Inspector General on grants to Chinese labs: Pentagon ‘did not track funding in sufficient detail’

by WorldTribune Staff, June 21, 2024 Contract With Our Readers

The Pentagon does not know how much funding it awarded to Chinese research labs that could have been used to enhance pathogens with pandemic potential, according to a June 20 report by the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The Department of Energy and FBI Director Christopher Wray have concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely began when the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. / Ng Han Guan / AP

“Consistent 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,” DoD Inspector General Robert P. Storch said.

“While 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.”

Unmentioned is the fact that the Pentagon is aware of China’s top-secret bioweapons program and given its mission of defending America should be fully responsible for any U.S. funding directly or indirectly tied to that program. As WorldTribune.com reported on July 6, 2023:

The U.S. Air Force Air University (AU) just published a study this month that acknowledged China’s offensive biowarfare capabilities. The study notes that various reports from the United States in 2010, 2012, and 2014 all state essentially the same thing, “that China likely possesses a covert biological weapons program, but the extent of that program remains unknown to the public.”

Multiple government entities believe the Covid pandemic started when an engineered virus leaked from a secret Chinese laboratory that was hosting U.S. government-backed gain-of-function research.

The same WorldTribune.com report also noted: “Wuhan, the epicenter of the original outbreak, is also the location of China’s first and still only known Bio Safety Lab-4 (BSL-4), known as the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

Related — Columnist: Xi Jinping used bioweapon to put Joe Biden in the White House, July 6, 2023

The issues with DoD’s grant tracking systems created “significant constraints” for the OIG that “hindered [its] ability to conduct a thorough examination” of DoD’s involvement in funding this specific type of research, the report states.

“[T]he DoD did not track funding at the level of detail necessary to determine whether the DoD provided funding to Chinese research laboratories or other foreign countries for research related to enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential,” the report found.

Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, told The Daily Caller News Foundation regarding the OIG’s report: “Incompetence, absurdity, insanity; it’s hard to find a word that adequately describes this. Of all the things that DoD tracks, funds for dangerous research that could find their way to a hostile regime should be at the top of the list of those they keep close tabs on.”

The Department of Energy (DOE) has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely began when the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, which was the site of gain-of-function research funded by the U.S. government via an organization called EcoHealth Alliance. FBI Director Christopher Wray has acknowledged that his organization has reached a similar conclusion.

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