The Truth Within RFK Jr’s Statements About “Ethnically Targeted” Weapons

Originally Published at The Last American Vagabond

On July 15th, the NY Post released a report titled “RFK Jr. says COVID may have been ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jews“, setting off a weeks long controversy with accusations of antisemitism threatening to derail the outsider campaign of Democratic Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

While discussing COVID-19 at a dinner party, apparently unaware he was being filmed, Kennedy stated, “There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately.”

He continued, “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” The establishment media and politicians have determined these statements are “antisemitic” so Kennedy has been forced to spend the last 2 weeks making it clear he stands with the Jewish community, and is 100% committed to supporting Israel.

He has stated that he was referring to a 2020 study by the Cleveland Clinic which examined genetic factors which may determine susceptibility to COVID-19. The researchers stated that “clinical observations suggest that genetic factors may influence COVID-19 disease susceptibility, but these factors remain largely unknown”. The study did examine the genetics of Ashkenazi Jews, African Americans, East Asians, and South Asians.

The NY Post also maligned Kennedy for stating that “we do know that the Chinese are spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing ethnic bioweapons and we are developing ethnic bioweapons”. He also said “they” — seemingly referring to the U.S. government — are collecting Russian DNA and Chinese DNA so “we can target people by race”.

In this case, Kennedy’s crime is to speak an uncomfortable truth: governments around the world, including the United States, have certainly studied the potential for genetically targeted “bioweapons”.

Unfortunately, the conversation around bioweapons that could be targeted based on race or genetic factors has been lost in the accusations of antisemitism. You don’t need to agree with Kennedy’s statements (or campaign) to understand that there are very real concerns relating to DNA targeted weapons.

What follows is a brief run down of some of the references to such technology and why it is relevant at this moment.

Ethnic Weapons

In 1970, Carl Larson, a licensed physician who was also the head of the department of Human Genetics at the University of Lund in Sweden, wrote an article titled “Ethnic Weapons” which examined the possibility of facilitating the targeting of specific ethnic groups with covert weapons.

In the essay, Larson shares disturbing revelations relating to chemical and ethnicity focused weapons, including the suggestion that “friendly forces” could use “incapacitants in entangled situations to give friend and foe a short period of enforced rest to sort them out”. He also says using “psychochemicals” and “gentle persuasion” civilians in “enemy cities” might be “reeducated”.

Larson makes it perfectly clear that genetic differences have made what he calls “ethnic weapons” possible.

“Innate differences in vulnerability to chemical agents between different populations have led to the possible development of ethnic weapons,” Larson wrote.

Larson also discusses the role enzymes play in impacting potential enemies. Under an image of soldiers exiting a helicopter Larson writes, “enzyme inhibitors could turn these troops into a state of paralysis”.

Larson says that scientists had previously understood the “enzymatic process for RNA production” but now understand how to “regulate the initiation and specificity of enzyme production”. He also noted they understand not only how to initiate enzyme production, but how to inhibit it. He concludes, “Thus, the functions of life lie bare to attack.”

Despite not being a member of the military, Larson’s essay was taken seriously enough to be published in Military Review, the journal of the U.S. Army.

The Ethno-Bomb

In November 1998, the Sunday Times published a controversial report alleging that “Israel is working on a biological weapon that would harm Arabs but not Jews”. The report was sourced from anonymous sources within the “Israeli military and western intelligence”.

The report claimed that Israeli scientists were developing an “ethno-bomb” which would identify distinctive genes carried by some Arabs and then target them with a genetically modified bacterium or virus. The stated intention was to use these genetically modified organisms to alter the DNA within the host’s living cells.

The Times report also references a confidential Pentagon report from 1997 which warned that “biological agents could be genetically engineered to produce new lethal weapons”. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen also warned about nations developing “certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic-specific”. The Times report claims a “senior western intelligence source” confirmed that Cohen was speaking of Israel.

Not long after the publication of the Times’ report and subsequent debate, the British Medical Association (BMA) began warning of the dangers posed by ethnic weapons. In a report titled “Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity,” the BMA said it could no longer ignore the reports that such weapons were currently being developed. ​“Weapons could theoretically be developed which affect particular versions of genes clustered in specific ethnic or family groups,” the BMA concluded.

Additionally, the Times mentions that during South Africa’s “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” it was revealed that biological studies were conducted by South African scientists during apartheid. Specifically, the Times mentions Dr Daan Goosen, head of a South African chemical and biological warfare plant, who said his team was ordered in the 1980s to develop a “pigmentation weapon” to target only black people. Goosen’s team theorized spreading disease in beer, maize, or vaccinations.

The Times article also mentions another report from “Foreign Report”, a publication of Jane’s which focuses on security and defense intelligence. The Foreign Report piece allegedly claims South African sources said Israeli scientists were using South African research in their efforts to develop an “ethnic bullet” against Arabs. Unfortunately, we have been unable to locate an archived version of this article.

Project Coast

Dr Daan Goosen was not working alone in his research on genetic or ethnic weapons. He claims Wouter Basson, the Director of South Africa’s secret bioweapons programs, ordered him to create ways ​“to suppress population growth among blacks” and to ​“search for a ​‘black bomb,’ a biological weapon that would select targets based on skin color.”

Basson himself shared this information with investigators, discussing plans for “epidemics to be sown in black communities” with cigarettes and letters “laced with anthrax”. The program he directed was known as Project Coast and is alleged to have lasted from 1981 to 1993.

In These Times reports that according to the authors of the 2002 book Project Coast: Apartheid’s Chemical and Biological Weapons Programme, “no records are available to confirm that the biological agents were destroyed.”

The entire web of players involved in the South Africa program, including the CIA, is worthy of further investigation.

DNA Collection as a Gateway to Genetic Weapons and Medicine?

Now that we can conclusively say that Mr. Kennedy is hardly the first person to warn of raced-based weapons, or ethnically targeted weapons, or gene-based weapons, let’s take a moment to ask how this conversation applies to the average person. For example, how exactly could the development of a genetically targeted weapon affect you and your family?

For one, genetic editing techniques like CRISPR and the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 have brought great advances in understanding DNA and the genetic engineering and editing techniques. These advances also include the potential for the technology to be used as a weapon.

However, the COVID-19 panic and the constant demands to get tested are likely the number one way most people have become entangled with this developing field.

In 2021, I reported that a Chinese company with connections to the Gates Foundation was involved in COVID-19 testing and posed a potential threat to American privacy, particularly the medical and health data of those who have been tested for COVID-19. Chinese company BGI Group, the largest biotech firm in the world, offered to build COVID labs in at least six U.S. states, and U.S. intelligence officials issued warnings not to share health data with BGI.

Meanwhile, journalist Natalie Winter of National Pulse uncovered documentation of a relationship between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and BGI going back nearly a decade. Winter found a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Gates Foundation and BGI to “form a collaboration on global health and agricultural development with the goal of achieving common objectives in health and agricultural development.”  The collaboration deals with developments in human, plant, and animal genomics, the study of DNA.

Bill Gates also visited BGI headquarters in 2010, according to a report from the Financial Times. The Times stated that BGI “is working towards a goal of building a huge library based on the DNA of many millions of people.” BGI’s goal is to use this information for new drugs, genetic research, and “transforming public health policy”.

Since March 2020, BGI has sold millions of their COVID-19 test kits around the world, including the United States, Europe, and Australia. The company is based in Shenzhen, on the coast of Guangdong, China. They have made a name for themselves by selling genetic sequencing services around the world, which has helped them to create a large database of DNA. BGI is also well known for creating a cloned pig in 2010.

Another way many people around the world have unwittingly become part of this conversation is through the use of DNA testing companies such as Ancestry and 23andMe. Millions of people around the world have voluntarily provided their DNA samples in the hopes of learning about their family history.

In a January 2021 60 Minutes report, Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe, answered questions regarding her company’s use of the data they are collecting. Wojcicki is the sister of Susan Wojcicki, head of YouTube until February 2023. While Anne Wojcicki says that her company has “empowered individuals with this opportunity to come together, to crowd source research”, she doesn’t shy away from acknowledging that her company plans to use the information to develop drugs.

“And I absolutely stand behind: we are going to develop drugs. So that everyone is actually benefiting from the human genome. So absolutely the data is valuable,” Wojcicki told 60 Minutes.

While she says she agrees that Americans should be concerned about China’s investments in genomic research, she believes the answer is for the United States to invest in genetic programs.

While the 23andMe model appears to be focused on selling medicine based on genetics, it’s clear that the Chinese, American, and Israeli governments likely also have their own military interests in this data. This means medicines and weapons based on your specific genetic traits could already exist — or likely will very soon.

And, if you thought you escaped this DNA collection by avoiding 23andMe and COVID-19 tests, you also have to worry about the police collecting your DNA.

According to a 2013 Supreme Court decision, police have the right to take DNA swabs from suspects even before being found guilty of a crime. Justice Kennedy found that the government’s interest in identifying arrestees outweighed concerns about 4th amendment constitutional protections in favor of collecting DNA samples. The Court compared DNA collection to taking a photograph or collecting fingerprints.

In response to the court’s decision, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) wrote:

“When a law enforcement entity collects a DNA sample, the government indefinitely retains that person’s full genetic makeup. There is no statute requiring the federal government to discard the full DNA sample. As genetics researchers discover new ways to use DNA, the potential for misuse by government increases and threatens individual privacy.”

No matter what angle you look at this issue from, whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s statements were 100% accurate regarding COVID-19 being targeted to specific races or ethnicities, they do point to a frightening reality which has been recognized by military experts, governments, and scientists for decades. The reality is that we are our DNA, and the uniqueness of these genetic factors could one day be the very thing which allows us to be targeted by weapons or medicines.