Report: Majority of 17 international intelligence agencies believe COVID-19 started as accidental release from Wuhan lab.
Leaked intelligence dossier reportedly reveals China’s deceptions over coronovirus pandemic start
Legal Insurrection has been closely following the news related to the start of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic from the beginning of January.
In February, we covered the report from China on the probable laboratory origin of the virus. In March, we noted that there was a report that Chinese officials ordered the destruction of coronavirus laboratory samples in December.
Now, a dossier compiled by the so-called “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance asserts that China intentionally hid or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak.
The 15-page document from the intelligence agencies of the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, was obtained by Australia’s Saturday Telegraph newspaper and states that China’s secrecy amounted to an “assault on international transparency.”
The dossier touches on themes that have been discussed in media reports about the outbreak of the virus, including an initial denial by China that the virus could be transmitted between humans, the silencing or “disappearing” of doctors who tried to speak up, the destruction of evidence in laboratories and refusal to provide live samples to international scientists working on a vaccine.
Specifically, the file notes that China began censoring news of the virus on search engines and social media beginning Dec. 31, deleting terms including “SARS variation,” “Wuhan Seafood market” and “Wuhan Unknown Pneumonia.”
Intelligence agencies are reviewing the research led by scientist Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Virology Institute. According to this report, several studies they conducted focused on areas of concern.
In fact, the Daily Telegraph’s compelling report on the dossier also discusses how the team at the Wuhan Virology Institute was genetically modifying coronavirus.
It notes a 2013 study conducted by a team of researchers, including Dr Shi, who collected a sample of horseshoe bat faeces from a cave in Yunnan province, China, which was later found to contain a virus 96.2 per cent identical to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused COVID-19.
The research dossier also references work done by the team to synthesise SARS-like coronaviruses, to analyse whether they could be transmissible from bats to mammals. This means they were altering parts of the virus to test whether it was transmissible to different species.
Their November 2015 study, done in conjunction with the University of North Carolina, concluded that the SARS-like virus could jump directly from bats to humans and there was no treatment that could help.
The study acknowledges the incredible danger of the work they were conducting.
“The potential to prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks must be weighed against the risk of creating more dangerous pathogens,” they wrote.
You have to be a scientist to understand it, but below is the line that the governments’ research paper references from the study.
“To examine the emergence potential (that is, the potential to infect humans) of circulating bat CoVs, we built a chimeric virus encoding a novel, zoonotic CoV spike protein — from the RsSHCO14-CoV sequence that was isolated from Chinese horseshoe bats — in the context of the SARS-CoV mouse-adapted backbone,” the study states.
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 essence, the Chinese team appears to have purposely built a Franken-molecule that couldn’t be killed by the available antiviral treatments. Keep in mind, though, that whether or not the Wuhan coronavirus is genetically modified has yet to be officially determined.
Even if it is “natural,” that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have originated from a laboratory sample.
Increasingly, it appears as if investigators are heading toward the conclusion the coronavirus started to spread after accidental release from a laboratory.
Sources say not all 17 intelligence agencies agree that the lab was the source of the virus because there is not yet a definitive “smoking gun”. But confidence is high among 70-75% of the agencies.
— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) May 2, 2020
A Senior Intelligence Source tells me there is agreement among most of the 17 Intelligence agencies that COVID-19 originated in the Wuhan lab. The source stressed that the release is believed to be a MISTAKE, and was not intentional.
— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) May 2, 2020
Meanwhile, more countries are joining the Trump administration’s call for an investigation into China, the World Health Organization. and the origins of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
“There’s a global recognition that China is responsible for this crisis, wasn’t transparent, and that not getting to the bottom of this could lead to future pandemics,” the Atlantic Council’s Matthew Kroenig, author of a new book, “The Return of Great Power Rivalry,” told the Washington Examiner.
“This is a good sign that we’re seeing a number of key democratic allies in Europe and Asia with a pretty unified voice saying, ‘China is a problem, we need more information, and [to not be] intimidated by China’s heavy-handed response,’” Kroenig said, referring to the ruling Communist Party’s economic threats against nations that have been critical of the regime’s handling of the pandemic and lack of transparency.
“You’re seeing a consensus among America’s closest allies that values and national security interests, with regard to the relationship with China, now trumps economics,” former Australian defense ministry adviser Patrick Buchan told the Examiner.
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Comments
Well, one “cure” would be a well placed Hellfire, although the Chinese might not react well.
Do you recall how the Five Eyes Network was used by Hillary/Obama to spy on Trump and to make up the FAKE Russian Dossher?
Australia, UK, & Italy were involved in that crime.
So anything from them is HIGHLY suspect imo.
It sounds like Chinese papers admitted to engineering this. It does not take gene splicing to create favorable conditions for transfer and then select resulting mutations for further work. In fact, this pathogen readily mutates on its own.
Regardless of CCP’s arguments, a long string of events pretty much makes them guilty.
Hey who you going to believe, the vast majority of “intelligence” agencies, or the CNN favorite that says the chinese are innocent victims?
Next question:
If you developed a bio-weapon that would cripple the western countries economy, what would you different from what the chinese obviously did?
Maybe release it in the US rather than in China?
I have to agree. It is possible COVID-19 is something that was created while working on a bioweapon, but (1) for a bioweapon I would have expected something much more lethal, and (2) why release it in your own backyard instead of flooding your adversary?
We have not heard any more about all the Wuhan protests against the air pollution there.
Their communist government had all the MOTIVE in the world to commit such crimes……
Because releasing it among your own people would provide cover for what would be a covert attack on the rest of the world.
The history of communist governments has shown that if the deaths of a few million Chinese could promote China’s designs against the west, they’d consider that a small price to pay, if they considered it at all.
The chinese needed it to infect the entire west and stealthily. The communists have murdered millions of people, they don’t care if another couple hundred thousand chinese must be sacrificed.
SO, spread it in Wuhan, don’t allow them out unless they are headed to other countries.
And it worked. And the usual progs are going “but it had to be an accident”. Sure.
Spot on!
If China wanted to use a bio-war weapon (which is what you are talking about), they would develop it, make an effective vaccine, inoculate the vast majority of their populace (excepting certain groups they don’t like), and *THEN* release it worldwide.
In this case, they had not even gotten ‘Develop it’ done before it got away from them and started galloping around the world, which is why it has such a lousy lethality rate. And hopefully it teaches a lesson to the aggressive idiots who think biowar is winnable. Hint: It’s not. Earth is not a loving, peaceful planet. It wants to kill us, and we need to work like heck to keep our species alive, so stop trying to help it.
Doing that would make it clear it’s an act of war and nuclear weapons would be the result.
No, the chinese are not stupid. They just want to see the USA economically crippled in order to hide their own economic issues. They can’t win a war against us, so they cooked up a little virus.
Once again, what would they do different assuming they don’t want to get caught doing it on purpose?
I agree 100%. I don’t know if this is a bio weapon or not, but it does not seem to be the Andromeda Strain II. And if the Chinese Communists deliberately released this (as some are arguing), then why the heck did they release it in Wuhan instead of somewhere else where it could do more damage to the West?
Plausible deniability, I am not buying it, but clearly some are.
“…somewhere else where it could do more damage to the West?”
Ignoring the lives lost, the economic damage done to the west hasn’t even begun to pile up yet. That is just getting started with the first batch of unemployed at 30million and that just in the USA.
Don’t worry — the vile Dhimmi-crats will still find a way to blame Trump.
These useless, totalitarian idiots are allergic to facts and have a long-running, contemptible habit of refusing to face reality, where bad actor threats to the U.S. are concerned.
Also, that China’s release of this virus is alleged to be a “mistake,” should really be considered irrelevant, as a matter of nations formulating a robust, punitive policy response vis-a-vis China. The deceit and lies of the communist leadership ensured that the virus would spread around the globe, and, wreak death and economic havoc; outcomes that a more honest and transparent Chinese response would have largely averted.
This intel claim comes only a day or so after Trump stated that Chi-na would pay.
All the earmarks of communist propaganda I say.
Now answer the question of whether AFTER the initial release of the virus, China intentionally chose to unleash the virus on the rest of the world by leaving international flights open so they would inflict the same economic damage that they were taking themselves.
The sole reason for believing the release of the virus was a mistake is that no sane person would do such a thing on purpose.
Unfortunately, when dealing with a totalitarian dictatorship, that logic is unconvincing. Sure, it might have been a mistake. Or it might not. We might never know for sure.
Hear hear!!!!!!!!!
Democrats would.
No price is too high (for somebody else to pay) if there’s a chance it might damage PDJT.
Supposedly 96.2% of the virus is identical to a “natural” bat virus…that leaves 3.8& of something else. RNA viruses are easy to play with and do mix and match with one’s favorite pathogenic variants. The Chinese are playing with hybridized human DNA so, “ethically”, this is a walk in the park with a bat virus.
Intent to actively disseminate a virulent biological and carrying it out “passively” is still an attack. China will not back down at all. The CCP can’t… besides being it’s in their genes. This is really playing for all the marbles now.
They lost their marbles…….
Vox will have to wait for the official PRC spin to print a word about this one. NYT probably had a spin worked up already.
Would any of those intelligence agencies be ones that helped support the bogus Russian Collusion charges against Trump?
At this point, I have as much faith in the intelligence produced by intelligence agencies as I have in testimony sworn to by FBI agents- none at all whatsoever.
Maybe Leslie will report to us whether she joined the resistance protest today and went to the beach to stick her toe in the ocean surf.
From CA To NY, Thousands Across Nation Turn Out For Lockdown Protests
……it’s everywhere. People have had enough.
Via Daily Wire and Weazil Zippers
I saw a group of 13 motorcycles, most with a passenger out on the road today. I’m absolutely certain they were performing needed travel and just happened to be going in the same direction at the same time, because it’s incredibly hard to imagine such a peace loving law abiding group of people like that defying Dictator Cuomo’s ban on unnecessary travel.
There’s that number again. Why does 17 sound so familiar? Oh, that’s right – not too long ago 17 intelligence agencies confirmed Russia attempted to influence the 2016 election in Trumps favor. 0-17 they were.
Now I realize these are the international spooks, and I have no doubt the commies were up to no good, but you’ll excuse me if I wait for something a little more definitive.
basis for not flat out saying it was released on purpose is because people cannot fathom why a political entity would harm their own citizens to create a vector.
china plays the long game and cares nothing for its residents.
Yeah like Nazi Germany would ever do that to…….
Given that Communists are willing to kill thousands their own subjects in pursuit of their goals, one question bothers me: why make Wuhan ground zero for unleashing the Wuflu? What is the advantage over other locations in China? Wuhan is the 9th largest city in China, has several foreign consulates and is the major transportation hub of central China, but it seems like a not very efficient choice. Why would the Chinese communists not instead turn the Wuflu loose in Beijing or Hong Kong, where there is much more international travel and shipping than Wuhan, and could likely spread it faster worldwide?
And why the cockamamie “wet markets were the source of the Wuflu” alibi that fell apart almost immediately? That seems to have been thoroughly bungled.
There is no doubt that the Chinese Communists have a considerable amount of blood on their hands by lying and covering up the Wuflu. But this whole affair has all of the usual Communist lying, bungling and stupidity rather than a well-crafted plan. Is this really the best scheme they could come up with?
“Is this really the best scheme they could come up with?”
It’s working isn’t it? It has you thinking it must be an accident, because…
Beijing is a protected city, no way they let it loose there. Wuhan was perfect, easy to lock them in except for international flights.
Hong Kong origin would be instantly suspect. No, internal china city allows them to pretend it was an accident if it came from china while insisting it was from the USA. And it’s all working.
“Beijing is a protected city, no way they let it loose there.”
Why not? Does the Chinese government not control Beijing?
But why bother makIng any place in China ground zero? Why not just release it directly into New York or Los Angeles or London or Tokyo or Mexico City or Canada or any of several dozen other places in the West instead of Wuhan? That way there would be little to no warning, while allowing China to avoid economic devastation and perhaps escape responsibility. As it is the US had some chance to prepare (strangely considerate and sporting behavior for Communists, yes?).
Releasing the Wuflu in Wuhan is not perfect; it would be the hallmark of a dumb plan that would call unwanted attention to China while giving the West a chance to get ready. Releasing it directly in the West would be smarter and potentially more devastating.
“Why not? Does the Chinese government not control Beijing?”
Yes, Beijing is where the commie leadership lives. They “protect” it as a special city. Regular chinese citizens can’t live there, can’t even enter IIRC.
They release it in Wuhan to provide cover. These people don’t care if a few hundred thousand chinese are killed in the process, they have killed millions already.
Why Wuhan? For the same reason they placed a biolab there – it’s near a wet market that can (and maybe did) provide cover for the escape (or release) of the virus from the lab.
It seems to me that the scheme worked very well. Now, lets kick ass.
has a lab and is a major transportation hub with many consulates.
you just answered your own question in your own statement.
lot of travel from many countries instantly increasing vectors.
Leaked by mistake, in a pigs ass. This thing spread like wild fire globally, all in a matter of a couple of weeks. This was no mistake or an accident. It was a calculated event to shut down our economy, and it worked.
It makes the most sense that it escaped from the lab. However, saying that the Intel agencies say so actually DECREASES the likelihood of believability.
would that be the 17 agencies that said russia helped trump?
not very original. they could have at least said 15 or 33.
If this virus was released from a lab then the Chinese knew a lot more about it than they would have if it had suddenly appeared near a wet market.
They were studying it. Which makes their behavior after it was accidentally released all the more reprehensible.
I don’t know about any 17 agencies, but, LI’s resident human grizzly thinks it was INTENTIONALLY released from a Chinese lab.
An intentional release and subsequent events fit the evidence we have.