Image Credentials: Image Title: Dr. Robert Malone Accuses CIA of Cold War Bioweapon Experiments Linked to Lyme Outbreak Source: (sora.openai) Date: March 2026. Attribution: This image was created using AI-generated imagery (sora.openai) and does not depict a real-world scene.
By Open Chronicle Staff with Agencies
VIRGINIA / NEW YORK — Dr. Robert Malone, a biochemist known for his early work on mRNA technology, has released a provocative report alleging that the modern Lyme disease epidemic in the United States may be the unintended consequence of secret CIA biological warfare experiments.
The allegations, based on declassified documents and historical records from Project 112, suggest that the U.S. government used ticks as “delivery vehicles” for pathogens during the Cold War, potentially leading to accidental environmental seeding in the American Northeast.
Dear conspiracy theorists.. sadly, you were right again…
🚨 Dr. Robert Malone: Declassified Docs Expose U.S. Military Releasing 282,800 Radioactive Ticks, Sparking Lyme Disease Epidemic and 40-Year Cover-Up
– The U.S. military released 282,800 radioactive lone star ticks… pic.twitter.com/qgXrq9V5ff
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) March 5, 2026
The Radioactive Tick Experiments
Central to Malone’s argument are declassified records from the 1960s detailing the release of over 282,000 irradiated ticks in Virginia.
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The Method: Ticks were marked with Carbon-14, a radioactive isotope, allowing scientists to track their movements using Geiger counters as they were dispersed by migrating birds.
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The Goal: To study how quickly disease-carrying insects could spread through an environment to incapacitate enemy populations without conventional warfare.
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The Location: Malone points to the proximity of these tests and research at Plum Island (New York) to the community in Old Lyme, Connecticut, where the disease was first identified in the 1970s.
Lyme disease was engineered at Plum Island, a government bioweapons research facility off Long Island.
Decades of pathogen experiments on animals ended with infected ticks escaping into the wild… eventually carrying Borrelia into New England’s forests.
The fallout has been… pic.twitter.com/NantykKXCQ
— Ben Weir (@Weir4Liberty) August 14, 2025
The “Swiss Agent” and Suppressed Science
Malone further alleges that Willy Burgdorfer, the scientist who discovered the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium, was pressured by the government to “omit the presence of at least one potential bioweapon” from his landmark 1982 paper.
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Pathogen X: Malone identifies this as the “Swiss Agent” (Rickettsia helvetica).
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The Impact: Malone argues that if patients were infected with multiple pathogens (the Lyme bacterium plus a secondary bioweapon), it would explain why many “chronic Lyme” cases fail to respond to standard antibiotics. He estimates a 45% likelihood that these experiments contributed to the current epidemic levels of the disease.
Project 112 and Operation Mongoose
The report places these tick experiments within the broader context of Project 112, a military testing program authorized by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in 1962.
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Scope: The program reportedly oversaw 134 planned tests and maintained facilities capable of breeding millions of infected insects weekly.
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Operation Mongoose: Malone cites reports that CIA operatives allegedly dropped boxes of infected ticks over Cuban sugarcane workers in 1962 to sabotage the island’s economy, though these claims remain largely based on anonymous testimony.
Official Denials and Congressional Action
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has consistently denied that Lyme disease was ever studied at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. However, the political momentum for a full accounting is growing:
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Rep. Chris Smith (NJ): Authored a December 2025 amendment calling for a GAO review of all military, NIH, and USDA projects involving tick-borne bacteria between 1945 and 1972.
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Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Has publicly supported the theory that Lyme may have originated from a failed bioweapons program.
“Burgdorfer’s notes indicate he was ‘told to omit the presence of at least one potential bioweapon’… the suppression for 40+ years demonstrates a systematic institutional willingness to conceal public health information.” — Dr. Robert Malone