Fact checking nonsense created by the same people who promote Covid misinformation...
Claims: Russia is targeting U.S. biological weapons labs in Ukraine invasion.
There are no US-run biolabs in Ukraine, contrary to social media posts
https://www.politifact.com/factchec...are-no-us-run-biolabs-ukraine-contrary-socia/
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought false claims on social media that Russian President Vladimir Putin is targeting U.S.-run biological weapons labs in his neighboring country.
- There are no U.S.-run biological weapons labs operating in Ukraine.
- The U.S. Defense Department and the Ukraine Ministry of Health have had a partnership since 2005 to improve public health laboratories and prevent the threat of outbreaks of infectious diseases.
- That effort is part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which began in 1991 to reduce the threat of existing weapons of mass destruction programs in former Soviet Republics.
False claims from Russia alleging bioweapon use by the U.S. aren’t new, and allegations of a network of such labs along Russia’s border were shared in state-run media in the weeks before the invasion.
A Twitter user by the handle @WarClandestine spread a story on Feb. 24 that Russia was targeting the sites of U.S.-run biolabs when it began invading Ukraine. That account was quickly suspended by Twitter, but others shared the post and began using the hashtag #USbiolabs to spread the false claim.
There are no U.S. military-run labs in Ukraine, said Andy Weber, a member of the Arms Control Association Board of Directors and a former assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs.
"Rather, the U.S. Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Reduction Program has provided technical support to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health since 2005 to improve public health laboratories, whose mission is analogous to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," Weber told PolitiFact.
"These laboratories have recently played an important role in stopping the spread of COVID-19," he added.
The Cooperative Threat Reduction Program began after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 to reduce the threat of existing weapons of mass destruction. It is also known as the Nunn-Lugar Program (named after the senators who passed the Soviet Threat Reduction Act) and is housed within the Defense Department’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation.
False allegations about biolabs, though, are so prevalent that the Defense Threat Reduction Agency released a video on Jan. 11 to counter them and explain what the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program does. In it, Chris Park, a State Department official, spoke at the United Nations to respond to allegations from China and Russia about "suspicious activity" at laboratories in the region. He called the claims "pure disinformation."
Park said the program "works to build capacity around the world to detect, prevent and mitigate infectious disease."
The Biological Threat Reduction Program, according to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, "works with partner countries to counter the threat of outbreaks (intentional, accidental or natural) of the world's most dangerous infectious diseases."
According to the Atlantic Council, a think tank, Russian propagandists have long spread propaganda in Ukraine, including claims that these labs are experimenting on unsuspecting citizens.
Snopes fact-checkers reported that this most recent claim is false.
Similar claims were made against Georgia’s Lugar Center for Public Health Research in 2018, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Last year, Russia and China began spreading the false claim that the U.S. has biolabs along each of their borders, insinuating that America is responsible for unleashing COVID-19, the Daily Beast reported.
"There has been a Soviet-style disinformation campaign promoting such lies for over a decade," Weber said. "It harkens back to the Soviet KGB ‘Operation Infection’ disinformation campaign to spread the total fabrication that HIV/AIDS originated in a U.S. military lab."
Our ruling
A social media user tweeted that Russia was targeting U.S.-run biolabs in its invasion of Ukraine. That account was soon suspended by Twitter.
There are no U.S.-run biolabs in Ukraine. The country is one of many former Soviet Union republics, and other countries, partnering with the Defense Department as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. It’s the latest claim in a series of disinformation efforts by the Russians, an expert told PolitiFact.
While the U.S. may provide funding to upgrade or build labs in other countries, the labs are run by the partnering nations and the program’s goal is to prevent biological threats, not create them. We rate this claim False.
Russia & Ukraine
- Thread starter UsualName
- Start date
It's not "Nato players". US stopped it.
And once again if you listen to the full context -- the labs in the Ukraine are Ministry of Health government-run labs similar to the CDC in the U.S. These are not bio-weapon labs. They are disease control public health research labs supported by the international community including the U.S. Of course, we should be concerned about the Russians bombing or destroying these labs -- possibly releasing samples of disease. In the same way we should be worried about the Russians bombing nuclear plants releasing radiation.
All aligned exactly with what the earlier article stated:
There are no U.S. military-run labs in Ukraine, said Andy Weber, a member of the Arms Control Association Board of Directors and a former assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs.
"Rather, the U.S. Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Reduction Program has provided technical support to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health since 2005 to improve public health laboratories, whose mission is analogous to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," Weber told PolitiFact.
Look whose reporters are embedded with Russian troops...
Aleppo after the Syrians and Russians did their thing.
Now the Syrian fighters are headed to Ukraine to return their debt to Putin.
Not sayin that they will succeed. Just that they know their mission and they are experienced unlike some of the recent conscript kids.
What is a picture of Baltimore, MD doing here?
Edit: My bad. It's Aleppo.
How can you be sure?
This is terrible, now they are free of Facebook, Twitter, McDonalds, Starbucks.. Why can't Putin cancel our Facebook? He is true evil.
Allegedly the US consented to Poland giving the planes to Ukraine but objected to Poland just giving the planes to the Americans and saying "you do it."
If that is not the case then I will watch for a different set of "facts" and will adjust my view accordingly.
In addition, the State Department alleges that Poland did not even inform them before they went public with the announcement that they were dumping them on to the Americans. I say again the players need to work this out in the background. The state department may be lying through their arse. I don't know. If Poland denies that, then I will watch for that.
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There certainly is some lack of alignment.
