One of the pretexts offered by Russia for its invasion of Ukraine was to neutralize biological weapons in that nation. For several weeks, allegations from Russia to that effect have been denied, poo-poohed and played down by the West, most particularly the USA.
It begins to appear as if the Biden administration has been lying through its teeth, to Russia, to its NATO partners, and to the people of the United States.
I have no idea what’s actually going on, but it looks like a monstrous scandal is unfolding. Consider these headlines in chronological order from and since March 8th, and click over to them if you’d like to read them for yourself. (I highly recommend you read the last one in full. It’s a doozy.)
China Pushes Conspiracy Theory About U.S. Labs in Ukraine
China accused the U.S. military of operating “dangerous” biolabs in Ukraine … “U.S. biolabs in Ukraine have indeed attracted much attention recently,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Tuesday … He added that “all dangerous pathogens in Ukraine must be stored in these labs and all research activities are led by the U.S. side” … Zhao called on “relevant sides to ensure the safety” of the facilities and said “the U.S., as the party that knows the labs the best, should disclose specific information as soon as possible, including which viruses are stored and what research has been conducted.”
“Ukraine has biological research facilities, which in fact we are now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of, so we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach,” Nuland told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a hearing.
A 2011 report from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Anticipating Biosecurity Challenges of the Global Expansion of High-Containment Biological Laboratories explained how the Odessa-based laboratory “is responsible for the identification of especially dangerous biological pathogens.”
“This laboratory was reconstructed and technically updated up to the BSL-3 level through a cooperative agreement between the United States Department of Defense and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine that started in 2005. The collaboration focuses on preventing the spread of technologies, pathogens, and knowledge that can be used in the development of biological weapons,” the report continues.
Russia Tells the US “We Have Found Your Biological Weapons”
“We have found your own products. We have found your biological material. As it turns out it was all happening in Ukraine,” RT, Russia state-affiliated media reported … Russia now demands the US to explain bio labs in Ukraine.
Russia accused the U.S. of violations of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and has covered it up.
The Ministry of Health in Ukraine ordered the biological agents be destroyed in a February 24 memo … Russia also released a list of the biological agents allegedly be stored in the lab for testing. The list included Salmonella and E. Coli.
Victoria Nuland: Ukraine Has “Biological Research Facilities,” Worried Russia May Seize Them
The only reason to be “quite concerned” about these “biological research facilities” falling into Russian hands is if they contain sophisticated materials that Russian scientists have not yet developed on their own and which could be used for nefarious purposes — i.e., either advanced biological weapons or dual-use “research” that has the potential to be weaponized.
What is in those Ukrainian biological labs that make them so worrisome and dangerous? And has Ukraine … had the assistance of any other countries in developing those dangerous substances? … did the U.S. assistance extend to the construction and development of the “biological research facilities” themselves?
. . .
This joint US/Ukraine biological research is, of course, described by the State Department in the most unthreatening way possible. But that again prompts the question of why the U.S. would be so gravely concerned about benign and common research falling into Russian hands.
. . .
That a neocon like Nuland is admired and empowered regardless of the outcome of elections illustrates how unified and in lockstep the establishment wings of both parties are when it comes to questions of war, militarism and foreign policy.
(Bold, underlined text below is my emphasis)
What exactly are they doing in these secret Ukrainian bio labs? Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe. It’s hardly a hotbed of biomedical research. We’re assuming these weren’t pharmaceutical labs, probably not developing new Leukemia drugs. From your answer, Toria Nuland, we would assume because you all but said it, that there’s a military application to this research, that they were working on bioweapons. Again, your answer suggests that.
Why would we fund something like that in Ukraine, and why didn’t you secure the contents of these bio labs before the Russians arrived as you knew they would? And then why did you go out of your way to lie to the American public about all of this? If the “research materials” in these labs were to escape somehow and you seem very concerned about that, what would be the effect on Ukraine and then on the rest of the world? How can we prepare for the consequences of that, this thing that you’re worried about? Shouldn’t we be preparing? Because as it turns out, we’ve just spent the last two years living with the pathogen that began in another foreign bio lab funded by the United States government secretly.
. . .
The interesting thing, the telling thing, is that the U.S. Embassy’s website also contains links to fact sheets about America’s support for biological research in Ukraine, but all those links are now dead. That’s weird. It’s our government. We pay for it. Again, they’re there in our name, in the name of American citizens, but we can no longer read their web page. How does that work, exactly? They have no right to lie to us.
The web page is archived, thankfully, and the fact sheets show Defense Department funding to laboratories in Ukraine. So that looks like proof. It’s not Russian disinformation. It’s totally real.
. . .
We’re going to the Foreign Ministry of China, a country we despise. Here’s what they said today. They’re calling on weapons inspectors to take a look at these facilities in Ukraine right away.
ZHAO LIJIAN: Over the past two decades, the United States has been blocking the establishment of a verification regime to the Biological Weapons Convention and refused to accept the inspection of biological facilities within and outside its borders. The move has further aggravated the concern of the international community. We, once again, urge the U.S. to provide full clarification of its bio militarization activities within and outside its borders and accept multilateral verification.
… We never agree with the Chinese government on anything, but in this case, they make a fair point.
. . .
Dangerous biological agents remain, thanks to the Biden administration, unsecured in a chaotic war zone. At some point we need to know how that happened, who made those decisions. We have a right to know … in the meantime, we pray that somewhere, in the United States government, there as an adult who cares enough to get this situation under control immediately.
They do say that there’s no smoke without fire. In this case, there’s so much smoke that I can only assume there’s a raging conflagration beneath it all. We need answers – public, honest, no-evasion answers – and those responsible for getting us into this mess need to pay for their mistakes and (probable) misdeeds. Certainly, the least they should suffer is dismissal from their jobs and a permanent prohibition against ever again working for any branch of any government whatsoever – national, regional or local.
Peter
Dismissal from their jobs, and permanent prohibition from Gov"t jobs…..
Ha Ha Ha.
That will never happen. You and all your readers know it will never happen.
So, at this point the outrage is just theatre.
Other than Divine Judgment, there will be NO earthly punishment for these evil people.
Time to stop pretending there will be.
Answer: To hide themselves and their evil nefarious activity from stateside prying eyes.
Kinda like The Biden Crime family's activities in the oil and gas sector despite having zero expertise to bring to the table.
“Including Salmonella and E. Coli”
Um. Not to get into the rest of this, but strains of Salmonella and E coli are standard in almost every lab out there. Especially any that conduct challenge testing on pharmaceutical, food, or cosmetics. I’ve worked with them countless times. They are not a big deal whatsoever.
Gotta agree with Cedar. Heck, I routinely give undergrads E coli to work with as part of classes. Likewise, BSL-3 labs are very commonplace. Guarantee they have 'em at the main campus of your nearest state university and/or hospital. Anything involving the diagnosis or treatment of the real disease baddies is going to require it. Remember your worries about the last Ebola outbreak? Yeah, that kind of thing.
And actually, far from "It's hardly a hotbed of biomedical research." Ukraine actually has a fair bit of biotech industry. Enamine in particular is a major supplier of synthetic chemicals for both pharmaceutical production and research. Expect issues in those areas if this continues for too long.
So this seems a lot more like Russia/China stoking the "US is evil" flames while Ukraine twists it for their own purposes "Russian actions are endangering us all!" For another example of the latter, see the hand-wringing about Russian possession of Chernobyl. As for why the Chinese would play that kind of game, can you think of any potential "lab accidents" on their side of things that they might like to deflect from? I can…
But it's obviously a stirring storyline so I don't blame folks for getting caught up in it.
Excuse me for thinking clearly, but didn't we invade Iraq for this very same reason – Saddam would not allow weapons inspectors to have access to his weapons labs ?
Or is this now considered to be "disinformation" ?
I saw that story this morning and was going to post on it. I have been suspecting that our government has been behind COVID and other biological weapons for some time now. It's time to accept that our government is filled with and run by evil people.
Is it important that Nuland admitted the biological research under oath, but did not rule out there was biological weapons research going on as well?
Begin by firing every. single. employee of the State Department. Re-hire critical ones after testing for loyalty.
This started with FDR and 80 years is enough.
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So let me get this straight.
Givens:
1) Biden & Co. have been shilling to get Russia to invade Ukraine for months.
2) They consciously did nothing substantive to make Ukraine better able to resist a Russian invasion before the fact.
3) They knew the Russian plans and Order of battle, and even asked China to dissuade Russia.
4) Knowing what was coming in detail, they assumed (along with Russia, China, and everyone on the planet, including Ukraine) that the Russians would be on the Polish border within 48 hours after such an invasion.
5) They did all this knowing full well the Russians would overrun these "secret" biowarfare labs" in about 5 minutes, and did nothing to shut them down while simultaneously shilling for open warfare to begin.
All that's missing is a rational explanation as to why someone would shoot themselves in the feet, with buckshot, seventeen times in a row, and then reload.
I'll wait right here while someone takes a whack at that that doesn't sound like an excuse Gilligan or Lloyd and Harry from Dumb and Dumber would make.
Bonus points if it's somebody who can explain that Russians shelling civilians was fake, but Russians claiming bioweapon labs is real.
B.S. Flag thrown.
https://i.imgur.com/QzNdnpr.png
Aesop your raging case of Putin Derangement Syndrome combined with your acerbic wit is showing.
You yourself has often commented with ferocity about just how stupid our beloved Gov.com has done in so many things. You've even commented recently that our TOP MAN Bilken seems to be at odds with the White House (His supposed Chain of Command) over the Polish Mig fighters for Ukraine fiasco.
So WHY pray tell is our beloved Gov.com NOT doing something ragingly stupid in Bioweapons GIVEN they already dumped on called COVID upon the world?
Are you ever incorrect Aesop? Just asking for a friend.
Good grief. Every country with a military of any import does *some* research on this for defensive purposes or they are complete idiots. It is a VERY short step to twist that as we are seeing here…
Big nothing burger here…
USSR was very active in biological and chemical warfare development.
Much of the USSR development weapon labs and industry was located in the Ukraine.
Of course after the USSR broke up, the United States would rush in to get access to any USSR bio weapon technology they could.
Michael,
There government-grade stupid, which we have in wholesale lots.
And then there's this pile of rose fertilizer, which would require an army of morons bigger than the population of China, working around the clock for 100 years, to surpass.
And I'm supposed to believe Gropy Dopey and his gaggle of Volkswagen clowns pulled it off in under a year?
This is 200-retards-standing-in-a-circle-and-hitting-each-other-with-baseball-bats level of stupid.
It's simply beyond any possibility of actually existing in nature. it's like those stories in the Darwin Awards that were so far beyond beliefe, they were too good to be true, so they kept them, but moved them into mythical legends status.
It's one thing to read a story about unicorns. It's another thing entirely when people start making themselves saddles to ride them.
And I notice you couldn't explain it either. Pro Tip: Gainsaying isn't proving.
So, what do you suppose we'd find in Russian labs? Probably some really dangerous weaponized pathogens and mass production facilities. We already know they are completely willing to use chemical and radiological weapons. Poisoning dissidents with radioactive polonium, gassing critics with Novichok, gassing terrorists and hostages alike with fentanyl or similar (killing half the hostages), and being complicit in Syrian government gas attacks. So who knows what Russia has?
I must admit to not being impressed by "The list included Salmonella and E. Coli."
I'm going to side with Aesop on this.
Look, yeah, the morons want us to go to War with Russia (Probably with Putin's buy in and complicity, because HE thought he could outwit them.
(Look, my cat could outwit them, and Havelock-cat is retarded. BUT Putin's raging case of narcissism and lack of good information because dictator means he's almost as moronic, while being, in himself, not stupid.)
The idea was to go on a jolly war with Russia, which would get the US properly humiliated. AND give the Junta the chance to suppress speech they deemed pro-Russia, which honestly for these assholes means pro-Trump.
It's coming apart since the Russian military IS a paper tiger. And now the propaganda is getting stupid.
Are there US biolabs in the Ukraine? Who the heck knows? But this is NOT convincing.
What is convincing and I'd like you guys to get through your thick skulls is that cheerleading for Putin, besides being infernally stupid, because Putin just wants the USSR back, is playing into the Junta's hands about how we're on Russia's side, and we must go to war with Russia and shut down the right side of the blogsphere.
So, can we say "We can't do anything. We wish Ukraine well. We're not falling for any disinformation unless they try A LOT harder. And we're not going to support a war against Russia. The Russians need to clean their house. We need to clean ours."
Oh, in addition, we wouldn't be in this situation if when the soviet Union fell George Bush senior had exposed the rott and hanged the Komissars using their own intestines as rope.
For one, Putin would be dead. (Spits.)