The CIA has recently stated that it now believes the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is most likely tied to a laboratory leak, according to a public announcement made on Saturday.
“CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting,” said a spokesperson for the agency, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
This conclusion is described as being made with “low confidence,” meaning the CIA intends to continue reviewing any new, credible information or intelligence that could alter its current position. The spokesperson further explained that “both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to The Journal’s request for comment before the article’s publication.
This new development follows remarks made by CIA director John Ratcliffe in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News. Ratcliffe had stated that one of his top priorities upon taking office was to determine the truth about the potential leak of COVID-19 from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. He remarked:
I know from conversations with the president about where his priorities are and where he wants things to be as it concerns foreign threats to America’s national security posture, and it starts with China. One of the things that I’ve talked about a lot is addressing the threat from China on a number of fronts, and that goes back to why a million Americans died and why the Central Intelligence Agency has been sitting on the sidelines for five years in not making an assessment about the origins of COVID. That’s a day-one thing for me. I’ve been on record as you know in saying I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictates that the origins of COVID was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But the CIA has not made that assessment or at least not made that assessment publicly. So I’m going to focus on that and look at the intelligence and make sure that the public is aware that the agency is going to get off the sidelines.
According to Breitbart’s Washington Bureau Chief, Matthew Boyle, the CIA has faced ongoing controversy over its handling of the pandemic’s origins. A whistleblower has claimed that agency analysts who were assigned to investigate the source of the virus were bribed to deny the possibility of a lab leak from the Wuhan facility.
“Everyone agrees the virus came from China, but there has been disagreement as to whether it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or whether it spread from animals to humans in nature, though the lab leak theory has regained prominence if not dominance in recent years after originally being attacked,” Boyle wrote.
The CIA has yet to align itself with the FBI and the Energy Department in supporting the theory that a laboratory leak in Wuhan is the most probable cause of the pandemic.
In December, a former senior FBI scientist told The Journal that it was necessary for the intelligence community to reassess the origins of the virus. As the Biden administration neared its end, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had urged the creation of an independent panel to examine the findings of intelligence agencies.
{Matzav.com}