Originally published September 12, 2023 10:47 am PDT
The U.S. House Committee On Oversight and Accountability has announced that a whistleblower has testified about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) allegedly offering monetary incentives to analysts to alter their conclusions on the origins of COVID-19.
The press release issued by the Committee states, “Staff on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence have heard testimony from a whistleblower alleging that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) offered six analysts significant monetary incentives to change their position on COVID-19’s origin.”
These allegations, if proven true, may cast a shadow over the integrity of previous findings on the pandemic’s origins.
The whistleblower is described as “a highly credible senior-level CIA officer.”
The officer’s allegations suggest that of the seven members designated to the CIA team examining the origins of COVID-19, “six officers concluded that the virus likely originated from a lab in Wuhan, China.”
However, the testimony suggests potential manipulation, as it continues, “The CIA, then however, allegedly offered financial incentives to six of the experts involved in the investigation to change their conclusion in favor of a zoonotic origin.”
Chairman Wenstrup and Chairman Turner, both alarmed by the claims, have taken immediate steps, calling for transparency and accountability.
Their statement requests, “that all documents and communications related to the CIA’s COVID-19 origins review be made immediately available to the Committees.”
They have also called for a formal interview with the former CIA COO, expressing that, “The Chairmen additionally request that former CIA COO Andrew Makridis appear for a voluntary transcribed interview on September 26, 2023.”
The nature of the analysts’ initial conclusions and the potential motivations behind the alleged financial incentives are now under scrutiny.
As the press release elaborates, “According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.”
Interestingly, the seventh member, “who also happened to be the most senior, was the lone officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis.”
The narrative becomes murkier as it mentions, “The whistleblower further contends that to come to the eventual public determination of uncertainty, the other six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position,” as stated by the Chairmen.
The allegations, as presented by the Committee, raise significant questions about the authenticity and trustworthiness of intelligence findings on the COVID-19 origins.
