Boris Johnson A Categorical Liar 1859

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Evidence submitted by the British government in court today proves, beyond any doubt, that Boris Johnson has been point blank lying about the degree of certainty Porton Down scientists have about the Skripals being poisoned with a Russian “novichok” agent.

Yesterday in an interview with Deutsche Welle Boris Johnson claimed directly Porton Down had told him they positively identified the nerve agent as Russian:

You argue that the source of this nerve agent, Novichok, is Russia. How did you manage to find it out so quickly? Does Britain possess samples of it?

Let me be clear with you … When I look at the evidence, I mean the people from Porton Down, the laboratory …

So they have the samples …

They do. And they were absolutely categorical and I asked the guy myself, I said, “Are you sure?” And he said there’s no doubt.

I knew and had published from my own whistleblowers that this is a lie. Until now I could not prove it. But today I can absolutely prove it, due to the judgement at the High Court case which gave permission for new blood samples to be taken from the Skripals for use by the OPCW. Justice Williams included in his judgement a summary of the evidence which tells us, directly for the first time, what Porton Down have actually said:

The Evidence
16. The evidence in support of the application is contained within the applications
themselves (in particular the Forms COP 3) and the witness statements.
17. I consider the following to be the relevant parts of the evidence. I shall identify the
witnesses only by their role and shall summarise the essential elements of their
evidence.
i) CC: Porton Down Chemical and Biological Analyst
Blood samples from Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal were analysed and the
findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound. The samples
tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent OR CLOSELY RELATED AGENT.

The emphasis is mine. This sworn Court evidence direct from Porton Down is utterly incompatible with what Boris Johnson has been saying. The truth is that Porton Down have not even positively identified this as a “Novichok”, as opposed to “a closely related agent”. Even if it were a “Novichok” that would not prove manufacture in Russia, and a “closely related agent” could be manufactured by literally scores of state and non-state actors.

This constitutes irrefutable evidence that the government have been straight out lying – to Parliament, to the EU, to NATO, to the United Nations, and above all to the people – about their degree of certainty of the origin of the attack. It might well be an attack originating in Russia, but there are indeed other possibilities and investigation is needed. As the government has sought to whip up jingoistic hysteria in advance of forthcoming local elections, the scale of the lie has daily increased.

On a sombre note, I am very much afraid the High Court evidence seems to indicate there is very little chance the Skripals will ever recover; one of the reasons the judge gave for his decision is that samples taken now will be better for analysis than samples taken post mortem.

——————————————————-

This website remains under a massive DOS attack which has persisted for more than 24 hours now, but so far the defences are holding. Some strange form of “ghost banning” is also affecting both my twitter and Facebook feeds. So please

a) Feel free to repost, republish, translate or spread this article anywhere and anyway you can. All copyright is waived.
b) If you came here by Twitter, please retweet but also in addition create a new tweet yourself containing a link to this post (or to any other site on which you have placed the information)
c) If you came here by Facebook, again please share but also in addition create a new post yourself which contains the information and the link.

The state and corporate media now have evidence of the vast discrepancy between what May and Johnson are saying, and the truth about the Porton Down scientists’ position. I am afraid to say I expect this to make no difference whatsoever to the propaganda output of the BBC.

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1,859 thoughts on “Boris Johnson A Categorical Liar”

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  • Sharp Ears

    Career prospects in the diplomatic service are not looking too good. 😉

    I am reminded of the Daleks ‘Exterminate. Exterminate!’ when I hear Treeza’s cry of ‘Recall. Recall!’

  • Nicky

    He is such a disgrace.. I would rather see Emily Thornberry as Foreign Secretary at least she tells it how it is ..

  • tim bastable

    Craig – have you seen the story on the web that “nerve gas experts” say had the substance being used in this case been Novichok it is so potent that everyone in the restaurant would have been dead? It’s questioning whether whatever was used was a nerve gas at all.

  • Zhanglan

    The 2018 World Cup
    —————————

    if we can for one moment leave aside questions about which team they are playing for, if you had to choose a starting line up, wouldn’t you prefer Lavrov, Putin, Zhakakrova, the guy who ran the Moscow Ambassadorial briefing and the Russian UK Ambassador to the shambolic performances we have seen from Johnson, May, Gavin Williamson, the twerp we currently have at the UNSC and poor sweet irreparably plummy Emma Nottingham?

    Wouldn’t you prefer to see the BBC telling it the way that RT tells it (with at least a semblance of sobriety and balance)? How many RT headlines have you seen which are even remotely as rabid and bigoted as those appearing in the UK press?

    And wouldn’t you feel far more comfortable if at least some of this was open to public scrutiny, on the record and not stage-managed?

    There is something deeply, deeply wrong here, and even if it ultimately transpires that the Russians did have a hand in it, the way the British establishment has conducted itself is shameful, humiliating and woefully amateur

    The football metaphor is entirely apposite: José Mourinho is now being blackballed simply for agreeing to act as an RT commentator on the 2018 World Cup. We have indeed entered an era of witch-hunts, and I for one find it both demeaning and a betrayal of everything I naively thought this Country stood for

    • Sharp Ears

      Remind me about Emma Nottingham Zhanglan. What has she said? I see she is a law lecturer at the University of Winchester. 🙂 Until recent times, that institution was a teachers’ training college of long standing, King Alfred’s College. One of my brothers trained there.

      • Zhanglan

        she was the poor waif who was sent into bat for the British Embassy during the Ambassadors Briefing in Moscow earlier this week; a nice young lady, but she fluffed her lines and was woefully out of her depth

    • Mochyn69

      Totally agree with you, Zhanglan.

      There is something deeply wrong with the British state. politics and media.

      Perhaps it is our years as ex pats that enables us to see much, much more clearly than those who have rarely, if ever ventured off this sceptred isle!

      .

  • Aneurin Wynne Davies

    You have worked tirelessly on this Mr Murray. All credit to you and any others.
    No doubt there are others who know the truth but have kept quiet, or colluded. Shame on them. What have they served, nothing but disgrace!

  • Matt

    Mr Murray, this may provide information. It contains part of an interview with Professor Leonid Rink and also with Vladimir Uglev two of the scientists who worked on the nerve agent project Foliant and they assert that the agents were never referred to as Novichok but in the Soviet Union formulas had alphanumeric codes, the “novichok” name comes from the book by Vil Mirzanyanov, wh rather than being a developer, was in fact head of the chromatographer group, chemists who deals with the separation and analysis of various mixtures of substances. He was responsible for environmental control and not a developer of any new substances. Uglev mentions a criminal use of one of the agents in the 1990s “One of these substances was used to poison the banker, Ivan Kivelidi and his secretary in 1995. A cotton ball, soaked in this agent, was rubbed over the microphone in the handset of Kivelidi’s telephone. That specific dose was developed by my group, where we produced all of the chemical agents, and each dose which we developed was given its own complete physical-chemical passport. It was therefore not difficult to determine who had prepared that dose and when it was developed. Naturally, the investigators also suspected me. I was questioned several times about this incident.”

    The full article is here, it quotes from two other several other sources including a new interview with the New Scientist where it states “Weapons experts have told New Scientist that a number of countries legally created small amounts of Novichok after it was revealed in 1992 and a production method was later published.”

    Here is the article: http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/03/russian-scientists-explain-novichok-high-time-for-britain-to-come-clean.html

    • Sean Lamb

      I would actually be careful about these claims. Professor Rink has not confirmed these claims about being used to kill a banker

      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-russia-stockpiles/secret-trial-shows-risks-of-nerve-agent-theft-in-post-soviet-chaos-experts-idUSKCN1GQ2RH

      I don’t doubt Reuters were shown something that appeared like a police statement, but they aren’t in a position to verify its authenticity and I can’t see how anyone who did this:
      “In a statement to investigators after his arrest, viewed by Reuters, Rink said he was in possession of poisons created as part of the chemical weapons program which he stored in his garage. On more than one occasion, he said, he sold the substances to supplement his income and pay down a debt.

      The poison in the Kivelidi case was sold in a deal brokered by an ex-policeman contact of Rink’s. Rink handed over the poison, in an ampoule hidden inside a pen presentation box, in a meeting at Moscow’s Belorussky station, according to his statement.”

      and not go to prison and the only certain thing is Leonid Rink has never gone to prison: “Rink received a one-year suspended prison sentence for “misuse of powers,” according to Boris Kuznetsov, who was a lawyer for Kivelidi’s business partner during the trial.”

      We are in the age of a fake news, remember. “Reuters was not able to contact Rink.”

      • TomGard

        Another disinformation piece by Sean Lamb. Vladimir Uglev, whose interview figures within the cited piece of moonofalabama, gave witness to the exact method that was used in the Kivelidi case, because he was investigated as a suspect. He said, in Kivelidis blood some metabolites were found, that indicated to the exact formula of the used agent, one, that he personally developed. Uglev might have lied to “The Bell”, but it is not veracious to omit his testimony.

        • Sean Lamb

          “Uglev might have lied to “The Bell”, but it is not veracious to omit his testimony.”

          The link was there for anyone to read, I am not going to quote and comment on the entire blog post. I stand by what I said that it is not a credible claim that Professor Rink would keep either nerve agents or nerve agent precursors in his garage, sell them to the mafia and not go to prison for it. And isn’t it nice that someone has an unverifiable police statement on hand for Reuters.

          The Bell is a tiny emigre publication, so we should be at least suspicious as to how Uglev and it came in contact. Suffice to say this claim of his “physical-chemical passport” will be the basis which Boris Johnson will be using to tie this to Moscow. So embrace The Bell’s journalism at your peril

          • TomGard

            MY PERIL?? You are nastily kidding the audience. It is highly implausible, but not impossible, that Det.Sgt. Bailey was poisoned with an agent belonging to the foliant familiy. But that wouldn’t constitute a fact, that it was made in Russia and even IF it was made in Russia, it wouldn’t constitute involvement of the russian government, least a “peril” for TomGard. The “peril” for TomGard is another Porton Down “experiment” like the Dorset-experiments in the 50ies.

          • TomGard

            I’d like to ad something.
            Also in Russia there is serious rightwing opposition to the government, a fact, that is subtly ignored by the western press. In Russia they are called “Siloviki” and they tend to be professionally conspirative, because the russian secret services esteem them to be of much more danger to the stability of the Federation than the paltry scene of the western tar babies in the opposition.
            Some known Silowiki acted side by side with british and american agents and ukrainian fascinsts in the Ukrainian coup 2014. They want to have Russia isolated from Western Europe, like CIA, MI6 and the US-Government do. So a colusion of MI6 / Porton Down with Russian Siloviki IS conceivable, while there doesn’t seem to be any indication of it to this date.

      • DDTea

        Leonid Rink’s statements corroborate those I read in a trippy Amazon comment (no longer available) 14 years ago about the roles of people within the Novichok program:

        “The final details to US authorities were given by Vil S. Mirzayanov alias Kenneth (Ken) Alibek who was responsible to detect any Novichok traces in the environment of the GosNIIOKhT branch no. 4 (CWA plant for Novichok) at Vol’sk-17 by gas chromatography. ”

        “The Russian researchers V.A. Pasechnik, O.I. Stuzhuk, and Ye.A. Gayev contributed to this development [of dusty agents]. O.I. Stuzhuk proposed special minerals and diatoms for being contaminated with CWAs, whereas Ye. A. Gayev developed the physical CWA spraying/aerosol system and V.A. Pasechnik contributed to the development and application of “dusty agents” containing biological weapons.”

    • Node

      please, if you do nothing else today, read that article ….

      I read it yesterday so I’m off back to bed for the rest of today.

  • Sharp Ears

    We think this is bad. Wait for the emergence of John Bolton on to the scene.

    ‘Bolton is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), senior advisor for Freedom Capital Investment Management, a Fox News Channel commentator, and of counsel to the Washington, D.C. law firm Kirkland & Ellis. He was a foreign policy adviser to 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Bolton is also involved with a number of politically conservative think tanks, policy institutes and special interest groups, including the Institute of East-West Dynamics, the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Project for the New American Century, Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf, the Council for National Policy, and the Gatestone Institute, where he serves as the organization Chairman.

    Bolton has been called a “war hawk” and is an advocate for regime change in Iran and North Korea and has repeatedly called for the termination of the Iran deal. He was a supporter of the Iraq War and continues to support his decision. He has continuously supported military action and regime change in Syria, Libya, and Iran.’

    Wikipedia. Notation of references deleted.

    Be VERY afraid.

    • Sagittarius Rising

      Sharp Ears, and others who have mentioned ‘Iran’:-

      This was in the news / not in the news in early January 2018:-

      https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2018/01/02/what-no-one-is-telling-you-about-iran-n2429102

      It is an uplifting piece. It is entitled ‘What No-one Is Telling You About Iran’.

      If the first thought may be – ah, but they must be hiding weapons of mass destruction just like Iraq did (not), that this would go some way to explaining some of what is unravelling in the proxy war in Syria as we speak – with Russia on one ‘side’ and the US/crumbling EU and UK on the other ~ be prepared to be stunned.

      And afterwards, perhaps even more confused.

      • Lestek

        Personally I’m afraid.

        Btw – petrojuan launch on Monday. The air seems to be thicker and thicker.

      • SA

        SR
        This has an air of fake news about it. Is there any corroboration from well inform ed sources.

        • Sagittarius Rising

          SA – Not that I am aware of.

          I do however understand your surprise, in having read the article in question.

          It is my own sense and belief that the Town Hall article is valid and authentic.

          If the inference/question then is – why allow a proxy war to take place in Syria with all the war-mongering that is happening if an evangelical revolution is already taking place in Iran? Put very simply, perhaps the reason is because it is liberals who seek interventionist solutions/wars on the grounds of ‘we know what is best for you’, thereby undermining friend and foe alike, whereas conservatives simply want to conquer peoples and nations i.e. there is an actual enemy present to defend against, or to attack – not that there ‘might’ be an enemy or we will manufacture one if it suits?

          There are also some reports to be found about China and its exponential growth in evangelical Christianity – although this is not entirely unknown, it is the rate of growth which is happening which Western leaders also choose to ignore and overlook – if the presence of evangelical Christianity as a force for good would rather negate the Russia, Iran and China is our enemy thinking.

          All religions despite their differences are in a kind of alignment with the other – the dilemma now for world leaders is that is is the growth of atheism or pluralism that has in part caused or contributed to that alignment on ideological grounds, often described as ‘religious’ grounds.

          The saddest, most potent manifestation of this disparity is all that which is Jewish, when this means different things. In Islam, for instance, there are different expressions such as those who are Sunni and those who are Shi’ite – but both are Muslims and both worship Allah even if they also fight with each other, and others at times as well.

          It is not like that within that which may be described as ‘Jewish’ – when on the one hand there are conservative Jews as well as Orthodox Jews, who are sort of on one side, and there are also liberal Jews who are not on the same side at all. What many people do not realise or understand is that whilst all may indeed be ‘Jews’, at least some of those who are liberal do not believe in God/Jehovah at all – so their ‘religion’ quite literally is atheism.

          So then – to the eternally damnably difficult question – what is anti-Semitism – when it is the presence of conflicting ideologies within the same religion that are causing some of those tensions to surface?

          If Orthodox Jews are challenged because of their interpretation of the Torah, evangelical or conservatives/moderates from other religions will naturally seek to align with them.

          What then of liberal Judaism which does not believe in Jehovah at all but in atheism? Who then, or what, is anti-Semitism?

        • Sagittarius Rising

          SA – This reply may be published twice as a message came up to my earlier attempt saying that my comment was awaiting moderation.

          ‘Not that I am aware of’ – was my earlier if longer reply.

      • Robyn

        Even if it is correct that Iranians are converting from Islam to Christianity in large numbers, I don’t find the idea of people switching from one religion to another ‘uplifting’. .

        • Sagittarius Rising

          Robyn,

          I suspect the point the article is trying to make is that in asking, or pointing out, that if Christianity is on the rise in Iran – arguably, of all places – then this should be seen as a force for good if the people themselves are choosing a different religion – which also means a different ideology – as a means to address, confront or challenge the status quo.

          People utilise all sorts of different ways to present a challenge – sometimes, physical force is used, often it is ideological or religious means – the mode of thought that says if you have nothing to lose, try something different.

          Although I do not know what the reasons are for this upsurge in Iran, if loosely speaking, Islam is the predominant religion, and if this is considered to be a negative rather than positive force (not Islam per se but the authoritarian rule which goes alongside it) one way of challenging that is to change religion, especially if the religion being adopted is considered as being more tolerant, or dare I say it – liberal. Electoral votes can only go so far in changing leaders or people, they cannot alter ideology unless it is done en masse.

          Of course, this can be viewed as both a terrible thing and a wonderful thing at the same time. I think the article was trying to say that if this is happening, then why is it? Would that not perhaps suggest that the people themselves are finding their own ways to change things?

          Much like what happened in the former Easter European countries in the late 1980’s – and which is also the same reason why those having found their freedom from Communism now refuse to be shackled by the full demands of the EU.

          This is sometimes interpreted as being anti-EU – when it isn’t at all, it is quite simply the case that those who were under an ideological shackle for so many years, having cast it aside – not wholly peaceably – do not wish to have further impositions placed upon them – not by Communism this time but by the notion of a one-size-Europe fits all.

    • saluspopuli.org

      SE. well yes, he is a hardline Neocon ally…fully Neoconized. Well known stateside. We will have the Neoconized Pompeo at State and Neoconized Bolton at NSC. Oh yes, and the fully Neoconized Haley at the UN. Not to mention Jared Kushner flitting around the White House. Dream Team for Bibi, champagne all around.

    • Laguerre

      That article about Iran is just nuts, but well adapted to what Americans would like to hear.

      • SA

        The same Americans who have decided to liquidate Syrian Christians by arming salafist terrorists.

  • Sean Lamb

    One thing I find interesting is the way the police seem to be deliberately being mislead by intelligence into investigating very strange scenarios. For instance everyone seems hung up on the idea that it is a gas – it probably evaporates quite quickly but it would be easy to deliver in a water based spray. When the North Korea defector was poisoned with a nerve agent of a type developed by the UK, I think one person sprayed it on his face while the other held a handkerchief over his face. The only person who has gone on record as seeing them seemed to suggest the pair were alone on the park bench and she just walked on by – so I don’t see why they can’t have been intercepted in the park.

    The police seemed to have given up on the idea of opening something in Julia’s luggage from Moscow but instead moved on to the only slightly less far-fetched that it was sprayed into the BMW ventilation system. Something that may of the result of thinking it has to be delivered as a gas

    • TomGard

      Another disinformation. Det.Sg. Bailey couldn’t possibly have been poisoned with a gas. Sean Lamb muddles all waters and spams this blog.

    • Sagittarius Rising

      Sean,

      I thought that also – that there are too few people on record as having seen the Skripals on the bench etc – then I saw this tweet yesterday (now copied from a posting I made on this blog in becoming aware of it)-

      Jamie Paine, a witness who touched Yulia Skripal on the bench – remains completely unharmed. The text of the tweet has got mangled in copying it:-

      https://twitter.com/OneTenTwelve/status/976909395228585985

      @OneTenTwelve
      Follow Follow @OneTenTwelve
      More
      .@ITV Britain v Russia tv programme spoke to Jamie Paine who was one of the first people to find #SergeiSkripal and his daughter, he even placed some tissue on Yulia Skripals cheek ..nothing wrong with Jamie
      #RussianSpyPoisoning #SalisburyAttack

      12:52 pm – 22 Mar 2018

    • Sharp Ears

      The infamous Hamish (de Bretton-Gordon) described it as either a gloopy oily liquid or a powder.

  • Steve

    Yahoo is now resorting to deleting comments on the news stories they show that have links to your site. Your are becoming a state enemy again Craig.

    • Sharp Ears

      For Jack Straw read Boris Johnson.

      Who have we had in King Charles Street in between those two warmongers?
      Margaret Becket who did nothing when Israel attacked Lebanon and invaded it illegally.
      David Miliband now ensconced in NY in his shadowy International Rescue outfit
      William Hague now ensconced in his 10 bedroomed £2.5m mansion in N Wales.
      Philip Hammond, multi millionaire, the enforcer of A U S T E R I T Y who I always see as the Pantomime Dame.
      and now Boris coming up to his third year in the ‘job’.

      They are all Right Honourable having been appointed members of the equally shadow Privy Council. There is nothing ‘right’ about any of them, nor ‘honourable’.

  • Tony O’Malley

    Is it possible for you to publish copies of the actual sworn statements used in this court case so that we can read them ourselves?

    • Zhanglan

      no – the Judge explicitly banned identification of the Witnesses and publication of anything other than his official report of the case; in particular, there was explicitly no stenographer

      • Zhanglan

        “I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this
        Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
        ………………………..
        This judgment was delivered in private. The judge has given leave for this version of the
        judgment to be published on condition that (irrespective of what is contained in the judgment)
        in any published version of the judgment the anonymity of the witnesses must be strictly
        preserved. All persons, including representatives of the media, must ensure that this
        condition is strictly complied with. Failure to do so will be a contempt of court”

        https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/sshd-v-skripal-and-another-20180322.pdf

        • N_

          Witness ZZ is presumably Stephen Davies.

          If a consultant counts as a clinician, then he is also the “lead treating clinician” who did not “feel comfortable” about going beyond his clinical role.

        • Sharp Ears

          The ‘Court of Protection’ LOL Protecting who? Not the father and daughter.

          Protecting the income of the legal parasites more like.

          From your link –
          James Eadie QC, Owain Thomas QC and Matthew Hill (instructed by Government Legal Department ) for the Applicant
          Vikram Sachdeva QC and Jack Anderson (instructed by the Official Solicitor ) for the First Respondents

          Nice little earner with Judge Williams presiding.

  • RD

    These days I find myself glancing at The Guardian only very briefly, only so I know what not to think and believe, and coming to this blog for something much more insightful. It is not that I ever really had much faith in a newspaper that pretends to be concerned, but then hires a bunch of angry pseudo-feminist thugs to generate gender wars that only help power to ‘divide and conquer’, and take attention off of the mass-murder that the Tories are incentivising, promoting and indeed causing at home and abroad. The Guardian may be a little bit better than the toxic BBC, which is nothing but a decrepit prostitute, but it has a lot to learn about responsible journalism. Who here actually believed there was anything other than ‘fake news’? Nobody, I’m guessing. So it would be nice to see people stop using such an idiotic expression, and acknowledge that it was always thus. I heard a comment the other day to the effect that Boris and the other sociopaths that rule are allowed to get away with their crimes because we still haven’t made the right example by bringing Blair to justice. Until we stop allowing ourselves to point the finger always elsewhere, like badly parented school-children, and acknowledge the heinous crimes of British imperialism past and present, we will continue to be one of the biggest threats to world peace, alongside the USA. The best patriot is the one who knows when to look at herself and see what is wrong there, own up to mistakes, and stop lying to an easily-duped public that is no longer only being robbed of the kind of education that would create the kind of citizens necessary for anything approaching what May stupidly calls democracy, but is now also being robbed of life, robbed of adequate healthcare and a healthy environment in which to live. Britain stinks to high heaven and it is time to make it great for once. If the police would stop protecting power 99% of the time and pretending to do something good 1% of the time, and start actually behaving like the public service it ought to be, it would be making lots of arrests, starting in Westminster and working its way through the corporate propaganda machines that are a very dangerous threat to the public.

  • richseeto

    It is not surprising that Boris is a liar.

    He is on track record of shooting off his mouth wily nily about all things and any thing which crosses his mind.

    Can one imagine any thing more stupid than to send warships to the South China Sea to provoke war and mayhem?

    Does he realise that the British Empire is dead as a Dodo or that China will no longer be like she was in the Opium War days?

    Seems like Boris has been sleeping under a rock, a large one to fit his obese frame.

  • John Spencer-Davis

    I want to send an FOIA request to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to ask them to confirm Boris Johnson’s allegations, and guess what? The system’s down 😉

    J

    • Zhanglan

      Russian DDOS attack – probably traceable back to Craig’s IP address (remember where you heard it first!)

      • Zhanglan

        the first rule of perpetrating an underhand attack appears to be to blame the intended victim of doing to you precisely the thing that you are doing to them – that way you know exactly what “they” did, but they don’t….

        please try to keep up

  • Agent Green

    This is a very good piece. Everyone reading should make sure they share it as widely as possible.

  • NickW

    There is a comment above which contains a link to an official notice dated 06/03/18 regarding a chemical weapons drill.

    “Toxic storm for Royal Marines in major chemical exercise
    06/03/2018
    Royal Marines donned gas masks for three weeks as they tested Britain’s ability to fight in the event of a chemical – or, worse, nuclear – attack.”
    https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2018/march/06/180306-toxic-storm-for-royal-marines-in-major-chemical-exercise

    Following from that there is an important question to be answered. We know that sending blood samples to Porton Down to be tested for nerve gas is NOT part of the routine in A&E Departments across the UK.

    Who suggested that the Skripals might be nerve gas victims, and suggested that blood samples should be sent to Porton Down? Who established what protocols to use for collecting samples and the procedure for submission to Porton Down?

    When it comes to circumstantial evidence, the case against Britain for this atrocity is hundreds of times greater than the case against Russia.
    We know that Porton Down is around 6 miles from Salisbury.
    We know that Porton Down has worked on Novichoks and will have samples of them and similar compounds in stock on site.
    We know that the British Government has an established record for fabricating evidence to go to war.
    We know that Britain held a chemical weapons drill lasting three weeks in March 2018.
    We know, (or strongly suspect) that Government scientists who disagree with the Government end up being suicided.
    We know (or strongly suspect) that the Government is using cyber attacks on Internet sites which publish inconvenient truths.

    These matters need to be included in the OPCW investigation.

    • Zhanglan

      I wonder what the autopsy report on Dr Stephen Davies will say – or whether it will be suppressed, as have all the autopsy reports and coroners findings into the MH-17 disaster?

      I fear for the good doctor’s life – or at the very least his career in the Salisbury NHS Trust

  • nevermind

    Dave Lawton mentions sheep dip, organophosphates and a friendly biochemist agrees. After looking at the formulas provided for Novichok he said that the two have common bounds and not far removed.

    Did the Skripals get blood transfusions? as the nerve agent would have been diluted somewhat?

    The Foreign secretary should ‘go away and shut up’, he has failed his brief and should be fired.

    • DDTea

      I once worked in a lab that assessed the environmental risk profiles of agrochemicals. I’ve studied a lot of organophosphorus pesticides, the sort that may be used in sheep dip.

      They are very different, both in their toxicity to humans and in their structures, to the organophosphorus compounds used in nerve agents. With the exception of maybe “Amiton,” which is no longer marketed and has indeed been weaponized, the two categories could not be mistaken for one another.

      • Dave Price

        “the two categories could not be mistaken for one another.”

        In terms of chemical analysis, given enough to analyse, I would certainly hope so. In terms of symptoms recounted by witnesses maybe not (assuming something actually happened).

        From the Safety Data Sheet for Assassin Sheep Dip:

        Major Health Hazards: harmful if swallowed. Typical of other organophosphate insecticides, Temephos inhibits the action of the group of enzymes called cholinesterases. These enzymes are most important in the nervous system, the brain, and the musculoskeletal systems in controlling nerve signal transmission. Symptoms of acute exposure are similar to other organophosphates and may include nausea, salivation, headache, loss of muscle coordination, and difficulty breathing.

  • DG

    I did think it odd that one of the witnesses in early press reports (Daily Fail) said their eyes were widely dilated, whereas (pre-Novichok) nerve agents do precisely the opposite.

    Similarly, several Russians or related businessmen have committed ‘suicide’. Someone dying in public, foaming at the mouth and is spasms is hardly going to be overlooked however. It is very convenient that the obscure agent points to Russia: an excellent choice of poison if it was a false flag op.

    I share your concerns about the Skripals, even more so given the ‘life changing’ injuries reportedly received by the policeman.

    On an unrelated article I think more should be made of Cambridge Analytica and Strategic Communication Laboratories. In blunt, pre ‘collateral damage’ speak, we are talking behaviour modification and psyops. Coupling:

    1) ‘appeal to people on an emotional level to get them to agree on a functional level’ with
    2) micro marketing (of individuals)
    3) below the radar (via social media and personal phone calls)

    cannot be good for democracy.

    Thank you for your reporting and good luck with the DOS.

  • Kami

    Presumably those who made the poison would also have the antidote. If the British govt. is so certain that it was Russia then why haven’t they demanded that Russia had it over?

    • N_

      Good question. On the only occasion when a state is KNOWN to have used a nerve agent in an attempted assassination (Israel against Khaled Meshaal in 1997), that is EXACTLY what happened. Mind you, it was a bit different because operatives were caught. Israel gave into Jordan’s demands faster than greased lightning, including handing over the antidote.

      • Kami

        Also, could Detective Sergant Nick Bailey have recovered because he *was* given the antidote?

    • DDTea

      There is no effective antidote for Novichoks. The only way to survive is to either receive a sublethal dose or to receive extensive supporting care.

      Atropine and diazepam may alleviate symptoms and calm tremors. But the usual true “antidote,” oximes such as pralidoxime that reactivate acetylcholinesterase, are ineffective against Novichoks (and Soman as well).

  • Francis Duff

    On the Tonight programme thurs 22mar they interviewed a young man who they said was first on the scene to help he said Skirpal was frothing at the mouth but there was no explanation of why this young man suffered no ill effects.Do they think the public dont notice these glaring irregularities .

  • N_

    The EU statement is appalling. It does not even mention the OPCW once! They talk instead of “the answers provided by Russian authorities”. They talk about “this grave challenge to our shared security”. And they talk about strengthening “resilience” to CBRN-related “risks”, through closer cooperation between the EU and its member states “as well as NATO”.

    The next step is presumably an invocation of NATO article 4, followed by 5, or they might jump straight to 5.

    Make no mistake: war looms. The opposition shouldn’t just be waity and reactive.

  • The Salvation Airforce

    a number of websites hosted on Russian servers are now experiencing DDOS attacks – most notably https://journal-neo.org/

    if we follow the threats made in Parliament this week, then the most obvious culprit has to be someone associated with the British Government

    am I alone in being both surprised and disgusted at the things which appear to be going on around us at the present time, or am I just naive?

  • N_

    Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar is sounding like a 14-year-old chewing gum and posting to Facebook.

    “What we’ll now consider in the coming days is whether we want to take individual action relating to Russian diplomats in Ireland, bearing in mind what the UK did was to expel 23 diplomats, who they did not believe were diplomats, they were agents.”

    “We would have to do a security assessment before we did that. We’re not just going to randomly expel people who are genuine diplomats.”

    The stupid verbose bastard doesn’t appear to know the meaning of some of the words he’s using, notably “agents”, “randomly” and “diplomats”.

    Mind you, it’s far more important what Poland the Baltic states do than whatever Ireland does. Dublin used to be an important centre for the KGB but that was many years ago.

  • Sagittarius Rising

    Good to see quite a number of people publicising this particular post on twitter re Boris J’s claims and what Porton Down actually said.

    —–

    This tweet is quite revealing as it pertains to Christopher Steele. The article it refers to is underneath the twitter link. Some paragraphs have been copied and pasted here – it is worth looking at the original article as it contains images of actual court documents.

    https://twitter.com/SLYUnser/status/977121434207244288

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/03/22/uk-court-documents-reveal-details-about-christopher-steeles-dossier-deposition.html

    New details have emerged about questions that former British spy Christopher Steele may be asked regarding the unverified “Trump-Russia” dossier during his upcoming court-ordered deposition in London.

    Fox News has obtained and reviewed British court records filed Wednesday in the ongoing multi-million dollar civil suit brought by Russian tech guru Aleksej Gubarev against Buzzfeed and Steele that is underway in courtrooms on both sides of the Atlantic.

    Evan Fray-Witzer, a Boston-based attorney for Gubarev, told Fox News in an email, “We expect that Mr. Steele will confirm that the allegations concerning Mr. Gubarev were unsolicited and that he included them in the dossier despite having done nothing to verify whether the allegations were true or not.”

    In London, the Steele deposition could last up to seven hours, something he has gone to great lengths and legal expense to avoid.

    Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have recommended a criminal referral of Steele to the Justice Department for the investigation of his potential violations of federal law pertaining to alleged false statements about his meetings and communications with the press.

    Gubarev and his companies, including XBT Holdings and Webzilla, brought the defamation case against Steele and Buzzfeed after they published the dossier on Jan. 10, 2017. Sixteen memos were written by Steele, who was paid $168,000 by Glenn Simpson’s U.S.-based company Fusion GPS. The dossier alleged that Gubarev’s companies “used botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data and conduct ‘alerting operations’ against the Democratic Party leadership.”

    Fusion GPS was paid nearly $1.8 million via the law firm Perkins Coie, by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign, to dig up dirt on GOP candidate Donald Trump and his associates.

    According to the newly revealed records, the memo Steele wrote for the dossier in December 2016, after Trump’s election, is key to the civil litigation.

    —–

    I just realised there is a link to those actual court submissions in the Fox news article able to be copied:-

    https://www.scribd.com/document/374648986/Gubarev-v-Buzzfeed-2018-EWHC-512-QB-21-03-18#from_embed

    • Sagittarius Rising

      There is something potentially quite tantalising about the timeline of events in this court document already emerging:-

      https://www.scribd.com/document/374648986/Gubarev-v-Buzzfeed-2018-EWHC-512-QB-21-03-18#from_embed

      Points 9 states that ‘between early June and November 2016, Orbis was engaged by Fusion…..’

      In the same point, 9, it also makes clear that ‘the December Memorandum’ was written by Mr Steele ‘of his own initiative’ and that this was prepared on December 13th 2016 – meaning that by then there were then two separate but related elements to what became known as the Trump Dossier, with the second aspect having been written by Mr Steele ‘of his own initiative’ on 13th December 2016.

      Skip to point 12 and the very first word of the series of paragraphs in quotation marks is the word ‘redacted’.

      It is the date of 13th December 2016 that cannot be a coincidence – implying that *something* must have occurred which caused Mr Steele to then write ‘of his own initiative’ a second additional aspect to the Trump Dossier.

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4044728/Theresa-wants-use-army-computerised-Trump-mind-readers-help-win-Election.html

      The article in the Daily Mail was published on 18 December 2016, in which it states:-

      “Theresa May wants to deploy an army of computerised ‘mind-readers’ to help her win the next Election, sources claim.

      Tory chiefs have been in talks with Cambridge Analytica, the polling data experts credited with playing a key role in Donald Trump’s presidential victory.”

      and:-

      “A party insider said: ‘The Tories have been in talks with these guys for about three months now and I understand they’re close to a deal.’”

      Given that the Daily Mail article appeared on 18 December 2016, ‘about three months now’ could be said to pretty much correspond with the approximate timeline when Mr Steele was writing the first part of the Trump Dossier – which was ‘between early June and November 2016’.

      What is the odds against that which is redacted in point 12 being the word(s) ‘SCL’ or ‘Cambridge Analytica’?

      The very company whose offices had a search warrant delayed being granted until today.

      • nevermind

        “Theresa May wants to deploy an army of computerised ‘mind-readers’ to help her win the next Election, sources claim.”

        Well sources also say that she might regress to the last election and rely on terror events from her MI6 friends in Libya.

    • saluspopuli.org

      SR. Note Comey’s brother works for Perkins.

      http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/report-comeys-brother-works-law-firm-handles-clinton-foundations-taxes

      Yes, the Dirty Dossier by Steele is the basis of much of the anti Russia meme/Trump campaign. It is logical that the Skripals were targeted to silence them and tidy things up for Steele, and for relevant UK circles involved, as US investigations continue.

      Motive for the political destabilization operation against Trump? One explanation is that the Establishment, the transatlantic oligarchy, was concerned that he was not fully controllable by it. He is unpredictable, erratic, bull headed, and so on. But by various means they have brought the Administration into line and are managing him pretty well by now. The Pompeo and Bolton appointments are good indicators. Not to mention Haley at the UN. And there is Jared in the White House at daddy’s elbow.

  • Martin Gibson

    O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.

    In the very early stages of the investigation the Appeaser & BoJo were extremely quick to blame the Russians. As “they” say, only fools Russian (rush in).
    It’s now reported that the OPCW will take months to complete their investigation.
    With initial investigations and evidence being held in private hearings, I cannot help but think that the public will never know the truth and everything will be swept under the carpet, as usual.

    And regarding new blood samples; has a new blood sample been requested from Nick Bailey?

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