{"id":69191,"date":"2021-06-15T08:11:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T12:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=69191"},"modified":"2021-06-15T08:11:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T12:11:37","slug":"faucis-wuhan-partner-hid-40-mil-in-pentagon-funding-and-militarized-pandemic-science-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=69191","title":{"rendered":"Fauci’s Wuhan Partner Hid 40 MIL in Pentagon Funding and Militarized Pandemic Science—WHY?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Daszak\u2019s EcoHealth Alliance Has Hidden Almost $40 Million In Pentagon Funding And Militarized Pandemic Science<\/strong><\/h1>\n

by Sam Husseini<\/p>\n

\u201cPandemics are like terrorist attacks: We know roughly where they originate and what\u2019s responsible for them, but we don\u2019t know exactly when the next one will happen. They need to be handled the same way \u2014 by identifying all possible sources and dismantling those before the next pandemic strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

This statement was written in the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0earlier this year by Peter Daszak. Daszak is the longtime president of the\u00a0EcoHealth Alliance<\/a>, a New York-based non-profit whose claimed focus is pandemic prevention. But the EcoHealth Alliance, it turns out, is at the very centre of the COVID-19 pandemic in many ways.<\/p>\n

To depict the pandemic in such militarized terms is, for Daszak, a commonplace. In an\u00a0Oct. 7 online talk organized by Columbia University\u2019s School of International and Public Affairs<\/a>, Daszak presented a slide titled \u201cDonald Rumsfeld\u2019s Prescient Speech.\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we know we don\u2019t know. But there are also unknown unknowns \u2014 there are things we don\u2019t know we don\u2019t know.\u201d (This Rumsfeld quote is in fact from a news conference)<\/p>\n

\"The
The Pentagon (Credit the Smithsonian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the subsequent online discussion, Daszak emphasized the parallels between his own crusade and Rumsfeld\u2019s, since, according to Daszak, the \u201cpotential for unknown attacks\u201d is \u201cthe same for viruses\u201d.<\/p>\n

Daszak then proceeded with a not terribly subtle pitch for over a billion dollars. This money would support a fledgling virus hunting and surveillance project of his, the\u00a0Global Virome Project<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a \u201cdoable project\u201d he assured watchers \u2014 given the cost of the pandemic to governments and various industries.<\/p>\n

Also on the video was Columbia University professor\u00a0Jeffrey Sachs<\/a>. Sachs is a former special advisor to the UN, the former head of the Millennium Villages Project, and was recently appointed Chair of the newly-formed\u00a0EAT Lancet Commission\u00a0on the pandemic<\/a>. In September, Sachs\u2019 commission\u00a0named Daszak to head up its\u00a0committee<\/a>\u00a0on the pandemic\u2019s origins. Daszak is also on\u00a0the WHO\u2019s committee to investigate the pandemic\u2019s origin<\/a>. He is the only individual on both committees.<\/p>\n

These leadership positions are not the only reason why Peter Daszak is such a central figure in the COVID-19 pandemic, however. His appointment\u00a0dismayed many<\/a>\u00a0of those who are aware that Daszak\u2019s EcoHealth Alliance funded bat coronavirus research, including virus collection, at the Wuhan Institute for Virology (WIV) and thus\u00a0could themselves be directly implicated in the outbreak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For his part, Daszak has\u00a0repeatedly dismissed<\/a>\u00a0the notion that the pandemic\u00a0could have a lab origin<\/a>. In fact, a recent\u00a0FOIA by the transparency group U.S. Right To Know<\/a>\u00a0revealed that Peter Daszak drafted an influential\u00a0multi-author letter<\/a>\u00a0published on February 18 in the Lancet. That letter dismissed lab origin hypothesese as \u201cconspiracy theory.\u201d Daszak was revealed to have orchestrated the letter such as to \u201cavoid the appearance of a political statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sachs for his part seemed surprised by Daszak\u2019s depiction of Rumsfeld but Daszak reassured him. \u201cIt\u2019s an awesome quote! And yes, it\u2019s Donald Rumsfeld, Jeff, and I know he\u2019s a Republican, but \u2014 what a genius!\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the EcoHealth Alliance\u2019s money trail to the Pentagon<\/h4>\n

Collecting dangerous viruses is typically justified as a preventive and defensive activity, getting ahead of what \u201cNature\u201d or \u201cThe Terrorists\u201d might throw at us. But by its nature, this work is \u201cdual use\u201d. \u201cBiodefense\u201d is often just as easily biowarfare since biodefense and the products of biowarfare are identical. It\u2019s simply a matter of what the stated goals are.<\/p>\n

This is openly acknowledged [See below] by scientists associated with EcoHealth Alliance when talking about alleged programs in other counties \u2014 like Iraq.<\/p>\n

For much of this year, Daszak\u2019s EcoHealth Alliance garnered a great deal of sympathetic media coverage after its $3.7 million five-year NIH grant was prematurely cut when the Trump administration learned that EcoHealth Alliance funded bat coronavirus research at the WIV.<\/p>\n

The temporary\u00a0cut was widely\u00a0depicted in major media<\/a>\u00a0as Trump undermining the EcoHealth Alliance\u2019s\u00a0noble fight against pandemics. The termination was reversed by NIH in late August, and even\u00a0upped to $7.5 million<\/a>. But entirely overlooked amid the claims and counter-claims was that far more funding for the EcoHealth Alliance comes from the Pentagon than the NIH.<\/p>\n

To be strictly fair to the media, Daszak\u2019s EcoHealth Alliance obscures its Pentagon funding. On its website EcoHealth Alliance states that \u201cA copy of the EHA Grant Management Manual is available upon request to the EHA Chief Financial Officer at\u00a0finance ( at ) ecohealthalliance.org\u201d. But an email to that address and numerous others, including Peter Daszak\u2019s, requesting that Manual, as well as other financial information, was not returned. Neither were repeated voicemails.<\/p>\n

Only\u00a0buried under their \u201cPrivacy Policy,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0under a section titled \u201cEcoHealth Alliance Policy Regarding Conflict of Interest in Research,\u201d does the EcoHealth Alliance concede it is the\u00a0\u201crecipient of various grant awards from federal agencies including the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even this listing is deceptive. It obscures that its two largest funders are the Pentagon and the State Department (USAID); whereas the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which accounts for a minuscule $74,487, comes before either.<\/p>\n

Meticulous investigation of U.S. government databases reveals that Pentagon funding for the EcoHealth Alliance from 2013 to 2020, including contracts, grants and subcontracts, was just under\u00a0$39 million<\/strong>. Most, $34.6 million, was from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which is a branch of the DOD which states it is tasked to\u00a0\u201ccounter and deter weapons of mass destruction and improvised threat networks.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Most of the remaining money to EHA was from USAID (State Dept.), comprising at least\u00a0$64,700,000\u00a0<\/strong>(1)<\/strong>. These two sources thus total over\u00a0$103 million<\/strong>. (See Fig).<\/p>\n

\"Summary
Summary of EHA Grants and Contracts. Note this figure doesn\u2019t count subcontracts so it undercounts USAID\u2019s contribution, see footnote (1) below (Credit: James Baratta and Mariamne Everett)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another $20 million came from Health and Human Services ($13 million, which includes National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control), National Science Foundation ($2.6 million), Department of Homeland Security ($2.3 million), Department of Commerce ($1.2 million), Department of Agriculture ($0.6 million), and Department of Interior ($0.3 million). So, total U.S. government funding for EHA to-date stands at $123 million, approximately one third of which comes from the Pentagon directly. The\u00a0full funding breakdown is\u00a0available here and is summarized by year, source, and type, in a spreadsheet format<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pdf versions of this the spreadsheet are available to download. The summary is\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and all Federal grants and contracts are\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n

More military connections<\/h4>\n

The military links of the EcoHealth Alliance are not limited to money and mindset. One noteworthy \u2018policy advisor\u2019 to the EcoHealth Alliance is David Franz. Franz is former commander of Fort Detrick, which is the principal U.S. government biowarfare\/biodefense facility.<\/p>\n

David Franz was part of UNSCOM which inspected Iraq for alleged bioweapons \u2014 what were constantly referred to as WMDs or Weapons of Mass Destruction by the U.S. government and the media. Franz has been one of those eager to state, at least when discussing alleged Iraqi programs, that \u201cin biology \u2026 everything is dual use \u2014 the people, the facilities and the equipment.\u201d (NPR, May 14, 2003; link no longer available).<\/p>\n

Just this year Franz wrote a piece with former\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0journalist Judith Miller, whose stories of Iraqi WMDs did much to misinform the US public regarding the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Their joint article, \u201cA<\/a>\u00a0Biosecurity Failure: America\u2019s key lab for fighting infectious disease has become a Pentagon backwater<\/a>,\u201d urges more funding for Fort Detrick.<\/p>\n

Miller and Franz are long-time associates. Miller co-wrote the book\u00a0Germs<\/em>, released amid\u00a0the 2001 false flag anthrax attacks<\/a>, which repeatedly quotes Franz. Miller at the time received a hoax letter with a harmless white powder, increasing her prominence.<\/p>\n

Franz continued hyping the existence of Iraqi WMDs even after the invasion of Iraq. While she was still with the\u00a0Times<\/em>, Miller quoted him in a story \u201cU.S. Analysts Link Iraq Labs To Germ Arms<\/a>\u201d on May 21, 2003 pushing the theory that Iraq had mobile biological WMD units. (This theory\u00a0was debunked<\/a>\u00a0by the British scientist Dr David Kelly, who would die, apparently by suicide, soon thereafter.)<\/p>\n

Four significant insights emerge from all this. First, although it is called the EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak and his non-profit work closely with the military. Second, the EcoHealth Alliance attempts to conceal these military connections. Third, through militaristic language and analogies Daszak and his colleagues promote what is often referred to as, and even then somewhat euphemistically, an ongoing agenda known as \u201csecuritization<\/a>\u201c. In this case it is the securitization of infectious diseases and\u00a0of global public health<\/a>. That is, they argue that pandemics constitute a vast and existential threat. They minimize the very real risks associated with their work, and sell it as a billion dollar solution. The fourth insight is that Daszak himself, as the Godfather of the Global Virome Project, stands to benefit from the likely outlay of public funds.<\/p>\n

Acknowledgements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to James Baratta and Mariamne Everett for researching the funding sources.<\/p>\n

Footnote<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The figure for EHA\u2019s USAID funding was obtained from the University of California at Davis, a major grantee of PREDICT funds, which EHA has been a major sub-grantee of Davis confirmed that EHA\u2019s funding from PREDICT totaled $64,722,669 (PREDICT-1: 2009 to 2014: $19,943,214; PREDICT-2: 2014 to present (2020) $44,779,455)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Sam Husseini is an\u00a0independent\u00a0journalist<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

    ___
    \n    https:\/\/www.independentsciencenews.org\/news\/peter-daszaks-ecohealth-alliance-has-hidden-almost-40-million-in-pentagon-funding\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Peter Daszak\u2019s EcoHealth Alliance Has Hidden Almost $40 Million In Pentagon Funding And Militarized Pandemic Science<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}