U.S. intelligence agencies hurry to satisfy Biden's 90-day order on Covid origin tracing

Special: Commentary

By John Lee

(ECNS) -- U.S. President Joe Biden in May ordered the Intelligence Community to produce a report on COVID-19 origin tracing within 90 days. As the deadline approaches, U.S. intelligence agencies have shown their latest "progress" to the public through CNN.

On August 5, CNN released an "exclusive report,” claiming that U.S. intelligence agencies "are digging through a treasure trove of genetic data that could be key to uncovering the origins of the coronavirus -- as soon as they can decipher it." However, CNN said it's unclear exactly how or when the U.S. intelligence agencies gained access to the information.

Why is data without a clear source an "exclusive report" on CNN? Does the data truly exist? Is it a public opinion war launched by the U.S. against China to substantiate the "lab-leak theory,” so that China can be the target of the world regarding origin tracing once again?

How do U.S. intelligence agencies get "key data"? Has the country ever falsified such data? It is worth further consideration. As former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo once boasted, "I was the CIA director, we lied, we cheated, we stole... It was like we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment." It is the U.S. that knows the answers to these questions.

What's more, Representative Michael McCaul, the ranking member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, released an "updated" report with over 80 pages on August 2, claiming that there is a preponderance of evidence that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But the report was criticized widely for its loopholes and original shortage of evidence. Andrew Korybko, an American political analyst, thought the Republicans' report could be seen as a preemptive partisan move to influence next year's midterms.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has reported more than 36,300 thousand confirmed cases and a death toll of over 610,000 until Friday. It's time for the country to focus on its urgent COVID-19 fight and save lives.