher Roger Stone, that incident and the efforts of current Supreme Court Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett saw to it that Shrub would inherit his father’s Presidential mantle. In FTR #456, we highlighted numerous and fundamental Nazi links to the 9/11 attacks and the Bin Laden family, including evidentiary tributaries leading in the direction of “The Turner Diaries,” cited in op-ed columns in connection with the Capitol Riot.
2000 Redux: Baker Botts and The Supreme Court
If, as seems altogether probable, Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to sit on the Supreme Court, there will be three judges on SCOTUS that worked for Baker Botts on the Florida recount that gave Dubya the Presidency in the 2000 election. John Roberts is now Chief Justice. Brett Kavanaugh also worked on the Florida debacle for Baker Botts. We should not forget that Trump aide and long-time GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone [right] led the so-called “Brooks Brothers Riot” that helped shut down the Dade County vote recount.
FTR #1139 The Anthrax Attacks, the Invasion of Iraq and Expansion of Biological Warfare Capabilities
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.
FTR #1138 Bio-Psy-Op Apocalypse Now, Part 10: Bad Medicine
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.
The US Falls Down the GOP’s Tax Scam Memory Hole. Again.
When is a tax cut more than just a tax cut? When it’s a GOP tax cut. Because when the GOP cuts taxes, it’s never just an attempt to cut taxes because tax cuts are just one element of the GOP’s much larger agenda of creating a society run by and for the super-rich. And massive amounts of propaganda and deception are part of the tax cut package too. It’s why GOP tax cuts tend to be so much more than just tax cuts for the rich. They’re Big Lies designed to fool society into dismantling itself. So it should come as a surprise to no one that the current GOP tax cut plans are horrible abomination being sold to the public by a web of lies. But what is genuinely surprising about the current GOP tax push is just how shoddy that web of lies is turning out to be this time. As we’re going to see, it’s almost as if the failure to pass Trumpcare only increased the resolve of America’s right-wing oligarchs to finally pass legislation that’s even more politically awful than Trumpcare. But as we’re also going to see, even if the tax cuts turn into a political disaster for the GOP that will still be fine for the GOP as long as the public forgets to remember that we’ve been here before.
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