Recently, Ron Unz published a truly superb interview where Mike Whitney (a COVID-dissident) asks Ron Unz to clarify his views on both the pandemic and those who deny its origin/severity/danger. This interview is, by far, the best text on this topic I have ever come across. When I read it my conclusion was “Unz, game, set and match”. I STRONGLY urge those who still believe in the “plandemic” cum Big Replacement nonsense to carefully parse Ron’s answers.
Frankly, I was already aware of most of the data quoted by Unz (or its Russian equivalents), but I never had the energy to collect and systematically analyze it. To be totally honest, I was so disgusted and angry with the “anti-COVID crusaders” and their mind blowing combination of ignorance and arrogance that I simply did not have Ron’s patience. That being said, I fully agree with everything Ron wrote and I personally have nothing to add to his words.
Furthermore, as many of you know, Ron believes that there is good evidence showing that sars-cov-2 was developed in the USA and unleashed against both China and Iran. Personally, I remain an agnostic on this issue, but I do most definitely not discount or dismiss it. I just don’t see enough evidence corroborating this thesis. I also agree with Carl Sagan’s view that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. We are not there yet, but we might get there in time.
What I did, however, was to ask some of my Iranian contacts was what Iran’s officials did, or did not, say about the US being behind this pandemic.
What I am presenting to you below is the reply I got from this (good and trusted) Iranian friend.
Reach your own conclusions (I am not preaching any one thesis about any of this)
Also, I am still expecting two more answers from two Iranian friends. If/when I get them I will also share them here.
Kind regards
The Saker
PS: let me also remind everybody that since July 17th I am officially sick and tired, frustrated and even disgusted with all the inanity of the “anti-COVID Crusaders”. Frankly, I see them as a dangerous religious cult, and probably the most bigoted and intolerant group of people I met in my entire life. Please consult the moderation rules here and please note rules #19 and #20. From that date on all COVID-denying, COVID-minimizing or “plandemic”, “chipping” or anti-vaxxing propaganda is banned from this site. Frankly, I have shown tremendous patience with these people, I even gave them three totally unmoderated threads to use and abuse, and abuse they sure did. From now on, any more of that crap will result in an immediate ban. Yes, I *am* angry and disgusted with this “plandemic cult” and I want none of that on my blog. None. Two of my good friends almost died from this disease. Not only that, but I have been facing a tsunami of insults, scorn and frankly totally insane theories (one guy emailed me to warn me that since he got the Moderna virus his cellphone now offers him to “connect to Moderna” by Bluetooth. Seriously, I am not joking. Others warned me that the vaccines contains microchips which, if I reject the vaccine, will be delivered by means of “chemtrails”. Even my fellow Orthodox Christians have gone mad, one of them calls masks “iconoclastic”!
And these are just a few examples. I get that crap almost on a daily basis. This anti-COVID cult makes Scientologists and Mormons look quite demure in their conversion efforts. So,
This is my last warning to all. Stop posting that crap on the blog or be banned.
PPS: arguments/discussions on the origin of the virus (and ONLY that!!!) are allowed and welcome, at least in the comments thread under this post. But that discussion is only limited to those who 1) have at least a basic understanding of medical issues and 2) those who do not want to preach their crazy cult to others.
UPDATE: okay, most of the initial replies did go right back to what I clearly banned.
So now I banned all comments under this article. My apologies to those who did not violate the rules and whose comments were removed.
——-
Was the Coronavirus epidemic in Iran a biowarfare attack on the Islamic Republic and/or the People’s Republic of China?
High ranking politicians and military commanders alike made claims about the suspiciously nature of the covid-19 pandemic when it first reached Iran in February-March 2020.
Summary of claims and accusations in Iran:
On March 13 2020, in an order to General Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff for the Armed Forces, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, brought up the theory that COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic in Iran might be the result of biological warfare. Imam Khamenei, the Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces, issued a decree to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Major General Bagheri, praising the Armed Forces’ services to the people in the fight against the Coronavirus.
The text of the decree of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution is as follows:
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Major General Bagheri,
With appreciation for the services that the Armed Forces have provided to the dear people so far in the fight against Coronavirus, and with emphasis on the need to continue and expand these services, it is necessary to organize these services into a Health and Treatment Base In addition to treating the sick and establishing medical centers such as field hospitals, places of quarantine, etc., the spread of the disease should also be prevented using the necessary methods. The division of duties and missions of the organizations and departments of the Armed Forces is one of the tasks of this Base. This Base must work in full coordination with the government and the Ministry of Health.
This measure may also be regarded as a biological defense exercise and add to our national sovereignty and power given the evidence that suggests the likelihood of this being a “biological attack.”
It is hoped that with divine guidance and the special support of Imam Mahdi (‘a.j.), the Iranian nation will always be victorious, safe and sound.
Sayyid Ali Khamenei
March 13, 2020
On February 2 2020, in an interview with the Chinese ambassador to Iran, Chang Hua, the Tasnim news agency questioned him on whether coronavirus was “a biological attack on the Chinese economy?”
In response, Hua said, “I have read about such reports on the web but, of course, I have not seen any scientific reports confirming it.”
Alireza Panahian, a middle-rank cleric said on March 14 2020 that “This deadly disease is a biological attack and a weapon in the hands of imperialism against humanity and the resistance movement against world arrogance (the US and its allies).”
Coronavirus is a “biological terrorist attack on China by America,” said Abolfazl Hasanbeigi, a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee on March 13 2020. The representative pointed out: “In the current situation, the Americans were looking for a way to take action against the Chinese with the lowest cost and highest income, so they imported the Corona virus to China and then make money by making its medicine. The Americans thought that the corona would not harm them and could even make them rich and force the Chinese to import medicine from the United States, but none of this happened, and the situation went against American expectations.
Between February and March 2020, some Iranian officials tweeted about a potential biological attack by the US:
“Perhaps it would be revealed that the coronavirus has been a biological attack by the US against its adversaries,” tweeted Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, special aide to the chairman of the parliament and a former deputy foreign minister, on February 28, adding that “It may become clear years later that the corona was the White House biological war virus against America’s great global rivals (China and Russia), which spread to the American people in addition to parts of the world.”
“The way that coronavirus has become an epidemic…is not normal and I believe it is a biological attack by the US and the Zionist regime,” tweeted Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi, member of parliament from Rasht.
On March 1, a letter from former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed to the United Nation’s Secretary-General, António Guterres, was published in which he claimed that the virus was conceived by the US.
Ahmadinejad’s letter to the UN Secretary-General states: “You are aware that the use of biological tools, including recently and on a large scale, the corona virus (Covid 2019) as a new weapon to establish or maintain political and economic superiority in the international arena by some hegemonic powers and its rapid expansion, has caused public concern among nations and further disrupted the security of the people of the world. The sense of responsibility for the extent and depth of the unprecedented material and spiritual damage caused by this war and the imposed aggression against humanity required me to raise the issue with His Excellency.
Ahmadinejad continued: “Today, it has become clear to everyone that the likes of the mutated and intelligent Corona 2019 virus have been fabricated by laboratories and, to be more precise, the biological warfare arsenals of some world dominating powers and much more inhuman, destructive and terrifying than other anti-human weapons.”
The IRGC have also reached similar conclusions:
On March 3, Dr. Alireza Jalali, head of the IRGC’s Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, said in a press conference that a theory suggested by one of his researchers was that the outbreak of coronavirus in China might have been a biological attack or the result of “a mutation in the virus or the escape of the virus from the lab.” But he did not say which one of these theories, if any, have been confirmed.
General Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the IRGC, said on March 5 “Today, the country is engaged in a biological battle, but everyone should know that the country will with stability go through this important [battle] at the end of the year [Iranian New Year occurs on March 20]. We will be victorious in the fight against this virus that might be the result of an attack prompted by the US that first broke out in China and then spread to Iran and other parts of the world,”
In an interview with ISNA, Heshmatullah Falahatpisheh, member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, in response to recent remarks by US President Donald Trump about helping Iran fight Corona, said: “Trump and Pompeo lie about Corona. Corona is not a common disease but bioterrorism distributed in Iran and China.” It was promoted against Iran and China and this issue should not be ignored. The fight against bioterrorism needs to go beyond passive defense and be separate. He explained: “From today until 2030, the world will face different types of bioterrorism. An independent organization with special powers must be formed, and we, like the missile defense, must have bioterrorism defense.” “Donald Trump and Pompeo are pleased with what has happened to the Iranian people,” he said.
Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh, a medical doctor and member of the parliament’s board of directors wrote that “With Trump coming to power as a full-fledged representative of imperialist, capitalist, and American culture, China, as the United States’ main rival, has been the target of many of his confrontational strategies. Based on the cost-benefit principle, and given the staggering costs of military operations, the two major strategies of cyber warfare and knowledge-based biological warfare have been considered in US planning for low-cost, high-impact benefits over the past decade . Biological weapons in very small quantities can bring to the target community very destructive psychological, psychological and physical effects.
“At this time, the dominant discourse among defence analysts is that coronavirus is a biological weapon launched to strike a hard blow to China’s economy and credibility. Supporters of this theory refer to evidence that a few weeks before the outbreak of this disease, American forces had visited the Chinese city of Wuhan.”
On March 9, General Hasan Araghizadeh, head of the Health Department of the Armed Forces General Staff, claimed that the likelihood of a biological attack by the US exists. “There is evidence supporting this likelihood and we must judge based on this evidence,” he said. “We all know that the US has labs in some countries that conduct biological tests and genetic engineering on viruses.”
“The United States has a history of using these viruses as weapons, and since this virus is a new virus, it may have been created in the same laboratories, although it is not yet certain, but it could be a possibility. We will examine this possibility and if we reach a definite conclusion, we will announce it.”
Another claim is that Iran has been infected with a strain of coronavirus different from the one in China. This claim was voiced by Shahrooz Barzegar, member of the parliament’s National Security Committee, quoting the health minister. “My interpretation of what the health minister said is that there are two strains of the virus in the country,” he said. “One is the Wuhan virus from china and the other one is of unknown origin which I believe could be a bioterrorism virus that the US has spread in Iran.” The Ministry of Health, however, later denied Barzegar’s claim.
