What is left of the government’s definitive identification of Russia as the culprit in the Salisbury attack? It is a simple truth that Russia is not the only state that could have made the nerve agent: dozens of them could. It could also have been made by many non-state actors.
Motorola sales agent Gary Aitkenhead – inexplicably since January, Chief Executive of Porton Down chemical weapons establishment – said in his Sky interview that “probably” only a state actor could create the nerve agent. That is to admit the possibility that a non state actor could. David Collum, Professor of Organo-Chemistry at Cornell University, infinitely more qualified than a Motorola salesman, has stated that his senior students could do it. Professor Collum tweeted me this morning.
The key point in his tweet is, of course “if asked”. The state and corporate media has not asked Prof. Collum nor any of the Professors of Organic Chemistry in the UK. There simply is no basic investigative journalism happening around this case.
So given that the weapon itself is not firm evidence it was Russia that did it, what is Boris Johnson’s evidence? It turns out that the British government’s evidence is no more than the technique of smearing nerve agent on the door handle. All of the UK media have been briefed by “security sources” that the UK has a copy of a secret Russian assassin training manual detailing how to put nerve agent on door handles, and that given the nerve agent was found on the Skripals door handle, this is the clinching evidence which convinced NATO allies of Russia’s guilt.
As the Daily Mirror reported in direct quotes of the “security source”
“It amounts to Russia’s tradecraft manual on applying poison to door handles. It’s the smoking gun. It is strong proof that in the last ten years Russia has researched methods to apply poisons, including by using door handles. The significant detail is that these were the facts that helped persuade allies it could only be Russia that did this.”
Precisely the same government briefing is published by the Daily Mail in a bigger splash here, and reflected in numerous other mainstream propaganda outlets.
Two questions arise. How credible is the British government’s possession of a Russian secret training manual for using novichok agents, and how credible is it that the Skripals were poisoned by their doorknob.
To take the second question first, I see major problems with the notion that the Skripals were poisoned by their doorknob.
The first is this. After what Dame Sally Davis, Chief Medical officer for England, called “rigorous scientific analysis” of the substance used on the Skripals, the government advised those who may have been in contact to wash their clothes and wipe surfaces with warm water and wet wipes. Suspect locations were hosed down by the fire brigade.
But if the substance was in a form that could be washed away, why was it placed on an external door knob? It was in point of fact raining heavily in Salisbury that day, and indeed had been for some time.
Can somebody explain to me the scenario in which two people both touch the exterior door handle in exiting and closing the door? And if it transferred from one to the other, why did it not also transfer to the doctor who gave extensive aid that brought her in close bodily contact, including with fluids?
The second problem is that the Novichok family of nerve agents are instant acting. There is no such thing as a delayed reaction nerve agent. Remember we have been specifically told by Theresa May that this nerve agent is up to ten times more powerful than VX, the Porton Down developed nerve agent that killed Kim’s brother in 15 minutes.
But if it was on the doorknob, the last contact they could possibly have had with the nerve agent was a full three hours before it took effect. Not only that, they were well enough to drive, to walk around a shopping centre, visit a pub, and then – and this is the truly unbelievable bit – their central nervous systems felt in such good fettle, and their digestive systems so in balance, they were able to sit down and eat a full restaurant meal. Only after all that were they – both at precisely the same time despite their substantially different weights – suddenly struck down by the nerve agent, which went from no effects at all, to deadly, on an alarm clock basis.
This narrative simply is not remotely credible. Nerve agents – above all “military grade nerve agents” – were designed as battlefield weapons. They do not leave opponents fighting fit for hours. There is no description in the scientific literature of a nerve agent having this extraordinary time bomb effect. Here another genuine Professor describes their fast action in Scientific American:
Unlike traditional poisons, nerve agents don’t need to be added to food and drink to be effective. They are quite volatile, colourless liquids (except VX, said to resemble engine oil). The concentration in the vapour at room temperature is lethal. The symptoms of poisoning come on quickly, and include chest tightening, difficulty in breathing, and very likely asphyxiation. Associated symptoms include vomiting and massive incontinence. Victims of the Tokyo subway attack were reported to be bringing up blood. Kim Jong-nam died in less than 20 minutes. Eventually, you die either through asphyxiation or cardiac arrest.
If the nerve agent was on the door handle and they touched it, the onset of these symptoms would have occurred before they reached the car. They would certainly have not felt like sitting down to a good lunch two hours later. And they would have been dead three weeks ago. We all pray that Sergei also recovers.
The second part of the extraordinarily happy coincidence of the nerve agent being on the door handle, and the British government having a Russian manual on applying nerve agent to door handles, is whether the manual is real. It strikes me this is improbable – it rings far too much of the kind of intel they had on Iraqi WMD. It also allegedly dates from the last ten years, so Putin’s Russia, not the period of chaos, and the FSB is a pretty tight organisation in this period. MI6 penetration is just not that good.
A key question is of course how long the UK has had this manual, and what was its provenance. Another key question is why Britain failed to produce it to the OPCW – and indeed why it does not publish it now, with any identifying marks of the particular copy excluded, given it has widely publicised its existence and possession of it. If Boris Johnson wants to be believed by us, publish the Russian manual.
We also have to consider whether the FSB really publishes its secret assassination techniques in a manual. I attended, as other senior FCO staff, a number of MI6 training courses. One on explosives handling was at Fort Monckton, not too far from Salisbury. One in a very nondescript London office block was on bugging techniques. I recall seeing rigs set up to drill minute holes in walls, turning very slowly indeed. Many hours to get through the wall but almost no noise or vibration. It was where I learnt the government can listen to you through activating the microphone in your mobile phone, even when your phone is switched off. I recall javelin like directional microphones suspended from ceilings to point at distant targets, and a listening device that worked through a beam of infra-red light, but the target could foil by closing the curtains.
The point is that there were of course no manuals for this stuff, no manuals for any other secret MI6 techniques, and these things are not lightly written down.
I would add to this explanation that I lost all faith in the police investigation when it was taken out of the hands of the local police force and given to the highly politicised Metropolitan Police anti-terror squad. I suspect the explanation of the remarkably convenient (but physically impossible) evidence of the door handle method that precisely fits the “Russian manual” may lie there.
These are some of the problems I have with the official account of events. Boris lied about the certainty of the provenance of the nerve agent, and his fall back evidence is at present highly unconvincing. None of which proves it was not the Russian state that was responsible. But there is no convincing proof that it was, and there are several other possibilities. Eventually the glaring problems with the official narrative might be resolved, but what is plain is that Johnson and May have been premature and grossly irresponsible.
I shall post this evening on Johnson’s final claim, that only the Russians had motive.
Update: I have just listened to the released alleged phone conversation between Yulia Skripal in Salisbury Hospital and her cousin Viktoria, which deepens the mystery further. I should say that in Russian the conversation sounds perfectly natural to me. My concern is after the 30 seconds mark where Viktoria tells Yulia she is applying for a British visa to come and see Yulia.
Yulia replies “nobody will give you a visa”. Viktoria then tells Yulia that if she is asked if she wants Viktoria to visit, she should say yes. Yulia’s reply to this is along the lines of “that will not happen in this situation”, meaning she would not be allowed by the British to see Viktoria. I apologise my Russian is very rusty for a Kremlinbot, and someone might give a better translation, but this key response from Yulia is missing from all the transcripts I have seen.
What is there about Yulia’s situation that makes her feel a meeting between her and her cousin will be prevented by the British government? And why would Yulia believe the British government will not give her cousin a visa in the circumstance of these extreme family illnesses?
Who knows what’s going on, my thoughts are that she is/was being kept incommunicado, her statement issued by the Police was very bland, and I think the telephone conversation is suspect. One thing I do think suspicious is that no one has visited her, or she may not be aware of the Russian Embassies offer of help as per the Two Conventions. In other words she is a prisoner. With this thought in mind I set out to try and communicate with her, to this end I, wrote two letters one to Yulia Care of Salisbury Hospital Trust, and one to the Chief Executive of the Trust, and sent them recorded Delivery. They were delivered on the 04/04/18 and signed for by ‘BEN’. with full signature.
Here is the letter to Yulia…
_____________________________________________________________
Yulia Skripal
CO: Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
Salisbury District Hospital
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP2 8BJ
Dear Yulia Skripal,
Hope you are recovering well! I am writing to you today to inform you of your rights as I see them.
1 You have the right under two conventions to have access with a Russian consular official.
Under the consular convention 1965 between the United Kingdom and the USSR (now Russia the legal successor state)
ARTICLE 30
A consular officer shall be entitled, within the consular district, (a) to protect the rights and to promote the interests of the sending State and of its nationals; the term “national” shall, for the purposes of this Part, mean any person whom the sending State recognises as its national, including, where the context so permits, any juridical entity;
ARTICLE 36
(1)(a) A consular officer shall be entitled within the consular district to communicate with, interview and advise a national of the sending State and may render him every assistance including, where necessary, arranging for aid and advice in legal matters.
(b) No restriction shall be placed by the receiving State upon the access of a national of the sending State to the consulate or upon communication by him with the consulate.
Articles 5 and 36 of the 1963 Vienna convention is in a similar vein.
You have rights under the NHS charter and as justice Williams said at the High court hearing, decision makers such as NHS personnel must look at their patients welfare in the widest sense, not just medical, but social and psychological. In this spirit the NHS charter states:
“We recognise that visiting a relative or friend in hospital plays a vital part in helping their recovery and we would encourage any visitor to socialise with our patients. To help and to benefit our patients. We will keep family members and next of kin informed of any information the patient wishes them to know.”
In my opinion your rights have clearly been infringed, and I hope that you can tell carers and government officials of these infringements.
Yours sincerely
Harry Law
____________________________________________________________
The letter to the Chief Executive of the NHS Trust …….
March 31st 2018
FAO Chief Executive
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
Salisbury District Hospital
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP2 8BJ
Dear Sir or Madam,
I write In view of the UK governments apparent breach of two conventions, The Vienna convention (1963) and the Bilateral convention(1965) between UK and USSR, and specifically denying consular access to your patient Yulia Skripal. She may be unaware that her rights to consular access have been infringed.
Be that as it may Yulia Skripal’s condition cannot but be affected by her lack of access to family, friends and consular access. As Mr Justice Williams said at the High court hearing last week, “decision makers must look at their (i.e patients) welfare in the widest sense, not just medical, but social and psychological”
May I also point out the visitor’s charter of one NHS trust “We recognise that visiting a relative or friend in hospital plays a vital part in helping their recovery and we would encourage any visitor to socialise with our patients. To help and to benefit our patients. We will keep family members and next of kin informed of any information the patient wishes them to know.”
You have a duty of care. I have written to Yulia Skripal today informing her of her rights under the relevant conventions, and her rights under the NHS charter. I hope you can ensure she receives the letter.
Thank You
Harry Law
My aim was to inform Yulia of her rights since her Litigation Friend appointed by the Official Solicitor seemed to me not to want to help her. If I presented at the hospital and said I wanted to see Yulia. The hospital authorities would need to ask Yulia whether she wanted to see me or not, they could of course tell me a pack of lies which could come back to haunt them later, then it would demonstrate she was a sort of detainee. note. A visa applied for from the Russian Federation usually results in 99% approved within 10 days. This application would have urgency in view of the situation, so who can tell when or if she will receive one?
Hope you didn’t use your real name Harry…. if you did you can be certain all your voice and data traffic will be tagged for life 🙂
I’m sure it already is. The UK has one the most comprehensive surveillance systems in the world. Every bit of Data is intercepted and cached at Frome. For a thorough understanding of the extent of UK surveillance systems, I would refer you to a Masterclass by Bill Binney and Duncan Campbell. @ Digital Humanities Lab, University of Sussex, 8th March 2016. https://youtu.be/5bcN7u1bbwk
Yeahbut.
If you ain’t dun nuffin wrong you ain’t got nuffin to fear.
We’re ruled by goodly and just people who have our best interests at heart.
All of us armchair generals shooting our mouths off, and one person to actually do something about it. Good luck to you, Harry Law.
Make sure that paper trail doesn’t get lost. Who knows what might come around.
Well done!
thanks for doing this harry..
Best of luck. Might be useful and illuminates the high unreality of the present moment.
Bravo, Harry Law!
It seems (to me) we as citizens, each in varying magnitude of ability, are all that stands between a truly craven class of “leaders” whose wont is to incite further irrevocable frictions that compel our war-weary populations to further illegal, immoral and unjustified acts of aggression against sovereign states.
And those who buck our national (NATO) imperial imperatives which consist of an insistent demand for naught but continuing unipolar hegemony find themselves being served up with a platter of “democracy” via destructive military force.
However, as this scenario unfolding is proving, that ship has sailed. All of the years of belligerent obtuseness as articulated by by Western “leadership” by bludgeon and cudgel have been so preoccupying and financially draining all over the planet that the rise of counterbalancing and actual constructive national entities are seen as a relief by ‘on the fence’ nations from the known Western formula of destroying countries hither and yon. “To save them”, but of course.
What a concept: investing in infrastructure, large and non-IMF loans being offered and quite often forgiven – the old ‘catch more flies with honey than vinegar’ ruse that remains effective to this very day.
And that’s what this imbroglio is all about: stifling competitive free trade among disparate nations. The old imperial prerogatives of empire challenged. So what do these immature pikers in the NATO halls of power do in their tantrum throwing but psychopathically offer up a gambit of nuclear weaponised tiddlywinks in their ‘displeasure’. They’re so desperate and down to their last cards, this is what they offer up. And this is sheer and utter madness if viewed by sane and sentient people. Something this cast of characters masquerading as leaders and solely representing the ruling Owner class most decidedly are not.
I count you, and salute you Harry Laws, and the many others all over this planet among the latter. And as I said, I think we’re perhaps all there is standing between a horrible end to not only humanity but this planet’s viability of ecosystem as we yet know it extant.
And why the Owners are also so desperate to further censor and stifle the internet so we the wee folk can no longer directly communicate and call them out in their craven and venal machinations for empire. Oh how they want to put the djinn/genie back in the bottle! It’s all falling apart all around Them!
Assuming i) the Russians did not do it (no plausible motive) and ii) the UK government has been lying through its teeth from the start, the ‘door knob’ scenario only exists to explain the poisoning of the cop. There are a number of scenarios by which he was poisoned. It could have been before, at the same time (in the same place or elsewhere) or after the Skirpals. ‘Before’ is totally unlikely as he would have been treated first. ‘At the same time’ and ‘same place’ would suggest he was a witness to the poisoning of the Skirpals or he picked it up from the Skirpals.The latter scenario is excluded because others in contact with the Skirpals were not affected. The former scenario would open a can of worms. ‘At the same time’ and ‘elsewhere’ would introduce extra complexity to the poisoning plot and greatly increase the chances of the attacker(s) being observed. Substantially ‘afterwards’ allows a superficially plausible explanation of him being poisoned elsewhere eg the Skirpals door, which eliminates the awkward issue of there being a witness to the incident. This explanation also keeps everything under UK state control and introduces a minimal of new variables.
The precise timeline of events of the three victims’ poisoning and transfer to hospital should allow the correct option to be determined.
If they have been lying through their teeth, why then accept the ‘poisoning story’ at all? This may be staged and enacted at an arbitrarily grand scale.
Then again, some opportunism and post-haste dumbass politics might have been at work.
For instance (just a possible scenario): the Scripals decide to commit suicide together, and use some stuff that senior, through his contacts at PD, has been able to put his hands on. They put their pets down, have a last meal, and then… botch the attempt.
DS rushes in, gov gets involved, sees two people near-death, gov draw wrong conclusion (or post-haste sees golden opportunity) and implicates Russia/Putin. The rest is history unfolding.
In short: Occam’s Razor, Opportunism, Dumbass politics and the Russophobia of the times we live in. And of course, in the end, like Fawlty said “‘I’m so sorry’ — Is that what made Britain great?”. They’d rather put us to the brink of war, and burn all material evidence of their stupidity, than to say ‘sorry, we were wrong’.
Another scenario: one of the Skripals was a courier or both of them were, the target or perhaps the targeter being Nikolai Glushkov.
You know how when you watch a disaster movie and see New York destroyed, and then when you come out of the cinema, there is nothing about it in the papers or social media? That is what this is starting to feel like.
No photos of the victims in hospital. No footage on Facebook of the activity around Salisbury. No puff pieces on DS Bailey. No information from or about a single one of the people who sought treatment from the hospital for suspected exposure. No follow-up interview with the Salisbury doctor who wrote to the Times. Nothing from the witnesses who saw the Skripals in the park. No press conferences from the police describing suspects or asking for leads.
It’s as if it isn’t real at all.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/kevincollier/assange-seth-rich-lies-guccifer-wikileaks-hannity?utm_term=.yvoeelgjY#.owBvvdNG5
Scumbag
But didn’t Craig assure us the emails came from a DNC insider? Didn’t he call the CIA liars? Didn’t he say he had insider knowledge and there was no Russian involvement?
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/12/cias-absence-conviction/
Buzzfeed must be mistaken.
Assange has never said that he received the emails from Seth Rich as he never mentions his sources. My understanding is that the timing doesn’t work for the contact to have been Seth Rich and the Seth Rich conspiracy theory has been cooked up and spread by the Dems to muddy the waters.
The Twitter CEO and essentially all the top people at the social qmedia outlets were against Trump They should have found something like this in August or September of 2016. Assange was and is a marked man. His twitter feed will have been thoroughly monitored. Yet they took almost one and a half years to come with this? Don’t tell me Twitter buzz is stored in a military grade blockchain. Its very easy to insert all kinds of nonsense after the fact.
Look closely at what it states.
“[P]lease ‘leave,’ their conversation with them and us,” WikiLeaks asked journalist Emma Best, who was also negotiating with Guccifer 2.0 for access to what it had teased on its blog as “exclusive access” to hacked Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee files. “[W]e would appreciate it if you did not dump the docs and obviously archive.org will delete them anyway.”
Wikileaks claimed that they had the DNC emails, not the “DCCC FILES”
This is a bait and switch which it looks like people are falling for. This is just another attempt to befuddle people from the content of what was in the emails. Have the contents of these ever been discussed? No. From the moment Wikileaks released them, Hillary and the DNC have done everything that they could to keep people from discussing their content which is they rigged the primary so that Hillary would win. This is also why she started Russia Gate. Hillary is a very sore loser!
So the British were already in possession of a super-secret manual that details how Russian spooks are instructed to smear a nerve agent on a door-knob as a good ‘n’ proper method of killing someone, and then some Russians fall ill with what the Brits believe to be a nerve agent.
Yet the British authorities didn’t think to test the door-knob until after they had tested – and excluded – pretty much every other place that the Skripal’s had visited and/or touched before they fell unconscious.
Basically, working backwards from that park bench until they had reached the front door and had their Eureka! moment.
Errrr, sorry, wouldn’t that field manual had told them to go straight to that door-knob?
Like CM said in the article, the existence of that manual is highly doubtful.
Like I told you, it’s in the CIA Manual:
https://leaksource.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/cia-manual-trickery-deception-2009.pdf
Chapter IV on liquids and on how to lie properly.
C’mon, that’s not the CIA manual, just putting words “the official” and “CIA manual” does not prove the veracity. As for lying properly, you can only *know* how to lie properly if you know how to test for lies. That test relies on how the brain works (not where you look with your eyes btw), and that test is indirectly taught to the police in interview technique. To be frank, that “manual” reads more like a work of fiction- there is nothing specific on the subjects at all. And as someone who knows how to detect a lie, let me tell you, the advice on “how to lie properly” in that manual will make your lie way more transparent!
Agreed. But the interesting thing is this: if book is “real” and the Brits had only just been given it then the source of this new “evidence” (the Yanks? Israelis? French) are probably the people who are behind this entire farce from the beginning.
And if that book doesn’t really exist at all as is just made-up nonsense then, yeah, the Brits are behind this entire fiasco.
yeah, right.. they are just making shit up at this point.. and based on this manual b.s, it looks like they’ve been making shit up all along…
they’re hoping jello will stick on the wall with the general public.. maybe i underestimate the level of ignorance in the public, but this is ridiculous..
I think you do underestimate “an average person”: https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/02/junk-food-diet-lowers-children.html
i think you are right.. what do you think the uk politicians think? what does boris the idiot eat for breakfast? fruit loops?
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves” — E. R. Murrow
“Can somebody explain to me the scenario in which two people both touch the exterior door handle in exiting and closing the door? And if it transferred from one to the other, why did it not also transfer to the doctor who gave extensive aid that brought her in close bodily contact, including with fluids?”
One scenario is that Ms. Skripal was the person who closed the door, and she touched the door handle with her gloved hand, the weather being chilly and gloves being an elegant accessories. So elegant in fact that when the father and daughter sat on a bench after their meal, the father complemented how nice the gloves were, then the daughter pulled the gloves off and gave them to her dad for a closer look. As they were touching the gloves with their bare hands the poison started to work and in short time both lost their senses. Gloves had fallen on the ground and attracted attention of a dog that carried them away, got itself poisoned and had fallen into nearby Avon River, so neither the dog nor the gloves were ever found.
Subsequently, scores of agents clad in HAZMAT suits were going in and out the house of Mr. Scripal, many of them touching the door handle, and spread the stuff around, so only the investigation of the pattern made by spots where the poison was detected led to the conclusion that the handle was the actual source.
Last point, the top of the handle was perhaps washed by rain, but the parts underneath perhaps were not.
I think that this scenario could be used in several chapter of a future fiction book based on these events.
That doesn’t account for the DS getting intoxicated and the onset of his intoxication being much shorter than that of Skripals’ though.
piotr… they are russians and do things differently in russia.. apparently when russians leave a place – both people grab the doorknob, unlike in the west where only 1 persons grabs the doorknob… it is a bit like when you get 2 doorknobs to communicate to the public what is going on like with boris and theresa… why use one, when you can do better with 2? lol..
Nicely put. 😉
Nice one James, ultimately it is always about the outside door knobs, those exposed to the public.
On the less serious side, the latest version coming from the regime evoked a slapstick style movie in my head whereby the two Skripals fight each other who is going to close the door, slap each other’s hands, push and shove and grunt.
Well I wish them recovery and if the old Skripal can make it to return back to Russia what he appears to have applied for prior to the poisoning.
thanks kiza and paul… and yes to your last comment especially..
We’re the knobs if we believe any of this garbage the authorities are putting out
Did she eat with her gloves on?
Oh, please, isn’t it obvious?
She would have put surgical gloves over her fashionable leather gloves before eating, as any lady of class would do.
Mind you, a bit hard to square that against the photo of the two of them raising a glass to the photographer, where her hands are oh-so-inconveniently unshod.
Which reminds me – has anyone identified the dude in the mirror who is shown taking those happy-snaps of the Skripals?
Who is he, and why isn’t he dead?
Why assume they were both targets and then point to how far-fetched a scenario would have to be? Personally I suspect at least one of them may have been a courier, not a target, but if Sergei was a target and he was infected from the doorhandle it is quite possible that Yulia was infected by accident later, because for example he touched her hand or she touched his. She’s his daughter for goodness sake. There would be nothing strange about that.
The more important thing to explain is how it might come about that a nerve agent could be so slow-acting.
To be fair I think Piotr was being sarcastic – sending up our Government’s Alice in Wonderland tale (and immediate apologies if you weren’t Piotr!)
Well, then, if it was the door handle, how come nothing at all was found in the car? Not even the minutest trace on the driving wheel?
I tried to make a scenario that would account for all the facts (?) disclosed so far. Is it logically and physically possible? Concerning the car, doting father could fasten the seatbelt of his daughter, and she sat with hands on her lap with curled fingers. One can pull gloves off while avoiding contamination, hm, perhaps she touched the door handle with the center of the palm so the fingers were clean?
Of course, the scenario is a stretch because gloves were not found, forcing me to introduce another poisoned character, the dog — I imagined that the putative novel would have an entire chapter on that fellow. This is the weakest point, actually. Once I visited some people and their little dog was very fond of grabbing my socks, but it would always pick just one and had merry time when I tried to corner it among the furniture to get the sock back. One dog for two gloves does not comport with my knowledge about the canines.
You’re relying on the gov’s assertion that it was ‘nerve agent’. Maybe it was just the F compound (I forget the word) that there was mention of, initially.
Considering the vast, serious challenges the Russian Government has to face, both short and long term in their complex country, and also its patient will to always try to cooperate in the diplomatic domaine btw, and then to be presented with nonsense such as this Skripal story..
Kind of immature, uncivilized performance of May and her Clown, if you ask me. Mean & unappetizing.
It seems to me that there is a consistency between: 1.Initial reports on Saturday/Sunday by first responders (paramedic suspected Fentanyl poisoning and Doctor present for 30 minutes saw no external trace of Nerve Agent) was of suspected drug overdose. 2. Fentanyl is a delayed action anaesthetic/painkiller, up to 100 times more powerful than Morphine. A powerful variant form deployed in a gaseous state was deployed in the Moscow Theatre Siege with fairly disastrous consequences. However, in a basic form it comes in powder form which can be introduced to food and drink. 3. The symptoms appeared at the end of the period 2-4pm after the Skripals drinks at the Pub and Lunch at “Zizzi’s” 4. Stephen Davies letter to “The Times” says NO patients were treated for “Nerve Agent poisoning” and only 3 for “poisoning”. This letter has not been reported in the MSM but needs explanation. Is it possible that the hospital has been treating the Skripals for a Fentanyl based or related poisoning? 5. Certainly the contents of the Viktoria and Julia phone call, if genuine, suggests that not only Julia but also Sergei are on the mend and have been told they will not suffer irreversible consequences. Porton Down ruled out any antidote for Novichok. However, non-Nerve Agent poisoning is often fully treatable. 6. These connections seem apparent to me but the MSM are either unwilling or too afraid(?) to even ask these questions. Thanks Craig for doing your best to redress the balance.
Good observations that are still unanswered. They could fit in with my possible scenario above, which doesn’t add to its plausibility, but does create a coherent scenario from the ‘facts’ (as reported from non-gov sources).
So how did his pets..2 guinea pigs & a cat become ‘unwell’ I know cats are smart but not at turning door handles! Gary Aitkenhead made no mention of animals being taken to PD?
It was suggested to me by a qualified vet that it sounded as if the animals had been forgotten about as the guinea pigs would have died fairly quickly without food and water. The cat, an expensive Persian, could have been saved but no-one can now tell as they were ‘incinerated’.
If scenario as suggested, it means no-one entered the house for quite some time, which beggars belief if the powers that be believed the Schripals had been poisoned!
Personally, I do not believe a word from the government.
According to the official version, the guinea pigs died of dehydration, while the persian cat was found so malnourished, distressed, and in pain, that the vet decided to euthanise it. However, as distressed and in pain as the cat apparently was Porton Down still decided to put it through the added trauma of taking a blood sample because as we know from the court of protection judgement, for which the state argued the Skripals were highly likely to die in the near future, it is better, at least for nerve agents, to take such samples while the subject is still alive. No one has come out to date to say the animals were affected by the nerve agent.
This article has some background info on the legislation relating to consular access (it is not a treaty, it is actually part of UK law) and Viktoria SKirpal’s attempt to get access.
http://johnhelmer.net/yulia-skripal-is-not-allowed-to-telephone-her-grandmother/
That article explicitly refers to, and quotes, both consular treaties in force between UK and Russia.
British National law is only mentioned to explain the “reasoning” offered by the Judge who refused to apply the Vienna Convention and apparently ignored the bilateral Convention altogether. Needless to say his argument was totally invalid, as in accordance with treaty law obligations under a treaty take precedent over any national rules.
George Galloway has just said on his Talk Radio show that if you believe the Government on the Skripal affair, you are an idiot, you are not a sheep, a sheep is cleverer than you.
Don’t understand why a Sergeant was involved from the outset (rather than a couple of PC’s) and why he immediately went to their house?
Why would he try the doorknob? Did he have a warrant for entry? No… why would he wish to enter? It just doesn’t sound right, any of it.
Every, and I mean every part of this story just doesn’t stand up to any real scrutiny.
Had heard that once the victims identified as Skripals, the case would have been flagged as having potential national security implications, calling for the involvement of a more senior officer. One of the few plausible explanations I’ve heard in this whole matter.
I suggested previously that maybe Mr skripal realised he had been poisoned and managed to get a quick mobile phone call In. to his UK contact who alerted the police. They sent along DS Baileyy as nearest available and responsible plain clothes CID cop to check it out.
Or maybe Sargent Bailey was moonlighting as an MI6 associate and he sprayed the poison onto Skripals sitting on the park bench and got a small dose of it on himself. I would look for any association of his with Miller and Steele.
As the only other person in all of Salisbury to be poisoned he is one unlucky bugger!
If he got it by opening their front door then fair play but then that does kill the old “low volatile slow acting” story methinks?
Can anyone reconcile those two tales? Hope so.
crackerjack – re your last question – give boris the idiot some time.. surely he can think up some answer for you on that one!
Latest! The case is now solved according to Russian sources: Instead of Novichok the squad brought with them the harmless Novijoke!
”It was on the same shelf, and the jars were identical”, the hitmen told he press in an attempt to defend themselves.
I wouldn’t be surprised to hear: Breaking News… Corbyn implicated in Spy Scandal…. meetings with agent suspected of poisoning… according to “unnamed” security officials (and courtesy of the Daily Mail).
No, it’s still antisemitism week and next week is terrorist-sympathiser week. I believe there is a slot available the week after.
I just hope you’re not giving them ideas…
Fentanyl was being cited by the press in the earliest reports:
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16064949.salisbury-ae-closed-over-major-incident/?ref=mr&lp=1
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/686494/salisbury-district-hospital-wiltshire-major-incident-a-e-closed-news-latest
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/salisbury-district-hospital-major-incident-declared-after-unknown-substance-leaves-patients-a3781886.html
Not sure if this relevant to the saga or not, but internet phenomenon QAnon potentially alluded to fentanyl a while back re. ‘APACHE’ (a known street name for fentanyl):
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fentanyl
https://qanon.pub/?
Dear Craig
Amazing work
thank you
As a matter of interest, were the hazmat suit wearers a) members of the Met police anti terrorist squad or b) army chemical warfare specialists ( – I thought Hamish de “whatever” ran that brigade and it had been disbanded ) or c) staff from Porton Down? Or all 3 groups? If it was the Met ( – who were leading the police inquiry locally – ) that would explain the random way they seem to have tramped around Salisbury ( see BBC reporters account of their movements) while they thought up what to do next.
The Met are a law unto themselves. I would treat any statement put out by them on behalf of Yulia Skripal, with great suspicion. The Met have a habit of inventing witnesses and witness statements as it suits them e,g Jean Charles de Menezes as a prime example.
Hamish de “whatever” is CEO of a firm of Chemical Weapons advisors and purveyor of related trinkets. Much in the news these days with his “expertise” on Syrian CW attacks. Self publicist? You decide
Who knew? One of the world’s most deadly nerve agents delivers a 3 for 3 recovery rate?
‘When asked about her father Sergei Skripal, who is still understood to be in a critical condition, Yulia can be heard replying that “Everything’s OK. He’s resting now, he’s sleeping. Everyone’s health is OK. No one has had any irreversible [harm].’
RT reports on the conversation – would their translation be acceptable?
“stable but critical” is stale official information so far as I can tell, but in the conversation she did say that (a) nothing irreversible is done, (b) everything that happened is “resolvable” and (c) her father was sleeping and resting. The (a) and especially the (b) are very curious.
Another translation here: http://theduran.com/breaking-yulia-skripal-phone-call-leaked-everyones-health-is-fine-will-be-discharged-soon/
“Viktoria: Ok! Is everything alright with your father?
Yulia: Everything is ok. He is resting now, having a nap. Everyone’s health is fine, there are no irreparable things. I will be discharged soon. Everything is ok.
Viktoria: Kisses, my bunny.”
In jest, it’s all a code :
Viktoria : Ok ! Is everything alright with your father ? = Have the British caught on he’s a triple agent ?
Yulia : Everything is ok. He’s resting now, having a nap. Everyones health is fine, there are no irreparable things. I will be discharged soon. Everything is ok. = I don’t think they have a clue, he’s biding his time at the moment and stringing them out. I don’t think they suspect either of us. They’re gonna have to accept what we tell ‘em. Job done.
Viktoria : I’ll pass that on to Vlad.
I don’t know if anyone has already posted this, but there are a lot of references to Craig in this interesting programe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJfml2FUOiw
There’s something about this whole story that has been bothering me from the outset. It was blown completely out of proportion right from the beginning and there were a few days where the news was almost entirely about this poisoning. May and Johnson’s bullish statements not only seemed rash and unwise, it had the air of the lady (and man) protesting too much about it. Whilst any suggestion from the public that it possibly may not have been Russia was booed down in the corporate media, an alternative view was allowed to spread due to Corbyn’s reaction and the usual suspect alternative news outlets questioning that the government could be 100% certain that Russia was behind it.
Johnson’s lie and May’s hyperbole were so ridiculous it’s hard to believe that they ever thought they could get away with it. However, perhaps that’s the point. Their statements will have been based on the briefings they have had from their advisers, advisers who have got it repeatedly wrong. Could May and Johnson have been set up, is the idea that it’s time for May to go? Or perhaps we will find out that May got it wrong in time for her to do badly in the elections. Or perhaps both.
My theory remains that the idea is to get JRM in as PM, so that Tory moderates leave the party and set up a new centrist group with the Lib Dems and Blairites that can win a GE in the autumn and stop Brexit.
Tory issues? Well, that is as may be, but what I found striking was the possessed-like face and manner of Mrs. May in Parliament. (BoJo was just as he always is: a clanging cymbal).
The second was the total absence of even a raised eyebrow in the entire chamber, and then the shouts at Corbyn: Shame! Blame Russia!
Given the season, one couldn’t help noticing the similarity with “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
What Pharisees and doctors of the law were driving May, Johnson and the rest – including the other Western leaders?
It is surely impossible that all of them believed this nonsense?
My impression was these Western leaders were given a deadline that they absolutely had to meet. Otherwise the French, who, only the previous day, had laughed at the whole thing, the Elysee spokesman sarcastically declaring that they don’t engage in “politique-fiction”, could have allowed a few days to pass, and not change their mind with such embarrassing – and suspicious – alacrity.
I think they were told that it is a slam dunk. No way that Putin could wiggle out of this. If this was a conspiracy at Dr Moriarty level, one would not expect the Skripals to have survived.
http://johnpilger.com/videos/the-war-you-dont-see
This film by John Pilger was made in 2011. When you apply his words to the today’s situation, esp the Skripal case they have the power of a prophecy. Please watch.
It’s just the big ol’ national security rubber stamp. Nothing to see here, move along. This is a key issue in every nation – the people who wield the rubber stamp are, of course, the very people who’d be in jail if their dastardly deeds ever got out. A conundrum for sure. On the upside, fewer and fewer people believe a word these clowns say, kinda reminiscent of the dark cynicism of Eastern Europe during the Soviet years. A precursor to better things, perhaps.
It is extremely important to understand that all the countries which went along with this blatantly obvious hoax and supposedly trusted the British Government after the well publicised investigations of its previous Iraq hoax, were not mislead by the British Government at all. No matter what the “victim” governments may claim, the truth is that they did it out of hate for Russia pushed along by the USUK pressure on them. They could have waited for an investigation to complete, but command is a command.
The fact that the US system of control of the European governments (and the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand Government) was employed in this situation strongly suggested the the Skripal Affair was either started by or later jumped upon by the nexus of the US and British Deep States. Trump Administration is in too much internal turmoil and in a transition to the newly appointed crazies to be able to lean on its Euro vassals to expel the Russian diplomats. Therefore, it must have been someone else from US and UK applying the pressure.
Which means that those deep states retain the power to make satellites go along, even with Trump as U.S. president.
Does raise the question of how they’ve been able to make Trump go along with their anti-Russian policies.
This is OT, but who do you think has been keeping US on a verge of a coup/regime change since Trump was elected? It is the nexus of the British and US Deep State, the glance of which we got through the exposure of the Steele Dossier on Trump.
As to why Trump sometimes fights them and sometimes succumbs, that simply looks like some kind of tactical game. It is Trump’s own choice of the battles he can or cannot win. I do not have any respect for Trump, but his choice of appointees is one of the most blatant indications that he is not running this reality show, he can only occasionally squeeze in some small episode of his.
New Zealand, unlike the Australian US-lapdog government, did not follow the diktat to expel Russian diplomats.
http://thehill.com/policy/international/380413-new-zealand-pm-if-we-had-any-russian-spies-we-would-expel-them
Not quite, New Zealand made a very, very funny comment that it would expel the Russian spies (what the Russian diplomats are called these days) as others have, but it cannot find any. This implied that New Zealand is not worth spying on.
In fairness to New Zealand I am sure they could have labelled one or two Russians as spies, if they wanted to. Saying they could find no spies was a diplomatic way of refusing to follow UK’s lead without explicitly offending anyone.
As it is that great beacon of liberal and progressive thought, The Guardian, launched an attack on the Prime Minister
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/28/new-zealands-claim-it-has-no-russian-spies-is-perplexing-why-is-it-isolating-itself
Diplomats are collecting information about their host country, this is part of their job. They would read or watch publicly available sources, chat with people etc. One may get suspicious or not, that would depend on the diligence of the counter-intelligence, and the final conclusions, on the whims of the politicians. Does NZ even have counter-intelligence? Their military seems to be rather slack (wikipedia):
“The RNZAF does not have air combat capabilities following the retirement without replacement of its Air Combat Force of A-4 Skyhawks in December 2001.[68][69] The RNZAF maintains some form of minor strike capability, with the P-3 Orion [maritime patrol craft] being able to drop small, unguided bombs.” I guess RNZAF is geared mostly to located unauthorized fishing and sailing boats in need of rescue.
It doesn’t seem that unreasonable to me to believe that other countries might genuinely have thought that the British Foreign Secretary would not lie on a matter of such grave international import, and that therefore when he said Porton Down had assured him it could only have come from Russia, they could accept that as true.
There is a flavour of that in the statement this morning from Gernot Erler, the German Government’s co-ordinator for Russia.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/britian-russia-germany/up-to-uk-to-prove-russia-was-behind-attack-on-spy-german-official-says-idUKL5N1RI2HW
“That contradicts what we had previously heard from British politicians and will certainly raise the pressure on Britain to show further proof that the traces plausibly point to Moscow,” Erler told German broadcaster ARD.
If I just came in into this story about the Skripals, I would think that it was a bad script for a C-grade movie: doorknobs, timebomb poisons, assasination manuals, population hysteria, dumb lying government functionaries and the whole “Parliament”, a hysteric/emotional media circus and so on. How could have such an impressive world empire sunk to the level of a C-grade flick or a cartoon? If it was all an error, it has been handled catastrophically/cartoonishly badly. If it was deliberate, then it was a false-flag done horribly unprofessionally because it appears to be springing back onto those involved. Why can’t those in Britain who want to be mean be professionally mean?
Nobody can be so dumb. Therefore, it does smell of a set up against the two doorknobs, to change the British Government re Brexit, as someone above suggested.
I’m not confident in the OPCW investigation. UK Column highlight a spokeman by the name of Ahmet Uzumcu who provides a statement about the ‘usual’ manner of communicating their findings (21 minutes into UKC 05.04.2018) – the results only go to the hosting state ie UK – no mention of Russia being involved at all – appears no mention either of the many questions that Russia has asked – it looks like a foregone conclusion that whatever samples the OPCW have will be sufficient for Russia to be found guilty – Russia is being ignored – unless I am missing something?? Has anyone else seen this?
The bottom line is – will the OPCW go the same way as WADA, IOC, FIFA, possibly even SC and the whole U.N. If OPCW comes up with a finding against Russia under the circumstances of completely excluding Russia from its investigation, this will probably be the second and final nail in its own coffin (the first one was a joint report with U.N. on CW attack in Syria it blamed on the Syrian Government). Voting the Russians out of the Salisbury investigation is quite similar to how Russia was excluded from the MH17 investigation, but OPCW is a permanent international body and it has more credibility at stake than the six-country JIC of NATO aligned countries.
This may all be leading towards two world blocks, whereby Russia and China will eventually leave all these compromised international bodies and create their own with their allies. The League of Nations situation.
This is my worry too. In its attempt to recreate the cold war (for commercial gain) the lunatics currently running the “West” will split the world in two
China will certainly back Russia at the UN. So any attempt to pass a resolution against Russia will be vetoed by China.
At the OCPW meeting on the 4th, the May-Trump block ganged against Russia’s otherwise legitimate right to participate in the investigation.
At the Security Council meeting, the UK representative, one Karen Pierce, said: “The arsonist wishes to investigate his own fire.”
She added many other nasty words, including: “While the UK does not have anything to hide, I do fear that Russia might have something to fear.” https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/we-cannot-ignore-what-has-happened-in-salisbury
How is it that all these females Powers, Halley and the British reps are such harpies.
Hi Ivan, unfortunately they have to be more unpleasant than the worst men to get to the top.
Interesting to see that at least the US sent their B team to the UN Security Council meeting: Kelley Currie. I haven’ heard of the UK’s Karen Pierce before either – but I am not a big UN watcher.
It appears that Nikki Haley was too busy beating the war drums in North Carolina about Iran to make it to New York. Possibly reading too much into this, but Nikki Haley is considered very valuable GOP political property and perhaps a strategic decision has been made to lower her exposure to this? She is an appalling piece of work, but easily the kind of appalling piece of work that could secure the presidential nomination in 2020 or 2024.
Fuck me I hope not. Haley makes Samantha Power look like Mother Theresa
Karen Pierce is the new UK Permanent Representative to the UN since last month
Her bio says she was “Team Leader for Ukraine” among other things: https://www.gov.uk/government/people/karen-pierce
which may explain the extremely hate-filled words she hurled at Russia at today’s Security Council meeting. She seems to be as nasty as Nikki Haley :
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/we-cannot-ignore-what-has-happened-in-salisbury
Interesting the way it’s mainly the female UN representatives who have no idea what the word ‘diplomacy’ means.
An analysis of the press response to BoJo’s lies:
Novi-Fog™ In Fleet Street – Truth Cut Off
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/04/novifog-in-fleet-street-truth-cut-off.html
Excerpt:
“Operation ‘Save Boris’ fills the Fleet Street papers with more lies. It claims that secret intelligence, which can not even be shown to the opposition leader, proves that Russia tested how to smear the nerve agent ‘Novichok’ on doorknobs:”
What people on this blog keep missing is that “Skripal” means “Fiddler” in Ukrainian.
Skripal father was born in Kiev.
There’s an ancient Ukrainian tradition of licking door handle (from pictures of his front door one can see a handle rather than a knob) before leaving your house (“khata” in Ukrainian).
But Skripal father was also an old-school Soviet spy (he was a deep NKVD/KGB/FSB sleeper living in Salisbury ready to act on a short Putin’s notice) who was well aware of KGB/FSB manuals regarding door knob treatment, and expected to be terminated by FSB at any moment because he knew how rotten and unpredictable that Putin is.
So on that rainy (according to CM) day before leaving his place he decided to lick the door handle especially thoroughly (that’s why he got most of nasty Novichok from the handle) to save his daughter’s life. And when Yulia licked the door handle in accordance with that ancient Ukrainian tradition there was almost no Novichok left on the handle and that’s why she recovered so quickly. Unlike old Skripal.
So now people would ask: how come ? That thing is supposed to be 10 times stronger than VX and Skripal father was supposed to drop dead right after handle licking.
Here’s the answer – remember that Gluskov fellow who was found strangled by a dog leash (one of the ole KGB all time favorites) in his London flat, in fact the guy was the main KGB/FSB Novichok keeper in the UK but was also a rather sloppy individual who kept jars full of Novichok in his bar instead of storing those special KGB-designed jars in a special refrigerator.
So Novichok turned bad, got stale, and thus when Glushkov (also a KGB/FSB sleeper) was dispatched by Putin (personally off course, they knew each other back in the USSR) to spray a door handle in Salisbury the result was not what comrade Vlad expected.
And now Yulia is talking, some serious KGB beans are about to be spilled here, embrace yourselves.
@Freddy,
Absolutely, скрипаль = fiddler in Ukranian.
Somebody is being monumentally hoodwinked over this Salisbury incident.
>
Beside the door handle these people sat and ate at a restaurant. So the table and chairs they touched inside where there us no heavy rain were clean and yet the authorities could detect the smear on the door handle after the heavy raining?
BBC R4 05:30 am (shipping forecast news briefing) kept today’s agenda simple. No mention of the collapsing opera in the news, just a reference in the newspaper round-up, stating that UK gov should perhaps start to “communicate better”, Cambridge Analytica , SLC, AIQ, Bell-Pottinger, anyone?
DailyWail has a scoop, many pictures of the ‘state-murdered’ Masyanya Skripal http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5583933/You-sorry-Russia-accuses-UK-playing-fire.html
Operetta. Fixed that for ya.
A scenario has been mentioned involving putting their pets down. They didn’t. Our investigators forgot to feed and water them. As I mentioned elsewhere, you couldn’t make it up.
God almighty
All the British values, the outrage etc etc , and they let the pets starve
Poor Sergey and Yulia
you mean the russian state ‘killed’ the wrong Skripal’s – what??? – this should be headline news
It appears the Skripal pets died of starvation/thirst, not nerve agents – although different news outlets are saying different things on that question. What is the bet the police forgot to take a blood sample before hurriedly incinerating them?
I guess if the poison is now on the door handle, it probably doesn’t matter….
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaEIHCzWAAAlLE5.jpg