Is Chinese Defector Shaking Up USIC--And US Politics?

Earlier this evening commenter AmericanCardigan passed along claimed information from Hot Air that the Chinese defector who's been providing information regarding the Wuhan origins of Covid-19 is the former head of CI for the PRC's Ministry of State Security (MSS). I commented at the time--just a few hours ago: 

[The claim is] tantalizing, but towards the middle mention is made of something that jumped to my mind immediately:

"would a spy-catcher be in position to know what went on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology with SARS-CoV-2?"

Never say never, reality can surprise. But there's also the matter of need to know--and a counterintelligence guy would have zero need to know about anything going on at Wuhan. Except concerns about foreign spies. Not the kind of detailed science we're hearing about.

Nevertheless, Red State--which seems to be the conduit for information about this defector--is confirming what hours ago were still rumors--Chinese Defector's Identity Confirmed, Was Top Counterintelligence Official:

Today In Faucigate

Or should it be Sciencegate--since that's what Fauci claims it's really all about?

Fauci is flailing. He's attempting scare tactics, invoking the Dread Variants--which turn out to be most threatening to ... those who got vaxxed. Go figure, except that knowledgeable people in the field--immunologists and virologists, not amateurs like Fauci--actually DID figure that out. And tried to tell us about it.

His other tactic is to double down on wearing the mantle of science--woops, Science. With a capital "S", so it'll seem as big as Fauci's ego. Here's the money quote, but you can indulge yourselves with more at Red State (Fauci Loses It Big Time, Rants Attacking Him Is 'Attacking Science'). Here's Fauci whining to the utterly fatuous Chuck Todd:

“It’s very dangerous, Chuck, because a lot of what you’re seeing as attacks on me quite frankly are attacks on science because all of the things that I have spoken about consistently from the very beginning have been fundamentally based on science….If you are trying to get at me as a public health official and a scientist, you’re really attacking not only Dr. Anthony Fauci, you’re attacking science. And anybody that looks at what’s going on, clearly sees that. You have to be asleep not to see that. That is what’s going on. Science and the truth are being attacked.”

Yes, that's losing it big time, and it's an embarrassment to any real scientist who are left out there. If it's down to this, I have to suspect he may be a short timer now.

Beyond this silliness, however, there were two items at ZeroHedge that are worth considering. Someone dug up a video of Peter Daszak from 2016 explaining how gain of function research works--and he's explicitly talking about how his "Chinese colleagues" do it. Here's the transcript--I've added the beginning and ending sentences to what appears at the link: Fauci Pal Daszak Admits "Chinese Colleagues" Developing "Killer" Coronaviruses. Note that what Daszak is describing is supposedly how GOF research is used to develop vaccines:

What Did DoD Know, And When Did They Know It?

One of the most disturbing revelations in recent days regarding US funding of Gain Of Function research at China's Wuhan labs is the fact that some of the funding may have come from the US military. The UK Daily Mail reported last Friday--and for some reason refers to the non-profit EcoHealth Alliance as a "charity":

The Pentagon gave $39 million to a charity that funded controversial coronavirus research at a Chinese lab accused of being the source for Covid-19, federal data reveals.

The news comes as the charity's chief, British-born scientist Dr. Peter Daszak, was exposed in an alleged conflict of interest and back-room campaign to discredit lab leak theories.

The charity, EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), has come under intense scrutiny after it emerged that it had been using federal grants to fund research into coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

The U.S. nonprofit, set up to research new diseases, has also partly funded deeply controversial 'gain of function' experiments, where dangerous viruses are made more infectious to study their effect on human cells.

A political storm broke when former president Donald Trump canceled a $3.7 million grant to the charity last year amid claims that Covid-19 was created in, or leaked from, the Wuhan lab funded by EHA.

But federal grant data assembled by independent researchers shows that the charity has received more than $123 million from the government – from 2017 to 2020 - and that one of its biggest funders is the Department of Defense, funneling almost $39 million to the organization since 2013.

Exactly how much of that money went toward research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is unknown.

Fair enough. We can't be absolutely, 100% positive, that a single dime of that $39 million worth of DoD money went towards GOF research in Wuhan. If I were a betting man, however, my bet would be that a considerable portion of that money did go to Wuhan--possibly all of it.

Major Update On The Chinese Defector Scoop

Red State is running a brief but explosive article that sheds additional light on Adam Housley's "scoop" regarding a high level Chinese defector who confirms the lab origins of Covid:

EXCLUSIVE: High-Ranking Chinese Defector Has 'Direct Knowledge' of Several Chinese Special Weapons Programs

While the article doesn't say so directly, the clear inference from what's said is that this defector came initially to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). DIA has been debriefing the defector for the last three months and withheld information from other Intel Community agencies--FBI and CIA are specifically mentioned--because DIA believes those agencies have been penetrated by Chinese "spies or sources".

Presumably the other agencies are now being allowed access to the defector:

FBI Director Christopher Wray was “ambushed” with the information, they say, and Langley [the CIA] was also unaware. Sources say DIA leadership kept the defector within their Clandestine Services network to prevent Langley and the State Department from accessing the person, whose existence was kept from other agencies because DIA leadership believes there are Chinese spies or sources inside the FBI, CIA, and several other federal agencies.

Note that this doesn't necessarily discredit anything that Adam Housley said--Housley was passing on what his FBI sources told him. There are a number of reasons why those sources may have concealed some of the facts.

The information provided to RedState corroborates and clarifies Thursday evening’s reporting by journalist Adam Housley. The defector is considered to be highly reliable--unlike Tony Fauci and other government funded scientists:

Sources tell RedState the defector has been with the DIA for three months and that he has provided an extensive, technically detailed debrief to US officials. In DIA’s assessment, the information provided by the defector is legitimate. Sources say the level of confidence in the defector’s information is what has led to a sudden crisis of confidence in Dr. Anthony Fauci, adding that U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) personnel detailed to DIA have corroborated very technical details of information provided by the defector.

Adam Housley's Scoop: True - Not True?

Yesterday in a comment exchange I expressed reservations about sundance's theory regarding Fauci being hung out to dry. That didn't mean that I didn't read his post with interest, nor that I disagreed with all of it. For example, Fauci is surely not at the top of the Covid cover-up food chain, so from that standpoint he should be eligible for being hung out. However, Fauci unquestionably knows an awful lot--not facts or science or stuff like that, but the people involved and their overall motives. So, just as in the Russia Hoax, where Comey and McCabe may know too much to be made scapegoats, the same may be true regarding Fauci.

But, then, what about sundance's very valid point--all the leaks lately, don't they point toward a scapegoating role for Fauci. My reservation in that regard is that--for now--the occupants of the White House seem to be circling the wagons to protect Fauci from these devastating reservations. Fauci himself appears to be returning to his original position--hadda be a natural origin for Covid, couldn't have been Gain-Of-Function experiment released by accident from a lab in Wuhan. Of course, it's possible that the White House occupants are still assessing the risks involved in making Fauci a scapegoat, so Tony can't rest easy.

My point is raising these issues is to simply exercise some caution. There are other things going on, too, and those developments may point in a slightly different direction--a direction that could be difficult for the White House occupants to control. It may prove impossible to protect Fauci for the long run. Those "other things" may also shed some light on the leaks we're seeing.

Before we get there, to Housley's scoop--if it is a scoop--let's review a few important bits of information.

The other day when the Fauci emails came out I--and, of course, others--put a lot of emphasis on Fauci's email exchange with a top level virologist at Scripps Research, Kristian Andersen. That exchange took place very near the the beginning of the Covid panic--Jan 31 - Feb 1. What Andersen wrote to Fauci--citing support from several other scientists--blows the "natural origins" argument out of the water. Now, later Andersen--who is associated with Peter Daszak, a major promoter of GOF at Wuhan--tried to walk back his original view, to make it conform with the official "natural origin" narrative. But now we have his original email, in which he states categorically:

ER Re Audits, Fauci, Wuhan

Emerald Robinson is on a toot, er, tweet today. We all know the weaknesses of Twitter and related social media platforms, but when used well a single tweet can be a game changer for many people--it can give them just enough information in a convenient package to make their mind up. 

Robinson demonstrates this in a series of tweets this morning ranging over the only really important stories out there. For example, few of us any longer have the energy or time to really immerse ourselves in the details of the election fraud. We know it happened, but ...

What's important--as the Left knows so well--is the narrative. A few tweets can paint the big picture that's all most people really need or want: