OPERATION: GET FAUCI
CIA accused of hiding records that analysts took ‘monetary incentives’ to bury COVID lab leak finding
By Josh Christenson
By Josh Christenson
NY POST
CIA tried to pay off analysts to bury findings that COVID lab leak was likely: whistleblower
An offshoot of the conservative Heritage Foundation is suing the Central Intelligence Agency, accusing it of withholding records detailing payoffs to analysts to bury findings that a lab leak was the most likely explanation for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The think tank’s Oversight Project filed a federal lawsuit against the CIA Dec. 22, alleging the agency did not comply with its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about analysts who allegedly “received monetary incentives to change their position on the origins of the virus,” according to a copy of the complaint first reported Tuesday by the Daily Caller.
The suit in Washington, DC, federal court asks for “a preliminary and permanent injunction compelling” the CIA to expedite the production of records requested by Heritage within 20 days or “by such other date as the Court deems appropriate.”
“The Biden Administration has refused to be transparent with Congress and the American people over the origins of COVID-19,” said Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for the Oversight Project.
“A CIA whistleblower has made serious allegations that the agency bought off employees of the agency to further obstruct efforts to get to the truth of the virus’s origins. This obstruction cannot stand and we’re fighting in federal court to get to the bottom of this.”
Published Dec. 26, 2023
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| CHINESE SUPPLIED COVID GENE CODE 01/20 |
CIA tried to pay off analysts to bury findings that COVID lab leak was likely: whistleblower
An offshoot of the conservative Heritage Foundation is suing the Central Intelligence Agency, accusing it of withholding records detailing payoffs to analysts to bury findings that a lab leak was the most likely explanation for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The think tank’s Oversight Project filed a federal lawsuit against the CIA Dec. 22, alleging the agency did not comply with its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about analysts who allegedly “received monetary incentives to change their position on the origins of the virus,” according to a copy of the complaint first reported Tuesday by the Daily Caller.
The suit in Washington, DC, federal court asks for “a preliminary and permanent injunction compelling” the CIA to expedite the production of records requested by Heritage within 20 days or “by such other date as the Court deems appropriate.”
“The Biden Administration has refused to be transparent with Congress and the American people over the origins of COVID-19,” said Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for the Oversight Project.
“A CIA whistleblower has made serious allegations that the agency bought off employees of the agency to further obstruct efforts to get to the truth of the virus’s origins. This obstruction cannot stand and we’re fighting in federal court to get to the bottom of this.”
A project of the conservative Heritage Foundation is suing the Central Intelligence Agency for withholding records about allegedly paying off analysts to bury its findings on COVID-19 origins.
Getty Images
The think tank’s Oversight Project filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against the CIA, alleging the agency did not comply with its September Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Future Publishing via Getty Images
A senior-level CIA agent told House Republican committee chairmen in September that the agency offered payments to six analysts tasked with determining the origins of SARS-CoV-2 if they said that the virus jumped from animals to humans.
The Sept. 12 letter from Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) to CIA Director William Burns also demanded documentation and communications about the payments.
“According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” the House panel chairmen wrote to Burns.
7A Sept. 12 letter from Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) to the CIA also demanded documents about the payments.AP
“The seventh member of the Team, who also happened to be the most senior, was the lone officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis.”
“The whistleblower further contends that to come to the eventual public determination of uncertainty, the other six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position,” they added of the analyst group, which included “experienced officers with significant scientific expertise.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project filed its FOIA request for records related to the internal CIA analysis on Sept. 20 — but has yet to receive the documents or an explanation for the delay, the complaint states.
A senior-level CIA agent told House Republican committee chairmen in September that the agency offered payments to six analysts tasked with determining the origins of SARS-CoV-2 if they said that the virus jumped from animals to humans.
The Sept. 12 letter from Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) to CIA Director William Burns also demanded documentation and communications about the payments.
“According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” the House panel chairmen wrote to Burns.
7A Sept. 12 letter from Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) to the CIA also demanded documents about the payments.AP“The seventh member of the Team, who also happened to be the most senior, was the lone officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis.”
“The whistleblower further contends that to come to the eventual public determination of uncertainty, the other six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position,” they added of the analyst group, which included “experienced officers with significant scientific expertise.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project filed its FOIA request for records related to the internal CIA analysis on Sept. 20 — but has yet to receive the documents or an explanation for the delay, the complaint states.
Wenstrup has since alleged that Dr. Anthony Fauci, was secretly “escorted” into CIA headquarters to “influence” the findings of those CIA analysts at one point.AP
Wenstrup has since alleged that the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was secretly “escorted” into CIA headquarters to “influence” the findings of those analysts at one point.
In February, the FBI became the first US intelligence agency to conclude the coronavirus pandemic most likely began with a lab leak.
The Energy Department delivered the same assessment that same month, citing new intelligence.
Wenstrup has since alleged that the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was secretly “escorted” into CIA headquarters to “influence” the findings of those analysts at one point.
In February, the FBI became the first US intelligence agency to conclude the coronavirus pandemic most likely began with a lab leak.
The Energy Department delivered the same assessment that same month, citing new intelligence.
The US Intelligence Community found “biosafety concerns” and “genetic engineering” took place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where scientists also became sick in the fall of 2019.AFP via Getty Images
But months later, in a 10-page report, the entire US intelligence community, which includes those agencies along with others, declassified its COVID origins findings, which had most “agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not genetically engineered.”
The report, however, found “biosafety concerns” and “genetic engineering” took place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where several scientists became sick in the fall of 2019 with symptoms “consistent with but not diagnostic of COVID-19.”
A Government Accountability Office report in June found that US taxpayers footed the bill for more than $2 million of risky gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab, made possible through grants provided by the National Institutes of Health, which included Fauci’s NIAID, and the United States Agency for International Development.
But months later, in a 10-page report, the entire US intelligence community, which includes those agencies along with others, declassified its COVID origins findings, which had most “agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not genetically engineered.”
The report, however, found “biosafety concerns” and “genetic engineering” took place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where several scientists became sick in the fall of 2019 with symptoms “consistent with but not diagnostic of COVID-19.”
A Government Accountability Office report in June found that US taxpayers footed the bill for more than $2 million of risky gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab, made possible through grants provided by the National Institutes of Health, which included Fauci’s NIAID, and the United States Agency for International Development.
A Government Accountability Office report in June found that US taxpayers footed the bill for more than $2 million of risky gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab.AP
Fauci is scheduled to sit for a deposition with the House COVID subcommittee on Jan. 8 and 9, 2024, to answer questions about his handling of inquiries about the US public health response and to “address the numerous controversies that have arisen during and after the pandemic,” according to Wenstrup.
John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence under former president Donald Trump, testified before Congress earlier this year that the “lab leak theory” was the “only” credible explanation for the pandemic.
“My informed assessment as a person with as much access as anyone to our government’s intelligence … has been and continues to be that a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense,” Ratcliffe told members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in April.
Fauci is scheduled to sit for a deposition with the House COVID subcommittee on Jan. 8 and 9, 2024, to answer questions about his handling of inquiries about the US public health response and to “address the numerous controversies that have arisen during and after the pandemic,” according to Wenstrup.
John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence under former president Donald Trump, testified before Congress earlier this year that the “lab leak theory” was the “only” credible explanation for the pandemic.
“My informed assessment as a person with as much access as anyone to our government’s intelligence … has been and continues to be that a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense,” Ratcliffe told members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in April.
John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence under former president Donald Trump, testified before Congress that the “lab leak theory” was the “only” credible explanation for the pandemic.
AP
“If our intelligence and evidence supporting a lab leak was placed side by side with our intelligence and evidence pointing to a natural origins or spillover theory, the lab leak side of the ledger would be long, convincing, even overwhelming — while the spillover side would be nearly empty and tenuous.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of nearly 7 million people across the globe, according to the World Health Organization.
“If our intelligence and evidence supporting a lab leak was placed side by side with our intelligence and evidence pointing to a natural origins or spillover theory, the lab leak side of the ledger would be long, convincing, even overwhelming — while the spillover side would be nearly empty and tenuous.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of nearly 7 million people across the globe, according to the World Health Organization.
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