Part 2: A Paradigm Shift -- COVID-19 Needs a Criminal Investigation

Part 2: A Paradigm Shift

COVID-19 Needs a Criminal Investigation

This article follows from Part 1: "The US Government Declares War on America", which listed a 70-year history of the US military and CIA having performed secret and deadly Biological, Chemical, and Radiation "Experiments" on Americans and on many other nations.

Current circumstances have caused a paradigm shift in the public's perception of this pandemic, and answers are demanded. One of those circumstances is another more definitive study, this time by experts from the University of Cambridge and their peers from Germany who analyzed 160 virus genomes extracted from human patients around the world. Their major finding was that the coronavirus had three distinct strains, namely A, B, and C. They proved that the type which infected China - B - was not the original virus but a derivative from the parent (A) which existed primarily in the US, at least initially.

They also completed a still-unpublished analysis of another 1,001 genomes, their study providing solid evidence (as have others) that the spread of the disease among humans occurred between September 13 and December 7, 2019, long before it was identified in China.

There is more:

In 2004, the Hong Kong Wenweipo published an article titled, "Earliest SARS outbreak suspected in US", quoting AP and Reuters (3) about a 45-year-old American woman who became gravely ill with typical SARS symptoms a few months prior to the outbreak in Hong Kong and who died within a day, with the entire hospital and about 80 other individuals with whom she'd had contact all being immediately quarantined. Wenweipo, Chinese researchers, Russian virologists, and military experts speculated the SARS virus was necessarily man-made and almost certainly released from a US military lab, the US leak being covered up. It is still a puzzle to explain how the Western (US) media immediately and unanimously knew SARS was caused by civets when for months nobody on the ground knew anything factual.

MERS first exploded in South Korea at the JUPITR-ATD bio-weapons lab on the US Airbase at Osan, with more than 100 South Korean soldiers suddenly quarantined on the base. Today the US military seems to be taking a strong lead in the COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea, with US servicemen having suspiciously frequent contact with the fanatic Shincheonji religious cult who have been the source of most COVID-19 infections in South Korea. It is not easy to explain the coincidence of both MERS and COVID-19 appearing to have perhaps originated from the same labs at the Osan Airbase. Similarly, Ebola emerged simultaneously in three different locations thousands of kilometers apart, each within a stone's throw of a US military bio-weapons lab. HIV-AIDS also originated in the US, its simultaneous spread to two other continents still a matter of fierce debate.

In the months prior to COVID-19 (and again during the epidemic), China was hit with 4 unexplained viral outbreaks in succession, animal viruses that destroyed much of the nation's livestock and poultry, causing much economic damage and necessitating the purchase of large volumes of US agricultural products. It would seem that Mother Nature decided to align herself with US foreign policy, not only joining Trump's trade war and assisting his effort to 'bring China down' but her apparent unprecedented complicity in choosing the worst possible time of the year and perhaps the worst possible location. Were these merely coincidences, a run of bad luck, perhaps? The swine flu that devastated China's livestock in 2019 was not an act of god or nature but was done by unknown persons flying small drones over the country's pig farms and infecting thousands of locations, resulting in the culling of more than 100 million pigs. It is still a puzzle how the Western media immediately and unanimously knew this was caused by "Chinese gangs" and "pork speculators", when it appears more likely a replay of the US attack on Cuba.

The original outbreak of COVID-19, like SARS, appeared to be Chinese-specific, 99.5% affecting only ethnic Chinese, with no infected foreigners in Wuhan or China, which naturally raises questions. Harvard University - with funding from the US military - conducted a series of illegal and outrageously unethical "studies" in China (after having been specifically forbidden to do so), surreptitiously collecting hundreds of thousands of Chinese DNA samples, then illegally removing them from the country. (2)Many questions were raised about the (military) application of those samples.

And it wasn't only Harvard University collecting Chinese DNA. The US State Department, beginning with Hillary Clinton, and continuing until today, has been tasked with collecting fingerprints, passwords, PIN numbers - and DNA - from all world leaders and dignitaries. China and the world deserve an answer to the question of "Why?"

If it were China with the above history and SARS, MERS, AIDS, EBOLA, bird flu, swine flu, and COVID-19 first erupted in the US, the Americans would claim this as 100% proof that China was responsible. It cannot be a surprise that much of the world today is naturally tending to lay these outbreaks at America's doorstep.

Matters the US government needs to address:

Why did the CDC shut down the Fort Detrick USAMRIID bio-weapons lab? Was it due, as the media claimed, to a simple "lack of procedure"? Barring massive contamination and/or infections, why was that huge (80,000 sq. meters) site kept sealed for six months of testing and decontamination before being permitted to only partially resume work? Also, why were most English-language news websites suddenly scrubbed of all reference to the closure of Fort Detrick when the coronavirus erupted in Wuhan?

It has been conclusively proven that COVID-19 did not originate at the Wuhan market, nor in Wuhan at all, nor in China. Further, the virus strains in Italy, Iran, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, are different from the one that contaminated Wuhan. Since only the US has all the various strains, it would seem those infections must have originated there. How would this happen? As well, the entire world is wondering why there were two large waves of global infection, the first infecting 25 countries at the same time around January 25, and the second with 85 countries simultaneously experiencing explosive domestic multiple outbreaks within a few days of each other around February 25 - and mostly different from the strain in China.

Japan, South Korea, Italy and Iran reported that their domestic outbreaks of COVID-19 were not from China but instead showing connection to the US. Australia claims 80% of its infections came from the US, other countries also identifying infections that were Made in America. Japan and Taiwan have documented proof that several Japanese became infected in Hawaii in late September of 2019. As well, the huge pent-up eruptions in Washington and New York were domestic in origin, having no proven connection with China. How to explain this? (4)

Two years ago, John Bolton fired the entire executive group responsible for pandemic response coordination, eviscerating the nation's infectious disease defense infrastructure, and also cut funding for the CDC, eliminating 80% of the department that could have helped other nations detect and control the epidemics they later suffered. More specifically, a CDC epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency was eliminated shortly before the virus outbreak in Wuhan. In light of current events, how can these actions be explained?

Virologists are unanimous that the first act after an outbreak is to hunt down the 'patient zero', so as to stop the infection at its source. All major countries made great efforts in this regard - except the US who made no apparent effort of any kind. The US must explain why this was so. Chinese, Italian, and Iranian authorities have been calling for international collaboration to trace the precise genetic trail of the global outbreaks and identify the true origin of the virus. Since all of humankind desperately wants the answers, why isn't the US cooperating in this effort?

The WHO emphasised the most important thing was to "test, test, test", but the US is the one country that steadfastly refused to do so, forbidding testing even for those already in an ICU and on a ventilator, with excuses that appear both lame and suspicious in retrospect. Why was Dr. Helen Chu issued a threatening "cease and desist" order to stop testing nasal swabs her flu research team had taken in Washington State from October 2019 onward? The only possible result would be to prevent the knowledge emerging that the virus had already been circulating months earlier. As a rule, the reason we don't ask a question privately is because we already know the answer, and the reason we don't ask the question publicly is because we don't want anyone else to know the answer.

And on April 9, United Biomedical, who began testing and offered to pay the cost to test every resident of San Miguel County in Colorado for COVID-19 antibodies, was suddenly shut down by the health authorities claiming the company had lost 40% of its staff and was unable to complete the testing, a claim the company firmly disputed. The US government needs to explain why much testing is still forbidden.

The internet is now being flooded with posts by Americans - including many physicians - claiming infections from September, 2019 onward, all describing similar symptoms consistent with COVID-19. I have many received messages from Americans in Washington, New York, California, Maryland, Virginia, and other states, as well as from Germany and Italy, claiming similar infections as early as late September, claims too numerous, too detailed, and too similar to be ignored.

China, Italy, and several other nations in Asia and Europe have documented proof that COVID-19 was circulating in their populations for several months before the outbreak in Wuhan. Dr. Giuseppe Remuzzi, director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, stated that many strange pneumonia cases were discovered in late November and December in northern Italy, in patients who had been vaccinated against seasonal influenza, and also that Wales was found to have what clinically appeared to be COVID-19 patients in November.

The US government needs to address the now-certain existence of the virus being widespread in America and much of the world from September, 2019. Yet Mike Pompeo issued a circular instructing the global State Department staff to blame China for COVID-19.

Perhaps most startling of all, an ABC News Report stated, "Concerns about [COVID-19] were detailed in a November intelligence report by the military's National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), according to two officials familiar with the document’s contents. The timeline of the intel side of this may be [even] further back than we’re discussing," the source said of preliminary reports from Wuhan." The intelligence source quoted by ABC said further, "Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event". And the Washington Post wrote that ". . . reports from US intelligence agencies starting in January that warned of the scale and intensity of the coronavirus outbreak in China, [in Wuhan] could develop into a "full-blown pandemic"."

CNN had this report: "The US military's National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) compiled a November intelligence report in which "analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event," one of the sources of the NCMI's report told ABC News. The source told ABC News that the intelligence report was then briefed "multiple times" to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's Joint Staff and the White House. The Pentagon, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and White House National Security Council, originally declined to comment." They later denied knowledge of the report, but ABC was sufficiently secure in the reliability of its four unrelated sources that they repeatedly republished the article for days after the NCMI disavowal.

Interestingly, CNN also made this statement: "US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Sunday that he 'couldn't recall' if the Pentagon received an intelligence assessment on the novel coronavirus in China." We need to think here. An intelligence report of a potential worldwide pandemic that could kill millions of Americans, and Mr. Esper 'couldn't recall' if he'd even heard of it. Is that believeable?

China can demand a response to this question: HOW could US 'intelligence sources' possibly have known in November - or even October - of a potential pandemic of COVID-19 that would erupt specifically in Wuhan two months later? I believe the entire world would demand the answer to this. And once again it is a puzzle to explain how the Western (US) media immediately and unanimously knew - from day one - that the virus was COVID-19 and was caused by bats when for months nobody on the ground knew anything factual, and the animal source is still unproven.

CDC Director Redfield admitted that US flu deaths were actually from the coronavirus. How many of the 35 million infections and 20,000 deaths were misdiagnosed? Was this accidental? When the cause of death was discovered in autopsies, why was the information kept secret? Why were deceased victims' families told they died of influenza when the death certificates read "coronavirus"?

In early March the US government declared as classified all COVID-19 information, with all communication to be rerouted through the White House and coordinated with NSC officials. Only specified individuals with security clearance are permitted to attend secret meetings, with no mobile phones or computers allowed. Excluded staff members claimed they were told virus information was classified "because it had to do with China". The US needs to explain the need for such extreme secrecy (while condemning China for lack of transparency), and how coping with a domestic virus epidemic would involve China.

Mike Pompeo and the US media have repeatedly accused China of cover-ups and delays in the virus epidemic, claiming China "cost the world two months" of defense. But the White House has now admitted that China informed the US of the virus on January 03, 2020, within about one week of identifying the new pathogen. ABC News ran a story titled, "US 'wasted' months before preparing for virus pandemic", stating, "After the first alarms sounded in early January . . . the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment . . . federal agencies waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment . . ." China deserves an explanation, and an apology.

The US media accused China of punishing its so-called whistle-blower Li Wenliang, some inventing false claims he was forced into a confession and even imprisoned. The official narrative is that America treasures its whistle-blowers while the Chinese are mean to theirs. But today, Li Wenliang is a national hero in China. The US needs to address this issue openly, and compare Li's position with those of Edward Snowdon, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. Also with that of Captain Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, who was recently fired for leaking the news of spreading infections on his warship, and the firing Inspector General Michael Atkinson whose job duties led to Trump's impeachment.

It is documented that America's Radio Free Asia created and promulgated widely the falsehoods that the University at Wuhan is a bio-weapons lab and the coronavirus leaked from there. Radio Free Asia is an integral part of America's misinformation machine reporting to Mike Pompeo.

Mr. Pompeo also issued specific orders to the global State Department staff to paint the US "in every interview" as "The greatest humanitarian nation in the history of the world". But he recently increased sanctions on both Iran and Cuba, preventing the purchase of critical medical supplies, and ensured the World Bank would decline Venezuela's plea for financial medical assistance. While China, Russia, and Cuba have sent medical supplies and physicians to nearly 100 nations around the world, the USA has provided assistance to nobody, and even denied critical supplies to Canada, actions inconsistent with a 'great humanitarian nation', instead appearing to the world as almost savagely inhuman, with many people in Iran and Venezuela dying every day as a direct result of US policies.

Epilogue

On April 11, 2020, Gilad Atzmon published an excellent article titled "A Viral Pandemic or A Crime Scene?", in which he suggests circumstances have now created 'a paradigm change' in the perception of the current viral pandemic. He wrote that "While scientists and medical experts find it difficult to explain exactly how Covid-19 operates or how it came about, a few critical voices within the scientific community and the dissident media have pointed to alternative explanations that seem more explanatory than anything conventional medical thought has so far offered."

Atzmon wrote that medical diagnoses and investigations are concerned with the nature, cause, and manifestation of a disease, while "Criminal investigations are primarily engaged with the human element", seeking to ascertain "the methods, motives, and identities of criminals", as well as to "search for and interrogate witnesses". He states: "Since we do not know its provenance, we should treat the current epidemic as a potentially criminal act as well as a medical event. We must begin the search for the perpetrators who may be at the centre of this possible crime of global genocidal proportions." I concur.

All Americans (and others) who believe in China's culpability for the emergence of this virus, should welcome such an investigation. And Mr. Pompeo, who so firmly plants the full responsibility on China's doorstep, would receive vindication of his claims. I believe that the governments and the people of China, Italy, Spain, France, and Iran, especially would like to know the results of such a criminal investigation. All nations of the world should band together now, and proceed jointly with this endeavor. It needn't be approached with presumption of cause or intent, but simply to uncover the entire truth of this event. That will be sufficient, and it is possible the results of this worldwide investigation will prompt others into similar past events which have to date gone unquestioned and unexamined.

I believe there are yet many truths about COVID-19 (and many other epidemics) still to emerge. Perhaps one of the many people with personal knowledge of the source and method of distribution will be sufficiently brave to come forward, perhaps another Edward Snowdon or Chelsea Manning. We will then see how truly the US treasures its whistle-blowers.

For more supporting information on COVID-19, you can refer here to 15 background articles by the author, which contain much detail and an additional 100 or so references.

Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com

Notes:

(1) William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II [Common Courage Press, 1995]).

(2) The Harvard case of Xu Xiping: exploitation of the people, scientific advance, or genetic theft? Margaret Sleeboom; Amsterdam School of Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam and International Institute for Asian Studies, University of Leiden, The Netherlands. Routlege; Taylor & Francis group; New Genetics and Society, Vol. 24, No. 1, April 2005

(3) The original links are no longer active. An archive search would be necessary to locate the Wenweipo, AP and Reuters articles.

(4) Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during a joint press conference with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at Admiralty House in Sydney, Australia, February 28, 2020. /Reuters

(5) Declassified: Human Experimentation (Video, 1999). A&E Television. Distributed by New Video, 126 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011.

(6) Faden R; “The Advisory Committee on human radiation experiments: Reflections on a presidential committee.” Hastings Center Report 26 (no.5): 5-10, 1996

(7) Gallagher C: American Ground Zero: The Secret Nuclear War. The Free Press, New York, 1993.

(8) Sea G: "The radiation story no one would touch." Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1994.

(9) The Human Radiation Experiments: Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. Oxford University Press, New York, 1996.

(10) Tragic Cold War Affair with the Atom. Pantheon Books, New York, 1994.

(11) Watts ML: "U.S. acknowledges radiation caused cancers in workers." New York Times, January 29, 2000.

(12) Welsome E: The Plutonium Files: America’s Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War. The Dial Press, New York, 1999. (Delta, 2000).

(13) J. Smolowe and S. Gribben, "The Widening Fallout," Time 143, No. 3, 30 (January 1994).

(14) M. McCally, C. Cassel and D. G. Kimball, "US Government-Sponsored Radiation Research on Humans, 1945-1975," Med. Glob. Surviv. 1, 4 (1994).

(15) K. D. Steele, "Radiation Experiments Raise Ethical Questions," High Country News, 4 Apr 94.

(16) Z. Hussain, "MIT to Pay Victims $1.85 Million in Fernald Radiation Settlement," The Tech, 7 Jan 98.

(17) P. J. Hilts, "U.S. to Settle for $4.8 Million In Suits on Radiation Testing," New York Times, 20 Nov 96.

(18) E. Marshall, "Human Guinea Pigs at Oak Ridge?," Science 213, 1093 (1981).