The Global Menace of Biological Warfare

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A Red Alert !

In 1975, the nations of the world had gotten together to sign the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention to ban manufacture, storage and use of biological warfare weapons. Yet, in 2019, the world saw the disastrous spread of the Covid-19 pandemic that infected 523 million people globally and killed some 6.3 million. It caused a hit of over two trillion dollars to the global economy and nearly caused a recession. Even as the world was emerging from the Covid pandemic, we now hear reports of a Monkey Pox virus rearing its head. The world is still to get to the bottom of the origin of Covid-19. Was it a natural epidemic, an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or worse – a staged accident to gain deniability for the deliberately induced pandemic? China and the World Health Organisation (WHO) made a mockery of that investigation.

We now have received Russian reports of incriminating material recovered from some of the over 30 bio-warfare labs that the US Department of Defense had funded and run in Ukraine. This could have been dismissed as propaganda but for the fact that most of it is confirmed from open sources in the USA itself. So, where will it all end? Will the world die out from induced pandemics long before it will die of global warming or a nuclear winter?

War is an abomination but a war fought honorably – where soldier show great courage and self-sacrificing altruism in defence of their nation and its values – does have its redeeming features. But wars waged by toxins and poisons represent a horrible sickness of the human mind. In 2019, China was getting panicky about America’s mounting pressure over Taiwan, South China Sea, Hongkong and Xinjiang. There were indications that it apprehended that the USA was going to unleash the Bat Corona virus on it. So, perhaps, it decided to strike first and unleashed Covid-19 upon the world. The world economy was grievously hit and was showing tenuous signs of recovery when the Ukraine War started.

However, China was not the only country working on Bat Corona viruses and other such lethal pathogens. So was the United States. What is more, the USA had established a series of biological warfare laboratories in former Soviet states like Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine. Ukraine had become a virtual bridge head for research in Bat Corona viruses, Avian Flu, and Congo-Crimean Hemorrhagic fevers. These countries shared bat and bird populations with Russia and as such were natural foci for the spread of these viruses into Russia. Their use could be disguised as natural outbreaks of diseases. So, apart from spreading democracy to Russia and its neighbours, Ukraine and Georgia were turned into major bridgeheads for destabilization and the spread and projection of viruses and pathogens to kill the people of Russia in their millions (if need arose for such attacks). These labs were not for defensive research (as claimed) but offensive in orientation. Like Pakistan, Ukraine and Georgia were most enthusiastic about renting out their territory to the US and NATO for hostile actions designed to destabilise Russia. Inherent in all this was the diabolical design of first spreading disease and misery and then selling vaccines, ventilators, protective clothing, face masks and drugs to make huge profits. Such thinking represents a vile sickness of the human mind that is dangerous for the future survival of the human race.

The sad historical fact is that both World War I and II had originated in Europe. Europe now seems determined to ensure that not only World War III starts again in Europe but is fought by the vilest means, that may include nuclear, biological and chemical warfare weapons of mass destruction (WMD). They preach rationality and humanistic values to the rest of mankind. Their actions, unfortunately, are premised upon greed and zero sums games that usually end in horrendous conflicts and world wars. This urge for domination, control and economic exploitation is at the root of all wars and conflict. Dangerous pathogens and toxins are being made in laboratories in many countries and stored on a massive scale for actual use. This is unprecedented and dangerous and could end the human race itself. The world may not die with a nuclear bang but could well end in a sick whimper with another devastating pandemic.

There is an urgent need to strengthen and add teeth to the biological warfare convention and monitor all such facilities in all countries and impose the harshest sanctions for violation. A section of the elite in the major powers seem to imply that the globe is overpopulated and biological warfare would serve a Malthusian purpose by decimating the number of humans on this planet. This would ease pressure on scarce and dwindling resources. This is the type of ghoulish thinking that was behind the Jewish Holocaust. There is an urgent need to name and shame the people behind this sick thinking and ensure that the 1975 Toxin and Biological Weapons Convention is adhered to most strictly by all the nations of the world.

The Sun tabloid 21 Dec 2021
The Sun tabloid 21 Dec 2021

US Biological Warfare Efforts

The Covid pandemic broke out in the end of 2019 and caused severe panic and distress all over the globe. The large-scale panic induced by the pandemic forced analysts all over the globe to frantically research the latest advances in this fast emerging domain of weaponising viruses and pathogens as WMD. The analysts realized that despite the Biological Convention of 1975, almost all major powers (USA, China, and perhaps Russia and even Europe) were feverishly engaged in biological warfare research and development. This was mostly justified as defensive research to pre-empt nature or safeguard ones country from such attacks by hostile nations.

The United States was leading the pack. Not only was it conducting the research on its own soil but under Dr Fauci’s “Gain of Function” (GOF) research programme was outsourcing this research to China, Eastern Europe and other destinations – so that if there was a leak, local populations in other countries would suffer the consequences. Mainland USA would be safe from such accidents. Surprisingly, most of the information was available in open sources on the Internet itself. From these open sources it is possible to piece together a fairly accurate picture of the bio-warfare programmes of the USA. Those of China have already been studied in great detail.

US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (MIRD). The American Army MIRD is located at Fort Detrick in Maryland. It has been conducting research on dangerous pathogens like Bat Corona viruses, Ebola, MERS, etc. In July 2014, the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ordered a safety audit inspection of this biotech facility. It concluded that it lacked facilities to decontaminate waste water. As such, this could lead to leakage of dangerous pathogens. It ordered a temporary halt on all such research at Fort Detrick. Thus, in 2014, (during President Obama’s administration), the US Government paused all Gain of Function (GOF) research being conducted in the US. GOF research was defined as “research reasonably anticipated to confer attributes that enhance pathogenicity and transmissibility in mammals.” It was alleged by Senator Rand Paul that this temporary federal pause in GOF research funding was cleverly sought to be bypassed by Dr Fauci, the head of US National Institute of Health (NIH). His solution seemed simple – off shore such research, give it to the Wuhan Institute of Virology through an NGO (led by Peter Dszak of US Eco-health Alliance). He was given a grant of $3.7 million to offshore these research projects to China and other countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and South East Asia. Of this, some $3 billion grant, some $600,000 was given to the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

There was another underlying/unstated intention. From countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, such pathogens could exploit local vectors like birds and bats and spread the contagion to Russia or China and other target countries. Clever play of words was used to obfuscate the GOF aspects of the research being outsourced. There were direct accusations by Republican Senator Rand Paul on the floor of the Senate to this effect. What precisely was GOF? Some defined it as introduction of a mutation that enhances the genes’ functional properties. It either increases virulence or transmissibility in humans. One biologist Charles Schmidt stated that GOF was all in the eye of the beholder. (Cited in BMB Today member magazine of the American Society for Biochemistry & Microbiology, 21 Nov 2021 Issue). Subsequently, after the Covid pandemic broke, Dr Fauci would play upon these nuances in the American Senate to strenuously deny that he had funded any GOF research in China. The Bat Corona virus program in China was funded through the Eco-Heath Alliance NGO of Peter Dszak. Dszak was later part of the WHO investigating team!

However, the fact is, full-fledged biological warfare labs were funded and built by the US Department of Defense itself (either through Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) or Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)). The funding by the US Department of Defense clearly underlined the hostile or offensive nature of this biological research. It was not so much for prevention of outbreak of diseases but for waging offensive biological warfare in hostile states.

Kazakhstan-based Research Institute for Bio-Safety Problems. The Khazakstan National Centre for Biotechnology received millions of dollars from the US Government. This location was considered ideal for Bat Corona virus research as it borders both China and Russia. In 2019, a study on Bat Corona virus lineages from Khazakstan was published by this institute. It conducted a deep study of bat fauna and noted great similarities in bats of China, France, Spain and South Africa. Bats from Khazakstan migrate to China and Ukraine. Reportedly, this institute had a store house of 278 pathogens and strains of some 48 infectious diseases.

R Lugar Centre Georgia (Tbilisi). This covert US bio-weapons laboratory was ideally located to target Russia and do research in animal and bird species native to that region. The Tbilisi bio-lab in Georgia was also engaged in Bat Corona virus research and research in animal and bird species native to that region. Vectors like migratory birds and bats were selected to spread viral infections into Russia and cause pandemics like Avian Flu and Bat Corona viruses.

Ukraine as a Bridge head for Biological Warfare?

The biological warfare infrastructure in Georgia and Kazakhstan, however, was modest compared to the large and elaborate infrastructure established in Ukraine by the US Department of Defense and agencies like DARPA and DRTA. Actually, the Ukraine programme predated the 2014 GOF research offshoring drive. In fact, in 2010, US Senator Dick Lugar had applauded the opening of the Interim Central Defense Laboratory in Odessa (Ukraine) on the Internet. He had announced that it would be instrumental in researching pathogens used by bio-terrorists. The Level 3 bio-safety lab, he said, would be used to study Anthrax, Futaremia and Q Fever as well as other dangerous pathogens. The US Embassy in Kiev had, on its website, details of US funding of biological research labs studying dangerous viruses and pathogens. These details were hastily taken off from the embassy website on 25 Feb 2022, a day after start of the Russian invasion.

Victoria Nuland, US Deputy Secretary of State, was forced to admit in the US Senate in Apr 2022 about the establishment of US-funded bio-labs in Ukraine. In fact, she even expressed apprehensions that those dangerous pathogens should not fall into the hands of the advancing Russians!

The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi had expressed serious concern about US military and biological activities in Ukraine. These, he alleged, violated the Convention on Prohibition of Development, Production and Accumulation of stocks of Biological and Toxin weapons. In fact, he accused the US of having 336 bio-labs in same 30 countries. Of these, he alleged, some 26 bio-labs were located in Ukraine alone.

On 24 February, the Pentagon is said to have issued panic instructions to the Ukraine Ministry of Health to destroy the pathogens and viruses stored in those labs along with all documentation pertaining to these research activities.

The American National Academy of Sciences had, in 2011, published details of US Department of Defense-funded bio-lab in Odessa that was doing research in dangerous pathogens. The Americans were funding creation of deadly pathogens like African Swine Flu and respiratory viruses. The Fact Sheet of the US Embassy also cited these details in open sources on the Internet.

The Russians stated that their operations directed towards Kiev and Kharkiev were also tasked to capture these bio-labs. All the bio-war labs in Eastern Ukraine were also secured and, though most of the toxins and documentation was destroyed, the Russians claim interrogation of the lab employees and captured documents did reveal considerable details of the covert American biological warfare programme in Ukraine.

The Russians have carried out an analysis of these documents captured from the bio-labs and gave out the details in a press conference held during the war by the Russian defence ministry. They highlighted the following:-

  • Since 2014, there was a network of more than 30 labs for bio-warfare established in the territory of Ukraine, with financial and organizational support from the US Department of Defense.
  • These were engaged in research programs to study especially dangerous pathogens and viruses.
  • Customers for these programmes were the US DTRA.
  • An agreement for joint bio-warfare activities was concluded between US Defense Department and Ukrainian Ministry of Health. The real recipients of funds were the labs run by Ukraine MoD located in Leviv, Odessa, Kiev and Kharkiev. Some $32 million of funding was provided for these labs.
  • Biolabs were aided by US DTRA and a civilian contractor firm – Black Viatech.
  • The pathogens being studied were Avian Flu, Bat Corona virus, Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever, Leptosprosis and Hanta viruses. All these have natural foci in Ukraine and Russia and, hence, their use could be disguised as natural out breaks of disease.

The three key projects being run were:-

  • P-781 Project on Bat Corona Viruses. This was to study ways of transmitting diseases to humans through bats. This was being done primarily in the bio-labs in Kharkiev and the R Lugar laboratory in Tbilisi in Georgia. Main contractor, however, was Ukraine and a total sum of $1.6 mn was spent on this Bat Corona virus project.
  • UP-4 Project Avian Flu. This was aimed at detection of diseases in birds that pose greatest danger to humans and have maximum potential for destabilisation of epidemiological situation in a region for limited periods of time. They studied routes of bird migrations and determined which of them passed through Russian territory. They determined places of greatest congestion of birds where it would be possible to infect whole flocks with dangerous pathogens. Russians claimed that were was an outbreak of Avian Flu in 2021 and 6 million birds of poultry stock had to be destroyed.
  • U-P-8 Project. This aimed to study pathogens of Congo–Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever as also Leptospirosis and Hanta viruses.
  • German Research. Russians claimed that Germany also conducted its own military and biological programme in Ukraine, which also focused on the Congo-Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever in conditions of Europe. For this project the Bernhard Nocht Institute of Tropical Medicine (of Hamburg, Germany) cooperated with Public Health Centre of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health. German experts, it claimed, visited Ukranian hospitals in Kiev, Kharkiev, Odessa and Leviv to study features of causes of disease in local populations. The project was said to be funded by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bundeshwehr. This research seems more defensive in orientation.
  • There was work on Pathogenic Bacteria (Plague Brucellois and Leptosprosis – especially strains resistant to drugs). The Odessa bio-lab was focusing on Plague, Anthrax, Cholera and drug resistant strains of Tuberculosis as also Dirofilariasis – a disease transmitted by mosquitos. This last one had actually spread in Kherson (which supplies water to Crimea).
  • Finally, the Americans seemed to be collecting blood serum and DNA samples of the ethnic Slav populations in Ukraine to facilitate research for targeting particular ethnotypes. These studies looked into influence of pathogens on humans taking into account racial and ethnic factors. The aim was to develop biological weapons for specific action or “Ethnic weapons” to target particular social groups and ethnicities – in this case Russian Slav ethnicity. (Details taken from by the Russian Ministry of Defense briefing on the subject during the conflict).

These are indeed serious allegations and deserve to be investigated impartially by an empowered global body like the WHO or a special UN-mandated body set up to enforce the Biological Warfare Convention of 1975. There is a dire need to strengthen the Biological Warfare Convention of 1975 in terms of strict monitoring of all bio-medical research facilities dealing with dangerous viruses and pathogens in all countries of the world. There must be a new treaty on monitoring all such facilities and for stringent global action on any country that violates this Convention. Such research facilities in all countries must be monitored and severe sanctions imposed – at par with the nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty. The world cannot take this threat lightly and must get together at once to enforce the ban on biological weapons. It would be madness to let such weaponised pathogens proliferate and pose a serious danger to mankind – defensive or offensive. All nations have agreed not to produce, manufacture, store and use biological warfare weapons. This treaty must be given strong teeth and implemented with the greatest strictness. The sham of an investigation carried out by WHO in Wuhan must not be repeated. Otherwise, after the Bat Corona virus, the world may have to face many more juiced up viruses that have been spliced in the lab. The global economy has taken a very severe knock. We are heading towards planetary doom and suicide if some disgusting cowards want to fight wars by spreading highly infectious diseases. The way a nation fights shows us their essential character. We cannot afford a new and sick paradigm where cowardly nations wage war by spreading viruses and pathogens in a way that is deniable.

Our planet’s future is at stake today and we must act.