dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Anonymous ID: 7f22a6 March 16, 2022, 7:24 a.m. No.15874909 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>4976 >>5128

State-of-the-Art Diagnostics Laboratory Helps Make the World Safer

bv.com/projects/state-art-diagnostics-laboratory-helps-make-world-safer

''Black & Veatch completed Ukraine’s first Biological Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory in Odessa on time and under budget. The new facility enhances the government’s existing disease surveillance systems to detect, report and respond to bioterrorism attacks, epidemics and potential pandemics.''

The BSL-3 laboratory in Odessa was designed and constructed by Black & Veatch. It is the first BSL-3 laboratory in the region and the first to be commissioned, accredited and operational under the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP).

“Completing the construction effort under budget definitely exceeded our expectations,” said Doug Gorsline, DTRA BTRP Ukraine Project Manager.

Bradley Karn, DTRA BTRP Program Manager, added, “More important was the quality of the effort. Black & Veatch was able to renovate a decades-old facility into a state-of-the-art diagnostics laboratory that will become the nexus of Ukraine’s biosurveillance network.”

The BSL-3 laboratory was specifically designed and constructed to support work with especially dangerous pathogens that can be naturally occurring or introduced through a bioterrorism attack. It serves as a central location for research, consolidation and training on the proper handling of dangerous pathogens. The lab also provides the Ukrainian Ministry of Health a safe environment to confirm diagnosis of suspected dangerous pathogens, enhancing public health while deterring bioterrorism.

>>15874909

>>15744831 PB 02/28/22 (Mon) 10:35:05 No.15744831

>https://www.bv.com/projects/state-art-diagnostics-laboratory-helps-make-world-safer

>State-of-the-Art Diagnostics Laboratory Helps Make the World Safer

https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20220311-us-funded-biolabs-in-ukraine-at-the-core-of-ongoing-propaganda-war

US-funded biolabs in Ukraine at the heart of ongoing propaganda war

rfi.fr/en/international/20220311-us-funded-biolabs-in-ukraine-at-the-core-of-ongoing-propaganda-war

March 11, 2022

/ International

War in Ukraine

Issued on: 11/03/2022 - 12:31Modified: 11/03/2022 - 12:53

Since the 1990s, Washington and Kiev have cooperated in preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and fighting the spread of dangerous diseases. However, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a group of allegedly US-funded laboratories have become the subject of stepped-up and relentless conspiracy theories which the US is finding hard to debunk.

Did the US build a cluster of shady, top- secret biolabs in Ukraine aimed at developing bioweapons that are equipped with agressive strains of anthrax or the plague, as Russian propagada claims?

Or are these theories just part of a “false flag” operation to cover up possible plans by the Russian army, to “use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine,” as White House press secretary Jen Psaki, wrote on Twitter?

A clue may be found on the website of the US Embassy in Kyiv. Buried on the site is a page which highlights the mission’s Defense Threat Reduction Office (DTRO).

The DTRO answers to the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which, its website reads, has its origins in the notorious 1942-1947 Manhattan Project that gave birth to world's first atomic bomb.

But today the agency and its offices is not about making apocalypse-creating bombs, but rather preventing the spread of them.

In Ukraine, the DTRO runs four programs. One of them now sits at the heart of the current propaganda war between Russia and the US. The program in question is the Biological Threat Reduction Program.

The Department of Defense's role

>>15874976

The Department of Defense's role

The Kyiv embassy's page describing the program explains that it "collaborates with partner countries to counter the threat of outbreaks (deliberate, accidental, or natural) of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases."

UN Security Council to meet on bio weapons

At the request of Russia, the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on 11 March on alleged manufacture of biological weapons in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Russia's allegations in a video address on 10 March, saying, "No one is developing any chemical or any other weapons of mass destruction" in Ukraine. In 2018, Moscow accused the United States of secretly conducting biological weapons experiments in a laboratory in Georgia, another former Soviet republic. The Security Council meeting Friday on "threats to international peace and security" is scheduled to begin at 1600 GMT.

In a list of 15 downloadable PDF documents, the embassy gives detailed information about 12 different laboratories and institutions which have, or are in the process of obtaining, a "permit to work with (non-specified) pathogens."

Funds for most of the labs cites the US Ministry of Defense as "donor," according to the documents.

Recipients include the Ukraine's Ministry of Health (8 cases) and the Ukraine State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service (4 cases).

The labs are located in Zakarpartska, Vinnytsia, Ternopil, Lviv, Luhansk, Kherson, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.

12 biolabs, $21 million investment

In all cases, according to the documents, the head contractor is the Kansas-based company Black & Veatch.

According to early reporting by CNBC, the Ukraine program is "meant to make the world a safer place," with Black & Veatch helping to "enhance the partner nation’s sustainable capacity to detect, diagnose, report, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks."

The twelve labs mentioned in the documents were all created between 2009 and 2012.

The program is an offspring of the 1991 Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act: The act was desiged to, among other things, "reduce the risk of bioterrorism and prevent the proliferation of biological weapons (BW) technology, expertise, and extremely dangerous pathogens" in former Soviet states."

It also built on the 2005 Agreement between the US and Ukraine on weapons proliferation, signed by representatives of the US Department of Defense and the Ukranian Ministry of Health.

In the end, Black & Veatch was awarded all contracts for labs mentioned by the US Kyiv website.

The total investment of the twelve facilities mentioned amounts to $21.3 million (€18 million).

In 2010, the company also completed Ukraine’s first Bio-Safety Level 3 laboratory under a contract with the DTRA in Odessa. This was not mentioned on the US embassy's website.

'Deadly pathogens'

>>15874983

'Deadly pathogens'

From the beginning, the labs attracted suspicion and comments from Moscow, culminating in an article in Russian daily Izvestia published on 26 May 2020, which mentions "eight laboratories [that] were built and modernized with the participation of the US Defense Special Weapons Agency (DTRA) as part of the Special Biological Engagement Program between 2005 and 2014 and which provided "assistance to Ukraine in preventing the spread of … pathogens."

The article followed charges by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, on 17 April 2020, that "the United States may be developing deadly pathogens" in its "overseas laboratories," adding that "the United States is trying to strengthen its biological presence, including in the post-Soviet space."

Russia's invasion

On 26 February, two days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva tweeted that she had found out that the 15 links to pdf documents describing the Ukranian biolabs "were just deleted" from the website of Washington's embassy in Kyiv.

At the time, RFI found that the documents had indeed disappeared from the US embassy website, but that they were still available via de internet archive Wayback Machine.

But the unexplained disappearance of the documents triggered an avalanche of conspiracy theories on twitter and QAnon related websites trying to prove that the Russian invasion was, in fact, aimed at destroying the US-funded labs with elaborate maps comparing Russian artillery attacks with the location of the labs.

'Conceal any traces'

On 6 March, Moscow's propaganda machine itself went into overdrive. Russian news agency Tass carried a report that Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov "revealed evidence of a US-financed military biological program developed in Ukraine," adding that the "Kiev regime" had applied "hasty measures" to "conceal any traces" of the program.

Press agency Ria produced a set of documents "proving" the allegations.

One day later, on 7 March, Russia's state controlled media outlet Ria Novosti quoted Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense of the Armed Forces as saying that "the Russian military has discovered 30 biolaboratories in Ukraine producing, possibly, bioweapons."

The next day, Chinese government spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during a regular press conference on 8 March, without offering any further evidence that " … US biological labs in Ukraine have indeed attracted much attention. According to reports, a large quantity of dangerous viruses are stored in these facilities. Russia has found during its military operations that the US uses these facilities to conduct bio-military plans."

Zhao added that "according to data released by the US, it has 26 bio-labs and other related facilities in Ukraine, over which the US Department of Defense has absolute control."

'Quite concerned'

>>15874989

'Quite concerned'

The US initially tried to play down the rumors, but was in the end forced to react. During a Senate hearing on 8 March, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland confirmed that Ukraine "has biological research facilities," which, the US is "now quite concerned Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of, so we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach".

On 9 March, White House Press Secretary Jan Psaki tweeted that the US "took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine," adding that "we’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories," calling the allegations "preposterous" and shooting back that they form "the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years,".

It added that Russia itself "has a long and well-documented track record of using chemical weapons, including in attempted assassinations and poisoning of Putin’s political enemies like Alexey Navalny."

>>15875001

>>15874998

https://twitter.com/dgaytandzhieva/status/1497556518278991873

7:57 AM · Feb 26, 2022·Twitter Web App

The US Embassy in #Ukraine has just deleted from its website all documents about 11 Pentagon-funded biolaboratories in Ukraine. I have published all these documents (now deleted by the Embassy)

here

http://dilyana.bg/the-pentagon-bio-weapons/

and in the thread below

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1497556518278991873.html

Anonymous ID: 7f22a6 March 16, 2022, 7:53 a.m. No.15875068 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>5169 >>5208

>>15875049

We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine. We’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.

4:48 PM · Mar 9, 2022·Twitter Web App

https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1501676230617321480

Peppermint Batty

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1501676240180322311.html

We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine. We’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.

This is preposterous. It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent.

The United States is in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention and does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere.

It’s Russia that has a long and well-documented track record of using chemical weapons, including in attempted assassinations and poisoning of Putin’s political enemies like Alexey Navalny.

It’s Russia that continues to support the Assad regime in Syria, which has repeatedly used chemical weapons. It’s Russia that has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law.

Also, Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating. In December, Russia falsely accused the U.S. of deploying contractors with chemical weapons in Ukraine.

This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine.

Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern.

• • •