Whistleblower Claims CIA Bribed COVID Team to Reject Lab-Leak Theory

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Facts

• An anonymous senior-level CIA whistleblower, who testified Tuesday before the US House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has claimed that the agency bribed analysts to cover up their findings that COVID originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.¹
• The testimony alleges that only one analyst of the seven-member COVID Discovery Team originally believed the virus emerged from zoonosis, with the others believing 'the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment' that it was spurred by a lab leak.²
• According to a letter sent by House Coronavirus Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner to CIA Director William Burns, the whistleblower is a 'multi-decade, current Agency officer.'³
• The Republican congressmen from Ohio set a Sept. 26 deadline for the CIA to hand over all documents related to the Discovery Team and communications with other federal agencies, including the FBI, the State Dept. and the Energy Dept.⁴
• In response, CIA spokeswoman Tammy Kupperman Thorp said the agency is 'committed to the highest standards of analytic rigor, integrity, and objectivity,' adding that they 'do not pay analysts to reach specific conclusions.'³
• As of today, the FBI and Dept. of Energy support the lab leak theory, while other federal agencies still believe natural contact with wild animals caused the outbreak. The CIA reportedly remains undecided between both hypotheses.⁵

Sources: ¹Newsweek, ²Oversight, ³FOX News, ⁴Daily Mail and ⁵BBC News.

Narratives

• Democratic narrative, as provided by Quillette. Despite more mainstream media outlets now entertaining the lab leak hypothesis, there is still no more evidence of such a theory today than there was when the only ones pushing it were Trump-supporting conspiracy theorists. Wet markets selling dangerous animals have always been more plausible than trained scientists leaking a deadly virus, and that fact stands true today. Serious researchers from America to China have thoroughly investigated this matter, and none have found evidence to the contrary.
• Republican narrative, as provided by Federalist. For years, US intelligence agencies, bureaucrats, media outlets, and tech companies worked tirelessly to censor any and all talk of the lab leak theory. Now that both the FBI and Dept. of Energy have given it credence, it's time to investigate why the CIA still hasn't shifted its view on the matter and what this whistleblower can tell us about it. If the most powerful people in the nation tried hiding a story for years, it would behoove the public to listen to the loan dissenter who is risking it all to challenge them.

Predictions