The word “Russia” does not occur in today’s OPCW report. The OPCW Report says nothing whatsoever about the origin of the chemical which poisoned the Skripals and certainly does not link it in any way to Russia.
The technical ability of Porton Down to identify a chemical has never been in doubt, and the only “finding of the United Kingdom”the OPCW has confirmed is the identity of the chemical.
10. The results of analysis by the OPCW designated laboratories of environmental and
biomedical samples collected by the OPCW team confirm the findings of the United
Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical that was used in Salisbury and
severely injured three people.
11. The TAV team notes that the toxic chemical was of high purity. The latter is
concluded from the almost complete absence of impurities.
There are scores of countries that chemical could have come from. For the BBC and other mainstream media outlets to pretend that the OPCW has in any sense endorsed Boris Johnson’s claims about Russia is to spread deliberate lies as propaganda. In fact what they have confirmed is simply the finding of Porton Down – and that finding was that it is a chemical which cannot be confirmed as made in Russia.
Interesting background info:
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/how-the-syrian-american-medical-society-is-selling-regime-change-and-driving-the-u-s-to-war/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/03/24/john-bolton-wants-regime-change-in-iran-and-so-does-the-cult-that-paid-him/?utm_term=.0857050d90bc
There’s a clear link between SAMS (working towards regime change in Syria) and MEK (working towards regine change in Iran), and … John Bolton, an ardent MEK sympathizer.
Thanks for that bj – SAMS have long troubled since they popped up as a “source” but never managed to get any info on them. Sticking “Medical” in your name will make the lazy imbeciles that pass of for “journalists” in the West much more likely to accept their propaganda. Mind you the White Helmets are seen as beacons of truth.
Just one correction from your first link …
“…. affiliated with Nourideen al-Zinki, an insurgent group formerly backed by the CIA that beheaded a 19-year-old Palestinian captive.”
If its the video I’ve seen bandied about the lad was 9 years old
Go CIA
Ophelia 18.43
Great post
Or 18.51
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I thought your informer was skeptical of whether “novichok” even existed Craig?
Well here’s your proof. Here’s the proof that there are 3 victims too. Just watched the BBC’s claim and they explicitly said this doesn’t identify the source, other evidence should be forthcoming over the coming weeks.
That was written by robin black, not any ‘informer’.
The memo mentions a “toxic chemical” which name and composition will be kept SECRET. But, don’t worry MSM, the “toxic chemical” is exactly the same the British Gov brief the OPCW about, in SECRET. What a stupid charade!.
Also, three victims of whom?. Of the false flag’s authors, of course. There is a reason why everything has been kept in SECRET.
And, one day, they will come for us in SECRET, will process us in a SECRET court with SECRET witnesses, will throw us in a SECRET prison and then will publish a statement in our behalf thanking the SECRET services for having us locked.
Secret dossiers, bordereaux, damning evidenece which can’t be examined in a court of law? It’s Dreyfus all over again.
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They are classified confidential, that doesn’t stop anyone publishing them, particularly if they believe they have been wrongly accused. The UK UN ambassador, goaded the Russian Federation tonight, pushing them to publish the OPCW report along with an explanation. No doubt they will not as it will just confirm the existence of this agent contrary to their (and Craigs) assertion.
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Reply ↓
GoAwayAndShutUp
I don’t suppose you saw the the STV/ITV news tonight where the UK UN ambassador effectively served this “secret” information on Russia and encouraged them to publish it.
The reply was “it was interesting” but no other reaction.
Don’t you think the Russians should disclose the chemical composition before someone else does?
Their silence is again deafening. Perhaps their assertions (and Craig Murray’s too) that no such compound exists has been shattered, leaving them with nasty chemicals on their faces?
Except that the chemical composition has already been disclosed a long time ago and you can buy a book with it, if it really is “Novichok.” Here you go, for £20.95 (currently) the “secret” formula is not so secret since 22 December 2008: https://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Secrets-Insiders-Chronicle-Chemical/dp/143272566
The problem is nobody knows what this stupid word “Novichok” exactly means. This is probably how soviet chemists called it in their smoking room. The whole family of these nerve agens includes more than hundred different chemical compounds. And if this story was not just a performance for narrow-minded public they would use a more precise definition, but not a russian-sounding word.
BTW recently I was listening to an interview (that was quite convinsing for me) of another scientist who was a member of the team that developed these nerve agents. And according to him Vil Mirzayaniv was actually not one of developers, but was heading a department that was in charge of controlling the atmosphere around the lab and preventing any potential information leaks via analyzing the air and so on.
Novichok were a class of nerve agents developed/hypothesised (make your own mind up) in the 1970s by the USSR. Wikipedia has a page with 64 reputed formulae and sources/authors citing them. Most but not all have a PO3F structure with a variety of side chains extending from the two oxygens linked by single covalent bonds to the phosphorous.
True but the Soviet program under which they were studied was called Foliant. The term “Novichok” comes from the chap who defected and published the formulae. So far as I understand anyway. Perhaps the Wikki contributors just went along with the slang of the time
And the defector was the “health and safety” man
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The term Novachok also comes from the Scientist Vladimir Uglev who is still in Russia who was interviewed by Russian journalists last month. One of the Journalists, Natalya Timakova was appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as First Deputy Press Attache for the President and Head of the Presidential Press and Information Office in 2002 and held roles within Putin/Medvedev’s government for over a decade. She was once considered the 3rd most influential woman in Russia. Perhaps you should look at this?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/novichok-nerve-agent-poison-soviet-russia-salisbury-attack-leonid-rink-vladimir-uglev-the-bell-a8265626.html
Thanks for the link Steve – databank updated!
Completely OT but what one earth does the “father and daughter of the Violins” mean?
“There is no antidote for these substances. With a probability of close to 100% I can say that as soon as the father and daughter of the Violins are disconnected from life support systems, they will die.”
“what one earth does “father and daughter of the Violins” mean?
Given that the Russian for “violin” is “skripka”, I’d say it was a mistranslation of Skripal.
However, if “There is no antidote for these substances. With a probability of close to 100% I can say that as soon as the father and daughter of the Violins are disconnected from life support systems, they will die.” is true, then either whoever has been discharged from hospital isn’t Julia Skripal, or the poison wasn’t novichok.
But what actually is the ‘official’, authoritative UK position on the identity of the toxic chemical involved in the Salisbury incident which the OPCW’s public domain report is confirming? “Novichok’ (simply) or the (caveated) identification given in evidence by Porton Down to an English court of law?
COURT OF PROTECTION: Case No: 13228376 & 13228382 before : MR JUSTICE WILLIAMS, 22/3/18 para 17)
Here Mr Justice Williams stated this:
“I consider the following to be the relevant parts of the evidence. I shall identify the witnesses only by their role and shall summarise the essential elements of their evidence.
i) CC: Porton Down Chemical and Biological Analyst Blood samples from Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal were analysed and the findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent OR related compound. The samples tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent OR closely related agent.” (my emphases)
( https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/sshd-v-skripal-and-another-20180322.pdf ).
Choice of words and sentence constructions matter – ‘it is all in the drafting1’ – especially here. I have no technical expertise to know whether the apparent wriggle room in the court evidence is significant but I make no apology for being a sceptic, even a cynic, for now.
What that may mean is that they found ACE inhibitor activity in biological samples and the pure chemical identified on surfaces may have shown certain characteristics in mass spec analysis pointing toward a novichok-style structure….
And Rhys, assuming your technical knowledge, and to speculate, does your response – that they may have found an ACE inhibitor in samples – (a) restrict the agent in terms of its original development to a Soviet programme as claimed for ‘Novichok’, or potentially to development programmes of others; and (b) does it make it more or less likely that on the chemistry alone, the actual source of the material used here can be identified? How unique a fingerprint would an ACE inhibitor have?
Or is it a white rabbit / wild goose leading to Wonderland?
The report simply says that “This included information on their acetylcholinesterase status since hospitalisation, as well as information on the treatment regime.”
Doesn’t say that this is of any significance or if any action was taken or judgements made because of this status – The hospital may monitor this as a routine procedure for poisoning.
Absolutely does not restrict chemical to novichoks: it restricts it to any compound on earth that inhibits the breakdown of acetylcholine. Anyone developing a drug programme targeting this reaction in a pharma company could easily have made hundreds in small scale, so could easily be a few thousand recorded globally.
Absolutely no restriction whatever worldwide as to who made it if it were a Novichok.
As to a unique chemistry fingerprint, I am not expert enough to answer categorically, but I would suspect that in this day and age, computer DBs of pure chemical mass spec peak images would exist and could be interrogated vs an output of a test sample. You would need to ask chemical experts about this….the answer might be conclusive or you might get a short list of suspects…..
@ Rhys Jaggar April 12, 2018 at 21:50
ACE inhibitor? You mean my doctor is trying to poison me via my ‘blood pressure’ tablets?
Woe is me!
The executive summary available to the general public does not use the term “novichok”, but “toxic chemical”.
This is what Porton Down testified to court according to the judge:
“Blood samples from Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal were analysed and the findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound. The samples tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent or closely related agent.”
https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/sshd-v-skripal-and-another-20180322.pdf
I leave it at that.
The executive summary available to the general public does not use the term “novichok”, but “toxic chemical”.
This is what Porton Down testified to court according to the judge:
“Blood samples from Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal were analysed and the findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound. The samples tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent or closely related agent.”
https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/sshd-v-skripal-and-another-20180322.pdf
I believe you notice the “Novichok class nerve agent or closely related agent” phrase.
So, the BBC says “other evidence should be forthcoming over the coming weeks”? Quite apparently this is an admission that “other evidence” is needed.
I leave it at that.
Time for talking is almost done here. Thank you Craig for your diligence and bravery this past month; your honesty and common sense has shone through as a beacon of truth amongst the lies and deception – good luck in the coming weeks. Your voice gives many hope and reassurance in these difficult times.
We urgently need to think about what to do next. Military action in Syria appears imminent – as does UK involvement without Parliamentary consent. Protest marches didn’t stop our involvement in Iraq. If there were sufficient numbers, we could easily and peacefully barricade UK government institutions and the BBC. I’ve never countenanced direct action before, but I respectfully suggest there may be no other option.
What say you?
The chemical attack in full: https://twitter.com/The_Cyrenian/status/983661056366030849
I have mentioned it once before and it probably seems quite utopical but, in my opinion, the only way of going forward is by forming a new political party. I am sure there will be plenty of followers. The only difficult thing is to find the right leader.
The difficulty there is that the leader must not be controllable by Mossad, the CIA, MI6 or any other NWO enforcers.
My view now is that the murdering for so many years renders any sexual slips irrelevant, any mildly provocative tweet irrelevant etc etc.
What is critical is that murderers who try to trash non-murderers must be crushed through the force of public opinion.
Assuming public opinion is not driven by foaming at the mouth bomb em all nutters….
We have a new party: Corbyn’s Labour Party!
Hear hear!. The only adult in the room
That’s Corbyn in the Commons I hasten to add
I say yes Mark – but I doubt if it will happen as the media control the masses I’m afraid and the UK Government by the looks of things.
Craig, a compatriot of yours, Peter Ford, who was UK Ambassador to Syria 2003 – 2006, was on BBC Breakfast this morning. Thanks to Paul Barbara for digging out this link…_
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=55D7WrEn6MA
Better version-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQiyxl674y8
O Tempora, O Mores!
Why is it, in our times, that proponents of the greatest restraint to go to war, find themselves arguing with scripted nitwits?
@ DiggerUK April 12, 2018 at 19:59
You’re welcome. It was easy – just put the known info into the search engine and see what comes up, then choose the most likely.
I see some comments here, wise and fair enough, but to be honest, and sad. The only way now to stop this insane western propaganda, is to strike back hard if anyone attack Syria. It can lead to an escalation, but what will happen at the globe if nobody stop this river of lies ? Someone must say enough is enough. I do not accept this situation anymore in my homeland and move to Beograd.
I am reposting this comment from March 23, on the U.K. court decision because I think it is still relevant given what the OPCW report does NOT say:
WJ
March 23, 2018 at 19:53
Regarding the ambiguity of some phrases in the High Court judgment, I submitted this comment further up-thread but since it directly pertains to your argument here I am re-posting here. I have found in my profession that in reading legal documents, one should always opt for the WEAKEST reading possible if there is ANY ambiguity in the language. Hence the following.
There are two non-identical sentences describing the Skripals’ test results in the high court judgment. How should we read them, individually and in combination. Here is my guess:
I think the truth behind the first sentence is that the Skripals tested positive not for a nerve agent, but for a “related compound.” (Otherwise this phrase would not have been included at all.) This could mean EITHER that they tested possible for everyday chemicals that in certain combinations could be used to produce a nerve agent, but in this case were not, OR that they tested possible for a poison that is not a nerve agent at all, but a “related compound”–i.e. a “compound” (and not a simple element) that causes effects “related” to (but not identical with) those of nerve agents.
The second sentence is designed to weaken my skeptical reading of the first sentence without actually stating a lie, under conditions of plausible deniability. The second sentence states that they tested positive for “a Novichok class nerve agent” OR “a closely related agent.” The key to understanding the second sentence is that the adjective “nerve” need not be taken to modify the second use of the word “agent,” even though that is the most natural and plausible way to read the sentence for a native English speaker. Rather, a “closely related agent” could refer to a non-nerve agent–a different kind of poison–that is “closely related” to a “Novichok class nerve agent” in precisely the way that the “related compound” is related to “nerve agent” in the first sentence: i.e. it is an agent that produces or is intended to produce “closely related” (in the relevant sense) effects–sickness, poisoning, etc–to those of a nerve agent (Novichok class or otherwise).
So the two sentences are designed to obfuscate the truth without stating an outright lie under conditions of plausible deniability. And the lawyerly way to read them is to read them in the weakest way possible: the Skripals tested positive for a non-nerve-agent poison.
This reading would also seem to fit with the facts–about nerve agents, about the Skripals’ symptoms, about the timeline–as we now understand them. It also matches up with the much discussed Salisbury physician’s letter to the editor, which differentiates “poison” from “nerve agent” in just this way.”
Are the Skripals still with us so’s to avoid an inquest?
In such cases they have inquiries now as they did with Litvinenko.
Guess why Litvinenko’s case is “classified”…
Hamburg prosecutor kind of threw a massive spanner into the UK’s case against the “Russian prime suspect” and the UK was the one who gave that evidence to the Germans: https://www.rt.com/news/423554-litvinenko-polonium-london-berezovsky/ (includes a translated and a scan of the original letter from the Germans closing the case for want of evidence, seem the Polonium was in Berezovski’s office *before* Kovtun got near the UK)… What did the “inquiry” “find” again?
I was watching France24 (owned and managed by the French Gov.)
Terribly sad day for them – the strike on Syria is temporary on hold.
Yesterday when the strike was about to happen they looked and sounded sooo totally happy.
What a bunch of psychopaths, where they manage to find such characters, everyone on France24, no exception, has a face and manners of a lying used cars salesman, amazing ‘news’ channel, MSM at it’s best.
I first heard about France24 when Habbabkuk recommended it on this forum. Figures.
France24 is France’s propaganda machine, just like Russia has RT and Britain has the BBC. Granted the BBC is a bit more subtle and manages to come across as neutral, but that’s just a difference of style.
Most French people I know don’t watch France24, unless they’re in a hotel abroad and it’s the only French language channel available.
The BBC most certainly does not come across as neutral. It is rabidly pro EU, such that the entire news management should be sacked in disgrace. Their climate change has been a global disgrace. And their warmongering is due to being infested with security service moles…..
The BBC is also pushing for war in Syria. They are also anti Corbyn to a woman and extremely Russophobic.
Agree France 24 are the most establishment propagandist scum I have ever watched. Far worse than the BBC. They dont even hide it. Particularly thst bloke who looks like a less yellow baddy from Sin City
Brian Jones, Branch Head in the Scientific and Technical Directorate of the Defence Intelligence Analysis Staff, which was in turn part of the Defence Intelligence Staff, the DIS ……..
………….. at the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq had the job of overseeing the analysis of Intelligence re Iraq’s WMD. He didn’t see any that said Iraq posed the threat that Blair, Campbell and Scarlett stated as fact.
What he was told was that there was Secret Intelligence, too Secret for his department to see, he was told the evidence was contained in a dossier named “Report X”
He thought that was a lie.
And so it proved, sadly after Dr Jones’ death, Report X turned out to be a borrowed plot from a SciFi Film, a complete work of fiction, but it did the job.
We now have to believe another work of Secret Intelligence so that Assad can be deposed and the possibility of WW3 kicking off.
Blair Lied!
May is Lying!
There is no evidence that Assad was involved in any Chemical Attack. The evidence that does exist points to US funded Anti Assad Terrorists being responsible.
Marcon would also appear to be lying or being lied to.
Macron seems to believe that he has superpowers:
“France will not allow any escalation that could harm the stability of the region as a whole”
What’s he going to do? Fart in their general direction?
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-france/france-has-proof-syrian-government-conducted-chemical-weapons-attack-macron-idUSKBN1HJ1M5?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5acfa0fe04d3012ce4135ca0&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
Now now, I would thought proclaiming himself the returning prophet should sort things out by Ascension Day…..
The OPCW report is significant in at least one respect
11. The TAV team notes that the toxic chemical was of high purity. The latter is
concluded from the almost complete absence of impurities.
Since it is impurities that give a substance its ‘signature’, their absence explains why Porton Down scientists have been unable to say where the sample they analysed was made.
It however begs the question: why is it if such purity? Only a chemical substance that is produced in a laboratory and sealed in a vial can be of such high purity. If a substance that is in any way chemically interactive is exposed to the open environment or extracted from body fluids cannot remain so pure?
Is the OPCW saying they have analysed the standard pure sample given to them?
I wonder if the OPCW inspectors actually took a blood sample from the Skripals or if they simply tested a sample supplied by Porton Down
I suspect the latter as in my blog.
https://johnplatinumgoss.wordpress.com/2018/04/12/an-inspector-calls-the-opcw/
Then why did they bother checking the Skripals’ identity?
Their report documents that they took samples from all three patients and retested the original samples also.
Don’t forget to use baby wipes to cleanse your mobile phone of that deadly toxic/nerve aget….and Bold to wash your clothes….just in case
U.S. is fairly confident that the Syrian regime carried out an attack that killed dozens in Douma, one of the last towns in the area still under rebel control. U.S. officials say blood and urine samples that came from the deadly attack last Saturday have tested positive for nerve agent, chlorine.
http://www.msnbc.com/craig-melvin/watch/u-s-officials-syria-samples-test-positive-for-chlorine-gas-1209354819536
I wonder if this were CIA agents to collect the samples for analysis.
Is that nerve agent AND chlorine?
Test my clothes fresh out of my washing machine and there will be trace amounts of all kinds of toxins. Test my body after a swimming pool dip and there will be more than a trace of chlorine. I seem to recall those images of people vigorously dousing themsleves with water….
“U.S. officials say blood and urine samples that came from the deadly attack last Saturday have tested positive for nerve agent, chlorine.”
They’re taking the piss!
How the hell would they have access to blood and urine samples from the middle of a besieged town in a war zone?
SAMS no doubt. Which would prove (should it need proving) that the only “intel” coming out of Syria is from the Salafi Jihadist propaganda units. The BBC and Sky and all of the reptiles that call themselves journalists will be frothing at the mouth (sorry) over this of course
You should read Ketchum’s book for a realist view into chemical warfare.
https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Warfare-Secrets-Almost-Forgotten/dp/1424300800
At Edgewood, they used to play with VX, and even demo this to military brass. Stick a finger in it, wait a few seconds, dip into alcohol and wash it off in the sink. These nerve agents are just stronger versions of physostigmine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physostigmine
Pharma 101 – dose is everything. And the potency of the compound gives you the size of the therapeutic window. Take the right dose, and you get a cognitive lift.
These nerve agents have atropine as an antidote. Atropine in high dose causes delirium, and eventually death, but even very potent agents it takes a lot and generally just extends the time of inebriation. BZ is the most potent agent of that class, and was settled on as the delirium induction agent of choice. It could be delivered by aerosol (although it was difficult) and once established it lasts for up to 3 days. The antidote for BZ and atropine delirium is physostigmine.
The difference between all of these agents and the drugs used in medicine (atropine is used tens of thousands of times per day) is potency. In opiates we see this in morphine (assigned 1X), heroin (2X), fentanyl (100X), then carfentanil (10000X). What changes is the practicality of delivering a dose either surreptitiously, through the skin (viz. fentanyl patches deliver ~5% of patch contents), or by aerosol, and causing narcosis or death. There is nothing particularly special otherwise.
A serious question in this narrative is this: If Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by a very potent nerve agent at home, how did they get so far from home before needing to sit down. And after sitting down, overcome by the agent, how is it possible that the first responder was stricken down so much faster?
It is also notable that a religious cult in Japan produced quite a large quantity of Sarin without access to government facilities. None of their people died making it. This is just chemistry. You need precursors, a chem hood, atropine, and a location where the chemicals blowing out of the hood will disperse without making anybody ill. Any good illicit drug lab could make it. If they chose a day with a good wind, they could make it in a suburban house with the exhaust routed out the chimney or the stove exhaust vent. (Drug labs get caught because neighbors smell ether and other chemicals on windless, cool days with temperature inversion.) The equipment is present every day in hundreds of illicit labs making everything from methadrine to high potency THC extracts across every developed nation on the planet.
Read Shulgin’s pair of books to get a sense for citizen synthesis capability. Most of these home chemists are only high school graduates, if that.
Pihkal https://erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal.shtml
Tihkal https://erowid.org/library/books_online/tihkal/tihkal.shtml
Expertise in home production of drugs is very widespread.
Good evening again, not a troll reporting from the front line if we weren’t on holiday in Budapest due back in Cyprus Saturday night. Sky should look pretty on the approach to Larnaca with all those missile tracers and explosions. No doubt our flight will be closely monitored on US/UK/Russian/Syrian radars.
Latest relevant article from Cyprus Mail:
http://cyprus-mail.com/2018/04/12/british-bases-ask-reserve-airspace-within-nicosia-fir-preparatory-reasons/
Registered with The Times this afternoon to access a good article about the RAF Akrotiri runway being a retaliatory target should western strikes be launched from there which is likely.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/syria-conflict-strike-against-assad-could-put-raf-airbase-in-moscow-s-sights-rbsxtj8nz
I think the runway would be pretty high on the hit list as a non-lethal show of force being only non-lethal if they don’t miss it!!!
I work there and Jan and myself live 10 miles away just outside Limassol.
On the island live many thousands of British people and Russians with no problems at all. RAF Akrotiri is home to many young British families, schools, health care facilities…. everything a small British town could want for. A bit over the top for our liking so we live, outside the base, in Cyprus ….not in a UK clone.
What I find confusing is that Cyprus is only 100 miles from Syria yet all the routine UK tourist flights arrived on Wednesday with thousands of British families on board. RAF Akrotiri also has a lot of British families living close to the runway.
Strange you would not give warning to UK tourists or evacuate families from a possible target.
I hope the recent work at Akrotiri is under guarantee……………..
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/raf-akrotiri-opens-newly-renovated-runway
I sympathise with that cultivated mushroom feeling. Meanwhile Turkish AF have been making low altitude reccies.
This afternoon I complained to the BBC about precisely this point, arguing their headline claim “Nerve agent inspectors back UK” is misleading. My online complaint was as follows:
“To claim the OPCW gives the UK its “backing” is a seriously misleading representation of what it actually says. The OPCW report confirms it agrees with the UK experts about the identity of the nerve agent used in the attack: no more. To suggest it “backs” the UK is to suggest that, like a court, it has upheld the UK government’s argument and found against the arguments of the Russian government – including the UK government’s claims that the nerve agent was produced in Russia, that the Russian state is the only possible culprit, and the Foreign Secretary’s claim that the Russian head of state, President Putin, is himself directly implicated in the attempted murder of the Skripals on British soil using a military grade chemical weapon. Although the headline may accurately reflect the government’s arguments and the view shared by most of the British media it is NOT a fair or factual way to report the OPCW finding – and ought therefore to be corrected ASAP. The BBC must remain fair-minded, accurate and factual – and this headline is a sorry reflection of how far BBC standards have fallen. Please try to restore higher standards that were once the hallmark of the BBC.”
I have asked the BBC to reply. Assuming I receive a reply from them, I propose to share it here.
Thank you.
“ [OPCW] agrees with the UK experts about the identity of the nerve agent used in the attack“. (emphasis mine — bj)
Sadly, you yourself have fallen victim to the MSM’s misrepresentations. Read the OPCW PDF.
The headline on the BBC Radio 2 news at (I think) 1pm today asserted that the OPCW had confirmed that it was “a Soviet nerve agent”. The next sentence amended this to “a Soviet-era nerve agent” – tho it’s debatable whether the OPCW has indeed confirmed even that.
Ministers agree ”on the need to take action” in Syria, i would suggest ”on the need to investigate evidence” would be wiser.
Here we go again virtually identical words to Skripal case, after cabinet meeting tories say it is ”highly likely” Assad was responsible for suspected chemical attack.
What’s the betting there will be no vote in parliament for alliance with US either.
Is it true that the victims of said attack were mainly women and toddlers?
@ bj April 12, 2018 at 21:23
Actually, ‘alleged’ attack.
Yes, it is true, as evidenced by the second guest in George Galloways program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVj7FcD9LNI (at about 35 minutes into the show).
Women and children only, in a basement. No rebel fighters there (so Assad missed).
The film, I think is real. These poor souls were gassed by the rebels that were in control there,
To incite the US and UK to get into the fight.
The playbook for regime change is always Ready, Fire, Aim!
@ Jones April 12, 2018 at 21:15
Or for accepting all kinds of Franken foods from the US, like GMO’s, chlorine-rinsed chicken, hormone-full meat, open season on the NHS and whatever else they wish to unload on us, in a great ‘Trade Deal’ the details of which must stay secret for years.
https://youtu.be/9Xvmr3GOOik
Interesting listening
So the OPCW just ‘confirmed the findings of the KU’
But what did the UK actually say?
Did they say it was a novichok-like substance or did they say it was actually Novichik?
they said novichok or a type of .. which means anything you want it too
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, take a look at this curveball http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2141505/surprise-move-china-mount-live-fire-navy-drills-taiwan
China is saying “you invade Syria, we invade Taiwan”. Russia might be thinking along the same lines vis-a-vis Ukraine.
That Full Spectrum Dominance might begin to show quite a few ‘absorption lines’ then.
Which is to be welcomed.
“11. The TAV team notes that the toxic chemical was of high purity. The latter is
concluded from the almost complete absence of impurities.”
This should knock on the head the idea that the reason it didn’t succeed was because it was an old product taken off the shelf. The stability of most these type of chemicals is usually not great.
The high purity points to a very recent manufacture. The fact that it didn’t succeed suggests that it isn’t a chemical a rational person would use for assassination and that Miryanov may have been engaged in a common anti-proliferation tactic in his book: giving out WMD information but mixed with misinformation so as to frustrate attempts at proliferation.
Giving Iran blueprints for a nuclear weapon trigger containing critical errors is the textbook example
Boy, these articles are coming in thick & fast this evening – how about this one to make you choke on your Cocoa? https://journal-neo.org/2018/04/12/who-s-the-next-expedient-target-4-the-us-war-machine/
Does absence of impurities suggest a bench sample rather than a military-grade sample, which would have additives–stabilizers, viscosity controls, perhaps elements added for binary fusion….?
And should we and the media be conflating “toxic chemcal” with nerve agent? Nerve agents may be toxic, but not all toxic chemicals are nerve agents. Further should we and the media be conflating nerve agents (some naturally occuring) and manufactured nerve agents?
it is odd that they dont report novichok or nerve agent isnt it
See my comment above. It’s in keeping with the high court decision read strictly.
Good point – That could be the reason the victims are still alive.
e.g. Dermal patches often need helper compounds to penetrate the skin
If they won’t say what the chemical is after being so certain, it tells us it isn’t what was claimed and puts someone, not the Russians, in deep shit.
It’s nice to think that the last surviving human beings providing they have sufficient stocks of food and water will be the astronauts inhabiting the space station, long after all of us down here are cinders or irradiated rotting corpses. They’ll get to see the mushroom clouds enveloping the earth too, until the palls of smoke and dust obscure for an eternity that soon terrible but once beautiful spectacle. It has been, despite fifty years of ill-health, pain, poverty and disbelief at the mendacity and wickedness of fellow man, almost pleasant at times, particularly in a halcyon childhood in the early 1970s, when there was still, in spite of everything misplaced hope born of innocence and ignorance and caressed in the love of parents and siblings and companionship of my friends. Goodbye everybody. Last best wishes to the people of Syria and of Russia, we never met, but on my behalf, I’m so sorry. There is no hereafter, no god, only darkness and then nothingness.
“On the Beach” is a great movie.
Yes. Years later, it still resonates.
Yes, it’s excellent. I doubt May or Johnson have ever seen it. I’m sure Williamson only watches cartoons.
@ Tony M April 12, 2018 at 21:51
There will be radiation in the atmosphere as well, polishing off the astronauts, so they won’t be after seeing anything, about from a blinding (literally) light, then a fairly rapid death.
‘..There is no hereafter, no god, only darkness and then nothingness..’
I and many others believe there is indeed another life after this one, but it is a matter of faith. Don’t be too sure your point of view is correct.
Keep your fingers crossed!
opcw say that its the same toxic chemical that porton down found – a novichok or a type of … which means it could be any nerve agent.
odd that the formula hasnt been published .. and that they dont say nerve agent.
They love their families.
They love their paychecks.
They love those fat paychecks coming regularly every other week.
Why would they do anything to undermine their comfortable lifestyle ?
See above.
@ wendy April 12, 2018 at 21:53
If Porton Down had synthesised it from a Russian formula, it would be similar, and from an establishment like Porton Down it would be ‘very pure’. But the question is, where did the samples provided to the OPCW come from? Anyone’s guess. And there is absolutely no proof the Skripals or the detective were in fact poisoned by it.
Why might it be a British poisoning or hoax? Simple – to demonise Russia as a prelude to the latest CW headchopper attacks or hoaxes, allowing a fig-leaf of (illegal) ‘justification’ for striking Assad’s forces, which was the reason the headchoppers were introduced to Syria (and Iraq) from NATO territories, with NATO training and arms, in the first place, and later when they weren’t doing too well, introducing blatantly illegal Western forces into Syria, ostensibly to ‘fight’ the headchoppers, but in fact to protect and assist them.
I have never seen a BBC report from ordinary people in Syria in 75% if the country but only from 15% of the population that is under the terrorists. The BBC continues to whitewash terrorists.
Excellent point SA not made enough. It’s frankly unbelievable that we have never heard from the people of Damascus or Western Allepo (remember “the besieged city of Aleppo”) or any Government held area
How can the Western media’s portayal of this war be seen as anything other than propaganda?
Yes I keep writing to the BBC about this and they keep on sending anodyne answers. On the last occasion they did not have an answer after 3 months so I have written to Offcom.
Apparently the threat to peace is that the Russian ambassador in the UN refusal to agree a free run for the west to bomb Syria!