US claim on Chinese 'lab leak' theory groundless, says German expert

MEXICO CITY - The US government's claim that the novel coronavirus escaped from a Chinese laboratory is groundless and driven by politics, according to German sociologist and political observer Heinz Dieterich.

The claim is part of Washington's effort to distract public attention from problems at home by stirring up conflict abroad, because the US model of governance is structurally exhausted, incapable of reform, and "dysfunctionally suicidal" for the rest of the world, Dieterich wrote in an article on his blog "Science Freedom" under the headline "The Manipulation of the Coronavirus in the United States' Military Strategy."

There is evidence that "the virus was clinically detected in several European countries and in the United States prior to or in parallel with its emergence in China," said Dieterich, also a professor at Mexico's Metropolitan Autonomous University.

While Washington struggles to blame the pandemic on others, "there is verified forensic evidence that US has carried out biological, chemical and nuclear warfare experiments on its own citizens," said Dieterich.

A 71-page report from the US Army Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick revealed that military specialists carried out a "simulated biological warfare attack" with bacteria in the New York subway in June 1966, he noted.

More recent evidence points to Washington's willingness to mislead the international community to achieve its political goals, including lying about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and secretly sponsoring Islamic extremism in Syria and other parts of the Middle East, said Dieterich.