There is ‘compelling evidence’ being kept secret about Covid lab leak, says ex-intelligence chief

‘Compelling evidence’ that Covid-19 came from a lab leak is being kept secret by the US, says America’s own former spy chief — and he wants it out in the open.

AMERICA’s director of national intelligence during the Trump administration has called on President Joe Biden to release explosive intelligence that indicates Covid-19 leaked from a laboratory.

John Ratcliffe, who oversaw 18 intelligence agencies including the CIA and FBI, tells a Sky News documentary, to air on Monday night, there is still top-secret material that supports the theory the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“There’s compelling evidence that hasn’t been declassified,” he says.

“There is more intelligence out there and I’d like to see it declassified because the Chinese have forced our hand on this.”

What really happened in there? … US President Joe Biden is being urged to declassify intelligence about the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

In the documentary, What Really Happened in Wuhan, based on the new book by the same name, Mr Ratcliffe reveals he and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed what to declassify and what was the most important intelligence to get into the public domain, without compromising the safety of human sources.

“You have to remember at the end of the day after Covid we need eyes and ears into the Chinese Communist Party and the bad things that they’re doing around the world,” Mr Ratcliffe said.

“When you declassify intelligence you risk the potential human sources or signals intelligence where your eyes and ears into their actions are coming from. And so we put out as much as we felt we could safely do at the time.”

‘There’s compelling evidence’ … John Ratcliffe, former US Director of National Intelligence, on the Sky News documentary What Really Happened In Wuhan.

In the dying days of the Trump administration, Mr Ratcliffe gave the final sign-off on the declassification of highly-sensitive evidence that Wuhan Institute of Virology workers had fallen sick in the fall of 2019 with Covid-like symptoms.

“At the time we made the determination we put out as much as we could,” he said.

“We hoped that it would create momentum maybe to have the Chinese be more cooperative with international organisations and with governments. They haven’t done that. And so I think the time has come for the Biden administration to declassify additional information that would (provide), again, more evidence if you need it that the Chinese Communist Party officials acted badly, bullied international officials, covered up, suppressed intelligence and reporting on this.”

Chasing down the virus … Sharri Markson spoke to a number of big names, including Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo, plus high-level intelligence sources and Chinese rights activists, for her documentary and book about the outbreak of Covid-19.

Speaking from his perspective of seeing the wealth of intelligence in the US Government’s possession, Mr Ratcliffe said there was no question of where Covid-19 originated.

He said there is no evidence for transmission from an infected animal and overwhelming evidence it came from a Wuhan laboratory.

“I’m so convinced about where this pandemic came from and who is responsible for it,” he says. “There’s no question in my mind.”

His comments come after it emerged this week Chinese defector Wei Jingsheng warned the US intelligence agencies there was a virus spreading in Wuhan as early as November 2019.

He reveals in the book, What Really Happened in Wuhan, that he found out about the virus during the Military Games in October in 2019.

A confronting story of cover-up and crisis … out on September 29.

Asked if he had any sense the intelligence agencies were taking seriously his intelligence about a new virus in Wuhan, Mr Wei, 70, said: “I felt they were not as heavily concerned as I was so I tried my best to provide more detailed information,” he said. “They may not believe there is (a) government of a country that would do something like that (cover up a virus). So I kept repeating myself in an effort to try to persuade them.”

Mr Wei said he was “very worried because … whichever way the Communist regime released this virus, I felt that the West is not prepared”.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN WUHAN

The documentary, hosted by Sharri Markson, is on Sky News at 8pm AEST, September 20.

The book, by Ms Markson, is on sale from September 29 and available for pre-order now.