Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday released an “unclassified” summary of their report on the origins of COVID-19, accusing the U.S. Intelligence Community of withholding important information and calling for an investigation into U.S. funding of Chinese researchers.
Led by Representative Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), the report suggested that there were “indications” that the virus may have been connected to China’s biological weapons research program and may have accidentally been transmitted to humans during testing.
INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY ACCUSED OF WITHHOLDING INFORMATION ON POSSIBLE CONNECTION BETWEEN COVID AND CHINA’S BIOWEAPONS PROGRAM:
The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) is called out in the report for omitting evidence of a potential link between SARS-CoV-2 and China’s bioweapons program from both its classified and declassified reports on the virus’ origin. The IC has “withheld relevant information from its oversight committee, the American public, and the world,” the report states.
The writers of the report urged the IC to be more transparent with the requested documents and to declassify the relevant information without revealing sources and methods.
INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY REFUSES TO COOPERATE WITH CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT ON COVID ORIGINS INVESTIGATION:
The report also indicated the oversight committee has been unsuccessful in its “numerous legitimate inquiries” to the IC, prompting the committee to now “explore its options” to require the IC to comply with their requests.
CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES TO INVESTIGATE U.S. FUNDING OF CHINESE RESEARCHERS DESPITE NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS:
The document revealed that the committee does not “yet know the full scope of U.S. taxpayer money” that went to Chinese researchers “even after U.S. government agencies should have known better.” Committee members characterized the lack of financial transparency as a “breakdown in government processes.”
