That’s weird, that’s queer, that’s crazy, that deserves a long hard look.

Roadkill's picture
Roadkill started the topic in Monday, 25 Oct 2021 at 7:04pm
sypkan's picture
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sypkan Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 10:15am

"...Critics claim 15-minute cities are a deliberate strategy to turn neighbourhoods into “concentration camps”, with many convinced they will somehow lead to surveillance tracking our every movement, that people will be banned from driving or cop heavy fines, and that people will be barricades in their “zones” and unable to move freely around the city without “permits”.

However, supporters insist those draconian restrictions are pure fantasy, and that it’s simply an urban planning initiative designed to make city spaces more walkable and enjoyable for all."

so, are there or are not...

a permit system in place?

fines in place?

digital surveillance in place?

digital barricades in place?

all pure conspiracy theory waleed...

Stok's picture
Stok's picture
Stok Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 10:27am
sypkan wrote:

so why do / did you consisently refer to them as conspiracy?

and in the process belittle and question anyone's sanity that wants to talk about such things...

not cool...

just plain wanker actually

nah, it isn't... 'just a sea of opinion'

there's a heap of real factual information out there, from real and extensive research, if one cares to look...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/the-lab-leak-theory-inside-the-f...

but nah, you choose to be an aloof misinformation spreading wanker, accusing everyone else of that which you do...

These independent, possibly real or not events you're referring to are just that - events. Talking about them is not conspiracy discussion. As you said there's a book called the Great Reset. Hardly a secret.

Starting to say it 'all makes sense', and 'the truth is coming out' as you begin to connect the lab leak to the great reset (for example), is where the conspiracy starts. Connecting these events to lockdowns, vaccine mandates as sinister tools of control etc. is theorising.

So, for example, discussing the events such as the lab leak, theorising that the event was used as a tool either in a planned manner or opportunistically, is hallmark conspiracy theory thinking.

Conspiracy thinking is one thing, but again, as I said before - spreading your theories with a degree of urgency is pretty shit. Trying to get more people on your side of the fence.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I was just responding to Burleigh anyway, and you just jumped on in (although I happily engaged back). I don't know you're position on everything, maybe you're completely rational?

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Stok Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 10:29am
gsco wrote:

I might be missing something here but isn’t the idea of 15min cities just common sense town planning and urban design? Whenever I’ve lived in big cities the worst part was the commuting, being stuck in traffic, etc.

Yes it is.

The opposition is loosely based around the Americanised car and suburban culture - where people live in homes with no local services, kilometers from anything, and need there car to pretty much go anywhere.

You know, the same people who cry whenever a bike lane is put into a city, or if car parking is reduced to encourage people to use oublic transport.

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sypkan Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 10:31am

as I have said, I don't disagree with the concept...

however, telling the public somethingit isn't happening, when it clearly is, is gaslighting... i hate that term, but this is the purest sense of the word...

and one cohort of politics uses it extensively, in the most cynical practice of contemporary poitics ever

interestingly, you don't need to be nostradamus to see where this heading

the days of the urban surfer may be numbered...

buy up that house now north coasters!

that correction ain't ever coming

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sypkan Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 10:39am

the problem is the tendency to a two tiered society....

you think mrs, google is going to stay in her 15 minute zone?

or will she continue to enjoy her superyacht telos trips, with anentourage of pro surfers on jet skis getting her into the best waves of the day? (most suitable best eaves)

whilst the plebs (you) will not be able to afford the 'permit'

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sypkan Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 10:46am

"These independent, possibly real or not events you're referring to are just that - events. Talking about them is not conspiracy discussion. As you said there's a book called the Great Reset. Hardly a secret."

sooooo...

when you wrote it off as 'a conapiracy' a year or so ago, labelling me a conspiracy nutter and questioning my sanity in the process...

were you just ignorant?

or just batting for the WEF, doing their propaganda footwork for them?

both are ok answers, as nyt was STILL doing the latter at the time...

but just honest ffs!

Island Bay's picture
Island Bay's picture
Island Bay Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 10:46am

Make it easy for people to access services and amenities close to home.

Do not make it impossible or illegal for people to travel freely.

The first makes for a good life. The second is hell.

sypkan's picture
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sypkan Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 10:51am

the big cats around town showed their hand way too early in the game...

and they know it!

https://tnc.news/2021/02/28/world-economic-forum-deletes-tweet-claiming-...

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sypkan Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 10:55am

'So, for example, discussing the events such as the lab leak, theorising that the event was used as a tool either in a planned manner or opportunistically, is hallmark conspiracy theory thinking.'

so naomi klien is right wing conspiracy nutter too...

ok, got it

burleigh's picture
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burleigh Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 11:03am
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burleigh Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 11:11am
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gsco Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 11:21am

ok, I actually didn't realise people were speculating about stuff here.

City planning and design based on ideas of convenience, ease of access and use, hygiene, etc, has been going on for thousands of years. And people study whole university degrees on it.

But yes I think the whole country would get burnt to the ground by mass revolts and riots, our whole social fabric would be destroyed, and society would descend into lawless anarchy, if communist-style ideas like travel or movement restrictions/passes related to one's 15min area/district, restrictions on owning cars, etc, ever to become an actual reality.

I understand how people might be extrapolating from covid lockdowns and travel restrictions to speculating about these kinds of ideas. But seems that it's just a speculation?

sypkan's picture
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sypkan Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 11:36am

"you'll own nothing, and you will be happy"

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sypkan Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 11:38am

or, to much more effect in german accent... with appropriately placed capitals...

"you'll own nothing, and you WILL be happy"

stunet's picture
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stunet Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 12:00pm

Dutch, not German.

sypkan's picture
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sypkan Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 12:18pm

is big klaus not german?

not a descendant of you know who?

I don't know...

the statement works better in german for me

stunet's picture
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stunet Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 12:21pm

Ida Auken is Dutch. She authored the poorly written blog post that's become fodder for fantasists.

Island Bay's picture
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Island Bay Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 12:50pm
stunet wrote:

Ida Auken is Dutch. She authored the poorly written blog post that's become fodder for fantasists.

Danish. She’s the daughter of Sven and Margrethe Auken, both of whom are veteran Labour MPs.

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stunet Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 1:00pm

A Dane. Apologies.

udo's picture
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udo Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 5:56pm
burleigh's picture
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burleigh Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023 at 8:25pm

How many of these trigger Stok?

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burleigh Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 8:19am
garyg1412's picture
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garyg1412 Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 10:01am
burleigh wrote:

How many of these trigger Stok?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Co20qOZLzec/?igshid=MDM4ZDc5MmU=

Burleigh. They left Rednecks and Dumbfucks off that list

burleigh's picture
burleigh's picture
burleigh Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 10:03am

Problem solving in Sydney last night:

Thank fuck that is fixed

Hiccups's picture
Hiccups's picture
Hiccups Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 10:27am

burleigh out here re-posting Australian's most idiotic politician, and it's most moronic "journalist".

soggydog's picture
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soggydog Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 10:28am
burleigh wrote:

Problem solving in Sydney last night:

Thank fuck that is fixed
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Co-zOazjjSL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The mural was inappropriate, but gay men are not peadophiles. That’s retard level bullshit prejudice.

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burleigh Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 10:29am
Hiccups wrote:

burleigh out here re-posting Australian's most idiotic politician, and it's most moronic "journalist".

You dont want to address the grown fat man in a gimp suit with a teddy bear head painted on a sydney street?

burleigh's picture
burleigh's picture
burleigh Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 10:29am
soggydog wrote:
burleigh wrote:

Problem solving in Sydney last night:

Thank fuck that is fixed
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Co-zOazjjSL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The mural was inappropriate, but gay men are not peadophiles. That’s retard level bullshit prejudice.

Who said they are pedos?

Hiccups's picture
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Hiccups Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:07am
burleigh wrote:
Hiccups wrote:

burleigh out here re-posting Australian's most idiotic politician, and it's most moronic "journalist".

You dont want to address the grown fat man in a gimp suit with a teddy bear head painted on a sydney street?

I wasn't talking about that post, but we've had grown men as superheroes with friendly faces running around in tight underwear for years, and the wider public has been exposing their children to that. The horror!

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mikehunt207 Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:18am

Burls the more you post this stuff off your social media the more idiotic you look mate. One thing being an anti faxer but the other posts off your instagram stream ....homophobic , the Tate stuff ..... shit stirring race hate, all pretty destructive and quite sad really, its no wonder you are so wound up and scared of everything "out there" with all these "experts" letting you in on their "truths"
Maybe just switch off the monitor and go outside in the real world for a while?

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burleigh's picture
burleigh Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:23am
mikehunt207 wrote:

Burls the more you post this stuff off your social media the more idiotic you look mate. One thing being an anti faxer but the other posts off your instagram stream ....homophobic , the Tate stuff ..... shit stirring race hate, all pretty destructive and quite sad really, its no wonder you are so wound up and scared of everything "out there" with all these "experts" letting you in on their "truths"
Maybe just switch off the monitor and go outside in the real world for a while?

Homophobic? what have i posted that's homophobic?
Race hate? WTF?
Tate stuff? I posted one quote of his, and retracted it once i understood the shit he has done.

please enlighten me to anything homophobic i have posted and anything to do with race hate.

burleigh's picture
burleigh's picture
burleigh Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:28am
Hiccups wrote:
burleigh wrote:
Hiccups wrote:

burleigh out here re-posting Australian's most idiotic politician, and it's most moronic "journalist".

You dont want to address the grown fat man in a gimp suit with a teddy bear head painted on a sydney street?

I wasn't talking about that post, but we've had grown men as superheroes with friendly faces running around in tight underwear for years, and the wider public has been exposing their children to that. The horror!

You're comparing superman to a mural of an obese man in a gimp suit wearing a teddy bear head?

Maybe if superman posed on a dirty couch in a gimp suit with a teddy bear head you have a point, but he didnt, and you don't.

Do you really want to normalise teddy bears and BDSM? what kind of sicko are you?

Balenciaga campaign comes to mind.

soggydog's picture
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soggydog Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:40am
burleigh wrote:
soggydog wrote:
burleigh wrote:

Problem solving in Sydney last night:

Thank fuck that is fixed
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Co-zOazjjSL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The mural was inappropriate, but gay men are not peadophiles. That’s retard level bullshit prejudice.

Who said they are pedos?

“Leave our kids alone”
People who get riled up about this stuff aren’t intelligent enough to differentiate in my experience. Too wrapped up in prejudice.

burleigh's picture
burleigh's picture
burleigh Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:48am
soggydog wrote:
burleigh wrote:
soggydog wrote:
burleigh wrote:

Problem solving in Sydney last night:

Thank fuck that is fixed
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Co-zOazjjSL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The mural was inappropriate, but gay men are not peadophiles. That’s retard level bullshit prejudice.

Who said they are pedos?

“Leave our kids alone”
People who get riled up about this stuff aren’t intelligent enough to differentiate in my experience. Too wrapped up in prejudice.

Differentiate what? A grown man laying down. with a gimp suit on, but also wearing a fluffy toy head painted on the streets in Sydney.

Nobody, absolutely NOBODY called homosexual men pedos, and the message of "leave the kids alone" is not directed to homosexual men. Pretty easy to differentiate if you ask me.

Your logic is like calling all Muslim’s terrorists. Again, you would be completely wrong.

Anyway, i'm out of this conversation.

etarip's picture
etarip's picture
etarip Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:50am

Burlz. You posted something that directly links an image of homosexuality to pedophilia, without providing additional context on why you were upset about it.

burleigh's picture
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burleigh Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:54am
etarip wrote:

Burlz. You posted something that directly linked equates homosexuality to pedophilia, without providing additional context.

I posted something that links pedophilia to pedophilia. Nothing to do with homosexuality.

Look what happened to balenciaga when they released a campaign with BDSM teddy bears. What's the difference with the mural?

etarip's picture
etarip's picture
etarip Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:59am

Wait. That picture is pedophila? What is clearly a grown adults body? Is pedophilia?

Is every example of sexualised imagery in our saturated social and traditional media pedophilia? At least be consistent.

Penny for your thoughts.
- What would you say to your kids (let’s say >12yo) about that picture if they saw it and didn’t say anything?
- what would you say if they asked you about it? “Dad, what’s that?, why’s that man got a teddy bear head?”

stunet's picture
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stunet Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:58am

Sweeping the front page clean. It's all somewhat in context here, but the text grab seen by people checking the wind sitch for a lunch time sesh is a bit startling.

burleigh's picture
burleigh's picture
burleigh Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 11:59am
stunet wrote:

Sweeping the front page clean. It's all somewhat in context here, but the text grab seen by people checking the wind sitch for a lunch time sesh is a bit startling.

Good call

etarip's picture
etarip's picture
etarip Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 12:00pm

Page cleaner

truebluebasher's picture
truebluebasher's picture
truebluebasher Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 at 3:50pm

Ain't nothin' more weird than the Polish Maddie McCann...Wow!
Candlelight vigil...
Nations of the World pray that this week's Maddie story blows up the internet for good this time!
Bye Bye internet...never stood a chance against a totally freaky real life drama...Game Over!

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gragagan's picture
gragagan Sunday, 26 Feb 2023 at 12:16pm

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Sunday, 26 Feb 2023 at 12:56pm

What a load of Garbage..

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Supafreak Monday, 27 Feb 2023 at 5:54am

Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a WASHINGTON—The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.

The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office. The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic’s origin. The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided. The Energy Department’s conclusion is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.

The Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence,” according to people who have read the classified report.

The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still holds to this view. The FBI employs a cadre of microbiologists, immunologists and other scientists and is supported by the National Bioforensic Analysis Center, which was established at Fort Detrick, Md., in 2004 to analyze anthrax and other possible biological threats.

U.S. officials declined to give details on the fresh intelligence and analysis that led the Energy Department to change its position. They added that while the Energy Department and the FBI each say an unintended lab leak is most likely, they arrived at those conclusions for different reasons.

The updated document underscores how intelligence officials are still putting together the pieces on how Covid-19 emerged. More than one million Americans have died in the pandemic that began more than three years ago. The National Intelligence Council, which conducts long-term strategic analysis, and four agencies, which officials declined to identify, still assess with “low confidence” that the virus came about through natural transmission from an infected animal, according to the updated report.

The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency that officials wouldn’t name remain undecided between the lab-leak and natural-transmission theories, the people who have read the classified report said.

Despite the agencies’ differing analyses, the update reaffirmed an existing consensus between them that Covid-19 wasn’t the result of a Chinese biological-weapons program, the people who have read the classified report said.

A senior U.S. intelligence official confirmed that the intelligence community had conducted the update, whose existence hasn’t previously been reported. This official added that it was done in light of new intelligence, further study of academic literature and consultation with experts outside government. The update, which is less than five pages, wasn’t requested by Congress. But lawmakers, particularly House and Senate Republicans, are pursuing their own investigations into the origins of the pandemic and are pressing the Biden administration and the intelligence community for more information. Officials didn’t say if an unclassified version of the update would be issued.

U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to confirm or deny the Journal’s reporting in an appearance Sunday on CNN. He said President Biden had repeatedly directed every part of the intelligence community to invest in trying to discern as much as possible about the origins of the pandemic.

“President Biden specifically requested that the national labs, which are part of the Energy Department, be brought into this assessment because he wants to put every tool at use to be able to figure out what happened here,” Mr. Sullivan said. There are a “variety of views in the intelligence community,” Mr. Sullivan added. “A number of them have said they just don’t have enough information.”

Asked about the Energy Department’s assessment, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Ala.) said Sunday on NBC that Congress needed to hold extensive hearings concerning the origins of the pandemic, adding that China has sought to intimidate other countries from questioning whether the virus emerged naturally. “This is a country that has no problem coming out and lying to the world,” he said.

The Covid-19 virus first circulated in Wuhan, China, no later than November 2019, according to the U.S. 2021 intelligence report. The pandemic’s origin has been the subject of vigorous, sometimes partisan debate among academics, intelligence experts and lawmakers.

David Relman, a Stanford University microbiologist who has argued for a dispassionate investigation into the pandemic’s beginnings, welcomed word of the updated findings. “Kudos to those who are willing to set aside their preconceptions and objectively re-examine what we know and don’t know about Covid origins,” said Dr. Relman, who has served on several federal scientific-advisory boards. “My plea is that we not accept an incomplete answer or give up because of political expediency.”

An Energy Department spokesman declined to discuss details of its assessment but wrote in a statement that the agency “continues to support the thorough, careful, and objective work of our intelligence professionals in investigating the origins of COVID-19, as the President directed.”

The FBI declined to comment.

China, which has placed limits on investigations by the World Health Organization, has disputed that the virus could have leaked from one of its labs and has suggested it emerged outside China. The Chinese government didn’t respond to requests for comment about whether there has been any change in its views on the origins of Covid-19. Some scientists argue that the virus probably emerged naturally and leapt from an animal to a human, the same pathway for outbreaks of previously unknown pathogens.

Intelligence analysts who have supported that view give weight to “the precedent of past novel infectious disease outbreaks having zoonotic origins,” the flourishing trade in a diverse set of animals that are susceptible to such infections, and their conclusion that Chinese officials didn’t have foreknowledge of the virus, the 2021 report said.

Yet no confirmed animal source for Covid-19 has been identified. The lack of an animal source, and the fact that Wuhan is the center of China’s extensive coronavirus research, has led some scientists and U.S. officials to argue that a lab leak is the best explanation for the pandemic’s beginning. U.S. State Department cables written in 2018 and internal Chinese documents show that there were persistent concerns about China’s biosafety procedures, which have been cited by proponents of the lab-leak hypothesis.

Wuhan is home to an array of laboratories, many of which were built or expanded as a result of China’s traumatic experience with the initial severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic beginning in 2002. They include campuses of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which produces vaccines.
An outbreak at a seafood market in Wuhan had initially been thought to be the source of the virus, but some scientists and Chinese public-health officials now see it as an example of community spread rather than the place where the first human infection occurred, the 2021 intelligence community report said.

In May 2021, President Biden told the intelligence community to step up its efforts to investigate the origins of Covid-19 and directed that the review draw on work by the U.S.’s national laboratories and other agencies. Congress, he said, would be kept informed of that effort.

The October 2021 report said that there was a consensus that Covid-19 wasn’t the result of a Chinese biological-weapons program. But it didn’t settle the debate over whether it resulted from a lab leak or came from an animal, saying that more information was needed from the Chinese authorities. The U.S. intelligence community is made up of 18 agencies, including offices at the Energy, State and Treasury departments. Eight of them participated in the Covid-origins review, along with the National Intelligence Council.

Before that report, the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory prepared a study in May 2020 concluding that a lab-leak hypothesis was plausible and deserved further investigation.

The debate over whether Covid-19 might have escaped from a laboratory has been fueled by U.S. intelligence that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care.

A House Intelligence Committee report concluded last year that this disclosure didn’t strengthen either the lab-leak or the natural-origin theory as the researchers might have become sick with a seasonal flu. But some former U.S. officials say the sick researchers were involved in coronavirus research.

Lawmakers have sought to find out more about why the FBI assesses a lab leak was likely. In an Aug. 1 letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, requested that the FBI share the records of its investigation and asked if the bureau had briefed Mr. Biden on its findings.

In a Nov. 18 letter, FBI Assistant Director Jill Tyson said the agency couldn’t share those details because of Justice Department policy on preserving “the integrity of ongoing investigations.” She referred the senator to Ms. Haines’s office for information on what briefings were arranged for the president.

Write to Michael R. Gordon at [email protected] and Warren P. Strobel at [email protected]

Distracted's picture
Distracted's picture
Distracted Monday, 27 Feb 2023 at 7:47am

Was wondering why the US Energy Department needs to have an opinion on Covid….. but they also “conduct advanced biological research” wtf

burleigh's picture
burleigh's picture
burleigh Monday, 27 Feb 2023 at 9:17am
Alana_a's picture
Alana_a's picture
Alana_a Monday, 27 Feb 2023 at 11:21am

Take that with a grain of salt. Like we can trust anything that comes from the FBI as well.

Supafreak wrote:

Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a WASHINGTON—The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.

The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office. The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic’s origin. The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided. The Energy Department’s conclusion is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.

The Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence,” according to people who have read the classified report.

The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still holds to this view. The FBI employs a cadre of microbiologists, immunologists and other scientists and is supported by the National Bioforensic Analysis Center, which was established at Fort Detrick, Md., in 2004 to analyze anthrax and other possible biological threats.

U.S. officials declined to give details on the fresh intelligence and analysis that led the Energy Department to change its position. They added that while the Energy Department and the FBI each say an unintended lab leak is most likely, they arrived at those conclusions for different reasons.

The updated document underscores how intelligence officials are still putting together the pieces on how Covid-19 emerged. More than one million Americans have died in the pandemic that began more than three years ago. The National Intelligence Council, which conducts long-term strategic analysis, and four agencies, which officials declined to identify, still assess with “low confidence” that the virus came about through natural transmission from an infected animal, according to the updated report.

The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency that officials wouldn’t name remain undecided between the lab-leak and natural-transmission theories, the people who have read the classified report said.

Despite the agencies’ differing analyses, the update reaffirmed an existing consensus between them that Covid-19 wasn’t the result of a Chinese biological-weapons program, the people who have read the classified report said.

A senior U.S. intelligence official confirmed that the intelligence community had conducted the update, whose existence hasn’t previously been reported. This official added that it was done in light of new intelligence, further study of academic literature and consultation with experts outside government. The update, which is less than five pages, wasn’t requested by Congress. But lawmakers, particularly House and Senate Republicans, are pursuing their own investigations into the origins of the pandemic and are pressing the Biden administration and the intelligence community for more information. Officials didn’t say if an unclassified version of the update would be issued.

U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to confirm or deny the Journal’s reporting in an appearance Sunday on CNN. He said President Biden had repeatedly directed every part of the intelligence community to invest in trying to discern as much as possible about the origins of the pandemic.

“President Biden specifically requested that the national labs, which are part of the Energy Department, be brought into this assessment because he wants to put every tool at use to be able to figure out what happened here,” Mr. Sullivan said. There are a “variety of views in the intelligence community,” Mr. Sullivan added. “A number of them have said they just don’t have enough information.”

Asked about the Energy Department’s assessment, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Ala.) said Sunday on NBC that Congress needed to hold extensive hearings concerning the origins of the pandemic, adding that China has sought to intimidate other countries from questioning whether the virus emerged naturally. “This is a country that has no problem coming out and lying to the world,” he said.

The Covid-19 virus first circulated in Wuhan, China, no later than November 2019, according to the U.S. 2021 intelligence report. The pandemic’s origin has been the subject of vigorous, sometimes partisan debate among academics, intelligence experts and lawmakers.

David Relman, a Stanford University microbiologist who has argued for a dispassionate investigation into the pandemic’s beginnings, welcomed word of the updated findings. “Kudos to those who are willing to set aside their preconceptions and objectively re-examine what we know and don’t know about Covid origins,” said Dr. Relman, who has served on several federal scientific-advisory boards. “My plea is that we not accept an incomplete answer or give up because of political expediency.”

An Energy Department spokesman declined to discuss details of its assessment but wrote in a statement that the agency “continues to support the thorough, careful, and objective work of our intelligence professionals in investigating the origins of COVID-19, as the President directed.”

The FBI declined to comment.

China, which has placed limits on investigations by the World Health Organization, has disputed that the virus could have leaked from one of its labs and has suggested it emerged outside China. The Chinese government didn’t respond to requests for comment about whether there has been any change in its views on the origins of Covid-19. Some scientists argue that the virus probably emerged naturally and leapt from an animal to a human, the same pathway for outbreaks of previously unknown pathogens.

Intelligence analysts who have supported that view give weight to “the precedent of past novel infectious disease outbreaks having zoonotic origins,” the flourishing trade in a diverse set of animals that are susceptible to such infections, and their conclusion that Chinese officials didn’t have foreknowledge of the virus, the 2021 report said.

Yet no confirmed animal source for Covid-19 has been identified. The lack of an animal source, and the fact that Wuhan is the center of China’s extensive coronavirus research, has led some scientists and U.S. officials to argue that a lab leak is the best explanation for the pandemic’s beginning. U.S. State Department cables written in 2018 and internal Chinese documents show that there were persistent concerns about China’s biosafety procedures, which have been cited by proponents of the lab-leak hypothesis.

Wuhan is home to an array of laboratories, many of which were built or expanded as a result of China’s traumatic experience with the initial severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic beginning in 2002. They include campuses of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which produces vaccines.
An outbreak at a seafood market in Wuhan had initially been thought to be the source of the virus, but some scientists and Chinese public-health officials now see it as an example of community spread rather than the place where the first human infection occurred, the 2021 intelligence community report said.

In May 2021, President Biden told the intelligence community to step up its efforts to investigate the origins of Covid-19 and directed that the review draw on work by the U.S.’s national laboratories and other agencies. Congress, he said, would be kept informed of that effort.

The October 2021 report said that there was a consensus that Covid-19 wasn’t the result of a Chinese biological-weapons program. But it didn’t settle the debate over whether it resulted from a lab leak or came from an animal, saying that more information was needed from the Chinese authorities. The U.S. intelligence community is made up of 18 agencies, including offices at the Energy, State and Treasury departments. Eight of them participated in the Covid-origins review, along with the National Intelligence Council.

Before that report, the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory prepared a study in May 2020 concluding that a lab-leak hypothesis was plausible and deserved further investigation.

The debate over whether Covid-19 might have escaped from a laboratory has been fueled by U.S. intelligence that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care.

A House Intelligence Committee report concluded last year that this disclosure didn’t strengthen either the lab-leak or the natural-origin theory as the researchers might have become sick with a seasonal flu. But some former U.S. officials say the sick researchers were involved in coronavirus research.

Lawmakers have sought to find out more about why the FBI assesses a lab leak was likely. In an Aug. 1 letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, requested that the FBI share the records of its investigation and asked if the bureau had briefed Mr. Biden on its findings.

In a Nov. 18 letter, FBI Assistant Director Jill Tyson said the agency couldn’t share those details because of Justice Department policy on preserving “the integrity of ongoing investigations.” She referred the senator to Ms. Haines’s office for information on what briefings were arranged for the president.

Write to Michael R. Gordon at [email protected] and Warren P. Strobel at [email protected]

Supafreak's picture
Supafreak's picture
Supafreak Monday, 27 Feb 2023 at 11:39am

Timeline: How The Covid Lab Leak Origin Story Went From 'Conspiracy Theory' To Government Debate https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/02/26/timeline-how-the-.... I’d put money on covid coming from a lab leak , I believe someone simply farked up big time . No conspiracy, just careless human error .