The White House recently released a so-called statement on the investigation into the origins of COVID-19. In this statement with a little more than 300 words, the "Intelligence Community" (IC) is mentioned six times, but no trace of the "science community” is found.
The statement highlighted one point — the US is trying to make origin tracing of COVID-19 a project of the CIA.
Some US politicians are disappointed that the Wuhan lab leak theory has been discredited by the WHO and the international science community. That's why they are placing their hope on the intelligence community. They are trying to answer a science question with political means, so that they can continue blaming China. They'd rather believe the "intelligence report," which will be neither professional nor transparent, than trust authoritative and objective research results.
It is not the first time for the US intelligence community to be tasked with creating a lie. In 2003, the CIA accused Iraq of hiding weapons of mass destruction and ignited the flames of war in an innocent country. What followed were deaths of civilians and the collapse of families. However, facts proved that the so-called intelligence was cooked up by the US, and the "evidence" was merely a bottle of detergent.
In addition, Washington launched air strikes on Syria, saying relevant intelligence showed that the Syrian government had employed chemical weapons. But the fact was that the Syria Civil Defense organization, sponsored by the US and the West, faked a video of Syria launching a chemical attack.
Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who once served as the director of the CIA, revealed the inside story of American intelligence agencies, saying, "We lied, we cheated, we stole…We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment."
Today, by making origin tracing of COVID-19 a duty of the CIA, some US politicians are trying to ensnare other countries. They believe such efforts could make people believe the "lab leak theory" and stigmatize China, but they underestimate people's intelligence.
The Financial Times, citing multiple current and former US officials, noted that the US intelligence community is far from reaching anything that could be called even a halfway firm conclusion. As a matter of fact, a "definitive conclusion" is still far off, but some politicians in the US Congress just can't wait to see China being held accountable for the pandemic.
Origin tracing should be done by scientists, not intelligence agents; it should adhere to justice, not a presumption of guilt; and it should pursue cooperation, not confrontation.
By ordering the intelligence community to investigate into the origin of the virus with a political motivation, the US will only hurt international cooperation on COVID-19 origin tracing.
