So a tiny independent radio station in Ireland managed to interview Robert Fisk on the ground in Douma, but none of the British mainstream broadcast media today has him on, despite the political fallout from our Syria bombing attacks being the main news story everywhere? Meantime MSM propagandists including Richard Hall (BBC), Dan Hodges (Mail) and Brian Whitaker (Guardian) and many more queue up to denounce Fisk on twitter from their cosy armchairs.
It bears repeating that the information on the alleged gas attacks – which raises great doubt but which Fisk himself does not claim as definitive – is not the most important part of Fisk’s article. The Hell of rule under the jihadists that we in the West are arming, funding, training, “military advising” and giving air support, alongside Saudi Arabia and Israel, is the indisputable and much more important element of Fisk’s report, as is the clear evidence he provides that the White Helmets are part of the jihadist factions.
To return to Scotland, I am sorry I shocked many of those who wish me well with the vehemence of my attack on Ian Blackford and the SNP for accepting MI6′ version of events, together with a renewed expression of my outrage at Nicola Sturgeon for having instantly supported Boris Johnson’s anti-Russian rhetoric over Salisbury without waiting for evidence.
My anger is not synthetic and there is a fundamental point here.
The question is this: whether Scotland wishes to become truly a different kind of state to the UK, or whether it is simply a case of a management buyout of the local NATO franchise. As the UK enters enthusiastically into a new cold war, that question is now a much sharper one.
The UK security services are Scotland’s enemy. The next effort at Independence is not going to look like 2014 – the British Establishment only allowed that because at the outset they did not believe there was a hope in Hell we could win. Now they are rattled. Our next effort at Independence will look much more like Catalonia. All the signs are that the current leadership of the SNP, who are so comfy having little chats with MI6 in their career break from investment banking, or who want to be an inclusive, unionist-friendly “Queen Mum” figure rather than campaign for Independence, do not have the stomach for the fight. What they do have is comfy, very highly paid, billets as a pocket of token opposition and diversity within the United Kingdom.
Nicola buying into the Johnson story of the new cold war is not a small thing. It is huge, momentous, epoch-defining in Scotland. And a fundamental betrayal of her voters.
A Fully Paid Up Member of the British Establishment
In the next street to where I am writing was born the great James Connolly. He wrote:
When it is said that we ought to unite to protect our shores against the ‘foreign enemy’, I confess to be unable to follow that line of reasoning, as I know of no foreign enemy of this country except the British Government
Note the British government are the enemy – not in any way the people of England. Anybody who cannot repeat Connolly’s statement with conviction is only pretending to be part of the Scottish Independence movement, and will falter as soon as Westminster says no.
This is fascinating.
Two stories just published on the Independent’s site.
1st, is that six weeks after the alleged ‘chemical weapon attack’ in salisbury, the area has now been put on lock down for ‘decontamination’ which it is said will take months, –
“Meticulous work is required and we expect it will be a number of months before all sites are fully reopened.“
https://www.independent.co.uk/…/salisbury-polisoning-latest…
However, if you scroll down the Independent’s main front page, past the the multi award winning Journalist Robert Fisk’s excellent article where he reports from the the site of the alleged ‘chemical weapons attack’ in Douma, (that there is no sign of CMs having been used), you come to this article, which alleges that
“It is very likely that proof and essential elements are disappearing from this site,”
– Kenneth Ward, the US envoy to the OPCW, voiced fears the location may have been tampered with.
https://www.independent.co.uk/…/syria-chemical-attack-evide…
How is it that in Britain contamination hangs around for months at one site despite the best efforts of cutting edge facilities (Porton Down) yet mysteriously, similar alleged contamination evidence is seemingly able to be quickly and easily wiped clean with a mop and bucket in Syria?
How is it? I’ll tell you how:
Britain has a football team, that is expected to play in a few months…
Sorry for being pedantic,and I’m sure I’m just being “Scottish” but Britain, as far as I’m aware does not have a football team….England however does, could this be the one you are referring to?
My sincere apologies. Britain, UK, let’s try England?
?
England is scheduled to play Belgium in Kaliningrad on 28 June.
Repeat: in Kaliningrad, for crying out aloud. Ain’t going to happen. Soon many “experts” on matters Baltic and Kaliningradian may arise, to match the recent crop of “experts” on chemical weapons.
Bear in mind that English (and Welsh and Scottish) football gangs are connected with organised crime (drugs and security-protection) and with MI5 (sometimes they are just the right kind of deniable local muscle). They have even been known to don
an SO15a political face: the English Defence League came out of the football gang network.Ex-cops in the Russian gangs would doubtless enjoy the manly feeling they’d get from “running” the English thugs in Russia, and we all know which side has the biggest tattoos. But higher-ups in the FSB might decide that given the international situation at the time, best keep them out – for reasons that aren’t obvious to the mainstream British market bu are likely to be transparent to most people in Russia, a country where hierarchies of masculine violence are much more out in the open and nobody serious believes that legal and illegal types are discrete from each other.
“Bear in mind that English (and Welsh and Scottish) football gangs are connected with organised crime (drugs and security-protection) and with MI5 (sometimes they are just the right kind of deniable local muscle)”
This is utter nonsense!
Do the Normans have a soccer team?
Not sure, but if they did they would definitely beat the Scots.
They have at least two – here and here – but they aren’t affiliated to FIFA or UEFA.
“Do the Normans have a soccer team?”
Not since they used to take on Hereward United.
Fair point, but we are talking about different agents (or should I say alleged agents)
BBC and Sky News also runningn that Salisbury cleanup story but under the headline
“Skripal poison was in liquid form”
and quoting Defra as saying the poison or nerve agent (it varies, you know) was “in liquid form”.
But the Defra press release about the cleanup – which seems to form the basis of the reports – makes no mention of “in liquid form”.
https://twitter.com/BardenGridge/status/986221881803067393
Agree, been looking everywhere for official status “in liquid form” not sure what to thing other than it muddies the water.
Certainly the official statement that the poison was in “liquid form” seems to help in no way whatsoever with what is supposed to be a criminal investigation. That’s except if they mean to say “Call us if you saw anyone suspicious-looking pass something to someone else, but especially so if the package seemed to contain a vial or if it made a slopping sound.”
Aficionados of propaganda will notice that liquid is kind of elemental. Marine Le Pen played with similar imagery in last year’s election – look at the iconography. But I’m getting too advanced here. Do excuse me. Please click here.
Living in Goebbles Land? More like living in bl**dy Doolally Land. In fact I’m at a total loss trying to make sense of your motivations Craig. As every day goes by you come across as being a Daniel Defoe Mark11.
Fundamental question? Do you want Scotland to be independent or not? If you do you’ll realise, or should realise, that our ONLY way out of this hellish Union is via the SNP, so why on earth would you want to turn people against them? Why would you want to diminish our chances of getting our Independence? Why?
To be honest, I’m absolutely scunnered with people like you attempting to destroy our chances of getting our Independence and MY anger about this, I can tell you, isn’t ‘’synthetic’’ either.
You say, ‘’The question is this: whether Scotland wishes to become truly a different kind of state to the UK …….’’ I say, ‘’The question is this: will we EVER get the chance to become a truly different kind of state to the UK with individuals like you influencing thousands of people online not to support the SNP?
What’s your game? You’ve got some brass neck on you Craig sitting on your backside at a keyboard pontificating about, castigating, people like Nicola Sturgeon who has been working her butt off for the Independence cause for over 30 years now. She’s been a member of the SNP over that timeline too, as you were a member of the Lib-dem Party as late as 2011. You seem to have supported the Westminster Union at least up until that time. What changed?
Have you ever thought either that you’re not actually privy to everything that’s going on behind the scenes?
Have you ever thought for one minute that your SNP ‘perpetrators’, who unlike yourself are not loose cannons, realise that there’s more than one way to skin a cat especially when they’re so close to achieving their / our ultimate objective? Maybe they’ve actually got a better idea than you as to what could scupper their chances at this crucial time?
I notice too that you’ve never got much to say, or cherry-pick data, about our real enemies in Scotland, other than the MSM, that is the Scottish Tories, Labour or Lib-dems? Why’s that I wonder? For example Kezia Dugdale Scottish Labour was on Politics Today stating that Assad is behind the chemical attacks and that she would have supported the strikes on Syria, as Joanna Cherry SNP was on Sky denouncing Treeza May’s actions.
Time is running out for us. Let’s get behind the SNP, FGS, at least until we get our Independence, and then if you’ve still got something to say about them, gripe about, fair enough. Gripe away to your hearts content THEN …. and stop putting my children’s chances of a better future at risk NOW, if you don’t mind.
They say that, ‘’Hell hath no fury like a WOMAN scorned.’’ I say not true and additionally that anger management counselling can help both men and women.
You say, ‘’the UK security services are Scotland’s enemy.” I say, ‘’it would seem that they’re not the only ones.’’
Yes. Craig’s strictures about the SNP would have more force if he’d made a single post on this blog about the Scottish political situation since summer last year. But he didn’t until the other day. And he’s being very negative, even if he’s saying a few things that need saying.
Here’s something else that needs saying. Craig has ignored Corbyn’s shameful record on Catalonia. Yet had a rather absurd go at Sturgeon about Ponsati.
reel guid.
What’s shameful about Corbyn of late is that he had his MP’s whipped yesterday, to abstain after a six hour debate in the HoC which Labour proposed and the SNP backed on the bombing of Syria.
“Faced with the opportunity to issue a symbolic public rebuke to the government for bypassing Parliament on a matter of war and breaking international law, the radical socialist opposition Labour Party of Jeremy Corbyn… abstained.”
“In doing so Corbyn’s party stomped all over the memory of its own former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who resigned in 2003 over the principle of the Iraq War being undertaken without a proper legal basis and who felt so strongly that Parliament, not the whim of the Prime Minister, should determine the UK involving itself in war that he had the words below carved on his headstone”
It’s the Bain Principle in action, never ever carry out any agreement made with the SNP. It’s obvious now that the SNP are the real opposition at Westminster.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/trampling-on-graves/comment-page-1/#comment-2355551
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-bain-principle/
Vince Cable saying in the Commons debate that the Syrian Armed forces are using chemical weapons every week. And says they have used them 213 times in the last 5 months.
Ros
Cable’s source for his assertions? The White Helmets, which he described as a human rights organisation.
Scotland should not be represented in this awful parliament by the Thames. Cable, Corbyn, May and the rest are political trash. Because that is what England has allowed her political scene to become.
Now you know why Sinn Feín don’t take their seats in the madhouse known as the House of Commons.
I hope that when Theresa May and her kangaroo court (Supreme court) strikes down Scotland’s Continuity bill, that SNP MP’s walk out of the HoC for good.
Who trousered the half billion from the Post Office, Mr Cable?.
There’s no point in getting behind someone who’s not going anywhere.
Really, there isn’t.
Nice one Petra, Craig is a good guy, and there’s not many of them left, however you’ve hit the nail on the head.
Petra: “Do you want Scotland to be independent or not? If you do you’ll realise, or should realise, that our ONLY way out of this hellish Union is via the SNP”
That sort of argument isn’t going to help. It bears a strong resemblance to the arguments that Scottish Labour came up with. Simple swap the word “independence” for “socialism” and the SNP for SLAB.
It’s not even an argument, it’s a threat of the ‘support us unequivocally or you’re getting eff all’ variety. In other walks of life it’s like threatening to take your ball. The next logical step is “who else yae gonny vote for?”
Petra, if you have any doubts about levels of support for independence amongst friends, I suggest you take a look at the SNP itself. Days before the last General Election they were more or less ordering people not to go to a pro-independence demo in Glasgow. Invite me to provide proof and name names. I’m happy to do so. Think about that. Just think about that…
These problems can all so easily be resolved. People voted for another referendum, it was in the SNP manifesto, so where is it?
Speaking from afar, and as somebody not well informed about the particular politics of the issue in Scotland, I can say, however, that the rhetorical form of Petra’s comment is analogous to what Democrats have been telling leftward leaning younger Americans for many years. The widespread notion that the Democratic Party is the people’s ONLY hope in America has not improved the Democratic Party, but the opposite.
I agree with what Craig has to say about the SNP’s pro establishment stance, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want independence. My worry is that the SNP may not be the party that will lead us to it, unless it becomes bolder. If now isn’t the time to at least say what it intends to do, when is? And if the SNP doesn’t act, who else has the power to do so instead? The Greens haven’t come up with anything.
It’s interesting that according to democratic theory these politicians are supposed to be our servants, there to do as we have instructed them. In those terms a manifesto operates as a set of instructions to the governing party.
The alternative to voting SNP isn’t to vote for the Greens or anyone else. Sadly, the alternative is to return to that numb condition we were all in before any of us hoped things could be different or better. That’s a dark place; you don’t vote for anyone there because you know they are all the same.
Hatuey – not related to the post – but I think I owe you an apology, in the space a week I have went from thinking you are a troll to being in total agreement with your posts!
I see where Petra is coming from, Don’t divide the movement, but the movement isn’t just the SNP and for the overall good, maybe the SNP should be reminded not to get too cosy and to keep fighting!
No apology required. I’d be the first to admit I’m a bit of a cranky nutter at times.
I see where Petra is coming from too. Here’s the thing, Buddha. Those who push and press the SNP now, those like Craig Murray and the others who appear to be critical, well it’s possible that those people are the ones who really have the SNP’s interests at heart (whether they even know it or not). They will keep them good and true.
I don’t say that lightly. Nothing would depress me more than to see the SNP go the way of New Labour, that’s the big fear and threat here. It isn’t too late to stop this but I fear the worst. Looking at it like that, it’s blind unquestioning loyalty that will kill the SNP, just as it killed SLAB. Look at the contempt SLAB had for voters up here in the 80s and 90s; because they could count on unquestioning support and loyalty in their so called heartlands…
The SNP, of course, are central to the Indy movement, absolutely integral, but we should never, ever, let them get complacent about that or take any of us for granted. When political parties stay loyal to their core support and values, they never lose. They can’t lose. It’s impossible.
“and stop putting my children’s chances of a better future at risk NOW, if you don’t mind”
Petra
If the balloon goes up there isn’t much future for your Children anyway.
So, Petra, you really think that your Nationalist fervor is more important than the identification of Sturgeon as a toady for Tory propaganda? You really believe that the most important thing is to get the SNP in power AT ANY PRICE, including adherence to all the mainstream media lies, obfuscation and bullshit regarding Syria?
This is exactly the reason why Blair’s Tory-lite government remained in power for too long – because people like you would prefer, so you believe, “an electable” party rather than one that is at least vaguely true to its stance on fairness, wealth-divide and social progress. Your attitude reveals precisely why Corbyn and other politicians who have INTEGRITY, have been uniformly trashed by the media. Because getting in to power, apparently, at any price, is more important than being truthful?
Sometimes there are issues that are even more important than getting power by any means, and this is one of them.
Petra,
Surely it is possible to be angry at the SNP over an issue, and to try and hold them to account, without saying “don’t vote for them?” Surely it is acceptable to say “Come on SNP, we want you to do better than this,” without being accused of undermining them? Of course the SNP are Scotland’s only party committed to independence, that goes without saying. But it doesn’t mean they’re beyond reproach on occasion.
You seem to have taken this awfully personally. Remember, everybody has a slightly different POV, even those who share common cause.
no petra, wrong question here “will we EVER get the chance to become a truly different kind of state to the UK with individuals like you influencing thousands of people online not to support the SNP?”
a better question is this “will we EVER get the chance to become a truly different kind of state to the UK with individuals like Sturgeon influencing thousands of people by agreeing with the lies and likes of boris johnson?
you just asked the wrong question.. that’s all… craig is right… quit sucking up to m16 and all the lies and propaganda.. show some actual independence of thought, as opposed to herd instinct…
@Petra – What would you call the Union if its government were based in Scotland? Surely you’d be just as opposed to it, right? It’s so cheap to use terms such as “Westminster Union”. Is the geographical location of the Union’s government part of what you have a problem with? Or are you using a rhetorical trick?
I do notice though that neither Britgov nor any of the major Unionist political parties have done any serious positive promotion of the Union since the referendum. They haven’t even got close. But then what do you expect but a combination of “short-termist” smash-and-grabbism with protection racketry from those whose outlook is based on London power – and I don’t mean “Westminster”; I mean that other part of London with the taller buildings, where few politicians or celebrities hang out but where the money is.
The moral, @Petra, being that I am advising you to think before you use the term “London”.
If I might interject to point out that quite a lot has actually been done towards strengthening the Union since 2014.
There was a Committee in the Lords set up to investigate ways and means of fostering more positive attitudes towards the Union in the wake of the result. One of the suggestions was a “Union Train” that would take kids from Glasgow to Blackpool for a day out. To be clear and fair, this was after Jimmy Savile snuffed it and didn’t involve Janner; I’m sure they meant well.
Of course, impartial Scottish people who are grounded in reality — otherwise known as “vile cybernats” — would argue that the BBC and the mass media generally are constantly working to undermine the case for independence and are thereby indirectly promoting the Union. There are a couple of books and DVDs on this I could recommend to you, if you are interested.
“You’ve got some brass neck on you Craig sitting on your backside at a keyboard pontificating about, castigating, people like Nicola Sturgeon who has been working her butt off for the Independence cause for over 30 years now.”
She has barely mentioned independence since the last GE was called.
It’s quite clear that the SNP’s payroll is limiting discussion and progress on another referendum to attempt to keep as many paying jobs as possible. Davidson and the BBC have them panicked with their tactic of campaigning against a referendum. If the Unionist bloc figures out how to vote tactically the SNP are fucked.
“If the Unionist bloc figures out how to vote tactically the SNP are fucked.”
.
They have and it was well used in the last G.E.
“They have and it was well used in the last G.E.”
The hardcore unionists fucked up. The BBC and Ruth created an impression that they were the 2nd place party due to their misleading council election performance after only standing one candidate in each ward. That led to lots of anti SNP votes going to the Tories in areas where Labour could have beat them. Inverclyde is a good example where the SNP beat Labour by 400 votes and the Tories got 8000 which was clearly due to SNPbad. The increase in the Tory vote in the central belt was simply down to opposing another referendum, if those voters switch to Labour the SNP will be wiped out.
Craig Murray’s point seems entirely apposite: is Scotland going to replicate the Westminster-MI5/MI6-Whitehall-FCO-MOD model or have a far more transparent and less (or non) militarist structure of governance? If not, what’s the point of independence? Surely the breakup of the union is fundamentally a breakup of the British empire and its imperial ambitions, even if those are now subservient to the US. By uncritically subscribing to the Syria chemical weapon allegation and response, or the alleged Salisbury attack earlier, the SNP leadership is really annulling the very point of national independence. And I don’t see how making that criticism equates with undermining the cause of independence, the precise opposite in fact. Still less should it be taken as a motive to disqualify the critic from Scottish nationality.
War is when your government tells you who the enemy is.
Revolution is when you figure it out for yourself
Unknown
The SNP don’t know their enemy very well at all.
Sadly for them, they would have to change into something quite different before they could recruit people who do know that enemy very well (and who also hate its guts) and who would be willing to help them.
Thanks for your letter from Gaza Sharp ears, a most horrifying reality report. These snipers are shooting people in the back from half a mile distance is an outrageous massacre against unarmed people, women, children, the press.
I have yet to read Roberts account from Douma, but have always valued his observations and unbiased accounts, he is a breath of fresh air and Lebediev can call himself lucky that he writes for the Independent.
o/T but also a common thread that binds the establishment in the UK, one can barely think how far their circles reach, to its intelligence services who like nothing more than to control people of interest and standing, via their proclivities, whatever these are.
you can click on the white pages, whence you scrolled down a bit, somebody must have photocopied some old issues of this first magazine that looked into the widespread abuse of children in publicly run homes, by politicians, police and more.
After a month wrath of official BS and the discovery that the SNP leadership likes to sing Tory songs, we all need a little light reading……
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=60135
PS. just out of interest Craig, did you have to visit the privy/et council for some mind spanking behind the hedge, prior to your various engagements of past? 😉
The Connolly applies as much to the English as the Scottish or Irish, and it is unpatriotic in the extreme to support a radically extremist British government at this moment – a government that is right now doing its utmost to make our streets and our international relations as violent as possible, so that a tiny minority can preserve its wealth and profit from the misery of others.
What was she doing there in the first place, Theresa May whistles and Nicola Sturgeon is on the first plane down there in a flash to be condescended to and take her orders, she should have told her to take a hike. As a lawyer she should have had an inkling that murder or even attempted murder, by whomever was frowned upon, it didn’t really need saying, it’s hardly news. Hindsight’s a fine thing but I suppose no-one could have known the Skripals were only taking a trip.
It was a refrain in Edinburgh, back in the days of the old Parliament, faced with moving the legislature to ‘that London’, that members of parliament however high and mighty they might think themselves shouldn’t stray so far that the Edinburgh street couldn’t give them a kick up the backside, as and when required. The party needs to worm out the rot, all sitting members must face automatic contest for re-selection, weighted against incumbents.
Blackford flogs funeral plans.
Ian Blackford Chairman
Ian is Member of Parliament for Ross, Skye and Lochaber. Prior to his election, Ian was Managing Director of First Seer, a strategic investor relations consultancy, and a non-executive Director of Commsworld. He was formerly Managing Director of Deutsche Bank where he was responsible for their Dutch equity business.
https://www.goldenchartertrust.co.uk/our-people/
There are enough of them. The company must be doing well. He is OK. He is looking well padded todayin his three piece suit.
‘He is also the chairman of the Golden Charter Trust, which holds the money for one of Britain’s biggest funeral plan providers. He was paid £37,430 for working 39 hours last year, the equivalent of almost £960 an hour.’
Scottish MP takes on FIFTH job outside politics in London
A WEALTHY Nationalist MP has been accused of neglecting his constituents after taking on his fifth job outside politics.https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/795358/scottish-mp-fifth-job-politics-london-parliament
ex https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=25361
Oh puuhlease, England was fine until the Scots started turning up in droves.
James VI had hardly been on the throne 12 months before people started putting explosives under Parliament and putting his daughter Elizabeth (later of Bohemia) on the throne. It is has been not stop plots ever since.
Go back to the rainy north and take all those morose descendants of Elizabeth of Bohemia with you!
Speaking of false flags……
Story of some related interest: https://www.rt.com/op-ed/424378-hollywood-russian-evil-propaganda/
Goebbels indeed.
To which I might add:
We should launch a competition: write a most plausible false flag scenario for the upcoming World Cup soccer in Russia.
Anything goes, from the pure sensational and fictional, to the most realistic scenario as extrapolated and interpreted from events over the past five weeks.
I’ll give it a try!
So now the MSM is saying the Novichok was a small amount in liquid form and weeks after it was supposedly deployed we now need to have a months long enclosed decontamination area. This expensive bit of theatre is clearly intended to create a longer term visual impact in Salisbury, whilst also serving to meet hitherto unmet public expectation of such measures needing to be deployed (if such an attack had actually happened).
I’ve never been able to square Ms Sturgeon’s insistence on Scotland’s independence with her aims for integration in the EU.
The EU has no interest in devolving its powers to member states. In fact, the opposite is true: more central control is the stated aim.
A propos Catalonia, Jean Claude Juncker is on record as saying: ‘Nationalism is a poison which prevents Europe working together.’
Hardly a good fit.
Well, that’s a very revealing way of putting things. It reveals your lack of understanding and knowledge, to be clear.
The EU is composed of nation states. The reason those nation states joined isn’t because of black helicopters or lizards living in the moon, it’s because being a member of the EU has advantages.
There’s no contradiction in Scotland wishing to be independent and be an EU member state any more than there is a contradiction in Germany or Italy or any other member state doing so.
I’ve argued this point with idiots a thousand times and I can tell you where your argument leads — the question of sovereignty. We can bang your head off that wall for a while too, if you think it will help.
You’re not Habbabkuk are you? Or Martinned?
sharp ears… Habbabkuk would never use the word idiot here.. i don’t know the martinned character.. also, habbabkuk was not given over to posting nearly as much either…
No. But I can assure you I’m me.
Hatuey wrote:
“The reason those nation states joined isn’t because of black helicopters or lizards living in the moon, it’s because being a member of the EU has advantages.”
It has *some* advantages for *some* states. That is really is all you can say, sorry.
Ross, to be honest the MSM doen’t try to convice conspiracy theorists like yourself, they aim to convince all the rest. To be honest when the OPCW reports tomorrow on both cases you will not believe what they tell you. There is not enough evidence in the world that would convince you.
If there were no conspiracies, there wouldn’t be a law against it.
I wonder if the people of Salisbury are really that gullible.
I thought it was supposed to be in a specially designed “gel” form that would act with a four hour time delay to give the perpetrators time to leave the country.
Keith, I thought so too but then I was also told that it was in powder form carried in a suitcase, put in the car ventilation and door handle and/or – I can’t remember the other theory – but, I guess the suspect shouldn’t be hard to find as they would have had to be wearing a lot of protective clothing to smear it on in the first place.
“So now the MSM is saying the Novichok was a small amount in liquid form and weeks after it was supposedly deployed we now need to have a months long enclosed decontamination area.”
.
Why not ask the Rooskies for help?
It seems they can decontaminate a chemical attack in the time it takes to summon/bribe a OPCW inspector, according to the Beeb.
It is relatively clear that the CIA/Western intelligence agencies have the Western press and media completely in their control.
‘Control’ doesn’t really cover it sufficiently.
Consent has been manufactured.
I heard there’s this guy that wrote about this.
I read him, and viewed all his stuff on YouTube.
His name is Chomsky.
Yes. Also the notion of Inverted Totalitarianism developed by a Princeton poli sci Professor (name escapes me) and taken up by Chris Hedges as most accurate way to theorize financial capitalist oligarchic states like US and U.K.
Sheldon Wolin described the USA and its satellites as inverted totalitarianism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Wolin
They have large number of pliant moles: the Daily Telegraph is known as ‘the spooks paper’ and the byline of Con Coughlin is where Russia bashing started several years ago. Roger Boyes at The Times is another old style Cold Warrior. The little sister publication the Spectator also prints MI6 drivel to order…..
The BBC is well tied up with plenty of warmongers, global warming and EU fanatics, now plenty of DC arselickers. Their plausible cover is the LGBTQI religion, wimmins rights etc which is the leftie cover for imperialism by proxy.
Murdoch’s lot take orders from Langley rather than Waterloo Bridge.
Seriously, @bj, are you impressed by Chomsky? Whatever he says that’s sensible is usually bleeding obvious, his work on grammar is overrated, and his opposition to BDS makes him an arsehole who is soft on genocidalism.
Opinions vary, I guess.
I doubt that, if they can’t rig an election through the media to keep Trump out through the media then this is way beyond their capabilities.
Agree 100% Craig. SNP are now the establishment party in Scotland. Too many party apparchniks with too much to lose. Sadly for a large chunk of the SNP establishment independence would be their worst nightmare, jobs at Westminster & Holyrood at risk, positions of power and feather lined pensions.
Meanwhile it’s been claimed that intelligence and security briefings on Syria have been used to manipulate MP’s into backing the governments stance. So much so that even MP without Privy Council status are being shown selective offerings on briefings to sway their opinions, in a form manipulation.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/16164808.UK_Government__selectively_offering_security_briefings__on_Syria_says_SNP_MP/
http://www.thenational.scot/news/16164808.UK_Government__selectively_offering_security_briefings__on_Syria_says_SNP_MP/
Like I said the other day. It has become wholesale religion.
2014 David Cameron said, Don’t leave the UK Scotland lead it.
2018 Theresa May says, Don’t you dare Scotland, to try to lead the UK with your Continuity bill, we’ll see you in court.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/16164121.Constitutional_crisis_as_UK_refers_Scotland_s_Brexit_Bill_to_Supreme_Court/?ref=mr&lp=1
This one religion Scots can do without.
“informed by several sources”, no evidence though. Just because it appears in the National doesn’t make it true. In fact look at this tripe….
http://www.thenational.scot/politics/16163260.Russians_keep_inspectors_out_of_chemical_site_in_Syria/
Hence the word “claimed.”
good to know that paid for propaganda that produces all those white helmet videos are making the rounds.. i guess sturgeon saw them too… some people will believe anything..
There was a press briefing this morning from DEFRA that shed more light than the official press release. Unable to find full details but if anyone lives near Salisbury, see below
New details about Salisbury nerve agent attack revealed
Rebecca Hudson @JournalRebecca Reporter
THE nerve agent used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal was administered in liquid form, and does not produce any vapours or gases, government scientists have confirmed.
At a briefing this morning, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed the majority of sites have now been released by the police investigating the incident, and the process of decontaminating them can begin, which will see new cordons erected in the city in the coming days.
Defra scientists believe the contamination levels at “the majority of sites” will be “relatively low”, but that the clean-up process will be different for each site depending on how it has been affected.
Sergei Skripal’s house, in Christie Miller Road, and the Mill pub in the Maltings still form part of the ongoing investigation and remain under police control, and Mr Skripal’s house was confirmed to be the “most contaminated” site.
The clean-up process is designed to “eliminate any residual trace of the agent to remove risk”.
Sites classified as “public service” sites, including the Bourne Hill police station and the Salisbury and Amesbury ambulance stations, will see work starting “in the next few weeks”, along with the Maltings.
Work is scheduled to start at Zizzi immediately afterwards, followed by DS Nick Bailey’s house.
It will take “some months” to return the sites to use, but Defra said they hoped this would be completed by the end of 2018.
The briefing heard that the Novichok had been administered in a liquid form, and a Defra scientist said it had been “a very small amount” as the substance is “very toxic”.
Defra confirmed that, in the case of this incident, direct contact with the nerve agent would be required for a person to be poisoned or contaminated.
A chief Defra scientist also said the Novichok would become “diluted” with each secondary or tertiary contact and likened the substance to ink – saying if you put your finger in ink and then touched a number of surfaces, each following surface would have a fainter trace and smaller amount of ink.
And the agent used does not produce “any significant vapour or gas”, Defra said, and it can only be moved between sites through a direct transfer through a contaminated person.
And although the agent is “soluble in water and can be washed away”, clean-up processes and full tests will still take place at the sites.
Members of the military, police and fire service will be seen in hazmat suits around the city while the decontamination takes place, and cordons at the Maltings will be replaced with semi-permanent barriers, blocking any public view within “the coming days”.
Defra warned that some cordons will be increased in size to allow work to be carried out, but said this would take place over a matter of days rather than weeks.
The process involves taking samples from the site and testing them for the nerve agent, removing contaminated items and incinerating them, and then chemical cleaning if it still required.
Sites will then be re-tested before they are deemed safe to open to the public.
Public Health England confirmed that the risk to the public remains low, as any potential sites of contamination have been cordoned off, and that there have been no further reports of illness from nerve agent exposure, since the Skripals and DS Bailey.
Wiltshire Council and other agencies will discuss these latest updates at a public meeting at City Hall on Thursday at 6pm.
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16164610.New_details_about_Salisbury_nerve_agent_attack_revealed/
It’s propaganda showtime.
Defra going through Salisbury like the liquidators through Pripyat is plainly silly. And as absurd as the reports, at the time of Litvinenko, of Polonium 210 over half of London and Hamburg, when it takes an amount the size of a pinhead to kill someone. Nobody wanders around with a bucket slopping this stuff all over.
‘The risk to the public is low’. How about non-existent? If there was any risk, one hope they wouldn’t leave it six weeks before such an operation.
If they do announce the discovery of any novichock needleheads in the haystacks of Salisbury, do remember the old adage: ‘those that hide can find’.
Who’s your avatar image of?
Actually, it’s Andre Gide. It’s a Gravatar link from wayback that seems rather resistant to internet scrubbing.
How about the phrases ‘appalling nerve agent attack’ and ”shocking attack’ in the text?
Rather OTT for a HMG handout? Did Poison Gove write it himself?
‘Notes to editors:
1.The nine sites identified are: The Maltings, Zizzi, the Ashley Wood compound, the Mill pub, two areas of Bourne Hill, Salisbury ambulance station, Amesbury ambulance station, the home of the police officer who became unwell following the incident, and the Skripal’s home. The Mill pub and Skripal’s home remain part of the ongoing police investigation.
2.A tenth site, a small cordoned area of London Road cemetery, reopens to the public today (Tuesday, 17 April) after extensive investigations and testing established that it was not contaminated.
3.On 12 April the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) published their report. It confirmed the UK findings: the toxic chemical used in the attempted assassination of Sergei and Yulia Skripal was a military grade nerve agent – a Novichok. The Foreign Secretary gave a statement on the OPCW report.’
Comical.
The DEFRA link.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/clean-up-work-underway-in-salisbury-in-next-phase-of-recovery
Thanks, interesting. Looks like a cover up!
glad to know it wasn’t left on the door knob, lol… more lies… why am i not surprised?
If ‘administered ‘ isn’t a curious term here I’m not Dutch.
“Semper Lie”
Interesting story: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/u-s-brass-dismisses-constitution-law-in-missile-strike-on-syria/
The Constitution is only an optional assignment in the US. Really always has been.
more like law, or international law is only an optional assignment in the usa.. ‘might makes right’ remember? that is the usa motto..
BBC continue pushing the govt line on Daily Politics this lunchtime. But this time like a sulky teenager. Jo Coburn interviews Chris Williams regard the Syria chemical attack and basically huffs, puffs and sulks then calls him an Assad and Putin apologist purely for his citing of Lord West, General Shaw, Robert Fisk and others credible views and information.
“Interview” starts at 46mins 30 secs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b06t7w/daily-politics-17042018
Shutting down dissent – frightening.
My Twitter feed went down around 3pm — “Something is technically wrong”.
Anyone have the same problem?
Yes. There seem to be a few Twitter problems at the moment. It will be one of those dreadful Russian cyber attacks pre-announced in the MSM.
Thanks, BJ.
It’s back up again.
What did I do? 😉
Twitter was down for an hour in Russia too.
http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=3008185&utm_source=push&utm_campain=notification
Reading the comments here on the Scottish Indy ref and the heated and very partisan debate, I realized I needed to do a Fisk on Scotland.
I need to go there and speak with people to understand the situation, and see the truth.
Its confusing sometimes, when you realize you know nothing.
Edinburgh seems a nice place.
lay on, Macduff…
Edinburgh voted 61% no, so may be you need to go to Dundee – 57% yes – as well, to obtain representative samples of both sides, .assuming nothing’s changed meantime. By Brexit for example. The SNP used to favour an independent Scotland in Europe, but that was one reason why they lost votes in the 2017 general election. Some previous Yes voters who voted for Brexit may now favour No and some previous No voters who voted remain may have moved to Yes. ~Edinburgh 26 % leave, Dundee 40% leave). Given that the SNP has backed off from the single option of full EU membership but at the moment, it’s not clear what the preferred alternative is. Things are not simple.
I thought that Nicola Sturgeon qualified her statement with “With the evidence that I was given by the British Government”, as at the time, those were the only facts that she could make a statement from.
That’s a cop-out cowardly evasion. It’s the same stance May herself took when asked by the Labour MP whether she could look him in the eye and give him absolute assurance of the truth of the chem attacks. She did not say “Yes” but launched into a sixty word sentence. They are both passing the buck knowing that the whole thing is likely to come crashing down.
That’s also the basis on which she directly accused Putin of the Salisbury shenanigans — an entirely evidence-free basis. Then again, acting the superhawk against Russia is hardly surprising from somebody who professes to be a “fangirl” of Hillary Clinton.
a “fangirl” of Hillary Clinton….aka a lesser demon of Satan.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
Let’s get back to basics here.
If there’s 2 countries in the world that are definitely not in a position to be arguing that we need to bomb anyone in the middle east, it’s Britain and America. Jesus Christ almighty, that should be the unquestionable starting point in any discussion about human rights there. The middle east looks like World War Z because of these crackpots.
Once bustling modern cities in the middle east, with hospitals, universities, water, and everything you’d expect to find in a European city, are now crumbling lifeless carcasses because of these nutters.
War is peace for these guys. I mean that. Where we worry about war, they worry about peace. Because who is going to buy their guns and ammo if there’s peace? And that’s all they are selling. Coffee’s for closers. The more misery and division they sow, the more sales they reap.
ABC: Always Be closing.
Hatuey wrote: “Once bustling modern cities in the middle east, with hospitals, universities, water, and everything you’d expect to find in a European city, are now crumbling lifeless carcasses because of these nutters.”
Eastern Ukraine too. Water purification installations rank amongst the most frequently targeted by the Government forces.
The destruction of Afghanistan is well documented .
From almost western status – clothing etc to islamic outpost.
Thank you America – NOT.
Certainly Goebbels on this one….
US Says Russia ‘Hacked’ Syrian Attack Evidence As Russia Finds Rebel Chemical Weapon Lab
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-17/us-now-says-russia-hacked-syrian-chemical-attack-evidence
We aren’t morally responsible for what others do in this world, only for what we do ourselves.
well said.. thanks.. more people need to hear/read or figure that out..
Listening to the British media, one gets the impression that the delay in OPWC inspection is caused by the Syrian Govt when in fact the delay is due UN bureaucracy relating to security concerns. Another independent investigation finds no evidence of chemical attack – go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=57&v=lSXwG-901yU
All sounds a repeat of Iraq’s WMDs and a rush to bomb before it becomes clear no justification.
As for the Salisbury, see this: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/skripal-case_swiss-lab-stays-silent-on-lavrov-poison-claims/44049568
Why is the Swiss Lab silent? Had Lavrov been lying, they would have said so.
The SNP label themselves as the vehicle for Independence but a third of their 2015 voters did not get on board again in Theresa May’s 2017 snap election. Of that group of voters 33% did not vote at all, most of the remainder voted Tory.
Were they confused by the destination board which only mentioned Brexit and the EU? No mention of Independence.
The YES movement, following the lies told at the referendum that had convinced 6% of them to vote NO, came out in 2015 and sent 56 SNP MP’s to Westminster. Come Brexit, they sat like rabbits caught in headlights. It should be obvious to them what the voters want, if not they are finished.
Not sure that anyone in the Yes movement would sucumbed to the Better Together threat and voted No, even though the threat worked on less committed independence supporters or the don’t knows, but many of Yes voters did vote for Brexit and that was one reason why they abstained or voted for hard Brexit supporting Tories.
It’s worth remembering that in 2017 a few days before the election Sturgeon stated live on a TV debate that May would be returned with a majority.
When your leader publicly states that another five years of austerity is inevitable it’s not exactly a great motivator to get out and vote. Sturgeon could not actually make any case for voting SNP in 2017. She wouldn’t push Indyref2 during the campaign and didn’t want to talk about a coaliton with Corbyn.
If 60,000 people per day read this blog, some of you must be police officers.
So let me get this straight. In the Salisbury “poisoning” case, the police have no leads whatsoever that they are asking for possible witnesses to come forward to help them with, right?
If you’re reading this and you ARE a police officer, don’t you smell a rat?
You’d better be quick, eh, because if you don’t ask for witnesses to come forward then they’ll forget stuff, imagine it was something else – or indeed if they saw too much they might get themselves “Glushkoved”.
Do you actually like how the intelligence boys, MI5 and the Home Office are treating you? Do you think they’re helping you work towards solving this case so that the CPS can successfully prosecute the perps? Or do you think they have other goals, and that essentially you’re just there to be fobbed off with makework? What do you reckon? It’s just as pseudo as most of the organised crime stuff, isn’t it?
Despite the lack of known leads, ministers “know” the Russians did it because of a foreign-sounding name for a chemical substance that got mentioned on a TV series called “Strike Back” recently.
BTW how many police officers are working on this case? What’s its operational name? Or if we saw a guy chewing sunflower seeds hand a guy in dark glasses a flash drive in Salisbury Sainsbury’s, should we phone 101?
Everything suggests this isn’t even a “case” in the normal sense of the word – it’s simply one strand within a psychological warfare effort.
Feel pissed off with all the lies? Spill some beans.
The British government is the enemy of the English people too.
Their enmity to England is not exclusive; be assured. We here in Wales have suffered immense suffering for our propensity to vote Labour, albeit a very right wing Labour.
Craig, would it not be outwith the realms of possibility that Nicola Sturgeon’s, and the SNP’s gradualist policy is to steadily attract those for whom independence is anathema by saying what they want to hear, thus appealing to their need to believe that an independent Scotland might not be the tinpot socialist utopian republic they thinkn it would be ?
Thereby haemmorhaging the young and working-class, anti-war and anti-neoliberal elements of their support. For the passion inspired by centrist triangulation, see late NuLabour, the Democratic party and virtually every centre-left party in Europe. It sounded like a brilliant idea to many in the 1990s, but look at them now.
Just my thoughts. To be honest I do not recall, or perhaps am not aware of, a groundswell of the “young and working class, anti-war and anti-neoliberal” support being there during the SNP’s hard grafting years of trying to get us to 2014. The “elements” of those will have been there, sure, but the rise (no pun intended) to 45% was perhaps due to a great extent in the grassroots campaign (yes, including RIC and all the others) persuading those greater “elements” to move from Labour to Yes. I would not doubt that they will come again in an Indyref2, even if they return to their normal pastures in the meantime. The SNP’s raison d’etre in independence. It is in their constituition. There is (perhaps) no need to keep telling us that ?
I disagree with Craig Murray, on many political issues, but I have always recognised that he is a man of integrity. So far as Scottish Independence is concerned, I did a straw poll, in my local pub at the time. Over 90% were in favour of it – even most of The Scottish in England.
There is an awful ot of crap on this blog today, in fact some of it is literally obscene, beyond anything I have seen before. If that is the best you can do, to attack Craig Murray, then it shows how absolutely pathetic and small minded you are. So far as the SNP are concerned, you guys are extremely naive, if you didn’t realise the SNP had been infiltrated, before you even really got going, then you are being played for fools. That is the way it works. So was UKIP. The British Establishment is incredibly evil. It will do anything to get its own way. Maybe it wasn’t always like this. Maybe once it had some moral values, whilst committing mass slaughter around the world whilst pillaging it.
Now The British Establishment has no moral values, nor any integrity. Admittedly, they do fake a lot of stuff, and promise people like Jo Cox who worked for them, that she will be O.K., whilst pulling an outrageous Psy – Op, (check the timing and the motivation) but she is probably dead now. Its much simpler that way. The Skripals will probably have the same fate, which is a shame cos I quite fancied her.
To be honest, I’m amazed Craig Murray is still alive (read Murder in Samarkand), but these slugs in The Intelligence Services, seem to have enormous respect for him, like I do. It seems they have given up trying to kill him.
Now read something interesting instead. I am a massive fan of Thierry Meyssan too.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article200729.html
“Washington forces its allies to accept a bipolar world”
Extract
“By firing missiles on Syria with its French and British allies, the strange President Donald Trump has managed to force the Western powers to accept the end of their unilateral domination of the world. The insignificant result of this demonstration of force drags NATO back to reality. Without having made use of its weapons, Russia now succeeds the Soviet Union in the balance of world power.”
Tony
It is obvious why Russia is needed as the external eternal enemy, when the previous enemy and their more rational neighbour are getting married, ending a war!
F.T. had the story earlier but this US link has no paywall
https://nypost.com/2018/04/17/koreas-expected-to-announce-end-of-68-year-war/
It’s such a shame to see the SNP a party that once had some radical polices under Salmond as well as some self respect, essentially turn into “New Labour”. The SNP are now more “New Labour” than Labour are at the moment.
Well said Craig.