{"id":1417921,"date":"2022-04-04T12:14:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T16:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1417921"},"modified":"2022-04-04T12:14:39","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T16:14:39","slug":"pentagon-claims-no-offensive-biologic-weapons-in-ukrainian-biolabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pentagon-claims-no-offensive-biologic-weapons-in-ukrainian-biolabs\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon Claims \u201cNo Offensive Biologic Weapons\u201d in Ukrainian Biolabs"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpentagon-claims-no-offensive-biologic-weapons-in-ukrainian-biolabs%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1417921&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>There are \u201cno offensive biologic weapons\u201d in the\u00a0Ukraine laboratories that the United States has been funding,\u00a0a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-pentagon\">Pentagon<\/a> official told Congress on April 1.<\/p>\n<p>Deborah Rosenbaum, the assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs, told the House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations<a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?519014-1\/hearing-countering-weapons-mass-destruction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u00a0on Friday<\/a>\u00a0that there are \u201cunequivocally \u2026\u00a0 no offensive biologic weapons in the Ukraine laboratories that the United States has been involved with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon funds labs in Ukraine through its Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a\u00a0support agency within the Department of Defense for countering weapons of mass destruction, and both U.S and Ukraine officials say the labs\u00a0seek to prevent bioweapons and pathogens.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0a Pentagon fact sheet\u00a0released in March (<a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2022\/Mar\/11\/2002954612\/-1\/-1\/0\/FACT-SHEET-THE-DEPARTMENT-OF-DEFENSE&#039;S-COOPERATIVE-THREAT-REDUCTION-PROGRAM-BIOLOGICAL-THREAT-REDUCTION-PROGRAM-ACTIVITIES-IN-UKRAINE.PDF\">pdf<\/a>), since 2005, the United States has \u201cinvested approximately $200 million in Ukraine \u2026 supporting 46 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-ukrainian\">Ukrainian<\/a> laboratories, health facilities, and diagnostic sites.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Biological Threat Reduction Program has \u201cimproved Ukraine\u2019s biological safety, security, and surveillance for both human and animal health,\u201d\u00a0the Pentagon fact sheet states.<\/p>\n<p>However,\u00a0Russia has in recent months accused the U.S.-funded laboratories in Ukraine of developing\u00a0biological warfare weapons. Such allegations were\u00a0being\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thebulletin.org\/2022\/02\/russian-media-spreading-disinformation-about-us-bioweapons-as-troops-mass-near-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">aired<\/a>\u00a0on Russian state-run media even prior to the Moscow-led invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian Ministry of Defense on March 6\u00a0issued a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/s\/mod_russia_en\/40\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a>\u00a0on Telegram accusing Ukraine of having destroyed disease-causing pathogens being studied at a lab in Ukraine that the ministry said is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s allegations\u00a0regarding the biological laboratories\u00a0appeared to be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/beijing-pushes-russian-conspiracy-theory-about-us-bio-labs-in-ukraine_4324022.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">repeated by the Chinese regime<\/a>\u00a0on March 7.<\/p>\n<p>The World Health Organization <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/europe\/exclusive-who-says-it-advised-ukraine-destroy-pathogens-health-labs-prevent-2022-03-11\/\">confirmed<\/a> in March that it advised the Ministry of Health in Ukraine\u00a0to destroy \u201chigh-threat pathogens\u00a0to prevent any potential spills.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But analysts believe that the narrative being pushed by the Kremlin is part of its\u00a0plan to create a false-flag operation in an attempt to justify using chemical weapons operations in Ukraine itself.<\/p>\n<p>Rosenbaum told officials on Friday that, \u201cthe department remains very concerned about the ability to get accurate and transparent information out to the U.S. public, as well as certainly our allies and the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo one of the things that the department has been doing\u2014and this is particularly related to the public health laboratories in Ukraine that is being tragically used by the Russians as a potential for a false flag operation\u2014from the White House on down to the Defense Department, as well as Department of State, as well as all of the vehicles that we have to be able to communicate accurate information out about this and the work that has been underway,\u201d\u00a0Rosenbaum said.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Pope, the director of the DTRA\u2019s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, <a href=\"https:\/\/thebulletin.org\/2022\/02\/us-official-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-risks-release-of-dangerous-pathogens\/\">told<\/a> the\u00a0Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in February\u00a0that the labs might contain Soviet-era bioweapons and warned that the conflict in Ukraine could accidentally lead to the dangerous disease-causing pathogens being released.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the Russians know enough about the kinds of pathogens that are stored in biological research laboratories that I don\u2019t think they would deliberately target a laboratory,\u201d Pope said. \u201cBut what I do have concerns about is that they would \u2026 be accidentally damaged during this Russian invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rosenbaum\u2019s comments come shortly after\u00a0White House press secretary Jen Psaki cautioned officials to be on the lookout \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/nato-chief-says-russia-may-use-chemical-or-biological-weapons-in-ukraine_4335947.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons<\/a>\u00a0in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0White House\u2019s concerns have also been repeated by\u00a0NATO\u00a0Secretary General\u00a0Jens Stoltenberg and the UK\u2019s Ministry of Defense, which said last month that it had\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/uk-intelligence-experts-concerned-russia-will-use-fabricated-chemical-weapons-claims-in-false-flag-attack-on-ukraine_4338311.html\">\u201cseen no evidence to support<\/a>\u201d the accusations made by Russia.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-katabella-roberts\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Katabella Roberts is a reporter currently based in Turkey. She covers news and business for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are \u201cno offensive biologic weapons\u201d in the\u00a0Ukraine laboratories that the United States has been funding,\u00a0a Pentagon official told Congress on April 1.Deborah Rosenbaum, the assistant secretary of defense for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1417921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1417921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1417921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1417921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1417921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}