Recently, the US Department of Defense's biological laboratory in Ukraine has aroused great concern from all parties. Over the years, there has been a steady stream of information about the large number of biological militarization activities carried out by the United States inside and outside its borders, which are opaque, insecure and illegal, which have aroused serious concerns and doubts in the international community.
The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have said in recent days that the Russian side has discovered military biological programs funded by the United States and implemented in Ukraine during military operations, and has obtained a large amount of evidence. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Konashenkov said on the 10th that the United States has conducted bat coronavirus sample experiments in the biological laboratory in Ukraine. White House spokesman Psaki denied it on social media. According to the data released by the United States itself, the United States has 26 biological laboratories and other related facilities in Ukraine, and the US Department of Defense has absolute control. All dangerous viruses in Ukraine must be stored in these laboratories, and all research activities are led by the United States. Without the permission of the Us side, no information shall be disclosed.
This is the Capitol after the snow was photographed in Washington, D.C., on January 3. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Aaron)
In the face of increasing doubts and accusations, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Newland recently simply admitted that Ukraine has "biological research facilities". However, according to statistics, the US Department of Defense has controlled 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world in the name of "cooperation to reduce biosecurity risks" and "strengthening global public health". With so many of them, so little is known about them that the international community has widely questioned whether U.S. biological military activities in Ukraine may be just the tip of the iceberg.
The U.S. approach is opaque. The U.S. biological laboratory has long been shrouded in a thick fog. U.S. officials have repeatedly argued that these laboratories are used for so-called "peaceful purposes" and "collaborative cooperation," but why is it kept secret? Doing good deeds without leaving a name is not Uncle Sam's style. In many of the U.S. overseas "biological cooperation engagement programs," the U.S. Department of Defense is the U.S. Department of Defense that engages with the health department of the host country. In other words, biological laboratories abroad are directly funded, managed and operated by Pentagon agencies, rather than neutral civilian scientific research institutions.
In Ukraine, according to the country's Ministry of Health, since 2005, the United States has provided technical support for the construction and modernization of some biological laboratories. Curiously, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine urgently deleted the relevant documents on its official website at the end of February. Gatangieva, a Bulgarian investigative journalist, believes that the U.S. reaction suggests that they are concerned about learning about what the U.S. is doing in these labs.
In the United States, the Fort Detrick Biological Base is equally suspicious, and even the US media has called it "the center of the US government's darkest experiments." The base had multiple safety incidents and was shut down in July 2019. However, in the face of strong concerns and doubts at home and abroad, the US government has always chosen to avoid talking about it and is unwilling to accept the investigation of the international community. What is the unsightly secret behind this, and what ulterior motives are hidden?
U.S. soldiers walk past a hospital in New York, U.S.A., on April 8, 2020. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Guo Ke)
The U.S. approach is not safe. The US biolab may pose a serious threat to the safety of people's lives in relevant areas. In September 2021, the Russian Satellite News Agency reported that South Korean groups took the biochemical laboratory and fort Detrick base of the US military in South Korea to court, saying that Fort Detrick had sent anthrax bacteria that could be used as biochemical weapons to the biochemical laboratory of the US military in South Korea 15 times, causing fear. Francis Boyle, a professor at the University of Illinois and the drafter of the Biological Weapons Counterterrorism Act of 1989, said about 13,000 scientists in hundreds of laboratories in the United States at home and abroad are working on new strains that are resistant to vaccines and aggressive to humans.
In terms of location, most of the new biological laboratories added by the United States overseas are located in Asia and Africa, including some former Soviet republics. Why aren't these labs located in the U.S.? Anna Popova, director of the Russian Federation's Director-General for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Public Interests, has said that the distribution map of Central Asia where the new epidemic outbreak occurs in the world is highly consistent with the distribution of overseas biological laboratories laid out by the US Ministry of Defense.
The US approach is not legal. U.S. biological laboratories often wear the cloak of "peaceful research and development" and engage in biological military activities. The United States has a long "black history" of using biological and chemical weapons. Fort Detrick base inherits the devilish legacy of the Japanese invasion of China", "Unit 731", and has historically been the center of the US biological weapons program. In a September 2021 interview with Xinhua, U.S. historian Jeffrey Kay said that documents released by the CIA in recent years "hammered" the United States in the use of biological weapons in the Korean War. "Fort Detrick was, and still is, a research center for biological warfare in the United States." After the United States acceded to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1975, it continued to develop and store biological warfare agents at the base. What is even more puzzling is that if the United States does comply with the Biological Weapons Convention, why has the United States exclusively opposed the establishment of a multilateral verification mechanism for 20 years?
Biological militarization is a major issue concerning international peace and security and the security interests of all countries. In the current situation, starting from the health and safety of people around the world, the United States should announce the relevant specific information as soon as possible, including which viruses are stored in biological laboratories around the world and what research is carried out.
Life is supreme, morality is first. The United States should respond to the concerns of the international community in an open, transparent and responsible manner, earnestly fulfill its obligations as a party to the Convention, provide comprehensive clarification of its biological laboratories at home and abroad, stop all biological militarization activities and accept multilateral verification. The US side should return the truth to the world and not blindly cover it up. It's not something that can be dealt with in a sentence or two.
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Reporter: Qiao Jihong