UPDATE: The Kommersant Evidence
Kommersant publishes interviews with people from Chepiga’s home village. The article makes clear he has not been seen there for many years. It states that opinions differ on whether Chepiga is Boshirov. One woman says she recognised Boshirov as Chepiga when he appeared on TV, especially the dark eyes, though she had not seen him since school. Another woman states it is not Chepiga as when she last saw him ten years ago he was already pretty bald, and he has a more open face, although the eyes are similarly brown.
Naturally mainstream media journalists are tweeting and publishing the man’s evidence and leaving out the woman’s evidence.
But the Kommersant article gives them a bigger challenge. Kommersant is owned by close Putin political ally, Putin’s former student flatmate, Chariman of Gazprominvestholdings and the UK’s richest resident, Alisher Usmanov. That Russia’s most authoritative paper, with ownership very close to Putin, is printing such open and honest reporting rather belies the “Russia is a dictatorship” narrative. And unlike the Guardian and BBC websites, on Kommersant website ordinary Russians can post freely their views on the case, and are.
One thing this does stand up is that Chepiga definitely exists.
The evidence mounts that Russia is not telling the truth about “Boshirov” and “Petrov”. If those were real identities, they would have been substantiated in depth by now. As we know of Yulia Skripal’s boyfriend, cat, cousin and grandmother, real depth on the lives and milieu of “Boshirov” and “Petrov” would be got out. It is plainly in the interests of Russia’s state and its oligarchy to establish that they truly exist, and concern for the privacy of individuals would be outweighed by that. The rights of the individual are not prioritised over the state interest in Russia.
But equally the identification of “Boshirov” with “Colonel Chepiga” is a nonsense.
The problem is with Bellingcat’s methodology. They did not start with any prior intelligence that “Chepiga” is “Boshirov”. They rather allegedly searched databases of GRU operatives of about the right age, then trawled photos in yearbooks of them until they found one that looked a bit like “Boshirov”. And guess what? It looks a bit like “Boshirov”. If you ignore the substantially different skull shape and nose.
Only the picture on the left is Chepiga. The two on the right are from “Boshirov’s” Russian passport application file, and the photo of “Boshirov” issued by Scotland Yard.
Like almost the entire internet, I assumed both black and white photos were from Chepiga’s files, and was willing to admit the identification of Chepiga with “Boshirov” as valid. But once you understand is that – as Bellingcat confirm if you read it closely – only the photo on the left is Chepiga, you start to ask questions.
The two guys on the right and the centre are undoubtedly the same person. But is the guy on the left the same, but younger?
Betaface.com, which runs industry standard software, gives the faces an 83% similarity, putting the probability of them being the same person at 2.8%.
By comparison it gives me a 72% identity with Chepiga and a 2.1% chance of being him.
There is a superficial resemblance. But if you take the standard ratios used for facial recognition, you get a very different story. If you draw a line between the centre of the pupils of the two guys centre and right, and then take a perpendicular from that line to the tip of the nose, you get a key ratio. The two on the right both have a ratio of 100:75, which is unsurprising since they are the same person. The one on the left has a ratio of 100:68, which is very different.
To put that more simply, his nose is much shorter, and less certainly his eyes are further apart.
It is possible this could happen in photos but it still be the same person. The head would have to be tilted backward or forward at quite a sharp angle to alter these ratios, which does not seem to be the case. The camera could be positioned substantially above or below the subject, again not apparently the case. And the photo could be resized with height and width ratios changed. That would hard to detect.
But the three white dots across the bottom of the nose are particularly compelling (the middle one largely obscured by a red dot in the Chepiga photo). They illustrate that Chepiga has a snub nose and Boshirov something of a hook. Again, the software is reinforcing what they eye can plainly see.
However, there are also other ratios that are different. Chepiga has a narrower mouth compared to the distance between the pupils than the two photos of “Boshirov”, and that is measured on the same plane. The difference is 100-80 compared to 100-88. It is a ratio that can be changed by facial expression, but this does not seem to be the case here.
Professor Dame Sue Black of the University of Dundee is the world’s leading expert in facial forensic reconstruction. I once spent a fascinating lunch sitting next to her, while I was Rector. I shall contact her for her view on whether the guy on the left is the same person, and if she is kind enough to give me an opinion, I shall pass it on to you unadulterated.
This website is less definitive, but gives a nice clear result, and you can repeat it yourself without having to subscribe (unlike Betaface.com).
Again for comparison, I tried two photos of myself 12 years apart and got “from nearly the same person”.
It is worth repeating that the only evidence that Chepiga is Boshirov offered by Bellingcat is this photo. The rest of their article simply attempts to establish Chepiga’s career.
This is gross hypocrisy by Bellingcat, who have argued that scores of photos of White Helmets being Jihadi fighters are not valid evidence because you cannot safely recognise faces from photographs.
Yet Higgins now claims his facial identification of Chepiga as Boshirov as “definitive” and “conclusive”, despite the absence of moles, scars and blemishes. Higgins stands exposed as a quite disgusting hypocrite. Let me go further. I do not believe that Higgins did not take the elementary step of running facial recognition technology over the photos, and I believe he is hiding the results from you. Is it not also astonishing that the mainstream media have not done this simple test?
The bulk of the Bellingcat article is just trying to prove the reality of the existence of Chepiga. This is hard to evaluate, but as the evidence to link him to “Boshirov” is non-existent, is a different argument. Having set out to find a GRU officer of the same age who looks a bit like “Boshirov”, they trumpet repeatedly the fact that Chepiga is about the same age as evidence, in a crass display of circular argument.
This unofficial website does indeed name Chepiga as a Hero of the Russian Federation and recipient of 20 awards, as Bellingcat claims. But it is impossible to know if it is authentic, and by contrast there is no Chepiga on the official list of Heroes of the Russian Federation, for the stated 2014 or for any other year, which Bellingcat fail to mention. Their other documents and anonymous sources are unverifiable.
The photo of the military school honours arch, with Chepiga added right at the end and not quite in line, looks to me very suspect. My surmise so far would be that most likely Bellingcat’s source of supply is Ukrainian, and trying to tie the Skripal affair into the Ukrainian civil war via Chepiga.
My view of the most likely explanation on presently available evidence is this:
Boshirov is not Boshirov, and the Russian Government are lying.
Boshirov is not Chepiga, and Bellingcat are lying.
The whole Skripal novichok story still does not hang together, and the British government are lying.
I will continue to form my opinions as further evidence becomes available.
UPDATE Incredibly, at 13.15 on 27 September the BBC TV News ran the story showing only the two photos of “Boshirov”, which of course are the same person, and not showing the photo of Chepiga at all!
BBC News at One
Regarding the absence of the personal info and detailed identities of “Petrov” and “Boshirov”, one possibility is that Russians are just playing their cards well. Letting the UK government and media come up with ridiculous stories, and then totally embarrass them by placing all their cards on the table and revealing the true (innocent) identities of Boshirov and Petrov.
I’m am not saying this is the case, or that it’s even likely, but it would certainly be entertaining.
According to Bellingcat, Petrov was in Tel Aviv in 2016. He “shows up again on a flight back to Moscow – from I__ael’s Tel-Aviv”.
Then there’s Amsterdam. M*ssad’s European HQ is in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
“Two months later, Petrov takes a trip to Amsterdam, and from there flies to London – this appears to be his – or their – first trip to the United Kingdom, where less than two years later they will be suspected of smearing Novichok on the door handle of a former colleague. It is not certain how much time he spent in the UK, but the total Netherlands-UK trip lasted just under a week”
“Petrov’s next trip is again to Amsterdam – two months after returning from London. This time he stays in Europe 12 days, and returns to Moscow on a flight from Paris at the end of November.“
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Wow! Though I’ve never visited the Zio-NAZI state or Moscow, I have been to Paris, Amsterdam AND London.
I must be a spook.
Я русский бот,
Дэннис Эдгарович Рэвэлл
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I’d be embarrassed about being sarcastic in public if I were that crap at it. Maybe “Petrov” went on a trip to admire the architecture of St Peter’s Church in Jaffa, and then realised he’d left something in Schiphol?
I think it’s highly likely that all three photos are of the same person. I don’t think face comparison software is all that good judging by the times my passport gets rejected even with a recent picture. There is room for doubt and I think Craig is doing an important job highlighting the doubt, but it should be noted that all Russia would have to do is to produce the two men side by side in the same room to blow these reports sky high. It must be in their interests to do that, so the fact that they haven’t probably shows that they can’t.
It should also be noted that the British government has still not given this Bellingcat revelation the official seal of approval. Why, one wonders?
I think Craig is right: In the first photo, the accused Russian’s eyes are wider apart than in the other two photos. However, there is a slight back tilt of the head in first photo and the face appears more pear shaped compared with the other two shots: This could perhaps distort the lens perspective enough to invalidate the theory.
I disagree – no one has a coherent or plausible story, but the Russians seem to have something to hide and that maybe why it’s an unlikely event (which doesn’t mean to say I am at all convinced by their identity).
What’s really frustrating as a member of the public, of course, is to be continually spoon fed things that don’t make any sense, which is highly manipulative. When I am told things by the BBC or the MSM one is not left saying these days “That’s important to know” but “Why I am being told this?”
The Russians are under no obligation to explain or prove anything.
So what?
The ‘Russians’ have nothing to hide. The two Russian guys might have something to hide and that’s their business, not ours, not the Russian government’s. The British government has an open route to carry out a real investigation of these two gents but they are choosing to not do so. For some reason, accusations and innuendo are preferable to seeing these two stand up in front of a court.
At this time, for Petrov and Boshirov to say anything in public does them no favors at all. If were a friend or family member, I’d say nothing at all and, probably, all likely contacts have been advised from one quarter or another to say nothing.
I also think that the bloke suggested as being the ‘real’ Boshirov is not. Bellingcat has no great reputation for credibility and, frankly, the images of the two guys are similar but far from convincingly of the same person. Don’t forget, Higgins was working to goalseek a solution. All he had to do was go through enough pics of Russian intelligence guys until a reasonable match was found. More likely he was given the pic by one of his handlers. What do you think that the odds of Chepiga’s name being right at the end of the list of names carved into the archway?
not yet! the Russians will do that when the time is ripe and embarrass the pm et al. ALL the evidence emanating from the uk remains suspect and a frame up of Russia. why did the uk gov and security/police not request help from the Russians. why has the info that novichoc was abandoned by Russia under opcw and usa supervision. where are the skripals. why have the not reappeared? are they still alive or has the security service conveniently disposed of them without trace. many questions and FEW answers from HMG and the spooks. This scenario is in parallel and both stink.
By similar “logic”, I might accuse you of being a mass murderer and worse and challenge you to prove it untrue. When you ignore my ridiculous provocations, I could then claim that proves I am right.
The Russians have got better things to do than to get down in the sand pit with the toddlers.
They don’t even look like the same people on visual inspection. I picked up the differences with just a simple glance!
Agreed, I asked my wife, who has shown little interest in the Skripal affair, after having judged it to be a piece of UK government/secret services nonsense, whether the photographs were all of the same man, after a few moments she said the two images on the right are the same man the one on the left a different man, immediately pointing out the obvious differences.
SO DID MINE !
Tried this test myself just there and the wife says “yes, same guy, just different ages”. I tend to agree.
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As ‘Agent Green’ says: The Russians are under NO obligation to explain ANYTHING.
Even if they did the Brits would just make up some more Russophobic bullshit up to fit their propaganda policy.
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What a great thing it is that the admirable Britain-based
mafia bossphilanthropic people server Alisher Usmanov has had the courage to publish work that so critically challenges the official “MSM” “narrative” 🙂I’m wondering whether anybody here apart from me has mentioned the Aeroflot-Glushkov court case.
as Boshirov is really a highly decorated military intelligence Colonel with 20 medals from serving in elite Spetsnaz and recipient of Gold Star Russia’s highest medal who fails to kill an old portly man with the deadliest nerve agent ever made and then breaks down with nerves during tv interview sweating profusely with heavy breathing then the UK can disband the SAS as Captain Mainwaring and Private Pike of Dad’s Army will be more than capable of defending the UK from Russia’s menace. Games at play.
“…….. the UK can disband the SAS as Captain Mainwaring and Private Pike of Dad’s Army will be more than capable of defending the UK from Russia’s menace.”
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Excellent!
The Boshirov guy was the guy that said the fewest words in the interview with RT. I wonder what their counter move to this will be, if any?
Also who is giving Bellingcat info? Russian defectors that have power to get photos etc from russian intelligence, or people within lets say Mi6?
Absolutely in the realms of possibility, I think. Bellingcat appear to be as neutral as the Gestapo!
Bellingcat, like a distressingly high proportion of Westerners in these sad times, does whatever will earn the most money in the shortest time. With no concern for morality or consequences: “pecunia non olet”.
On their talk page on Wikipedia someone tried to point out how Bellingcat are funded..the contribution got rejected..
” …someone add a section on how Bellingcat secures its funding
(Open Society Foundation/George Soros;
Meedan;
NED (US govt);
Google;
Adessium;
Kickstarter crowdfunding) ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bellingcat#Funding_(based_on_tweets)
The ties Wikipedia The Guardian run directly through Mister Wikipedia, Jimmy ‘Jimbo’ Wales himself.
They are short as short comes.
Nuff said.
Whenever I look msomething up at Wikipedia and see one of Jimmy Wales’ pathetic begging popups, I think “When you straighten up and fly right, old cock”.
The “Chepiga” passport photo is either badly out of focus, or a bad copy.
Also, does Russia have lower standards than Canada regarding shadows, glare or flash reflections?:
“Your passport photos must be:
clear, sharp and in focus
taken with a neutral facial expression
eyes open and clearly visible
mouth closed, no smiling
taken in person by a commercial photographer or studio with:
uniform lighting and with no shadows, glare or flash reflections”
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/photos.html
Good work Craig. Here’s how the Guardian views Eliot Higgins latest revelations about the Skripal Affair. The love and admiration shine though, don’t they? I wonder if it’s mutual?
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/27/we-got-really-lucky-novichok-suspects-identities-revealed-bellingcat
The Guardian hasn’t been the same since Rusbridger left. Is there a single editor or journalist a whistleblower could confidently approach at that newspaper these days?
They’ve really turned on Assange too, almost revelling in his plight, quite a few journalist getting 30 pieces of silver it seems.
And don’t forget Snowden. His revelations are still vitally important today in clearly showing how the US was spying on essentially the entire world. But yet the media ignores the details at nearly every turn.
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Yea, it looks like Edward Snowden made a mistake that he couldn’t possible have foreseen, leaving all the results of his courageous actions with the likes of the Guardian and the turncoat Glenn Greenwald.
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Apparently it’s all in the ears!! Can’t say I’m convinced myself, but looking forward to hearing from a qualified face recognition expert if Craig can get a response.
“Asked about a breakthrough moment, Higgins wrote: “As strange as it sounds, it’s when I saw his ear shape in all three photographs we had of him. It’s difficult to be 100% sure on facial matches, but something like the shape of the ears is very useful for confirming an ID, so that was as much… a Eureka moment as anything else.””
This is really the issue, any investigative journalist worth his salt would immediately commission a report from a face recognition expert. (As Craig Murray did, in fact.)
Tip of the nose and the eye-brows: not the same guy.
I agree – that was what I noticed straight away. @Keith above mentions the ear shape as being the main feature to convince Elliot Higgins of the similarities. What people commenting on resemblance seem to be completely overlooking (although I confess I haven’t read through all the comments on this thread so I may well be repeating what has already been said) is the manipulation that can be done with photographs to make the images appear to be something they are not; in this case it would not surprise me if parts of the picture have been tampered with, such as what we can see of the ear shape, and the shading where there is a ‘five o’clock shadow’. With regard to the ears I would go so far as to contend that the ears from the photo of a young ‘Boshirov’ have been overlaid on the supposed Chepiga picture and redefined using the latest Boshirov picture as a guide.
And photoshopping is one of Bellingcat’s core competences (it may in fact be their only one).
I think you hit the nail on the head.
And, no, they aren’t the same guy. Confident, definitive statement. The resources that the brain puts into recognizing faces is profound. It might be the single most important cognitive function. Someone can suggest to you that you look at photos of two different people and try to convince yourself they’re the same person. But on a deep level you can’t be fooled.
That website with the official list of Heroes of the Russian Federation doesn’t have a very official sounding domain name (megabook.ru). But Chepiga’s name (Чепига) does appear on a list in what looks like the official website of the DVOKU military academy that B’cat mentions http://www.dvocu.ru/index/alleja_geroev/0-36
It’s an obvious rudimentary hack of a no-security school website. Look at the one medal covering two people. Look at the silly explanation by Bellingcat.
Confirmed by the very bad photoshop of the school’s Rossokovsky memorial, where name nr 10 – supposedly Chipuga’s isn’t even correctly aligned.
All you guys who fill your time talking BS about face recognition etc. It’s much simpler. There is no document with a likeness of Borishov. Bellingcat made it up. Got you all worked up looking at pictures. Meanwhile they didn’t even prove their assertion that the picture actually came from a confirmed Chipuga identity: prove it by showing the picture on the document instead of showing a very bad photocopy where you cna’t even see if it’s a man or a woman. Idiots.
But photoshopping a school memorial would be the easiest thing in the world to prove (just go and visit the memorial and check).
http://www.dvocu.ru/photo/24
(Thanks to Nicolas below for the link)
Thanks Josh, very kind of of you to reply.
Maybe, but if so Russia could easily clear its name by bringing both together at a press conference…
Are you suggesting that “Russia” should make an official reply to Bellingcat publication?
Yes. The Russia government has been accused, not just of murdering someone in Britain, but of using chemical weapons to do so, chemical weapons it had claimed to destroy. This would verge on an act of war. Of course it should cooperate fully in the investigation, and if it can demonstrate mistakes in the story as easily as Craig claims it should do so.
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Rubbish.
The Russian Govt. are under NO obligation to explain ANYTHING.
They probably gave up on this ridiculous fiasco ages ago: Possible shortly after the UK broke the OPCW treaty by not adhering to agreed upon protocols in such situations concerning exchange of information and samples. It’s amazing to me that they ever gave a shit as to what the heavily propagandised Western populations believed.
Turn the situation into its mirror: Does anyone thing the arrogant ex-public school toffee-nosed bastards who run the British state would actually be bending over backwards to accommodate such accusations made against them by the Russian State. Never in a fucking milllion years.
And yet “we”, mostly I’m guessing arrogant British bastards, even on Craig Murray’s blog somehow think that the Russkis owe us an explanation, must answer any and all INTERMINABLE questions that we demand they answer. The fucking CHUTZPAH.
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Have to agree with Dennis on this one.
Just because this is a relevant story to us doesn’t mean that the Russians view it the same way. It’s probably like looking at the national enquirer at the supermarket check out and seeing “Trump is actually Elvis” and giving it a credible thought.
There is a cultural difference here also that is hard for us to understand which I can best describe as: “The UK speaks for it’s people and they refuse to share information regarding the Skripal case and would rather demonize us through their media for propaganda purposes so what is there to respond to?”.
To put it more bluntly “this is so ridiculous it doesn’t warrant a response”.
I’ve got a Russian step mother and we always butt heads basically because we’re aliens to each other. Yet at the same time I try and learn from her. They are so damn…..pragmatic. We’re more emotional in the west and they don’t understand us for it and their reluctance to respond to an emotional argument or even to not sleep on a recognized point is time consuming and frustrating.
There is some evidence of Russia’s guilt, of a serious war crime. Enough to convince the leading Western governments and leading to harsh sanctions. Whether “required” or not, it certainly is in Russia’s interest to disprove the accusations if it can, and this particular accusation – that “Boshirov” is “Chepiga”, a decorated GRU agent – would be easily disproved; just put them in a room together. Of course Russia should respond better than it has; it is losing the propaganda battle on this.
I am from Russia. I can write how it is perceived (judging by my circle of friends). The whole situation seems to be a complete nonsense, like the scenario of a cheap Hollywood action movie about evil Russians. Britain’s behavior is extremely offensive and unacceptable.
Russia will not justify itself and respond to every newspaper article, the answers will only be to the official statements of Britain.
Says it all about the BBC only showing two of the photos. Oops! Theresa, Ben (Wallace), Gavin (Williamson) et all.
Who said:
‘Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, or vice versa. ‘
Department of Defense news briefing (12 February 2002)
Why? The very same Donald Rumsfeld.
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” Karl Rove, after 2001.
This is all just distraction to bamboozle and confuse. When one set of inconsitentcies is exposed, another story will appear, leaving the non-inconsistent parts as ‘established facts’. There is no intent for a legal prosecution by the UK. It is all trial by media. The intent is to confuse Joe Public and leave them with the simple explanation ‘Russia did it’.
The key point in the whole episode is the policeman who was accidentally poisoned. He has been disappeared and wiped from the story. What exactly was his involvement, given he was a Detective Serjeant, not a beat cop? Was he on duty at the time? Was he also Special Branch? Was he minding the Skripals? Etc, etc.
The Skripals were not poisoned by Novichok. If Novichok was used, they would be dead. They were posioned by a low dose of BZ, sufficient to cause symptomatic response, but not to kill them. BZ is only lethal in high doses, as seen with the poor woman who found the perfume bottle and splashed the stuff all over herself while trying the ‘perfume’ out.
The Skriplas were poisoned on the bench where they were found by an unknown assailant (nearby CCTV well known locally to be inoperative). Assuming the perfume spray was used, the assailant probobly ‘accidentally’ sprayed the Skripals as she was passing (‘she’ because a perfume spray would not be out of place on a woman if she was directed to Letzbe Avenue). Secret Service people practise the arts of passing documents to agents etc without stopping and being noticed by others, so a pass-by spray job would be no big deal. The assailant may even have said ‘sorry’ for ‘accidentally’ spraying the Skripals. The Skripals would probably be unaffected for a sufficiently short time for the assailant to leave the scene.
All the lethal/non-lethal, spray/gel, persistent/non-persistent inconsistencies arise simply from ‘explaining’ how the cop was affected. If he hadn’t been affected, it would have been a simple complication-free hit.
Focus on that. Exept it is difficult as he is a ‘hero’.
bang on yonatan… to reemphasize your view, and mine too –
“This is all just distraction to bamboozle and confuse. When one set of inconsistencies is exposed, another story will appear, leaving the non-inconsistent parts as ‘established facts’. There is no intent for a legal prosecution by the UK. It is all trial by media. The intent is to confuse Joe Public and leave them with the simple explanation ‘Russia did it’.”
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Good post!
ANd your explanation with the spray bottle is just as GOOD as any other – so has anybody been searching for a mystery woman 😉 ?
And yet another explanation: coincidences DO happen, sometimes amazing ones: the unfortunate Sturgess WAS that woman!!!! – She didn’t receive a fatal dose at the time, as she curtailed spraying what she thought was perfume that she’d ‘dumpster-dived’ for after realising she was also accidentally spraying other people – the Skripals. The “perfume” was in the dumpster because some idiot Dweeb from Porton Down had decided to do some home experiments, and BZ being “relatively” harmless and he being a heartless bastard anyway (working at Porton Down) he just tossed it into the Dumpster, or he (or she) was a psycho like the guy in the US who went aroung supermarket shelves dropping cyanide tablets into random bottles of tylenol or aspirin, or whatever.
ANY shit you can make up is pretty much as good as the official line.
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“Russian news channel, has launched its own “digital verification” blog, seemingly modelled on Bellingcat.”
I wonder what blog Higgins is referring to?
“I asked Higgins whether he excludes anyone from these workshops. “We’re going to start explicitly saying that people from intelligence agencies aren’t allowed to apply,” he said. “They’re asking more and more. But we don’t really want to be training them, and it’s awkward for everybody in the room if there’s an M.I.5 person there.”
Probably because trained agents already know, who Higgins pushes propaganda for.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/how-to-conduct-an-open-source-investigation-according-to-the-founder-of-bellingcat
Higgins began through Kickstarter, which is run by an artist. Many US artists in my opinion, have links with US intelligence agencies.
Many US artists in my opinion, have links with US intelligence agencies.
Not just your opinion RoS, but backed up with evidence
https://medium.com/@MichaelMcBride/how-jackson-pollock-and-the-cia-teamed-up-to-win-the-cold-war-6734c40f5b14
Seemingly the entire MoMA?
Thank you Radar for the link.
Someone wanted a photo of Higgins. Plenty under Eliot Higgins on Google images. But of course that could be a ruse. 😉
One here – https://www.flickr.com/photos/arselectronica/43349682724
Well I would not trust Bellingcat to catch a mouse, but the revelations certainly meet Davids Edwards and Cromwell’s 6 tests of a propaganda blitz (Propaganda Blitz Pluto Press 2018). In sum by::
1.Producing allegations of new evidence
2.Communicating these with high intensity and moral outrage (eg by Theresa May)
3.All backed up by corporate media support (headlines in most news channels yesterday and press today) with comment from “expert” opinion (eg BBC 5 Live had a Philip England Army Intelligence officer this am)
4. Put over as indisputable fact that cannot possibly be challenged – though using known untrustworthy and unverified sources
5. Fortuitous timing? (LOL!)
6. Directed at an Official Enemy (Russia) to show UK is whiter than white in the whole affair (but where are the Skripals?)
Has anyone posted the Fraudian’s latest oeuvre?
‘We got really lucky’: how novichok suspects’ identities were revealed
Old-school journalism and intuition are behind success of Bellingcat and The Insider sites
Andrew Roth in Moscow
Thu 27 Sep 2018 12.50 BST
Last modified on Thu 27 Sep 2018 13.52 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/27/we-got-really-lucky-novichok-suspects-identities-revealed-bellingcat
Two versions – https://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/1669113/diff/0/1
Nice.
Interesting to see they added the tag “investigative journalism”!
I thought I posted this already but it seems to have gone down a wormhole or something. Petrov was on the left in the interview and Bashiroff on the right? TBH the photo of Chepiga on Craig’s post ( on the left) looks as much like Petrov as it does Bashiroff……
No, Boshirov is on the left. They introduce themselves at the start.
craig – this bellyache dude is a front for m16… if m16 wants to run some data thru to the public they use this doofus..
ditto your comment here – “Higgins stands exposed as a quite disgusting hypocrite.” and it can be said equally – “BBC stands exposed as a quite disgusting hypocrite” for the 2 pictures they shared as well..
Craig, both villagers’ accounts are by women. The one who doubts it is him has seen him much more recently (10 years vs school years). It is, however, suspicious that only her comments on his photo are quoted and she doesn’t sound 100% certain. Nothing on what she thinks about the interview. Hard to believe that one woman saw the interview and the other did not.
The Sun has published and circled additional photos of Chepiga and to my mind they look nothing like Boshirov.
By the way Craig how did you come to the conclusion that Boshirov is not Boshirov?
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“By the way Craig how did you come to the conclusion that Boshirov is not Boshirov?”
– Good question. How about it Craig?
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I suppose the link would be handy
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7359300/vladimir-putin-alexander-petrov-ruslan-boshirov-civilians/
“After hours of studying facial features, Higgins suddenly had a Eureka moment: the similarity of the ears proved that the tall square shouldered guy was the same as the shorter guy with sloping shoulders.” -attempted humor based on the pictures in your link
Thus is what I think happened in the Skripal poisoning.
After his wife’s and son’s death Skripal became very lonely and isolated in the UK. He wanted to go home. His mother was elderly and not in good health. His daughter was in Russia.
So he made contact with the Russian government but he had to offer something valuable to the Russian government for his repatriation. Negotiations had to done through his daughter as obviously everything else would be monitored. Most probably he offered information on the dodgy dossier which he had helped compile and which had been commissioned by the UK government/Establishment to damage the chances of Trump in the election. Any evidence of this would have been dynamite for the Russian government.
However, his daughter would have most definitely been under intense surveillance in the UK so taking physical documents would have been impossible. So I suspect the role of the two guys in Salisbury was to check Skripal had the evidence he said he had.
According to news reports on 3 March the Skripals left home early in the morning with their phones switched off possibly to avoid being located. During that period Julia may have had an MI5/MI6 proof phone and was in contact with the two guys as they travelled to Salisbury, who they met sometime after their arrival in the cathedral where there was no CCTV?
Aware that something was odd was going on MI5/MI6 contacted Skripal once the phones were switched to tell him that they needed to meet at around 4pm in the park. This may well have been why Skripal was so worried and anxious in the restaurant. The couple filmed near the park carrying a red bag, may have poisoned him with fentanyl as it was necessary for MI5/MI6 to put Skripal out of action as soon as possible to stop the role of the UK government/Establishment in the dossier being revealed. Trump might very well have cut off relations with the UK.
Recall that Strike Back: Retribution used the “Novichok” storyline and was suddenly postponed half way through its 10 episode run in 2017, only for the last 5 episodes to conclude just before the Skripal incident. Whatever actually happened was premeditated.
Don’t see any interest in where all the British crimes starred,. the assassination of Gareth Williams because he would not go along with the Anglo-Americs plot to make Puitin responsible for the Manhattan 11 fiasco.
Cool. I didn’t think the Boshirov in the interview looked like the Boshirov that visited or the passport photo, but your facial recognition link says they are the same person. I can also confirm it says Boshirov in the interview is not Chepiga, but wonder about the angle of Chepiga since he has a double chin.
Not surprised at all. Putin has nothing to hide. His intention is – and always was – to send the Brits (and, par consequence, the West) the message: “Don’t mess up with us. If we wish we can get you even at your home”.
He is relying here on the same tactics of plausible denial in face of evidence as was with the “little green men” in Ukraine. Of course he disowns them publicly (what else!) whilst making sure that all know they are carrying out his orders. But nobody is caught red-handed and things can always be conveniently denied.
However, the message is sent out there. And received.
he wants to send out a ‘ don’t mess with us ‘ message that was only going to result in economy-wrecking sanctions against his country? is he that stupid?
When the West talks of little green men without insignia they tend to get mixed up with the army of the autonomous republic of Crimea which, as the name suggests, was not part of the Ukrainian armed forces. It had already mobilised to defend Crimea and various militias and former riot police joined them. Many were without insignia. Russian troops were involved later, but the initial securing of key places was done by Crimea’s own armed forces.
So Putin sent two men to smear a Soviet-era poison on a door handle in a known unguarded location. To the great astonishment of the Westerners who would never believe otherwise that such a massive and sophisticated operation is within Russia’s capacity.
Thinking of Julian in his confinement. How we need him.
Loss of internet forces Assange to step down from Wikileaks editor role
Mark Bridge, Technology Correspondent
September 27 2018, 12:00pm,
Julian Assange, right, with Kristinn Hrafnsson, who takes over as editor-in-chief at Wikileaks
EPA
Julian Assange has stepped down as editor-in-chief of Wikileaks because he is unable to access the internet.
His team indicated that a lack of communications leaves his position as editor of the organisation, which publishes secret information, untenable, although he remains its “publisher”.
The 47-year-old whistleblower is still living in the Ecuadorian embassy, where he has sought refuge for six years, fearing arrest by the British authorities for breaking bail conditions if he leaves.
He also fears extradition to the US, where officials have spoken about prosecuting him for publishing classified information from the National Security Agency. Sexual assault charges that were filed in Sweden have been dropped.
Ecuador cut Mr Assange’s communications with the outside world in March, after he tweeted saying that Britain… paywall
/..
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/loss-of-internet-forces-assange-to-step-down-from-wikileaks-editor-role-q8ndg5jkc?
thanks for the update sharp ears… this is a travesty of justice that reflects on just how inhumane the uk system is at present… i guess that explains how they can go to war in various middle eastern countries, murdering innocents and not blinking an eye in any of it too… the uk is a really pathetic country politically and ethically speaking at this point in time..
This is a travesty and I feel cowardly and impotent for feeling like I can do nothing for the man.
All my life I’ve looked for someone whom I could owe my loyalty to and as I think of it JA is as close as anyone. He’s shaped me in many ways and the world needs more of him.
I would fight for the man physically and carry his torch in my discussions with friends, family and anyone who will listen. If there is a God then may he watch over him.
I’m not too far away and if help is needed and Julian requires an army then I will volunteer and show up to fight for the mans freedom. Damn be the consequences. Wink wink Mr. Murray.
WTF??? MI5 propaganda at its best and lapped up by the rag media. Nice distraction boys but it wouldn’t even cut Mustard in the library!
Elliot Higgins and The Atlantic Council ought to know anyone with Photoshop can make accurate comparisons bewtween the photos of Chepiga and Borishov at home on their PC. Copy the photo of Chepiga and place it over either photo of Boshirov. Reduce the transparency of the Chepiga image until you are able to distinguish the image of Borishov beneath, then enlarge it so that the four ears fit neatly on top of each other. It soon becomes very clear that when the ears line up the eyes, nose and even the skull do not. Try it lining the eyes up, and the same thing happens. They are not a little bit out they are way out. Higgins and the Atlantic Council have no credibility whatsoever when their evidence is so easy to disprove by anyone with access to Photoshop.
“The head would have to be tilted backward or forward at quite a sharp angle to alter these ratios, which does not seem to be the case.”
Why doesn’t it seem to be the case, Craig?
The chin is higher, the nose seems upturned, the width of the head seems bigger compared to the length, as you would expect it to be if the head is tilted up. It seems to be exactly the case.
Regarding the monument, I found it suspect also, but have found evidence that it is not a photoshop. Of course, it is also the case that the monument proves nothing.
First, here’s an article in 2016
https://eadaily.com/en/news/2016/04/22/nobody-will-be-able-to-separate-russia-and-poland-interview-with-anatoly-kibysh
with a picture of the same monument from (could have been taken years earlier) in which it lacks the inscriptions for Chepiga on the right:
https://img6.eadaily.com/r650x400/o/d36/a248dcfbb8357e754dc4783009e52.jpg
Here is the photo used by Bellingcat, for comparison:
https://017qndpynh-flywheel.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/monument.png
Looked suspcious, but then I found from the Russian base’s own site, browsing the results by google image search command, site:http://www.dvocu.ru
The photo is on this photo gallery page
http://www.dvocu.ru/photo/24
and is dated 4 August 2017.
Here we see the additional names, including a CHEPIGA AB, where I guess AB is the colonel’s rank.
http://www.dvocu.ru/_ph/24/856256086.jpg
So that much confirmed.
Not that I know Russian medals, but the flags indicate the left side is for Soviet service (and has not changed) while the right side is for Russian state soldiers, so they are adding names. This one would have been added in recent years.
I do wonder what “Memorial Wall” means. Doesn’t that indicate a posthumous honor? A Russian speaker can figure this out with a bit of work.
The letters АВ are Chepiga’s intials, for name and patronimic (Анатолий Владимирович). It is unusual for a monument to list people who are alive, but it is not too far a stretch considering they are Heroes of Russia and local graduates.