June 24, 2020
In 2001, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease ravaged
the British farming industry. Exports from the UK of live animals, meat and
dairy products were banned by other nations, as was the movement of animals
from the infected area, and the government ordered a mass slaughter of millions
of animals. The losses to British farmers were nearly incalculable, with a
great many farmers going bankrupt or otherwise put out of business, and
some farmers committing suicide in anguish over their losses. Within
six months, almost 4 million animals had been slaughtered and their carcasses
burned. Oddly, in the face of this enormous disaster, the government
refused to hold a public inquiry into the outbreak, announcing instead
three small separate investigations, the results of which would not be made
public.
The UK government initially blamed the disease
outbreak on "animal activists", but not everyone believed
the official story. At the time, the Sunday Express reported
that the outbreak had been attributed to some vials containing foot and
mouth virus, which had gone mysteriously missing from the
laboratories at Porton Down, which location is a top-secret government
bioweapons research facility housing such agents as TB, anthrax,
smallpox, Ebola and the foot-and-mouth viruses. The report stated that
"Authorities tried to play down the report by suggesting that "animal
rights activists" had stolen and released the samples from the
maximum-security government laboratory, though the same authorities failed to
explain how animal rights activists would believe they were promoting animal
rights by releasing a biological agent that would result in the destruction of
millions of animals, or how they were able to penetrate the multiple
layers of defenses in the heavily-secured laboratory.
No ragtag collection of anybody from anywhere would
ever have access to such a facility, much less know how to deal with it. Neither
terrorists nor animal-rights activists are renowned Ph.Ds with high-level
security clearances and access to the top-secret and impossibly-secured
facilities that contain these pathogens. And even if they did obtain
access, the chances of any of them knowing what to search for, what to take,
and what to do with it - and exiting alive - are somewhat less than zero. Given
all of this, what do we make of the UK government's claims that
"activists" entered such a P-4 facility, stole many vials of foot and
mouth virus, then apparently walked out of the facility unchallenged and
proceeded to inoculate cattle and other farm animals by the hundreds of
thousands? The accomplishment of such a feat might require more animal
activists than exist in England, possibly by orders of magnitude.
As well, one media report in 2001 stated that "An
eminent scientist with thirty years experience of infectious diseases
challenged [UK Prime Minister] Blair in a prominent Sunday newspaper
to "come clean and tell the truth about the foot-and-mouth
epidemic". The scientist testified that the virus which
devastated Britain's livestock "was not active in any other part
of the world and could only have come from a UK laboratory." And
indeed the UK government bio-warfare labs at both Pirbright and Porton Down
have been confirmed by the UK Minister of Health as containing more than 5,000
different strains of this particular virus, and in the end it did indeed
appear the virus had originated in the UK government's bio-warfare labs at
Porton Down.
Then, the Sunday Express reported
that a routine audit of Porton Down's bio-warfare labs revealed that a
container of several vials of foot-and-mouth virus had gone missing two months
before the first outbreak of the disease, stating that "There are very
persistent rumors over missing phials from Porton Down linked to animal rights
activists". The government of course desperately denied such a
possibility, stating that "... only the Institute of Animal Health
Laboratory and the Merial Biological Laboratory at Pirbright are licensed to
hold FMD virus", and that tales of the virus being stolen from Porton Down
were inaccurate and impossible. But then, a senior military source at Porton
Down stated publicly that vials "appear to have gone missing from one of
the labs [at Porton Down] following a routine audit last year."
The government then admitted that such a thing did
happen after all and, right on cue, the government blamed the usual
"animal rights activists" for the theft and release of the deadly
pathogen, the media dutifully reporting that "Ministry officials were informed
immediately and an investigation was launched initially by Special
Branch and then by MI5, who are interested in the activities of animal rights
protesters." Unfortunately, those animal activists and protestors
were somehow never found.
This scenario was repeated in 2007 with another
outbreak in the UK, the source of which was determined to have been another UK
government bio-weapons lab, this time at Pirbright. At the
time, the Guardian published an article stating that, according to the authorities,
"A leaky drain allowed the disease to escape". The Guardian reported
that, according to government sources, there had been a "probable"
new leak of foot and mouth disease virus from the Merial Animal Health
facility at Pirbright, the virus believed to have escaped through a
leaking valve, "allowing an unintended probable release of live
FMD virus into the drainage system". The government claimed in a
written statement to have received Merial's assurances that "the live
virus had not been released to the environment", though in fact it had
been. A spokesman for Merial apparently told the Guardian that he was
"surprised by the fuss". Both the government Health Service and
Merial shared the source of this outbreak, the "broken drainage
system" which served both sets of laboratories, though apparently
"investigators were strangely unable to determine which lab was actually
responsible for the leakage and outbreak".
What do we make of the claim that perhaps thousands of
liters of foot and mouth virus escaped through "a leaky drain" at
Pirbright? I have had some
experience with things that leak from drains or similar, and in all cases the
leaks simply pool on the ground, filling the depressions while waiting to
evaporate. But then this is England and maybe things are different
there, which would account for the leaked pathogens winding their way through
English hill and dale, visiting and somehow infecting millions of animals, for
hundreds of kilometers in all directions from the biolab. In my world,
viruses are not renowned for their motive ability to travel a countryside, nor
for the necessary tracking radar to hunt down thousands of animal herds, nor
for the aggressive disposition that would lead them to attack and infect every
animal they found. That would almost require an intelligence - and a
vehicle.
In June of 2008, soon after the second major outbreak
of foot and mouth disease, the UK media ran a series of articles stating
that "Security at British laboratories working with some of the
world's deadliest pathogens (that included anthrax, hemorrhagic fever and
smallpox viruses), was undermined by a lack of investment and poor
maintenance". The media articles were in response to a report
produced by some government MPs which claimed that the labs were "so
dilapidated" and "run down" it was "not acceptable"
that scientists were asked to work there. These facilities, the MPs
claimed, had "outlived their usefulness", and were in such ruinous
condition they were "quite likely to experience" yet another leakage
of deadly pathogens such as those of the foot and mouth virus that necessitated
the slaughter of millions of animals. The committee of MPs especially
singled out the labs at Pirbright and the secretive bio-warfare lab
installations at Porton Down which, the media reported, were "Britain's
frontline defense against infectious diseases".
It needs to be noted here that neither Pirbright nor
Porton Down, but especially Porton Down, are a 'frontline defense' against
anything and are in fact bio-weapons labs with a well-deserved evil reputation
and a long and malicious history. This
may have been the CIA's version of a joke, but when anthrax spores were mailed
to some US government and media representatives in 2001, CIA officials
publicly speculated that Porton Down may have been their origin. In
the end, the origin was determined to be (quite possibly courtesy of the same
CIA) the US military's bio-weapons labs at Fort Detrick, so
perhaps a small false flag. Porton Down and the CIA have been close
friends for many decades. It was to Porton Down that the CIA
outsourced many of its "terminal interrogations", i.e. questioning
people until they died from the questioning methods. It was here that CIA
biochemist Frank Olson witnessed firsthand the results of his
'biochemistry', began to suffer unbearable pangs of conscience, then
suddenly met his death in most unusual circumstances, the result of an apparent
suicide - as they almost always are. It was eventually revealed that Olson
had been ordered killed by CIA Director Allen Dulles, that his death was
neither an accident nor a suicide, but a deliberate murder to prevent the man
from disclosing to the media the secret crimes of the CIA and Porton
Down. Then-US President Johnson apologised to the family and paid
$750,000 in compensation. So let's not pretend Porton Down provides defense
against infectious diseases.
According to an "independent" report, the
buildings housing the lab facilities that contained the foot and mouth viruses
were apparently "visibly substandard", were suffering from a
"creeping degradation of standards", and were "poorly managed
and regulated". As Dr. Iain Anderson, who led a similar
inquiry into the larger similar outbreak in 2001, was quoted as saying,
"This virus should never have got out. [No argument there] Everything
was wrong around Pirbright; the regulatory system was poor, the risk management
was poor". He further stated, "... the facilities ... fall
well short of internationally recognised standards, and the governance and
funding arrangements are muddled and ineffective". As well, his report
described the laboratories as "shabby and dilapidated", thus leading
to the deadly virus "probably leaking from faulty pipes". One British
MP was quoted as saying, "When you think about how important biosecurity
is, [... this] is staggering". No kidding. I would have to agree.
At the time of the release of these so-called
independent reports, the media were uniformly frightening us with claims that
"Many scientists believe" that "climate change and
terrorism" would now "bring many new diseases" and cause many
pathogens such as anthrax to be "deliberately released in public
places", though it wasn't immediately clear how climate change
might deliberately release anthrax in a public park. The only
scientists who believe that are the same people planning the next release.
Those reports were not meant as either an apology or explanation for past
disease outbreaks, but to create fear because a fearful public is
malleable and will easily surrender civil rights to a fascist government in
exchange for protection - most often from that same government. It was also
a political statement to justify to the public the planned expense of a new,
and quite massive, bio-warfare pathogen facility in the UK, one that would of
course be "necessary to combat whatever our enemies throw at
us". Or to produce whatever we might want to throw at ourselves.
Aside from the implausibility inherent in the official
narratives of these disease outbreaks, there are three other curious items I
would bring to your attention.
1. The UK Government appeared to have prepared
precisely for the epidemic of 2001. From an article by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho in
an Institute of Science in Society Report dated September 24, 2001, entitled
"Foot & Mouth Outbreak, GM Vaccine and Bio-warfare":
"Investigations by the 'Evening Chronicle'
uncovered that the United States, Canada and Mexico began preparing for 'a
simulated outbreak of foot and mouth disease' last October. According to papers
leaked from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the exercise -
which took place between November 6 and 9 - was 'for the purpose of emergency
planning.' The papers reportedly state: 'This exercise is the first of its kind
and provides all three countries with a unique opportunity to apply their
emergency response plans in the event of a real disease outbreak.' At the same
time, the UK Government was reported to be preparing its own 'contingency
plans' for a foot and mouth outbreak. The Evening Chronicle reported
that officials from the Agriculture Ministry began telephoning timber
merchants as early as December asking if they could supply wood for pyres,
should foot and mouth strike."
2. UK farms appeared to have been targeted in advance,
each marked with yellow tapes, for a visitation from unannounced and
unidentified "government animal inspectors", those farms being
unfortunate enough to earn an "inspection" apparently coinciding with
those suffering an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, with all livestock being
destroyed.
According to one report that appeared credible, and
there were others, a local resident named Martin Grant, who
lived in Hatherleigh, Devon, described events he observed while cycling through
the countryside in the Spring and Summer of 2001. Grant claims to have seen
yellow tapes tied to fences, hedges, and trees on the roadside at the entrances
to farms in the area. He, and others, later noted that these same locations
were those "inspected" by staff claiming to be government
agricultural workers. Though Grant was not conducting a scientific
survey, he later stated that these locations appeared to coincide not
only with the so-called inspections but also with the specific appearances of
foot and mouth disease. He said it all occurred "generally just
about the same time ... this seemed to coincide that anyone that got a tape got
foot-and-mouth. As if somebody had deliberately done something." He
was asked if his impression was that the yellow tapes were, "In other
words, to ear-mark the farm for possible infection?" His response was to
say, "Yes. That was the impression that I got...yes." He added
further that at the time, fragments of the yellow tapes were still hanging on
many of the fences.
Another report was from a family named Bratton who
lived in the area in question. Mrs. Bratton reported that she "encountered
two men in white overalls outside the cattle shed" while walking to the
buildings on her farm. She had no idea who they were or why they were on her
property and, upon inquiring, was told they were UK Ministry of Agriculture
officials "who had every right to inspect agricultural premises", and
ordered her to go inside her house because she was not permitted to witness
their "inspections". Mrs. Bratton said she called the local police
several times, was assured they would investigate and contact her. She
claimed she received no response, and was later informed the police had no
record of her prior calls. Shortly thereafter, all her farm's
livestock was discovered to be infected and were subsequently destroyed. I have
not seen much of the documentation, but there were many apparently many similar
reports of animal inspections from farms suffering the same fate.
3. Perhaps the most curious of all was the
well-documented activity by staff from the office of the UK Minister of
Agriculture inquiring about the supply of lumber (for burning infected
livestock) and the requisitioning of it, prior to any apparent need. There
were at least several published accounts of various government officials or
their representatives inquiring about "combustible materials", as
well as stockpiling them, and of the issuing of contracts to trucking companies
and machinery operators for ground excavation and for the hauling of dead
livestock, several months prior to the disease outbreak in February of 2001.
One headline stated, "Timber merchants around
Britain say that in early February they were approached by the ministry for
wood supplies to burn animals with foot-and-mouth. Timber merchants say they
were approached by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in early
February, before the outbreak was confirmed, to supply wood for the pyres which
are used to burn the diseased animals that have been killed." UK
Agriculture minister Nick Brown insisted this was part of a "regular
contingency planning exercise", and added, "There are a number of
urban legends doing the rounds that the ministry knew about this disease
before. That
is not true."
Mr. Brown was pointedly questioned about the contacts
made by his office with suppliers - many months prior to the disease outbreak -
"to establish the availability of timber, suitable for use in pyres for
burning dead livestock." The Minister's reply was to say that
"Information on all the timber stockists contacted by the Ministry over
the last year is not held centrally and could be provided only at a
disproportionate cost." If that isn't clear, the Minister effectively
stated that his staff created no accessible records of their approaches to
lumber dealers, purchases made and contracts signed, that any records that did
exist were widely dispersed and couldn't be collated. That might be true if
50,000 lumber dealers were approached by several thousand different staff
members in a wholly uncoordinated fashion but, if the number of dealers were
only in the tens, which is likely, the Minister's statements beg some
questions.
There is one final matter I would bring to your
attention, one on which I have no commentary. There were many rumors, some
articles, and several letters to the Editor at the time, dealing with
what was called a "planned rationalisation" of UK animal farms,
'rationalisation' in this sense referring to the elimination of small farmers
and the concentration of livestock production in the hands of Big Agra. This
would have included, according to these people, increased and prohibitively
costly new regulations which small operators would find onerous or impossible
to implement, preparing the way for small agra to be "eventually
absorbed by the multi-national food processing corporations". Writers
claimed this was one of the ambitions of then Prime Minister Blair. I do not
know if this was the intent, but it certainly was the result. According to my
information, many thousands of small farmers have disappeared from the UK,
driven out by unrecoverable losses, poor compensation and new
regulations. And Big Agra has apparently indeed proliferated in the
aftermath.
I do not know the totality of truths for these
outbreaks of foot and mouth disease, nor specifically how the virus was removed
from the secure P-4 facilities and spread around the entire country. It
certainly was not the result of either accidents or activists, and had to be
done deliberately. I think we can be forgiven for suspicions that the
deep state that controls so many Western governments is the most vicious
criminal enterprise in the world today.
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Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior
executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an
international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at
Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs
to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing
a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He can be
contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com. He is a frequent contributor to Global
Research.
Copyright © Larry
Romanoff, Moon of Shanghai, 2020
