Ukraine Bio-Labs Expert Rips ‘Stooges of President Putin’ at Fox News for Pushing Bioweapons Theory
An expert on bio-labs in Ukraine, which have been discussed at length on Fox News this week, said Thursday the facilities are benign, and have never been a secret.
He also criticized hosts on the network who have discussed the labs. In some cases, hosts have wondered whether the labs are potential weapons threats funded by the U.S. government.
Andrew Weber, the former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical & Biological Defense Programs during the Obama administration, told Abrams the labs are research facilities — not unlike ones operated by county health departments.
The saga with the labs began when Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland mentioned them early this week.
“Ukraine biological research facilities, which, in fact we are now quite concerned Russian troops, Russia forces may be seeking to gain control of,” she said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “So, we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of uh, Russian forces should they approach.”
The fear Nuland expressed was that such facilities could fall into Russian hands, Ukraine might find itself dealing with outbreaks of endemic illnesses.
Weber joined Dan Abrams on NewsNation’s Dan Abrams Live to discuss the controversy, which he went on to explain in great detail.
Abrams, who is the founder of Mediaite, showed Weber clips of Fox News hosts discussing the facilities.
“So, you have been to these places,” Abrams said — referring to the fact that Weber has actually been to the Ukrainian bio-labs in question on multiple occasions. “Please tell us what exactly is going on in these labs in Ukraine.”
Weber responded,
They function just like your county public health laboratory. They monitor for infectious disease outbreaks. They’re sort of a smaller version of the [CDC]. And indeed the United States government has been supporting these laboratories since 2005, in order that they have a better system of detecting and responding to infectious disease outbreaks.
Abrams asked, “Is there anything at all sort of nefarious or secretive about these facilities?”
Weber said that the facilities are monitored, and explained why Nuland testified that she is concerned. Like Nuland, Weber expressed fear about the possibility Russian troops might target the bio-labs.
“[I’m concerned] for the same reason we’re concerned that Russia is attacking civilians, nuclear power plants,” Weber said. “These laboratories have culture collections from the endemic viruses and bacteria that are circulating in these areas. So, because of fear of a Russian military attack, the prudent thing for them to do would be to destroy those culture collections, so they’re not released into the environment or used somehow nefariously by the attackers.”
Abrams then asked if Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has made an issue of the labs all week, is asking fair questions about them. Weber replied,
No, we’ve been consistent about this. He and others who are taking this line are really acting as stooges of President Putin. It’s pretty disgraceful to see. They’re feeding right into the Russian propaganda, which is not new. It’s been going on for 15 years. They lie, they make false accusations about the United States surrounding Russia with secret biological weapons laboratories, and it’s just KGB-style dis-information. Just like they blame the HIV/AIDS on a U.S. laboratory in a KGB disinformation operation during the Cold War.
Watch above, via NewsNation.
