2 hours ago (Updated: 3 minutes ago)
© AP Photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Being updated
Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops have released trove after trove of confidential documents detailing Pentagon bioweapons programs across the globe, particularly in Ukraine. US officials and media have broadly ignored the revelations, but part of the information has been corroborated in independent reporting.
John Bolton, the Washington arch-neocon who served as one of the architects of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, and as former President Donald Trump's national security advisor before his resignation in disgrace, was intimately involved in formulating the US drive for global dominance in bioweapons research, a top Russian military official has indicated.
"The ongoing research in the United States to enhance the pathogenic properties of microorganisms is forcing us to rethink the statements of US officials in charge of countering biological threats. One such official is John Bolton, who [previously] served as the US national security advisor," Russian RCBP Troops chief Igor Kirillov said in a briefing Saturday.
"Consider Bolton's September 2000 report
'Rebuilding America's Defenses'," Kirillov said, recalling the paper's call for the US to take steps to maintain its military superiority deep into the 21st century. "The paper noted that to achieve a position of world leadership, the United States must maintain its military superiority, and one of the ways to do so was the creation of biological weapons. At the same time, the paper indicated that advanced forms of biological weapons capable of targeting certain genotypes could change the role of this type of weapon - from a deterrent into a beneficial policy tool," the senior officer said.
Kirillov recalled that John Bolton led the US delegation to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention's Fifth
Review Conference in November-December 2001. Thereafter, Washington blocked the functioning of the UN body's verification mechanism, as well as proposed measures to check bioweapons storage cites, citing threats such verification measures would pose to US "national interests." Bolton characterized the BTWC's verification protocol as "dead," and said it's "not going to be resurrected."
The MoD's briefing includes the relevant quote from the 2000 policy document, which would go on to serve as a blueprint of sorts for the Bush administration's foreign and security policy.
Excerpt from the September 2000 document Rebuilding America's Defenses by the Project for the New American Century.
© Photo : PNAC
New Documents
As is typical in his briefings, Kirillov accompanied his presentation with a fresh trove of documents, including papers related to US efforts to build up the country's military-biological potential. Unlike in earlier briefings, which featured classified materials, most of the documents cited in Saturday's presentation are already publicly available, with the MoD's take focusing on analyzing the files and reading between the lines as to their implications.
These included the National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan, a
policy document published by the White House in October detailing US efforts ostensibly aimed at "countering biological threats, enhancing pandemic preparedness, and achieving global health security." Kirillov pointed out that the strategy has received $88 billion in funding for its implementation over five years, including $17 billion during the first year.
Pointing to the document's statement that "biological risk management requires understanding and assessing biological risks and taking steps to mitigate those risks, regardless of whether they originate in the United States or abroad," Kirillov cited this as evidence of US attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of other states.
The officer also pointed to US plans to continue the study of the pathogens of especially dangerous infectious diseases endemic to certain geographical areas, and efforts to cover up accusations of military biological activity by inviting the participation of civilian health organizations to work as contractors for the Pentagon.
"Thus, within the framework of the strategy, the United States intends to strengthen global control over the biological situation in the world, and reserve the right to conduct 'dual purpose' research, including outside US territory," Kirillov said.
Excerpt from White House national biodefense strategy document pointing to the dual-use nature of life sciences and biotech research.
© Photo : White House
Kirillov also pointed to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Strategy
document for the years 2022-2027, whose unclassified portion similarly acknowledges the "dual use nature" of biological research, and prioritizes US and allied forces "ability to compete and, when necessary, win against potential WMD-armed adversaries," including by "highlighting WMD warfighting challenges and adversary vulnerabilities through strategic and operational analysis, and supporting DoD plans and exercises focused on CWMD threats."
Unclassified portion of the DTRA's 2022-2027 Strategy document.
© Photo : DTRA
The Russian MoD previously implicated the DTRA in a broad range of bioweapons-related activities around the globe,
including the operation, funding, construction and modernization of biolabs across Ukraine working with dangerous pathogens
since at least 2005.
Kirillov also pointed to the heavily redacted 345-page trove of
documents recently retrieved
by Judicial Watch through a FOIA request regarding the Pentagon's biological activities in Ukraine, including financing to Pentagon contractor Black and Veatch. The contractor and others like it received tens of millions of dollars to assist in a range of biowarfare-related programs across Ukraine, from research into
plague and typhus to
diseases targeting agriculture, flora, fauna and even
certain ethnic groups.
"The published documents once again confirm the extent of cooperation between Kiev and Washington, as well as attempts to establish control over pathogens in Ukrainian laboratories through the introduction of the Pathogen Asset Control System (PACS), elements of which were transferred to Ukraine under the label 'property of the US Government'," Kirillov said.
️The Ninth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 28 November to 16 December 2022.
