{"id":2282030,"date":"2024-06-23T04:03:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T08:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pentagon-does-not-know-how-much-money-went-to-chinese-labs-including-wuhan-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-06-23T04:12:34","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T08:12:34","slug":"pentagon-does-not-know-how-much-money-went-to-chinese-labs-including-wuhan-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pentagon-does-not-know-how-much-money-went-to-chinese-labs-including-wuhan-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon does not know how much money went to Chinese labs, including Wuhan &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"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\">32<\/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-does-not-know-how-much-money-went-to-chinese-labs-including-wuhan-washington-examiner%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=2282030&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>The report by the Pentagon&#8217;s \u2063inspector general, mandated by the fiscal\u200b 2024 National \u200cDefense Authorization Act, was\u200b meant to detail the extent of funds from\u200b the Department of Defense (DoD) that possibly contributed to \u2063pathogen enhancement research in Chinese\u2064 laboratories. The inspector general, \u200dhowever, could\u200d not ascertain the complete scope of DoD funding due \u2064to\u2063 inadequate tracking systems. \u2064Findings confirmed there were considerable limitations in\u2064 the data management systems used by the DoD\u2063 and federal awards systems, \u2064a concern previously raised by the\u200b Government Accountability Office.<\/p>\n<p>A few grants and contracts were identified, like the seven grants totaling $15.6 million for pathogen\u2063 research and five \u200badditional \u200dawards worth $9.9 million \u200dto\u200d Chinese entities that were\u2062 not related to pathogen enhancement. Additionally, the Defense Threat \u200bReduction Agency disclosed 13 \u200cprojects with\u2064 funds amounting to \u200c$46.7 million awarded to the EcoHealth Alliance for pathogen-related studies \u200bfrom 2014 through 2023, with\u2062 none of this funding directly allocated to China or its affiliates.\u200c The Army \u200dasserts that such pathogen \u2063research is defensive, designed to understand threats the U.S. could face,\u2064 and there\u200c was\u2062 no evidence contradicting this purpose.<\/p>\n<p>This inquiry stems\u2062 amid\u2064 concerns\u200d regarding &#8216;gain-of-function&#8217;\u2064 research following contentious \u2062debates on the \u200bCOVID-19 origins, particularly\u200c involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Senator\u2064 Joni Ernst and Representative \u2062Mike\u200d Gallagher initiated the investigation to enhance transparency on U.S. \u200ddefense funds\u200c possibly used in risky research.\u200b Despite some findings, \u2064significant gaps in data and accountability remain, fueling ongoing distrust and calls for continued transparency and accountability regarding\u2063 U.S. involvement in pathogen research.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>It is unclear how much money the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/department-of-defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Department of Defense \">Department of Defense <\/a>provided to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/china\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Chinese\">Chinese<\/a> research laboratories or related to enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential, according to a new report from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/pentagon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Pentagon's\">Pentagon\u2019s<\/a> inspector general.<\/p>\n<p>The Office of Inspector General was tasked in the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act to submit a <a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2024\/Jun\/20\/2003488653\/-1\/-1\/1\/DODIG-2024-099_SECURED.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"report \">report <\/a>to congressional defense committees on the amount of federal funds awarded by the department, directly or indirectly, to Chinese research labs that could have resulted in the enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential.<\/p>\n<p>The Office of Inspector General was unable to determine the extent to which Department of Defense grants, contracts, subgrants, subcontracts, or any other type of agreement or collaboration due to \u201climitations in the DoD\u2019s systems used to track contracts and grants,\u201d per the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dodig.mil\/reports.html\/Article\/3811820\/management-advisory-review-of-dod-funds-provided-to-the-peoples-republic-of-chi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>report<\/a> that was released early last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsistent with prior findings by the Government Accountability Office in this area, we identified significant limitations in the adequacy of the data in DoD and federal awards systems,\u201d Inspector General Robert Storch said. \u201cWhile the DoD was able to identify some funding that fell within the scope of the congressional inquiry, we found that the DoD did not track funding in sufficient detail for us to determine the full scope of funds it provided to Chinese research laboratories or other foreign countries for research related to pathogens or otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The provision in the fiscal 2024 NDAA that required the department to produce the report was the effort of both Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joni-ernst\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Joni Ernst\">Joni Ernst<\/a> (R-IA) and Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/mike-gallagher\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Joni Ernst\">Mike Gallagher <\/a>(R-WI) in the wake of the federal government funding possibly dangerous research at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/wuhan-lab\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Wuhan Institute of Virology\">Wuhan Institute of Virology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The WIV is at the heart of the debate over the origins of COVID-19, with proponents of the so-called lab leak theory suggesting the virus could have originated from an accident at the WIV.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTaxpayers deserve to know how much of their money is being shipped to China and why Washington continues collecting and creating deadly super viruses \u2014 both of which could pose threats to our national security,\u201d Ernst said in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ernst.senate.gov\/news\/press-releases\/ernst-gallagher-launch-investigation-into-us-defense-dollars-diverted-to-china-or-risky-research\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"January\">January<\/a> prior to the department beginning its investigation. \u201cThis investigation is the first step to bringing long-overdue transparency and accountability to the indefensible ways Washington is spending our defense dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Army identified seven grants from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs appropriations valued at $15.6 million that fell into this category and another five awards valued at $9.9 million to Chinese entities unrelated to enhancing pathogens. <\/p>\n<p>Army officials said all of the pathogen research is for defensive purposes so they can understand the threats that the U.S. could face. The OIG did not find information to contradict that.<\/p>\n<p>The Defense Threat Reduction Agency also identified 13 projects that total $46.7 million that were awarded to EcoHealth Alliance from 2014 through 2023 for pathogen-related biosurveillance studies. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-whistleblower-edward-snowdens-wife-shares-photos-of-their-new-son\/\" title=\"U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden\u2019s wife shares photos of their new son\">agency reported<\/a> none of that funding was allocated to China or its affiliates.<\/p>\n<p>EcoHealth, a preeminent virus research nonprofit organization, has come under significant scrutiny since the outset of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-to-create-rare-earth-behemoth-company-to-stabilize-supply-chain\/\" title=\"China to Create Rare Earth \u2018Behemoth\u2019 Company to \u2018Stabilize Supply Chain\u2019\">coronavirus pandemic due<\/a> to its research on bat coronaviruses conducted at the WIV, funded by the National Institutes of Health starting in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CCP\u2019s lack of transparency is one thing, but the DoD\u2019s failure to cooperate and provide details about the United States\u2019s role in deadly gain-of-function research is unacceptable,\u201d\u00a0Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>.\u00a0\u201cThis is just one of many reasons the public doesn\u2019t trust the federal government to uncover the origins of COVID-19. Every obstacle we face only means we are getting closer to exposing the truth. We will keep fighting for transparency and accountability for this virus that killed over a million Americans.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Marshall sent a letter to Storch last month expressing his support for the investigation and urging him to broaden the scope of it.<\/p>\n<p>Leading public health officials and virologists contend that the viruses studied by EcoHealth and WIV scientists under the NIH grant could not have given rise to SARS-CoV-2 because they are too genetically distant. However, public health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci and former NIH Director Lawrence Tabak have noted it is impossible to know what projects Chinese researchers were conducting at the WIV that did not involve NIH funds.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, EcoHealth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/healthcare\/2985416\/peter-daszak-testifying-ecohealth-alliance-covid-origins-controversy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"applied\">applied<\/a> for a grant with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency through the DoD to conduct research at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the WIV. Although the project was denied, it would have entailed adding a furin cleavage site to a coronavirus, which is the same characteristic makes SARS-CoV-2 bind to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-natsec-official-evidence-for-theory-that-pandemic-came-from-lab-far-outweighs-natural-outbreak\/\" title=\"Ex-NatSec Official: Evidence For Theory That Pandemic Came From Lab \u2018Far Outweighs\u2019 Natural Outbreak\">human lung tissue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When testifying before the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/house-oversight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Select Subcommittee \">Select Subcommittee <\/a>on the Coronavirus Pandemic in May, EcoHealth President Peter Daszak admitted that although the project was not funded by DARPA, there would be no way of confirming whether or not his proposed research partner at the WIV undertook the project independently without U.S. backing.<\/p>\n<p>EcoHealth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecohealthalliance.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Emails-02.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>collected<\/a> over 15,000 bat coronavirus samples that had been entirely untouched and left at the WIV once the NIH shut down the grant.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services began debarment proceedings against both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/healthcare\/3004747\/hhs-suspends-funding-organization-that-funded-wuhan-virus-research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Daszak\">EcoHealth<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/healthcare\/3012771\/hhs-suspends-funding-to-head-of-organization-that-funded-wuhan-coronavirus-research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Daszak\">Daszak<\/a> personally for turning in their required annual report for the WIV research two years late. Debarment would prohibit EcoHealth and Daszak from receiving any federal funds for a minimum of three years.<\/p>\n<p>EcoHealth did not respond to the <em>Washington Examiner\u2019s<\/em> request for comment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The GAO experienced similar difficulties when conducting its own investigation in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new Pentagon inspector general report reveals uncertainty over the amount of money the Department of Defense allocated to Chinese labs or pathogen enhancement research. This investigation was mandated by the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, requiring a report submission to Congress<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3015,"featured_media":2282031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/AP24017569970509.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[32213,3761,7848],"class_list":["post-2282030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-chinese-labs","tag-pentagon","tag-wuhan"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/AP24017569970509.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282030","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\/3015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2282030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2282031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2282030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2282030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2282030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}