US Cover-Up of Pentagon’s Secretive Bioweapons Labs Poses Global Threat
13:31 GMT 13.04.2023 (Updated: 18:02 GMT 13.04.2023)
© AP Photo / Victor R. Caivano
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The US is blocking probes into its secretive overseas bio-laboratories while continuing its controversial experiments with hundreds of deadly pathogens in Ukraine; the Pentagon-funded overseas biolabs pose a direct threat Russia and other countries, too, warned Mark Sleboda, US military veteran and international affairs and security expert.
The State Duma on April 12 approved the final report of the parliamentary commission investigating the activities of US biological laboratories in Ukraine. The 200-page document is based on findings made by Russia's Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops over the past year due to new data obtained during the special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine. According to Russian lawmakers, Washington is developing a "universal" genetically engineered biological weapon designed to cause severe damage to adversaries comparable to that of a "nuclear winter." The Duma commission drew attention to the fact that the Pentagon-funded US bioweapons labs dot the globe, threatening the biological security of both Russia and the international community.
"The Pentagon is funding dozens of biological laboratories around the world – the Pentagon, not the Centers for Disease Control, not the Department of Health of the United States, the Pentagon," Mark Sleboda told Sputnik. "We know from documents that have been revealed as of years ago that they were looking for Russian-specific DNA, biological material. And (…) then they say, 'Oh, yeah, we were doing it, but it's completely for, you know, beneficent, you know, not serious reasons. Don't worry about it.' Don't look, you know, at the little man behind the curtain, this sort of thing. Well, sorry, as a Russian living in Russia, yeah, it concerns me. And the refusal of the US, their blocking in the [UN] Security Council of any attempt for the World Health Organization (WHO) to conduct investigations to have any degree of transparency is, of course, even more concerning."
12 April 2023, 09:42 GMT
Earlier this month, the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed that the US had resumed the program for the construction of biological laboratories in Ukraine after a temporary pause and is expanding the format to train Ukrainian biologists. The Russian MoD specifically cited the minutes of a meeting of the working group of US and Ukrainian specialists under the leadership of representatives of the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) dated October 20, 2022 on the plans for the implementation of the "Biological Threat Reduction Program" in Ukraine. The ministry is currently investigating a staggering 240 pathogens of dangerous diseases found in four laboratories in Ukraine, including cholera and anthrax. According to Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops, the US is creating components of biological weapons in the immediate vicinity of Russia's borders. The Russian MoD first shed light on the US controversial bioweapons research in 30 Ukrainian laboratories in February 2022.
"At least a couple of these biological laboratories have now fallen behind Russian lines in Ukraine," Sleboda said. "And Russia continues to pore through the information and the material that they found there, the Russian Defense Ministry has also just announced that 240 dangerous pathogens were found in a total of just four of these laboratories, including cholera and anthrax that were weaponized and intended for offensive purposes. So, that alone, to my mind, is enough for Russia to continue the special military operation until every one of these laboratories is gone. And we've heard in recent days, the Russian military has also announced that although the US put these programs in Ukraine on pause last year (…) they have since resumed them and sought to expand the operation, all the while denying any type of international transparency and accountability investigation into what they continue to do. And it's not just Russia. Similar biological laboratories have been placed around China and they are also extremely concerned and want the US, if these are beneficent, to engage in transparency of what they're doing with, you know, no real justification of why they would not."
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