(Video: Fox News)
The White House and other U.S. officials have denied claims about the existence of bioweapons facilities in Ukraine that are run by the U.S. and Fox News’s Jennifer Griffin is among those voices.
The Fox News national security correspondent addressed the claims during an appearance on “Hannity” Wednesday, saying the U.S. has been trying to help Ukraine in safely converting the “Soviet-era bio-labs” since the end of the Cold War.
“Those are Soviet-era bio-labs that the U.S. has been engaged in since 2005, in trying to help Ukraine convert the research facilities safely,” she told host Sean Hannity.
“It is a long program that has existed where the Pentagon has partnered with these bio labs,” Griffin said.
Amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia, claims by both Russia and China have been made that the U.S. is operating laboratories in the eastern European nation in which the manufacture of chemical or biological weapons can occur. U.S. officials have rejected the claims and White House press secretary Jen Psaki addressed the “conspiracy theories.”
We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine. We’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) March 9, 2022
Griffin contended Thursday that the U.S. Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program has long been subject to false allegations by Russia, and read a statement from the Pentagon to back up her reporting.
“On a daily basis, Russia propagates disinformation aimed at BTRP’s laboratory and capacity building efforts in former Soviet Union countries,” the statement read.
Hannity noted that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland effectively “admitted that labs existed but what exactly they’re for, we never got clarity on,” referring to Nuland’s testimony during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing this week.
“We do have clarity,” Griffin responded, going on to cite the “fact-sheet” from the Pentagon as her proof.
“That is part of this effort to try to clean up those Soviet-era labs and make sure that nothing escapes from those labs,” she told Hannity.
“The U.S. has been very open about its involvement there, but what Russia does is they take that information, distort it, turn it around, and turn it into disinformation. And that is what has U.S. government officials concerned,” Griffin added, also calling attention to claims by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova that same day.
Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) March 9, 2022
But not everyone is on board with the official White House rebuttals and Griffin’s reporting using the Biden administration’s points.
Ahead of Hannity’s Fox News show, host Tucker Carlson told viewers that “maybe it is” Russian disinformation, but still laid out unanswered questions. On “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Thursday, he again addressed the shocking claims about the labs.
“It’s so over-the-top and bizarre and in any case, the administration had repeatedly and very aggressively denied that they were doing anything like this and then they attacked anyone who has questions about it as a tool of Russia,” he said, also noting the “shocking development” of Nuland’s testimony.
(Video: Fox News)
“Toria Nuland, the Under Secretary of State, casually mentioned in a Senate hearing on Tuesday that actually, yes, the Biden administration does fund a series of Biolabs in Ukraine and whatever is in these labs is so dangerous that she is deeply concerned these materials will fall into the hands of the Russian military,” Carlson explained.
“What exactly are these labs doing with our money and in our name? And why didn’t the Biden administration secure the contents of these labs before the Russians invaded?” he asked.
Before Griffin’s report on “Hannity” on Wednesday, Fox News host Jesse Watters also brought up the questions that come up from the labs claims on his show
“Bio-labs. You heard that right,” said Watters. “There has been a lot of talk, propaganda, and fake news regarding this whole thing so we wanted to look into it this afternoon. The first question we had was why are these labs in Ukraine, and what role has the United States played in making that possible?”
“So these labs are a petri dish of some of the world’s most contagious diseases and they are sitting in a war zone,” Watters added. “You can see why we are a little concerned. And from what we can understand, Ukraine’s level 3 labs are found in Odesa and Kyiv. Guess which two cities Russian troops are closing in on? Odesa and Kyiv. These two facilities could very well be in Putin’s hands in a matter of days.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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