Michael Shellenberger, the founder of the organisation Public, has reported on a new CIA whistleblower alleging that the agency used monetary incentives to undermine the search for COVID origins, echoing the allegations made by FBI whistleblowers last May. According to this new whistleblower, six out of seven CIA analysts assigned to determine the virus’ origin believed Covid came from a lab in China, but reversed their assessments after they were given monetary incentives to do so.
The Chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed this information in a letter yesterday, and although the Office of the Inspector General of the CIA or Intelligence Community have not confirmed the allegations, this fits into a pattern of obfuscation and deception that have distorted not only the COVID origins debate, but other major intelligence assessments.
The government has become extremely comfortable with lying to the public, and this whistleblower’s allegations add to suspicions that the ODNI misrepresented US intelligence on COVID-19’s origins.
New CIA whistleblower alleges that agency used monetary incentives to undermine search for COVID origins, echoing allegations by FBI whistleblowers last May
There is no expert consensus on whether Covid originated in nature or leaked from a lab, we’ve been told. According to a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), released in June, the American intelligence community is divided: two intelligence agencies believed the virus had a lab origin, five agencies concluded that the origin was natural, and two were unable to reach conclusions.
But intelligence analysts may be more united behind the lab leak hypothesis than we’ve been led to believe. According to a new whistleblower, six of seven CIA analysts assigned to determine the virus’ origin believed Covid came from a lab in China, but reversed their assessments after they were given “a significant monetary incentive to change their position.”
If true, the CIA may have engaged in a coverup.
Neither the Office of the Inspector General of the CIA nor of the Intelligence Community has confirmed the whistleblower’s allegations. One or both offices may contest the whistleblower’s account. And the CIA is just one of 18 US intelligence agencies.
But the CIA remains the “first among equals” among intelligence agencies, and the whistleblower is a multi-decade senior-level officer, said the chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, who revealed the new information in a letter yesterday.
The CIA whistleblower’s allegations add to suspicions that ODNI misrepresented US intelligence on COVID-19’s origins. In its June report, ODNI did not reveal the names of the Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists who fell ill in the fall of 2019, as the Covid Origins Act required, even though, according to reporting by both Public and The Wall Street Journal, the intelligence community knew their names.
The whistleblower’s allegations fit into a pattern of obfuscation and deception that have distorted not only the Covid origins debate, but other major intelligence assessments, as well. The government has become extremely comfortable with lying to us.
Fauci in the Shadows
