Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s acknowledgment of years-long U.S. funding for over 120 biolabs in 30 countries has turned yesterday’s “conspiracy theory” into today’s official reality.
We Hate to Say “We Told You So”—Actually, No We Don’t!
The obvious question is not simply what these facilities are, but why so much effort was allegedly devoted to dismissing or discrediting those who raised questions about them. If the existence and funding of these laboratories are now being publicly acknowledged, then many of the people who spent years insisting the entire topic was imaginary owe the public an explanation, and the victims of their campaigns of character assassination an apology.
For years, anyone questioning the existence of U.S.-funded biological laboratories in countries such as Ukraine and Georgia was ridiculed, censored, or dismissed as a purveyor of “Russian disinformation.”
Reporting from Tbilisi, I spent years documenting what I argued was a network of Pentagon-funded laboratories operating behind a veil of secrecy under the banner of public and animal health. The response from the political and security establishment—and much of the media—was predictable: denial, character attacks, physical assaults, detentions in both Georgia and the United States upon arrival, for questioning, and repeated assurances that there was “nothing to see here.”
I can claim at this stage, with a high degree of confidence, and a smile on my face, this is only the beginning—just the tip of the iceberg. Laboratories in Georgia and Ukraine, even some in Africa, have long conducted research involving especially dangerous pathogens (EDPs), and that public-facing narratives have obscured the true scope of these programs.
The roles of organizations such as Metabiota, Bechtel, and national and international NGOs have all been falsely argued that they have not served functions that reach beyond humanitarian or public health initiatives. Such claims remain contested, and many have not been independently established, but they form a central part of the broader debate now reignited by Gabbard’s disclosures.
Having personally accessed many closed documents, design and redesign plans, researched the hidden history, chased the funding trails, heard the denials, and made the links to Georgian and foreign intelligence services, including US Naval Intelligence, I was able to get to know the MO of the people who spent years telling the public that asking questions itself was the problem.
If recent official disclosures have shifted the conversation, then it is worth asking whether yesterday’s “conspiracy theory” has become today’s uncomfortable headline, not to mention truth—and who has benefited from insisting otherwise.
Left Over Old Bio Crap from the USSR
The matter is always the same: with all the old bio-crap remaining from Soviet times, several governments had to choose whether to get rid of it or keep research going on. They didn’t, and whoever felt it was the case to keep things under control jumped in — now that we’re in wartime, clearly they become assets. Besides, biological weapons and the work done to obtain them are extremely difficult to disclose, similarly to nuclear enrichment.
What I remember from my articles on the Lugar lab is that I obliged the MoD and the likes to respond with an incredible array of articles and videos, BBC and VOA, even an open day of the lab (!!!), and that was the confirmation that something was going on. Then there was the big scoop of that Bulgarian journalist, etc.
What may happen now is something very similar, that is, some bits and pieces appear in a certain lab, and then the competent authorities become obliged to deny that anything has happened on a massive scale.
Not more than that, I’m afraid — unless some hot documents get published or someone who’s ashamed of what they’ve done may spill the beans on, say, a web radio or an online forum for super-specialists.
Is Coincidence Happenstance?
If anyone’s been murdered for this, well, that should work as a warning, I suppose. I know one possibility, the outside premise head of security for the Lugar Lab in Tbilisi, Georgia, one of my main sources, was killed in a freak car accident; however, better not to go there yet, until we see how all the allegations and blowback land. And then too, the unexplained death of two foreign contract workers with signs of gas poisoning.
It has been suggested that I should contact the Biological Weapons Convention- bwc@un.orghttps://bwc-cbm.un.org/state/geo
“Make sure you enlist your academic, BS and MS degrees, and military credentials, and that you inform them upon the type of docs you may want to submit. Nonetheless, in the meantime, thank you very much for what you’ve done so far and also greetings to anyone who’s reading our exchange of emails,’’
It is hilarious to recount the recriminations of the likes of the spin doctors under the Biden administration, such as John Kirby and Ned Price of the former US administration.
But what will they do in the face of the truth and all the effort and money spent to shut me up? They removed articles, banned and shadow-banned documentaries, and made the effort to smear my reputation for having been the first to expose these labs in Georgia and the former USSR.
We Hate to Say “We Told You So”… But Apparently, We Told You So
Well, this is awkward.
Now, according to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, based on newly-declassified information, Gabbard says, reveals that the existence, funding, and scope of these laboratories had been withheld from the American public. Even more striking are claims that some facilities engaged in research involving hazardous pathogens and, in certain cases, gain-of-function experiments with limited transparency or oversight.
In other words, what many insisted simply did not exist apparently exists after all—at least according to the nation’s top intelligence official.
The announcement also dovetails with President Trump’s Executive Order 14292, signed on May 25, 2025, aimed at ending federal funding for gain-of-function research worldwide. Gabbard has directed the Intelligence Community to intensify its collection efforts regarding these laboratories, citing emerging concerns over ongoing clinical trials, ethics, security, and the use of taxpayer dollars.
Even AI will tell you that the “eccentric American living in Tbilisi” is Jeffrey Silverman, a controversial figure frequently used by Russian state media to push conspiracy theories about the facility. The recycled reports repeat, “Despite a lack of evident expertise or knowledge, Silverman is held up as a bona fide American whistleblower in the Russian media.”
That lab is a time bomb, he intimated in an interview with REN TV.
The response was never to simply prove me wrong. Instead came the reputation attacks, the attempts to erase articles, remove documentaries, discredit interviews, and poison my name. Entire networks of so-called experts, fact-checkers, think tanks, and self-appointed guardians of truth mobilized to assure the public that there was absolutely nothing to investigate. Organizations connected to the Atlantic Council and others in the growing “counter-disinformation” industry portrayed anyone asking questions as a useful idiot or worse.
Even material originating from institutions connected to the University of Maryland found its way into the ecosystem of narratives attacking my credibility and that of other journalists.
This is ALL KGB/FSB work. Use of dregs and lackeys: page 13, § Jeffrey Silverman, US resident in Tbilisi since 2001, § Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, Bulgarian journalist, and in other writings, noted that Silverman said that “… a number of labs, strewn across Eastern Europe, are umbilically tied to the Biological Weapon Proliferation (BWPP) programme – and this is a cover for what is most likely an offensive program.”
Silverman is also quoted in another publication by the same university as saying that the Lugar Centre was developing hazardous substances that were being tested on local residents. The quoted claim was made that experiments with viruses and bacteria could have caused the spread of dangerous illnesses such as swine flu and measles.
The journalist further claims that an effort is being made to expand the programme and produce weaponized agents that can be used in biowarfare. He has said on Georgian national TV that if there is an emergency, Georgia will be wiped off the face of the earth. In the Tbilisi laboratory they have the capacity to work with anthrax, measles, black plague, and H1N1.
Now, with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard publicly acknowledging evidence of extensive U.S.-funded biolab programs overseas, the conversation has changed. The people who insisted these facilities either did not exist or were too insignificant to discuss are suddenly forced to explain why the subject is now worthy of official attention.
The issue was never whether laboratories existed—that much is increasingly difficult to deny. The real question is why questioning them became such a dangerous act.
Gabbard told how people were “threatened” who attempted to expose their existence. Gabbard alleges an intentional cover-up by powerful figures, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and others in the Biden administration, as to the existence and gain-of-function research conducted at these labs, some in high-risk areas, including Ukraine.
- Why were journalists smeared instead of answered?
- Why were investigations met with censorship rather than transparency?
- Why was character assassination easier than public accountability?
For years, I argued that the story was larger than Georgia or Ukraine. It was about an international network involving enormous funding streams and slush funds, Turkish intelligence, unexplained deaths, political protection, bribes, and the weaponization of information itself. But one fact is beyond dispute: enormous effort and financial resources were devoted to discouraging anyone from looking too closely.
As for me, I no longer feel compelled to whisper. I can speak more openly about my methods, the documents I collected over the years for a rainy day, self-protection, the sources I cultivated, and the obstacles placed in my path.
“But what will they do about it in the face of the truth…”
As Gabbard said, how they threatened those who exposed the labs and called them foreign assets, herself included, if official information now acknowledges U.S.-funded biological laboratories abroad, then his critics will have difficulty explaining why they spent years trying to discredit those like myself,
Jeffrey K. Silverman is a freelance journalist and international development specialist, BSc, MSc, based for 30 years in Georgia and the former Soviet Union
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