For Bio lab research - since some on here are questioning the two weeks of "spam" sources - these are valid sources and aren't 'dubious'.

These links are also considered 'open source' since they are available without classification or declassified, not just 'fake news' sources.

While I agree it helps to be cautious, valid US government authored documents which are clearly outlining all the US taypayer funds being spent overseas are worthy of noting.

And there are PLENTY of documents to note, this is a big story.

Congressional Research Service CRS

Defense Threat Reduction Agency (.mil) DTRA

Government Acountability Office (.gov) GAO

DoD funding/Bills (.gov )

NSA Archive

Here's another one.

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB447/

Nunn Lugar Act revisted

Nunn-Lugar Revisited

Documents detail "proliferation in reverse" success story

U.S.-Russian cooperation on threat reduction from the Soviet Union in 1991 to Syria in 2013

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 447

Edited By Tom Blanton and Svetlana Savranskaya with Anna Melyakova

Washington, DC, November 22, 2013 – The final shipment of highly enriched uranium from former Soviet nuclear warheads to the U.S. on November 14, and President Obama's award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Senator Richard Lugar on November 20, have brought new public attention to the underappreciated success story of the Nunn-Lugar initiative — the subject of a new research project by the National Security Archive, which organized the first "critical oral history" gathering this fall of U.S. and Russian veterans of Nunn-Lugar.

When Senator Lugar received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 20, President Obama remarked: " I'll always be thankful to Dick for taking me — a new, junior senator — under his wing, including travels together to review some of his visionary work, the destruction of Cold War arsenals in the former Soviet Union – something that doesn't get a lot of public notice, but was absolutely critical to making us safer in the wake of the Cold War. Now, I should say, traveling with Dick you get close to unexploded landmines, mortar shells, test tubes filled with anthrax and the plague. (Laughter.) His legacy, though, is the thousands of missiles and bombers and submarines and warheads that no longer threaten us because of his extraordinary work. And our nation and our world are safer because of this statesman."

US Embassy - Georgia

https://ge.usembassy.gov/tag/lugar-center/

Defense Threat Reduction Agency cooperating in Tblisi Georgia

https://ge.usembassy.gov/dtra-cooperation-georgia-lugar/

The Richard Lugar Public Health Research Center is a central part of the National Center for Disease Control Public Health (NCDC) in the Republic of Georgia.=This public health research center was constructed with funds from the U.S. Government within the framework of the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP).= For more than a decade, CBEP has been an integral part of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program.

For Bio lab research - since some on here are questioning the two weeks of "spam" sources - these are valid sources and aren't 'dubious'.

These links are also considered 'open source' since they are available without classification or declassified, not just 'fake news' sources.

While I agree it helps to be cautious, valid US government authored documents which are clearly outlining all the US taypayer funds being spent overseas are worthy of noting.

And there are PLENTY of documents to note, this is a big story.

Congressional Research Service CRS

Defense Threat Reduction Agency (.mil) DTRA

Government Acountability Office (.gov) GAO

DoD funding/Bills (.gov )

NSA Archive

Here's another one.

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB447/

Nunn Lugar Act revisted

Nunn-Lugar Revisited

Documents detail "proliferation in reverse" success story

U.S.-Russian cooperation on threat reduction from the Soviet Union in 1991 to Syria in 2013

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 447

Edited By Tom Blanton and Svetlana Savranskaya with Anna Melyakova

Washington, DC, November 22, 2013 – The final shipment of highly enriched uranium from former Soviet nuclear warheads to the U.S. on November 14, and President Obama's award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Senator Richard Lugar on November 20, have brought new public attention to the underappreciated success story of the Nunn-Lugar initiative — the subject of a new research project by the National Security Archive, which organized the first "critical oral history" gathering this fall of U.S. and Russian veterans of Nunn-Lugar.

When Senator Lugar received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 20, President Obama remarked: " I'll always be thankful to Dick for taking me — a new, junior senator — under his wing, including travels together to review some of his visionary work, the destruction of Cold War arsenals in the former Soviet Union – something that doesn't get a lot of public notice, but was absolutely critical to making us safer in the wake of the Cold War. Now, I should say, traveling with Dick you get close to unexploded landmines, mortar shells, test tubes filled with anthrax and the plague. (Laughter.) His legacy, though, is the thousands of missiles and bombers and submarines and warheads that no longer threaten us because of his extraordinary work. And our nation and our world are safer because of this statesman."

US Embassy - Georgia

https://ge.usembassy.gov/tag/lugar-center/

Defense Threat Reduction Agency cooperating in Tblisi Georgia

https://ge.usembassy.gov/dtra-cooperation-georgia-lugar/

The Richard Lugar Public Health Research Center is a central part of the National Center for Disease Control Public Health (NCDC) in the Republic of Georgia.=This public health research center was constructed with funds from the U.S. Government within the framework of the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP).= For more than a decade, CBEP has been an integral part of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program.

Gene Editing for bio tech outlined in this document from the CRS

Updated December 7, 2018

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44824/6

excerpt from page 34

National Security Concerns

In 2016, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated that advances in genetic

engineering may raise significant national security concerns:

Research in genome editing conducted by countries with different regulatory or ethical

standards than those of Western countries probably increases the risk of the creation of

potentially harmful biological agents or products. Given the broad distribution, low cost,

and accelerated pace of development of this dual-use technology, its deliberate or

unintentional misuse might lead to far-reaching economic and national security

implications.147

In 2017 and 2018, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats also highlighted national

security concerns associated with genome editing and advances in biotechnology. In 2018,

Director Coats stated: “New biotechnologies are leading to improvements in agriculture, health

care, and manufacturing. However, some applications of biotechnologies may lead to

unintentional negative health effects, biological accidents, or deliberate misuse.”

148

Just as CRISPR-Cas9 technology is lowering the cost and technological expertise required for

biological research in general, the technology could do the same for biological weapons

programs. In theory, advances in gene editing could be used to create novel pathogens or change

the hardiness, resistance, infectivity, pathogenicity, or specificity of existing pathogens. However,

current understanding of many of these traits and how they interact in particular pathogens may

complicate making desired changes without also causing undesired changes. A 2016 conference

concluded that “with regards to weapons relevance, the implications of gene editing technology

are probably modest. But should a biological weapons program be started today, these

technologies would likely become a part of it.”

149 Additionally, the concerns discussed above

regarding potential inadvertent effects of ecological use of CRISPR-Cas9 linked gene-drive

technology equally apply to the potential effects of its deliberate malign use.

DTRA Program Helps Nations Tackle Biological Threats

MARCH 10, 2016

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/689971/dtra-program-helps-nations-tackle-biological-threats/

Cooperative Biological Engagement Program, or CBEP

Today, 20 years later, a DTRA fact sheet says CBEP is engaged with nearly30 countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Sustainable Biosurveillance

CBEP’s partners include WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Agency for International Development and other international organizations to help countries develop their capacities to detect biothreat materials.

For the public health community, “we want them to be able to detect diseases beyond everyday acute diseases like cholera, tuberculosis and others,” Brooks said, “but it has to be integrated into the everyday job and function they're doing, otherwise they can't sustain it.”

CBEP also tries to help build capability beyond facilities and laboratory equipment, he added.