Original article (in Albanian) was published on 23/08/2023; Author: Pustina Patris
The news that the U.S. is seeking permission to encircle Russia and
China with “bio-labs” is baseless. Verification by “Faktoje” has
revealed that the news is entirely based on the claims of a fake
expert.
An article published in Impakt Newspaper on August 19, 2023,
claims that “The U.S. seeks a ‘license’ to encircle Russia and China
with ‘Strategic Attacking Bio-Labs’”.
This piece seems to be an Albanian translation of an article from the Russian state news agency Sputnik, authored by Svetlana Ekimenko.
The article starts with the claim that “documents discovered during Moscow’s special operation in Ukraine have revealed that the U.S. is establishing a comprehensive biological research program there, spending over 200 million dollars on 46 biological laboratories investigating highly dangerous pathogens.”
However, the article does not provide these documents. In fact, documents or materials proving the existence of these laboratories have never been made public, despite the claim of their existence being circulated for over a year. These claims began spreading through Russian state media before Russia’s attack on Ukraine, attempting to justify the aggression as an operation to prevent threats posed to Russia by its neighbour.
The source for the claim that the U.S. is seeking to encircle Russia and China with “Strategic Attacking Bio-Labs” is someone named Scott Bennett, whom the article labels as a “former counterterrorism analyst at the State Department.”
However, a simple Google search reveals that Scott Bennett was sentenced to 3 years in prison in 2011, for imposting as an active military officer. Besides, Bennet was only part of the army reserves, not a counterterrorism analyst at the State Department.
Bennett defrauded the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton by falsely representing himself as an “officer of psychological operations” with experience in counterterrorism and an “Islamic analyst” who had worked with Special Operations and the State Department. None of this was true, as confirmed in court by Bennett’s battalion commander.
Thus, the claim that the U.S. is seeking to encircle Russia and China with “Strategic Attacking Bio-Labs” remains merely the baseless opinion of a fake expert.
“Faktoje” has already debunked even earlier claims about the existence of American bio-labs in Ukraine.
