(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is calling for the State Department to declassify cables discussing whether COVID-19 came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
“These documents contain highly pertinent information that credibly suggests: COVID-19 originated from a lab-related accident in Wuhan, China; The CCP acted to prevent, and in fact obstructed, a fulsome investigation into these matters; and a seamless relationship between the WIV and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army,” the committee’s chair, Rep. Brad Wenstrop, R-Ohio, said Tuesday in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
🚨BREAKING🚨
NEW State Department documents reviewed by @COVIDSelect suggest COVID-19 leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China and the CCP covered it up.
These classified documents were previously released in an unclassified and highly redacted FOIA production to @USRightToKnow.… pic.twitter.com/wPaAtrpstO
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) May 7, 2024
The documents that Wenstrup were already obtained by the non-profit transparency group, U.S. Right to Know, last June. The organization published a report about the documents at the time.
As described by U.S. Right to Know, one State Department cable alleges evidence of connections between China’s biotechnology sector and the People’s Liberation Army, including “cyber evidence” of “PLA shadow labs at WIV,” the PLA’s involvement with the construction of the lab and subsequent presence there, and “WIV personnel with possible PLA ties.”
A second cable appears to address the blurring of civilian and military research — specifically Beijing’s emphasis on “military-civil fusion,” or MCF — in the world of biotech, according to U.S. Right to Know.
A third cable details the way in which Beijing authorities censored the spiraling pandemic in critical early days, with devastating consequences: “Initial Outbreak Could Have Been Contained in China if Beijing Had Not Covered It Up,” it states.
“The cables may represent some of the research that informs a 2021 statement from the State Department that ‘the WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017,’” U.S. Right to Know reported last June.
“But while some information can be gleaned through the cable’s headings, the rest of the content is fully redacted.”
It’s not clear why Wenstrop is only now seeking to have the documents unredacted. The congressman also seeks a briefing on the documents by May 14. He told Blinken that he previously requested a briefing by April 24—before the committee held its hearing with Wuhan collaborator Peter Daszak—but that didn’t happen.
“The American people deserve to see the information that is hidden under these redactions,” Wenstrup reiterated in his letter.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
