US Republicans push for Wuhan report evidence

Joe Biden will be pressured to declassify evidence uncovered by intelligence agencies during their 90-day probe into the origins of Covid-19.

The Biden probe - the verdict of the 18 intelligence agencies - found a laboratory leak and human exposure to an infected animal are both ‘plausible’.

Leading US Republicans will pressure President Joe Biden to declassify the evidence uncovered by the intelligence agencies during their 90-day probe into the ­origins of Covid-19.

It comes as a high-level Five Eyes intelligence source revealed to The Australian that while the intelligence community was divided on the source of the coronavirus, the agencies had uncovered little to no evidence to support the theory Covid-19 emerged from an infected animal.

Instead the intelligence source said there was ample evidence the virus leaked from the Wuhan ­Institute of Virology in China, but it was all circumstantial in nature.

The Biden probe – the verdict of the 18 intelligence agencies – found a laboratory leak and human exposure to an infected animal are both “plausible”.

The statement released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said that “after examining all available ­intelligence reporting and other information, though, the IC ­remains divided on the most likely origin of Covid-19”.

“All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident,” it said.

The top Republican on the house foreign affairs committee, Michael McCaul, the former chair of the homeland security committee, said he would now push the Biden administration to declassify the intelligence uncovered as part of the probe.

Mr McCaul revealed to The Australian “the more prominent” intelligence agencies supported the laboratory leak scenario.

“They (the agencies) didn’t come to a unified conclusion but many of them, and I can’t go into detail about which ones, but some of the more credible ones came out stating they did think there was genetic manipulation, that it did not come from animals and that it was leaked accidentally from the lab,” he said.

“We’ve asked the administration for that report, we’ve also asked for it to be declassified.”

Four intelligence elements and the National Intelligence Council assessed with “low confidence” that the initial SARS-CoV-2 ­infection was most likely caused by contact with an infected ­animal. One intelligence community element had “moderate confidence” Covid-19 was the ­result of a laboratory incident, probably involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology either experimenting, handling or sampling the virus. Three elements of the intelligence community were unable to “coalesce around either explanation without additional ­information, with some analysts favouring natural origin, others a laboratory origin, and some seeing the hypotheses as equally ­likely,” the ODNI statement said.

Mr McCaul said the intelligence needed to be made public “so that we can counter the propaganda being spewed out of the Chinese Communist Party”.

“We may never have the smoking gun until the Chinese Communist Party opens up their lab, which you and I know will never happen,” he said.

“But when you look at all the circumstantial evidence and all the cover-up which took place … I think the truth hurts. I think they know what happened and that’s why they went to such great lengths to cover it up.”

Mr McCaul spearheaded a ­report into the origins of Covid-19, concluding the virus was most likely the result of an accidental lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

What Really Happened In Wuhan by Sharri Markson will be published by HarperCollins in September and is available for pre-order from Booktopia now