OPCW Salisbury Report Confirms Nothing But the Identity of the Chemical 540


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.


Allowed HTML - you can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

540 thoughts on “OPCW Salisbury Report Confirms Nothing But the Identity of the Chemical

1 2 3 4 5 6
  • Rory Winter

    The first casualty in war is truth. And the West has been in a geopolitical war with Russia ever since its post-Yeltsin resurgence.

  • quasi_verbatim

    Smear VX+++ enhanced-purity Novichok nerve agent onto a doorknob and you take out the entire street, pets included, according to CW aficionados. Survival is not an option.

    The Skripals, unlike Becket, must be got rid of before they become turbulent.

    • Steve McCall

      [Mod: Steve McCall, Angus Ogg, James Devine, kindly pick one handle per thread and stick to it. Thank you.]

      Really? are you saying it would turn to gas and gas people? This was a contact variant, as was demonstrated by the OPCW’s gathering of evidence.
      Either way the OPCW found traces of the chemical in the victims blood. I suspect nothing will convince you that these people were even poisoned let alone they were targeted by a regime?
      Perhaps the Russian Federation’s assertion that the poison was made in Porton Down is incorrect?

      • Bayard

        In what way does the story that they were poisoned by someone acting for Julia’s mother-in-law to be not fit the facts as well as the official narrative, if not better?

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Steve McCall April 12, 2018 at 22:56
        ‘..they were targeted by a regime?..’
        Oh, you mean May’s regime.

      • SA

        Ah you have just hit the nail on the head. How can a substance of such purity be isolated when, presumably it would need some other additive to enhance its stickiness? Could some organic chemists here please help solve this?

    • Steve McCall

      [Mod: Steve McCall, Angus Ogg, James Devine, kindly pick one handle per thread and stick to it. Thank you.]

      I’ll TRUMP that with a story from TASS confirming the french have evidence of a chemical attack in Syria.
      http://tass.com/world/999317

      TASS by the way is the Kremlin’s official news agency.

      So there you go, blame the French.

    • SA

      I can now see that the criminal law in U.K. will include verdicts that are highly likely, in order to convict anyone who is undesirable to the state. After all TM in an earlier debate about Trident was extremely chilled about Kathie prospect of killing 100000 people.

  • Steve McCall

    [Mod: Steve McCall, Angus Ogg, James Devine, kindly pick one handle per thread and stick to it. Thank you.]

    The term Novachok also comes from the project Scientist Vladimir Uglev was working on. He 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

    • Besdomny

      “The term Novachok also comes from the project Scientist Vladimir Uglev was working on.”
      No, Uglev in his interview with “The Bell” denies that the term Novichok was used during his time at the GOSNIIOKHT. The name of the chemical weapons program he was working on was “Foliant”.
      Novichok means newcomer and on new organophosphates they were indeed working. Maybe someone used the term colloquially, maybe Mirzayanov made it up.

      • Crackerjack

        Thanks Besdomny. That’s what I said on the previous page. Databank re-updated!

    • Keith McClary

      This part is interesting. There could be more like him in other countries.
      “Rink himself has a previous conviction for supplying poisons used in murders. In 1995 he confessed to having secretly supplied a military-grade poison for cash that was used to murder a Russian banking magnate and his secretary.

      In a statement to investigators after his arrest, Rink said he was in possession of poisons created as part of the chemical weapons programme which he stored in his garage, according to Reuters.

      Rink received a one-year suspended prison sentence for “misuse of powers” after a secret trial, according to a lawyer involved in the case.”

  • Ross

    On look Kate Andrews from the ultra right-wing extremely shady lobbying group the IEA is on the BBC *again*. Why are the BBC giving a platform to a woman whose views hold no significant constituency in this country?

  • Steve McCall

    [Mod: Steve McCall, Angus Ogg, James Devine, kindly pick one handle per thread and stick to it. Thank you.]

    It actually says Russia knows nothing about Assad’s chemical attack, rather than it never happened.
    Putin should choose his allies carefully.

    • Rhys Jaggar

      Just like Victoria Nuland et al chose nazis to ally with in Ukraine? Headchopping Islsmists in Syria?

      The Us has always backed compliant dictators, drug dealers and murderers.

      But that is allowed because they are Americans.

      We are no better, never have been. We kiss the Saudis asses, whst are they doing n Yemen but murdering children en masses? But that is ok, as we sell them lots of arms.

      All moral argument are null and void…

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Steve McCall April 12, 2018 at 23:03
      Have you never heard of ‘False Flag’ operations and hoaxes, and if you have, do you not see that that would fit this situation to a T?
      Do you really think Assad would allow, never mind order, the use of CW’s given the furore and attacks that accompanied previous allegations (never proof)? And don’t you see how allowing their proxy mercenary headchoppers to use (or fake) such CW attacks would suit the West down to the ground?

    • Canexpat

      Hilarious. “Assad’s chemical attack”. Yes, a cultured, trained physician, the darling of the U.K. establishment, put up in Buck Hice and with a wife profiled in ‘Hello’ magazine, has become so completely irrational that on the verge of a historic victory against the Wahabbist head-chopping terrorists that have turned a functioning secular state into a disaster zone, decides that he will take the one action that will guarantee the intervention against him of the best funded military in the world. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Assad thinks it effective to gas 40 women and children in a basement. The Neocon warmongers do projection so well. Seriously Steve, this does not pass the sniff test for a nanosecond and the only people who could believe such a fantastic story either have room temperature IQ or have ulterior motives to want Assad removed.

  • Eric Davies

    Who decides BBC news content ? Charlotte Moore 36 year old with no parents, siblings or close family ! Apparently ?

    • Aslangeo

      This is an interesting point – people under 40 do not remember the cold war and the threat of nuclear annihilation – it is just not in their conscious or sub conscious – I am 49 and remember the early 1980’s with films such as Threads and The Day After. people who grew up in the 1990’s see Russia though that lens and therefore do not see a potential war as a serious risk. Theirt earliest political memory would have been the 1990 gulf war cakewalk and this may have coloured their perception that wars are easy.

      I know that the majority of the cabinet are over 45 so may have some residual memories of a nuclear threat but if the news agenda is set by people without fear or understanding then we get little independent thought.

  • Hatuey

    I think if we were to be honest we would agree that the real problem here is Russia sticking its nose in to the Middle East. There was a time when even the Russians themselves understood that this wasn’t on.

    Russian involvement has upset the delicate balance of power there. If they weren’t involved, Syria and Iran would have been slapped around a little and quickly jumped back into line. They’d probably be democracies by now and the people there would be worrying about updating their iPhone firmware instead of making WMDs.

    • kathy

      Contrary to your idiotic post, the Iraq war was only possible because of the collapse of the Soviet Union. That tragic event triggered the total destruction of the Middle East we are witnessing under the Project for the New American Century and the implementation of Israel’s long-cherished dream of dividing the Arab countries into small weak statelets to be controlled by them.

        • Dave Price

          Well the appearance of irony at least. Actually it was just a smear, presenting ordinary Syrians and Iranians busy making weapons of mass destruction under their authoritarian regimes, ‘balanced’ by a weary view of Americans in their scare-quotes democracy downloading the latest diet app. A kind of urbane racism.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ kathy April 12, 2018 at 23:40
        Hear, hear. Go to 0.52 in this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUCwCgthp_E
        Rumsfeld: ‘..I just wanna tell you something, nobody’s gonna tell us when and where we can bomb, nobody…’
        That was in reference to the demise of the Soviet Union as a counter-balance to US action.

      • Hatuey

        There’s possibly a time and place for conspiracy theories but this isn’t it.

        One week people are moaning and saying Trump is in Russia’s pocket, the next week they are attacking him because he threatens Russia.

        • Paul Barbara

          @ Hatuey April 13, 2018 at 00:42
          That old slap-down Canard, ‘conspiracy theory’. Don’t you understand that conspiracies, real, live conspiracies, surround us every day of our lives?
          To pit alternative and much more logical scenarios against government narrative (and don’t you agree that governments lie, time and time again?) is a common sense response.
          The government are presenting us with a conspiracy theory, without any hard proof (but with a vested interest in listening to their bought and paid for ‘White Helmets’, who provide PR for the West’s proxy mercenary headchoppers) which frankly is a ‘pile of pants’.
          The West’s objective from the outset was Regime Change in Syria. The following is not a ‘conspiracy theory’, but the testimony of an French ex Foreign Minister:
          ‘Roland Dumas: The British prepared for war in Syria 2 years before the eruption of the crisis’:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeyRwFHR8WY
          So does Britain have a ‘horse in the race’, and don’t you think that they still want to effect a ‘Regime Change’ in Syria? Can you think of a better way of doing it than framing Assad as using CW’s on his own people, with umpteen ‘photos’ of dead kids, to tug at the public’s heart strings? Do you really think these cold-hearted Luciferian creaps that ‘lead’ us really give a toss how many kids die?
          Don’t you remember Madeleine Albright saying she thinks the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi kids caused by sanctions was ‘worth it’?

          • Hatuey

            You don’t seem to understand the dynamics of the situation or the implications for regional stability. This isn’t really about exploiting Syria or Iran in terms of oil or anything else. The truth is the world has oil everywhere. Oil is losing value and is basically a dying industry and that has nothing to do with its scarcity.

            The West isn’t concerned about oil in this case, then. The concern is that Syria and Iran will get stronger and with Russian support and arms be emboldened to extend their influence throughout the region. How do you think Israel and Saudi Arabia feel about the prospect of that?

            Now, we can all sit here using darpanet and exchange ideas about what an ideal world might look like. But if anyone on here thinks for a second that Russian foreign policy is guided by that sort of idealism then they are basically certifiable.

            By the same token, if anyone thinks iran and Syria with Russian support, getting stronger without limits, extending power and influence across borders, etc., is going to help stabilise the region then they too are certifiable.

            There’s nothing pretty or pleasant about any of this. Nobody is arguing that this is or can be an ideal situation. But as long as Syria and Iran are intrinsically hostile to the West — or at least perceived to be — then there’s always going to be a requirement for containment of some sort.

            The goal here is to keep Syria and Iran weak and distracted by internal concerns; development, economics, reconstruction, etc., it isn’t to destroy them or pick a fight with Russia. I’m not saying that’s a noble goal, it isn’t, it’s ugly, but the alternatives for some and possibly all of us may be far more disturbing.

          • Jo Dominich

            Hautey, interesting post. However, what is wrong with a strong Syria and Iran in the region? After all, the USA has built Israel up to being the only armed power in the Region and who they back to the hilt whatever atrocities they commit. This is all about the USA and UK wanting to destabilise the middle east, with Russia coming out in strong support of two countries is a good thing, it maintains the balance of power in the region rather than a one-sided USA led dominance.

        • SA

          Yes the real conspiracy theory at the moment is extremely silly.
          Some buffoon has said that we have evidence that Russia has used a military grade deadly poison to smear on doorhandles (thier modus operandi because he had a manual showing it but for security reason he will not show to us) then also to double confirm thus said that Russia has also been working on this for a decade to perfect this poison as assassination weapon (again sorry no details we didn’t have time to go report to OPCW). Then once we got the OPCW we turned on to Syria using same horrific accusations of CW. Except now we could not prove Nerve gas because the SAA has beaten us to Ghouta so we only could implant , sorry meant prove nerve gas so we used chlorine and we have evidence though no assets there except those illegal secret assets which we can’t really discuss. So we need as a matter of urgency to bomb now and ask questions later.
          Confused? So am I.

    • Dave Lawton

      “They’d probably be democracies by now” Well lets be really honest shall we.Get a grip.
      And who overthrew Iran`s democracy ? Non other than the US and the UK in 1953.

      • Hatuey

        Democracy is incompatible with Islamic fundamentalism. But if those countries didn’t have oil they’d be peaceful and Russia wouldn’t care about them.

        • kathy

          Russia knows that it also is in the crosshairs of the American juggernaut which will then send the head-choppers into Russia once they have completed their orgy of destruction in the Middle East so it is in their own self-interest to stop that juggernaut which will be coming for them next. It’s about survival for Russia – not oil.

        • Paul Barbara

          @ Hatuey April 13, 2018 at 00:46
          Who has been milking the Middle East for the last century? Russia, or the West?
          Who overthrew Mossadegh in Iran? Who tried to control Syria way back in the 50’s? Who set the path for Saddam Hussein to come to power? Who imposed I*rael on the Palestinians? Who militarily backed brutal Medieval Arabs in the Gulf States (and indeed still does)?
          The Soviet Union did take control of many Muslim ‘Stans’ around the Caspian, it’s ‘Back Yard’, unlike the West, who were thousands of miles away from the Middle East they took control of.
          And Russia is not the Soviet Union.

          • Hatuey

            What you fail to accept is that even if we were to give Russia the benefit of the doubt here we would only be admitting that they want to exploit Syria in the same way that we have according to you.

            Two wrongs wouldn’t make a right. And if the choice is between us exploiting the Middle East or Russia exploiting it, I’m comfortable with what I’d choose.

          • Crackerjack

            “What you fail to accept is that even if we were to give Russia the benefit of the doubt here we would only be admitting that they want to exploit Syria in the same way that we have according to you”

            Sorry Hatuey but thats bollocks. The reason that Russia has involved itself is to finally put an end to the Wests morally bankrupt policy of Regime Change.

            No more!

        • SA

          Hat
          Don’t know whether you know that in 1953 the US and U.K. overthrew a secular nationalist government in Iran, they were not Islamic. People in this forum have a good grasp of history, I encourage you to emulate them.

      • Jo Dominich

        Dave, good point, as far as i can tell they were already democracies with elected Presidents.

    • SA

      “They’d probably be democracies by now ….”
      Are you serious? You mean democracies if the type developed in Iraq and Libya?

      • SA

        Sorry should have said of the type developed by the US and U.K. for use in Iraq and Libya.

    • Sharp Ears

      And what do you think would have happened to Syria without Russian intervention,? Work it out.

  • Harry Law

    The important thing to remember is it is POLICY OBJECTIVES which determines a countries decision to go to war, since the ‘West’ has determined that ‘ ‘Assad has to go’ years ago then the arming of Jehadis, sanctions and now claims of the use of chemical weapons by Assad all amount to a realization of those policy objectives. It is good for the policy makers if the intelligence falls into line with the policy, but it is not essential. In the current situation all I can say is if the US, UK, and France do attack Syria, and here George Galloway agrees with me, Putin should come out with all guns blazing.

    • Baalbek

      I agree with Galloway. If Russia lets another attack on Syria slide they lose credibility as a deterrence to NATO aggression. The Trump regime seems hellbent on pushing this game of chicken to the limit. One can only hope it doesn’t escalate into a nuclear war. With Madman Bolton whispering into Trump’s ear it’s up to the military people to provide the cautious voice of reason. Not an entirely comforting scenario.

  • Sharp Ears

    The sight of all the jerks and clones whizzing in and then out of No 10 today was really funny. They all walked very briskly esp Williamson as if they had been instructed. They were all wearing dark coloured clothing. Again was that to order to signify the gravity of the situation.

    Who was that with Jeremy Wright, the Attorney General? Swarthy. Dark hair and male pattern baldness.

    The other Jeremy, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care LOL, has been doing some property dealing.

    ‘Jeremy Hunt breached anti-money laundering legislation brought in by his own government when he set up a company to buy seven luxury flats, The Telegraph can disclose.

    The Health Secretary, who has a personal fortune of more than £14 million, initially failed to declare his 50 per cent interest in the property firm to Companies House – a criminal offence punishable by a fine or up to two years in prison.

    Mr Hunt also failed to disclose his interest in the property firm on the Parliamentary Register of Members’ interests within the required 28 days.’
    /..

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/04/12/exclusive-jeremy-hunt-admits-breaking-governments-rules-company/

    Nice.

    • Crackerjack

      I fail to see how anyone ever could take Gavin “Private Pike” Williamson seriously. Even before he opens his mouth

    • Herbie

      “The sight of all the jerks and clones whizzing in and then out of No 10 today was really funny. They all walked very briskly esp Williamson as if they had been instructed. They were all wearing dark coloured clothing. Again was that to order to signify the gravity of the situation.”

      Absolutely.

      It’s all a scripted soap, and the same cheap characters.

      They’re just trying to cover for their crimes in east Ghouta, and create some sort of Maggie May for the election.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    I have never read or seen such dangerous psychopathic nonsense in my life, still coming from most Western Leaders. There is still a high probability, that it will be very much worse than anything, anyone has ever seen. In fact they will probably kill us all. The fact that it is all lies and nonsense makes absolutely no difference to these people, nor the fact that their actions, will also kill them. Are these psycho’s satanists, or are they convinced that Jesus will return as a result of them causing Armageddon, and they will all immediately be taken to heaven as angels for bringing it on?

    Tony

    “ANOTHER STUPID F**KING WAR”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-WuPFlMThw

      • Crackerjack

        Yep. And all very handy just before the local elections where the Tories were going to be wiped out. Can they keep the Skripal/Gas attack farce rumbling on for another few weeks?

        • Jo Dominich

          Crackerjack, I think now, I really think, that because of the blatant lies this Government has told about the Skripal situation, the public are now so distrusting of the Tory party might well be wiped out to a critical low in the forthcoming elections – after all, even 90% of the Daily Mail readers decided their recent editorials on the Skripals was such extreme merde they made their voices known online.

          • Crackerjack

            I truly hope so Jo.

            Besides anything else Johnson has lied through his teeth over and over again. People surely have to notice that?

    • Mark Russell

      Meanwhile, the armchair army taps indignantly away on their tablets and mobile phones in stupefying dissonance, hoping it doesn’t kick off but if it does then at least there’ll be some interesting selfies and status alters before the EMP switches the internet – and everything else – off. Forever.

      Are we really allowing these fruitcakes to screw things up completely?

      • AM

        before the EMP switches the internet – and everything else – off. Forever.
        We’ll be mushrooms in the dark with our only access to ‘news’ being the official line parroted by the state controlled tv/radio/press.
        Ghastly thought!

  • Salford Lad

    The chain of custody of the samples that were presented to the OPCW are not verifiable. The OPCW attended Salisbury 3 weeks after the event and were presented with samples likely off the shelf at Porton Down, to give the desired ‘result.’
    The other anomaly is the Lazarus like recovery of the Skripals and the dodgy copper.from poisoning by a nerve agent 10 times powerful than VX.
    The take us for fools and treat us with contempt to present us with this obvious fabrication.

    • Herbie

      “The take us for fools and treat us with contempt to present us with this obvious fabrication.”

      Seems to work though.

      They just have to ensure the official narrative is dominant, job done!

    • Kempe

      They took samples themselves from known contaminated areas and blood samples from the three affected. It says so in the report and why else would they need to confirm the identity of the victims?

    • SA

      I wonder how a substance taken from biological fluids and open environment can still retain such a high degree of ‘purity’. Can one question the OPCW?

  • richard heron

    Craig, I place you and John Pilger in the top rank of independant, intelligent and caring journalists/writers/thinkers today. Could you not combine to dig out the real dirt – and there must be a lot more there – on the bankrupt UK government response to this and the amazingly similar claims against Russia in Syria. Cui bono I believe is the classic response – Israel too often seems to be the current answer. I ask myself if I am a bit paranoic if I detect, in UK, the hand of Mark Regev – current Ambassador and previous mercenary spokesman for our corrupt freind Bibi?

    • TonyT16

      What has Britain come to that our Prime Minister would take us to war again on these terms, worse than in 2003 – with no possibility of open reasoned debate in Parliament this time? This is like Groundhog Day for those with a memory that goes back to 2003.

      No clear objective apart the obvious one of still trying to precipitate regime change in Syria without many of our boots on the ground. No clear targets, no proof just finger-waving, toxic rhetoric and unauthenticated unverified claims, and no end plan. Instead of going to Parliament Theresa May is waiting for orders to run the risk of escalation to WW3, from the president of another country for whom none of us voted. Lynch-mob orders arriving some time soon or maybe a bit later, (who knows? to quote the man) probably in a Trump tweet while seated in his bathroom.

      Please wake me up from this nightmare before it becomes reality. Wake our lazy MPs up to do their job and represent their voters’ interests, not those of Washington warmongers who want to boost their ratings.

      • Herbie

        I think it’s about covering up Western operations in east Ghouta.

        There were supposed to have been some British soldiers captured.

        These threats are likely about getting better terms in release negotiations.

        Which are ongoing behind the scenes.

        Depending on how those negotiations go, we’ll see the results in face-saving measures or increased tension.

        That may explain the delay, holding and back walking statements.

        A deal is being struck, under threat of attack.

  • Josh

    I totally agree with your comments on Yulia; what we have to realize in addition to this is that she was also reasonably active on social media. To assume that she is now totally deaf and mute on social media, and to have no mention of that in this message, is also very strange. She must be forced to be completely off-line and only watch TV.
    Note also that the message seems intent on negating some of the ‘impressions’ from the previous call: the state of health of both herself, her father, and the seriousness of the illness. Prior admissions by the hospital about her father, and about her release, seem a natural outflow also of her own call and may have been different had she not been able to place that call with that content.
    I would also like to point out that I was pleasantly surprised to hear the voice of a strong Russian woman, who appeared totally lucid, not tired, and actively thinking how to navigate the right way of saying things to her cousin. It is therefore also strange that Yulia, in spite of her obvious ability to communicate strongly, has not been allowed to communicate directly or in Russian. Both modes – in Russian, and directly – are currently obviously too risky for the British Intel Services.

  • Josh

    OPCW did a general confirmation but did not name the nerve agent (instead spoke of a nerve toxin, something chemists define very differently). This means I still think that the political pressures on the OPCW is such that it will not allow blame on any of their members if it can avoid it; consequently it neither mentions an origin of the toxin, nor does it deny the UK/Porton Down its diagnosis. However the fact that the details remain classified confirms to me that it is most likely saxotoxin, either normal high-level food poisoning or enhanced food poisoning. I don’t believe the rest.
    Craig, I also take exception to your unnecessary praise for the Sky interview. Why can there not be a journalist that challenges the Porton Down manager on the apparent contradiction of Dr. R. Black’s (Porton Down’s scientist) clear publication in 2016 about Novichok (denying the confirmed existence) and the current conclusion? Why not at least try to access Dr. Black directly? Why not have investigative journalists question the chemistry here?
    I think the saxotoxin story as featured on MoA is still the most likely, although it requires our belief that from early on, right after Johnson put his foot in it, it was decided to carry on and force Porton Down as well, rather than pull back and admit idiocy.

  • Konrad E. Wolter

    DON’T BOMB SYRIA PROTEST
    Date: Friday 13 April 2018

    Time: 1700

    Location: Downing Street, London, SW1.

    Detail: VFP members will be attending the Don’t Bomb Syria protest at Downing Street.

    Statement: The British Government is once again considering the use of military force against Syria.

    Since 2001 we have attacked; Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

    We have carried out covert operations in Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and numerous other countries.

    Our attacks have failed, leading to the deaths of thousands, injury to thousands more, the destruction of homes and the destruction of infrastructure.

    Our attacks have fueled a cycle of violence that will only be accelerated through further intervention.

    Bombing Syria is not the solution to the problems we face in the 21st Century.

    http://vfpuk.org/upcoming/dont-bomb-syria-protest/

    • Hatuey

      Was there a protest when Russia destroyed Grozny? The place had more craters than the moon after Russia democratised it.

      • giyane

        Hatuey

        There’s a good bone you dug up from the garden. We in the West, I assume from your name you are from Kurdistan, we did not know what you knew, namely that the US / CIA had infiltrated every Muslim country and was inciting the disaffected youngsters to rebel against their rulers like Saddam Hussain. Russia did know that the CIA was doing this in Chechnya and they did not tolerate it happening in their own back yard.

        History has proved the Russians correct. The US paid Islamic groups in Kurdistan , like prize sucker Mulla Krekar who sent many to jihad while relaxing at home, to provoke Saddam Hussain so that they could eventually install Barzani as a stooge for extracting free oil form Iraq. The USSR had a perfect right to take whatever action was necessary against the CIA paid jihadists in Grozny and if it had not been for the Russians today USUKIS would have installed head-chopping , fascist Islamists on the borders of Europe in Damascus.

        Maybe you also don’t know how the current Tory regime, which still wants to install a colonial, time-share partnership with Al Qaida in Syria, came to power. What happened after Mrs Thatcher came to power was that she deliberately started a sexual revolution, starting with her own probably sexual relationship with paedophile and necrophile Jimmy Saville, and underming the whole fabric of UK society. This repulsive sexual strategy was a tool to completely undermine the ruiling classes of the time. Delightful politics, don’t you think.

        Then these , oh so liberal, Tory and Labour politicians started to sell the UK, starting with the state institutions which were privatised, and finishing with the city of London which was sold to foreign investors under Mrs May and Boris Johnson. If these Conservative and New Labour Tories had not sold and pocketed the UK nation, they would not need to continue their Imperial programme of colonisation of Muslim countries that has gone on all my lifetime since 1979. They started by colonising Yugoslavia , using Islamist head-choppers to do their dirty work for them.

        As I said, a good bone you dug up from the garden. Better go back and bury it again. Best to keep the Tory skeletons where they belong.

        • Hatuey

          You know, I have read some frighteningly deluded accounts of world history and events but this really stands out.

          Let me respond to the only thing that has a bearing on my point that you were responding to, Grozny.

          You seem to be suggesting that it was fine (‘correct’) for Russia to flatten a large vibrant city full of innocent people because it allegedly harboured ‘CIA paid jihadists’. You entered the same corner of the twilight zone that the Nazis occupied with that statement.

          I believe, if my understanding of the forum rules is correct, that you just justified collective punishment / genocide and could be reprimanded for that.

  • niels

    Steve McCall:
    ‘The term Novachok also comes from the project Scientist Vladimir Uglev was working on. He is still in Russia who was interviewed by Russian journalists last month.’

    — Haven’t they taught you in your troll school you should adjust to the audience ?
    Haven’t they told you there are quite few people on this blog who can read original Russian articles in Russian and know a thing or two about chemistry ?
    a) There’s no ‘term Novachok’, that’s Novichok ( a name made up by Mr. Mirzayanov);
    b) Mr. Uglev is not a scientist he is rather an engineer (you obviously have no clue how’s that different).

    Mr. Uglev also said in his interview that there’s almost 100% guarantee Skripals would die if taken off life support.
    Have you checked lately if Skripals are still on life support ?

    Try to read this (although there could be way too many letters for you) article – currently there’s no antidote developed for that nerve agent:
    http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/03/uk-attack-shines-spotlight-deadly-nerve-agent-developed-soviet-scientists

    Steve McCall: ‘One of the Journalists, Natalya Timakova … ‘

    — As if you tried to ask Rachel Maddow of MSNBC about Donald Trump, if you know what I mean.
    Mrs Timakova is a well known Putin-hater.

    Steve McCall: ‘ … the french have evidence of a chemical attack in Syria.’

    — I recall they also had evidence of WMD before the Iraq War.
    So what does that prove ? French are spreading disinformation once again ?

  • Charles

    The Skripals went off the UK Security Services radar at 9:15am on Sunday the 4th March near the London Road Cemetery in Salisbury, their phone tracking ability was neutralised.

    As far as the verifiable evidence available to the public they have not been located since.

    The drama was stoked by the use of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance, completely unnecessary for medical or proximity to hospital reasons.

    I have seen photos and a video ostensibly taken at the Sainsbury’s car park scene on the 4th but the Flight Tracking Data from two independent sources doesn’t put the Helicopter at Sainsbury’s car park. Instead it concentrates its activity around the cemetery where the last known (9:15) contact was.

    https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/map?icao=406CBC&date=2018-03-04

    zoom into the detail

    The other track has already been posted by Barden Gridge

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/04/government-propaganda-now-totally-bizarre/comment-page-3/#comment-734446

    [{If you go on planefinder.net you need to know Aircraft reg = GWLTS, Call sign HELIME22 and put it times and date (start 16:30 at Minety in Wilshire then click on the helicopter that appears and you will see the day’s track)]

    The point being;

    We don’t know it was the Skripals involved (at the bench or hospital).

    Or anything much more. Hide the truth, tell the lie!

    • Barden Gridge

      That’s very interesting. I never even checked to see if the path over Salisbury corresponded to the known landing area.

      You’ll have seen these, but just for the record, here’s one of the pics of it taking off from Sainsbury’s car park, apparently:
      https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5747565/dramatic-moment-russian-spys-daughter-was-airlifted-to-hospital-after-pair-were-poisoned-in-salisbury/

      And this video you will also know. It seems to have been taken at the same time, judging by the unchanged position of the cars, even though it looks much darker (the lights at Sainsbury’s are on in both pics). But maybe no-one was allowed near their cars once the helicopter arrived.
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1643286/Video-Air-ambulance-takes-critically-ill-Russian-spy-daughter-hospital.html

      It heads off to the left of the cathedral spire, which would be the correct direction for the hospital.

      As you say, neither the arrival nor the departure routes for the car park show up on the tracks.

      Maybe the flight tracks near the cemetery were to take Sergey and Yulia (who were not incapacitated) on a farewell flypast of the wife and son’s graves.
      If we knew what time the helicopter took off from Sainsbury’s car park heading towards the hospital, it might be possible to see how well that fits in with it turning back towards the cemetery where it started being tracked again.

      So convenient that this happened on a Sunday afternoon after Sainsbury’s had closed and the car park could be used for the helicopter. They think of everything.

    • Bayard

      I have been struck by the difference in appearance of Julia Skripal between the pictures of her and her father in a restaurant/pub and the other pictures of her.

    • Charles

      Thom Belk Salisbury is quoted in a number of pages plus some photos he took appear “2 minutes” after the air and road ambulances left at 5:10

      I’d be interested in any reports of when the helicopter arrived.

      The police statement that the police received a call at around 4:15 does not fit with other accounts of when the first responders arrive.

      The Detective Sergeant on the scene first – what was he doing there?, the A&E consultant saying nobody treated for nerve agent poisoning.

      Many reports that Yulia was taken to hospital in the helicopter. The helicopter flew to the hospital via a very strange route from the scene.

      And even if Yulia was not given a lift to hospital by helicopter the air paramedic was at the scene and risked contamination.The aircraft was in use the day after (5th) in a PR role at a Primary School. From the 6th the online incident log for the helicopter was re-instated (blank from 28/2 – 6/3) and then in use daily.

      The helicopter was never decontaminated or considered at risk of decontamination. At least 3 road abmulances (2 from salisbury and 1 from Amesbury business park) were taken away on trucks. Several police cars were removed by fork lifts.

      It was known that the helicopter did not have a serious contamination risk. How?

        • Charles

          ???

          16:00 Air Ambulance (AA) takes off from Lyneham, flies N 162 kts

          16.05 AA lands at Minety

          16.15 A member of the public calls the police re couple on a bench

          16.19 AA alerted

          16.30 AA takes off and flies in the wrong direction (SW)

          16.35 AA corrects course by 90 degs and flies SE slowly towards Salisbury

          16.45 AA goes off track at West Lavington / Tilshead

          17.14 AA takes off from Salisbury flies to London Road Cemetery Area then flies in opposite direction towards Hospital lands at Hospital

          • Charles

            “Why would a helicopter be called?”

            Good question!

            And why not aborted?

            And why was it fucking about?

            …………

            4.08pm: Figures that appear to be Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia are seen walking down Market Walk towards the bench where they were found.

            4.15pm: Police car speeds up the shopping centre at 20mph with lights flashing.

            4.16pm: A hero paramedic sprints towards the victims on foot clutching a first aid bag.

            4.18pm: A first responder vehicle drives up to help colleagues treat Sergei and Yulia.

            https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5767001/cctv-video-ex-russian-spy-sergei-skripal-daughter-yulia-walking-mystery-woman-before-poisoned/

            …………

            Police Statement (Met)

            “Emergency services received a report from a member of the public at 16:15hrs”

            http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-incident-in-salisbury-298351

            …………

            4.19 Air Ambulance (AA) alerted

            4.30 AA takes off from Minety (Wilts) and flies 15km in wrong direction (SW)

            4.35 AA corrects direction of flight by 90 degs and flies slowly (SE) towards Salisbury

            4.45 AA goes off transponder tracker on Salisbury Plain (Tilshead)

            c 4.50 (from extrapolated speed and track) AA arrives Salisbury centre

            c 5:11 AA takes off and flies in opposite direction to hospital to London Road Cemetery area then turns 180 degs and flies in direction to hospital

            c 5:50 AA takes off from hospital

            (using adsbexchange.com and planefinder.net trackers)

          • Charles

            Bizarre coincidence

            AA took off from Distillery Farm Minety and flew to the Flying Monk Brewery at Hulavington and circled it before heading to Salisbury

            (may even have touche down (alt track says lost 600ft))

  • Adrian

    The published OPCW summary only confirms a “toxic chemical”. It does not even confirm a “nerve agent”.

    If the OPCW is being precise in its wording – then, the public and media are doing the work of Boris Johnson and co. in extrapolating to claim it confirms a nerve agent (let alone a “novichok”).

    Until there is word on such things that comes out from viewers of the private report – the only confirmation from the OPCW is of a “toxic chemical” and a concurrence with unspecified UK findings.

    This is consistent with the letter of Stephen Davies, Consultant in emergency medicine, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust reporting “no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve agent poisoning”.

    “Sir, Further to your report (‘Poison exposure leaves almost 40 needing treatment’), may I clarify that no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury and there have only ever been three patients with significant poisoning. Several people have attended the emergency department concerned that they may have been exposed. None has had symptoms of poisoning and none has needed treatment. Any blood tests performed have shown no abnormality. No member of the public has been contaminated by the agent involved.

    STEPHEN DAVIES Consultant in emergency medicine, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust”

    Times of London, March 14, 2018

    • Dave54

      Well put. Next thing to go though when the missiles are fired will be our access to Russian Today.. can’t see them leaving RT on air, they’ll fabricate a way for RT to lose if’s Ofcom licence and the truth will be silenced…

  • Kempe

    People going over the same old ground and a predictable response to the OPCW report which posters here were clamouring for not so long ago.

    • SA

      Kempe
      You surely do know that many people are saying that this report means nothing more than what has been stated by PD. In fact it is a very strangely subdued report. But what most people are saying is that the interpretation of this report has been sexed up by the media and that is a fact.

  • Phil

    There was a period of a couple of weeks or thereabouts between the alleged poisoning event and the analysis by the OPCW. Not disputing the analysis per se but from where was the material sourced, when, by whom?

    Since the UK government has such a good track record of playing loose with the facts and appears to have got itself into a corner from which retreat is not an option, then I remain deeply skeptical of the official story with its ever changing ‘facts’. The fishy smell remains.

  • Paul

    Time for China to step up and the China, Russia, Iran (and quickly Turkey) alignment to block the hegemon in the Middle East:

    For the duration of this crisis,

    China takes over the bulk of protection for:
    * Russia’s east flank–freeing Russian forces to augment forces in the Middle East.
    * Iran’s north and east flank–freeing large Iranian forces to move to, or negotiate passage through Iraq, and southwest to the border with the KSA, bypassing Qatar, if that can be negotiated.

    Russia provides missile defence, air force for Iranian northern movement into Syria, and offers guarantees to the Kurds, Turks and Iraqis that Iran’s massed presence is temporary.

    Or indeed Russia guarantees Chinese temporary passage through Kazakstan, or southern Russia then into Syria via Azerbaijan, and passage for Iran to Syria through Iraq. Now we have two massive ground forces (China, Iran), two near-US peer superpowers (China, Russia) at the borders of Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.

    If the US, KSA, NATO, Israel won’t stand down and negotiate real security guarantees at this point, I would be astonished–certainly, a punitive US strike on Syria would be off the table, but why stop before US international lawlessness in Eurasia at least, is ended.

  • Tony M

    lysias
    April 12, 2018 at 22:14

    “On the Beach” is a great movie.

    I don’t get the point you’re making, could you expand. The notion that the southern hemisphere would somehow be safer and that survival there would be possible in the event of a nuclear conflagration in the northern hemisphere was known to be preposterous and absurd before the book was written or the film was ever made.

    • Barden Gridge

      That’s true, but irrelevant. It doesn’t detract from the impact of the film.

  • Tony M

    As for forces special or otherwise caught in Syria from the UK, US, France, Israel etc. negotiation and release is out of the question, there has been no declaration of war, no Geneva convention or anything like applies, summary execution on the spot is the best and the only option, unless they were forced conscripts which they aren’t.

    • SA

      They have much better value being tried in public and those behind them exposed. Also we don’t really want to advocate the barbaric methods used by the headchippers the West support do we?

1 2 3 4 5 6

Comments are closed.