US DoD report warns it is at 'pivotal moment' in biodefense
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A new report by the US Department of Defense announces that the risk of biowarfare and bio incidents is on the rise, and that the US needs to ameliorate its preparedness to handle and contain any potential situation.
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This April 19, 2019, file photo shows a sign for the Department of Defense at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP)
An evaluation of biological threats, including bioweapons and potential pandemics, was released by the US Defense Department (DoD) on Thursday, urging the US military to take immediate action and warning that this is a "pivotal moment" in biodefense.
The DoD stated that while measures to defend the US against Chinese threats are a top priority, it also alleged that significant threats are also emerging from Russia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Iran, as well as from violent extremist organizations (VEOs).
The report highlights that the US faces "an unprecedented number of complex biological threats," and lists natural outbreaks alongside the global risk of laboratory accidents as anticipated threats.
The report called for "significant reforms" and outlined the need for a "resilient total force" in order to address such threats.
Moreover, it said that the formation of the Biodefense Council would allow the DoD to engage with the Joint Force and, most significantly, advise the Secretary of Defense. The council should also provide the resources needed to battle biohazards and biothreats in order to advance responses to bioincidents.
The Biodefense Posture Review's final recommendation was to increase preparedness and urgency for any potential incident by "training and exercises to identify and report capability shortfalls."
Robert Kennedy says CIA involved in biological weapons operations
US Democratic Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vehemently and extensively criticized the United States during a speech, in June, before the Free State Project, where he touched on numerous issues, from the war in Ukraine to bioweapons, US bases on foreign soil, and the cases of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.
Operation Paperclip, the CIA's first project, aimed to bring Nazi scientists to the United States after World War II. These scientists were employed to work on developing missiles, nuclear weapons, and bioweapons at high-security labs such as Fort Dietrich, as well as other facilities across the nation, the Democratic candidate revealed.
He also revealed that the CIA sought to enlist Japanese scientists, known for their use of bioweapons during World War II, to participate in the development of a pilot weapons program.
Kennedy also highlighted how then-US President Richard Nixon unilaterally announced the end of the bio-weapons program in 1969, when he went to Fort Dietrich and announced the program's end.
"The American government was going to stop developing bioweapons no matter what anybody else in the world did [...] Nixon closed the Fort Dietrich. They turned it over to NIH (National Institutes of Health) right before that, and they destroyed all the bioweapons before they went destroyed it. The CIA went in and got cultures of all of them and moved them to warehouses in New York and elsewhere," he revealed.
Biolabs and biological weapons are of utmost importance in the current state of affairs, as it was discovered that the United States has been helping with the construction of biolabs in Ukraine. Initially, Washington refused to admit the existence of US Biolabs in Ukraine, however, later in time, Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland did.
"Russian troops have secured over 20,000 documents, reference, and analytical materials, and interviewed eyewitnesses and participants in American military-biological programs," since the start of the Ukraine war, Russian Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense chief Igor Kirillov said earlier this year.
Read more: Russia repeats warning against West's biological weapons threat
