“There had been three open-air nerve agent events on March 13 (1968), one of which was a test involving an F-4 fighter airplane operating two TMU-28B spray tanks, each holding 160 gallons of VX — a persistent nerve agent.”

Al Mauroni  — Who Killed the Dugway Sheep? Why It Matters Fifty Years Later (Modern War Institute – March 13 2018)

March 13 2019 — The Dugway sheep incident, also known as the Skull Valley sheep kill, was a 1968 sheep kill that has been connected to United States Army chemical and biological warfare programs at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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“There was zero chance of China letting the chips fall where they may. There is little chance of the U.S. sacrificing its other dealings with Beijing to get to the bottom of the mystery. Yet I would not bet on the lab theory going gently into that good night. This would be another highly unlikely event given the longstanding fears voiced by so many scientists over the years that such an accident might be the world’s biggest pandemic risk.”

WSJ (March 9 2021)

UPDATE (March 13 2021) — Holman W. Jenkins Jr. is a member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal and he just wrote an excellent piece.

“A lab accident in Wuhan is unlikely only in the sense that a pandemic virus’s emergence is always the culmination of a series of unlikely events. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be here as a species.

This trillion-to-one collision of circumstances can be simplified in one obvious way. Say, if a human agent collected the most dangerous viruses to study them in the middle of one of the densest population centers on earth. These experimenters would at least have been alert, if all other precautions failed, to a coworker developing unexplained symptoms. Except that the Sars-Cov-2 virus, once it was loose in a human crowd, showed that it can be spread by people who never develop symptoms.

Preventing future pandemics, being better prepared next time—these are the reasons given for trying to understand how the new coronavirus emerged. But one instance of a virus bridging the species gap the natural way might be an anecdote that doesn’t tell us much about the next risk. The lab theory is the big fork in the road. We might have to reset our risk perceptions dramatically—worry less about humans messing around in animal habitats, worry more about scientists messing around in labs.

On that basis alone, the lab theory is the most important informational chokepoint as we move ahead. But there’s another reason. If the lab theory remains unresolved, especially if China’s refusal to cooperate makes it unresolvable, it will hang over global politics for decades to come even without conspiracy theorists and demagogues taking a hand.

Alas, the World Health Organization mission is turning into a case of disaster foretold. A credible inquiry requires China’s full cooperation, not just cooperation with those lines of inquiry that are consistent with its own propaganda.”

Understanding the origin of this virus is key to reducing the risk of future pandemics. And so far, we know next to nothing.

END of UPDATE

“With more than two million deaths, more than a hundred million infected by COVID-19 worldwide, and a massive global disruption impacting some of the world’s most vulnerable populations, we cannot afford an investigation into the origins of the pandemic that is anything less than absolutely thorough and credible. If we fail to fully and courageously examine the origins of this pandemic, we risk being unprepared for a potentially worse pandemic in the future.”

Dugway Proving Ground is an Army test and evaluation center located about ninety minutes’ drive from Salt Lake City, Utah. It was established in 1942 to test US chemical and biological weapons.

Six thousand sheep were killed on ranches near the base, and the popular explanation blamed Army testing of chemical weapons for the incident, though alternative explanations have been offered.

“An alternate theory, that local ranchers had used an illegal organo-phosphate chemical herbicide to spray fields that were only a few miles from the affected sheep, was not accepted.

Certainly there were organo-phosphate pesticides such as Malathion and Parathion in use within the United States, and there was no Environmental Protection Agency to regulate their use.

The Utah congressional delegation and the governor preferred to believe that five gallons of liquid VX nerve agent — the unaccounted-for amount — had travelled as a gaseous cloud 30–45 miles from the spray incident over a mountain range and affected only sheep in Skull Valley.”

An official report, commissioned by Air Force Press Officer Jesse Stay and first made public in 1998, was called the “first documented admission” from the Army that a nerve agent killed the sheep at Skull Valley.

“At the end of the investigation, the Army would pay the ranchers for 4,372 sheep claimed to be killed by nerve agent, and 1,877 disabled and shot due to the ranchers being unable to sell their meat and wool.

The Army paid $376,685 for the 6,249 sheep in the claims—about twice the market value at the time.

Far from being over, though, the Army was drawn into a larger national debate over the US government’s role in developing chemical and biological weapons.”

The U.S. Congress passed a public law in November 1969 forbidding the open-air testing of any lethal chemical or biological warfare agent within the United States, unless the secretary of defense determined that such testing was necessary in the interests of national security, the US surgeon general reviewed the tests to ensure the public’s health and safety were protected, and the president informed Congress thirty days prior to the testing.

Was the Dugway Sheep Incident Around Area 52 a Smokescreen?

This is the only video regarding this event that I could find. And lo and behold, it blames the UFOs.

“Was there a hidden agenda behind the 1968 release of the deadly VX nerve agent which resulted in the overnight death of more than 6000 sheep 30 miles outside of Area 52?”

UPDATE (March 13 2020) — It only took  30 years for the truth to emerge. Aliens — I am not talking about the Mexicans but those coming from a distant galaxy in their shiny dish-shaped UFOs — were not responsible for the Dugway sheep incident after all.

In truth, United States Army chemical and biological warfare scientists had just made a small mistake. That kind of glitch happens once in a while…

It took a bit longer to know what (and who) killed Ronald George Maddison, a twenty-year-old Royal Air Force engineer (23 January 1933 – 6 May 1953).

In 2004, the UK government revealed that military scientists from Porton Down killed Maddison with a nerve agent (Sarin) during an experiment. Again, this kind of thing happens. More often than not, it would seem because they even have words for that.

According to the inquest, Maddison was “unlawfully killed by his own government.” Nice…

On March 4 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer and double agent for the UK’s intelligence services, and his daughter Yulia Skripal were  found unconscious on a public bench in the centre of Salisbury.

They had been poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent known as ‘Novichok’.

And Lo and Behold, Salisbury is just located a few miles from the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), better known as Porton Down. Just a coincidence…

The coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019. The city happens to be home of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

In 2015, this laboratory published successful research on whether a bat coronavirus could be made to infect human cells.

But according to the Washington Post, this is just (another) amazing coincidence. People “less qualified” than the Post reporters are not so sure.

Richard H. Ebright — an American molecular biologist —  is the Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University and Laboratory Director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology.

According to Richard H. Ebright, the possibility that the virus entered the population due to a laboratory accident is very plausible.

But surely, considering the magnificent track records of the Washington Post, only conspiracy theorists will pay attention to Dr. Ebright?

Move on. There is no “there” there. Just another freaking coincidence…

PS — Ai Fen — Director of Wuhan Central Hospital’s emergency department — sounded the alarm about the coronavirus in December 2019. She was immediately censured. Why on earth would they do that?

UPDATE (April 16 2020) — US Intelligence agencies have increasing confidence that COVID-19 likely originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Patient zero, a worker at the Wuhan laboratory, infected the population in Wuhan after contracting the virus from bats.

Quite possibly, this tragedy is the costliest government cover-up of all time.

In January 2018, U.S. Embassy officials warned about inadequate safety at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab.

They also passed on information about scientists conducting risky research on coronavirus from bats.

More lies from the Washington Post — In a piece published on April 16 2020, Adam Taylor writes:

“Some scientists don’t dismiss this outright. In January, Ebright did not want to talk on the record about the idea of a leak because it was too speculative.

He changed his mind and this week told The Post that he thinks it “at least as probable” as an incident outside of a lab (…)”

That statement is clearly a lie. If you checked what I wrote a month ago (See below), it is abundantly clear that Dr. Richard H. Ebright had always considered the possibility that the virus entered the population due to a laboratory accident as very plausible.

But, of course, at the time the Post was ridiculing the idea as a conspiracy theory. What else is new?

PS — This blog has experienced unusual high-traffic coming from China in recent days. I was wondering what could be the reason…

END of UPDATE

REFERENCES

Dugway sheep incident — Wikipedia

Who Killed the Dugway Sheep? Why It Matters Fifty Years Later — Modern War Institute

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On This Day — The Dugway Sheep Incident (March 13 1968)

On This Day — The Dugway Sheep Incident (March 13 1968) [Porton Down 1953, Skull Valley 1968, Salisbury 2018, Wuhan 2019]

On This Day — The Dugway Sheep Incident (March 13 1968) [Porton Down 1953, Skull Valley 1968, Salisbury 2018, Wuhan 2019]  // UPDATE — US INTEL : COVID-19 Leaked out Wuhan Lab

On This Day — The Dugway Sheep Incident (March 13 1968) [Porton Down 1953, Skull Valley 1968, Salisbury 2018, Wuhan 2019] // UPDATE — A credible COVID inquiry requires China’s full cooperation