If you want to understand what is really happening in the world today, a mid-ranking official named Ian Henderson is vastly more important to you than Theresa May. You will not, however, find anything about Henderson in the vast majority of corporate and state media outlets.
You may recall that, one month after the Skripal incident, there was allegedly a “chemical weapons attack” in the jihadist enclave of Douma, which led to air strikes against the Syrian government in support of the jihadist forces by US, British and French bombers and missiles. At the time, I argued that the Douma jihadist enclave was on the brink of falling (as indeed it proved) and there was no military advantage – and a massive international downside – for the Syrian Army in using chemical weapons. Such evidence for the attack that existed came from the jihadist allied and NATO funded White Helmets and related sources; and the veteran and extremely respected journalist Robert Fisk, first westerner to arrive on the scene, reported that no chemical attack had taken place.
The “Douma chemical weapon attack” was linked to the “Skripal chemical weapon attack” by the western media as evidence of Russian evil. Robert Fisk was subjected to massive media abuse and I was demonised by countless mainstream media journalists on social media, of which this is just one example of a great many.
In both the Skripal and the Douma case, it fell to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to provide the technical analysis. The OPCW is a multilateral body established by treaty, and has 193 member states. The only major chemical weapons owning powers which are not members and refuse the inspections regime are the pariah rogue states Israel and North Korea.
An OPCW fact finding mission visited Douma on April 21 and 25 2018 and was able to visit the sites, collect samples and interview witnesses. No weaponised chemicals were detected but traces of chlorine were found. Chlorine is not an uncommon chemical, so molecular traces of chlorine at a bombing site are not improbable. The interim report of the OPCW following the Fact Finding Mission was markedly sober and non-committal:
The results show that no organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties. Along with explosive residues, various chlorinated organic chemicals were found in samples from two sites, for which there is full chain of custody.
The fact finding mission then returned to OPCW HQ, at which time the heavily politicised process took over within the secretariat and influenced by national delegations. 9 months later the final report was expressed in language of greater certainty, yet backed by no better objective evidence:
Regarding the alleged use of toxic chemicals as a weapon on 7 April 2018 in Douma, the Syrian Arab Republic, the evaluation and analysis of all the information gathered by the FFM—witnesses’ testimonies, environmental and biomedical samples analysis results, toxicological and ballistic analyses from experts, additional digital information from witnesses—provide reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon took place. This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine. The toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine.
However the report noted it was unable to determine who had used the chlorine as a weapon. Attempts to spin this as a consequence of OPCW’s remit are nonsense – the OPCW exists precisely to police chemical weapons violations, and has never operated on the basis of violator anonymity.
Needless to say, NATO funded propaganda site Bellingcat had been from the start in the lead in proclaiming to the world the “evidence” that this was a chemical weapons attack by the Assad government, dropping simple chlorine cylinders as bombs. The original longer video footage of one of the videos on the Bellingcat site gives a fuller idea of the remarkable lack of damage to one gas cylinder which had smashed through the reinforced concrete roof and landed gently on the bed.
[I am sorry that I do not know how to extract that longer video from its tweet. You need to click on the above link then click on the link in the first tweet that warns you it is sensitive material – in fact there is nothing sensitive there, so don’t worry.]
Now we come to the essential Mr Ian Henderson. Mr Henderson was in charge of the engineering sub-group of the OPCW Fact Finding Mission. The engineers assessed that the story of the cylinders being dropped from the sky was improbable, and it was much more probable that they had simply been placed there manually. There are two major reasons they came to this conclusion.
At least one of the crater holes showed damage that indicated it had been caused by an explosive, not by the alleged blunt impact. The cylinders simply did not show enough damage to have come through the reinforced concrete slabs and particularly the damage which would have been caused by the rebar. Rebar is actually thicker steel than a gas cylinder and would have caused major deformation.
Yet – and this is why Ian Henderson is more important to your understanding of the world than Theresa May – the OPCW Fact Finding Mission reflected in their final report none of the findings of their own sub-group of university based engineers from two European universities, but instead produced something that is very close to the amateur propaganda “analysis” put out by Bellingcat. The implications of this fraud are mind-blowing.
The genuine experts’ findings were completely suppressed until they were leaked last week. And still then, this leak – which has the most profound ramifications – has in itself been almost completely suppressed by the mainstream media, except for those marginalised outliers who still manage to get a platform, Robert Fisk and Peter Hitchens (a tiny platform in the case of Fisk).
Consider what this tells us. A fake chemical attack incident was used to justify military aggression against Syria by the USA, UK and France. The entire western mainstream media promoted the anti-Syrian and anti-Russian narrative to justify that attack. The supposedly neutral international watchdog, the OPCW, was manipulated by the NATO powers to produce a highly biased report that omits the findings of its own engineers. Which can only call into doubt the neutrality and reliability of the OPCW in its findings on the Skripals too.
There has been virtually no media reporting of the scandalous cover-up. This really does tell you a very great deal more about how the Western world works than the vicissitudes of the ludicrously over-promoted Theresa May and her tears of self pity.
Still more revealing is the reaction from the OPCW – which rather than acknowledge there is a major problem with the conclusions of its Douma report, has started a witch hunt for the whistleblower who leaked the Henderson report.
The Russian government claimed to have intelligence that indicated it was MI6 behind the faking of the Douma chemical attack. I have no means of knowing the truth of that, and am always sceptical of claims by all governments on intelligence matters, after a career observing government disinformation techniques from the inside. But the MI6 claim is consistent with the involvement of the MI6 originated White Helmets in this scam. and MI6 can always depend on their house journal The Guardian to push their narrative, as Guardian Middle East editor Brian Whitaker does here in an article “justifying” the omission of the Henderson report by the OPCW. Whitaker argues that Henderson’s engineers had a minority view. Interestingly Whitaker’s article is not from the Guardian itself, which prefers to keep all news of the Henderson report from the public.
But Whitaker’s thesis cannot stand. On one level, of course we know that Henderson’s expert opinion did not prevail at the OPCW. Henderson and the truth lost out in the politicking. But at the very least, it would be essential for the OPCW report to reflect and note the strong contrary view among its experts, and the suppression of this essential information cannot possibly be justified. Whitaker’s attempt to do so is a disgrace.
Which leads me on to the Skripals.
I have noted before the news management technique of the security services, leaking out key facts in a managed way over long periods so as not to shock what public belief there is in the official Skripal story. Thus nine months passed before it was admitted that the first person who “coincidentally” came across the ill Skripals on the park bench, just happened to be the Chief Nurse of the British Army.
The inquest into the unfortunate Dawn Sturgess has now been postponed four times. The security services have now admitted – once again through the Guardian – that even if “Boshirov and Petrov” poisoned the Skripals, they cannot have been also responsible for the poisoning of Dawn Sturgess. This because the charity bin in which the perfume bottle was allegedly found is emptied regularly so the bottle could not have lain there for 16 weeks undiscovered, and because the package was sealed so could not have been used on the Skripals’ doorknob.
This Guardian article is bylined by the security services’ pet outlet, Luke Harding, and one other. The admissions are packaged in a bombastic sandwich about Russian GRU agents.
Every single one of these points – that “Boshirov and Petrov” have never been charged with the manslaughter of Sturgess, that the bottle was sealed so could not have been used at the Skripals’ house, and that it cannot have been in the charity bin that long – are points that I have repeatedly made, and for which I have suffered massive abuse, including – indeed primarily – from dozens of mainstream media journalists. Making precisely these points has seen me labelled as a mentally ill conspiracy theorist or paid Russian agent. Just like the Douma fabrication, it turns out there was indeed every reason to doubt, and now, beneath a veneer of anti-Russian nonsense, these facts are quietly admitted by anonymous “sources” to Harding. No wonder poor Dawn Sturgess keeps not getting an inquest.
Which brings us back full circle to the OPCW. In neither its report on the Salisbury poisoning nor its report on the Amesbury poisoning did the OPCW ever use the word Novichok. As an FCO source explained to me, the expert scientists in OPCW were desperate to signal that the Salisbury sample had not been for days on a doorknob collecting atmospheric dust, rain and material from hands and gloves, but all the politics of the OPCW leadership would allow them to slip in was the phrase “almost complete absence of impurities” as a clue – which the British government then spun as meaning “military grade” when it actually meant “not from a doorknob”.
Now we have seen irrefutable evidence of poor Ian Henderson in exactly the same position with the OPCW of having the actual scientific analysis blocked out of the official findings. That is extremely strong added evidence that my source was indeed telling the truth about the earlier suppression of the scientific evidence in the Skripal case.
Even the biased OPCW could not give any evidence of the Amesbury and Salisbury poisons being linked, concluding:
“Due to the unknown storage conditions of the small bottle found in the house of Mr Rowley and the fact that the environmental samples analysed in relation to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Mr Nicholas Bailey were exposed to the environment and moisture, the impurity profiles of the samples available to the OPCW do not make it possible to draw conclusions as to whether the samples are from the same synthesis batch
”
Which is strange, as the first sample had an “almost complete absence of impurities” and the second was straight out of the bottle. In fact beneath the doublespeak the OPCW are saying there is no evidence the two attacks were from the same source. Full stop.
I suppose I should now have reached the stage where nothing will shock me, but as a textbook example of the big lie technique, this BBC article is the BBC’s take on the report I just quoted – which remember does not even use the word Novichok.
When it comes to government narrative and the mainstream media, mass purveyor of fake news, scepticism is your friend. Remembering that is much more important to your life than the question of which Tory frontman is in No. 10.
For an analysis of the Henderson Report fiasco written to the highest academic standards, where you can find all the important links to original source material, read this superb work by the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media.
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Isn’t it funny how the “bomb” left a great big gaping hole in the roof, but the wooden bed was not smashed to bits (given the weight and velocity of the “bomb”), and left fully intact? In fact, the bed looks like something you would pick up from Wayfair. Perhaps the US/UK backed zealots also have personal shoppers and interior design stylists? Reminds me of the pristine costumes they pull on when acting out some catastrophe scene.
Maybe we don’t need bomb shelters anymore. Just get a bed like that, and hide under if, should one be concerned that bombs are going to start falling through the roof.
It’s actually a quite ingenious device – it arrests the fall of the bomb so well, bringing it gently to rest, that it won’t go off.
No we can’t believe the lies because they are not very clever lies but we can’t see the truth either.
But what killed Dawn?
It was the identical chemical formula (with different levels of impurities in samples) that harmed the Skripals and the police detective, it may not have come from the same manufacturing batch. (Source HMG & Agencies)
The Chemical used in Salisbury and Amesbury was unknown to the OPCW, no one had registered it with them (Source French and OPCW).
https://twitter.com/SabineNolke/status/1084766453058940930
“A substance, never declared to OPCW, had been used in a European country. “France will never accept impunity for those who use or develop toxic agents,” he said.” FRANÇOIS DELATTRE
https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/sc13247.doc.htm
Delattare made this statement on the 14th March 18, the same day PM May announced in the HoC that the Russians were responsible and the same day she asked for the OPCW to become involved.
~
But France was also very keen to jump on the Douma – Assad Did It – Bandwagon
“We find ourselves meeting again, two days after another Extraordinary Meeting summoned in the wake of another chemical weapons attack, the one perpetrated by the Syrian Government and its armed forces at Douma on 7 April.”
“We put it on record, and still maintain today, that we unreservedly share the British analysis which shows, on the one hand, that the Russian Federation was responsible for the attack, and, on the other, that there is no other plausible explanation for the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter.”
“The results of these analyses leave no room for doubt. They confirm those of the United Kingdom laboratory: a high- quality chemical agent, thought to be of military manufacture, was identified beyond all possible doubt. This organophosphorous neurotoxic agent was revealed by each of the four laboratories to be of a high degree of purity, which bears witness to skills which only a State could possess, including during the purification stage. Production and handling of such an agent require material and expertise, and such expertise cannot be improvised.”
STATEMENT BY H.E. AMBASSADOR PHILIPPE LALLIOT 18th April 2018
https://www.opcw.org/sites/default/files/documents/EC/M-59/en/ecm59nat01_e_.pdf
~
The OPCW created a new category in their register of banned chemicals to accommodate that specific chemical (separate from other Novichoks) (Source OPCW)
The only lab known to possess the specific Chemical used was Porton Down (Boris Johnson)
“You argue that the source of this nerve agent, Novichok, is Russia. How did you manage to find it out so quickly? Does Britain possess samples of it?
BJ: Let me be clear with you … When I look at the evidence, I mean the people from Porton Down, the laboratory …
So they have the samples …
BJ: They do.”
TV Interview https://www.dw.com/en/boris-johnson-russias-position-in-skripal-case-is-increasingly-bizarre/a-43043873
~
But what killed Dawn?
Sam Hobson friend of Dawn and Charlie Rowley was present when Dawn was put into the ambulance, he said she looked dead, she was on a ventilator and had suffered a heart attack.
Dawn appeared to have died in Charlie’s flat, her reaction was within 15 minutes of spraying the “perfume”
The OPCW say Nerve Agents acting through the skin take 20 – 30 minutes to take effect. The Director of Public Health England (Porton Down) said this particular chemical can take 3 hours minimum – 12 hours maximum to take effect (3 hours being a very heavy dosage)
Charlie didn’t become ill until 8 hours later (he spilled it on his hands and inhaled it), Sam who had stayed the night with Dawn and Charlie didn’t become ill and wasn’t tested until two weeks later (by means of a thumb prick blood test). Charlie and Sam both developed Meningitis shortly afterwards.
Its the job of a Coroner to decide on the cause of death (unless Porton Down are involved eg David Kelly). Still no Inquest in sight (a Pre Inquest Review has been rescheduled for October).
The Ambulance service are refusing to release the response times of the ambulances in the Salisbury and Amesbury incidents on the grounds of National Security, Privacy and Health and Safety.
Whatever Dawn died from Porton Down were able to identify it unequivocally in under 13 hours after receiving blood samples from the Skripals, in Dawns case it took them more than 4 days.
The lies do not stack up to make sense no matter how you stack them. Lies are being told (stupid ones that are easily disproved. Lies that reject science and common sense). The cover up has been re scripted so many times its hard to tell what the current official version is.
Thanks for your informative post PnG, one could almost make a case for a Guinea pig operation by Porton Down. Questions could allure that the chemicals send to labs and OPCW were different to the one that was used to kill Dawn Sturgess and the forever delayed inquest makes this a possibility.
Are we witnessing a selective well prepared Porton Down action designed to flare Russia, ensuring and using the guaranteed visa visit by two Russians with a dubious past to keep the Skripals in line?
Did Sergei have extensive dealings in Syria, why did they target him at that time and not earlier? is there a correlation with the increased actions in Syria at the time, we as yet don’t know and I somehow feel will never know.
Sadly the OPCW is now a defunct organisation which can either fully reinstate Hendersons full research and report, or be damned as US vassal body that makes stuff up as its told to.
There is no real good reason either for Assad to drop chemical bombs.
Not to sound crass but in war: if you drop a bomb – people die – far more “acceptable” than haphazardly drop chemical bombs that
1. Do not necessarily kill people – what is the point then for the attacker? The victims will tell the horror stories and wont benefit the PR of the attacker.
2. Do not advance your winning – people are still living after the attacks and will only summon more resistance to the attacker
3. Expose nasty battlefield tactics by using chemical agents on civilians
Why would he use it? Maybe I am naive or blind.
However there are as far as I can see clear reasons for the accusations:
1. ‘Look they use chemical weapons – now we must bomb Syria’
The most important issue is if there are battles going on in these compounds which are attacked. That is ALWAYS missed from the MSM reporting that claims Assad deliberately drop bombs on civlians – but again that makes no sense – he will only lose by that tactic.
Regardless chemical or conventional weapons – war is of course horrible.
You have to take into account that Assad is a brown muslim pantomime baddie who perpetrates random and irrational acts of pure evil. He cannot be judged in the same way as white compassionate folk.
Indeed, Assad the baddie would happily kill school children if it served his purpose. Thank goodness our leaders operate at higher levels of compassion and humanity.
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/british-intelligence-plotted-a-massacre-at-catholic-school-glenanne-gang-man-tells-film-37833358.html
Jack
“Regardless chemical or conventional weapons – war is of course horrible”. In a nutshell.
But of course we are brainwashed into believing that seeing a child struggling to breathe but likely to recover is somehow more appalling that seeing children with arms, legs, heads blown off. That must be why the MSM resolutely refuse to show images of the latter following numerous and ongoing mortar attacks on Government controlled areas (little was made of last year’s deliberate and afore-planned terrorist attack on the busload of children, and deadly attacks on primary schools). Or may be they don’t show such images as it might make people question the official narrative about the poor oppressed ‘moderate rebels’.
As regards why Assad would drop chemical bombs. In their desperation, some commentators have even said that it is because he is a sadistic, murderous psychopath. He obviously gets some perverse pleasure out of seeing children struggling to breathe rather than being blown to smithereens. Makes sense doesn’t it. Doesn’t it?
Oh, yes, in russian sources I see videos of ‘rebells’ well-armed; I see videos of the russians entering Douma and finding enormous underground tunnels, built with western technology; I see military vehicles and weapons; I’ve seen videos of after-battle fields with dead rebels; abandoned apartments with chemical equipment; abandoned apartments with white helmets and isis possessions mixed in one room.
In western MSM children and women prevail.
Tatyana
Indeed. In the UK we have seen such images too…but only on RT! I wonder why.
You may have gathered from comments on here that Sky News recently had a reporter sending filmed reports from the terrorist side of Idlib, ‘chaperoned’ by a well known al Qaeda activist (Bilal Abdul Kareem, and described by Sky as a “civilian activist”) who, by his own admission and not mentioned by Sky, is on a US “kill” list. The journalist stood in front of a burning tank, notably not mentioning whom it had belonged to, thereby avoiding the awkwardness of having to explain how the terrorists had acquired four tanks and seven armoured vehicles, which they were known to possess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi1Lsyfljo8
A further thought.
We are used to seeing images of White Helmet ‘rescues’ of ‘dusty’ children but when was the last time one of them had a limb missing? Well, it’s amazing considering they’re usually extracted from underneath tonnes of rubble — oh, of course they must have all sheltered under the extra strong speciality beds that they have in terrorist enclaves in Syria. And we do we so rarely see them pulling out adults, except when it’s for the ‘mannequin challenge’?
Seriously, I can’t recall the last time I saw pictures or film of mutilated people (and I’m not including obvious terrorists) following SAA or Russian bombardments. Presumably (and knowing that the ‘Syrian Observatory for Human Rights’ in Coventry was given nearly £200k last year by the UK Government to fund film and recording equipment) if such pictures existed they would have been provided by our ‘reputable’ sources on the ground and splashed all over the MSM. So why do we not see such evidence? I’m not suggesting that no innocent people die in conventional Govt attacks but wouldn’t this suggest to any rational objective observer that such casualties must be relatively few?
Dawn and Charlie were treated as a 2nd class subjects from the off by the British authorities
No chance of a 2nd private post mortem to confirm the findings, the body was cremated in July, no pall bearers allowed for health and safety reasons. No further forensic testing possible.
The Sturgess family had to go to a charity to find the money for the funeral, the government did not assist.
It took 3 days longer to diagnose Novichok poisoning for Dawn than it did for the Skripals or the detective.
Charlie, Dawn’s partner was re-homed in a “flee pit” he was given some B&Q vouchers and told to decorate even though it was immediately apparent that he was in no physical or mental state to make the staging post more inhabitable.
Compare and contrast the treatment handed out to the Skripals and the detective, no taxpayer expense spared. Charlie was discharged from hospital and left to fend for himself, a registered drug addict who had just lost his partner and been subjected to the world’s most dangerous nerve agent, suffering grief, depression and PTSD.
Charlie was re-homed again, again no help from government even his electricity meter had a debt on it that he had to clear before he could turn the lights on. No washing machine, no fridge.
The detective was given a temporary luxury house in the country and a new one paid for with new cars and possessions and he is fit enough now to run a marathon.Charlie was made partially blind and a series of strokes has severely limited his movements. Then meningitis took its toll. Still no assistance from government.
UK politicians have chosen their path to hell, they are just not moving quickly enough
There are two questions I have regarding the Skripal nonsense:
1) Did ol’ Sergei have any video surveillance cameras in his house? I would find it astonishing if he didn’t, but if he did then there would be video footage of those two Russians walking up to the door and spraying “perfume” on the doorknob. And if that were true then that footage would have been leaked by now. Yet it hasn’t, which suggests there was no surveillance cameras, which strikes me as an astonishing oversight for a traitor and a turncoat…..
2) Did DS Bailey attend to the scene in Salisbury before going to the Skripal house and turning The Doorknob Of Death? Or did he receive a call at the Cop Shop and then decide to head straight to the Skripal household because of…. reasons? I’m so confused over this point since the explanation for DS Bailey’s movements on that day appears to depend upon….. reasons.
Look, in all honesty I have many more questions about this entire bizarre episode, but those are the two questions about which I can’t seem to find any coherent explanations:
Did Sergei have a CCD security camera pointed at his front door?
Did DS Bailey go straight to the Skripal house without passing Go?
Victoria, Sergey’s niece said he did have cctv at is home.
The detective’s involvement is still taking shape, at first he was a first responder at the bench incident and at the Skripal home.
It was reported that police were at the property at 5pm (whilst the Skripal were still at the bench).
Then the detective went on television and said he went to the bench sometime after the incident and went to the house at midnight to search it.
I think the best you can say is that the facts are fluid.
CCTV was also attached to the house opposite and trained on Skripal’s place. Should have provided all the evidence needed but wasn’t working that day. Shucks.
Another question is: Yulia worked at the US Consulate. Did the US Consulate know who is her father? I suppose, they knew, Yulia lives under her real name, Skripal and there must be security check when employing people. Well, did the US Consulate know about her visit to the UK? I suppose they knew, she must receive a permission for a vacations from her boss. Or, perhaps she simply talked of her visit with her friends co-workers.
One more question: Sergey Skripal was using his car on that day, so, he must have his driving license with him. Why did it took much time to identify him? And, if identified, did he really get into a civilian hospital?
Ah, one more question: Sergey lost his wife long ago. Did he have a partner? If so, who is she/he? What about missing Yulia’s fiancee? Why we know only Victoria? Where are all those friends, neighbours, colleagues?
There’s not a requirement to have your driving licence on your person in the UK, as far as I know. Certainly in Scotland there is not.
Ok, then maybe name on his or her bank card? They were visiting several places, like pub and restaurant. Is it normal to pay with cash?
Tatyana,
I have not carried any identification, including driving licence, on me, for decades, I hardly ever have a mobile phone with me, I don’t carry or use bank cards, I always pay in cash, for everything, it’s probably an age thing,
known as “Old School”
meaning we like things as they used to be and would rather die than be modernised.
Oh, I supposed a 6-digit ICQ is ‘Old School’ like COM interface, like matrix printer : -) I even remember floppy disks and even perfocards )))
I think Michael is very unusual these days – cards and phones abound. I hadn’t quite got beyond the licence bit in my own slow thought process.
Ok, here in Russia I have to have my driving licence with me when driving. It is around 2*3 inches card with my name and photo.
In case if the traffic police stops me and if I got no to show, it would end with the car arrested and me to pay a fee.
Is it not the same everywhere?
Tatyana, here in Australia the situation is simple: you must pass a driving test before you are allowed to drive a vehicle. Your drivers licence is proof that you have passed that test. Therefore when you are behind the wheel of a car you are legally obliged to have your drivers licence on your person so that you can provide proof of eligibility to drive when requested by a police officer.
In the UK, you are not required to carry either the driving licence itself, nor the plastic counterpart. An officer can require you to produce it at a police station – I think within 7 days.
Tatyana if Sergei is an MI6 Asset, he must have got permission for Yulia, a Russian person to visit him in Salisbury, therefor, MI6 knew what flights she would be taking.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/19/skripal-poisoning-suspects-received-mystery-phone-call-following-attack
Mistery phone calls do I receive daily. Enigmatic surveys, magic bank loans, cryptic advertising of stomatology and beauty salons 🙂 my black list is full of that sh*t
The Salisbury DIstrict Hospital, the small hospital where the Skripals were taken, had a secret connection to Porton Down, the UK chemical weapons lab.
Bailey was reportedly sent to the Skripal house on March 8th, 4 days after the poisoning. Remember, the real first responders — who gave the Skripals CPR (and were vomited on!) were all healthy.
Douma the rabbit hole…
There are some interesting comments on Rob Slane’s blogmire site under the article, The Sinking Credibility of the OPCW. There is speculation on Sergei’s phone call (or not), the country of origin of the phone call, who set it up, who benefits from it, and what Viktoria knew (or didn’t).
Douma, Assange, Skripal: Liberals in meltdown over dissident voices
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/459821-sarandon-media-opcw-syria/
Craig said in a previous interview, ‘There has been virtually no media reporting of the scandalous cover-up.’ – Craig warned of the ‘kind of world people live in’ and we should be alarmed especially when it is ‘very difficult to get the truth into the media.’
This excellent interview is here in full and I do hope you it provokes an intention in you to reject and berate the government narrative and the mainstream media in it’s pursuit to reinforce the British establishment’s attempts at gaining our trust with false information.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyJfrgi_lcE — Enjoy!
Yes, interesting from Craig there. Sexual allegations now much the preferred means of eroding sympathy for whistleblowers among the left and liberals. Any such accusations being automatically assumed to be true in the age of #MeToo.
The ‘left and liberals’ are interesting tags when we examine the philosophy and their historical development. Recent history teaches us that liberalism is underpinned by what appears to be a willingness and tolerance to implementing torture, indigenous genocide, character assassination, proxy war and incarceration that leaves us with only the most tenuous of connections to any set of natural principles regarding the liberty of men and women.
The East/West struggle of modern times for dominance I think gives us a clear picture of Western Liberalism in that it remains a fluid ideological defense for those in power to justify their positions of power. Individually we are taught that indentured servitude to the state means we receive more than we give up. In fact we receive more lies, more deceit, more false news, more wars, more threats and more Orwellian spin while yielding our obedience and our property to this aberration..
Mark
It has been a dark, exclusionary ideology for going on 350 years. Cannot recommend highly enough the book cited in the article i linked to above, Dominico Losurdo’s Liberalism: a counterhistory. Essential reading for all of us brought up on the self-righteous, self-congratulatory delusions of liberals.
As John Wight concludes his latest article: “The empires forged and wars waged in the name of liberalism have been almost unending, which is why opposing it politically, intellectually and ideologically has always and will always be the central struggle of all who exist outside its execrable circle of worth.”
don’t know about 350 years ago, but obama/clinton(s) are a break with a more recent tradition, the new deal and the dems support of labor unions.
Ironically perhaps, I believe it was a leak to Wikileaks themselves of documents from the US “security”/advice firm Stratfor that revealed their recommendation that allegations of sexual impropriety should be used as a primary means to discredit whisteblowers/prominent opponents of US Govt. policy.
Trying but giving up to find the presentation on the Internet on this that I saw at the time, I stumbled on this on the Wikileaks website illustrating the incestuous revolving door relationship between the “private” security firms and the US Govt, as well as their complete viciousness:
https://wikileaks.org/Stratfor-Emails-US-Has-Issued.html
An extract from the document:
“Three days before Manning arrived at Quantico Brig, Burton wrote to George Friedman, Stratfor CEO and founder:
“We probably asked the ASIS Australian Secret Intelligence Service] to monitor Wiki coms and email, after the soldier from Potomac was nabbed. So, it’s reasonable to assume we probably already know who has done it. The delay could be figuring out how to declassify and use the Aussie intel on Wiki… The owner [Julian Assange] is a peacenik. He needs his head dunked in a full toilet bowl at Gitmo.”
– Beware Peacniks!
Syria has an interesting story to tell us, as has Cyprus.
The Syrian Civil War has a nominal starting date of 15 March 2011.
After H.R. Clinton ordered the Cypriots to take charge of the
Monchegorsk, a chain of events was entered into. In early 2009, Monchegorsk became the centre of an international incident involving Iran, Russia, the U.S.A., Israel, the Palestinian territories and Cyprus. The ship was apprehended in the Red Sea by U.S. warships in Task Force 151 having left Iran.
Following an onboard search suspicious military material was reported and the ship was escorted to Limassol Port on 29 January 2009.
A most massive explosion happened on 11 July 2011, at the Naval base of Evangelos Florakis
taking out Vasilikos Power Station, the main electricity supply of Cyprus.
This put in place the fucking of the Cypriot economy, much Russian money had been “invested” in Cyprus,
some have suggested Cyprus could be a warm water port for Russia.
Things then changed for Cyprus, they were ushered back into the fold, under supervision of Israel.
Israel is now piping its Methane to Cyprus for onward journey to Greece and the rest of the E.U.
Syria is being excluded.
that was a good observation! “OPCW were desperate to signal that the Salisbury sample had not been for days on a doorknob collecting atmospheric dust, rain and material from hands and gloves, but all the politics of the OPCW leadership would allow them to slip in was the phrase “almost complete absence of impurities” as a clue – which the British government then spun as meaning “military grade” when it actually meant “not from a doorknob”. I think I remember a few vague twits to this effect from OPCW EU lab staff in Rijswijk (?) before their tweeter suddenly went dead.
My complaint to the BBC (the first I’ve ever made), five days ago:
“You appear not to have reported on the recently leaked OPCW internal report, “Engineering Assessment of two cylinders observed at the Douma incident”. In the mainstream press, only Peter Hitchens of the Daily Mail appears to have mentioned the matter; and he reports that, in reply to his enquiries, the OPCW have implicitly confirmed the authenticity of the document. Do you consider this information to be important to the British public? If so, do you have any plans to report on it, and why have you apparently not even mentioned it yet?”
Their reply (which doesn’t address any of the objective questions, and instead illogically reduces them to the vague subjective mush of what I supposedly only “feel”), this morning:
“Thank you for contacting us about BBC News.
I understand you feel the BBC has overlooked the OPCW’s internal report regarding the ‘chemical attack’ on Douma.
We know that not everyone will agree with our choices on which stories to cover or the order in which they appear. Our news editors make these complex decisions, based on the editorial merit of all the stories at hand. We accept that not everyone will agree with each decision – various factors are at play and there’s often debate in the newsroom too.
BBC News has been following developments surrounding the attack last April. You can read reports here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-47424266
However, I do appreciate on this occasion you feel more prominence should be given to the OPCW internal report. I have shared your views with the BBC News team for their information and your concerns will be placed on the overnight audience feedback report which is available to senior management.
Thanks again for getting in touch.
Kind regards”
Twirlip,
Just insert “local scout jamboree” for “leaked OPCW report” and you’d have received exactly the same reply. Though, on second thoughts, there is more chance they would have covered that!
Here is my followup complaint. (I’m not holding my breath waiting for an honest reply from ELIZA.)
You’ve answered none of my three questions.
If it helps, pretend I’m Jeremy Paxman and you’re Michael Howard.
My first question was, “Do you consider this information to be important to the British public?”
Your only reply was, “Our news editors make these complex decisions, based on the editorial merit of all the stories at hand […] there’s often debate in the newsroom too.”
Please bear with me as I struggle to imagine how such a “debate” may have gone.
Logically, I can imagine only the following seven possibilities. (Please set me right if I’ve missed something out.)
(A) No debate actually took place.
(B1) Some of your editors argued that apparent evidence of this country having attacked another country on a false pretext – mocked up by an organisation associated with Al-Qaeda! – was important to the British public. Other editors argued that this was not important. The latter faction carried the day.
Or:
(B2) There was unanimous agreement in the newsroom that this was not an important news item.
(C) It was agreed that this was potentially important news, but doubts were raised as to the authenticity of the document, or more generally whether it might be “fake news”, or Russian propaganda, or something like that. So it was agreed that further investigation was needed before it was reported.
(D) It was agreed that the report was both authentic and important, so important in fact that a major investigation was needed, and until such an enquiry could be completed, it was best to say nothing at all about it.
In that case, I ask again, “Why?”
(E) It was agreed that the report was both authentic and important, but you were never going to report on it or look any further into it.
Again, “Why?”
(F) You were aware of convincing evidence that the report was untrustworthy, but you decided not to report on this instance of “fake news” – even though “fake news” in general worries you, and even though this item had made it into the Daily Mail.
Yet again, “Why?”
I like your style, Twirlip – and your persistence. Media Lens would be proud of you!
Twirlip
Far too ‘complex’ for ‘Eliza’ to understand, I’m sure. She’ll be looking through her pro-formas of standard replies right now but will be disappointed not to find one for your questions. If you’re lucky, you’ll get one that says “Thank you for your further comments which have been noted and passed on to BBC editors.”
And if I’m unlucky, I’ll get one that says [with apologies to Douglas Adams]:
“It is most gratifying that your enthusiasm for our news service continues unabated. And so we would like to assure you that the guided missiles currently converging on your house are part of a special service we extend to all of our most enthusiastic customers… And the fully armed nuclear warheads are, of course, merely a courtesy detail. We look forward to your custom in future lives. Thank you.”
I like it! 🙂
I’ve got an email address to send complaints to Sky about their ‘programming’ so I am going to see what sort of reply I receive to my planned complaint regarding Alex Crawford’s reports from Idlib.
😉
I’m sure Douglas Adams would have felt appropriately flattered.
Curiouser –
You’ve lost me, I’m afraid. (And this thread is becoming too deeply “nested”.) I was just acknowledging the source:
https://www.clivebanks.co.uk/THHGTTG/THHGTTGradio3.htm (The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Part 3)
I doubt if I’ll get a proper reply (if ever!) before comments are closed on this thread.
So far, I’ve just had this (it could have been worse, I think):
“Thank you for taking time to contact us again recently. This is an update to let you know that although we had referred your complaint to the relevant people, we regret that it may be a little longer before we can reply.
We investigate and reply to most complaints at this stage of the complaints service within 20 working days (around four weeks), but cannot do so every time. It depends on what your complaint was about or how many others we are investigating, and can sometimes be affected by practical issues. For example a production team may already be working on another programme or have gone on location.
We apologise for this and have been in touch with the relevant staff again. We therefore ask you not to contact us further in the meantime.
For full details of our complaints process please visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/handle-complaint/.
In the meantime thank you for contacting us – we appreciate your patience.
Kind regards
BBC Complaints Team
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints“
Just now something happens in Kosovo.
Kosovo police invaded the north of Kosovo and Metohija with 73 vehicles, mostly armored. Another 50 are waiting in the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, and another 15 are in the territory of the Serbica municipality. There are information about 23 detained Serbs.
Mikhail Krasnoshenkov, russian UN mission member, is wounded, detained, is now in Mitrovica hospital.
In Zubin Potok and the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, locals are building barricades on the streets.
Vučić put Serbian army and police units into full combat ready mode.
The State of Serbia, actually started in Kosovo about one thousand years ago, Serbia came into existence as a Christian bulwark against the Turks, who were invading Europe.
NATO, at the request of Tony Blair collapsed Yugoslavia.
This was the first of Tony Blair’s war.
The Serbian people do not want to be ruled by Albanians, they want to remain or re-join Serbia
but do not want to relinquish their lands.
Albanians are the invaders.
With NATO you often get a better understanding of events, if you stand on your head.
Kosovo declares Russian diplomat from UN mission persona non grata
https://www.rt.com/newsline/460739-kosovo-russian-non-grata/
Russian diplomat Mikhail Krasnoshchekov from the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has been declared persona non grata in the breakaway Serbian province.
The prime minister of the unrecognized territorial entity Ramush Haradinaj said on his Facebook page that he asked the foreign ministry to declare the Russian citizen persona non grata “on the basis of the constitutional and legal powers.”
Krasnoshchekov was ordered to leave the territory of Kosovo “due to the Russian citizen’s actions against the constitutional system of Kosovo, universal humanitarian values, peace and stability,” Haradinaj said, as cited by TASS.
Kosovo police carried out raids on the territory’s northern municipalities on May 28, slightly injuring two Serbs in shootouts.
Belgrade said 28 people were detained, including Krasnoshchekov, who was later freed and reportedly taken to a hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica with head and facial injuries. He was later transferred to the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade.
Basically Kosovo is run by criminals of Albanian ethnicity, they do not like or want christians.
A new set of lies about President Assad has appeared on the Sky News website.
Ms Crawford is an excellent embroiderer.
Syrian regime forces drop banned cluster bombs on Idlib and target hospitals
Sky News has uncovered evidence that Syrian regime forces are bombarding hospitals with a type of banned weapon.
By Alex Crawford, special correspondent, in Idlib
https://news.sky.com/story/syrian-regime-forces-drop-banned-cluster-bombs-on-idlib-and-target-hospitals-11730044
Thanks, SE
Sky/Alex Crawford are lying in their article. I have been through the article picking out the bits that stand out as complete b*llocks (most of the article if I’m honest).
“Sky News has seen first hand evidence that hospitals in Idlib are being targeted etc etc”
When you actually read the article, no, they haven’t “seen first hand”. They have either been told by their terrorist friends that this is happening or they have been handed fragments of weaponry and told that they came from barrel bombs. Crawford actually states at one point that there were SAA helicopters above but [words to the effect of] “we didn’t see any barrel bombs being dropped”.
“In ALL [my emphasis] of the hospitals we find there are few patients…because the civilians are there only as a last resort or for a [sic] short a time as possible”
Really? Does that sound plausible? In one hospital the only patients are someone claiming to have a broken arm and an elderly man who is ‘in pain’ accompanied by his son. Where are all the chronically ill people and patients requiring out-patient treatment? Crawford clearly thinks that people in Syria only go to hospital after accidents.
“We arrived at one hospital just as the doctors were fleeing the area-again. The patients had already been shifted”
Well wasn’t that convenient. We’ve all seen evidence in Aleppo and Douma of the sort of people passing themselves off as ‘doctors’ in these terrorist enclaves.
And arguably the strangest observation of all:
“Idlib…now under the control of HTS (formerly al Qaeda), an extremist group outlawed as a terrorist group by the UK and the US. Syrian leader Bashar al Assad maintains they are terrorists and is using their presence as justification for attack”.
So, Ms Crawford, why is the fact that the UK and the US regard HTS as terrorists AND President Assad regards them as terrorists inconsistent as you appear to be implying?
Do you think Crawford & crew will be charged with aiding and abetting terrorists when they get back to the UK or even banned from entering the UK? She should be. She is a worse criminal than Shamima Begum.
Abstracting of the reality, I think maybe it is good that he’s made this report. At least there’s a confirmation which side he’s chosen. And those who are with him.
In some years another Nurenberg will have irrefutable proof.
@ Tatyana May 28, 2019 at 16:27
No, not another Nuremberg, but the Day of Judgement.
Nuremberg was ‘Victor’s Justice’. The Day of Judgement will be the real McCoy, pure and unadulterated.
At Least 40 Members of White Helmets Admit Staging Syria Chemical Attacks
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201904251074466112-40-members-white-helmets-admit-staging-syria-chemical-attacks/
Thanks Greg,
Good to have a further report on this. Mr Grigoriev and his investigative team (of various nationalities) undertook a special (one hour and twenty minutes) presentation at the UN on 20 December last year specifically devoted to the subject of the White Helmets and their practices (including organ trafficking). The US and UK (and presumably France) refused to send a representative to this session. Only they can explain why. It’s well worth watching.
The team presented witness statements from local civilians, victims and White Helmet members themselves, demonstrably concluding that they were a fake humanitarian agency. It was also stated categorically that the US and UK know this to be the case but are so entrenched in the humanitarian pretext that it is now too embarrassing for them to back track.
The presentation, even though it took place in a major UN forum, received no publicity whatsoever in the MSM. Sadly, I doubt this latest renewal of publicity will be any different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvzfvycljg4
” The team presented witness statements from local civilians, victims and White Helmet members themselves ”
All anonymously so it seems yet when OPCW do this it’s wrong…
Did Mr Grigoriev and his team witness any fakery first hand? (See criticism of the Sky News story above.)
“All anonymously” ??
I suggest you watch the presentation before making any more ill-considered comments.
The point with Sky is that they claimed in TV news headlines to have witnessed the treachery of the Syrian Government “first hand” when they clearly hadn’t. If that isn’t blatant deception, what is?
Re my post @18.48, this link seems to fail now. Hopefully this UN link will work.
webtv.un.org/meetings-events/security-council/watchbr%20/watch/roundtable-discussion-on-the-middle-east-issues-activities-of-the-white-helmets-organization-in-Syria/5982221816001/?term=&Ian=english
Failed again…!
Third time lucky?
https://www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/asset/2338/2338981/
Should this fail you just need to search for: UN session on White Helmets 20 December 2018
yes, this link works.
It’s no surprise for me, the same they’ve done while MH17 investigation. Russians made a briefing on the BUK missile and ‘some’ delegations didn’t attend.
The same was with the briefing on russian weapons, when the USA withdrew from the INF treaty.
Do you remember how the USA moved their embassy to Jerusalem? In UN Security Council the Palestine representative made a speech on this, and US representative Nikki Haley simply stood up and went out.
That is how they do it – do not discuss. The decision is final, don’t bother to listen.
Indeed, Tatyana, it happens all the time. It is so immature, unconstructive and disrespectful. It’s as if they think what they don’t see doesn’t exist, or that by them not being there it somehow invalidates whatever is discussed. It should be a ruling in the UN that every country invited must send a representative …and if that can only be the cleaner then so be it! In fact, in the case of the US and UK, the cleaner would probably make a better job of it. 🙂
J.
Syria defends itself from over flying Israeli jets……Israel bombs Syria.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it carried out an airstrike in the Syrian province of Quneitra in response to Syrian anti-aircraft fire which targeted an Israeli fighter jet in the early hours of Monday.
https://cfoi.co.uk/israel-retaliates-to-syrian-anti-aircraft-fire/
Reported on the CFoI website where I had looked to find that James Cleverly, the latest candidate for Tory PM, is a member. He last visited Israel with CFoI in 2016.
Theresa May is thanked by them for her ‘invaluable support’. Earlier Jeremy Hunt affirmed ‘Israel’s “unconditional right to self-defence” at CFI Parliamentary Reception’. And so it goes on.
Sharp Ears, it is very hard to justify the Israeli position.
Under the Turkish Empire, half of the Sea of Galilee was in Syria.
Between 1891 and 1894, Baron Edmond James de Rothschild purchased around 150,000 dunams of land in the Golan and the Hawran for Jewish settlement. Legal and political permits were secured and ownership of the land was registered in late 1894. When the French Mandate of Syria ended in 1944, the Golan Heights became part of the newly independent state of Syria.
Israel stole The Golan in the late Forties.
Very recently Donald Trump told Israel as far a he was concerned it is no part of Greater Israel.
It is hard for the people of Syria to give up The Golan, they want it back.
Very recently Donald Trump told Israel as far as he was concerned The Golan is now part of Greater Israel.
Well, as a matter of fact, the Golan Heights are indeed a part of “Greater Israel” (aka Eretz Israel). The problem is that “Greater Israel” is something that exists only in the minds of extreme Israeli nationalists and certain American evangelical weirdos who believe in “rapture” woo.
NetanYahoo, seems to be slipping deeper into the do do.
Israel’s Justice Ministry is expected to deny the prime minister’s request, maintaining that elections are not relevant to the hearing in NetanYahoo’s corruption cases.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-with-snap-election-in-sight-netanyahu-to-ask-for-another-delay-in-pre-trial-hearing-1.7309365
His plans are falling to bits.
Good.
It seems that all the candidates for the Conservative leadership have credentials that are approved by the regime in Tel Aviv, Sharp Ears. The only other thing they have to do now is install virtually any Labour MP except Corbyn as the opposition leader.
I have written to my MP to ask if Alex Crawford of Sky News is going to be arrested under the Terrorism Act. I pointed out that she has made it clear in her reporting for Sky News that she supports the terrorist organisation HTS against the Syrian Government. As HTS are al Qaeda affiliates and recognised as a terrorist organisation by the US and UK, she would appear to have contravened the Terrorism Act and should be treated in the same way as Shamima Begum.
I stressed in my message to my MP that, in view of the unequivocal bias in her reports, it would not be sufficient to receive a response that she was acting objectively as any investigative journalist would for the benefits of freedom of information.
A constructor writes: Returning to the chlorine canister, the film seems to show a much lighter roof (or floor) structure than the reinforced concrete slab to which Craig refers. If it was a precast beam and block construction (widely used in Syria as elsewhere since it is cheap and fast to build) then the theory that the putative bomb penetrated it with relatively little damage is plausible.
There has been a retraction of the “Gina Haspel/dead ducks/sickened childen” fantasy story by Julian Barnes of the New York Times.
He is now claiming that Haspel showed Trump “generic” photos of victims of chemical weapons attacks.
From the land of the watched and the home of the bullshitter.
https://southfront.org/just-mistake-nyt-corrected-its-report-on-gina-haspel-lying-to-trump-on-skripal-case/
https://twitter.com/julianbarnes/status/1136284651658633218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1136284651658633218&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsouthfront.org%2Fjust-mistake-nyt-corrected-its-report-on-gina-haspel-lying-to-trump-on-skripal-case%2F
Excellent and thorough work!