Cynicism and Warmongering 515


The BBC plumbed the depths of hypocrisy in dressing up the final episode of the Salisbury Poisonings as a homage to Dawn Sturgess while systematically lying about the facts of her death, yet again to cover up the implausibility of the official narrative.

As I noted yesterday, the BBC drama appeared to show Charlie Rowley fishing the perfume bottle out of the charity bin at least two months ahead of when this really occurred, to make it more plausible that it had been dropped in there after the alleged attack on the Skripals. The question of how it had managed to sit in a charity bin for three months, when that bin was emptied regularly, was thus dodged.

The next alteration of a timeline by the BBC is just as crucial. The BBC had the discovery of the perfume bottle containing novichok happening before Sturgess’s death, whereas in fact the perfume bottle was not “discovered” until 11 July 2018, three days after Dawn’s death. The extraordinary thing about this is that the police had been searching Rowley’s flat intensively for “novichok” for over a week before coming across a perfume bottle sitting on the kitchen counter. As they were specifically looking for a phial of liquid, you would have thought that might have caught the eye somewhat sooner.

The final episode was more open in its attempts to provoke Russophobia than previous episodes, with images of Putin, Russia, and Boshirov and Petrov appearing. It is of course the case that the military, security service and arms manufacturing complex needs Russophobia to justify sucking away so much of our national wealth. So we should not be surprised this kind of propaganda is produced. We should also realise that those in the service of the elites that benefit from the political system will do everything they can to maintain the propaganda. It is possible to understand all of that, and still be very disappointed that so very many ordinary people fall for it. The sad fact is, propaganda works, and always has.

It is worth reminding ourselves that the Skripal incident was a propaganda initiative from day 1. The role of the Integrity Initiative and its Skripal group – in which the BBC was very much included – puts this BBC propaganda piece in its proper perspective.

I do not know what happened in Salisbury. I know that the British government story makes no sense whatsoever, and I know that the Russian government has not told us the truth about the identities of Boshirov and Petrov, otherwise their true identities would have been firmly documented and reported by now. What the Russians were doing remains a mystery, with possibilities ranging from assassination through liaison to extraction. What the British government was doing is equally murky, and whether the Skripals are willingly a part of MI6’s plans is by no means clear. Sergei’s continuing work for MI6 and his relationship with Pablo Miller are evidently key, while I suspect that Sergei’s role in Christopher Steele’s baroque, fabricated dossier on Donald Trump is probably the motive for the action.

The prosecutions of Julian Assange and Alex Salmond, and subsequently of myself, have stood in the way of my declared intention to make a documentary about the Skripal case, while the money you have so kindly contributed to my legal defence fund is almost as much as I needed to raise for the film. Attempting to counter the propaganda of the state while the state employs its legal mechanisms to drain your energy and resources is not easy. That is of course the standard lot of dissidents around the globe. It will not stop us.

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515 thoughts on “Cynicism and Warmongering

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  • Vivian O'Blivion

    Small victories against the Military Industrial Complex.
    Looks like Eliot Engel, Representative for Tel Aviv West (surely New York’s 16th District) is out on his ear. Ultra Zionist Engel is down 61 to 36 against Jamaal Bowman with postal votes still to count. Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Engel fecked up earlier this month. Caught on hot mic when asked to speak out against Police brutality, he said “If I didn’t have a Primary I wouldn’t care.”.

  • TomJoad

    The Guardian. A sad demise.
    These headings confront me on the opening page as I open up the site – No further comment required. Free or not.

    How could you be so naïve?
    How its US fan base became a political force to be reckoned with
    How did Jordan end up with the highest smoking rate in the world?
    How did Germany tackle the pandemic and Britain flailed
    How will the world’s poorest people get a coronavirus vaccine?
    How did wildlife groups start collaborating in the destruction of nature?
    How coronavirus changed one couple’s life in Teheran
    How hardcore took over pop music
    How to cook the perfect …. Flammekueche
    How it has failed to address white supremacy in its ranks

    Have you made a significant life change during lockdown?
    Have you been affected by the new coronavirus outbreak?

    Are you taking part in the US protests after the death of George Floyd?

    What stands out about eating in Australia
    What does it mean to defund the police?What is Juneteenth – and should it be a federal holiday in the US?

    Why are Google and Apple dictating how European democracies fight coronavirus?

    • AliTee

      i think the rot set in around 2011…comment is free suddenly started to become a slanging ground. Reasonable debate culture quickly descended into polarising and fragmentation. I recently wondered; if they had asked for a subscription back then would the editorial policy have shifted so badly, would it still entertain the dissemination of facts and truth. More, could 200,000 readers having a small stake arrested the terribly rapid drift to the current shit. We will never know. I wouldn’t pay a penny now, 9 years ago, probably. Thats why I subscribe to this chamber of ideas. Great article/opinion piece Craig. Enjoying this one!

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