Operation Warp Speed Is Using A CIA-Linked Contractor To Keep Covid-19 Vaccine Contracts Secret

October 6, 2020

Whitney Webb

$6 billion in Covid-19 vaccine contracts awarded by Operation Warp Speed have been doled out by a secretive government contractor with deep ties to the CIA and DHS, escaping regulatory scrutiny and beyond the reach of FOIA requests.

Last Tuesday, while most Americans were distracted by the first US presidential debate, NPRquietly reported that the US government’s Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership launched by the Trump administration to rapidly develop and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine, had taken the unusual step of awarding contracts to vaccine companies, not directly, but through a secretive defense contractor.

Though NPR named thedefense contractor—South Carolina–based Advanced Technology International—they declined to explore the company’s deep ties to the CIA, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense and how ATI is helping to lead those agencies’ efforts to militarize health care and create a surveillance panopticon that not only monitors the world around us but our physiology as well. (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Operation Warp Speed is run by HHS and the military, which according to the article is a highly secretive program that has been compared to the Manhattan Project which produced the atomic bomb.

According to NPR, utilizing an intermediary like ATI, while theoretically speeding up the process, can result in significant risks that will allow Warp Speed to:

“bypass the regulatory oversight and transparency of traditional federal contracting mechanisms.”

The article points out that numerous companies have received these covert vaccine contracts and that many have been involved in scandals of marketing and selling unsafe products.

This is particularly troubling since The PREP Act was updated in April a few weeks before Operation Warp Speed was announced. This Act protects vaccine manufacturers from liability – disallowing court actions over injuries caused by COVID-19 vaccines.

The article then lays out in detail some troubling connections between the military, DHS, and many other companies.

Important excerpt:

Given that Operation Warp Speed’s official purpose is to use taxpayer funds to produce, accelerate, and distribute a medical treatment (i. e., vaccine) to Americans, there is no reason for such extreme secrecy and also no reason for the excessive role of the military and secretive contractors like ATI and ANSER in the execution of this “public health” effort….

For instance, Stat News noted last week that Operation Warp Speed “looks a lot more like a military operation than a science project,” adding that “roughly 60 military officials—including at least four generals—are involved in the leadership of Operation Warp Speed, many of whom have never worked in health care or vaccine development.” That report also pointed out that “just 29 of the roughly 90 leaders on the chart aren’t employed by the Department of Defense.”

The initial justification for using the military was due to its expertise in logistics and supply chains, but the vaccine distribution strategy doesn’t mention this role at all. Because of this glaring disconnect the DOD published an interview clarifying its huge role to be due to its program management and contracting expertise.

The authors of the article point out the numerous conflicting statements and that these contracts are being purposely funneled through secretive contractors to avoid scrutiny.

There will be a series of upcoming investigative reports on this subject that they state is the

“most clandestine, and arguably most dangerous, US military operation in decades.”

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