Biosecurity

Deadly experiments: Georgian ex-minister claims US-funded facility may be bioweapons lab

Shrouded in mystery, a US-funded medical facility in Georgia could be a cover for a bioweapons lab used for disturbing experiments that banned in the US, a Georgian ex-security minister has claimed. Tbilisi denies the accusations.

The center, which is officially called the R. Lugar Center for Public Health Research, is described as a “brand new facility” tasked with the “prevention of proliferation  of  technology,  pathogens  and  expertise  related  to  the  development  of  biological weapons” by the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), an agency of Georgia’s Health Ministry. The task is said to be part of a cooperation program between Georgia and the US.

However, Igor Giorgadze, a former state security minister-turned opposition figure, says he recently obtained a trove of leaked documents which might expose some dark secrets at the facility.

 The lab, which was “established on the territory of a … former military base some 17 kilometers from Tbilisi” as part of a US-funded project back in 2004, “was never meant to be a medical center and had nothing in common with a hospital,” Giorgadze told RT. It was notably overseen by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a combat support agency of Pentagon which deals with weapons of mass destruction.