It was happy to see Yulia alive and looking reasonably well yesterday, if understandably stressed. Notably, and in sharp contrast to Litvinenko, she leveled no accusations at Russia or anybody else for her poisoning. In Russian she spoke quite naturally. Of the Russian Embassy she said very simply “I am not ready, I do not want their help”. Strangely this is again translated in the Reuters subtitles by the strangulated officialese of “I do not wish to avail myself of their services”, as originally stated in the unnatural Metropolitan Police statement issued on her behalf weeks ago.
“I do not wish to avail myself of their services” is simply not a translation of what she says in Russian and totally misses the “I am not ready” opening phrase of that sentence. My conclusion is that Yulia’s statement was written by a British official and then translated to Russian for her to speak, rather than the other way round. Also that rather than translate what she said in Russian themselves for the subtitles, Reuters have subtitled using a British government script they have been given.
It would of course have been much more convincing had Sergei also been present. Duress cannot be ruled out when he is held by the British authorities. I remain extremely suspicious that, at the very first chance she got in hospital, Yulia managed to get hold of a telephone (we don’t know how, it was not her own and she has not had access to one since) and phone her cousin Viktoria, yet since then the Skripals have made no attempt to contact their family in Russia. That includes no contact to Sergei’s aged mum, Yulia’s grandmother, who Viktoria cares for. Sergei normally calles his mother – who is 89 – regularly. This lack of contact is a worrying sign that the Skripals may be prevented from free communication to the outside world. Yulia’s controlled and scripted performance makes that more rather than less likely.
It is to me particularly concerning that Yulia does not seem to have social media access. The security services have the ability to give her internet risk free through impenetrable VPN. But they appear not to have done that.
We know a little more about the Salisbury attack now:
Nobody – not Porton Down, not the OPCW – has been able to state that the nerve agent found was of Russian manufacture, a fact which the MSM continues to disgracefully fudge with “developed in Russia” phrasing. As is now well known and was reported by Iran in scientific literature, Iran synthesised five novichoks recently. More importantly, the German spying agency BND obtained novichok in the 1990s and it was studied and synthesised in several NATO countries, almost certainly including the UK and USA.
In 1998, chemical formulae for novichok were introduced into the United States NIST National Institute of Standards and Technologies Mass Spectrometry Library database by U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical and Biological Defense Command, but the entry was later deleted. In 2009 Hillary Clinton instructed US diplomats to feign ignorance of novichoks, as revealed by the last paragraph of this Wikileaks released diplomatic cable.
Most telling was the Sky News interview with the head of Porton Down. Interviewer Paul Kelso repeatedly pressed Aitkenhead directly on whether the novichok could have come from Porton Down. Aitkenhead replies “There is no way, anything like that could…leave these four walls. We deal with a number of toxic substances in the work that we do, we’ve got the highest levels of security and controls”. Asked again twice, he each times says the security is so tight “the substance” could not have come from Porton Down. What Aitkenhead does NOT say is “of course it could not have come from here, we have never made it”. Indeed Aitkenhead’s repeated assertion that the security would never have let it out, is tantamount to an admission Porton Down does produce novichok.
If somebody asked you whether the lion that savaged somebody came from your garden, would you reply “Don’t be stupid, I don’t have a lion in my garden” or would you say, repeatedly, “Of course not, I have a very strong lion cage?”. Here you can see Mr Aitkenhead explain repeatedly he has a big lion cage, from 2’25” in.
So the question of where the nerve agent was made remains unresolved. The MSM has continually attempted to lie about this and affirm that all novichok is Russian made. The worst of corporate and state journalism in the UK was exposed when they took the OPCW’s report that it confirmed the findings of Porton Down and presented that as confirming the Johnson/May assertion that it was Russia, whereas the findings of Porton Down were actually – as the Aitkenhead interview stated categorically – that they could not say where it was made.
The other relatively new development is the knowledge that Skripal had not retired but was active for MI6 on gigs briefing overseas intelligence agencies about Russia. This did not increase his threat to Russia, as he told everything he knows a decade ago. But it could provide an element of annoyance that would indeed increase Russian official desire to punish him further.
But the fact he was still very much active has a far greater significance. The government slapped a D(SMA) notice on the identity of Pablo Miller, Skripal’s former MI6 handler who lives close by in Salisbury and who worked for Christopher Steele’s Orbis Intelligence at the time that Orbis produced the extremely unreliable dossier on Trump/Russia. The fact that Skripal had not retired but was still briefing on Russia, to me raises to a near certainty the likelihood that Skripal worked with Miller on the Trump dossier.
I have to say that, as a former Ambassador in the former Soviet Union trained in intelligence analysis and familiar with MI6 intelligence out of Moscow, I agree with every word of this professional dissection of the Orbis Trump dossier by Paul Roderick Gregory, irrespective of Gregory’s politics. In particular this paragraph, which Gregory wrote more than a year before the Salisbury attack, certainly applies to much of the dossier.
I have picked out just a few excerpts from the Orbis report. It was written, in my opinion, not by an ex British intelligence officer but by a Russian trained in the KGB tradition. It is full of names, dates, meetings, quarrels, and events that are hearsay (one an overheard conversation). It is a collection of “this important person” said this to “another important person.” There is no record; no informant is identified by name or by more than a generic title. The report appears to fail the veracity test in the one instance of a purported meeting in which names, dates, and location are provided. Some of the stories are so bizarre (the Rosneft bribe) that they fail the laugh test. Yet, there appears to be a desire on the part of some media and Trump opponents on both sides of the aisle to picture the Orbis report as genuine but unverifiable.
The Russian ex-intelligence officer who we know was in extremely close contact with Orbis at the time the report was written, was Sergei Skripal.
The Orbis report is mince. Skripal knew it was mince and how it was written. Skripal has a history of selling secrets to the highest bidder. The Trump camp has a lot of money. My opinion is that as the Mueller investigation stutters towards ignominious failure, Skripal became a loose end that Orbis/MI6/CIA/Clinton (take your pick) wanted tied off. That seems to me at least as likely as a Russian state assassination. To say Russia is the only possible suspect is nonsense.
The Incompetence Factor
The contradiction between the claim that the nerve agent was so pure it could only be manufactured by a state agent, and yet that it failed because it was administered in an amateur and incompetent fashion, does not bother the mainstream media. Boris Johnson claimed that the UK had evidence that Russia had a ten year programme of stockpiling secret novichok and he had a copy of a Russian assassination manual specifying administration by doorknob. Yet we are asked to believe that the Russians failed to notice that administration by doorknob does not actually work, especially in the rain. How two people both touched the doorknob in closing the door is also unexplained, as is how one policeman became poisoned by the doorknob but numerous others did not.
The explanations by establishment stooges of how this “ten times more powerful than VX” nerve agent only works very slowly, but then very quickly, if it touches the skin, and still does not actually kill you, have struck me as simply desperate. They make May’s ringing claims of a weapon of mass destruction being used on British soil appear somewhat unjustified. Weapon of Upset Tummy does not sound quite so exciting.
To paint a doorknob with something that if it touches you can kill you requires great care and much protective gear. That no strangely dressed individual has been identified by the investigation – which seems to be getting nowhere in identifying the culprit – is the key fact here. None of us know who did this. The finger-pointing at Russia by corporate and state interests seeking to stoke the Cold War is disgusting.
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From Greta Berlin, an American humanitarian.
‘Please share this news with everyone you can think of. The only way we have a hope that these brave sailors will be safe is if the news gets out. There has been very little coverage so far. This is what we have found in the past day.
Quds News Network
5 hrs ·
For the first time, #Gaza will attempt to break the 12-year-long siege by sea
On Tuesday morning, ships will set sail with a number of injured Gazans and patients abroad, carrying the hopes and dreams of the Palestinian people for freedom.
Tuesday’s Gaza flotilla will coincide with the 8th anniversary of an Israeli attack on the Turkish “Mavi Marmara” flotilla, in which nine Turkish activists were killed when the Israeli navy attacked the vessel in international waters. A tenth activist died nearly four years later, succumbing to injuries sustained during the raid.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180527-gaza-boats-will-attempt-to-break-israel-navy-siege-on-tuesday/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-violence/israeli-air-strikes-target-boat-moored-in-gaza-residents-idUSKCN1IO06T
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/boats-carrying-gaza-patients-set-bid-break-israel-blockade-180527150238689.html
Greta Berlin, Co-Founder, the Free Gaza movement
Editor, Freedom Sailors
25th May 2018
____
My PS. Craig covered the Mavi Marmara attack. Several entries. One is about Regev, the UK Ambassador, who was the Israeli government spokesman who attempted to justify the attack on the flotilla.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/?s=mavi+marmara
Israel is never punished. It has impunity.
Canexpat
May 28, 2018 at 04:10
” He [ Tony Robinson ] detests the Wahabbist ideology that is becoming dominant in many UK mosques ”
If you mean by that the use pf political lying, allying oneself to the enemies of Islam and closing one eye to the deep faults in their own community while fixedly holding the British to blame for everything, yes , there is much to hate there. None of that is anything to do with the ideology which is the opposite. The excellent , Qur’an based ideology is just a political slogan for an extremely dirty dogfight between Asians and the British for power.
Islam tells us to invite and explain Islam to those who have never come across it before. Human being being sensitive creatures they are well able to discern the hypocrisy in the Asians hearts. It is difficult to learn about the beauty of something when you are being bombarded with hate from the heart. What the War on Islam has taught us is that all the suffering of the Muslims has been inflicted by other Muslims and that the victims have had to resort to Russia ( and China ) for protection from Muslims who are in league with the Western enemies of Islam.
In other words it’s become increasingly ridiculous to hate the British with searing intensity when the crimes against humanity have been committed by Muslims, and this points to the same having occurred in the colonial past. I agree with you Canexpat that Tommy Robinson is not necessarily racist. The British people hate hypocrisy which has been scattered upon us like mushrooms in copious quantities in the past. We are not responsible for any crimes of the political colonial classes of the past. They oppressed us equally as they oppressed foreigners. Now it turns out it was foreigners grasping for power that were the main oppressors.
It is more than obvious that the rape and exploitation by Asians of English girls was colluded with by the government and the police. The brothel in Coventry where baby P was abused was under the supervision of an Asian police officer. Please don’t tell me a police officer can deceive his superiors. the police claim no jurisdiction over sexual wrongdoing when they are asked to interfere, but when then when Damian Green is innocently browsing porn he is hounded out of office. Sex to them is a tool of coercion in their hands, and they turn a blind eye at other times. Maybe new victims will become available to them for exploitation if they ignore the worst.
As a Muslim revert, I find it is completely impossible to belong to the mosque because of their political hypocrisy, their projection onto the British of their own corruption, and their actual racism. But look the British and the Asians have lived together for 300 years. We know their buttons and they know ours. During the month of Ramadhan the Qur’an is being continually recited and it continuously condemns them for this atrocious behaviour. During the month of Ramadhan, with the continuous censure of Allah, they become bearable to be with, but outside of Ramadhan they revert to a status quo of spite, to which Tommy Robinson IMHO is rational response.
The lesson to be learned from this is that if whatever they were doing for 300 years did not convert the very religious British to Islam, if they continue to do it they will fail to invite the citizens of this country to Islam for another 300 years, in spite of living here. Wow! So long as they bark up the wrong tree, they are completely welcome here, and a blind eye will be turned to their immoral behaviour. My quibble with your use of the phrase Wahhabist ideology is that if they even remotely followed the instructions of the Qur’an, firstly they would get kicked out pretty quick for being truthful, and then they would attract the religious British wholesale to their call.
“Millions of bees dropped dead after GMO corn was planted few weeks ago in Ontario, Canada. The local bee keeper, Dave Schuit who produces honey in Elmwood lost about 37 million bees which are about 600 hives.”
http://dailynativenews.site/2018/03/37-million-bees-found-dead-after-planting-large-gmo-corn-field
The pesticides sprayed onto the Frankenstein crops are thought to be the main culprit in the death of the bees. The US currently allows such pesticides to be used on crops, whilst the EU has banned them.
However we are exiting the EU, and the British government will conclude trade deals with the US which will more than likely see GMO crops treated with those types of pesticides end up on our supermarket or greengrocer shelves for consumption, probably at a lower cost than non GMO crops.
– “…will more than likely see GMO crops treated with those types of pesticides end up on our supermarket or greengrocer shelves for consumption…”
And will establish an outpost on the east side of the Atlantic, right next door to the Eurasian landmass.
Clark.
37 million bee’s, if we were to equate that to people and countries, then the population of Canada, Morocco and Afghanistan, would all be dead, as all have roughly 37 million inhabitants, take your pick.
The US is a major producer of GMO crops, and as you say they’ll soon have staging post in Britain.
No need to worry RoS. They have already planned for how they are going to pollinate crops after the bees are poisoned into extinction. Plans are proceeding to develop tiny AI guided bee-sized drones to do the pollinating that bees have done for us for thousands of years. And if we can’t get honey any more, that’s no problem as there will still be lots of <A href="http://drhyman.com/blog/2011/05/13/5-reasons-high-fructose-corn-syrup-will-kill-you/"corn syrup from GMO corn that we can eat instead.
No doubt Monsanto et al will, for a price, in a few years time be happy to bundle patented bee-drones along with sales of patented seeds and patented poisons to make sure the industrial agriculture model continues to poison off more and more of the unrequired useless eaters who will themselves also be easily replaced by AI guided robots if needed.
Pollinating drones to replace bees: https://youtu.be/-hUPRcY46Fc
Link for first embedded URL above which does not work as written: http://drhyman.com/blog/2011/05/13/5-reasons-high-fructose-corn-syrup-will-kill-you/%22corn
Ok third time lucky:
http://drhyman.com/blog/2011/05/13/5-reasons-high-fructose-corn-syrup-will-kill-you/
Silvio.
Thank you for the links, AI bee’s, they just don’t appeal to me. In China apple farmers are pollinating their orchards themselves since the bee’s in the region died out.
Mr Mints will be welcomed here by May and all the other Conservative Friends of Israel.
‘Honorary professor and member of the capital campaign cabinet of Tel Aviv University.[citation needed]
Member of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University.[8]
President (and founder) of the Boris Mints Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions to Global Challenges at Tel Aviv University.[9]
Chairman of the board of trustees of the Conference of European Rabbis’
‘In 2015, Mints became a supporter and sponsor of the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions to Global Challenges, named in his honor, in collaboration with Tel Aviv University.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Mints
Personally I prefer Mint Chocs.
Q How did his mother, Lusia Izrailevna Milter, have a grandfather with the name Mints? Is is a common name?
Mr Mints cont’d. Unlike many other immigrants to the UK, there seems to be no problem with visas and permits.
“The situation here is tense.” Russian oligarch Boris Mints moves to London with extended family
https://en.crimerussia.com/oligarchs/the-situation-here-is-tense-russian-oligarch-boris-mints-moves-to-london-with-extended-family/
Russian pension fund Budushchee up for sale after bank bailouts: sources
Tatiana Voronova, Olga Sichkar, Darya Korsunskaya
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian businessman Boris Mints wants to sell the country’s third-largest pension fund, Budushchee, after two banks in its portfolio were bailed out, potentially triggering up to $370 million in losses, five people familiar with the matter said.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-pensionfund-sale/russian-pension-fund-budushchee-up-for-sale-after-bank-bailouts-sources-idUKKBN1GZ23Y
September 19, 2017
Russia’s O1 Properties in talks to sell ‘significant stake’ to Chinese investor: sources
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-russia-o1-china/russias-o1-properties-in-talks-to-sell-significant-stake-to-chinese-investor-sources-idUKKCN1BU18A
‘O1 Properties owns and manages 15 business centers in Moscow with a total value of around $4 billion, according to the company. Businessman Boris Mints and his family own a majority stake in O1 Properties, while global lender Goldman Sachs (GS.N) is among other shareholders.’
oh, Goldman Sachs! Not that I really expected Ivanov, Sidorov or any other russian investor…
OT I know, but it is good to see Craig’s series on Philip Cross is the basis of Eric Zeusse’s article that appeared on Zerohedge last night. Craig is described as “…the great investigative journalist Craig Murray,”
Apologies if anyone has mentioned this already..
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-27/why-you-should-never-use-wikipedia
Not at all, don’t apologise, Craig is the terrier par excellence and any bone thrown will suffice for Zeusse.
I note in the Guardian that Give-Davidson is being promoted as the Tory dream team. A dream for Scotland perhaps but a nightmare for the remainder of us. Quisling Sturgeon will have to up her game.
No, I mean Gove a dog a bone, not Give.
No you got it right the first time I’m afraid, Davidson is attempting to give Scotland, all wrapped up in a nice new ribbon to the Tory British government.
Just. Do. It.
(UDI).
You’re surely not waiting for Corbyn to bring your ship to harbour?
Why “Quisling” Sturgeon? Surely it’s Quisling Davidson?
Well, one weasels to deceive and the other just weasels. But both are suspect appendages to the body politic.
Republicofscotland
May 28, 2018 at 10:31
“Millions of bees dropped dead after GMO ….”
GMO, fracking, feeding sheep to cows, torture-brainwashing Muslims, second amendment, daytime TV, sub-prime mortgages, nuclear bombs. What do these all have in common? They make money out of doing stupid things and then they make money out of solving the problems they made. Perhaps they have invented a microdrone which will pollinate crops instead of bees.
If you don’t kill the bees, is there a market for artificial insects? if you don’t pollute the tapwater , is there a market for bottled water? If you didn’t make cows mad, is there a market for recording every single movement of every single cow to every different field by GPS? If you didn’t torture-rendition-brainwash Muslims, is there a market for a death-cult which can be used to fight Western colonial wars?
Giyane.
You make some very good points there, as people will always find, shall we call them creative ways, of cutting out a niche in the market, no matter the detriment to the flora and fauna, or its citizens for that matter of a nation.
Of course it is in man’s natute to do so whether it be King Leopold exploiting the Congo and its people or the British exploitation of India, in order to flood China with opium.
Global corporations have merely moved onto more subtle ways of exploiting the land and their fellow citizens in order to make profit. Which has led to thousand year old coral reefs dying due to acidic and ever warming sea’s, sea’s that are now teeming with plastic in all forms.
Or the bulldozing of ancient forests in South America or Madagascar. Lets not forget the ivory trade has decimated the rhino and elephant populations as well, China now demands the scales of the timid and reclusive pangolin, which will dissappear from the face of the earth, very soon unless China’s insatiable appetite for its scales isn’t curtailed.
Of course other forms of exploitation are closer to home, take your white goods for example, they are designed to fit the Planned Obsolescence charter, to keep you digging yourr hand into your pocket.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
giyane
This post has an almost Nietzschian grandeur. Congratulations.
quasi_verbatim
May 28, 2018 at 11:33
” Gove-Davidson is being promoted as the Tory dream team ”
You can understand why the Tories might get through their leaders quickly when there is nothing to be gained from being in opposition, but for them to do it because there is nothing to be gained from being in power, is a totally different ball-game. there is obviously no intrinsic personal satisfaction in running a 1984 lie-machine sub-state of the kingdom of Israel. But there again what would happen if they actually told the Zionists to bog off like Princess Anne?
WUT
I simply can’t understand why the symptoms of WUT , weapon of upset tummy, requires a trachaeotomy. I can understand why when I have an infection in my kidney for instance they give me an injection in my arm, but are we saying that they had to stick a knife in Yulia’s gullet just to be able to make it look like she’s had a brush with nerve agent. The only thing missing from this Frankenstein Hollywood set is a few bedwragged Anglo-Saxon war-lords raised from their local chalk burial mounds disturbed by the M30 and a fan to waft their long bedwraggled air around.
YCMIU . They do all the time. It’s called the film industry. If we can do this here in the UK, why can’t we have our leaders rising to the occasion and growing green claws and dripping blood from their fangs. then we could be reassured that we are definitely in the hands of madmen/women, instead of worrying we are missing something all the time.
I know it’s a bank holiday, but you can’t all be in B & Q buying new blinds. There again maybe you can.
Don’t you know? There’s a Bank Holiday special on Anti Nerve Agent doorknobs. BOGOF and a total guarantee from Her Majesty’s Government that you and your family* will be safe from Novichoks. (*Guinea pigs excepted.)
Yeah I noticed the Novichoks aisle, is right next to the door knob aisle. ?
X marks the spot.
The Heil:
Fresh turf marks spot where poisoned Russian spy and his daughter were found slumped on a bench as sealed off Salisbury businesses reopen for first time since nerve agent attack
Thoroughfare near bench has been closed since nerve agent attack 11 weeks ago
Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia were found unconscious on bench on March 4
Businesses are preparing to reopen today as Salisbury makes steps in recovery
Shoppers were avoiding area over health and safety fears, harming businesses
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5774251/Salisbury-thoroughfare-reopen-11-weeks-Russian-spy-daughter-poisoned.html#
Many silly photos and 3 videos.
eg http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/05/26/11/4CA3EE9500000578-5774251-Swathes_of_the_city_were_sealed_off_as_investigators_moved_in_be-a-4_1527331148175.jpg
Can we have a caption competition for it?
Any news from OPCW on Douma chemical attack?
John Helmer’s detailed analysis of Reuters and Yulia in the Garden:
http://johnhelmer.net/yulia-skripals-postscript-what-did-she-write-and-what-didnt-she-say-in-the-london-garden-event-plus-the-neurology-evidence/#more-19247
Meanwhile in the land of the free, or not so free.
ICE’s largest family detention centre, Karnes County Residential Centre in Texas, run by contractor GEO Group, has a prison bus just for babies.
https://www.geogroup.com/News-Detail/NewsID/428
That’ll be for the babies of all those single-parent prisoners. Charles Dickens was born in prison. Perhaps they’re trying to encourage the development of literary skills among the US’s infant population.
“Perhaps they’re trying to encourage the development of literary skills among the US’s infant population.”
A noble thought, however in my opinion I’d say the US privately financed prison system, is just catering for all angles of imprisonment including babies.
Prison rates in the US are the world’s highest, at 724 people per 100,000, and in my opinion, the US judicial service to a degree makes sure those privately run prisons are well stocked, it doesn’t take too great an imagination to see what’s in it for the judiciary, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, so to speak.
@ Republicofscotland May 28, 2018 at 16:13
A US Judge was actually sentenced to jail for supplying juveniles (I think, may just have been accused) to privately owned jails, for a ‘kickback’.
I’m in my cups, so I won’t search the link; anyone interested can.
People here seem to be taking MI5 at its word about scene contamination in Salisbury.
We don’t actually know any results from any of the hundreds of swipe tests; claims have been put forward but nothing of a scientific nature has been disclosed. Any assays conducted were done at Porton Down as Met Police hardly have the necessary facilities. But assayed for what and how, could it even be done quantitatively?
It would be very difficult to pull out one specific chemical present at best in microgram quantities from the many thousands present in environmental samples. If an organophosphate was present, whether case-related or salted in later or pesticide drift, enzyme inhibition could perhaps be used with adequate sensitivity but minimal specificity.
My view is MP simply stored the swipes in an evidence room, no testing was done. The cemetery and Alexander’s graveside flowers could have been given the all-clear to provide credibility or divert attention away from the mother-in-law revenge theory.
I looked at the park bench on google satellite and on street view (which has only the corner with the cctv camera sign). The bench (which has been removed along with its bricks and sod) faces the World of Cards and has its back to the park lawn. It is not credible that someone could come up from behind and spray, nor that a busy park bench could be pre-treated on a Sunday afternoon.
Because the corner cctv has not been released, we don’t know if the Skripals were already collapsing in Market Walk, just barely making the bench, or were sprayed there from the front.
Since DS Nick Bailey did not join the Skripals at Zizzi’s for risote, food poisoning (resp. poisoned food) seem ruled out, assuming Bailey was genuinely affected by the same agent. A person of Bailey’s rank is not first responder to a routine park drug overdose; the young passerby who wiped foam from Sergei’s mouth onto his sleeve was never affected. Is he being held incommunicado at the country estate as Yulia? Did he get a Laura Ashley shirt to go with Yulia’s expensive dress? We don’t know.
The Salisbury Hospital has not been forthcoming, but like Porton Down on Russian state attribution, neither have they been willing to outright lie. Both can see the clumsy official narrative unravelling as time goes on and want no part of that backlash.
The complete absence of secondarily affected citizenry in the immediate afterward shows site decontamination to be an absurd abundance of caution. Commonsense prevailed on big ticket items: the (heavily contaminated?) medevac helicopter was not set aside and the expensive Skripal home, where small pets lived for weeks afterwards, was not demolished after all. After the drama of military low-riders hauling off the tow truck, we never did learn what became of them (simply returned?).
It all goes to show however, that after a real attack with nerve agent, anthrax or radionuclide, that a city center could not possibly be cleaned and would have to be abandoned.
Unfortunately Tom, the media and politicians, are all too aware that the vast majority of the UK public are too busy watching Eastenders/Emmerdale/Coronation Street to worry about all that, and any way, since when has the BBC or any of the MSM actually given us “real news”?
You are quite right here. We may never find out what happened at Salisbury. Indeed, we may never know any more than we know today. The press by its nature have a short attention span. They’ve moved on already without the slightest effort to interview or investigate. It will take a significant new disclosure for them to return. And why would they be able to report freely in the future, rather than still be under some official secrets act?
When the Czech president contradicted his minister about making novichoks at research scale, he said there is no reason to lie about it. That highly unusual statement in itself was big news. Govts lie reflexively. False flags and the lies to cover them up, how often are they admitted to later?
Future news: Sergei will be trotted out at some point but remember nothing and say less. It is not in Yulia’s self interest to make disruptive disclosures, so nothing there. DS Nick Bailey will eventually return to duty, re-assigned to a different post, again requesting privacy for his family. Scotland Yard will keep its investigation open indefinitely and so naturally can say nothing. Books will be written by people that know less than people here. Wikipedia articles will pile on MSM citations. NHS drs will publish out a paper describing their unusual case and successful management of symptoms; that will be eighteen months in peer review and not address anything prior to presentation at A&E as beyond article scope. The expelled diplomats in the minor poodle countries will largely return to their posts if they haven’t already.
I rather wonder if the Russians have proof-positive on who did what but are holding it back as kompromat over the UK govt: silence in exchange for who knows what. They have highly advanced investigative tools so why else has nothing been revealed.
Tom, your statement is not strictly correct. Antibodies are used to detect picograms/ml in samples (I used to regularly measure a variety of proteins secreted by cells into media containg the complex mixture called foetal bovine serum (aka blood devoid of blood cells from aborted calf foetuses) and such systems are semi automated. They took about one hour from sample collection to final result.
Obviously, antibody systems need to be developed for specific agents (and in the case of deadly agents, using libraries in bacteria will be necessary), but I know of other sensing systems which could be used instead of antibodies and I know the technology platform was of interest to DSTL.
The concept that you cannot detect tiny amounts of a soecific molecule within mixtures is long since refuted.
Antibodies to small molecules? They are not necessarily antigenic and the list of possible toxins in endless. PD reported back in two days; no custom reagents were possible.Worse, toxins covalently bonded to the larger AChE, which might be antigenic, are not in this instance because of the deeply buried active site. Observe how the OPCW-certified labs do their testing: gas/liquid chromatography followed by mass spectroscopy.
>The concept that you cannot detect tiny amounts of a specific molecule within mixtures is long since refuted.
It depends but here it is irrelevent. Hospitals test for organophosphate poisoning by via inhibition of enzymatic activity of butyrylcholinestase. While that scarcely identifies the particular substance involved, it does loosely quantitate risk.
No test data has been released on any object in Salisbury. I’ll stand by that statement. We have no idea what if anything was even tested, much less what if anything tested contaminated at a meaningful level. It is a wild extrapolation to assume, in a politicized situation like this, that just because an object like a chair at Zizzi’s or sod in the park, is removed, that (1) that it was tested at all and (2) that it tested positive at a significant level.
Indeed, no one else has been affected in the slightest per the A&E physician. There was no shut-down until some days later; hundreds of people would have been exposed by then. The massive cleanup was strictly for show; there was no risk to the public.
@ Tom Smythe May 28, 2018 at 15:18
‘People here seem to be taking MI5 at its word about scene contamination in Salisbury.,,,’
There are many, I suspect most, who have as much confidence in MI5/6 as they do in the Tory shower regime.
A burn-your-fingers-hot smoking gun, if it’s real. Its provenance is unknown to me.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeIEwioX0AAX0HF.jpg
I’ve long been of the view that Steele’s “Dossier” was the product of a rogue, inter-agency Anglo-American cabal that was not so much anti-Trump as utterly corrupt and long used to putting their (wo)man in office. With the dossier, they got fed crap, and (IMHO) Skripal was instrumental in feeding it to them.
The signatory on the linked document, Robert Hannigan, left his post abruptly 3 days before Trump was inaugurated. “Family illness”, we’re told. The addressee, alas, remains at his post.
So it would appear that it was the UK government that ordered the production of the Steele dossier. Why would it be GCHQ — and not MI6– that would sponsor such a project? I am unaware of NSA doing such things. I think that’s the job of the CIA.
The fact that the memo speaks of “former MI5 agent Michael Steele” suggests that it may be bogus. I believe it is Christopher Steele, and that he is/was an M I 6 (spaces necessary to get past Autocorrect) officer. Would the head of GCHQ make mistakes like those in an official document addressed to Boris Johnson?
@ Erebus May 28, 2018 at 15:39
It may well be a hoax: ‘The GCHQ ” project fulsome ” letter is a hoax[1]’: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1197251/pg1
My bad, the perfectly reproduced signature, and the Steele mismatch all but damn it.
Meanwhile Michael Gove and Ruth Davidson are in some quarters being touted as the new Tory dream team. Gove to temporarily take over from Theresa May, to smooth the way for Davidson as the PM, is the latest in thing.
For those of you that are outside Scotland but reside in the rUK. I feel it’s my duty to warn you about RD in advance, boy are you guys in for a shock.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/ruth-davidson-lie-watch/comment-page-1/#comment-2365491
Wings over Sommerset more like.
Bath actually.
Mary Devjevski, writing in the Independent agrees with you on many points.
She remarks that there has not been much more information come from the latest interview with Yulia . that no new facts as to any other possible actors have been pursued or have come to light. Nothing more on Sergei’s jobs here, or why he was living very close to his handler, zilch.
What it set right is, that no chemical agent was mentioned and that nobody blamed Russia for the attack. She further made it clear that the chaotic responses, diversions, different statements retracted statements , that all of this chaos was generated here, from this Government and its intelligence services.
This was written last Friday in the i paper.
As to the arch conflict that created the Nahkba shoot children dead many times, has incarcerated them and deprived them of their parents, it has to be fought with the same measures that the rogue state is using to supply Ghaza, creating shortages by design, that is why BDS is justified, just as with a past boycott of Apartheid South Africa.
Avi’s travel bans should be reciprocated, we should say thanks to him for joining in the BDS effort, most would have refuse such an offer anyway. Cultural exchanges, any events with murderous regimes should be cancelled. In future politicians should be Friends of all countries, not give access and sucker to those who are trying to undermine foreign policy aims and objections to suit themselves, who use financial incentives, all paid for trips and election donations to garner influence for their actions.
Politicians are first and foremost to serve their constituents and the national interest, not that of countries that are murdering unarmed demonstrators, avoiding scrutiny, ignore UN resolutions galore, deny access for nuclear inspections, a war mongering country which has been led recently by a string of fraudulent politicians, hallo Bibi, should not be acceptable anymore to fetter our elected politicians.
BDS, bds , the more the better,
City spivs set to make another killing from privatisation of a national asset.
Govt to pursue plan for multi-billion pound RBS stake sale
http://news.sky.com/story/government-to-pursue-plan-for-multibillion-pound-rbs-stake-sale-11388204
Neil Clark writes on the Skripal case.
Yulia Skripal Speaks – But There Are Still More Questions Than Answers
28.5.2018
Last week’s surprise television appearance by Yulia Skripal, recorded at a secret location somewhere in England, went some way to assuage concerns that many have had for her well-being.
/..
https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201805281064876172-yulia-skripal-novichok-poisoning/
I do not accept the lies Tom Smythe (earlier). It was a sham. A psy op.
Has anyone read the yards of stuff from Akismet/Automattic? The link is below this comment box.
https://automattic.com/privacy-notice/
OT but CM’s Data / Privacy statement stands out by reason of its clarity. Good drafting by someone.
I just heard George Galloway say on Radio Sputnik that, if the Tories win the next general election, he will no longer oppose Scottish independence.
Don’t know what Radio Sputnik is but he said the same thing on his RT Sputnik show when he was interviewing Ken Livingstone: https://www.rt.com/shows/sputnik/427850-ken-livingstone-guy-henry
George is actually quite a good interviewer so I kind of like him from that aspect and his general politics are pretty good. However, I’ve never understood why he was against Scottish Independence so much. Seems like he is slowly seeing the light and coming round. It would be good see him doing pro-independence stuff in the next independence referendum campaign.
That interview of Ken Livingstone is the same one that was on Radio Sputnik.
He’s against it because a Scottish nation of just 5 million, allied to the EU, will be ANYTHING BUT independent:
it will be dependent — on the EU and Brussels.
I think he has a point there.
Disclaimer: I am not a Scot. I’m not even British.
What’s needed is a federation of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the North of England that is independent from the UK. Let the South of England go its own misguided way.
You could be on to something.
@ lysias May 28, 2018 at 20:48
Ain’t that big of the slippery c**t.
He also recently stopped a Bristol TV interview, by offering Richard Gage an interview on his program (which would stop the Bristol interview). At the very last minute, the slimeball cancelled the interview, on the pretext that a really serious item had cropped up (another US school shooting).
Sure, the geezer is good on Palestine, but in other areas he is an a**hole.
That was such a dirty trick on Richard Gage, it should ring bells among his followers – he is ‘highly sceptical’ about 9/11, yet offered Richard Gage a platform which clashed with a scheduled TV interview; it was accepted, as it was higher profile than the Bristol interview, then at the last minute was cancelled.
Billionaire crook Roman Abramovich has been recognised as a citizen of I??ael.
Given that to have their I??aeli citizenship “recognised” by the I??aeli regime it is sufficient for a person to prove that they are J__ish while starting to reside in the territory it runs, and given that Abramovich is the chairman of the Federation of J__ish Communities of Russia, it’s unlikely they even made him take his trousers down.
Note that I??ael does not extradite its citizens on charges of having committed crimes before they migrated to “I??ael”. (Source.) Which is another way of saying it’s a haven for J__ish criminals from around the world. Only very rarely is there a problem with a J__ish person immigrating. In fact the only case I am aware of is Meyer Lansky.
Anyway…I??aeli citizens may usually enter Britain without a visa. Will Abramovich be allowed to?
What possible reason might the Home Office come up with for allowing him into Britain carrying his I??aeli passport but not his Russian one? He should be on the immigration officers’ watch list. Is he?
@ N_ May 28, 2018 at 21:12
Is*ael, like the Vatican, welcome the scum of the earth into their bosom (Dame Shirley Porter, Lady Porter DBE is an example, certainly not the worst, into I**ael.
Bliar into the Catholic Church. The Vatican has a habit of supporting and covering for War Criminals – Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Ante Pavelić, Pinochet, Murdani (architect of the brutal invasion an occupation of East Timor – I saw on a video ‘Pope’ JP II personally giving Murdani Holy Communion).
Yep, the Vatican just loves (Right-wing War Criminals). And I**ael’s ‘IDF’ are War Criminals.
‘Taking orders’ is not a defence.
This is one way to get round the UK Visa problem.
Roman Abramovich becomes Israeli citizen after UK delays visa renewal
28 May 2018 | 19:37 GMT
Russia’s Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, has been granted Israeli citizenship. The move coincides with a delayed renewal of his UK visa, which some view as part of a crackdown on wealthy Russians.
Abramovich, who is worth an estimated £8.6 billion ($11.4 billion), exercised his right under Israel’s Law of Return, which allows Jews from anywhere in the world to gain Israeli citizenship.
Incidentally, with his new citizenship, Abramovich has instantly become Israel’s richest person – and perhaps he’ll find it easier to get back into the UK as an Israeli citizen. Unlike the Russians, the Israelis do get a visa-free stay in the UK for up to six months straight, but it’s not clear if the decision on the Tier 1 investor visa that he needs is actually affected by the citizenship of the applicant.
/..
https://www.rt.com/business/428057-abramovich-becomes-wealthiest-citizen-israel/
Yeh..
Oor bus is GO for Dumfries Indy march / Rally. The YES Bikers are going too…Watch out Mr Mundel
I’m Pretty Deaf .. I am a Martial Arts Expert… I cant see why this lone woman had to be Shot..Well Fucking Done. GENOCIDAL. COWARDS –
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/05/28/563120/Israel-deaf-Palestinian-woman-alQuds
OT But relevant to general discussion.
https://mobile.almasdarnews.com/article/chemical-weapons-watch-dog-questions-if-assad-destroyed-entire-arsenal/
The head of the OPCW questions that Assad has destroyed entire chemical arsenal. This doubt, after the organisation has certified that Syria has destroyed all facilities in government held areas but having subsequently produced reports that whilst not blaming the SG directly, heavily infers guilt, based on samples provided by the white Helmets.
Would this be the same man who casually stated that the amount of novichok used in Salisbury was between 50and 100 grams?
Does the OPCW retain any credibility?
Interesting SA.. Cheers
the UsA warning Syria Not to Deffend it’self.. that’s one You Could Not Have Made Up ..Cnuts.
@ earl of the Clyde May 28, 2018 at 22:29
Luciferian soul-sold ‘Cnuts’
It seems that only one country in the ME is allowed to, even pre-empitively, defend itself and often against ‘unknown unknowns’.
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz has been able to contact Philip Cross, although he didn’t tell them much. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/russian-and-leftists-witch-hunt-against-pro-israel-wikipedia-editor-1.6115917 :
I’ve now read the whole Ha’aretz article, and on balance it seems pretty fair to me.
They just posted and got a reply on the Philip Cross Talk Page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Philip_Cross#One_man_army_or_army_of_men?
Anyone could have done that, and it tells us nothing.
@Clark
Mr. Clark, may I kindly direct your attention to:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/05/yulia-skripal-and-the-salisbury-wut/comment-page-8/#comment-752501
I’ll await your apology.
By the by –and this is subtle– but in the current context, ‘escalation’ is weasel wording in the same category as ‘clashes’.
You gave no indication that you were quoting parodying until after, so I’ll apologise thus:
I’m very sorry for your misleading comment.
I won’t take your not being able to apologize against you.
But you do realize that for an ‘escalation’ to occur, two parties must be seen as doing the escalating.
I can count.
I count only one.
One party is doing the killing.
The other is doing the dying.
True, the others die in ever greater numbers.
Is that their part of the escalation, as you call it?
I regard the entire Israel-Palestine conflict as complex, there has been much wrong on multiple sides, and how it will ever be solved, most regrettably, I cannot see. All I can suggest is the principle:
TRUTH, Justice, Peace.
At present, the conflict isn’t even presented honestly. In the so-called West, the corporate media presentation is dishonestly warped to greatly favour Israel, great injustices towards Palestinians are omitted from coverage or greatly played down, and there is widespread public ignorance about the establishment of Israel and Israel’s many contraventions of international law. However, in various other countries notably Iran, and among sections of those critical of Israel, there are omissions and distortions in the opposite direction.
Views are highly polarised, all parties blaming others on an opposing side and overlooking or rationalising their own side’s offences. An essential step is for all parties to consider the situation with uncompromising self scrutiny, and accept each other’s justified grievances. We are nowhere near that at present, and moving in the wrong direction
My personal feeling is to hold the West almost entirely responsible for the conflict, more so even than Israel itself. Moves to establish Israel began before WWII, but should have been halted; instead they were accelerated post-war. Establishing Israel in Palestine as a homeland for the survivors of the Holocaust was incredibly irresponsible because this population included many of the most traumatised people in the world. Encouraging and facilitating their immigration into Palestine amid multiple Arab countries known to be hostile to both the people and the establishment of the new state virtually guaranteed the present bitter conflict.
Again personally, I place much greater responsibility upon the Israelis than the Palestinians, because (1) Israel is the newcomer state that has displaced the Palestinians and holds the people of Gaza imprisoned, (2) Israel is far stronger militarily, (3) Israel is expansionist, and (4) the balance of casualties is greatly in Israel’s favour. But I can also guess at the personal desperation and protectiveness of Holocaust survivors and their descendants in a small land surrounded by hostility.
Clarke
A good reasonable summary. However two facts that make a likely solution untenable and we have to be honest:
1. The Palestinians were not responsible for the holocaust but have been severely punished.
2. The settler state has never been one to accept international law, having the backing of all the strongest nations and blocking any actions that may bring a compromise.
Thanks. I will list Haaretz with other MSN that I will never visit again (unless they change tack ever).
Of course it’s always safest to trust information from Official Sources:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/22/saudi-arabia-accidentally-prints-textbook-showing-yoda-sitting/
Clark.. I am blown down by this nonsense#.. Stay Free