The CIA has revised its assessment of the origins of the COVID-19 epidemic, now preferring the lab leak explanation. Under its new head, John Ratcliffe, the CIA issued a report into the origins of COVID-19.
Former President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan ordered the study at the conclusion of his term.
Analysts made the evaluation with “low confidence” despite former CIA director Bill Burns being agnostic on the origins, saying the agency it needs to look at the available information again and come down on one side or the other.
For years, the government has argued that it lacked sufficient intelligence to determine whether COVID originated in a lab or a wet market in Wuhan, China. Despite the revised evaluation supporting a lab leak, there was no sign of fresh evidence.
“Based on the available evidence, the CIA concludes with low confidence that the COVID-19 epidemic had a research-related genesis rather than a natural origin. The CIA continues to believe that both research-related and natural origin scenarios for the COVID-19 pandemic are conceivable,” a spokeswoman told AWN.
“We have low confidence in this judgment and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA’s assessment.”
Ratcliffe, who was confirmed Thursday, has long supported the lab leak scenario. In an interview with Breitbart, Ratcliffe described the evaluation of COVID’s origins as part of a larger plan for “addressing the threat from China.”
He also urged the CIA to “get off the sidelines” and take a position.
In a March 2023 AWN post co-written with Cliff Sims, Ratcliffe accused the Biden administration of attempting to keep a growing consensus around the lab leak scenario quiet by hiding “what can clearly be assessed from the intelligence they possess.”
He also questioned the CIA’s claim that it lacked sufficient evidence to determine the virus’s origin.
“The CIA is the world’s leading intelligence agency. It has unprecedented reach and information acquisition capabilities. And yet, three and a half years later, there is substantial public evidence indicating that the CIA just lacks sufficient knowledge to make an evaluation. “This is complete nonsense,” the March 2023 essay states.
In the same article, Ratcliffe and Sims disputed the hypothesis that the virus evolved spontaneously, noting that there was “a complete absence of intelligence or scientific evidence” supporting that conclusion.
When Ratcliffe spoke before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in April 2023, he stated that the lab leak idea was “the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, science and common sense.”