The real issue with the COVID-19 lab leak theory? The US isn't spying on China like it used to, experts say.
And while it has stayed largely in the shadows, Biden thrust the problem to center stage last week by giving the CIA and the rest of theWithout naming names, Biden said two elements of the intelligence community lean toward the likelihood that the virus emerged from human contact with an infected animal. Another camp, he said, figures the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology where it was being studied after being collected from a bat or other animal.
Rep. Michael McCaul, the GOP head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that was briefed on the just-disclosed intel report, described China’s behavior as "the worst cover up in human history.” The House intelligence committee released a report recently raising serious concerns about how little it knows about the pandemic origin despite an intensive congressional investigation.
While the World Health Organization concluded in March that a lab leak was an "extremely unlikely pathway,” its on-site team of investigators was only allowed limited access to laboratories studying similar viruses and to data about the earliest cases. The twin counter-intelligence coups enabled China to roll up a human intelligence network that the CIA had worked for years, if not decades, to build. By 2013, Chinese authorities had killed at least a dozen CIA assets in China,shooting one in front of his government colleagues to send a message to other potential turncoats.
Some work the diplomatic cocktail circuit, stealing secrets out of embassy drawers. Others use elaborate cover stories to attend local Rotary Club meetings where nuclear engineers gather. Some engage in the darker side of espionage, using blackmail, bribes, sex and whatever else might work in persuading targets to turn against their own country and begin spying for America.
Over time, other high-tech means of getting information – often surreptitiously and from afar – also became potent weapons in the U.S. intelligence-gathering arsenal. In such hostile environments, the NSA’s eavesdropping capabilities can be especially helpful in gaining access to the inner sanctums of the political and military leadership. But there are also times, Pfeiffer said, when nothing can replace a human intelligence asset who’s at the right place at the right time.
In recent years, CIA leaders say, they have made strides in rebuilding their human intelligence networks against China, including targeting scientists and others who speak English and travel abroad.But they acknowledge it will take time, especially given Beijing’s sophisticated counter-intelligence efforts.
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