Yulia Skripal and the Salisbury WUT 1465


It was happy to see Yulia alive and looking reasonably well yesterday, if understandably stressed. Notably, and in sharp contrast to Litvinenko, she leveled no accusations at Russia or anybody else for her poisoning. In Russian she spoke quite naturally. Of the Russian Embassy she said very simply “I am not ready, I do not want their help”. Strangely this is again translated in the Reuters subtitles by the strangulated officialese of “I do not wish to avail myself of their services”, as originally stated in the unnatural Metropolitan Police statement issued on her behalf weeks ago.

“I do not wish to avail myself of their services” is simply not a translation of what she says in Russian and totally misses the “I am not ready” opening phrase of that sentence. My conclusion is that Yulia’s statement was written by a British official and then translated to Russian for her to speak, rather than the other way round. Also that rather than translate what she said in Russian themselves for the subtitles, Reuters have subtitled using a British government script they have been given.

It would of course have been much more convincing had Sergei also been present. Duress cannot be ruled out when he is held by the British authorities. I remain extremely suspicious that, at the very first chance she got in hospital, Yulia managed to get hold of a telephone (we don’t know how, it was not her own and she has not had access to one since) and phone her cousin Viktoria, yet since then the Skripals have made no attempt to contact their family in Russia. That includes no contact to Sergei’s aged mum, Yulia’s grandmother, who Viktoria cares for. Sergei normally calles his mother – who is 89 – regularly. This lack of contact is a worrying sign that the Skripals may be prevented from free communication to the outside world. Yulia’s controlled and scripted performance makes that more rather than less likely.

It is to me particularly concerning that Yulia does not seem to have social media access. The security services have the ability to give her internet risk free through impenetrable VPN. But they appear not to have done that.

We know a little more about the Salisbury attack now:

Nobody – not Porton Down, not the OPCW – has been able to state that the nerve agent found was of Russian manufacture, a fact which the MSM continues to disgracefully fudge with “developed in Russia” phrasing. As is now well known and was reported by Iran in scientific literature, Iran synthesised five novichoks recently. More importantly, the German spying agency BND obtained novichok in the 1990s and it was studied and synthesised in several NATO countries, almost certainly including the UK and USA.

In 1998, chemical formulae for novichok were introduced into the United States NIST National Institute of Standards and Technologies Mass Spectrometry Library database by U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical and Biological Defense Command, but the entry was later deleted. In 2009 Hillary Clinton instructed US diplomats to feign ignorance of novichoks, as revealed by the last paragraph of this Wikileaks released diplomatic cable.

Most telling was the Sky News interview with the head of Porton Down. Interviewer Paul Kelso repeatedly pressed Aitkenhead directly on whether the novichok could have come from Porton Down. Aitkenhead replies “There is no way, anything like that could…leave these four walls. We deal with a number of toxic substances in the work that we do, we’ve got the highest levels of security and controls”. Asked again twice, he each times says the security is so tight “the substance” could not have come from Porton Down. What Aitkenhead does NOT say is “of course it could not have come from here, we have never made it”. Indeed Aitkenhead’s repeated assertion that the security would never have let it out, is tantamount to an admission Porton Down does produce novichok.

If somebody asked you whether the lion that savaged somebody came from your garden, would you reply “Don’t be stupid, I don’t have a lion in my garden” or would you say, repeatedly, “Of course not, I have a very strong lion cage?”. Here you can see Mr Aitkenhead explain repeatedly he has a big lion cage, from 2’25” in.

So the question of where the nerve agent was made remains unresolved. The MSM has continually attempted to lie about this and affirm that all novichok is Russian made. The worst of corporate and state journalism in the UK was exposed when they took the OPCW’s report that it confirmed the findings of Porton Down and presented that as confirming the Johnson/May assertion that it was Russia, whereas the findings of Porton Down were actually – as the Aitkenhead interview stated categorically – that they could not say where it was made.

The other relatively new development is the knowledge that Skripal had not retired but was active for MI6 on gigs briefing overseas intelligence agencies about Russia. This did not increase his threat to Russia, as he told everything he knows a decade ago. But it could provide an element of annoyance that would indeed increase Russian official desire to punish him further.

But the fact he was still very much active has a far greater significance. The government slapped a D(SMA) notice on the identity of Pablo Miller, Skripal’s former MI6 handler who lives close by in Salisbury and who worked for Christopher Steele’s Orbis Intelligence at the time that Orbis produced the extremely unreliable dossier on Trump/Russia. The fact that Skripal had not retired but was still briefing on Russia, to me raises to a near certainty the likelihood that Skripal worked with Miller on the Trump dossier.

I have to say that, as a former Ambassador in the former Soviet Union trained in intelligence analysis and familiar with MI6 intelligence out of Moscow, I agree with every word of this professional dissection of the Orbis Trump dossier by Paul Roderick Gregory, irrespective of Gregory’s politics. In particular this paragraph, which Gregory wrote more than a year before the Salisbury attack, certainly applies to much of the dossier.

I have picked out just a few excerpts from the Orbis report. It was written, in my opinion, not by an ex British intelligence officer but by a Russian trained in the KGB tradition. It is full of names, dates, meetings, quarrels, and events that are hearsay (one an overheard conversation). It is a collection of “this important person” said this to “another important person.” There is no record; no informant is identified by name or by more than a generic title. The report appears to fail the veracity test in the one instance of a purported meeting in which names, dates, and location are provided. Some of the stories are so bizarre (the Rosneft bribe) that they fail the laugh test. Yet, there appears to be a desire on the part of some media and Trump opponents on both sides of the aisle to picture the Orbis report as genuine but unverifiable.

The Russian ex-intelligence officer who we know was in extremely close contact with Orbis at the time the report was written, was Sergei Skripal.

The Orbis report is mince. Skripal knew it was mince and how it was written. Skripal has a history of selling secrets to the highest bidder. The Trump camp has a lot of money. My opinion is that as the Mueller investigation stutters towards ignominious failure, Skripal became a loose end that Orbis/MI6/CIA/Clinton (take your pick) wanted tied off. That seems to me at least as likely as a Russian state assassination. To say Russia is the only possible suspect is nonsense.

The Incompetence Factor

The contradiction between the claim that the nerve agent was so pure it could only be manufactured by a state agent, and yet that it failed because it was administered in an amateur and incompetent fashion, does not bother the mainstream media. Boris Johnson claimed that the UK had evidence that Russia had a ten year programme of stockpiling secret novichok and he had a copy of a Russian assassination manual specifying administration by doorknob. Yet we are asked to believe that the Russians failed to notice that administration by doorknob does not actually work, especially in the rain. How two people both touched the doorknob in closing the door is also unexplained, as is how one policeman became poisoned by the doorknob but numerous others did not.

The explanations by establishment stooges of how this “ten times more powerful than VX” nerve agent only works very slowly, but then very quickly, if it touches the skin, and still does not actually kill you, have struck me as simply desperate. They make May’s ringing claims of a weapon of mass destruction being used on British soil appear somewhat unjustified. Weapon of Upset Tummy does not sound quite so exciting.

To paint a doorknob with something that if it touches you can kill you requires great care and much protective gear. That no strangely dressed individual has been identified by the investigation – which seems to be getting nowhere in identifying the culprit – is the key fact here. None of us know who did this. The finger-pointing at Russia by corporate and state interests seeking to stoke the Cold War is disgusting.

———————————————

This blog now accepts subscriptions to keep it going via the button top right. A number of people have contacted me saying they would prefer to make a one off donation, often stating their finances are too shaky to commit to a subscription. I am extremely grateful for the thought, but I would genuinely much prefer that nobody gives any money if it causes them any difficulty at all, now or potentially. The minimum subscription is £2 a month. The blog will continue to be free to read, and free for anybody to copy and use/republish the articles without payment.


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>

1,465 thoughts on “Yulia Skripal and the Salisbury WUT

1 2 3 4 5 13
  • Anthony

    With outrage over Salisbury wearing thin, one wonders what fresh f/f has been lined up to damn Russia during the World Cup. It seems highly unikely Russia will be permitted to project a positive image of itself around the world every day for a month unhindered. A big summer surprise is needed by the liberals/ neocons to refresh the hate.

      • Charles Bostock

        Yes indeed. The question is. however, who might be the authors of any such provocations.

        • flatulence

          CIA baby. Although they are probably someone’s bitch just like the rest of us.

          • Charles Bostock

            There was that blowing up of a hotel in Moscow a few years ago which was blamed on the Chechens and which was used to justify a Russian crackdown in Chechnya. Many suspect the real authors were the Russian KBG (whatever name it goes under now). But perhaps the Russian KGB is the CIA’s bitch, who knows?

          • flatulence

            You could be on to something there. I think they are called the kgeebeegees nowadays though and there is only one left and his name is Barry. To be honest, I just can’t see Barry doing something like that.

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Sharp Ears May 24, 2018 at 15:35
      Pretty sure it was the Ukraine Air Force.
      And don’t forget MH370; Rolls Royce know exactly where the plane was hijacked to via it’s engine monitoring system, which cannot be switched off by a flight crew); and how come Boeing didn’t take over the plane and land it remotely, if it was hijacked (Boeing Honeywell ‘Uninterruptible’ Autopilot System) once known it was ‘hijacked’?
      Well, it seems obvious to me, they (or US ‘Security Services’) did indeed take it over, and landed it at Diego Garcia.
      Lives mean nothing to these psychopathic sociopathic Luciferians.

      • Leonard Young

        Paul: I get that you are an enthusiast for many things that stink, and some of them are indeed highly likely to be suspicious, but unless you are an aviation expert, which I assume you are not, you really should not be posting things that are wild guesses about Rolls Royce monitoring systems and Honeywell autopilots. By all means be suspicious, but please don’t make ridiculous statements that RR engine sensors can identify precise GPS locations or that Honeywell equipment on aircraft has some kind of imposed autopilot that over-rides everything. This is utter nonsense. I agree that MH370 is open to question, but you RUIN any argument by making wild statements that are simply not true. Please research your facts about technology before posting wild guesses.

        • Basil Fawlty

          Hey Leonard, how about YOU provide some facts to refute his comments, rather than this weak ‘appeal to authority’ stuff?

        • The ghost of Stolypin

          [ MOD: Caught in spam-filter ]

          The replacement of mechanical control gear in aircraft cannot be disputed, Fly By Wire (FBW) has been available on the commercial Airbus platform for over 25 years now (see https://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/jets/fly-by-wire-fact-versus-science-fiction and https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/21690/what-is-fly-by-wire). The military have been experimenting with this technology since the 1950’s at least, some would argue long before then. There is also the evidence of modern drones.

          NASA also demonstrated this technology during the development of the prototype space shuttle in the ’80s. There was a short piece on this in a documentary on either the Discovery of History channel. They were unequivocal on the fact that the shuttle was landed effectively by remote control.

          While it would be possible to compromise a mechanical system by remote control, a computer based system is much easier to control, all you need do is isolate the flight deck and transmit the relevant signals to the aircraft.

          Which begs the question why did a major European carrier strip out certain components in their flagship fleet at substantial cost to the airline when they discovered certain “security” issues a few decades ago? This piece of knowledge was widely known at the time, but kept very quiet as the industry is paranoid about reputation. The answer to this question lies above.

      • Hagar

        Yep, you got it mate, 370 remarked as 17, add a few passports to be found and hallelujah….a stitch up

      • Antonyl

        The timing of this MH17 video check result is to disrupt the football world cup in Russia as punishment. The EU will show solidarity with this Dutch government. Ukraine goes scot free as innocent lambs.

      • Basil Fawlty

        I seem to remember there was an account about one of the relatives of a passenger receiving a call from him after it had landed somewhere?

  • Paul Barbara

    The most glaring fault with the video is Yulia’s not even mentioning her grandmother and her request to speak to Sergei.
    And Yulia herself would want to speak to her grandmother, whom she looks after.
    This is the gaping flaw in the UK ‘narrative’. She cannot be allowed to speak freely, and to communicate directly with her Russian family, or she would do so.
    The idea that the UK and it’s crony partners in crime, the US, France, other NATO Regimes, Saudis, Gulf Regimes would try to frame Russia, though obviously true, is dismissed out of hand by May & Co., and the supine MSM.
    But the historical record says the opposite: ‘Operation Gladio’, where European countries’ ‘Stay Behind’ groups, set up by the CIA, committed atrocities against their own citizens and blamed Left-wing groups; ‘Operation Hades’, where the German BND tried to frame Russia for plutonium ‘found’ on an Aeroflot plane passenger in Germany; Iraqi ‘WMD’; Qaddafi ‘preparing to slaughter his own people’ (US-organised influx of Jihadis making war against the Libyan government); Assad, similar, except the UK was much more involved with the influx of headchoppers ( ‘Roland Dumas: The British prepared for war in Syria 2 years before the eruption of the crisis’:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeyRwFHR8WY ); MH17: and probably the spate of Russian deaths in UK as well.
    Largely British operation the ‘White Helmets’ using CW’s and hoaxes to ‘frame’ Assad and Putin. Selous Scouts.
    Just as they frame Muslims for attacks and hoaxes to demonise them. Talk about Islamophobia, what better way to stoke it than committing atrocities and hoax atrocities against one’s own people, just as was done in ‘Operation Gladio’?
    And, of course, the ‘Dirty War’ in Northern Ireland, which also spread to the UK, with attacks blamed on the IRA but with no evidence (people jailed for years, in 4 or 5 high-profile cases, yet later released because the trials had been rigged and based on false testimony or mistreatment).
    So is there a distinct chance that the UK ‘Security Srvices’, government and MSM would try to frame Russia? Bloody well right there is.

    • Charles Bostock

      It’s all a frame (up), Barbara, glad you get the ‘picture’ 🙂

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Charles Bostock May 24, 2018 at 15:46
        As a long-time ‘Truther’, that was my immediate reaction.
        But I have also campaigned on Human Rights since the early 1970’s (‘Bloody Sunday’ started it off), so I have no illusions about the depths of depravity of the West (and indeed the East, at least in Soviet Union and Maoist China – indeed, China still, regarding their treatment of the Falun Gong and Tibet).

    • Moocho

      Not forgetting leading 9/11 hijacker mohammed atta’s supposed meeting in prague where he (never) obtained the anthrax spores which were then posted to opponents of the patriot act pre the iraq invasion which was actuall used as the official excuse to invade iraq. this argument fell flat on its back end when it transpired the anthrax came out of fort dietrich, a us chem weapons lab. an innocent man was blamed. oh sorry brits are above 9/11 and never mention it because they have gone around for years, noses high in the air, mocking disbelievers of the state fairytale, stating how the us could never do such a thing and now refuse to eat humble pie and admit fault, foaming at the mouth in the process. total denial cognitive dissonance spectacular, brainwashed nation. here is some quality 9/11 research, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuOsiMVlMBw

    • Tatyana

      an amendment, Paul Barbara, Yulia doesn’t look after her Granny. Yulia lives in Moscow together with her boyfriend. Her Granny lives in Yaroslavl together with Victoria’s family.

  • Paul Barbara

    ‘Trump cancels meeting with North Korea, citing ‘tremendous anger and open hostility’:
    https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/24/trump-cancels-singapore-summit-meeting-north-koreas-kim-jong-un/640268002/

    ‘…But Trump moved up the timetable after North Korea reacted sharply to comments made by Vice President Pence that Kim would “end like the Libyan model” if he didn’t give up his nuclear weapons. Libyan dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi gave up his nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief in 2003 — and was beaten and killed by rebels eight years later.

    Calling Pence’s remarks “ignorant” and “stupid,” the Kim regime threatened to back out of the talks….’

    No wonder Kim reacted against VP Pence. Who wouldn’t?

    • Charles Bostock

      Yes, Ghaddafi – corrupt tyrant, executioner, supplier of terrorists, nepotist and persecutor of Bulgarian nurses – got what was coming to him. Caught cowering in a hole in the ground, like Saddam Hussein, and summarily dispatched, a sad come-down from the time when he strutted his stuff on the Libyan scene.

      • Anthony

        A sad comedown for Libya, from being Africa’s richest state to a failed state after NATO’s ‘intervention’.

        • Paul Barbara

          @ Anthony May 24, 2018 at 15:55
          Absolutely. Qaddafi had been a monster, but was certainly mellowing, and helping not only Libyans but also other African states to get out of the Bankster’s clutches with his ‘Gold Dinar’. That was almost certainly what sealed his fate.

          • Charles Bostock

            The ‘gold dinar’ would only get a country ‘out of the banksters’ clutches’ if that country had a lot of gold reserves. Did these ‘other African states’ you refer to have large gold reserves. Or maybe Ghaddafi was planning to share out Libya’s gold reserves?

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Charles Bostock May 24, 2018 at 16:20
            He was planning, and I believe he had started, giving loans to these other countries on very favourable terms.
            When young Libyan people got married, they were supplied with a free flat; their was free medical care, and free education (with a very small fee for University Education, I believe about £50).
            As for ‘cobbled together’, which ex-colony wasn’t ‘cobbled together?
            ‘..Perhaps their breakup might be a good thing in the long run – corresponding more to the natural order of things, so to speak.
            And the same thing could work in reverse, of course ; this is why the creation by non violent means of a Kurdish state should be supported.’
            So you believe, ‘so to speak’, that Afghanistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Libya was a good thing?
            No need to theorise – the evidence is there to see. And the Kurds did not try to break up Syria, till the US persuaded them; their proxy Jihadi headchoppers idea had obviously failed, though it had caused 100,000’s of deaths and huge infrastructure damage, as well as hordes of displaced and refugees, courtesy of the West, Turkey, Jordan, Is*ael and their Suadi and Gulf cronies.
            Occupying large swathes of Syria and handing it to the Kurds is not the creation of a Kurdish State by peaceful means,
            any more than was the ‘creation’ of Is*ael.

        • Charles Bostock

          Libya was always a bit of a state cobbled together out of three parts having little in common, as any specialist in North African affairs will tell you. Bit like Yugoslavia, actually. All these cobbled together states are inherently unstable creations, usually needing an unpleasant ‘strong man’ to hold them together (and usually by means we would not tolerate in the West). Perhaps their breakup might be a good thing in the long run – corresponding more to the natural order of things, so to speak,

          And the same thing could work in reverse, of course ; this is why the creation by non violent means of a Kurdish state should be supported

          • Hatuey

            So can we tear the UK apart? That sounds useful. Talk about cobbled together…

            Let’s be honest, all that’s holding the UK together is a few frightened pensioners and a handful of Stockholm syndrome sufferers in Scotland.

            The lies only work if people listen to them.

            Tick tick tick tock…

          • ohmygowd

            Yugoslavia was pretty stable until foreign powers started meddling in her internal affairs.

          • Charles Bostock

            Yes of course, Yugoslavia was fine until the Western powers started meddling. Nothing to do with it having been cobbled together around Serbia after the disappearance of the Ottoman and Austrian-Hungarian empires, eh. And nothing to do, of course, with the post-Tito era and the appearance of the neo-fascist Boss Man of Belgrade Mr Slobodan.

          • Charles Bostock

            Not wide generalisations, just facts. I believe Yugoslavia started off, in post-WW1 days, as the ‘KIngdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes’. Sounds like something cobbled together, dosn’t it, almost as bad as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” (I thought I’d get that one in before someone else did, ooooh I’m such a spoilsport)

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Charles Bostock May 24, 2018 at 15:51
        ‘Yes, Ghaddafi – corrupt tyrant, executioner, supplier of terrorists, nepotist and persecutor of Bulgarian nurses – got what was coming to him….’
        Apart from the Bulgarian nurses, the same can be said about the Bushes, Trump, Bliar, Cameron, May, Micron, Suadi Kings and Princes, Gulf Regimes etc.
        But they seem to escape their fate (but it still awaits them, in the afterlife – God never fails).

        • lysias

          Anyone who thinks Ghaddafi or anybody else deserved the horrible way in which Ghaddafi died is a barbarian.

          • Charles Bostock

            Yes, perhaps they should just have knee-capped him a la IRA. Or have him torn apart by a savage mob like those two British army blokes observing an IRA funeral. I don’t believe IRA supporters should be giving lectures on barbarity, do you?

          • Dave Price

            What an extraordinary rejoinder, Charles.

            Either a moronic non-sequitur, or a plea of ‘guilty as charged, and I wish these further vividly-imagined cruelties to be taken into account’.

          • Northern Sole

            “Or have him torn apart by a savage mob like those two British army blokes observing an IRA funeral.” Yet another gross exaggeration from Mr Beefstock. The torn apart bit is a fabrication, obviously designed to ramp up the horror of the murder of the corporals.
            I attempt not to defend the murder of those two sad unfortunates (victims of the Brutish state, of course). However, to compare being shot dead to being buggered with a bayonet is far from an accurate comparison.

          • Sharp Ears

            Alistair Burt, FCO minion, recommended the same death for President Assad. Burt has never got over his annoyance that the vote today bomb Syria went against the Tories.

            Alistair Burt reveals anger over Syria vote at Westminster | Politics | …
            https://www.theguardian.com › a…
            30 Dec 2013 · Burt, who was the minister overseeing Syria policy for three years, said the rules on the power of … is if they fear they are going to end up in a storm drain with a bayonet up their backside.

          • Charles Bostock

            I’d call that a prediction rather than a recommendation, Sharpie. But, you know, Middle Eastern tyrants have often met an unpleasant end when overthrown. By contrast, the leaders of Israel have always left office peacefully, able to enjoy a well-earned retirement in their old age. But that’s probably because Israel is a democracy with real elections and no coups d’etat.

      • D_Majestic

        Anything you write appears to adhere to some sort of script. As noted now. And then.

      • Republicofscotland

        You missed out business acquaintance to one time the British government. Oh but that was before they decided to raze Libya to the ground and kill a less compliant Gaddafi.

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8449111/Libya-Tony-Blair-defends-deal-in-the-desert-with-Colonel-Gaddafi.html

        As for Saddam, who was funded by the West to keep the war with Iran on the boil, he too had to go, once we had no use for him.

        You really are full of sanctimonious shit.

        • Charles Bostock

          “Yes, Ghaddafi – corrupt tyrant, executioner, supplier of terrorists, nepotist and persecutor of Bulgarian nurses..”

          which bits of the above description are untrue, RoS (in your opinion)?

      • John A

        Ghadafi was not ‘summarily despatched’, he was repeatedly sodomised with a bayonet. Maybe not the same fate as Edward II perhaps, but not as you idiotically claim.

      • Mishko

        So Coudenhove-Kalergi promotes the Pan-European cause and gets lauded by the Vatican with the Charlemagne Prize.
        Moammar Ghadaffi promotes the Pan-African cause and gets bombed and sodomized to death.
        This is what it sounds like… when the jackals howl.

  • Sharp Ears

    The Medialens editors write today about Israel’s so called ‘clashes’ and ‘skirmishes’ andf how the mainstream media reports the continuous attacks.

    ‘“Skirmishes”: Israel’s Syria Blitz
    May 24th, 2018
    A key ‘mainstream’ media theme in covering the Israeli army’s repeated massacres of unarmed, non-violent Palestinian civilians protesting Israel’s military occupation in Gaza – killing journalists, a paramedic, the elderly and children – has been the description of these crimes as ‘clashes’.

    This has been a clear attempt to obfuscate the fact that while two groups of people are involved, only one group is being killed and wounded.

    To the casual reader – and many readers do not venture beyond the headlines – a ‘clash’ suggests that both sides are armed, with both suffering casualties. One would not, for example, describe a firing squad as a ‘clash’. There was no ‘clash’ in New York on September 11, 2001, and so on.

    Following Israel’s massive blitz on more than 100 targets in Syria on May 10, ‘mainstream’ coverage offered similarly questionable frameworks of understanding. A Guardian headline read: ;Israel retaliates after Iran “fires 20 rockets” at army in occupied Golan Heights (Our emphasis)’

    For moral, legal and public relations reasons, the issue of which side started a conflict is obviously crucial. If the public recognises that the case for war is unjustified, immoral or illegal – that a country has chosen to launch a war of aggression – they will likely oppose it, sometimes in the millions, as happened in 2002 and 2003 in relation to the Iraq war. It is thus highly significant that the Guardian described Israel as retaliating.

    /..
    https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/05/skirmishes-israels-syria-blitz/

  • Sharp Ears

    Paul Barbara I very much admire your ‘take’ on world events in the C21 and your knowledge and insight. You are certainly well informed. That cannot be said of some on here ; ) if you get my drift!

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Sharp Ears May 24, 2018 at 16:17
      Cheers, Sharp Ears. I guess Bostik does what it says on the tin!

    • Ingwe

      You really don’t have anything to add do you Charles? A rhetorical question because life’s too short to read any reply.
      Trying to bore people into seeing your right wing view of the world. Only your vanity permits you to think that anyone is bothered to strike you with any sort of blow, mighty, deadly or other.

      • Ingwe

        Yes. Leads to increased parasympathetic (vagal) activity and reduction of sympathetic drive with the result I fall asleep.
        Please try harder to be relevant and interesting.

      • Charles Bostock

        Ingwe

        I wouldn’t like to bore you into sleep, you need to stay fully alert to root out any sign of deviation from the message and to expose within the hour any new dastardly conspiracies launched by the evil Tories and the Western security services against the general public. You also need to stay wide awake to continue to make scintillating and insightful comments on various blogs.

        Hence I suggest you just scroll part any of my comments.

        You know it makes sense!

  • Republicofscotland

    I mean c’mon, can we actually now (after the Skirpal fiasco) believe a word this British government says? I think not their credibility (if they ever had any) is now shot to bits.

    • lysias

      I think a lot of the reason for the increasingly desperate actions of the powers that be is that they realize fewer and fewer people believe them.

        • Charles Bostock

          Thank you for your empathy, SA. But you should save it for more deserving cases, eg those who thunder away while knowing pertinently that their views remain entirely unheeded – and indeed unlistened to – in the real world. But don’t let me discourage you…..

      • Paul Barbara

        @ lysias May 24, 2018 at 16:36
        But although many, we are the few; most people do believe them, re ‘Russian’ or ‘Muslim’ False Flag attacks or hoaxes, and Assad’s alleged ‘CW’ attacks. They don’t care that more and more people are catching on to their lies, because the masses will believe whatever the MSM and Regime tell them.
        If it begins to get too close in believers and Truthers, than a massive ‘False Flag’ paves the way to Martial Law; it may well be an arranged financial collapse, blamed on anyone but the Banksters.

        • lysias

          In 1785, say, I think disenchantment with the ancient regime in France was limited to the intelligentsia and a relatively small bourgeoisie. Shortly thereafter, a fiscal crisis and a famine drastically changed that situation. A similar comment could be made about Russia in 1914.

          • Iain Stewart

            Lysias says, “In 1785, say, I think disenchantment with the ancient regime in France was limited to the intelligentsia and a relatively small bourgeoisie”
            Amazing. You think everyone else was still enchanted.

      • JOML

        Yes, Charlie, and that’s why you spend so much time here, putting everyone right! ?

  • Hatuey

    The fact that Sergei Skripal was/is still active in the intelligence industry, on behalf of the UK, means we simply cannot rule out (or rule in) a thing. This is a guy whose life could be defined in terms of his hostile relationship with Russia; take that out of his biography and you are left with zilch.

    The whole story strikes me as a ruse. It served a purpose in terms of further blackening Russia in the eyes of the British public and others, priming them for an attack on Syria and possible conflict with Russia, something I fully expect to escalate further, but false flag operations when you look at them in the light of day don’t really start wars; they merely provide a pretext for something that was going to happen anyway.

    The world is run by sociopaths. The UK is run by sociopaths. Throw in a few billion quid of incentives and these people will do and say anything. All is lost.

    • Republicofscotland

      “The UK is run by sociopaths. ”

      Now you’re giving sociopaths a bad name, it takes a special kind of neferious politician, far worse than any sociopath to dream up the Rape Clause or to rob hard working all their lives women of their pensions (WASPI women).

      The Tory government are those people.

      This kind of unacceptable behaviour from a British government, is only eclipsed by their disgraceful attitude towards non-Brits, the Windrush scandal is a prime example, as to why the British government can never be trusted again.

    • Jo

      And of course earlier there were “reports” that Skripal had been actually been feeling homesick and had either approached..or was..or rhinking about…going back to Russia …so makes it even more strange if he had been buzzing about a bit….

  • Riskpal

    It has to be said, Julia is looking ever so beautiful after her Novichalk therapy. Unintended consequence surely.

    At any rate, one is empathetic to what they have been through, even though spies playing both sides surely must know the risks involved. One has no idea who is truly behind that the whole episode, although I’m sure Skripal himself must have a pretty good hunch based on his (double) dealings. Some connection to the Steele dossier is tempting to believe in the context of Spy vs Spy activity and would make a nice twist to a political story. Trump may well be battling The Deep State, but say what you will Putin is The Deep State personified.

    • Antonyl

      This Novichok as a new Botox then. No reason to expel dozens of embassy staff; embarrassing.

  • Jiusito

    Craig, I am stilll puzzled by the fact that the Reuters report quotes Yulia as saying “I woke to the news that we had both been poisoned,” but the subtitle in the video says “I woke to the news that we may have been poisoned”. I am even more puzzled by the fact that you don’t mention it. What is the correct translation of what she said? And how could the much less categorical version have come to be published?

    • Tatyana

      @Jiusito
      Yulia’s prase in russian is:
      “Очнувшись после 20-ти дневной комы, я узнала, что мы оба были отравлены”
      the translation is
      “On waking up after 20-days long coma, I learned we both were poisoned”
      she uses the word “узнала” and it is similar to “discover” “find out” “hear”. Yulia’s sentence has no hints on any probability, she simply says a chain of facts – I was in coma for 20 days, then I woke up, and then I discovered we both were poisoned.
      In Russian language we have no verbial grammar tenses for probability, we add words like “perhaps”, “likely” directly into sentence. There is no such a word in her text.

        • Tatyana

          yes, if you believe it is true. The verb only states the fact, that some knowlege was obtained.
          —-
          The word “uznala” consists of:
          prefix ‘u’ – its meaning is ‘perfect form’,
          root ‘zna’ – ‘to know’
          suffix ‘l’ – ‘past tense’
          ending ‘a’ – ‘female’
          ‘a female obtained some knowlege’ – that is meaning of ‘uznala’.

          • Tatyana

            And Yulia may recall she felt sick, perhaps vomiting, before she collapsed at the bench. Why should she doubt about poisoning?

          • lysias

            In English, you can’t say that somebody knows something if you in fact know or believe that that something is false. You can only say that he or she believes it. Is Russian znat’ different?

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Tatyana May 24, 2018 at 17:53
            Gained some knowledge? Maybe she’s a witch, which could explain why the broom cupboard is clesly guarded by the SAS, or she’d be off like a shot!

          • Tatyana

            @lysias
            yes, in russian it is different. ‘Znat’ has the most general meaning of all possible synonims. ‘Znat’ states just a fact that some information is now known to a person.
            She could use ‘я выяснила’ – as if she made some effort to know. Or ‘мне сказали’ – as if she was told by someone. Or ‘возможно, нас отравили’ – ‘perhaps we were poisoned’. Nothing of it, no modality in her sentence, no personal position, and this is throughout the whole statement.

          • Tatyana

            I found only 1 moment in her video statement where she speaks like a live person, not a robot
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiLL1kgya_4 at 01:11
            ‘Я стараюсь жить сегодняшним днем и хочу помочь моему отцу до его полного выздоровления.’

            I don’t know correct English idioma equivalent to russian ‘I try to live today’s day???’
            its meaning is – no plans for future, living today from morning till night is already good enough for me.

            It is the only one place in her statement where she changes her tone elongating the vowel as if thinking at the same time, and doesn’t look at the prompter while pronouncing this phrase. Except this phrase all the rest looks like rehearsed and unnatural.

          • lysias

            I’ll try to translate: “I try to live one day at a time, and I want to help my father until his complete recovery.”

          • Tatyana

            Yulia’s statement has monotonous pattern with the same tone structure in every phrase.
            I closed my eyes and listened to it. ‘ta ta ta ta.. uugh’, ‘ta ta ta ta ta… uugh’ and 22 uniformly toned phrases (except the 13th a bit different tone).
            We construct phrases with a ‘theme’ and a ‘core’ (тема и рема). ‘Theme’ is giving us circumstances and the ‘core’ says what is the main idea of the phrase.
            Then I wrote down the end of every phrase, the cores, the parts with ‘uuugh’ tone.

            …as before…were poisoned…similar attack…this situation…attempted murder…very painful…deeply supressive…very close…day of the attack…up to this day…emotional – *thiiiis daaay* – full recovery…my country…several questions…my father…to understand everything what has happened…to use it…none except we ourselves…my life…my father…attention

            —-
            I don’t want to feed conspiracy theories. I don’t know if Yulia intentionally constructed her phrases in this manner, or someone constructed them so to bring more sinister impression.
            Just a sort of linguistic research.

          • bj

            @lysias
            I know that colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

            There, I just said it, 1. I uttered the words, and 2. I claim the thing after ‘that’ is anything but a ‘true’ statement

      • Jiusito

        Thank you, Tatyana. That then leaves the question of who rendered it in the subtitle in the video as “we may have been poisoned”, and why. It’s the very
        opposite to what Alastair Campbell did with the JIC’s so-called September dossier, when he had its wording “tightened”.

  • Jo Smith

    And the latest lies from Boris Johnson’s claims on his phone call with the “President of Armenia”. Combine that with his worshipping of Churchill and we have a man capable of kicking off major conflict for his war-time prime minister fantasies.

  • Tom Welsh

    If Yulia was unconscious in a coma for the first 20 days, how did she experience the painful and invasive treatment?

    I only ask because I want to know.

    • Laguerre

      “how did she experience the painful and invasive treatment?”

      She had more after she woke up? The tracheotomy can’t have been very nice, and takes a long time to heal.

  • GoAwayAndShutUp

    These are, precisely, the moments (Yulia/DPRK/MH17) when it is convenient to remember Karl Rove’s, that illustrious thinker, wise words:

    —————————————–
    The aide (Karl Rove — Ed.) said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/faith-certainty-and-the-presidency-of-george-w-bush.html

    Also analyzed here:

    https://www.globalresearch.ca/karl-roves-prophecy-were-an-empire-now-and-when-we-act-we-create-our-own-reality/5572533
    —————————————–

    That model have some cracks now (EU’s Iran Deal “revolt”, alternative media, RT, etc.) but is alive and kicking.

    It is good to discuss all these events, one after another, trying to find the truth but, from time to time, a much broader analysis is required. If not, we, the self-declared non-sheep, will end up walking only the sheepish route TPTB are always throwing at us.

    World Cup is coming. Are we going to see a war in the Donbas? Did the MH17 report really required 4 years to come to THAT conclusion? Or is it just a desperate move to malign, even further, EU-Russia relations?. There is no way for the EU to defy the USA on Iran if not with the help of China and Russia. Not by coincidence Macron in Russia and Merkel in China, now. MSM is probably going to ask both to pronounce about Russia’s culpability.

    What do you think this latest Dog and Pony Show is about?

    • begob

      Joshka Fischer had a good interview in Der Spiegel yesterday: Germany has to start investing in Europe, or Europe is dead. Trump messing up the Iran deal is going to deliver a disastrous war, and Germany must defend itself from Russia.

    • jazza

      yes, agree – this latest video release is merely a large steak thrown to the marauding lions to keep them occupied for a while longer – Ukraine has included in its sanctions on Russia (with Washington assistance, of course) the removal of all Russian websites in the country get that/ Ukraine sanctioning Russia?? israel is still killing Palestinians – May still thinks she’s the queen as all MPs rush off for another week’s holiday (proving they are getting paid for doing nothing!) and Macron is visiting the Russian Economic conference with Putin- war is being generated and this is all part of the plan – the UK leading the way with usa backing – it’s not going to end well and what exactly is the uk government doing- obviously not the will of the people – dictatorship is here – government by cabal, NGOs and wealthy business friends – democracy is dead

    • Vivian O'Blivion

      And John Bolton is cut from the same cloth as Karl Rove.

      https://consortiumnews.com/2018/05/23/bolton-trying-to-convince-trump-to-topple-iran/

      These really smart think tank guys sit behind their desks and delude themselves.
      Reality is Russia struggled in Afghanistan and Chechnya. America struggled in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Iran is a whole order of magnitude tougher than those victims.
      Regime change requires boots on the ground. Bolton harbours delusions about Mojahedin-eKhalq. His happy band of desk warriors think they can exploit ethnic divisions. The tragedy is that hundreds of thousands of innocents will die proving them to be fools.

    • bj

      I know that The Netherlands is one of the staunched allies of the US — even in spite of the The Hague Invasion Act.

  • Anon

    It appears the skripals handlers forgot the 89y grandma needed caring just like the cat and two guinea pigs, tsk tsk, two elementary errors my dear Watson. And Yulia was not kind enough to remind them not to forget to include a message to her grandma in the Russian, to lend more credence to the charade. Can we expect another Yulia appearance to right matters soon?

  • Gary Weglarz

    An excellent analysis of what appears to be yet another facet of the combined “Trump dossier/demonizeRussia” intelligence operation that has made both U.S. & U.K. government officials and their MSM mouthpieces look like the absolute bumbling clowns that they are.

  • Sebastian

    Stoking the cold war is the name of the game. Politicians gotta polarise to have any traction !
    When will we hear the cockpit voice recordings from MH17, I wonder. Or the control tower recordings, taken into official custody within minutes of the crash ? Because without those, the more they bluster and bloviate ( whats the matter with this spell checker ?) the stronger they’ll convince me that its all part of the same “Russia did it” head fake. Which seems to be an originally transatlantic narrative, in some trouble on home ground recently.
    Wide spread incredulity at the wild inconsistencies of the Skripal story line can only undermine the authority of the conclusions of the specially constituted (excluding the Malaysians, for instance) Dutch enquiry.
    How many Hillsborough enquiries did it take ? And all that was at stake there was a few policemen’s reputation.

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Sebastian May 24, 2018 at 18:20
      ‘CONFLICT IN EASTERN UKRAINE CAN SOON TURN INTO OPEN WAR’:
      https://southfront.org/conflict-in-eastern-ukraine-can-soon-turn-into-open-war/

      ‘…On May 21, pro-Kiev troops, backed up by artillery and machine guns fire, stormed positions of DPR forces at the settlement of Golmovskiy, north of Gorlovka. They failed to overrun the DPR defense but killed at least 1 DPR fighter and captured 3 others. At least 10 Kiev soldiers were killed and 4 others were injured, according to the DPR side.

      On May 22, a group of Kiev troops, backed up by battle tanks and BMP armoured vehicles, advanced on the settlement of Chigary, northwest of Gorlkova. Firefights also erupted in the settlement of Zaitsevo and in the area of Southern Mine. According to reports, at least 2 pro-Kiev fighters were killed and 4 others were wounded in these clashes.

      On May 23, sporadic clashes in Zaitsevo continued.

      Since the start of the week, artillery units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces increased strikes on Gorlovka and the nearby settlements. The shelling resulted in casualties among civilian population and destruction of buildings in the residential areas.

      According to statements by Ukrainian officials and public figures, pro-Kiev forces are pursuing the following goals:

      To establish control over key heights near Gorlovka;
      Using the control over the key heights, to isolate the city and to force DPR troops to withdraw from it;
      To use the captured area as a foothold for further operations against the DPR in the areas of Enakievo and Debaltsevo….’

      The Luciferians in the US stirring things up in order to make more human sacrifices to Moloch.
      Thenthere’s Trump calling off the North Korea talks, due to Kim’s reaction to Pence’s Mafia threats.

  • Sharp Ears

    Egg on Boris’s face? Nah!

    It was so funny hearing the state broadcaster’s diplomatic correspondent on tonight’s 6pm News defending him. According to him, Johnson did not make any gaffe when receiving the hoax call from the ‘President of Armenia’. L O L

    Boris Johnson targeted by Russia prank caller – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44239479

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Sharp Ears May 24, 2018 at 18:40
      Targeting Britain’s Foreign Secretary under false pretences? Surely a casus belli?
      By the way, what is ‘C21’?

    • Riskpal

      Very true. Boris was extremely well measured and came out of it so well that I think he set it up*. Boris is certainly no, to borrow a phrase, dummy politician–he is way way too seasoned and clever. I have met his younger brother Jo, who is also very clever though with a streak of unjustifiable arrogance. He, Boris is going to be around for a while. Suck it up!

      (*Clue: Boris speaks in terms of that it was he who placed the call; the suggestion is that he was the recipient. Did anybody else note that? It’s too boring and long for me to watch it a second time. The Russians definitely need to improve their sense of humour in the realm of prank calls. Also, how does RT manage to get away with such poor, indeed revolting, aesthetics in this day and age? It’s a disgrace to the left as a whole and the associated perceptions that only the right and the centre really understand the value of aesthetics.)

    • Sharp Ears

      Yes we need a laugh as the Tories grind most of us down and wreck what remains of the state.

      • Charles Bostock

        I agree – an occasional bit of levity is a welcome and refreshing change from a state of constant morosity. Medical men agree that a positive outlook – or at least not a permanently negative one – is essential for mental and physical well being. In that respect, Mr Murray sets an example which all of us would do well to emulate.

  • John Gilberts

    What I am wondering is why the Russian embassy seems curiously unwilling to mount a Habeus Corpus challenge in the British courts to produce the Skripals and enforce their consular access rights?

    • Harry Law

      John Gilberts. The Justice and Security Act 2013 Made ‘Secret courts’ a feature in UK civil cases including habeas corpus…
      I remember this going through parliament around 2013 but did not think too much about it at the time, maybe the Russian Consulate are aware of the pitfalls any writ would face.

      Closed Material Procedures (or “CMPs”) mean that one party is not able to take part in either part or the whole of a trial. This party will almost always be a civilian who is bringing a claim against a government agency. It could be a civilian who is the defendant in a case. The government and its lawyers are present during the CMP. The civilian and their lawyer

      cannot be present,
      cannot see the evidence the government is relying upon (and which is said to be national security sensitive information),
      cannot know the government’s case on this evidence,
      cannot challenge this evidence or the government’s case and
      cannot know the reasons for the judge’s decision on that evidence and therefore (at least a part of) their case.

      The civilian will be told whether they have won or lost, but not the full reasons why.

      The Act applies to “relevant civil proceedings”, which means any civil proceedings in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Court of Session or the Supreme Court[1]. This means that any civil case in any of these courts may be affected by this legislation if sensitive information is required to be disclosed in the course of the case. Sensitive material means material the disclosure of which would be damaging to national security.[2] The cases affected include the writ of habeas corpus and claims for damages for torture, kidnap, assault and negligence.

      https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/jo-shaw/secret-courts-8-nightmare-scenarios-now-possible-in-britain-0

      • Antonyl

        So the UK is approaching Russian or Chinese levels of total central control. HMG must have been envious of so much power.
        Now stop any preaching about liberty, freedom or justice!

  • Rich

    The late Tessa Jowells husband David mills was involved in selling Italian blood product from dubious sources to the Libyans. Like so many of his get rich schemes.

    Unfortunately the Bulgarian nurses took the hit.

  • Republicofscotland

    So MI6, who couldn’t find their own arses with both hands, are looking to recruit people from black and ethnic groups (probably to do their dirty work in Africa and the ME). Surprisingly MI6 are to recruit people through their first tv ad.

    “Agency’s chief, Alex Younger, said “We want, oxymoronically, people who never thought of joining MI6 – to join MI6.”

    Oxymoronically eh, which is described as:

    “A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist.”

    Maybe that’s why the security services can’t tell the difference between a deadly nerve agent and something a bit less life threatening.

    https://www.rt.com/uk/427690-mi6-spy-bame-mothers/

  • Neil

    The Skripals were poisoned but why believe that it was with novichok. It doesnt fit with the observed facts of the testimony of Emergency consultant Stephen Davies or the pAir making a full recovery. If traces of novichok were found that does not imply they were the cause of the skripals medical emergency which was initially assessed as fentanyl poisoning.

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Neil May 24, 2018 at 19:17
      Because May and Bojo say it was, and they are Right Honourable liars.

  • Paul Barbara

    ‘Israeli Energy Minister Blasts EU: Can ‘Go to a Thousand Thousand Hells’:
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israeli-minister-eu-can-go-to-a-thousand-thousand-hells-1.6112839

    I wonder how our MSM are going to handle this? Any other country saying such a thing, and it would be blasted across papers and TV for a fortnight. But then I don’t remember Victoria Nuland’s ‘Fuck the EU’ getting over-much publicity in the MSM.
    Bit like the USS Liberty attack.

    • Republicofscotland

      Paul.

      Well they would say that, now they’ve won the European (and everyone else) Song Contest. ?

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Republicofscotland May 24, 2018 at 20:42
        They ‘won’? I rather suspect it was shekels and blackmail that ‘won’. But then, ‘Exceptionals’ have a ‘Divine Right’ to ‘win’, surely?

    • Arioch

      You may check comments at Moon Of Alabama – there were some links.

      The “russian” letter was clearly authored by a person thinking in English

  • Mark Russell

    A very British farce indeed, with more than a dash of Pinter. It would be comical if the stakes were not of the utmost gravity. I suspect I am not alone wondering what the next Act will reveal; the pusillanimous politicians all cowed at feet of the inglorious manipulators whilst the masses distract themselves, gorging on the spoils of war – or will some sense of humanity prevail through the madness?

    What have we become?

    “Now, all the child says over and over again, is that his father was killed by an aeroplane”

    A Typhoon. Made in Warton, Lancashire. Piloted by Saudi airmen, trained and directed by the RAF and British military.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-44241443/yemen-war-wedding-party-that-turned-into-a-bloodbath

    Appreciate and admire all the protests about fracking and the selfless commitment from many who have opposed the developments of this polluting industry in Lancashire and Yorkshire, but where are the protests at BAE Systems – and why do people check in each morning with this company all over the UK, every day of the week? And others like them?

    There’s a sacrifice we must make. We have it in our gift to change things, before the momentum becomes irreversible. But only if we open our eyes and rediscover our purpose. Therein lies the crux.

  • Harry Law

    In my opinion the Police had to put out this piece on Yulia Skripal, I sent an e mail to the Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police on 15-05-18, Most of it here..
    I sent you an email on 7th of May 2018, in it I described how the detention of Ms Yulia Skripal breached her human rights, including article 5. “everyone has the right to liberty and security of person”, and article 8. “the right to respect for private and family life” of the 1998 Human Rights Act, UK. In your reply you referred to the two statements put out by the Metropolitan Police purporting to be from Ms Skripal. You refused to give a lawful reason why Ms Skripal was being detained.

    You are holding Ms Skripal in a secret location, and since she has not officially contacted family, friends, the Russian Embassy, an independent lawyer or the media, nor can any of the above contact her, this is regarded by the International Community as an enforced disappearance, the definition of which is described by the UN International Convention ‘For the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance’ thus….

    “The detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty committed by agents of the state or by persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the state, followed by the refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of law”.

    Because the above derives from the general prohibition on enforced disappearances they are part of customary International law and are binding on all states and are absolute and non derogable in their application.

    The Human rights committee have found that incommunicado detention of 15 day’s constitutes a violation of the above obligations, though shorter time periods may also be prohibited. Secret detention constitute an enforced disappearance where it persists for more than a week or two or otherwise contains indications that its purpose or effect is to place the individual outside the protection of the law. May I point out that Ms Skripal has been held by the police for over 10 weeks and incommunicado. The Psychological effect all this has on her and her family and friends could also amount to cruel and inhuman treatment as set out in various Human Rights documents.

    Unless you tell me on which specific Law of the UK you are holding/detaining, or of any other form of deprivation of liberty, and incommunicado Ms Skripal, and the proof that she is not being held against her will, the burden is on you, then I will have no other alternative than to assume you have no legal authority to hold her and will be forced to institute proceedings against you.
    To which I received this reply on 19-05-18.
    Thank you for your e-mail to the Commissioner’s Private Office. “If Ms Skripal consents to any assistance provided then she could not be considered to be being detained against her will.”
    Notice the ‘If Ms Skripal consents’ well has she or hasn’t she, consent not freely given or made under duress is not consent at all, the test for consent is if a reasonable person [in all the given circumstances] could conclude that consent was given.. I think not.

    • Charles Bostock

      You’re obviously dissatisfied with the answer you got – so have you started legal proceedings yet? If not, I’m going to have to speculate that you’re a blustering fool.

      • Harry Law

        Did you write a letter to the Chief Constable or are you a coward and a bad mannered one at that? The question of legal action against the Chief Constable was to go forward until this video of Yulia appeared, which proves she is at least alive, which is exactly what my e mails attempted to prove. something you obviously do not care about.

        • Charles Bostock

          So you evidently consider the Chief Constable’s reply satisfactory. Otherwise you would have initiated legal proceedings, right?

          • Skyblaze

            People often drop legal proceedings even if they are right.
            Why?
            Because often the time and energy outweigh the reward

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Charles Bostock May 24, 2018 at 20:40
        You’re certainly proving that you are! And a Right-wing nutter to boot!
        Good luck, Harry Law. Keep us updated.

    • Deb O'Nair

      Boris Johnson admitted that he does not know if the Skripals are even in the UK, so I doubt that the Met Police would also know where they are, and under what circumstance they are being held.

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Emily Tock May 24, 2018 at 20:08
      That’s another reason to believe she is under duress – no word of the dog (does she know about the cat and hampsters?) or of her grandmother, whom she looked after.
      Likelihood this is her way of communicating that she is not free to say what she wishes.

  • Yonatan

    More Russian comments of the Yulia Skripal video – this time in response to the video as issued by the UK BBC. So this is further confirmation that she has been told what to say by the UK.

    “This is English translated into Russian”

    https://z5h64q92x9.net/proxy_u/ru-en.en/https/colonelcassad.livejournal.com/4209787.html

    An image of the Russian text of a letter allegedly sent by Yiulia Skripal to Reuters.

    http://rusvesna.su/sites/default/files/styles/by_text/public/obrashchenie_yulii_skripal.jpg

1 2 3 4 5 13

Comments are closed.