In my last post I set out the official Government account of the events in the Skripal Case. Here I examine the credibility of this story. Next week I shall look at alternative explanations.
Russia has a decade long secret programme of producing and stockpiling novichok nerve agents. It also has been training agents in secret assassination techniques, and British intelligence has a copy of the Russian training manual, which includes instruction on painting nerve agent on doorknobs.
The only backing for this statement by Boris Johnson is alleged “intelligence”, and unfortunately the “intelligence” about Russia’s secret novichok programme comes from exactly the same people who brought you the intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s WMD programme, proven liars. Furthermore, the question arises why Britain has been sitting on this intelligence for a decade and doing nothing about it, including not telling the OPCW inspectors who certified Russia’s chemical weapons stocks as dismantled.
If Russia really has a professional novichok assassin training programme, why was the assassination so badly botched? Surely in a decade of development they would have discovered that the alleged method of gel on doorknob did not work? And where is the training manual which Boris Johnson claimed to possess? Having told the world – including Russia -the UK has it, what is stopping the UK from producing it, with marks that could identify the specific copy erased?
The Russians chose to use this assassination programme to target Sergei Skripal, a double agent who had been released from jail in Russia some eight years previously.
It seems remarkable that the chosen target of an attempt that would blow the existence of a secret weapon and end the cover of a decade long programme, should be nobody more prominent than a middle ranking double agent who the Russians let out of jail years ago. If they wanted him dead they could have killed him then. Furthermore the attack on him would undermine all future possible spy swaps. Putin therefore, on this reading, was willing to sacrifice both the secrecy of the novichok programme and the spy swap card just to attack Sergei Skripal. That seems highly improbable.
Only the Russians can make novichok and only the Russians had a motive to attack the Skripals.
The nub of the British government’s approach has been the shocking willingness of the corporate and state media to parrot repeatedly the lie that the nerve agent was Russian made, even after Porton Down said they could not tell where it was made and the OPCW confirmed that finding. In fact, while the Soviet Union did develop the “novichok” class of nerve agents, the programme involved scientists from all over the Soviet Union, especially Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia, as I myself learnt when I visited the newly decommissioned Nukus testing facility in Uzbekistan in 2002.
Furthermore, it was the USA who decommissioned the facility and removed equipment back to the United States. At least two key scientists from the programme moved to the United States. Formulae for several novichok have been published for over a decade. The USA, UK and Iran have definitely synthesised a number of novichok formulae and almost certainly others have done so too. Dozens of states have the ability to produce novichok, as do many sophisticated non-state actors.
As for motive, the Russian motive might be revenge, but whether that really outweighs the international opprobrium incurred just ahead of the World Cup, in which so much prestige has been invested, is unclear.
What is certainly untrue is that only Russia has a motive. The obvious motive is to attempt to blame and discredit Russia. Those who might wish to do this include Ukraine and Georgia, with both of which Russia is in territorial dispute, and those states and jihadist groups with which Russia is in conflict in Syria. The NATO military industrial complex also obviously has a plain motive for fueling tension with Russia.
There is of course the possibility that Skripal was attacked by a private gangster interest with which he was in conflict, or that the attack was linked to Skripal’s MI6 handler Pablo Miller’s work on the Orbis/Steele Russiagate dossier on Donald Trump.
Plainly, the British governments statements that only Russia had the means and only Russia had the motive, are massive lies on both counts.
The Russians had been tapping the phone of Yulia Skripal. They decided to attack Sergei Skripal while his daughter was visiting from Moscow.
In an effort to shore up the government narrative, at the time of the Amesbury attack the security services put out through Pablo Miller’s long term friend, the BBC’s Mark Urban, that the Russians “may have been” tapping Yulia Skripal’s phone, and the claim that this was strong evidence that the Russians had indeed been behind the attack.
But think this through. If that were true, then the Russians deliberately attacked at a time when Yulia was in the UK rather than when Sergei was alone. Yet no motive has been adduced for an attack on Yulia or why they would attack while Yulia was visiting – they could have painted his doorknob with less fear of discovery anytime he was alone. Furthermore, it is pretty natural that Russian intelligence would tap the phone of Yulia, and of Sergei if they could. The family of double agents are normal targets. I have no doubt in the least, from decades of experience as a British diplomat, that GCHQ have been tapping Yulia’s phone. Indeed, if tapping of phones is seriously put forward as evidence of intent to murder, the British government must be very murderous indeed.
Their trained assassin(s) painted a novichok on the doorknob of the Skripal house in the suburbs of Salisbury. Either before or after the attack, they entered a public place in the centre of Salisbury and left a sealed container of the novichok there.
The incompetence of the assassination beggars belief when compared to British claims of a long term production and training programme. The Russians built the heart of the International Space Station. They can kill an old bloke in Salisbury. Why did the Russians not know that the dose from the door handle was not fatal? Why would trained assassins leave crucial evidence lying around in a public place in Salisbury? Why would they be conducting any part of the operation with the novichok in a public area in central Salisbury?
Why did nobody see them painting the doorknob? This must have involved wearing protective gear, which would look out of place in a Salisbury suburb. With Skripal being resettled by MI6, and a former intelligence officer himself, it beggars belief that MI6 did not fit, as standard, some basic security including a security camera on his house.
The Skripals both touched the doorknob and both functioned perfectly normally for at least five hours, even able to eat and drink heartily. Then they were simultaneously and instantaneously struck down by the nerve agent, at a spot in the city centre coincidentally close to where the assassins left a sealed container of the novichok lying around. Even though the nerve agent was eight times more deadly than Sarin or VX, it did not kill the Skripals because it had been on the doorknob and affected by rain.
Why did they both touch the outside doorknob in exiting and closing the door? Why did the novichok act so very slowly, with evidently no feeling of ill health for at least five hours, and then how did it strike both down absolutely simultaneously, so that neither can call for help, despite their being different sexes, weights, ages, metabolisms and receiving random completely uncontrolled doses. The odds of that happening are virtually nil. And why was the nerve agent ultimately ineffective?
Detective Sergeant Bailey attended the Skripal house and was also poisoned by the doorknob, but more lightly. None of the other police who attended the house were affected.
Why was the Detective Sergeant affected and nobody else who attended the house, or the scene where the Skripals were found? Why was Bailey only lightly affected by this extremely deadly substance, of which a tiny amount can kill?
Four months later, Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess were rooting about in public parks, possibly looking for cigarette butts, and accidentally came into contact with the sealed container of a novichok. They were poisoned and Dawn Sturgess subsequently died.
If the nerve agent had survived four months because it was in a sealed container, why has this sealed container now mysteriously disappeared again? If Rowley and Sturgess had direct contact straight from the container, why did they not both die quickly? Why had four months searching of Salisbury and a massive police, security service and military operation not found this container, if Rowley and Sturgess could?
I am, with a few simple questions, demolishing what is the most ludicrous conspiracy theory I have ever heard – the Salisbury conspiracy theory being put forward by the British government and its corporate lackies.
My next post will consider some more plausible explanations of this affair.
What’s the maximum range of a drone sent from Porton Down?
Chris, that would be one of the most likely and safe (to the operative) methods of delivering a binary nerve agent, given that the two mixed components have to be kept apart prior to delivery.
This is why this kind of nerve agent is usually delivered by bomb, missile or artillery shell.
Andy
As far as we know novichok is not a binary agent.
If you look here
https://www.google.ru/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/which-countries-expelled-russian-diplomats-over-ex-spy-sergei-skripal-attack-2018-3
you may find it weird about the number of expelled russian diplomats. US 60, UK 23, Ukraine 13, other countries – 4 and less than 4.
May be this expelling had another goal? I mean, if they try to hide something, so they certainly don’t want russian diplomats with their established relations and protected communication channels and diplomatic transports going anywhere around gathering information.
Thus, extreme rudeness of Mr. Williamson can be explained. They really don’t want any russian anywhere close to the Skripal affair.
Normally when you expel diplomats they are quietly replaced, otherwise after a few years there would be noone left to expel!
I am sure there are enough non-diplomatic sleepers in UK to ensure Russia can keep operating in UK.
Tatyana, I also wondered about the actual reasons for the rather hasty mass expulsions of diplomats, and Russia’s reciprocity. One thing is certain: those reasons are unlikely to become public knowledge for decades. However, events such as the Skripal charade, which is like a giant smokescreen for whatever is really going on, would probably contain a grain of truth. For example, if one or more rogue agents, working inside the international diplomatic corps, are believed to have weaponised some kind of chemical, and this is taken as a serious threat, various states could work together to create the conditions to remove one or more suspects among a larger group being expelled under cover of the Novichok scare. Russian state may or may not be party to such deception, but it would work better with their cooperation.
In short, I’m theorising that diplomatic staff were not expelled *because* of Novichok, but rather that the Novichok story was created at least in part to facilitate the expulsion (or replacement) of one or more diplomatic staff.
I read somewhere that Trump told the State Department to match what the European countries were doing – meaning expel 2 or 3, like they were mainly doing. Apparently he was incandescent when State deliberately misinterpreted him to mean to match the total.
If that’s true, we need to look for the motivation in [Deep?] State, rather than the administration. No surprise there, of course.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/16/donald-trump-felt-misled-expulsion-60-russian-diplomats-salisbury/
It’s very difficult to find plausible solutions but I feel the following may account for much of it…..
On leaving the house Sergei closes the door and, because the lethal novichok was daubed on so liberally, it has eaten its way through the spindle and on slamming the door the handle falls off. Sergei picks it up and says
“Look at zees Yulia” and passes the knob to her. She examines it, turning it in her hand and declares “Eet is kaputski Dedushka”, and drops it in the dustbin by the front door. “Come” says Sergei, “let us eat and drink before my secret meeting with my secret handler Pablo at the secret bench by the secret duck pond”.
Later, plod attends and DS Bailey sees there is no door handle, but because he is a trained detective he looks in the bin and removes the door knob and on seeing it is kaputski, drops it back in the bin. The problem remains, how to get into the house. To assist, senior officers from Thames Valley, Scotland Yard, Mi6, Mi5, Special Branch and the government all attend the house with their respective bagmen. After much head scratching it is agreed that without a door knob, entry is impossible and the house should be sealed and the conundrum be passed on to the boffins at GCHQ and Chubb.
Following day council refuse collectors attend and empty the bins. Due to council cutbacks, and because it is just plain closer, they tip the days collection in Queen Elizabeth Park.
I think this is probably it……
Except the door knob has been pictured still on the door.
The simple explanation as to why both of them got it from the door knob is this. It was reported that the highest concentration of whatever poisoned them was found on Sergei’s right hand and on Yulia’s left hand. So it’s obvious isn’t it? Sergei shut the door, then they held hands.
Is Yulia left-handed? Or does the contamination describe their seating position on the park bench, which might suggest they passed something between them? Did they share a cigarette perhaps?
Phil, I hope you didn’t think I was being serious.
Of course, if Yulia picked up the dustbin lid with her preferred right hand, she would naturally be forced to retrieve the knob with her left. Chuckle.
WARNING -, the above was intended as a little light relief and should not be taken seriously.
Rubbish, Obviously you’re a Russian agent. We know that from your evidently perfect command of Russian. You are attempting to distract attention from the truth by presenting what actually happened as a joke.
“On leaving the house Sergei closes the door and, because the lethal novichok was daubed on so liberally, it has eaten its way through the spindle and on slamming the door the handle falls off.”
Good work Doghouse, this would explain why the Government is buying Sergei’s house. The poison has eaten through the foundations and needs knocking down. Now you may wonder why Bailey of the Nick house is also been bought.Obviously he was directly targeted too at home. 🙂
Dog:
Brilliant! LOL!
It would be the making of a classic Monty Python sketch, if they were still around to make it.
Monty Python are still around. They go by the the name HM Government now. Their show airs regularly on BBC.
I continue to believe that the Skripal incident was essentially a two part operation. Either via accidental food poisoning or through a malevolent intervention the Skripals were rendered incapacitated at or shortly after their visit to the restaurant. In reality it would only have been possible to introduce the contamination with Novichok under the very strictly controlled circumstances of anaesthesia delivered by a specialized team from Porton Down. I think this offers the only possible explanation for their survival which was intentionally dragged out over weeks for press reasons.
The two latest victims were probably cases of Fentanyl overdose misadventure; this has on numerous occasions proven deadly in the past. They just happened to be in the right vicinity for their plight to be conveniently woven into the Skripal saga to ramp up anti Russian sentiment and offset the PR boost Putin was getting from the World Cup. The hospital may need to have that Porton Down team perform another tightly controlled exposure so that their is evidence in the victim’s blood work. Surely there must be an autopsy of the woman who died. It will get harder and harder for our corrupt government to warp the truth.
I would not blame the Russians for demanding “put up or shut up” at this stage. Either the UK must produce credible evidence of Russian culpability or apologize for unfounded accusations. If the toxic Tories fail to comply they could threaten to kick out our precious football team.
That makes a lot of sense. To fall ill but not die from a nerve agent suggests either the agent used is not very toxic, or a precise amount was used. Unfortunately who actually knows the lethality of the various novichok agents?
Certainly not military grade whatever that is…..
When Kivelidi was poisoned in 1995, a number of police officers were affected at location, but did not suffer seriously. The real question is if it is possible to fully recover from Novichok after you’ve had symptoms as serious as Skripals’s.
Kim, I think somewhere in that post lies the truth or something very, very close to it. Timing is all, and two lies about chemical attacks leading to a bombing of Syria are too coincidental. Whilst the latter event attempts to reduce positive Russian WC publicity, I think it is also a major face saving exercise. As I understand it a blanket ban had been placed on any ‘diplomatic’ attendance in support of the England team which would probably have been abided by the FA figurehead, William. Can you imagine the egg and public / media attention generated if England had made the final and no one, abs no one from so called authority including the FA was there in support, particularly when the govt story had collapsed and the German parliament were pretty much announcing it was bollocks?
guys…there was never any Novichok. Forget about the Novichok.
“it would only have been possible to introduce the contamination with Novichok under the very strictly controlled circumstances of anaesthesia delivered by a specialized team from Porton Down.”
Yes, and the Novichok would likely have acted as an effective antidote to either seafood poisoning (botulism) or poisoning with the relatively mild nerve agent, BZ (3-Quinuclidinyl Benzilate), which strangely showed up in the Skripal blood samples analyzed on behalf of the OPCW by the Swiss Federal Institute for NBC-protection in Spiez — as I discussed in some detail here.
Maybe you’re looking at it all backwards. What if BZ is the antidote. It lasts quite a bit longer than atropine in the realm of cholinergic effects.
I’ll throw in an extra free trick that I stole from a bellingcat affiliated chud who was thinking outloud on a science forum about how to make A234 without killing yourself:
If you fuck up your AChE on purpose with a reversible inhibitor then the nerve agent has nothing to bind to. The more AChE you inhibit the more constricted pupils, very sweaty skin, and death you will have, and so far you’re not really coming out ahead. That’s where the BZ comes in to chill out the receptors until the hospital decides it’s a good idea to start hitting you up with atropine injections. Then later after metabolizing all/most/some of the russian novichoks you can pop off the inhibitor with oximes or whatever. Almost good as new as you don’t have to wait for your body to replenish the enzyme. The doctors are very amazed that you didn’t die like all the science journals said you would, in fact your recovery is literally a miracle according to bloodwork + textbooks. Big pat on the back for everybody on the ward for such good medicine doing. Doctor on BBC Newsnight is so excited he accidentally says you were brought out of sedation and became conscious in two weeks before quickly correcting himself.
What if the entire circus is a field test for (US Patented) Galantamine, designed to defend against organophosphate poisoning, including so-called Novichok?
As I was skimming over the scientific literature (Wikipedia) this information stuck out as possibly of relevant interest to anybody shopping around for the ideal inhibitor for an upcoming chemical weapon prank.
“The coadministration of food delays the rate of galantamine absorption, but does not affect the extent of absorption.”
I’m only pointing this out because we all remember that certain somebody who was supposedly very very angry about dining plans falling slightly off schedule that evening.
Intuitively, the delay seems unlikely to shift any rates or curves far enough for anybody to care about and therefore likely not so helpful. Since my scientific training consists entirely of constructing conspiracy theories out of things I read on the internet my intuition isn’t necessarily very helpful here either.
I would love to see all the confusing clues and fragments of contradictory information in this case distilled into a very simple graph. Time on the X axis, enzyme level on the Y axis. Ducks and red bags and teleporting BMWs and cat homocide, who cares. Just dumb it down and draw me a picture.
From Trowbridge Police, on FB…
“We have arranged the transportation of a car from the Air Ambulance base in Semington in relation to the on-going incident in Amesbury. The public should not be alarmed by this. Those involved in the removal of the vehicle have the necessary training and expertise to carry out a variety of tasks, which includes the safe removal of vehicles. We want to make it clear that there is no cordon in place and once the vehicle has been removed, police will leave the scene and it will be open to the public as normal.
The current advice from Public Health England is that the risk to the public remains low.
A dedicated phone line is up and running for anyone who has any concerns or information relating to this incident. The number is Freephone 0800 092 0410 or 0207 158 0124 if you are unable to access Freephone numbers.”
Johnathan Cook on the corrosive threat of Israel to all of us;
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/how-israel-helped-revive-europe-s-ugly-ethnic-nationalisms-540915165
So Putin, Slobbo, Le Pen(s), Farage, Orban all got their idea for ugly ethnic nationalism from the Israelis? Personally I credit them all with their own capacity for evil.
I thought this bit was crystal clear & incontestable, unless you’re a Hasbara apologist that is;
“Throughout its history, Israel has glorified in its military prowess and brazenly celebrated a tradition of extrajudicial violence against opponents. That has included practices such as torture and political assassinations that international law seeks to prohibit. The sophistry used by Israel to defend these actions has been enthusiastically taken up in Washington – in particular, when the US began its own programmes of torture and extrajudicial murder after the Iraq invasion of 2003.
Israel has readymade rationalisations and specious soundbites that have made it much easier to sell to western publics the dismantling of international norms.”
Anyhow here’s an interesting new book, about how monsters inspire each other;
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674368371/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1489142594&sr=1-1&keywords=Atat%C3%BCrk+in+the+Nazi+Imagination&linkCode=sl1&tag=greekgenocide-20&linkId=0e5ec98ad85130fdbc58273648df419a
Perhaps you could get on topic and provide us with the Mossad did it conspiracy theory for the Skripals – my advice is to make it funny, we are all in the need of some good entertainment.
‘dissident’
Change IDF uniforms for SS and the meaning becomes clear.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck – then it is a duck, no matter how you put lipstick on it’s beak, and try to represent it as Marilyn Monroe.
Funny enough for you?
A surfeit of the red, white and blue, complete with a mirror image of the butcher’s apron and the stars and stripes. Why so much in our faces?
https://e3.365dm.com/18/07/992×558/skynews-donald-trump-theresa-may_4360884.jpg?20180713112618
Are they planning any more wars and killing in their war on terror? Never any mention of the terror they themselves have created.
POTUS routinely drives his golf cart onto the putting green. Now Melanoma wears her stilettos on a bowling green. Nae class.
See what you mean. Quite embarrassing. The poor thing did have to put up with Fillip all morning though so we must give her some credit for endurance.
https://news.sky.com/video/first-lady-melania-trump-plays-bowls-at-the-royal-hospital-chelsea-11435817
Looks like the “Free Tommy” demo is going ahead despite the clash with the footy. Forecast, unbroken sunshine and 28 C. I’m sure it will pass uneventfully (not).
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/trump-uk-visit-latest-protests-tommy-robinson-free-rally-police-restrictions-violence-disorder-a8444016.html
Republican Congressman (Arizona) Paul Gosar will attend in moral support. Typical Right spectrum Republican. Individual highlights: Boycotted Pope Francis’s address to congress ’cause he’s not sufficiently opposed to the Muslamics (I think that’s the favoured term of the Tommy fanboys). Believes that the Charlottesville, fascist riot was a leftist false flag op..
As revealed exclusively on these very pages, courtesy of Sharp Ears, the “Free Tommy” event is being financially supported by the US state. Funds were funnelled through American based, ultra-Zionist “think tank” Middle East Forum.
see today’s UKcolumn for more info about MEF – a US based organisation that supports Israeli/Zionist policy of wiping Palestine off the map
This from the ‘Indy’ regarding the latest incident (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/salisbury-incident-latest-zizzi-restaurant-wiltshire-skripal-castle-street-a8445026.html):
“An eyewitness says man involved was ‘local homeless guy’ who was ‘sat on the floor, completely conscious, talking'”
“He said he saw a paramedic at the scene climbing into a chemical suit while another “was shouting at the man to stay put and stay on the floor”. All the police officers had rubber gloves on, he added.”
According to an official spokesperson:
“We understand that our initial response to the incident may have looked alarming, but we hope you appreciate why we needed to take this highly precautionary measure.”
We surely do. Although the more you keep up the pretence the less likely it will be (and the more obviously so) that any foreign agent was ever involved, or that some pharmaceutical contraband was so widely and knowingly shared.
It’s gone from the sublime to the ridiculous – without actually ever being sublime, and now it is just plain embarrassing. Swindon Fire Brigade apparently took a full decontamination unit to the Amesbury house on the day it happened, then later tweeted that it had been totally unnecessary and downplaying the incident. The tweet later disappeared.
1. If Russian state assassins were involved, the Skripals would be dead. Fact.
2. Consultant Stephen Davies – no people suffering from chemical nerve agent attack – none. Ergo, the second incident cannot be.
3. IIn a media driven post fact society that we seem to live in, if the Skripals would in any way support the official line, however faintly, May would have had them before the TV cameras as soon as they were conscious. We can all take that to the bank.
No matter how many blue lights, sirens and emergency vehicles scream around it won’t change those above facts.
Absolutely. Opportunism taken to the limits of absurdity.
Good analysis of the government nonsense.
Wouldn’t add anything more which will risk watering down what you are complaining about.
Pre Theresa May as PM, we used to be given lists of guests entertained at Chequers and the like.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/362501/141006_OFFICIAL_GUESTS_TO_CHEQUERS_-_Jan_-_March_2014.pdf
No longer. Just this sort of thing. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/697662/state-and-guest-of-government-visit-costs-apr-sep-2017.csv/preview
£13k for a two day visit by the Ukrainian president, the chocolate pot king Poroshenko.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-meeting-with-ukrainian-president-poroshenko-19-april-2017
Whatever has this Trumpfest cost the taxpayer?
I think the secondary case is simply a way to revitalise the story and create a way that the Skripal’s can be extricated from it while having a murder case to occupy the MSM and police. The timing of it was suspicious to say the least and it has stopped everyone pointing out all the lies we were fed about what would happen at the world cup. All the fans and even the commentators were openly exposing the lies pushed by both the government and the MSM. I found it very refreshing to see that the sports commentators like Lineker and Neville etc were more than happy to call out the liars. Yes they are very rich already but they have very big contracts at stake and they showed true courage in the day of police state controlled journalism.
I think there was pressure on the journalists for being employed by Russophobic organisations telling the public not to go, but they were an all-expenses paid jolly themselves.
I said pretty tartly that Lineker et al should all be sitting in a Salford studio receiving FIFA streams. I said it to both Corbyn and independent fans groups.
They had a call to make between fan outrage and MP threats and they reckoned fans will have longer, harder memories.
These can be excuses, and these can be legitimate concerns, depending on the context. Any realistic World order has to account for competition and potential conflicts between powers. Commanding neighbouring countries in terms of whose arms or armies they can place on their own land is not ideal, but it’s a fair price to pay for reducing the risk of a large-scale war to a minumum.
BTW, I urge anyone with an interest in the case to search Youtube and watch live interviews with witnesses and others involved. Plenty of details are being missed in write-ups.
Red-robed May, gauche as ever, sinks into irrelevant inconsequentiality as she shamefully contemplates her previous bad-mouthing of Trump and her part in the Skripalgate Scam.
Quisling also, this weekend. But how irrelevantly inconsequential can you get, when already hiding from Trump doune a bog-hole?
A guide to ‘How the EU gets the orange one* to STFU and jog on back to the land of ignorance’; (and its proxy bitches in the UK and France)
1. Declare the EU an American military free zone. All bases and personal to return to the US over a 12 month period or face daily billion dollar fines. Keep their nukes and tell them to fuck off when they come looking.
2. Invite Russia to join the EU.
3. Replace the military hubs with free trade zones for Asia, Africa and Latin American companies to open and operate in.
4. Supply all Latin American countries with EU military equipment.
5. Slap an EU wide 60% tax on all US tech companies operating within the EU or ban them from a market of 500 million people making them worthless over night (banned in China, Russia and the EU, they can advertise to the third world til their hearts content). Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google et al these US tax avoiding parasitic companies fuck right off back to their free world and replace them with a EU funded open source alternative.
6. Slap a transaction tax on all financial stock trades made by US and UK based institutes.
7. Join the BRICS project and withdraw from the IMF and WTO.
8. Sell nuclear weapons to Iran that can only be based in Cuba.
9. Ban all EU companies from trading in the USA. Align with Russia, China, Iran and Latin America. These markets are the future. Not the US.
10. Ignore all US owned patents and copyright materials.
Its really that simple. EU should pivot East. America will be a failed state in less than two decades. And they know it. They continue to try and destroy Europe, the EU needs to step up and tell them to fuck off with their ‘exceptionalism’.
Nothing there that wouldn’t be harmful, self-defeating, illegal or that wouldn’t attract like-for-like retaliation.
The car taken away in Chippenham is a police car from Monkton Park.
Now Chippenham is nowhere near Salisbury or Amesbury but it would seem to be the closest police station to Minety where the helicopter was prior the Skripal incident.
Patrick, you post very much about cars, ambulances a.s.o. but I never understand your point. Could you be mor explicit ?
my take; the ‘cop’ was imposter, he delivered the dose to the Skiprals in the park. Everything happened in the park, all three were poisioned at the same time. The poisioned door knob is political bs.
sean, I agree. Skripals were attacked in the park, because they collapsed both at the same time. Nick Bailey most likely got his dose there too. Interesting question is – who was the first responder at the bench and why he or she not reported to collapse?
“who was the first responder at the bench and why he or she not reported to collapse?”
And why was he or she never identified. Because she “asked not to be named”? LOL.
What if this cop (Bailey) was not ill but was in the hospital in ordre to monitor the two other hospitalized persons ?
And, by the way, were the Skripals really hospitalized ?
1° Olly Field said that the woman on the bench was blond;
2° Freya Cherch, who saw the persons on the bench, said she was 100 % sure that the persons on the first published CCTV were the same as the persons on the bench;;
3° witnesses who saw Yulia Skripal in the restaurant “insist” that she had reddish-brown hair.
in order, Freya Church. Sorry for the typos.
What if Skrypal had been turned back by the Russians and was operating as a double agent? The British deep state could well have decided to play the Russian game: a calibrated dose of poison to incapacitate but not kill then, Russian-style, a blitz of dezinformatsiya and maskirovskiya to ensure that no narrative gains real traction. The ‘happy accident’ of two druggies OD’ing on fentanyl-cut heroin, one fatally, easily subsumed into the official yarn at a later date.
>>Plenty of details are being missed.
No details are being missed, they are in earlier write-ups. There have been perhaps 10 threads on Salisbury with something like 1,000 comments each. As new people come on, they repeat the same old misunderstandings, idées fixes and fact-free conspiracy theories such as confusing drugs that dilate pupils with those that contract.
How can someone read this (or the Skripal account) and still go on about dilated pupils (BZ)?
Sam Hobson, 29, was helping best friend Charlie pack clothes for Dawn after she went to hospital. He said: “We went back to his place after the hog roast. We were going up to the hospital. Then he started sweating. His T-shirt was soaking wet. He felt ill and went for a shower. He got up and started rocking against the wall. His eyes were wide open and red, his pupils were like pinpricks. He began garbling incoherently.”
Are people really unaware that low enough doses of severe toxins can be sub-clinical (eg botox)? Botulinum toxin is 1000’s of time more dangerous than novichok in terms of LD50.
Do people sincerely not know the difference between lab-grade and military-grade, assassination vs battlefield? The only scientists here, Porton Down and OPCW say the former, yet we have non-stop unsupported nonsense about the latter.
Is it not common knowledge that a liquid (eg A234) differs from a nerve gas or a powder? According to inventor V Uglev, the vapour pressure of this oily penetrating liquid is exceedingly low, it will not notably evaporate. It is not especially water soluble without detergent nor does it break down in water.
The only news of late have been ‘highly precautionary measures’ on two false alarms, most recently involving an obese older man at a bus stop and now a drunk and disorderly man in his 30s on Castle Street. Harnham residents are still inconvenienced because of the closure of town path which is adjacent to cordoned-off Queen Elizabeth Gardens.
More precautionary measures on emergency response vehicles: first the Audi, then a second has been taken away from Wiltshire Air Ambulance’s base in Semington (NW of Salisbury) and now a third at Monkton Park.
Salisbury District Hospital says “all tests have come back negative on members of the public that we’ve carried out since the incident began.” Ok, but that sidesteps tests on first responders, hospital staff, vehicles except for the green bus and red Ford transport, relevant flats, QEG objects and wheelie bins.
This suggests in the first response, to Dawn, that someone else has tested positive (or is at least reporting symptoms), hence the followup with the vehicles they arrived or left in. This would not be especially helpful to the investigation as scarcely nanograms of material could be recovered.
No container has been found. The only hope the police have is that Charlie — who is speaking but cannot lift his head — will have some recollection of what containers he and Dawn handled. Oral, injection and inhalation routes have been ruled out, skin contact is established as the primary route of exposure.
On the matter of same batch or not, still undetermined, what would be learned from that? Very little, this novichok is fairly rare so the ‘same batch’ is only to be expected, rather than a copy-cat attack inspired by the Skripal event involving a separate source. They would be looking at synthetic intermediates, left-over reagents, breakdown products, stable isotopes and contaminants (if there was enough material).
As we saw in the case of the novichok ordered up by Leonid Rink and sold out of his garage, the original batch is divided into dozens of small sealed aliquots. The reason for this is lab safety, to minimize synthetic procedure repeats, make as few batches as possible. If multiple tests are being run, as with Uglev’s work, it is safer and better science to use up identical small samples rather than open and re-open a large sample. In other words, different sealed aliquots that went their separate ways over a couple decades might hardly be distinguishable from each other today.
https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/7905-novichok-has-already-killed
More to the point: could forensics distinguish between fresh A234 and weathered A234? That is, has the novichok presumed on the outside of a contaminated container been sitting out in the bushes for four months (careless discard theory) or is it a new application of left-over Skripal novichok (second attack theory)?
“Sam Hobson, 29, (…) said: “his pupils were like pinpricks.”
It seems that Sam Hobson said this after many phone conversations with the police. I find it a bit strange that Sam Hobson, who is a mechanic, noticed that Rowley pupils were like pinpricks : the pupil is not the whole iris, and the iris doesn’t contract. Thus, pupil contraction is not so evident, the eye must be closely examined.
What do the poor captive animals in London Zoo, located on the Outer Circle in Regents Park, make of the horrendous noise of Marine 1 and 2 plus 4 Osprey helicopters, taking off and landing in the grounds of Winfield House, half a mile away and also on the Outer Circle?
There are extremely large crowds in Trafalgar Square protesting about Trump’s visit. Estimate – hundreds of thousands.
It’s here live: https://www.rt.com/on-air/432943-london-uk-trump-rally/
Well we are the 51 State, a staging post for US sorties, and nuclear subs and weapons, ahhhh, the “special” relationship.
Hardly being mentioned by the media. There is no functioning government in Northern Ireland. The UK ‘government’ has done little or nothing to rectify the situation.
Derry trouble: Bombs thrown at police in night of violence
4 hours ago
Police have fired plastic baton rounds during one of the worst nights of violence in Londonderry for years. Seventy-four petrol bombs and two improvised explosive devices were thrown at officers on Thursday – the sixth consecutive night of violence.
The police said children as young as eight were involved and accused dissident republicans of being behind the attacks. Three men were arrested, one of them for attempted murder.
The PSNI said the six nights of violence in the city had seen two separate attempts to murder officers. A Twelfth of July parade passed off peacefully in Derry on Thursday, although police in riot gear separated a group of nationalists from the return parade as it made its way through the Diamond in the city centre.
Attacks began early in the evening and continued into the early hours of Friday morning. Petrol bombs were thrown towards police Land Rovers and at officers on the ground.
/..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-44816025
Since 1997, there have been six Labour Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland and four Conservatives. Says it all. All useless.since Mowlem’s tenure. Mandelson. Reid. Murphy. Hain. Woodward Then Paterson. Villiers. Brokenshire and now Bradley. The poisoned chalice.
So the Orange man Child Trump shoots down the PM’s proposed Brexit plan, in a scathing attack on the sheer incompetence of British governments handling over Brexit.
I’m no fan of the Orange Wind Bag, the Trumpster, but even the sun shines on a dogs bollocks now and then, and on this occasion the Trump-et is spot on.
The salivating Brexiteers will be moist at the thought of the Orange One, opining, that any attempt to remain in the EU, would see the US, bypass the 51state, and deal directly with the EU.
No doubt Trump the combover king would’ve made his position very clear last night whilst dining with the PM and her Woody Allen lookalike husband. I doubt any amount of fawning and hand holding by Theresa May would’ve changed the Donald’s mind.
To add insult to injury, the Orange One, declared that the Westminster jester, and ex-FS Boris Johnson would make a great British prime minister. I of course see where the Satsuma shaded one is coming from, BoJo, reminds him, of himself a shallow, egotistical, inept, lying, self serving, twisted pr*ck.
Small bottle found in Charlie Rowley’s house. So what way will this be played? If England were in the WC final it would have been pinned on a Sergei suicide so “the boys” could go.
Now it could go other way.
With regards to the Trumpster, and the recent war like zone of NI on the 12th of July attributed to the O/O’s neanderthal xenophobes.
This seems appropriate for the Orange One’s visit to Scotland, where the O/O’s foot soldiers spring to life chanting their sectarian drivel at this time of year.
https://mobile.twitter.com/andrewlearmonth/status/1017805027044397056/photo/1
Maybe apropos of nowt, but what do people think about globalism? Uni or multi-polar? There seems to be so many strands cross-weaving with what is discussed on this blog – the last gasp of nation statehood? And, if so, when we have Eurasia etc, will there be the same tumult as now, if we continue to push forwards to a single world govt?
What would you feel about that? I’m scared, the most corrupt and powerful organisation the world will have ever known
Timing. I expect there’s a lot of f’ing and blinding going on here in certain quarters in London and in Washington.
Russians indicted over US election hack
1 minute ago
The US justice department has indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking the Democratic National Committee in the 2016 election.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the dozen accused used spear phishing emails and malicious software in the cyber-attacks.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry is looking into alleged Russia meddling in the 2016 election.
The investigation has already indicted 20 people and three companies.
The indictment says the named Russian intelligence officers began their cyber-attacks in March 2016 to hack the email accounts of volunteers and employees of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Mr Rosenstein said there is no allegation in the indictment that any American citizen committed a crime.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44825345
_______
And the Novichok container has been found in Rowley’s house which is believed to be the source. It’s a bottle. ex the Met Counter-Terrorism branch’s Basu.. Why has it taken two weeks? It’s nonsense.
The timing is remarkable to a degree.
Btw., not a word about the exfiltration of the data on a USB stick, for which there is clear evidence.
This container that has been found in Charlie Rowley’s residence and confirming it contained Novichok – did it have a label on it written in English stating contents made in Russia ?
Apparently it’s a bottle: https://www.rt.com/uk/432988-police-novichok-bottle-victim/
There’s two possibilities now:
a. Your supposition is correct and the Kremlin will be implicated and we’ll see a set up of anti-Russia hysteria
b. The Kremlin will be exonerated just before Trump heads for Putin
I think it’s a toss up.
However, what’s clear is that the timing of all of this sure as hell is no coincidence.
Don’t forget diplomantic expulsions, and that Russia’s culpability was stated by UK as a fact, to make it possible. To publically exhonerate Russia after that is to lose face. It won’t happen.
According to the bbc radio 4 news at 6 it’s now the “soviet” nerve agent Novichok. Interesting timing in the change of the propaganda wind. And what could Boris have done that made Trump so impressed with him? And why did Trump give such a damning interview to the Sun about May after he walked it back this afternoon it was announced the “bottle” has been discovered?
Plenty of holes. Three things that puzzle me especially.
Firstly, two po-faced PCSOs were photgraphed right outside a house where a cat was supposedly starving to death. Ever heard a cat in trouble – it’s not easily ignored.
Secondly, there were any number of days in this and previous years when someone could have got rid of Skripal using any number of methods. He was living openly. Why just when his daughter arrives, and why this method? She is involved in something dodgy with him, who ever did the deed.
Thirdly, where were they both for half a day before hand when their phones were off with batteries out and untraceable?
Having said that, some of the large scale conspiracies touted here and elsewhere would involve intimidating scores of people with OSR threats. Can we really believe that no-one would break rank – I’d welcome Murray’s view on this.
Oh, and why is Private Eye completely silent on this story?
@ craig
“The Russians built the heart of the International Space Station. They can kill an old bloke in Salisbury”
Surely you mean “CAN’T”…?