British Politics

Codswallop.

 

Russia's False Ukraine Biolab Claims Challenge Pentagon and Spark Biden Warning | Military.com

 

On the ball and ahead of the curve for eight years. True, honest journalism, whilst the right spout opinions and not facts. Go, Carole!

 

Femi nails it yet again.

 

Alt-right lie factories

 

Does he know the difference between "took in" and "brought over" ?

 

Fact-checking Russian claims of US labs making lethal biological weapons in Ukraine
Kremlin alleges America is manufacturing chemicals to launch deadly attacks targeting specific ethnic groups – how likely is it?

BySarah Knapton, SCIENCE EDITOR11 March 2022 • 3:44pm

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A Russian army cadet adjusts his gas mask during a training exercise. Putin has accused the US of making chemicals in labs in Ukraine to selectively attack ‘various’ ethnic groups
The propaganda war took an alarming turn this week when Russia accused Ukraine of housing US labs that are developing bio-agents to target specific ethnic groups.

Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's radiation, chemical and biological protection troops, said there was a "high degree of probability" that the US and its allies were making chemicals to selectively attack "various" groups in the Russian population.

The claim was immediately refuted by the Pentagon. But how likely is it?

Scientifically, it is certainly possible. In 2019, Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk warned that biological weapons could be built targeting individuals of a distinct ethnic group based on their DNA.

Indeed, it is likely Russia knows this because it has been developing similar weapons itself, at least in the past.

When Boris Yeltsin visited the UK in 1992, he told members of the UK's Defence Intelligence Staff that Russian bioweapon scientists had undertaken research into the influence of substances on human genes.

In an interview in 1998, Dr Christopher Davis, who served on the UK’s DIS between 1987 and 1996, said the research opened the door to a weapon that could be sprayed indiscriminately yet only killed "certain people it was designed to find and attack".

‘Serious risks’
Last year, the US accused Russia of continuing its bioweapons work in breach of the 1975 Biological Weapons Convention and 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which banned biowarfare and ordered the destruction of all agents.

In retaliation, Russia and China issued a joint statement in October claiming the US operates 200 "opaque and non-transparent" biological laboratories outside US territory, which pose "serious risks" to Russian and Chinese national security.

It is not unprecedented for the US to be working on ethically-questionable projects. As late as the Sixties, the US army performed tests spraying US ships with biological and chemical warfare agents while military personnel were on board.

Even in the last decade, US labs were working with Chinese scientists on research to enhance viruses, in experiments funded by the National Institutes of Health.

But experts say there is little evidence to support the latest Russian claims about Ukraine - and say they come amid ongoing accusations that the US is establishing a chain of bio-labs on Russia’s borders.

Dr Filippa Lentzos, co-director of the Centre for Science and Security Studies at King’s College London, debunked similar claims that the Russians made about a lab in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2020.

“These claims have no merit and are part of a Russian disinformation campaign, supported by China,” she told The Telegraph.

“The pathogens stored at biological labs are not blueprints or components of biological weapons, they are simply bacteria and viruses. And there are no bacteria or viruses in Ukraine that the Russians don’t already have access to from their own labs.

“There are no indications that Ukrainian labs have been involved in any nefarious activity or any research or development in contravention of the Biological Weapons Convention.

“One possibility is that Russian forces may 'find evidence’ when they take over the labs to support their disinformation campaign.”

The Ministry of Defence agreed that the accusations were not new, but warned there had been a noticeable uptick recently.

“These narratives are long-standing but are currently likely being amplified as part of a retrospective justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said a spokesman.

Although Russia’s claims are usually ignored, this time they are feeding into already-established online conspiracies, and so are gaining traction.

Pro-Donald Trump communities which have grown up around the alleged Pentagon whistleblower QAnon, already believe the US establishment has ill-intent and have long-viewed Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, as an ally against the cabal. *

‘Ethnic-specific weapons’
The KGB used to plant disinformation in foreign publications to sow seeds of discord, but now have an easier means of dispersal via internet message boards.

In 1991, the US converted several former Soviet bioweapons labs in Ukraine into facilities to decommission weapons of mass destruction to prevent them falling into the wrong hands after the end of the Soviet Union. It is thought this programme sparked many of the conspiracy theories.

Yet amid the mire of disinformation, there are still grounds for concern. Although labs may not be making bioweapons intentionally, there are legitimate fears about so-called "dual-use" research, which despite good intentions could be hijacked for nefarious purposes.

One theory about the Covid-19 pandemic is that the virus leaked from a laboratory where scientists were attempting to develop a universal vaccine for dangerous bat-borne coronaviruses.

Experts say that the fast pace of global science is making it harder for countries to strike a balance between technological advances and dangerous biological research.

The global collection of genetic data in the last decade has also played into the hands of those seeking to create ethnic-specific weapons.

Unlike nuclear programmes, it is also far easier to hide chemical weapon experiments as they tend to use materials that are indistinguishable from normal lab use.

So although Russia’s claims are undoubtedly baseless, there is a growing issue of bioweapons that needs to be addressed before it is too late.

* Yeah, you could say that.

 

It's very likely, we are not all the same and if you do a bit of checking you will find that some are much more susceptible to certain diseases than others.

 

Just watch as an Isolationist stance develops as Trump limbers up for '24. Any candidate pushing the line of letting Europe stew will gain huge traction over there.

 

Whose ****ed up? You know someone has, that’s usually the case when people bang on about trans stuff… or maybe some are just curious and fighting an urge?

 

Ukrainian woman, 31, is 'blown up by a Russian tank as she finds medicine for her sick mother' as friend hails 'brave' medic who stayed to help locals under siege from Putin's forces
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Russian-tank-finds-medicine-sick-mother.html

crazed leftie: "nothing to do with us"