The “Latin American Experiment” and COV-19

“There’s been some interesting experiments. There was a Latin American experiment. I have just committed a security violation. Never mind. An experiment in some country with the CIA stationed in the future.” – Gregory Treverton, Former National Intelligence Council Chair, on the “Future of Intelligence,” February 26, 2020

Yes Treverston, given the lockdown all across North America roughly two weeks after your speech, this “experiment” you speak of is very interesting especially as the Secretary of State spoke of the “glory of the American experiment” back in April of 2019. And today, 4^th of July, U.S. celebrates the glory of independence!

It readily appears that when the people were ordered by their government to shutdown and lockdown, they didn’t “blink an eye.” But the people clearly did not and will not stand for either a Police State or Military State. It’s as if they’ve awoken from a dream and realized they’ve been living a nightmare they conveniently forgot.

In Ali Behdad’s 2005 book, A Forgetful Nation: On Immigration and Cultural Identity in the United States, one finds in Chapter 1, “Imagining America: Forgetful Fathers and the Founding Myths of the Nation.”  Behdad posits two main arguments:

First, the idea of the nation has conveniently forgotten its role of colonization in the founding of the nation and the brutality and exploitation that came with it. Second, Behdad points to America’s “historical amnesia” on immigration and the false premise of a nation’s being built on the idea that all men are created equal.

To assert Behdad first point of this “forgetful nation” he refers to the near extinction of the Native Americans whom the pilgrims felt it their innate right to colonize their land and in time appropriate it. Recent events have brought attention to America’s symbols of exploitation and conquests as that of the Confederacy as well as one by which the country was literally founded on, Indian land.

In the Black Hills of South Dakota, one can still find the images of four U.S. Presidents carved into Mount Rushmore. Why add insult to injury? According to Behdad, the U.S. was built on an imagined community of illusory principles devoid of actual accountability. Moreover, that this principled nation does not and continues to deny its hand in the unprincipled act of colonization.

In Behdad’s book, one finds the Frontispiece photograph by courtesy of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Interestingly and relevant to the times, the cover depicts an immigrant apparently being physically inspected before allowed entrance.

Border Fiasco: America’s Price for Freedom

Border security response to the influx of immigrants at the southern border appears to have exacerbated the COV-19 spread. From the get go there appeared to be no rhyme or reason for the detention of hundreds of people seeking asylum. The Justice Department has in the last two decades grappled with limited resources to address their months and year’s long case backlog.

Immigrants, having been detained only to be retained and denied entry or sent back south via airplanes can be seen as a strategic recipe for transmission. If travel bans were in order from flights originating from Mexico and South America, why would the U.S. quarantine people in close proximity to then ship them out South? It appears the U.S. planned a reverse “invasion” resulting in a “brilliant disaster.”

In April of 2019, the Secretary of State is noted in stating, “In terms of how you think about problem sets… I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. It’s – it was like-we had entire training courses.” Now, let’s put this into context with immigration and the pandemic.

Secretary of State’s reported admission to lying and spying brings to mind Jim Rasenberger’s book, “The Brilliant Disaster:  JFK, Castro, and America’s Doomed Invasion of Cuba’s Bay of Pigs.” According to Rasenberger, the 1961 “Bay of Pigs” fiasco was evident to all stakeholders, Cuba, Russia and the responsible party, the U.S.  How did the U.S. rationalize their actions?  “Plausible Denial.”

Sound familiar Susan Rice? Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice recently stated that “We knew that a pandemic was all but inevitable.” Really? Ms. Rice, why then, with the CDC fully staff under the Obama administration, was there not a stockpile of PPEs?

Rice pointed to possible attacks coming from China, Russia, or Iran. Sure, she noted a “69 page guide our staff passed onto incoming staff.” But did she not consider that it was “inevitable” that the Trump administration would counter their policies? Or, were they counting on this?

Powerful Catalysts: Globalization and Global Warming

One can make a strong argument that the prime movers of the spread of the COV-19 were socialization in a globalized world and the effect of cultural norms on the planet’s wildlife.

Real time analytics originally pointed to China as being in the “eye of the storm.” Italy, nowhere near China, had no explanation for its high numbers other than responding late. However, what may have been overlooked is that for decades Italy received large number of immigrants and migrant workers from China. 

Visiting Firenze, Roma, Milano and other cities of Italia, I saw how once revered fashion houses exchanged craftsmanship quality for quantities of lire, manifesting in the clothing industry as it bred cultural divide between Italians and Asian immigrants. Open borders facilitated the growth of China’s “world factory” and early technology transfers between the West, China, and India.

In an April 16, 2018 article with the headline, “Made in Italy”, D. T. Max a staff writer for the New Yorker, writes “The first significant wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the industrial zone around Prato, a city fifteen miles northwest of Florence, in the nineteen-nineties. Nearly all of them came from Wenzhou, a port city south of Shanghai.”

Animal to Human transmission? There is no question that viral infections can result from contact and/or ingestion of wildlife or farm animals, but “wet markets” in Asia and “factory farms” in the U.S. have been operating with little to no regulation for decades. Why the outbreak now?

Amidst the many references to “wet markets” the one that does not get talked about are the fashion markets.  According to the writer, “While Florence was celebrated for its premium leatherwork, Prato was best known for the production of textiles…[turned into] pronto moda, or “fast fashion”… These items sold briskly to low-end retailers and in open-air markets throughout the world.”

EU, Italy and African Connection?  “Prato is believed to have the second-largest Chinese population of any European city, after Paris, and it has the highest proportion of immigrants in Italy, including a large North African population.”

How did the virus spread to the U.S.? Immigration via Trade, specficially fashion and handbag inports appears to be a likely possibility. According to the New Yorker :

“In the Prato area, some six thousand businesses are registered to Chinese citizens…In 2016, Lin opened her first Pop Bag store, full of glistening fixtures and backlit shelving, on Via Calimala, in Florence. And, a few weeks ago, she opened a kiosk at the Time Warner Center, in New York City.”  

Is it any wonder New York became the epicenter of COV-19?  Unable to control the viral invasion, it was only a matter of months before it spread West and South.

América del Sur

Speaking on control and invasions, as to Havana, Cuba, Secretary of State stressed “we notice now the regime in Havana has taken advantage of the COV-19 pandemic to continue its exploitation of Cuban medical workers. We applaud leaders in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and other countries which have refused to turn a blind eye to these abuses by the Cuban regime…” And what of the bankers who continue to exploit the people of Puerto Rico? 

What of those leaders who refused to wear masks all while applauding the unmasked U.S. President? Let’s take Brazil, for example. What possible reason would Brazil’s president want to visit and come in close proximity with the U.S, the epicenter of the virus?

U.S. President inviting the Brazilian President may have served to also invite the communicable COV-19 virus back to Brazil. Did both not wearing a mask result in reportedly 17 Brazilian staff members contracting the virus?

Speaking of the U.S. President, Treverton described what it was like briefing Donald Trump about intelligence before the 2017 inauguration. When asked, “where the intelligence community is going vis a vis human intelligence,” Treverton pointed to “Information” and “Experiments”:

Mr. President, as the leader of the free world, how will you eliminate the responsible party, a virus, with its ground zero in the U.S.?  Right, like hypersonic aircrafts and missiles, the virus is a moving target. Sir, your domestic and foreign policies appear to have moved it along south, Latin America.

Yes, these American experiments are interesting. But is it really unfathomable that the U.S. has been running experiments on their own people?  It was revealed to be a “Latin American experiment.” But Treverston’s intelligence may not have been altogether accurate.

The experiment apparently encompasses all of the Americas. One thing is clear, whether accidental or by design, a virus spread and created an opportunity to enhance surveillance systems in western governments.

Irony or Poetic Justice?

America, your celebration of the 4^th of July marks over 200 years of independence from England. In time, conquest of land between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans made you dependent on the same people whose land you colonized. Again, in time, America you became completely dependent on those you attempted to conquer, the Peoples Republic of China.

Mobilization of the U.S. continues as tens of thousands march across the nation and thousands more around the world. Mr. President your hands are tied by your own laws to respond to what you call “insurgents” and “terrorists.”

In an apparent twist of irony and blowback, the threatened Iranian “52 different sites” turned out to be 50 US states and a cultural icon.

Dis(united) States of America, Happy (In) Dependence Day!