What's Really Going on With Those Ukraine Bio Labs?

Propaganda isn’t just for Russians. This is something we should all be aware of at this point, but it seems that half of the country thinks propaganda is only used by other countries. But a possible example of American propaganda is emerging as I type. It all started with some posts on 4chan when Russian officials were saying they had information about bioweapons labs in Ukraine that the United States was involved with. 4chan researchers then went and found links on the American embassy’s website that led to several info sheets about those labs, seeming to confirm that there are indeed labs that are researching dangerous viruses in Ukraine with American involvement. Those links have since been scrubbed and are now dead, but archives of them still exist. No one wanted to report it because no one was sure it was real.

And then something happened that blew the “there are no labs in Ukraine” narrative to bits. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was questioning Under Sec. of State Victoria Nuland about bio labs in Ukraine, and she admitted they are there and there’s lots of dangerous stuff in them and no one secured the dangerous stuff before the Russians invaded.

“Does Ukraine have chemical or biological weapons?” asked Rubio. Nuland hesitated and did not say no. Instead, she said, “Ukraine has biological research facilities which in fact we are now quite concerned Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of.”

And it continues to be mystifying how the US Government can issue such emphatic denials about the existence of dangerous biological labs in Ukraine given what Victoria Nuland said yesterday while testifying. Ignoring this makes it disappear domestically, but not in reality. pic.twitter.com/speKmOoMzD

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 10, 2022

Jen Psaki, everyone’s favorite circle-back girl at the White House, tweeted out a string of hysterical posts the next day trying to mop up this fiasco. We were told there were no bio labs and now the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs said under oath that’s not true. Here we go with the spin machine. “We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine,” she said, calling it a “conspiracy theory.” She continued hyperventilating, “This is preposterous,” and blamed it on disinformation.

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This is preposterous. It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent.

— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) March 9, 2022

But to this day, the embassy website still has this on its page.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program collaborates with partner countries to counter the threat of outbreaks (deliberate, accidental, or natural) of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases.  The program accomplishes its bio-threat reduction mission through development of a bio-risk management culture; international research partnerships; and partner capacity for enhanced bio-security, bio-safety, and bio-surveillance measures. The Biological Threat Reduction Program’s priorities in Ukraine are to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern and to continue to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats.

The fact-checkers at The Dispatch claim the labs are not controlled or owned by the U.S.:

The United States does not own or control any “biolabs” in Ukraine and any funding from the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program under the Cooperative Threat Reduction program (also known as the Nunn-Lugar program) serves to invest in the the security of the facilities and help ensure that skilled scientists work on useful projects and not poached to help WMD programs in rogue nations.

The rumor originated from a misinterpretation of a 2005 agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine: “Concerning Cooperation in the Area of Prevention of Proliferation of Technology, Pathogens and Expertise that could be Used in the Development of Biological Weapons.” For years Russia has alleged that American involvement in securing labs in former Soviet states is part of a massive conspiracy to develop biological weapons, in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention.

U.S. officials and the White House are calling Russia’s claim that there are “bioweapons” labs in Ukraine funded by the U.S. “absurd” and “laughable” and “Russian propaganda.”

John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, completely dismissed the request posed to him to disclose any type of bio labs in Ukraine that have Pentagon backing. Kirby went so far as to tell the press, “I wouldn’t give it a drop of ink if I were you.” Is it me, or is this guy actually doing a dance to sell this? He looks like he’s shuffling off to Buffalo behind the podium.

We are not developing biological or chemical weapons inside Ukraine. This is textbook Russian propaganda. pic.twitter.com/STMVozrtK4

— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) March 10, 2022

The AP reported that Pentagon spokesperson Eric Pahon claimed, “The mission of the Lugar Center is to contribute to protection of citizens from biological threats, promote public and animal health through infectious disease detection, epidemiological surveillance, and research for the benefit of Georgia, the Caucasus region and the global community.”

It’s clear according to the embassy website quoted above that the U.S. has “research partnerships” in Ukraine working on “bio-security, bio-safety and bio-surveillance,” whatever that means.

It seems to me this is a case of tom-a-to versus tom-ah-to. What Russia is calling “bioweapons,” the U.S. is calling “bio-research,” and do any of us believe there’s a difference? My BS alarm is ringing. First, the government says, “there are no labs!” But when called out about their own websites saying otherwise, they send out the troops to define what the labs are: “No, they’re not weapons labs: they’re research labs.”

Jennifer Griffin on Fox News says the U.S. is working with Ukraine on “converting” the facilities “safely”:

It is a long program that has existed where the Pentagon has partnered with these biolabs. These were Soviet-era labs that—remember the Nunn-Lugar Bill and trying to deal with proliferation when the Soviet Union ended—that is part of this effort to try to clean up those Soviet-era labs and make sure that nothing escapes from those labs. And so the U.S. has been very open about its involvement there with that. But what Russia does is they take that information, distort it, turn it around, and turn it into disinformation.

Here is Jennifer Griffin laundering Victoria Nuland talking points on behalf of the Pentagon

She offers no proof to back up these claimspic.twitter.com/dgjf9vxjEX

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) March 10, 2022

This is supposed to make us feel better, but all it did for me is affirm that the labs are unsafe, they contain anthrax, and we have our dirty hands all over them. But “Tap Dances with Wolves” at the Pentagon said it’s laughable to suggest there’s any connection to bio-labs in Ukraine. Anthrax is a bioweapon, isn’t it? And based on our “0 days without an accident” coronavirus record, does anyone believe the labs are safer in our hands?

Can you blame us for wanting to know what our country has been up to in laboratories across the world? We’ve just suffered through a two-year pandemic after a ~~bioweapon~~ virus was released or escaped or mutated (they still haven’t confirmed) near an American-funded coronavirus lab in Wuhan, China. Let’s not forget this gem in Vanity Fair last year that came out after Dr. Fauci vociferously denied any involvement with the lab.

On Wednesday, the NIH sent a letter to members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that acknowledged two facts. One was that EcoHealth Alliance, a New York City–based nonprofit that partners with far-flung laboratories to research and prevent the outbreak of emerging diseases, did indeed enhance a bat coronavirus to become potentially more infectious to humans, which the NIH letter described as an “unexpected result” of the research it funded that was carried out in partnership with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

More importantly, could Putin believe that people are screwing around with anthrax near his border and consider it a serious threat?

Tucker Carlson got the State Department to issue a very carefully worded statement about this debacle. If you ever wanted to see propaganda up close, this is it. They’ve been lying to us for decades and now we are supposed to believe them?

The U.S. Department of Defense does not own or operate biological laboratories in Ukraine. Under Secretary Nuland was referring to Ukranian diagnostic and biodefense laboratories during her testimony, which are not biological weapons facilities. These institutions counter biological threats throughout the country.

The propagandists I’m worried about right now are in the White House, the Pentagon, and the corporate U.S. media. Whether the U.S. calls them “bioresearch labs” or “bioweapons labs” is irrelevant. The labs are there, they contain bioweapons like anthrax, and I want to know why everyone in our government lied about them and continues to do so even after being caught.

In response to the State Department’s legalese, Carlson said, “That means nothing! You could describe our nuclear stockpile correctly as defensive.” He continued, “When are they going to stop lying and tell us what’s going on here?” Based on the U.S. government’s history with lying that got us into wars, I’m going to bet never.

Watch Tucker’s whole segment on this. It’s eye-opening.