Former US State Department COVID investigator David Asher said on Sky News that signals intelligence implicate the Wuhan Institute of Virology as the creator of SARS-CoV-2. The CIA has had this evidence since 2020, including phone calls, text messages and emails originally collected by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS). Sky News is a British subsidiary of Comcast:
Former US State Department COVID investigator reveals Australian spy agencies collected intelligence related to COVID origins in China
Australian spy agencies collected top-secret intelligence related to the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, a leading investigator has revealed.
By Sharri Markson - January 28, 2025Former COVID-19 investigator at the US State Department David Asher claims there’ll be “much more coming out” about the origins of COVID-19 following new revelations from the Central Intelligence Agency.
A leading investigator has revealed Australian spy agencies collected top-secret intelligence related to the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China.
Former US State Department COVID investigator, David Asher, said that signals intelligence, held by the CIA, including phone calls, text messages and emails was originally collected by Australia.
“Just picking up phone calls, picking up the emails, things like that ... just messages between different people, I can't comment on what they are, but it's no secret we do this. Much of our collection is actually done in Australia, as you know," Mr Asher told Sky News host Sharri Markson.
“So your government is fully aware, which is another reason why they are really puzzled and dismayed that the Australian government, which has the same information ... as we do, has been so passive, especially given the fact that your Prime Minister originally came out and said that we had to have an investigation.
The intelligence formed part of the evidence that underpinned the CIA's assessment that the pandemic began with a likely laboratory leak.
“It's just sort of pathetic if you ask me.”
The intelligence formed part of the evidence that underpinned the CIA's assessment that the pandemic began with a likely laboratory leak.
It's an assessment the agency has made with "low confidence", while the FBI has "moderate confidence" in the laboratory origins of SARS-CoV-2.
The CIA's assessment had been concluded during the Biden administration but was only made public when Trump appointee, new CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, stepped into the role.
Mr Asher investigated the origins of the pandemic under the former Trump administration.
It's an assessment the agency has made with "low confidence", while the FBI has "moderate confidence" in the laboratory origins of SARS-CoV-2.
He was critical to examining evidence that scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell sick with COVID-like symptoms, while working on coronavirus research. Some were hospitalised with the disease.
Mr Ratcliffe and former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, believe the researchers in Wuhan were the first cluster of the pandemic.
David Asher is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former State Department staffer. He led the department’s task force investigating the origins of COVID-19 and the role of the Chinese Communist Party, and most recently co-authored the Hudson Institute report “A Just Response to Beijing’s COVID-19 Abuses.”
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