"Donald Trump warns of consequences if China was knowingly responsible for coronavirus" The Telegraph

""If they were knowingly responsible, certainly," he said. "If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake.

"But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences.

"Was it a mistake that got out of control or was it done deliberately?

"That's a big difference between those two.

"In either event they should have let us go in.

"We asked to go in early. And they didn't want us in. I think they knew it was something bad and they were embarrassed."

Mr Trump said that China "said they're doing an investigation".

"So let's see what happens with their investigation. But we're doing investigations also," he said.

The Trump administration has said it doesn't rule out that coronavirus was spread - accidentally - from a laboratory researching bat"  

The Telegraph

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I am quite sure that the whole of the USIC (NSA, CIA, DIA, etc.) have been tasked to determine what the circumstances were of the advent of the present catastrophe.

The CCP is extremely worried about this investigative process.

It is easy for me to know this because the amount of really hostile stuff being thrown at me on the blog on this issue has risen exponentially as more and more attention has been focused in the government and even in the China leaning media on the possibilities of the origins of the virus and such things as the number of people who were allowed travel to the whole world but not legally allowed to travel within China.  And then, there is the effort the CCP and Chinese government put into buying up PPE around the world in the period before China acknowledged the severity of the crisis.

Among the various nonsense written to me is the idea that I am a racist anti-Chinese bigot.  Our Chinese family doctor finds that funny.  And then, China was my first choice of area when I volunteered for area specialization around 1970.  Unfortunately, I was put in the Arab World program because I have an unusually high aptitude for languages and Arabic is more difficult than Mandarin.

Somewhere out there is a Chinese who either has or will defect to US Intelligence with the information that is sought.

You don't see a lot of the personal attacks that I am receiving because I don't post them.  I am not interested in providing a platform for Chinese agitprop.  They should know that by now.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/18/donald-trump-warns-consequences-china-knowingly-responsible/

Comments

[BillWade]

Col Lang, I thank you for continuing your forum and also for not posting the personal attacks against you which would only waste time if we were reading them.

I'm appalled at the obvious love some of our MSM commentators have for the CCP. Does their hatred for President Trump blind them, do they not know where they are? Don't they think about their own futures when their world will be most certainly turned upside down? John Paul Jones, have they never heard of him?

[Jack]

Sir

The personal vitriol directed towards you is a sign that CCP cash and propaganda machinery are now fully engaged.

In the fullness of time we will know who are the propagandists, the fifth column on their payroll and of course the useful idiots.

How does Joe Biden come out of this scrutiny when Hunter is a recipient of over a billion dollars of CCP cash?

[Bobo]

If one considers that it was a Bio Weapon then one needs to analyze some data to understand how the virus propagated or if it was seeded in more than one location. Looking at numbers in the USA and the world one finds varied numbers and an anomaly.
If you take a number of cases per million and a # of deaths per million of population you show the following CA 803-30, WA 1,618-86, LA 5,131-278, MA 5,575-250, CT 5,015-315, NJ 9,604-473, NY 12,601-933, FL 1,217-38, TX 679-17, VA 1,015-33 plus numerous other states that were impacted in a minor manner.
Someone needs to follow up on these numbers and provide an answer and I hope they do so in a reasonably prompt manner.

[srw]

I am an proponent of occam's razor, the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one. In that regard I, I believe the statement that the most likely origin of the virus is the so called "wet market" in wu han; until someone can provide me evidence to the contrary.

[T. VINCENT]

BillWade:
Don't confuse the pomposity and BS of the media with intelligence, much less any semblance of analytical skills.

[Bill H]

It is my experience that when people cannot counter your discussion with valid points of their own they resort to personal attack and vitriol. That is when you know that they are essentially unarmed in the battle of intelligence.

[Yeah, Right]

I too am quite certain that the very considerable resources of the USIC have been tasked with getting to the bottom of who bears responsibility for this pandemic.

I am also certain that the Chinese government is exceptionally concerned about being put under such scrutiny.

After all, I can think of at least two times when that same USIC turned its full attention to a controversial topic (I'm thinking Saddam Hussein's WMD and Donald Trump's adventures with Russian prostitutes, of course), and in both cases the USIC managed to cover itself in ignominy by getting pretty much everything completely wrong.

But I'm sure this time will be different...

[English Outsider]

Colonel - The Chinese allowed US Embassy officials to inspect the lab a little while before the pandemic. It's going to look bad for them if they don't allow further inspection, especially since that previous inspection uncovered bio-security deficiencies.

In any case this "gain-of-function" research looks risky. Just needs one bent scientist or one Jihadist who can handle the technology. Is this a type of research that should now be banned worldwide?

[turcopolier]

Yeah Right

You should change your moniker to "wise ass." You have an Israeli e-mail address. Do you work for their intelligence? If you do, you should be ashamed of yourself. The USIC has carried them for a very long time. I know. I was head of military intelligence liaison with them for seven long years. The two instances you mentioned were occasions in which the political level of government simply dictated to the IC what its opinion should be. Do you have a way to prevent that?

[Theymustbemorons]

Col.Lang, thank you for your service. God bless you and may He continue to strengthen your voice. Your blog is a welcome place that offers the opportunity to learn, to think about, and to understand, on a deeper level, the forces influencing this world. Thank you for your service.

[Diana Croissant]

Well, I found China's immediate response to the virus's spread to Italy and France a little suspicious.

China had stocked up on PPE and immediately rushed to those countries as a sort of (false) act of contrition for the "accident."

I hope you are watching your back as you uncover the truths about this disruption of almost the entire world, and especially the U.S.

Could it be that there is growing unrest among the "useful idiots" in China? We can only hope.

In the meantime, why should we worry here in the U.S.? Nancy Antoinette Pelosi has made it clear to the many out-of-work citizens (because of the virus) that all they need to do is eat chocolate ice cream.

[Yeah, Right]

No, I am not an Israeli. An Australian, in fact, and a critic of the little Apartheid state.

And I agree with you regarding the fiasco regarding Iraqi WMD, which was not “intelligence” so much as it was “stenography”.

With the Trump dossier I don’t necessarily agree that it was the political level of government who were doing the dictating. I am more inclined to point the finger elsewhere. But, again, definitely a case of made-to-order intelligence, not of incompetence.

Do I have a way of preventing made-to-order intel? No, obviously I do not. The USIC doesn’t either, otherwise people like Clapper would be in the slammer.

But if the politicians could dial up their desired intelligence with respect to Iraqi WMD then isn’t it also possible that they can dial up their own results w.r.t. what happened in Wuhan? Arses are on the line, and scapegoats have to be found.

[turcopolier]

Yeah, right.

I completely agree that a policy and politically dominated "truth" can be managed into existence in any country at any time. Sadly, it is not enough to fight the system from within because the politicos will just arrange to remove you if you do that. My only and somewhat desperate hope is that if we hold feet to the fire here we may marginally affect the outcome.

[ponderer]

SHMBO is Taiwanese so I hear quite a bit from the Chinese view, or at least the view of those in the CCP paid to troll English and Chinese web sites. It drives her nuts because she is a Trump supporter and a (naturalized) Citizen. The propaganda war has been ongoing for a long time, decades at least. The CCP has known that the west couldn't "outsource" their middle class forever and been breeding distrust among their citizens for the eventual fallout. That's most likely what this is, China seeing a trade fallout that wasn't going to go away soon and using this virus--probably after it was accidentally released-- to get a leg up on the competition. It's a smart (if evil) move designed to keep them in critical parts of supply chains for as long as possible. The Chinese elite are much smarter than ours, and able to look more than 6 months into the future. That's what happens when your grandfather can tell you about the time the peasants executed most of the former elites and their families.

[j. casey]

This line of T's seems to be aligning with the recent article advocating the confiscation of China merchant shipping and the numerous lawsuits seeking money damages against China. Part of a coordinated operation? Repudiating the debt owed to China and confiscating Chinese assets via these lawsuits would appear to be a replay of the Warimber game used to confiscate NK assets a after a blatantly political show trial. Walking on the debt would play big into the election for T's base, I suspect, but the larger implications of defaulting on debt via contrived political trials seems like a gigantically bad idea, long-term.

Honest question: Why would anyone trust the IC with any finding of any kind? Have they not proven themselves time and time and time again to be, paraphrasing P, cheaters, liars, and thieves?

[turcopolier]

j. casey

Good point. IMO it is time to re-invent the IC and FBI.

[walrus]

After reading the Straits Times article, if true, it seems like China dragged their feet for at least two weeks before coming clean to the WHO on 1 January. They then posed as the model International citizen, which fooled me.

During the delay and the period up to 14(?) January when it was allegedly discovered that efficient human to human transmission was occurring, the virus was spreading internationally by air travel.

They knew it was a SARS like Coronavirus, most certainly understood its likely contagious behaviour and they let it go for a month.....

[turcopolier]

walrus

Welcome back from the world of CCP agitprop. As this becomes clear to all the question will be of what sort of covert action will be approved in retaliation.

[Barabara Ann]

j. casey

You are right about the wisdom of a selective default vis-à-vis China, it would be a suicidal move. No matter how much it was cloaked in the language of political "consequences" the market would see it as a default and the status of US sovereign debt would change overnight, probably forever.

Given this administration's liberal use of sanctions as the weapon of choice it would not surprise me if Trump receives advise to do just this. And being an erstwhile defaulter himself he may even be tempted. However, I'd hope the grown ups in the room (as well as his gut) would tell him that providers of reserve currencies cannot behave like this. Smoothie (Andrei Martyanov) had a post on his blog recently dealing with this possibility, FWIW.

[jjc]

The timeline in the public record contradicts the notion of a delay or coverup:

The weird pneumonia with the opaque ground glass imaging on the lung X-rays shows up on Dec 25-26.

Dec 31 the WHO is informed of possible infectious outbreak.

Jan 3 leader of China's CDC confers with America's head of CDC.

Jan 4-5 WHO makes public information of cluster of pneumonias in Wuhan

Jan 12 genetic sequence of the virus released

Jan 14 announce that human to human transmission might occur, but no evidence yet

Jan 21 announce that human to human transmission is now proven

By January 23 Congressional leaders have been briefed on possible pandemic and researchers at John Hopkins release paper describing a "fat-tailed" pandemic as imminent. So that is less than a month from the first real sign of a unique viral event to a full understanding that a long-anticipated pandemic is underway.

The best the Associated Press could do, in a much cited article which viewed the timeline critically, was suggest the week Jan 14-21 delayed an understanding of human to human transmission, but this is difference between something that "may be" happening versus something that is "proven".

The timeline is not Chinese agitprop, it has multiple sourcing. No international scientist or health official involved has accused the Chinese of any delay or coverup. The accusations reside largely with political and media persons. Calling for retaliation without a clear or obvious reason for retaliation seems misguided,

[Fred]

jjc,

You must have missed the AP report on Dr. Li Wenliang, who was arrested and forced to recant his warning about the Wuhan virus.
https://apnews.com/9d86cace1a89aa33d6b33138ab4d9ba6

[turcopolier]

fred JJC is IMO a pro-communist troll

[Fred]

Col., I think you've had quite a few show up since the tariffs and even more with this virus attack on the West.

[Yeah, Right]

Fred, the article that you linked to did not say that he was arrested. Nor does it say that he was forced to recant.

The article says what it says, and what it says was that Dr. Li Wenliang was reprimanded by police for going outside the chain of command with his warnings of the danger that this virus was dangerous.

Well, OK, not particularly pleasant behavior, but the USA also reprimands officials who speak out of line, as Capt Brett Cozier found out to his cost. At least Dr Wenliang was allowed to stay at his post, Cozier not so much.

Colonel, before the inevitable retort, I am not a pro-communist troll. Far from it.

But I don't like to see misrepresentations go un-commented on, and I firmly believe that Fred has misrepresented what that article said.

[turcopolier]

Yeah, Right

Crozier was a professional military officer who went outside the chain of command to pursue his dream of martyrdom. Was this doctor anything like that? Did I say you are a troll? I don't remember that. I said you are a "wise ass," which you are.