House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) Thursday asked for legislation to prevent U.S. funding of biological weapons.
Rep. Greene, claiming U.S. funding of ‘biolabs’ in Ukraine could lead to deaths, introduced legislation (H.R. 7125) to “stop taxpayer funding for bioweapons”.
“No government should be creating bioweapons,” she reportedly said. “That’s evil and wrong.”
Critics immediately began to pounce on the Georgia congresswoman but she had what she felt was a credible basis for worry.
“The Biological Threat Reduction Program’s priorities in Ukraine are to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern and to continue to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats,” according to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine’s website.
“When we’re talking about biolabs, we do know for a fact that the U.S. has funded the contracts, not only to take over the labs, reconstruct them, but also build them,” Green said in a speech posted by Mediaite.
“And this goes through grants, through private companies, at millions and millions of dollars.”
The congresswoman explained she had been informed that reports of possibly deadly pathogens escaping biolabs in places like Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakhstan.
“Now, what if these biolabs are handling very dangerous pathogens that may lead to the deaths in people in the areas?” she asked. “There are reports that is responsible for killing people, what if that’s true?” Greene described them as worthy questions.
Greene’s legislation comes two days after former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hi.) blasted Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) after he called remarks she made on the subject “treasonous”.
“Number one is: they are accusing me of saying that somehow there are bio weapons labs in Ukraine,” Gabbard fumed. “I said no such thing at any point. Gabbard pushed back.
Gabbard tweeted that Americans have just suffered through a global pandemic quite possibly caused by pathogens accidentally released from a biological lab. Earlier tweets from her worried about similar pathogens under study in Ukraine labs may be released by a military strike on them. Her worries, which she posted on her Twitter account, were quickly condemned by Romney and others.
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