re: DNI Tulsi Gabbard: Evidence of 120 biolabs in over 30 countries, including Ukraine

So I went and read the info at your link. Some takeaways.
-Some info in the third doc about cost, contractor and issued permits for handling hazardous biomaterials. Looks like some labs were working with permits that were “in progress” rather than issued already. No idea how big of a deal that is.
-2nd slide shows locations of some facilities in Ukraine. Says over 40 built and supported; no clarification of how many built and how many supported; at least one designated for bioweapons storage, more on that in a later point
-the last slide shows types of research done and their progress; most were designated completed. Looks like they were handling and studying highly infectious diseases, some specifically said for vaccine and diagnostic research, others for “molecular characterization,” whatever that means. Also some studies for training and community outreach of different types
-the first slide talks about a specific facility establish in the 1920s that “may” have been related to Soviet era BW research. I would guess the Russians had no issues characterizing a facility they used for BW research as a BW research facility. They are technically correct in claiming it as one. The one mentioned in slide 2 had BW from the Soviets as well. The report goes on to say that the facility had some biosafety and biosecurity deficiencies and that we are working to understand the current status of pathogens. A lot of redacted parts that make things more unclear than they could be.

The accompanying press release of the ODNI says this:

quote:

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Until now, evidence regarding the full existence and funding of these laboratories had been knowingly withheld from the American people. The information surrounding the existence, history, locations and funding of these US funded biolabs has been intentionally covered up by powerful people falsely, claiming that they do not exist and accusing anyone who says otherwise to be foreign assets and traitors to America. Many of these U.S. government-funded biolabs are currently or have previously engaged in research using hazardous and highly contagious pathogens, in some cases to include dangerous Gain-of-Function research, with very little visibility or oversight

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Is the bolded part true? I do not claim to know. As far as I can tell, there is no claim anywhere in the release today that supports the idea of the US funding a bioweapons lab in the sense of actively creating offensive bioweapons. It wasn’t trying to prove or disprove that fact, so it would be unfair to characterize it either way. At the same time, we were funding labs that house bioweapons (likely former Soviet ones, but it is not totally clear) and where ones had previously been produced. I suspect this is how the Russians can rightly in their minds claim we funded bioweapons labs. What was released today instead seems to focus on the cessation of funding gain of function research. I don’t know whether the docs really support that claim or not. One additional comment, the slides do point to some concerns about safety and safe handling of dangerous materials in the labs.