Tulsi Gabbard, Ukraine Biolabs, and the Dumbest Intelligence in History
On one of her final days as Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard and ODNI released a four-slide package promising “never before seen intelligence” and “declassified” proof of a covered-up biolab network — 120-plus labs across 30 countries, 40-plus in Ukraine (ODNI, June 12, 2026). Three of the four slides are stamped “U,” for Unclassified. The underlying material was pulled from a public U.S. Embassy website. Slide 4 credits “open source information.” The map was drawn in-house — not by NGA, the agency that actually makes maps — and places Kyiv in the wrong part of the country. The one genuinely classified item: a draft presidential brief whose title is “Ongoing Target for Russian Misinformation.”
Set politics aside — left or right, this is a clinic in what an intelligence product is and isn’t. Spy services produce assessments, confidence levels, and probabilities; “evidence” belongs to prosecutors. You cannot declassify a document that was never classified. And when a release lands first and loudest on a foreign state broadcaster that spent 2022 justifying an invasion with the same claim, the question isn’t whether the labs exist — public health labs are routine and documented. The question is who the product was built to persuade, and why the tradecraft was this bad. That’s the skill worth having: reading the markings, the sourcing, and the audience before you read the headline.
Eric Garland is an intelligence analyst personally sanctioned by the Russian Federation in May 2022 for his work on Russian intelligence operations. He is the author of the 2016 “Game Theory” thread, named by The New York Times as one of the 25 most important tweets in history.
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SOURCES
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, “DNI Gabbard Reveals Evidence of U.S. Taxpayer-Funded Global Biolab Program,” press release PR-10-26, June 12, 2026 —
Executive Order 14292, prohibition on federal funding for gain-of-function research, May 2025 (cited by ODNI as the basis for the release).
Newsweek, “Tulsi Gabbard Reveals Declassified Map, Records of Ukraine Bio Labs — View in Full,” June 12, 2026 — https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-reveals-declassified-map-records-ukraine-biolabs-12066925
UNITED24 Media, “Outgoing US Intelligence Chief Revives Debunked Kremlin-Backed Claims About Ukraine Biolabs,” June 2026 — https://united24media.com/world/outgoing-us-intelligence-chief-revives-debunked-kremlin-backed-claims-about-ukraine-biolabs-19788
Fox News, “Gabbard says declassified biolab records validate concerns previously dismissed as misinformation,” June 2026 — https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gabbard-says-declassified-biolab-records-validate-concerns-previously-dismissed-misinformation
Transcript
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Search transcript0:000 secondsTulsi Gabbard and the Office of Director of National Intelligence have just released intelligence so stupid it can make all of America sing Kumbaya at the same time. Maybe you’re a liberal who0:088 secondsthinks Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset who’s working for Donald Trump. Maybe you’re a conservative and you think Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset who’s working against Donald Trump. This video0:1616 secondswill make you happy because on one of her last days in office, she put out the most concentrated package of dumb in intelligence history. So, it’s Friday0:2323 secondsand Tulsa puts out a press release saying she’s going to declassify evidence about dangerous biolabs in Ukraine covered up by powerful people.0:3232 secondsFirst of all, you know who reacts first and happiest?
Russia today. Vladimir Putin’s personal television network.0:3737 secondsAfter all, part of Putin’s justification of invading Ukraine was these biolabs.0:4242 secondsSo, that’s probably a bad sign. So, what does Tulsi promise? Never seen intelligence. Evidence of a secret global biolab conspiracy. Uh, let’s0:5151 secondsstart with evidence. Spies don’t do evidence. They do intelligence. They do assessments. They do probability. They do confidence. The one thing we don’t do is evidence. Those are for prosecutors.1:011 minute, 1 secondNext up, declassified. That means something has to be classified. Then you declassify it. Except three of the four slides are stamped U for unclassified.1:131 minute, 13 secondsYou cannot declassify a thing that was never classified.
That’s just showing people a PDF. And I don’t know if you have a Adobe Acrobat, but double1:201 minute, 20 secondsclicking a PDF doesn’t make you a spy, although that would be fun. Now, where did this unclassified information come from? The US Embassy’s website in1:291 minute, 29 secondsUkraine. Now, what kind of clearance did you need to get something off the US embassy website? The same as you needed for the Wi-Fi at Starbucks. After1:361 minute, 36 secondsFriday’s version of Alapone’s Vault, OD and I was up late Saturday night tweeting in support of their release that makes Alex Jones look like Richard1:431 minute, 43 secondsHuer. Slide four. They admit it was open- source information. That’s the spy term for stuff you can Google.
And the1:511 minute, 51 secondscaption brags that they paid, and I quote, Ukrainian scientist singular, to study the genome of bird flu. That’s called sequencing, reading the code.2:012 minutes, 1 secondIt’s the opposite of the scary thing they keep yelling about gain of function. Anyways, ODNI says, quote, “A2:072 minutes, 7 secondsmap created by ODNI.” Guys, the spy world has a whole agency that makes maps. It’s called the NGA. They’re the best on earth. OD and I apparently2:162 minutes, 16 secondsdidn’t call them. Then they drew it themselves and they put the capital Kiev in the wrong part of the country. And the one slide that actually was classified, it was a draft of a2:252 minutes, 25 secondspresidential brief that they didn’t even confirm made the final cut.
The actual title of which was ongoing target for Russian misinformation. So this vital2:342 minutes, 34 secondsintelligence was that the Russians were going to lie about something. You know what else our intelligence said the Russians would do? Drink vodka and wear2:412 minutes, 41 secondsmittens in winter. so [snorts] classified. No wonder they thought the president would be bored by it. Oh, and they said the labs were covered up, but2:492 minutes, 49 secondsthen they said the Biden officials confirmed it on the record. Dude, a cover up that’s on the record is a press conference. That’s not a cover up.2:582 minutes, 58 secondsThat’s the worst cover up in history if you testify about it. So to sum up, Tulsi put out a press release that said she was going to declassify stuff that3:063 minutes, 6 secondswas already on websites except for the classified part, which was about how Russia might lie about Ukraine, a country they had recently invaded.
And I3:143 minutes, 14 secondsdon’t know who you are in America, what political creed. I hope we can all enjoy that. This is the dumbest intelligence product in history. So let’s wish Tulsi3:233 minutes, 23 secondswell and let’s remind whoever follows her that you don’t need to declassify public websites. You just need the Wi-Fi password from the barista.Sync to video time
More from Eric Garland: the Competitive Futures Library, the Systemics Quarterly Brief, and Game Theory Today on YouTube.
