Pompeo: US
Knows Nada
By Finian
Cunningham
May 02,
2020 "Information
Clearing House"
- All the American bluster blaming China for the
Covid-19 pandemic is empty posturing. How do we
know? Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just admitted
it on public TV this week.
Pompeo was asked about the origin of the virus and,
specifically, US claims about it being leaked from a
laboratory. Here’s what
he told Fox News:
“This virus originated in Wuhan, China. We don’t
know the precise location.”
That’s the
best that Pompeo can do. Pretty much saying what the
rest of the world already knows, that the new
coronavirus emerged in the city of Wuhan. Any
further detail on an alleged laboratory release, and
Pompeo has zero information. And openly says so
himself.
He rambled
on with lots of innuendo and inanities, but the
germane information to glean is Pompeo admitting
that the US does not know “the precise location” of
where the virus came from.
That’s a
damning remark. Because Pompeo and his boss,
President Trump, among others, are claiming US
intelligence indicates that the virus somehow leaked
out of a laboratory in Wuhan, the Wuhan Institute of
Virology.
While Pompeo was
inadvertently coming clean about US ignorance,
Trump has been claiming
that intelligence is coming in and “we are not
happy”, implying that the Americans had something
incriminating on China.
However,
Pompeo’s professed lack of knowledge about the
origin of the virus also hasn’t stopped him from
asserting that
China is recklessly running other laboratories
creating dangerous pathogens. Ominously, he has
vowed that the US will convince other nations that
China is responsible for the global outbreak and
that Beijing will be held liable for financial
compensation. That suggests the US is busily working
on finding “evidence” to a fit a predetermined
conclusion blaming China.
The
allegation of the virus escaping from a laboratory
has been roundly rejected by
international scientific assessment.
The scientific consensus is overwhelmingly that the
virus originated in nature, possibly in bats from
where it passed into humans. A biological accident,
so to speak, for which China is not and should not
be made liable.
Scientific assessment concurs with the
position of the Chinese government.
China has denounced the allegations made by the
Trump administration as “preposterous
disinformation”.
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The
World Health Organization has also concluded
that the virus originated in wildlife and was
not due to a laboratory release or
bioengineered. But with the toxic politics
flying in the US, the WHO has been vilified as
the “Wuhan Health Organization” working in
cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party. So
there is little chance of reason or objectivity
prevailing in US discussions.
That toxic
politicization of the pandemic allows people like
Pompeo to propagate his China bogeyman story and to
try to blame all of America’s woes on Chinese
“Commies”.
Given that
the number of Americans infected by Covid-19
represents about one-third of the global total, it
is understandable that the Trump administration is
desperate to find a scapegoat for its own abysmal
failings. This week saw the US death toll exceed
60,000 – more than all the American military deaths
incurred during the Vietnam War.
The
forthcoming presidential election in six months is
shaping up to be a referendum on Trump’s botched –
some would say “criminal” – mismanagement of the
Covid-19 pandemic.
The only
way for Trump to salvage his re-election bid is to
redirect anger on to China. Hence, China is being
accused of releasing the virus from a laboratory or
“covering up” the severity of the outbreak. Neither
of these claims have any substance. It’s a hoax or
“fake news”, as Trump likes to rail against when it
suits his offended ego.
But
hoax aside, Trump and odious henchmen like Pompeo
are going to keep pushing the propaganda smearing
China even at the risk of starting a war. He’s going
to make an election campaign out of it, whereby
deadbeat Democrat rival Joe Biden is portrayed as
“Beijing Biden” and “soft on China”.
Trump’s
political future is being bet on toxifying any
discussion about Covid-19 and China, no matter how
insane and reckless. Because the aim is to rally
American voters behind the flag and paint China as
the nation’s enemy.
It’s worth
remembering before we go down that path to perdition
that Pompeo just told us that US intelligence
concerning the origin of the virus is non-existent.
No
surprise there. US intelligence is too often shown
in history to be all about concocting lies for wars,
including topically enough the Vietnam War (as the
Gulf of Tonkin incident 1964 later revealed.)
Pompeo
himself, as former head of the CIA, has
openly bragged about lying and cheating
as a professional attribute.
America’s
so-called top diplomat has zero credibility, much
like his bleach-prescribing boss in the White House.
Finian Cunningham
has written extensively on international affairs,
with articles published in several languages. He is
a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and
worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society
of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a
career in newspaper journalism. He is also a
musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he
worked as an editor and writer in major news media
organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and
Independent. - "Source"
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