Author Topic: US dismissal of concerns over biomilitary activities shows irresponsible attitud  (Read 2923 times)

Roger

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US dismissal of concerns over biomilitary activities shows irresponsible attitude: Chinese FM
Global Times

March 10, 2022


   The international community has expressed grave concern over US biomilitary activities and for the US to dismiss this as "fake news" shows an irresponsible attitude, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday when asked to comment on the US' denial that it operates biowarfare labs in the Ukraine.

The international community has no idea what the US has done in its domestic Fort Detrick lab and the 336 biolabs it has abroad, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian.

"We appeal to all parties to ensure the safety of the biological laboratories in Ukraine under the current circumstances, for the sake of people in Ukraine and in the surrounding regions," said Zhao. The Russian Ministry of Defense said on the same day that documents showed experiments on coronavirus samples from bats have been conducted in the biolabs founded and financed by the US in Ukraine.

Zhao also expressed concerns over US opposition to the founding of a multilateral inspections mechanism, and whether it complies with the Chemical Weapons Convention.

"Despite being a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the US remains the only country in the world that still possesses chemical weapons. It has twice exceeded the time limit to destroy all its chemical weapons stockpiles despite repeated requests by the international community," Zhao noted.

Zhao added that the data he mentioned about US biomilitary activities came from the US itself.

Zhao emphasized that China firmly opposes any country developing, possessing or using biological or chemical weapons, urging the US again to offer full clarification on its biological military activities at home and abroad, while also calling for it to accept multilateral inspections and finish the elimination of its chemical weapons stockpile as soon as possible.

According to the Arms Control Association, as part of its treaty obligations to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the US must finish destroying all of its declared chemical weapons stockpiles by September 2023, and as of May 2021, the US has not yet destroyed part of its Category 1 chemical weapons stockpile.





Roger

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UK and US Jointly Develop Biological Weapons
New Eastern OUtlook, Vladimir Platov

March 14, 2022


   Documentary evidence of Washington's aggressive plans for developing and manufacturing biological weapons in secret US biological laboratories in Ukraine, banned by international conventions, has been uncovered during the Russian special operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine, and it is frankly horrifying! Although suspicions of such US activities have already been repeatedly published by many media outlets and their verification and official confirmation of such criminal anti-human plans by Washington was one of the goals of Moscow's special operation to demilitarize Ukraine.

In this regard, the former weak position in bringing clarity to the exposure and suppression of such forthcoming US crimes is highly surprising. First of all, it should have been long ago that the international community and international institutions should have initiated an independent inspection of some 400 such secret Pentagon biological laboratories scattered around the world, whose location in specific countries is clearly linked to the theatres of future US military action against "adversaries".

The unconditional involvement of Britain, which has long collaborated with the US in the development of chemical and biological weapons, has also surprisingly been ignored in relation to such criminal plans.

Thus, the US Federal Contractor Registry shows that the Pentagon has spent more than $70 billion in recent years alone on experiments with deadly viruses and nerve agents at the Porton Down military biological laboratory, which is located near Salisbury in Great Britain. The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), led by the US Department of Defense, has funded a number of defense projects at this so-called "Defense Science and Technology Laboratory" (DSTL) at Porton Down. These include experimental infection of primates with anthrax, Ebola, Marburg, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, western and eastern equine encephalitis viruses, and poisoning of animals with mustard gas and phosgene. It is well known that experiments with LSD have been "incapacitating" British troops during exercises. The testing of chemicals on humans, however, was not out of the ordinary for Porton Down. According to El Pais, in 1963 Porton Down staff decided to test the vulnerability of public infrastructure to chemical and biological attacks by spreading a bacterium on the London Underground, which was initially thought to be harmless but turned out to be quite capable of causing septicemia.

The DTRA has full access to all scientific and technical developments at the Porton Down "laboratory". Such experiments involving animals are considered secret in Great Britain and it is a criminal offence under Chapter 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act to reveal information about such experiments.

According to information received by the media, military experiments with chemical and biological weapons have increased at Porton Down in recent years. Thus, between 2005 and 2016, 122,000 animals were infected with deadly viruses or poisoned with chemicals. The "laboratory" uses mice, guinea pigs, rats, piglets, ferrets, sheep and monkeys in its research.

It is also known that British military "scientists" received funding from the DTRA to develop a chemical testing system from 2012 to 2017, with experiments on the effects of VX and VM poisoning agents being conducted at Porton Down in 2015.

In 2013, scientists from Porton Down sprayed gas on the London Underground, which the British government tried to keep quiet about and not tell its citizens. At the time, thousands of persons were gassed without their knowledge, and no one asked for their consent to take part in such barbaric "research" against their own people. Nevertheless, data about this is recorded in a British Home Office document, telling also about other programs conducted jointly by the United States and Britain.

Information about the UK's Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) testing of the chemical poison VX on guinea pigs was posted on the US National Center for Biotechnology Information website on August 9, 2018. And on September 1, 2018, a report emerged on behalf of 10 more researchers at the DSTL about testing Bioscavenger, which is an effective delayed therapeutic intervention for VX chemical weapons poisoning. The DSTL itself officially admitted in mid-2016 that they were producing the poisonous substance and testing it on animals. The DTRA is a major foreign client of the UK's DSTL. Between 2012 and 2017, British military scientists received $39.7 million for the Pentagon's chemical system testing program, and judging by the US Federal Procurement System, the DSTL and DTRA collaboration continues.

The Porton Down secret laboratory has repeatedly been at the center of scandals involving human experimentation. Up to 20,000 people participated in litigation with the DSTL from 1949 to 1989. And in 2008, the UK Ministry of Defense paid 360 veterans £3 million without admitting responsibility.

According to The Guardian, in the late 2000s, the US and Britain experimented with biological weapons in Afghanistan, using a specially bred fungus called fusarium oxysporum and pleospora papaveracae to kill poppy crops. In 2000, the international NGO Sunshine Project published a report on the danger of this fungus infecting and killing not only coca, poppy and cannabis, but also other plants in environmentally sensitive areas of Asia and the New World. An indication of the dangers of such fungi is the fact that their use is banned in the US. According to the Sunshine Project report, genetically modified strains of the fungus have been bred in the US, which means that the deliverables can be classified as biological weapon.

Given this information alone, the extent of Britain's involvement in the possible development with the US of biological weapons already needs to be investigated in detail.

Roger

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Ukraine was given $1.6 mln to study how migratory birds transmit infections — ministry
TASS

March 10, 2022


   Funding for a US project in Ukrainian biolabs to study transmission of infections by migratory birds totaled $1.6 million, according to a slide presentation for a news conference by Igor Kirillov, head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces at the Russian armed forces.

The presentation shows that the project was implemented in 2018-2020. Allocations reached $1.3 million. The slides show migration routes of wild ducks from southern Ukraine as tracked by GPS.

"During spring migration some of the birds migrated to the northeast," the materials said. "The maximum distance is 2,000 km, some birds covered the distance in 3-4 days."

"At the time of nesting, the birds were in Russia," the documents showed.

The main direction of duck migration in the spring is east and north, while a small portion of the birds migrate to the west and south, the papers said.

The slides indicate that 42 outbreaks of the H5N1 subtype (the highly pathogenic "bird flu") were recorded in Crimea, Kherson, Odessa and Sumy in 2005-2006, and three more outbreaks in Crimea in 2008. The virus affected chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, mute swans and cormorants.

Allocations for a project to study the spectrum of pathogens that are spread by bats reached $1.3 million. More than 60 scientists from the US, Ukraine and Georgia were involved in the studies, which are scheduled to run from 2020-2023. The program was aimed at identifying new viral, bacterial pathogens that are significant for human and animal health in bats in Ukraine and Georgia.

On Sunday, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters that the Russian armed forces, during a special operation in Ukraine, uncovered facts showing a US-funded military biological program was being implemented there. According to the general, information obtained from the employees of Ukrainian biological labs indicated that on February 24 there was an urgent destruction of extremely dangerous pathogens for the following diseases: plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases.



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   WHO recommends that Ukraine destroys all dangerous pathogens in its labs
TASS

March 11, 2022


   The World Health Organization (WHO) has strongly recommended that Ukraine destroyed all dangerous pathogens in its laboratories to prevent their possible leak, the WHO has told TASS.

When asked what should be done to prevent a possible leak, the WHO said it "promotes biosecurity at laboratories, e.g. prevention of accidental or deliberate release of pathogens."

"As part of this work, WHO has strongly recommended to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine and other responsible bodies to destroy high-threat pathogens to prevent any potential spills," the organization said.

It called upon all parties "to cooperate in the safe and secure disposal of any pathogens they come across, and to reach out for technical assistance as needed." The organization "will assist wherever possible with technical guidance and coordination."

WHO also said that its country office in Ukraine "has been working for several years with the Ministry of Health and other partners, including other WHO Member States, to support the enhancing of biosafety and biosecurity of labs," as well as the capacity of lab personnel, "in particular to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic."

Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said earlier that evidence of a US-funded military biological program developed in Ukraine had been found during Russia's special operation in that country. The Defense Ministry also published documents proving that the US conducted research in Ukraine into ways that migratory birds can carry dangerous infections and the use of bats as biological warfare agents.