Raddatz: "Youryour Office of the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) says the consensus, the scientific consensus was (that the virus) was not manmade or genetically modified.
Pompeo: "That's right. I---I---agree with that. Yes.
I've seen their analysis. I've seen the summary that you saw that was released publicly. I have no reason to doubt thatthat-it is accurate at this point.
Raddatz: OK, so just to be clear, you do not think it was manmade or genetically modified?"
Pompeo: "I've seen what the intelligence community has said. I have no reason to believe that they've got it wrong.
After Pompeo goes on and on about Chinese authoritarian regimes and the loss of life and economic costs of the virus, Raddatz asks a final question: "Do you think they intentionally released that virus or it was an accident in the lab?"
Pompeo: You know, I don't have anything to say about that--
If you did not catch Pompeo's blatant contradictory statements immediately, you are not the only one. I have had university students read the entire transcript and a number did not catch it. But more importantly than changing one's story in mid-stream is recognizing that there may be reasons for the back and forth deceptions of so many state leaders in the world that require further analysis. Although I do not intend such an in-depth analysis here, I offer some things to consider that may be vital to our collective futures with and in the aftermath of COVID-19.
It is true that on April 30, 2020, the Office of the DNI released a statement on "Origins of Covid-19" saying that although it believes the virus originated in China, "The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified." This statement seems to be true according to the public health scientists' statement in The Lancet on February 19, 2020. Admitting concern about the rumors, misinformation, and "conspiracy theories" suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin and asserting that many scientists around the world "overwhelmingly conclude the coronavirus originated in wildlife." They go on to say "Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumours and prejudice that jeopardise our global collaboration in the fight against the virus."
The Lancet is one of the most reputable medical journals around. This gives credibility to the statement that cites hard-working experts about the source of the virus. At the same time, if truth-seeking is to flourish in ways to allow "the whole truth and nothing but the truth" to emerge, what is with the disparaging references to harmful "conspiracy theories?" Sure, some conspiracy theories are dangerously wrong, such as claims there was never a holocaust, and some are so obvious to disprove, we can easily dismiss them, such as the theory that no one actually went to the moon. However, some conspiracy theories have been proven true, albeit too late in history. Paul Szoldra identifies five of such national security-related conspiracy theories, including how the Viet Nam war was justified; how American political groups were discredited as subversive by the FBI; how military leaders had a plan to kill innocent people and blame it on Cuba; and two of a number of CIA actions that until proven were dismissed unquestioningly. I myself have written scholarly pieces about the impossibility of the officially 9/11 story and about why Senator Paul Wellstone's airplane crashed after he became the only senator running for office who spoke truthfully about America's plans to invade Iraq. In this doctoral dissertation and subsequent articles, Ed Rankin writes about "The conspiracy theory meme as a tool of cultural hegemony." He reveals how the negative connotation of the previously legitimate legal phrase was created by the CIA to crush alternative theories about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Of course, the cigarette industry's conspiracy to hide knowledge about addictive and carcinogenic ingredients or Dupont's "deadly deceit" are fairly well documented as are many others.
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