Senate Did NOT Just Unanimously Pass a Bill Requiring Declassification of "All of the Information" Regarding the Origins of Covid

Contrary to the claims of Sen. Hawley and other sponsors, the legislation only instructs the DNI to release information relating to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. No examination of others.

Some senate Republicans are claiming they are putting forward legislation that will solve the Covid origins question but that’s not what the legislation does.

The sponsors of a bill that recently unanimously cleared the senate are claiming that the resolution would mandate that the federal government declassify all relevant information on Covid origins.

This is completely inaccurate.

The resolution would only have the Director of National Intelligence release documents relating to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but not information of other institutions, including US institutions, which might share culpability. Nor does it declassify DNI information relating to other possible causes of the pandemic.

On Fox News, the sponsor of the bill emphasized it would declassify “all of the information” the federal government has:

Host Jesse Watters: “I'm just seeing this break now. You’re going to get everything declassified from the Covid origin case?”

Sen. Josh Hawley: “That's right. We just passed tonight, just a few minutes ago, unanimously in the Senate, my bill which will declassify all of the information the federal government has on Covid origins. We need the House to pass it Jesse and then we can get this thing done. Listen, the American people, it’s past time, let’s show them what the government has. Let everybody see it for themselves, let everybody read it.” Video (and on Internet Archive):

Truth Matters @TruthMatthew3

The Senate just unanimously voted to declassify all Covid origin case

Hawley falsely tweeted to over half a million views:

In addition, while Hawley’s statements that if his bill was enacted, “then we can get this thing done … let’s show them what the government has. Let everybody see it for themselves, let everybody read it.” are misleading. This is because much information sought by the transparency group U.S. Right to Know and some media organizations is not classified but is being withheld.

Still Hawley’s false and misleading claims have reached a wide audience. Disclose.tv claimed to thousands more RTs on Twitter: “JUST IN - Senate unanimously passed a bill that calls to declassify all U.S. intelligence on the origins of COVID.” And included a screenshot of the top of the bill — but not a link to its text.

Sen. Mike Braun, a co-sponsor, falsely claimed the bill would “declassify every piece of information about the COVID lab leak.”

Similarly, Politico claimed: “The Senate unanimously passed a bill requiring the declassification of information related to the origins of the Covid pandemic.” Sean Hannity claimed: “U.S. Senate votes unanimously for DNI to declassify all intel on origin of COVID-19 pandemic.”

Children’s Health Defense ran with a story taking Hawley’s claims at face value, reporting in a subhead that the bill “would require the Biden administration to declassify all intelligence and documentation related to the origins of COVID-19.”

The bill (S. 619, dubiously named the “COVID–19 Origin Act of 2023”) actually instructs the DNI to make “available to the public as much information as possible” and to “declassify any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19), including. (A) activities performed by the Wuhan Institute of Virology with or on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army…”

This means that information not related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology is not being requested and would almost certainly therefore remain classified.

As I recently noted in “Crucial Points on Pandemic Origins Debate, Part 2: The Weaponization of ‘Truth’”: “We should be examining lab *origin* not lab "leak". There is no reason to assume this was a mistake. There are a number of plausible scenarios for intentional release, most obviously that the labs in Wuhan could be being framed.”

I have noted this hypothesis since 2020.

Such a possibility has (quite possibly self-servingly) been floated by Chinese officials at times. Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department Zhao Lijian has claimed: “It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan.” There’s been some independent analysis regarding the military games which took place in Wuhan in October of 2019. This was related to the story put out in the rightwing Sky TV by Chinese defector Wei Jingsheng; in the same report, David Asher of the Hudson Institute made related charges.

Others have charged that Fort Detrick, the leading US bioweapons facility, should be investigated, particularly since it was shut down for a period in 2019. I have not seriously examined this, but there’s no reason not to compel the DNI and other agencies — including Fort Detrick itself — to make all such information public. That is not being done.

That is, the DNI could have information implicating someone for, say, framing the Wuhan Institute of Virology and with this legislation they would not have to disclose that.

Rather, as I recently warned, a general anti-China agenda, has taken primacy and is part of a dynamic which “ultimately lets” US institutions and “US biowarfare off the hook”.

Much of the bill focuses on one strain of alleged evidence:

Now, that could be very important. But why is this legislation limiting disclosures?

Indeed, as the senate makes this move, Freedom of Information requests by U.S. Right to Know and various media outlets regarding getting information from US institutions on pandemic origins have had massive redactions.

Gary Ruskin, executive director, of U.S. Right to Know states:

“Much of the federal government's information related to the origins of Covid-19 is not classified, or likely not classified. We just haven't been able to access much of it yet via FOIA/FOIA litigation.

“The Hawley bill is to declassify what is classified. Lots of what may be interesting is not classified. It is just being hidden/withheld….

“The NIH's conduct in stonewalling FOIAs is especially outrageous. It's time for the Biden administration to tell NIH to comply with the FOIA.”

Unclassified but withheld NIH document

The current dynamic sets up the DNI to drive the pandemic origins story, further ensuring the interests of the US establishment. It promises to marginalize the work of independent groups seeking to get other information. Hawley’s claim to the public that if he bill is enacted “then we can get this thing done” is prime for helping to limit the Covid origins in a manner that’s suited for the DNI in the public mind.

Perhaps more critically, there’s been remarkably little focus on Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina. He collaborated with the scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, so if they have culpability, it may well be shared by him. This also would put him in prime position to frame them if that is what happened. He has thus far received a minute amount of scrutiny, with one notable exception being the work of Alexis Baden-Mayer at the Organic Consumer Association. Last year, she did an in-depth video presentation on Baric.

Ruskin added:

“And, of course, the Hawley bill wouldn't affect what is held by state governments (esp. University of North Carolina).

“We have filed 13 North Carolina Public Records Law requests to the University of North Carolina related to the work of Ralph Baric and his team. We are currently in litigation against UNC regarding many of those requests.”

Nor would Hawley’s bill affect private institutions holding such information, such as Scripps Research or Tulane University.

It also does not require the DNI to declassify what information it has about non-US institutions, such as the Wellcome Trust, which is headed by Jeremy Farrar, who is slated to be chief scientist for the WHO. Farrar played a central role in disseminating the propaganda line that Covid could not have lab origins in early 2020 and has written about his use of burner phones during this critical period.

Nor does it even instruct the DNI to declassify what it knows about other Chinese government institutions like the Chinese CDC.

Ruskin highlights that the bill “does not affect all the other” notable material “that may well be held by NIH, USAID, UNC, UC Davis, UTMB [University of Texas Medical Branch] that is not classified.” Ruskin added that it is unclear on how the Hawley bill “would affect anything held by the State Department, which almost surely holds additional useful information.”

See my questioning at the State Department: “USAID Funded EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology, Is Withholding Information.”

See follow up: “Prior to Falsifying about Covid Origins Bill, Hawley Flipped on Ukraine.”