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The US Intelligence Community’s Assessment on Covid-19 Origins [pdf]

consultutah 5y ago
So they just don’t know. It’s better to say that rather than say that there is no way the Taliban could take over Afganistán in a few days.
- gidorah 5y ago
  Maybe I misread, but where did the Taliban feature?
  - notabanker 5y ago
    I think it was intended as a satirical comment.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
  > Even as the president was telling the public that Kabul was unlikely to fall, intelligence assessments painted a grimmer picture. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/us/politics/afghanistan-biden-administration.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/us/politics/afghanistan-b...
hamburgerwah 5y ago
What more disturbs me is that, if this is a factual representation that we really don't know, that means that we have no meaningful HUMINT intelligence capabilities in Nazi China and are relying on SIGINT alone.
- vnchr 5y ago
  There’s suspected to have been a leak of US operatives in China at times past resulting in the death of agents there. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/world/asia/china-cia-spies-espionage.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/world/asia/china-cia-spie...
- walleeee 5y ago
  Nazi China?
  - myko 5y ago
    Probably a reference to the death camps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_genocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_genocide
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
908B64B197 5y ago
> China’s cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment of the origins of COVID-19. Beijing, however, continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries, including the United States. These actions reflect, in part, China’s government’s own uncertainty about where an investigation could lead Crazy how, just a few months ago this would have resulted in a ban on several social media platforms. Nothing changed in the meantime, other than the presidential administration...
- mc32 5y ago
  This! It's a travesty that this occurred. Speech was severely censored on real, serious topics, to drive a narrative to hurt a presidential candidate and this was deemed acceptable by great amounts of people. If this had happened the other way around, it would have been a scandal as big as Watergate. It's truly sad that happened. But it highlights how untrustworthy the "4th estate" is. They are vested interests and should not be trusted any longer and should have their stake revoked. No one should take them seriously for anything.
  - momdad420 5y ago
    "it would have been a scandal as big as Watergate." Wow, absolutely no hyperbole here. What a stupid take. There was no hit job. Trump's a moron. Anything he did at all in response to the virus was reactionary and too little too late. Ban travel from China. Ok. Oh look, the virus is coming over from Italy. "narrative to hurt a political candidate" give me a fucking break. I would've loved someone to go hard on China. We didn't get it. We got lazy inaction, straight up denial and racist diatribes upon baseless claims without any precautions Also journalists aren't a monolith. What in the fuck are you smoking.
    - yeahrightokpal 5y ago
      Good job refuting the central point effectively without resulting in mudslinging, champ!
  - 5y ago
ldbooth 5y ago
This looks like a poker "check" to queue up a broader international investigation.
StanislavPetrov 5y ago
Given what we have learned over the past 18 months I thought that, more likely than not, COVID was the result of gain-of-function research that escaped from a Chinese lab. Given this report from the US intelligence community and their track record of accuracy, however, I have to rethink that position.
jlduan 5y ago
it seems a lot of unknowns. is there a clear next step?
WheelsAtLarge 5y ago
By this point in time, China's leaders have a very good idea, with high certainty, of where the virus originated. My guess is that where ever it originated they feel that it would be an embarrassment to them to say so they push the Wuhan market theory as the cause but they give no facts to back it up. Given that there's a very low likely hood that it was a deliberate bio weapon then I would have to say that the virus most likely escaped from the Wuhan lab. It's an embarrassment but bottomline it was a mistake. I doubt we'll have a true answer anytime soon but maybe in a couple of decades someone will decide to divulge the truth. Let's hope.

So they just don’t know. It’s better to say that rather than say that there is no way the Taliban could take over Afganistán in a few days.

gidorah 5y ago
Maybe I misread, but where did the Taliban feature?
- notabanker 5y ago
  I think it was intended as a satirical comment.
2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
> Even as the president was telling the public that Kabul was unlikely to fall, intelligence assessments painted a grimmer picture. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/us/politics/afghanistan-biden-administration.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/us/politics/afghanistan-b...

hamburgerwah 5y ago

What more disturbs me is that, if this is a factual representation that we really don't know, that means that we have no meaningful HUMINT intelligence capabilities in Nazi China and are relying on SIGINT alone.

vnchr 5y ago
There’s suspected to have been a leak of US operatives in China at times past resulting in the death of agents there. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/world/asia/china-cia-spies-espionage.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/world/asia/china-cia-spie...
walleeee 5y ago
Nazi China?
- myko 5y ago
  Probably a reference to the death camps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_genocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_genocide
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

908B64B197 5y ago

> China’s cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment of the origins of COVID-19. Beijing, however, continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries, including the United States. These actions reflect, in part, China’s government’s own uncertainty about where an investigation could lead Crazy how, just a few months ago this would have resulted in a ban on several social media platforms. Nothing changed in the meantime, other than the presidential administration...

mc32 5y ago
This! It's a travesty that this occurred. Speech was severely censored on real, serious topics, to drive a narrative to hurt a presidential candidate and this was deemed acceptable by great amounts of people. If this had happened the other way around, it would have been a scandal as big as Watergate. It's truly sad that happened. But it highlights how untrustworthy the "4th estate" is. They are vested interests and should not be trusted any longer and should have their stake revoked. No one should take them seriously for anything.
- momdad420 5y ago
  "it would have been a scandal as big as Watergate." Wow, absolutely no hyperbole here. What a stupid take. There was no hit job. Trump's a moron. Anything he did at all in response to the virus was reactionary and too little too late. Ban travel from China. Ok. Oh look, the virus is coming over from Italy. "narrative to hurt a political candidate" give me a fucking break. I would've loved someone to go hard on China. We didn't get it. We got lazy inaction, straight up denial and racist diatribes upon baseless claims without any precautions Also journalists aren't a monolith. What in the fuck are you smoking.
  - yeahrightokpal 5y ago
    Good job refuting the central point effectively without resulting in mudslinging, champ!
- 5y ago

ldbooth 5y ago

This looks like a poker "check" to queue up a broader international investigation.

StanislavPetrov 5y ago

Given what we have learned over the past 18 months I thought that, more likely than not, COVID was the result of gain-of-function research that escaped from a Chinese lab. Given this report from the US intelligence community and their track record of accuracy, however, I have to rethink that position.

jlduan 5y ago

it seems a lot of unknowns. is there a clear next step?

WheelsAtLarge 5y ago

By this point in time, China's leaders have a very good idea, with high certainty, of where the virus originated. My guess is that where ever it originated they feel that it would be an embarrassment to them to say so they push the Wuhan market theory as the cause but they give no facts to back it up. Given that there's a very low likely hood that it was a deliberate bio weapon then I would have to say that the virus most likely escaped from the Wuhan lab. It's an embarrassment but bottomline it was a mistake. I doubt we'll have a true answer anytime soon but maybe in a couple of decades someone will decide to divulge the truth. Let's hope.