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| James Clapper: head of seventeen intelligence agencies |
Not more than three weeks after Abreu Report broke the news in the English media that Oxitec's genetically-modified mosquitoes could be linked to the deadly rise of a formidable new strain of the Zika virus, James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, told the United States Senate Armed Services Committee that "genome editing" represented one of biggest weapon-of-mass-destruction proliferation threats currently facing the world.
DNI Clapper informed the Senate that:
"Research in genome editing conducted by countries with different ethical standards than those of Western countries probably increases the risk of the creation of potentially harmful biological agents or products. Given the broad distribution, low cost, and accelerated pace of development of this dual-use technology, its deliberate or unintentional misuse might lead to far-reaching economic and national security implications. Advances in genome editing in 2015 have compelled groups of high-profile US and European biologists to question unregulated editing of the human germline (cells that are relevant for reproduction,) which might create inheritable genetic changes."
The MIT Technology Review reported that "the choice by the U.S. spy chief to call out gene editing as a potential
weapon of mass destruction surprised some experts, but that in the past scientists had "speculated about whether CRISPR [the technology used to edit genes] could be used
to make 'killer mosquitoes,' plagues that wipe out staple crops, or
even a virus that snips at people’s DNA."
Abreu Report also warned in early 2014 that transgenic mosquitoes could lead to the spread of a virus throughout Brazil for which the population had no immunity, but those warnings were completely ignored.
Now the entire stability of Latin America is at stake, and health systems throughout the region could implode, leading to mass political and economic chaos.
Daniel Gerstein, a "senior policy analyst at RAND [nonprofit policy institution] and a former under secretary at the Department of Homeland Defense," further told Technology Review that "we could have an accident occur with gene editing that is catastrophic, since the genome is the very essence of life."
In spite of warnings by genome experts and by the intelligence community, Technology Review went on to promote Oxitec's transgenic mosquitoes, arguing that although "so far, no public health agency has thrown its weight behind the idea," it still made sense.
Technology Review admitted that there were still important question to be answered, such as:
"What if the DNA change somehow jumps to other insects? If things were to
go wrong, would scientists be able to recall it?"
However, despite acknowledging the grave risks, and without being fully being certain if Oxitec's transgenic mosquitoes have already had a part in the current new mortal strain of Zika, Technology Review and other corporate media outlets want to risk the entire stability of global civilization; this catastrophe seems too profitable to prevent.
