We are experiencing a Denial of Service Attack on a massive scale. Our extremely experienced tech team – who are serious professionals who come from major IT players – have never defended an attack this big on which someone is spending real resources. The attack is not over, but our various levels of defence and diversion are currently holding.
The attack works simply by getting many tens of thousands of bots from around the world to interrogate the site with queries into its search facility, thus crashing it. It is a type of attack we come under routinely, but never on anything like this kind of scale. This is a proper effort to get the blog off air.
EDIT: Attack ongoing – latest figures.
Further Update: Still going but slowing a bit now.
“Truth is the highest thing that man may keep”
Chaucer, The Franklin’s Tale
Evidently the powers that be:-
A. Do not want to engage you in open and fair debate.
B. Seriously don’t approve of what you are saying; and
C. Will descend to any depths to try and discredit you….hence
” That we stigmatise anybody who has ever had a mental illness, write them off and view their views, on anything, as invalid, is an attitude I had hoped we had moved past last century”
Press on smartly mate – there are a lot of us out here who think the way you do.
PEACE!
Basically, in order to get to some kind of normality, the UK Government has simply got to Resign.
They have completely discredited themselves. There is no easy way out.
They have to resign…
Or what is their alternative?
Go to war with Russia?
Don’t be completely ridiculous. We have nothing to go to war with.
I guess, we could drop Gavin Williamson on The Kremlin, and maybe even give him a parachute, but that is hardly going to help is it?
Tony
It’s a cyber, info, proxy hybrid war, and we’re already in it.
Could be that the Salisbury event was to get a bit more kinetic action in Syria.
UK didn’t get much more than covering their blushes support up to this point from allies.
That may change with the OPCW report.
Ultimately it’s all about something much much bigger than the Salisbury event.
So, we’ll have to see how this plays out.
Herbie,
I think the original plan was to hype / fake an Alien Invasion from Outer Space for The London 2012 Olympics, using Laser Cannons and the most Amazing 3D Graphics, but they decided to shelve that idea, cos 3D TV’s didn’t take off as expected, and they couldn’t get the Holograms to work that well.
Maybe They have subcontracted it, on the Cheap, to The Russians for The World Cup 2018?.
I think England may have qualified.
Who are we playing in the First Round.?
The basic idea, is That Team World Police, fighht and Save us From These Aliens, and we can all be Thankful to Team World Police. Personally I blame The French. They Really did Flash themselves at my new English Girlfiend – and all her school friends when they went to Paris, for a long weekend. They thought The French were disgusting, impolite, and basically damn right rude.
That was my experience too, when I was 15. Ignorant Frogs. My Mum was brought up in France, yet she spoke Perfect English. (And French)
“Team America: Paris Opening Scene”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrf29R4H9pQ
Can’t we go to war with France instead?
We have always found The Russians really polite, and generous.
They have bought me a few drinks, and I did my best to return the favour, before I fell down, and went to sleep.
They helped carry me home.
The French would have p1ssed all over me.
I prefer The Russians.
Tony
Excellent common sense, Tony. Thanks.
Mary Dejevsky of the Independent is right in line with you Craig – a lone voice of mainstream journalistic sanity. Richard Norton-Taylor of the Guardian has been another sceptic, but in a rather demure manner. The Guardian in general is apalling on this issue. It would be interesting to know the views of Fisk and Cockburn.
Simon Jenkins is also another one who is at least sitting on the fence by saying that we also do similar things anyway.
Wilfred,
I saw that piece as well – and concur. It is very well written / rationalised etc. This is the link for those who do have it:-
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/sergei-skripal-poison-russia-theresa-may-diplomats-iraq-war-jeremy-corbyn-a8257911.html
er…make that, for those who ‘don’t’ have it
Media lens has a good piece.
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2018/865-no-spirit-of-liberty-the-salisbury-case-corbyn-and-the-need-for-dissent.html
Also, Melanie McDonagh, in the Spectator of all things, suggested that it might plausibly have been Ukraine: https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/03/jeremy-corbyn-is-right-about-russia/.
Of course, lone voices like hers, included to maintain the illusion that the magazine is open-minded, are lost amidst the great flood of anti-Putin presumption.
Fisk and Cockburn?
Here is John Pilger on the subject.
Superb as usual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxRiG8vRRBk&feature=youtu.be
If there was ever any shadow of a doubt in my mind that what you, Craig, and the many other commenters on your blog have been contrributing to this discussion surrounding the extraordinary actions of Her Maj’s government in response to the Salisbury incident, it was firmly dispelled yesterday as I experienced the DDoS attack, just as that idiot de Pfeffel was comparing Putin to Hitler, in agreement with Labour MP Ian Austin before the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Has he not heard of Godwin’s Law??
Incidentally, at the same time, I noticed a Bing search about you brought up the pro-Israel UK Media Watch website above your Twitter feed. I had never seen that before.
The Putin as Hitler meme seemed to start just around the time Prince Charles was recorded saying that same thing to someone in private conversation.
And then of course his comments are all over media.
It’s all a confection, you see.
Putin was welcomed handsomely by all these when he made a state visit to the UK in 2003. And yes, there’s Charles happily walking along with Putin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTnlJz_jJYI
Assad was there too, on a state visit to meet the queen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W318ph5i6hw
It’s all a scam.
We give you a treat, You give us sovereignty over your territory.
You refuse.
We call you Hitler or something of that nature, all the while forgetting this Charles’ own family connections directly to the Nazis and Hitler.
And we make war against you.
Why blame Novichok?
Did he not win Wimbledon?
From Off-guardian and our good friend Bevin in the comments section.
Russian Foreign Ministry has just issued a summary of the Skripal poisoning affair. The comments section is enlightening. It appears that the SOVIET UNION, had a Lab in Uzbekistan.
The synthesis of Novochuk was never successful , but was a ‘sting operation’ to unearth a spy mole at the Lab called Mirzoyanov.
Mirzoyanov moved to the US and wrote a book containing the formulae for making Novochuk. Probably formulae was useless.
Looks like the British Govt have been outed as collateral in this ‘sting’.
This is hilarious if true. Perfidious Albion has got egg on its face. This a Humungus screw -up. No wonder the are trying to shut down the truth-tellers.
Oh what mischief we conceive , when first we learn to deceive. says the Parsons daughter Treeza and soon to be ex PM, WHO HAVE SERIOUSLY DISGRACED THE NAME OF Little Britain.
https://off-guardian.org/2018/03/22/…-skripal-case/
Better link:
https://off-guardian.org/2018/03/22/aide-memoire-from-the-russian-foreign-ministry-to-clarify-the-state-of-affairs-in-the-skripal-case/#comments
Means you’re having impact. I quoted you in my piece on the Black Agenda Report this week and another journalist quoted you on Consortium News.
It does, and so they draw even more attention to Mr. Murray. It seems the elites all over are in shooting-themselves-in-the-foot mode.
https://off-guardian.org/2018/03/22/aide-memoire-from-the-russian-foreign-ministry-to-clarify-the-state-of-affairs-in-the-skripal-case/
Apologies link did not transfer correctly. mUST READ ,ESPECIALLY COMMENTS.
Dear Craig,
I’m sure it is the Russians. Who else could it be?
Just listen to the British government. Almost everywhere where they go these Russians do bad things: they routinely manipulate public opinion and interfere elections, they regularly start wars of aggression and kill lot’s of people and they even stole Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction just in time to make honest British people look bad. And now these perky Russians obviously even try to suppress the right of a prominent UK citizen to free speech, your right to free speech, what I think is similar to trying to stop British institutions like the BBC from broadcasting or the Times or the Telegraph from honestly reporting.
So, what way forward do I suggest? I think the best way is to sue these Russian perpetrators for huge damages. To get reliable evidence that the Russians are behind this attack on your free speech I’ld ask the British government for each and all information they got on this ugly attack. I think the British government should have some information on this attack because Britain has very capable institutions like the GCHQ who certainly do know something about Russian malicious behaviour and DDoS attacks on British media and prominent British citizens.
If you’ld write opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn a letter asking for support I’m sure he would support your request to the British government to give you any information they have about the origin of this ugly attack on the basic right of free speech in Britain. In case the British government forgets to answer your request in an orderly way or appropriate timeframe, which I would find not extraordinaire, because, you know, they have so much work with fighting the Russian threat over there, I could imagine, Mr Corbyn might be willing to remind the British government to answer your request for information about this horrible attack appropriately.
Thank you brother Bend-olero, while reading your hilarious fairy tale I could sense a fellow brain-damaged patient.
Be strong, we’ll be in a better world soon.
The French are Merciless. Even when our wonderful French friend returned back home to his Parent’s French home in Nice, to go back to live, after many years in England…
The French attacked and nearly destroyed His French Car, because he bought it in England, and it had English number plates on and was Right Hand Drive…
I guess they assumed The Frenchman was English, but he is not. He is French and he is welcome to our home,any time he wants. When he finally left, my wife and I gave him the keys to our home.
It was so wonderful to meet him again after 10 years, when he came back to England, with his beautiful wife. She doesn’t speak English too well, but she is still my friend on Facebook, as is he.
They keep inviting us to Nice, their home in France.
We might just turn up, like they did.
I know we would get the same welcome. It involves, tears, hugs and kisses, and delight.
Tony
We were all subjected to a Massive Psychological Attack in September 2001. My French Friend, was not the only one who empathised with me, but the rest (some of who’m gave me sheer aggression), simply thought I was having another Nervous Breakdown (and I have never claimed to have had one yet). I simply told the truth.
My French Friend is an Architect..He actually Designs These Buildings
I simply told him the evidence. I didn’t even need to show him videos of buildings falling down.
I think he already knew, but we don’t discuss it. His politics are close to the opposite of mine (but we still genuinely like each other and I know he loves my wife and family and the feeling is mutual – even if he is French)
So because that subject is banned here, and I really do not want to give Craig Murray any grief…
This is Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmrfgj0MZI
It will get better. They’ve just blown it, and they know it.
They don’t know what to do..
Tony
How do we know this DDoS is not a false flag attack by Craig Murray himself in an attempt to bolster the credibility of his dubious claims?
Shhh !
It is a false flag and we all on this blog know that.
We just pretend to make him feel better.
You’ve just spoiled the fun, damn it, such a party pooper
DDTea
Okaaaaayyyyyyyyy, then how do you explain the rest of us? Are we all lacking in credibility? Did we all simply materialise like bees around a honeypot – that bit is not in doubt – around someone who agrees with us, as a means to make Craig and us look and feel good?
Have you genuinely not been able to observe the comments? One person says something, others contribute aspects that pertain but which may not have been known to the first person – and so on and so forth.
If the many hundreds or thousands of people who post here wished to themselves conspire in that which is false, would they/we not all be yelling at each other – calling each other names for being ‘stupid’?
This is not happening – what is happening is that King Bee is being attacked. He happens to be the focus because presumably the idiot gov in its machinations ‘forgot’ that someone like Craig even existed – who would be known, and who should have been known could blow the argument to bits.
Not only that, Craig is more than able to do this in his own right.
I found my own way to this blog – never having even known of its existence before – for the very same reason that I suspect many other people did also. We question the official view.
For some of us, we are able to be do not because we are intentionally being awkward but because we know that the official view is not all it is cracked up to be – the great problem arising from this is that it is BECAUSE it is an official view, that it prohibits and inhibits ordinary men, women and goats from speaking out by way of challenge as they may do were that official sanction not in place.
In other words, it is because Someone in Authority said that Water is Dry – that although you understand that Water is in fact Wet, that this causes deep inner confusion.
You know and understand only too well that Water is Wet – and not under any circumstances can it be dry (technically, dry ice, perhaps being an exception) – so this leaves you thinking – why has Someone Important said that Water is Dry?
How do you challenge or question people, especially Important Ones if they have said that Water is Dry? Without having a nervous breakdown in the process, in wondering why they said this to begin with.
I hope that goes some way to answering your otherwise stupid question.
you russian commie stalinist spies are all nazis and no doubt antisemites already and liars and bullies.
making fun of terry may and englands own chuck norris boris blimped.
standing firm
finding a quick distraction for thursday talking points is bell pottingers number 1 job.
a staged some such attack incoming thurs fri i smell it.
the perceived madness comes from years of blackmail when the puppet sees his lies become exposed the british way is doubling down.
westminster perverts are going to have to do a liverpool care pathway on millions.
clean up crews will need to work 24 and 7
maybe 5g can be turned on early to give everyone a no brainer.
the commercials keep saying that no brainer is that the meme for the month
listen to the amount of retired army that call into the radio supporting are new thatcher may.
even though she seems to have gone insane.
watching these things are like watching a snail crawling along the edge of a straight razor.
Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor… and surviving.
They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.
Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?
Willard: I don’t see any method at all, sir.
The Normalisation of Novichok:
Several episodes of Strike Back: Retribution, a ten-part British-American action television series that premiered on Sky One in the UK on 31 October 2017, featured Novichok, a Russian-developed nerve gas ten times stronger than any other strain.
(Apologies if this has already been pointed out on this blog.)
Massive Attack – Sinéad O’Connor – Special Cases
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVoH6ZTDrD0
“Don’t tell your man what you don’t do right
Not tell him all the things that make you cry
But check yourself for your own shit / shame
And don’t be making love like it’s always
Take a look around the world
You see such bad things happening
There are many good men
Ask yourself is he one of them”
I guess thats what you get for hitting the nail on the head Craig!
Obviously you are doing something right to bring this level of attacks against you.
Is there any evidence to suggest the DDOS attack originated anywhere near Cheltenham?…
I’m not a IT wizz, but aren’t there programmes that can make the IP address look as though it comes from somewhere else (or is that just in thriller films and novel?)
No problem at all to mess with IP address. The internet is full of tips. Mostly used by people who want to access Netflix USA which is blocked if you have a UK IP address.
Whoever attacked Craig with denial of service has quite a lot of muscle as well as knowhow and time to waste. Muscle beyond anyone in his/her bedroom with a laptop. GCHQ would have that muscle, so would NSA.
Seems a fool’s exercise because there is always a way around the DoS. The action is gesturing – probably instructed by a paper-pusher somewhere in Westminster trying to look as though he is “doing something” about Craig. Someone like Private Pike Gavin Williamson.
Surprising that Boris does not remember his school history lessons as well as he remembers his Latin. It was Soviet Russia who crushed Hitler in the last war, and at a very high price. Calling Russia’s president the Hitler word is folly and arrogance beyond pantomime.
The attack was made by bots, there is no point hiding their location, where they came from means nothing.
You can learn a bit by looking at where they didn’t come from mind.
Just watch your back, it could be much, much worse than DDoS attack. You may be suicided or targeted by those poisons “of the type developed by Russia”. The Russians hate the truth, you know, so you could become their target.
The Russians hate the truth? Has it not been proven over & over that it is the TORIES who hate the truth. Russia is NOT the enemy. The enemy is within & in charge. Wake the fuck up!
The Massive Attack will come this week, and some may already have received it. These are The People who The Pensions Adminstrators Have Traced Who Used to work for Ferranti,.. ICL in Manchester – where the modern computer was invented, made real and put into production and sold….We were doing well. We were at least 10 years ahead of IBM, but I didn’t know that at the time, I was just a kid going to work. I always knew we were something special, but I didn’t realise we were the best in the world, until 10 years later, and I worked on IBM stuff..I thought are you American’s kiddin? Your stuff was so completely primatve, I thought Jesus..The Americans are still in the 50’s. You only smashed us to hell, by Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, whilst IBM was Being Funded By The Entire American Military Commercial and Industrial Complex, and all we got was bit of hot air from Tony Benn – white heat of technology and a tiny bit of government support – like we might buy your next effort – if it works and looks nice…
Mine Says
NortelPensionUK
so I opened it..and I already knew that The ICL Pension fund, had been completely decimated and stolen by the various companies who took over that part of ICL I was working for….
inside the envelope it says – more or less, well there’s £45 left for you, or you can take a pension of £2.03 a year. I was going to go for the £45 lump sum, but I can’t find the piece of paper. It maybe in the bin.
This may come as a shock to other people I used to work with who are coming up to the age of 65, and may not until now have been traced.
I took all my pension with me, when I left. These people owe me nothing, but what about the people, I used to work with, who are just assuming they are going to get a decent pension when they are 65? They had paid into it, and just assumed it would still be there.
What do their letters look like? They invented the computer,made it work, and are treated like shit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferranti_Mark_1
With some of them, I was in awe.
Tony
After detailed consideration, I have decided to go for the pension of £2.52 a year, rather than the one off cash lump sum of £45. I should be well in profit in 20 years time, and because there will be a trace – they have to send me £2.52 a year, until I drop dead, I might get invited to Conway Berners Lee’s 100th Birthday party. I never actually worked with his son Tim. He’s only a kid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway_Berners-Lee
Tony
@T_0,
Confirmation of your bias!, I’ve stayed at Conway & Mary’s house in London, and spent years with Tim. Conway & Mary did a great job both at ICI/Ferranti and raising their kids. A credit to the nation. I wish I’d asked Mary more about Alan Turing@ Ferranti.
Sir Tim, who’s a genuinely remarkable guy, was interviewed about the state of the web recently, by the Guardian (Thankfully not one of their diplomatic strategic communication budget RFE/RL reprint articles)
[Sir Tim] Berners-Lee has always maintained that his creation was a reflection of humanity – the good, the bad and the ugly. However, his vision to create an “open platform that allows anyone to share information, access opportunities and collaborate across geographical boundaries” has been challenged as the web has become more centralised.
“I’m still an optimist, but an optimist standing at the top of the hill with a nasty storm blowing in my face, hanging on to a fence,” he told the Guardian in November [2017] “We have to grit our teeth and hang on to the fence and not take it for granted that the web will lead us to wonderful things.”
I think memcached Reflection/Amplification or perhaps an OSI L7 Distributed Denial of Service attacks on plainly factual, but awkward websites such as Craig’s, is one of the ‘nasty storm’ elements that TimBL is well aware of.
Certainly without TimBL & Craig, states could be doing what they’ve always done – interfering in things – without anyone noticing. With the web and brave people using it honestly – with effort, and questioning things in the face of the storm, hanging on to the fence, gives a need for states to dial it back a bit. I think this evolution of awareness ‘costs’ the states more in reputation and goodwill – which could conceivably run-out; So hopefully makes them think?
TimBL’s brilliant web will continue to expose and highlight both ruthless autocratic states like corrupt Putin’s Russia and {insert your own adjective} stupid UK gov+partners who think they can SQUIRREL all of the people all of the time. Nope.
Give my regards to Conway, & maybe spend your pension on a good pint, every two weeks.
And you were all behind Konrad Zuse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse).
The official history of computing, like most branches of technology, is distorted by national pride and personal egomania: Zuse was the first vis-a-vis fully-programmable computing, Intel did not invent the microprocessor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Holt) and so on and so on.
Give it a rest.
In a land of liars, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Keep up the good work Craig.
They don’t like it. You’ve rattled um.
Had these manipulations worked, the United Kingdom would have pushed the USA to bomb Damascus, including the Presidential palace, and demand that the United Nations General Assembly exclude Russia from the Security Council.
However, the Syrian and Russian Intelligence Services got wind of what was being plotted. They realised that the US agents in the Ghouta who were preparing an attack against the Ghouta were not working for the Pentagon, but for another US agency.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article200232.html
Thierry Mayssan,the author of VoltaireNet (http://www.voltairenet.org/article200232.html) has done some valuable work exposing the far-right and nefarious activities of the Catholic Church. He is, however, also a non-plausible conspiracy theorist, and I don’t think should be taken seriously on this issue:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Meyssan
I read the Russian statement and wondered what nerve gas might have been used which was not Novichok. Had a quick trawl online which took me to a chemistry blog where they were discussing this shortly after the incident took place. There was a suggestion of another nerve gas, which sounded to me like mustard gas. However I could not look it up because all online entries to it seem to have been blocked including its Wikipedia entry. So I will spell it out and maybe someone else can look it up? It is called T then an A then a B next a U and lastly an N. (I assume with all my searches and visiting here, I am well on GCHQs radar by now).
I would just add I am willing to believe Russia was involved but would really really like some indication of why the government is so convinced first. At the moment we are being asked to take it on trust and that is in short supply in the UK after WMD.
Mary Paul
The half-brother of Kim Jong-un was killed by a chemical attack when two women smeared his face with VX nerve agent. VX was invented in the UK in the 1950s and developed in the British chemical warfare laboratory at Porton Down.Did Britain do it because it was invented here?
I had no trouble finding information about Tabun. It was the first nerve agent ever discovered, by accident, in 1936; stockpiled by the Nazis during WW2 and used in the Iran-Iraq war etc so I’m sure Porton Down would have tested for it.
https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/tabun/basics/facts.asp
Mustard Gas was one of the first chemical weapons used in WW1 and is not a nerve agent.
whenever I search on it, the result is a failed search of some sort!
‘The British responded with gas attacks by the army in the south, bombing by the fledgling RAF in both north and south. When Iraqi tribes stood up for themselves, we unleashed the flying dogs of war to “police” them. Terror bombing, night bombing, heavy bombers, delayed action bombs (particularly lethal against children) were all developed during raids on mud, stone and reed villages during Britain’s League of Nations’ mandate. The mandate ended in 1932; the semi-colonial monarchy in 1958. But during the period of direct British rule, Iraq proved a useful testing ground for newly forged weapons of both limited and mass destruction, as well as new techniques for controlling imperial outposts and vassal states.’
Our last occupation
Jonathan Glancey
Gas, chemicals, bombs: Britain has used them all before in Iraq
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/apr/19/iraq.arts
19 April 2003
And one of my heroes, Air Commodore L E O Charlton who was chief staff officer in the RAF Iraq Command,, resigned on the British policy in Iraq.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Charlton
‘On 2 February 1923, Air Commodore Charlton took up the post of Chief Staff Officer at the headquarters of the RAF’s Iraq Command. It was at this time that the RAF employed the bombing of Iraqi villages with the intent of pacifying tribal opposition. Charlton opposed this policy and he went on to openly criticize such bombing action. Within a year of his arrival, Charlton resigned from his post in Iraq. His opposition to the bombing policy is said to have started with a visit to the local hospital in Diwaniya, where he witnessed horribly mangled civilians, including women and children, who were among the victims of a British air raid.’
Here you are, from Wikipedia.
Tabun (nerve agent)
Tabun or GA is an extremely toxic chemical substance. It is a clear, colorless, and tasteless liquid with a faint fruity odor.[1] It is classified as a nerve agent because it fatally interferes with normal functioning of the mammalian nervous system. Its production is strictly controlled and stockpiling outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. Tabun is the first of the G-series nerve agents along with GB (sarin), GD (soman) and GF (cyclosarin).
Although pure tabun is clear, less-pure tabun may be brown. It is a volatile chemical, although less so than either sarin or soman.[1]
Tabun can be destroyed with bleaching powder (calcium hypochlorite), though the poisonous gas cyanogen chloride is produced.[2]
Synthesis[edit]
Tabun was made on an industrial scale by Germany during World War II, based on a process developed by Gerhard Schrader. In the chemical agent factory in Dyhernfurth an der Oder, codenamed “Hochwerk”, at least 12,000 metric tons of this agent were manufactured between 1942 and 1945. The manufacturing process consisted of two steps, the first being reaction of gaseous dimethylamine (1) with an excess of phosphoryl chloride (2), yielding dimethylamidophosphoric dichloride (3, codenamed “Produkt 39” or “D 4”) and dimethylammonium chloride (4). Thedimethylamidophosphoric dichloride thus obtained was purified by vacuum distillation and thereafter transferred to the main Tabun production line. Here it was reacted with an excess of sodium cyanide (5), dispersed in dry chlorobenzene, yielding the intermediate dimethylamidophosphoric dicyanide (not depicted in the scheme) and sodium chloride (8); then, absolute ethanol (6) was added, reacting with the dimethylamidophosphoric dicyanide to yield tabun (7) andhydrogen cyanide (9). After the reaction, the mixture (consisting of about 75% chlorobenzene and 25% tabun, along with insoluble salts and the rest of the hydrogen cyanide) was filtered to remove the insoluble salts and vacuum-distilled to remove hydrogen cyanide and excess chlorobenzene, so yielding the technical product, consisting either of 95% tabun with 5% chlorobenzene (Tabun A) or (later in the war) of 80% tabun with 20% chlorobenzene (Tabun B).[3]
Effects of overexposure[edit]
The symptoms of exposure include:[2][4][5] nervousness/restlessness, miosis (contraction of the pupil), rhinorrhea (runny nose), excessive salivation, dyspnea (difficulty in breathing due to bronchoconstriction/secretions), sweating,bradycardia (slow heartbeat), loss of consciousness, convulsions, flaccid paralysis, loss of bladder and bowel control,apnea (breathing stopped) and lung blisters. The exact symptoms of overexposure are similar to those created by allnerve agents. Tabun is toxic even in minute doses. The number and severity of symptoms which appear vary according to the amount of the agent absorbed and rate of entry of it into the body. Very small skin dosages sometimes cause local sweating and tremors accompanied with characteristically constricted pupils with few other effects. Tabun is about half as toxic as sarin by inhalation, but in very low concentrations it is more irritating to the eyes than sarin. Also, tabun breaks down slowly, which after repeated exposure can lead to build up in the body.[1]
The effects of tabun appear slowly when tabun is absorbed through the skin rather than inhaled. A victim may absorb a lethal dose quickly, although death may be delayed for one to two hours.[4] A person’s clothing can release the toxic chemical for up to 30 minutes after exposure.[1] Inhaled lethal dosages kill in one to ten minutes, and liquid absorbed through the eyes kills almost as fast. However, people who experience mild to moderate exposure to tabun can recover completely, if treated almost as soon as exposure occurs.[1] The LCt50 for tabun is about 400 mg-min/m3.[6]
Treatment for suspected tabun poisoning is often three injections of a nerve agent antidote, such as atropine.[5]Pralidoxime chloride (2-PAM Cl) also works as an antidote; however, it must be administered within minutes to a few hours following exposure to be effective.[7]
History[edit]
Further information: Nerve agent § History
Tabun was the first nerve agent known, a property of this chemical discovered by accident in January 1936[1][2][8][9][10] by the German researcher Gerhard Schrader.[10] Schrader was experimenting with a class of compounds called organophosphates, which kill insects by interrupting their nervous systems, to create a more effective insecticide for IG Farben, a German chemical and pharmaceutical industry conglomerate, at Elberfeld. He discovered that tabun, as well as being a potent insecticide, was enormously toxic to humans.
During World War II, as part of the Grün 3 program, a plant for the manufacture of tabun was established at Dyhernfurth[10] (now Brzeg Dolny, Poland), in 1939. Run by Anorgana, GmbH, the plant began production of the substance in 1942.[10] The reason for the delay was the extreme precautions used by the plant.[10]Intermediate products of tabun were corrosive, and had to be contained in quartz or silver-lined vessels. Tabun itself was also highly toxic, and final reactions were conducted behind double glass walls.[10] Large scale manufacturing of the agent resulted in problems with tabun’s degradation over time, and only around 12,500 tons of material were manufactured before the plant was seized by the Soviet Army. The plant initially produced shells and aerial bombs using a 95:5 mix of tabun andchlorobenzene, designated “Variant A”, and in the latter half of the war switched to “Variant B”, an 80:20 mix of tabun and chlorobenzene designed for easier dispersion. The Soviets dismantled the plant and shipped it to Russia.[citation needed]
During the Nuremberg Trials, Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich, testified that he had planned to kill Adolf Hitler in early 1945 by introducing tabun into the Führerbunker ventilation shaft.[11] He said his efforts were frustrated by the impracticality of tabun and his lack of ready access to a replacement nerve agent,[11] and also by the unexpected construction of a tall chimney that put the air intake out of reach.
The US once had a tabun production program,[5] which ended many decades ago. Like the other Allied governments, the Soviets soon abandoned Tabun (GA) forSarin (GB) and Soman (GD). Large quantities of the German-manufactured agent were dumped into the sea to neutralize the substance.
Since GA is much easier to produce than the other G-series weapons and the process is comparatively widely understood, countries that develop a nerve agent capability but lack advanced industrial facilities often start by producing GA.
During the Iran–Iraq War of 1980 to 1988, Iraq employed quantities of chemical weapons against Iranian ground forces. Although the most commonly used agents were mustard gas and sarin, tabun and cyclosarin were also used.[5][12]
Tabun was used in 1988 Halabja chemical attack.[13]
Producing or stockpiling tabun was banned by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. The worldwide stockpiles declared under the convention were 2 tonnes, and as of December 2015 these stockpiles had been destroyed.[14].
Tabun is certainly not what felled the Skripals.
Tabun, like other G-series nerve agents, does not cause these sorts of long comas, and victims tend to regain consciousness within a day or few.
Mustard is a blister agent with a delayed action. It does not cause loss of consciousness or nervous system effects. In fact, it tends not to cause death at all*–just disfigurement and skin cancers.
I don’t know why you want to believe Russia. It’s really a silly thing to do.
*in very large doses, it may cause death in a day or two from pulmonary edema. Death may also result from infections from open blisters a week or so later.
It’s so rewarding to know that you are correct about misgivings though isn’t it. It so pleasing to have the verification. Here is your proof that you are on the right track. And so many are with you!
There’s a breakdown of events leading up to Salisbury that involves Tillerson’s dismissal, its eye popping stuff.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article200232.html
Just as 9/11 took place as the Pentagon was conducting an exercise which involved hi-jacked airliners flying into tall buildings, so Novichok was featured in a TV drama…
https://twitter.com/NinaByzantina/status/974367784544043008
The person behind the attack is either a hacker or someone with enough money to buy one, not a state. They are most likely someone who is fighting oppression and human rights abuses in Russia who doesn’t like Craig undermining their cause. Possibly someone who is afraid for their own life who doesn’t want the Russian government able to murder anyone they don’t like with impunity.
And from Paul Craig Roberts — More on the TV drama.
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/03/21/this-from-a-reader/
Hitler invaded Poland in response to Anglo-French declarations of war – according to PCR.
This is interesting, from Yahoo.com regarding ‘novichok’ – copied in full (minus photos):-
http://www.newsweek.com/russian-novichok-developer-says-there-no-antidote-so-sergei-skripal-and-his-854500?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=yahoo_news&utm_campaign=rss&utm_content=/rss/yahoous/news&yptr=yahoo
RUSSIAN NOVICHOK DEVELOPER SAYS THERE IS NO ANTIDOTE SO SERGEI SKRIPAL AND HIS DAUGHTER WILL DIE
BY BRENDAN COLE ON 3/21/18 AT 7:50 AM
The Russian scientist who helped develop the nerve agent that the British government says left former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in a critical condition in Salisbury has said they will die if they are taken off life support because there is no antidote.
Vladimir Uglev worked at Russia’s state scientific research institute for organic chemistry and technology, or GOSNIIOKHT, where he helped develop “Novichok” in a pilot project between 1972 and 1988 in the town of Volsk in the Saratov region.
Uglev pointed out Novichok is in fact a group of four nerve agents, each named after the year they were created. He developed B-1976 and C-1976. The other two, A-1972 and D-1980, were developed by Pyotr Kirpichev, who led the so-called “Foliant program” ordered by the then Soviet ministry of defense.
He said they produced doses of up to several kilograms in liquid form, apart from D-1980 which was a powder, and they were stored in a special warehouse in sealed packaging.
VLADIMIR UGLEV
He told the Russian news outlet The Bell that the person who poisoned Skripal would have had to transport the nerve agent via a carrier like cotton balls or powder, which would have been in a container covered in a degassing solution.
“If Skripal and his daughter received a lethal dose of B-1976, C-1976, or D-1980, then, most likely, they will suffer the same fate as earlier victims. There is no antidote to these agents. I can say with nearly 100% certainty that if Skripal and his daughter are taken off of life support, they will die, although they are now only technically alive,” said Uglev.
At the institute, where he worked until 1994, he was unable to make Novichok a binary weapon, in which the toxin can be created by mixing two non-toxic substances together.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has said that it was “highly likely” that the Russian government was behind the attack on Skripal, who was a former Russian military intelligence officer acting as a double agent for British intelligence services.
Moscow has denied involvement, stating that for the UK to be able to identify the agent, it must have a sample of it in their possession.
Uglev said that there are several dozen people in Russia who know the formula. “The British, just like the Germans, are excellent chemists who can with one hint do what in Moscow is classified as top secret. In addition, the secret was already 20 years old in 1993.
“So the question should be directed to those specialists charged with protecting state secrets; is it possible to keep such information secret without any leaks?”
————–
In this account, there is no mention of the policeman, who allegedly was also poisoned with the same thing as Mr Skripal and his daughter – yet Sgt Bailey is supposed to be about to leave hospital.
http://www.itv.com/news/2018-03-21/salisbury-spy-attack-police-officer-nick-bailey-set-to-leave-hospital-itv-news-understands/
Also, Mr Uglev points out what to those of us with no knowledge about such matters, would be ‘obvious’ – that a deadly nerve agent would always be fatal. So how come Mr Skripal, his daughter and the policeman are not dead?
Mr Uglev refers to 4 novochuks, suggesting they are named after the year they were allegedly created. Again, I have no understanding if what he says is accurate or true – what I do know is this – Mr Skripal, his daughter and Sgt Bailey have been associated with none of the novochuks listed by Mr Uglev.
They were allegedly poisoned with A-232 – which does not in any way ‘fit’ with the explanation as above, in being named after the year something was (allegedly) made.
According to the report below, there is another novochuk agent – note how it is described as being ‘novichok number 5’ – as if to imply that it must be the one not mentioned by Mr Uglev given that he mentioned four only:-
https://www.thedailybeast.com/sorry-i-developed-the-weapon-that-poisoned-a-russian-spy
Zheleznyakov received a dose of A-232, a component used in Novichok No. 5, during a laboratory accident in the 1980s. Doctors gave Zheleznyakov atropine, a common nerve agent antidote, and he survived following a lengthy recuperation.
I am not sure what each of these respective articles are suggesting at this point – if the first one would suggest that novochuks always kill, the second one says that this is not the case. The second article makes clear that the one novochuk not referred to in the first article does not actually kill – whereas the second article makes no reference to the first article and its named 4 novochuks.
—–
P.S. Please could someone scratch an itch for me? Is the correct spelling of ‘novochuk’ with an ‘o’, or is it ‘novichuk’ with an ‘i’?
It’s Novichok – an ice cream on a wooden stick, covered in dark chocolate and which, if you don’t consume within 45 seconds, will melt into your hands. They are made in a factory in a Moscow suburb and distributed in the UK by an outlet based in Wiltshire. The UK agent is Theresa May, 10 Downing Street SW1 1AA and the sales representative is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson at King Charles Street, SW1A 2AH ,
Sagittarius — ‘Novichok’ — новичок.
From translate.yandex.com — Dictionary
новичок n м
beginner, newcomer, novice, newbie, tyro
(начинающий, пришелец)
rookie, recruit, freshman, new recruit
(новобранец, рекрут, первокурсница)
cub
(детеныш)
colt
(кольт)
neophyte
(неофит)
greenhorn
new
(новый)
newby
new player
(новый игрок)
apprentice
In contradiction of current Russian stories that they never developed it. Or they pretended to, in order to out a mole.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/22/andrei-zheleznyakov-soviet-scientist-poisoned-novichok
Instance of Russian CW scientist poisoned in the lab in the 1980s. Also:
“On Tuesday, Russia’s RIA Novosti state news agency ran an interview with the head of a Moscow lab from the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology who confirmed that the Soviet Union had developed novichok agents. The programme just had a different name: foliant.”
Is the UK Deep State coordinating with the US Deep State anent the Skripal case and related anti-Russia information ops?
Whatever one may think of President Trump, he has been consistent in his stated desire to improve relations with Russia. Thus, he has been under political attack by those forces, domestic and foreign, who are fomenting the new Cold War against Russia. The Steele “Pee Dossier” indicating the nexus of fireign and domestic attack. The domestic forces include staff in his own White House who have been actively trying to sabotage any improvement in relations with Russia.
A leak this week is revealing and is in the US press. It showed that NSC staff in a briefing paper to the President recommended that he not phone Putin and offer congratulations for reelection. Such calls are pro forma in diplomacy. NSC behavior raises an issue as to whether NSC coordinated with the State Department per the Russia election. The hawks in the White House have been at war with the professional diplomats at State. McMaster who heads the NSC is responsible for coordinating such briefing papers to present to the President. That he has been on thin ice for months is no secret.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/379606-russia-leak-raises-questions-about-staff-undermining-trump
The propaganda campaign against Russia is the backdrop in which the Trump call as made. Trump made the call against the hawks advice. Additionally, it is reported that he did not mention the Skripal case in conversation with Putin.
McMaster in January 2017 gave a hawkish speech/briefing at something called Policy Exchange in London. We at SP are not familiar with this entity. Any comment welcome. Do they brief Tory MPs. Do they link to the Henry Jackson Society? The speech is presently on You Tube and presented the usual Russian threat meme. In February 2017, McMaster became head of NSC. There is clearly policy coordination going on between US and UK elements aimed against Russia and designed to disrupt any improvement in relations. They are evidently coordinating on the Skripal. The Internet attack against this blog may well be coordinated by these Deep State elements.
Christopher Steele is the link to all things.
Christopher Steele is the link to all things.
And MI6.
What a bizarre coincidence.
” . . . his stated desire . . . “?
His ‘actual’ actions?
“Over and over and over again this alleged Russian asset has been choosing to undermine Moscow instead of advancing its interests. He approved the sale of arms to Ukraine, a move loudly encouraged by DC neocons which Obama refused to do because of the dangerous tensions it would inflame with Russia. His administration forced first RT and now Sputnik to register as foreign agents, expanded NATO with the addition of Montenegro, assigning established Russia hawk Kurt Volker as special representative to Ukraine, shutting down a Russian consulate in San Francisco and throwing out Russian diplomats as part of continued back-and-forth hostile diplomatic exchanges, and signing the Russian sanctions bill despite loud protests from Moscow. If he is indeed an expensive Russian asset, then Russia got ripped off.”
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-one-fact-which-disproves-russiagate-but-nobody-wants-to-talk-about-4545d5776ef9
Interesting salus populi and I believe there exists a VPN connecting neo-con deep state decision makers in the US and UK (the great offices of State and more). A VPN protects the confidentiality (data remains secret) and integrity (data remains unaltered) of messages as it travels over the public Internet. VPNs remain one of the most effective means of maintaining online privacy albeit encryption can eventually be broken.
A role in GCHQ is to administer the VPN communication although operators are not privileged to decrypted or plain language content.
Gareth Williams may well have been involved in a British plot to undermine the Russian State. We know that Williams had been missing for more than a week before anybody at his employers reported his absence. Time enough for his body to decompose and evidence to deteriorate. So why was Williams death not blamed on Putin’s Russia? Of course it was not the order of business and that order originates from the NSA goons in exactly the same way the Trident destination codes hail from.
Hang on a bit.
I am waiting for evidence the attack even happened.
All I have seen is a senior doctor from Salisbury telling us that there was no nerve agent poisoning in his hospital.
Can we at least establish the attack, as claimed by May/Rudd/Johnson, actually took place?
They shut the Zizzi in Salisbury for a few hours. What more evidence do you need of a deadly Russian nerve agent attack?
Good Oint Emily
I suspect we shall Never see Those two alive.
Remarkable how the MSM is regarded as being untrustworthy and nothing but a conduit for NWO propaganda and misinformation until something like this (badly written and self-contradictory) letter is published.
I understand the three victims of the attack are still seriously ill in hospital. There is no benefit in publishing photographs or footage of them just to satisfy the voyeurism of some truthers beside which if even they were sitting up in bed talking it would be dismissed as faked, that they were three of this infinite pool of totally reliable “crisis actors” the evil PTB have at their disposal.
You apparently understand what you have been told by proven fibbers.
You don’t appear to understand what you have been told by a doctor at the hospital.
Some people only want to understand what they want to – not the actuality.
The Russians are waiting for evidence.
Is it too much to ask that we are given evidence of the actual attack with nerve agent.
Amazing how the lady doctor – first to the scene – unprotected – was unscathed.
Amazing!!
And not even a white helmet to be seen.
” Some people only want to understand what they want to ”
Exactly my point.
You’re getting all this shit, you must be doing something right. Keep the faith baby.