Back in the “War on Terror” days, the UK security services fabricated multiple fake terror plots. There was, for example, the 2009 Easter Bomb Plot in Manchester, taking entire front pages of newspapers. Gordon Brown as PM hyped it as a “very big terror plot”. It was a total fabrication, nobody was convicted and it eventually emerged that the trumpeted “bomb-making ingredient” the police confiscated from kitchens was sugar – in normal quantities.
The Great Ricin Plot in in 2003 was again kitchen obsessed, and the media that ran screaming headlines about the discovery of ricin did not bother to later report that the amounts the police announced they had discovered turned out to be the almost undetectable trace which might be found in any kitchen.
The propaganda was the purpose, all ramping up Islamophobia to justify the Western destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. When the Manchester Arena attack eventually did happen, it turned out that MI5 had been the perpetrator’s sponsor and he and his father had been ferried from Libya by the British armed forces. Sponsorship of terrorism abroad is always likely to result in blowback at home.
The propaganda is now being ramped up again to promote the Islamophobia intended to drive public support in the UK for the Genocide in Gaza and a forthcoming attack on Iran.
MI5 Head Ken McCallum is arguably the most prolific and sustained liar in the history of the UK public service. He has not yet generated the deaths with his lies that Alistair Campbell caused, but give McCallum time for his Goebbels-like repetition to pay off. McCallum has a much more compliant media landscape to work with than existed a quarter of a century before.
I have to remind myself that my continued outrage at the destruction of millions of very real and ordinary people in the Middle East from 2003 onwards, to secure hydrocarbons for rich and evil men and based on total lies about Iraqi weapons, is something extremely vivid and fundamental to me, but the average university student was not even born at the time.
The myth of a “good” West continually self-propagates. The media distracts and obfuscates in a constant and prolonged process of attrition of the truth; it is tempting to believe that the Genocide in Gaza has awoken a public consciousness which may be a historic break of the system. But it is already becoming harder to access true news from Gaza. Fewer images are available as the murder of countless citizen journalists and the throttling of internet in Gaza takes effect.
Social media suppression of the reach of pro-Palestinian accounts and massive boosting of Zionist accounts are reinforced by systematic state persecution of pro-Palestinian voices.
Even as Israeli ministers openly proclaim their Genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza, European ministers continue to deny it. I am reminded of Harold Pinter’s great acceptance speech for his Nobel prize, speaking in particular of the lies and atrocities of the Iraq War:
This is the reality of power. Power does not have to justify itself. Power does what it wants, and the rest of the world is expected to accept it.But there is another reality, one that is rarely reported. The reality of resistance. The reality of people who refuse to accept the lies, who refuse to be silenced. In every country where the United States has intervened, there have been people who fought back – not just with weapons, but with words, with ideas, with courage.These voices are often ignored by the Western media, which prefers to focus on the narrative of American benevolence. But they exist, and they are growing. From Latin America to the Middle East, people are standing up to imperialism, to exploitation, to lies.
We are still standing up, but the lies keep coming, the exploitation keeps coming and the murder keeps coming.
Now let us return on to the arch-propagandist Ken McCallum and his latest invented plot. This is a biggie – the largest state-promoted terrorism scare for twenty years.
As usual, there is not any actual evidence. This straight propaganda piece from the Guardian accidentally makes that plain:
Of course, the weapons the police are searching for may yet magically turn up under the bed. I recall the search of Charlie Rowley’s house after the death of poor Dawn Sturgess. The police searched the home for five days, looking for a small phial of liquid, with no luck. Then it amazingly turned out that the perfume bottle had been sitting in plain sight on the kitchen counter all along!
That perfume bottle obviously had miraculous qualities and could materialise and dematerialise at will, because it had also sat undetected inside a regularly emptied charities’ donation bin for over three months. I suppose an RPG may yet materialise under the settee in the current search; when the British police and security services are involved, the laws of physics are frequently suspended.
As usual, Ken McCallum’s “five plots” last year had not resulted in any convictions, or indeed evidence, and in fact the claim was modest for McCallum – who has claimed that MI5 had foiled “twenty plots” since 2022. Even that was not his record.
McCallum reminds me of the man walking around St. James’ Park scattering rubber bands “to keep the elephants away”. When told there are no elephants, he stated “See, it works, doesn’t it?” McCallum has kept vast amounts of Iranian terrorism at bay in a similar fashion.
But, unusually, in 2023 one of McCallum’s fictional “Iranian plots” did result in an actual conviction, and I would like you to look at this one as a window into the twisted psyche of the security services.
In a crowded field, Iran International is probably the world’s dodgiest media channel. A Saudi Arabian-funded niche Farsi language operation, it caters to those Iranians who support Israel, support the restoration of a Shah and support Saudi Arabia.
As I said, it is very niche.
Yet this tiny media operation was set up with a Saudi investment of a quarter of a billion dollars. Yes, you did read that properly, 250 million dollars. Just where all that money really went is an interesting question. There have been persistent rumours of money laundering and of ties to Eastern-European-organised crime.
There was a brief period, after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, when the UK media would print disobliging things about the Saudis. In that short window, this article appeared in the Guardian.
Iran International, perhaps unsurprisingly, specifically supports a Sunni Arab terrorist organisation operating within Iran: the “Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz” – ASMLA. This is a Sunni ethno-nationalist group conducting armed struggle for the secession of certain Arab districts of southern Iran from the predominantly Persian and Shia state.
ASMLA has exactly the same covert backers as HTS in Syria: namely, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, Israel, and Western security services.
In September 2018 ASMLA carried out an attack in Ahvaz which killed over 60 people (ISIS also claimed the attack, but the two organisations are linked). Iran International carried an interview with an ASMLA spokesman which very definitely supported ASMLA, and where he insisted on ASMLA’s right to armed resistance and specifically claimed responsibility for the attack as a victory.
In an era where Western activists are routinely arrested for supporting “terrorism” if they oppose the Gaza genocide, you might imagine that this would be an offence by Iran International. But supporting Western- and Saudi-backed terrorists is not only tolerated, it is official British government policy, and in response to complaints OFCOM found that Iran International were entitled to interview the advocate of the right sort of terrorism.
So how does this relate to the single conviction from all of Ken McCallum’s alleged terrorist plots?
Somebody from Iran International has been convicted of glorifying terrorism, right?
Don’t be silly. Iran International is pro-Saudi and pro-Israeli, and in December 2023 it opened a second HQ in Washington DC with additional CIA funding. Remember they are on the same side as HTS. Iran International are the “victims of terrorism” here.
The conviction under the Terrorism Act was for taking photographs of the Iran International HQ building in Chiswick.
In December 2023 Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, a Chechen with Austrian citizenship, was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for photographing Iran International HQ in Chiswick, which was deemed to be in preparation for a terrorism offence.
The prosecution case was specifically that Dovtaev was operating on behalf of the Iranian Government.
This is the important bit. No evidence of any kind was presented in court of connections between Dovtaev and Iran. There was nothing on his phone and nothing from surveillance. He had not spoken to any Iranians or mentioned Iran.
The prosecution argued – and I kid you not – that Dovtaev was Chechen, which is in Russia, which is geopolitically allied to Iran, and therefore he was probably acting on behalf of Iran. That was it. It really, really was.
This ultra circumstantial argument is a reach enough anyway, but ignores several individual factors.
Dovtaev is a Sunni, therefore not aligned to Iran. He is definitely not one of those Chechens allied to Russia. His family arrived in Austria as refugees from the Chechen war of Independence and he is an anti-Russian Chechen nationalist and an Austrian citizen. He was actually wearing Chechen Independence gear when caught photographing the building.
The prosecution argument, that Dovtaev must be working for Iran because of Russia’s links to Iran, is therefore complete and utter nonsense. But it fits the official anti-Iranian narrative we are being force-fed. And it was rammed down the throats of the jury.
I might add that the evidence that Dovtaev was indeed casing the joint for some ulterior purpose was very strong, and I do not doubt it. But there was no evidence of any kind that it was for Iran, or for terrorism, as the prosecution alleged. The judgment is not published, which is why I do not link it.
That is the one conviction for Iranian terrorism for all McCallum’s false claims – and no connection at all to Iran was shown.
Which leads me to the only other actual arrest – though not yet conviction, until this week – in all of McCallum’s so-called Iranian terrorist plots. Two young Romanians were extradited from Bucharest to London for stabbing in the leg an employee of … you guessed it, Iran International.
Nandito Badea, age 19 and George Stana age 23 were arrested for stabbing in London the Iran International presenter Mr Pouria Zerati. The assault was captured on CCTV.
Now, you might remember that I said at the beginning that there are alleged links between the dodgy finances of Iran International and Eastern-European-organised crime? Well, the story reported from Bucharest is that the defendants admit to the stabbing but say it was a warning with regard to a business debt. Which, when you think about it, makes far more sense. The CCTV shows that the attackers could have killed the victim, but stabbed him in the leg instead. That is a gangland warning, not a state operation.
The notion that Iran is hiring random teenage Romanians to slightly wound people is a nonsense. Furthermore, does not the “business dispute” narrative make infinitely more sense in the case of Dovtaev, who had no links to Iran? The gangster scenario would fully explain why he would keep his lips firmly sealed about who really hired him and what he was doing, even at the cost of a harsher “terrorism” sentence.
So that is all the concrete evidence, or lack of it, in existence about McCallum’s multiple Iranian terrorist plots. This is now, of course, augmented by this new screamed narrative about a planned Iranian attack on the Israeli Embassy in London.
As the Gaza genocide proceeds, you could write a long essay about the ethics of attacking an Israeli Embassy (and Israel has not shown restraint in attacking other nations’ diplomatic premises, but I shall let that pass as not relevant to the current case).
You have to ask, “cui bono?”. Iran has shown tremendous restraint in avoiding being dragged into a wide war over Gaza in face of continued attacks, and is in the midst of a tense negotiating process over its nuclear programme. The idea that, at this moment, it would attack the Israeli Embassy in London is crazed.
However, the narrative very strongly serves the UK interest, as support for the Genocide in Gaza dwindles further, especially among Labour Party supporters, and of course such an attack, or even the allegation of a planned attack, also boosts the perpetual Israeli narrative of victimhood. MI5’s arrangement of this fake plot now is totally predictable; in fact I have been predicting false-flag operations since the genocide started.
My guess is that there is probably an agent provocateur operation at the base of this, where some poor young men have been entrapped into agreeing with wild statements or a fantasy plan. Alternatively, as usual it will prove to be a complete propaganda invention to influence public opinion at a key moment.
It is worth noting that the United States has this last few days currently concentrated four B-52 and six B-2 bombers on Diego Garcia. This is an extremely rare concentration and indicates preparedness for a major operation; Iran is the most likely target. This kind of force is very much greater than anything deployed against Yemen to date. This anti-Iranian propaganda is not being ramped up right now to no purpose.
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Interesting stuff Craig.
About 3 to 4 days ago the BBC was ‘ warming up ‘ its news audience with the tales of 5 Iranian Terrorists.
They did use the word ‘ alleged ‘ but the seeds were already sewn.
The problem for the media in general is that they follow events and never anticipate events.
The reason is simple:
News is not dug out these days – it is handed over in various forms and the ciphers fool themselves into the delusional idea that they uncovered the story themselves.
If they watched their own news or read interesting articles away from their incestuous world they may find that Trump is not mad keen on a War with Iran and he is not keen ( and never has been ) on Netanyahu.
They should also know that Trump has taken some defence radars and defences away from Israel and sent them to Ukraine.
Plus the Aircraft Carrier meant to blitz the Yemenis has lost 3 fighter planes which, is at best careless ( if they fell off said Aircraft Carrier? ) or they have been shot down like their sophisticated Drones have been which is what happens when you get too cocky.
Meaning that for the US any attack on Iran would have to be made from the air (and more to the point ) with US Military Aircrews in real danger of being killed.
If the Yemenis can do damage like that it begs the question as to what Iran can do?
Maybe even Trump understands that?
I hope he does.
Actually Diego Garcia itself is now a very juicy target. I hope no one attacks it.
“This anti-Iranian propaganda is not being ramped up right now to no purpose.”
Absolutely, it’s very clearly a textbook example of what the Donald calls ‘the art of the deal’.
Others have said “fake it until you make it”.
And it actually works. Take this article. In the unlikely event that Iranian leaders would read this blog, they would probably consider it much safer to compromise with the US of A. Can you imagine: 6 B2 BOMBERS and 4 B52 !
I would be scared myself…
The B52 is the airborne equivalent of an aircraft carrier, outdated and a fat target. The B2 has vary limited capabilities and is only suitable for attacking unsophisticated tribesmen, modern Russian and iranian radar systems can easily spot these toys. As you infer, the moving around of these planes is simply a scare tactic for western eyes.
i would hope and expect that Iranian leaders would not be quaking in their boots like you.
The one-sidedness of this piece is a mirror image of the Western legacy press, and rather unworthy of you Craig.
While you’re probably correct that the above is a fabricated plot, we need to ask ourselves why a Saudi funded media outlet is more trusted by Iranians (and check Gamaan’s recent surveys for the hard data) than anything from the IR dictatorship which claims to represent them.
You’ve also fallen for the classic trap (just like legacy media) of referring to the Khomeinist mafia gang as “Iran” despite the fact that it allows no political opposition and is overwhelmingly rejected by Iranians in and outside the country.
An invasion of Iran is unthinkable at present, so we can stop operating from that false premise and simply see the Zionist and Khomeinist states as equivalent evils that feed off each other and must both be overthrown. Your refusal to acknowledge this is perplexing, and not at all what I’ve grown to expect from years of reading your well-researched books and analyses.
Disapproval of Leadership: A Gallup poll revealed that 52% of Iranians disapprove of their country’s leadership, while 43% express approval. Notably, disapproval is higher among younger Iranians under 30, with 61% expressing dissatisfaction. …only 23% support the current leadership in the UK soooo…… maybe we need to start with regimes closer to home?
Not surprising – in other countries, including Western countries, young people old enough to vote, often express dissatisfaction with their countries’ leadership and policies.
BTW we have no way of knowing how and where this Gallup poll was conducted, and whether the people sampled represent Iranian voters generally, or only those living in the upper and upper middle class parts of Tehran or Los Angeles, unless a link to the poll is provided.
By all means. But take the turnout of the last IR presidential elections into account as well. Its first round results were all multiples of 3: mathematically impossible without the numbers having been inflated by that much. So a turnout of 45% was really 15%. That is approximately how many Iranians have any interest in the dictatorship’s survival.
It’s also a number that beats even old Keir.
I agree that the Iranian government is highly disliked inside Iran. I think it’s a terrible government and Iranian people deserve better. That doesn’t take away from the fact that the country is a target of aggressive western intent, especially by US+Israel+UK.
I don’t understand the numerical point you make. It is of course unlikely to have exact integer percentages, but maybe they were rounded. And if they are inflating, they have to be really dim to multiply each statistic exactly by 3 after rounding to the nearest integer. Iran is a sophisticated culture, why would they do that? But you may know something I don’t.
Turnout figures on their own tell a lot, but not the whole story. In Turkey, e.g., usually 80%+ turnout is achieved. But under Erdogan, authoritarianism rules.
In the first round, vote totals for all four candidates, and total invalid votes, were all multiples of 3.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Iranian_presidential_election
The odds of this happening are 1 in 3 to the fifth power, or 1/243: less than half of 1% probability (0.412%).
So we can say with over 99.5% certainty that the totals were multiplied by 3, yielding a true first round turnout 13% instead of 39%.
The second round results can be dismissed because after this leaked on social media they would have put in more effort to cover their tracks.
As I say, that’s about the percentage of support Starmer Labour will likely get next time. So we really are dealing with similarly mendacious and criminal rulers here.
The only successful modern invasion of Iran was in 1941 by Soviet Russia and British India, an illegal war of aggression that caused famine and starvation, and should be much better known.
The conditions could not be more different now, making talk of war with Iran a fantasy. We should instead support Iranians in non-violenty removing their terror regime that treats Iranians just like the Zionist state treats West Bank Palestinians (low intensity terror). Not one whit of difference.
“The odds of this happening are 1 in 3 to the fifth power, or 1/243: less than half of 1% probability (0.412%).”
The odds of any particular result happening are exactly the same as the odds for any other particular result, so your comment is meaningless. The odds of throwing six sixes in a row with a die are 1/6 to the power of 6, but these are exactly the same odds as throwing two sixes, one five, a three, another six and a one in that order.
“The second round results can be dismissed because after this leaked on social media they would have put in more effort to cover their tracks.”
This reminds me of the handwriting expert at the Dreyfus trial who said that, where the handwriting resembled Dreyfus’s, it showed that Dreyfus had written it, and where it didn’t, it showed it was him writing in a disguised hand.
Kaveh Ahangar
I really doubt the support for the regime in Iran is as low as you make out. Yours is a very common attitude among the middle classes. I encountered it everywhere during my last trip round Iran five years ago, but it’s not the middle classes who provide the support for the regime (which has had no difficulty to stay in power over 45 years). But rather the lower classes, who have benefitted a lot from the current regime since the disappearance of the shah, who stole all the oil revenues. But I’ve never met an Iranian in the West who is willing to admit that truth.
You’re right that the class element to the dictatorship’s support is usually unacknowledged. But you’re also ignoring that events in the last five years have drastically altered most Iranians’ views. The brutal methods of suppressing the Woman, Life, Freedom movement (shooting out women’s eyes with pellet guns at close range, kangaroo trials and executions, mass murder in cities like Zahedan) have made a sea change in people who were formerly ambivalent.
The Khomeinist state has shown conclusively that no reform, no gradual improvement is possible. It is a brittle, immovable criminal organization that can only collapse, and it will.
And I suggest you avoid traveling there again any time soon, as the mafia state will almost certainly take you hostage if you hold a Western passport.
I take it you’re not living in Iran. Your anger would soon have you in trouble. The reports I’ve had this week are by no means in conformity with what you claim; I suspect you’re believing any anti-regime story, true or not. It was the same in 2009 – the regime was about to be overthrown, it was certain. And then it all evaporated. So what’s different now?
In comparison, as of mid-April, 52% of the UK public approves of Starmer’s leadership while 23% express approval.
I assume you mean 52% disapprove while 23% approve? It would be useful to cite the polling company.
Wikipedia has a list of heads of state by approval rating, based on polls compiled from 122 countries. Here’s a list of selected countries – notice where Starmer places in the rankings:
1. Mali (Goïta): 98%
2. Gabon (Nguema): 93.2%
3. Azerbaijan (Aliyev): 91%
4. Burkina Faso (Traoré): 87%
5. Russia (Putin): 87%
9. Mexico (Sheinbaum): 82%
25. Ukraine (Zelenskyy): 62%
28. India (Modi): 61.8%
42. Canada (Carney): 52%
47. USA (Trump): 49%
60. Ireland (Martin): 45%
63: Australia (Albanese): 44%
69. Turkey (Erdoğan): 42.8%
71. Italy (Meloni): 41.8%
79. EU (von der Leyen): 39%
93. Israel (Netanyahu): 32%
98. South Africa (Ramaphosa): 29.7%
103. Spain (Sánchez): 27.8%
104. UK (Starmer): 27%
117. Germany (Scholz): 21%
118. France (Macron): 21%
121. West Bank (Abbas): 13%
122. Suriname (Santokhi): 3%
There’s a lot of sense in those rankings.
Our paragons of democracy in Western Europe don’t seem too popular.
Maybe we should all up sticks and migrate to West Africa? Americans can flock to the border with Mexico.
@Kaveh – “An invasion of Iran is unthinkable at present, so we can stop operating from that false premise and simply see the Zionist and Khomeinist states as equivalent evils that feed off each other and must both be overthrown.”
You seriously want that to stand up as a logical inference?
Zionist forces really did invade an area recently in which they are committing genocide right now and plan to ramp it up.
There is no equivalence.
I have no particular love of the Iranian regime but they are supporting the Palestinian resistance and that is to their credit.
They are not supporting the Palestinians in any meaningful way (genocide still ongoing), only to keep a distraction from their crimes against humanity at home.
Time to replace them with those exiled compradors Mike Pompeo hangs out with.
Then we would see Iran really take it to Israel!
You’re once again swallowing the false equivalencies peddled by the Khomeinist gang. Iranians are smart enough to elect a better government than mullahs or Western-backed exiles who don’t even speak the language (e.g. Pahlavi’s daughters).
Unless you’re prepared to argue otherwise?
@ Kavek well im prepared to argue that the support that Iran was providing Palestinians was significant enough for Israel to invade Lebanon and participate in the dismemerment of Syria in order to fight it. Of course there is a limit to what Iranian leaders can do against the murderous nuclear armed states carrying out the slaughter, but you argue convincingly that Iran needs nukes of its own.
I am highly sceptical of arguments for regime change in countries that are designated enemies by our genocidal politicians.
There is no equivalence whatsoever. Remember the revolution in Iran was a direct reaction to the west’s support of an extremely tyrannical Shah regime. Iran has not invaded another country for a long time, in fact they were invaded by Iraq again with the support of the west. In its short history Israel has invaded all its neighbours, suppressed the Palestinians and is currently occupying part of Lebanon and Syria, not to mention two genocides.Your equivalence is rather skewed. Internal suppression is very common in that region and let us not forget that Saudi Arabia has a far less representational governance than Iran has.
You’re forgetting that initially Carter supported Khomeini as a ‘Gandhi-like’ influence on the revolution (shows how much he understood Iran). And who put Khomeini on a plane back to Iran? France.
Many more examples like this show the Khomeinist-hijacked revolution was partially supported by the West, whose leaders had grown tired of Pahlavi II’s increasing assertiveness against them.
Pahlavi was a criminal tyrant who deserved his fall, but the Khomeinists are strikingly similar in their treatment of Iranians, as I said above, to how the Jewish-supremacist colony treats Palestinians in the West Bank: constant terror killings, mass imprisonment, parallel infrastructure (for loyalist IRGC), and ethnic apartheid in regions like Balochistan, Khuzestan, Kurdistan, etc.
Just because Fascist Italy wasn’t quite the moral equivalent of Nazi Germany, does that make it any less deserving of the end it had at the hands of the Allies and Italian partisans?
The Khomeinist IR deserves just such an end too, and God willing with no violence.
i remember when Reagan dragged out the hostage negotiations in return for promising the Iranian militants a supply of weapons, duly honored. seems like whenever the US targets another country for regime change people purporting to be from that country suddenly burst forth with passionate denuciations of the government of the target.
So the IRG has been killing children fby bombing from the air killing 20000 of them ? Political oppression is nothing compared to deliberate genocide.
If you think things are bad in Iran think again about supporting regime change. Look around you at what happened to Somalia, Syria, Iraq. Sudan, Such sponsored regime change lead to failed states. Opening up suppressive regime cannot happen constructively by outside interference from US but has to evolve from within.
And remember also that the US is only interested in destroying the enemies of its client state not in the people of Iran.
Please get back to us when the “Khomenist” government of Iran genocides 200,000+ people in Iran or anywhere else. There is no moral or material equivalent between the Zionist Occupation Entity and the government or religious leadership of Iran.
You need to speak to an Iranian in that case (do you know any?) They will easily enlighten you that the IR mafia’s policies against its own people are substantially equivalent to Zionist ones in the occupied West Bank.
Is that not criminal enough for you? D you really need to see more slaughtered children and babies before your solidarity is activated?
Generally speaking, genocide and mass murder are ranked worse on the human’s moral scale than suppression of political liberties. So there is no equivalence between the two evils. One is just an evil, the other is a very evil evil.
As I said to others above, it’s the Jewish supremacist colony’s policies in the *West Bank* that are equivalent to the IR dictatorship in Iran’s:
Judicial murder, assassination, torture, mob violence, indefinite detention without due process, ethnic apartheid, suppression of basic freedoms.
If this isn’t enough to awaken your solidarity then you are truly a moral relativist. Some people simply matter more to you than others.
I am interested in what you say but need convincing with some evidence for your allegations. Western media are not friends of the ayotullahs but I have never heard or seen evidence of the atrocious describe. What we hear of is that women have to wear head covers but in general many in cities defy this. Please can you supply some reliable evidence of your allegations?
The IR dictatorship’s sustained regime of crimes against humanity is one of the most extensively documented current bodies of such offenses in the world, and very easy to come by if you read Iranians’ testimony.
A good place to start is the UN’s March 2025 report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, which confirmed everything I described above.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/03/special-rapporteur-iran-presents-first-report-un-human-rights-council
For a harrowing individual story (and representative experience) I would recommend Hamed Esmaelion as a good source with no political axe to grind – the IRGC simply shot his wife and daughter out of the air as their plane was leaving Tehran.
For larger organizations you can look up Norway-based Iran Human Rights, at https://www.iranhr.net/en/about/, as well as the relevant research by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch. You may scoff at the latter two, with some reason, but they wouldn’t have much to document if they were simply making things up. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and the IR state is choking with it.
Kaveh Ahangar
You go far beyond what is in your linked reports. In fact the high number of executions in your report is all about drug-related offences (called by many people similar to you “executions of gays”). The religious regime haven’t lost their sensitivity to a great problem of the time of the Shah, which was opium-smoking. They execute the dealers rapidly (which is how “gays” get executed). I don’t suppose the drug is the same today, but I find little to read on the subject.
With regard to women, from what I hear (and see on Youtube) few women in Tehran bother to wear hijab now (which wasn’t the case five years ago). It’s a suggestive indicator that things are not as oppressive as you describe.
This has nothing to do with relativism and there is simple math to support this: your dictator may kill some of you but foreigners will kill way more. HAMAS is brutal to their own people but still the Israelis killed way more Arabs than HAMAS, and if there was no HAMAS in Gaza, this would be just another West Bank where Arabs are killed and exiled from their land. The Ayatollahs in Iran are brutal but if they are gone you’ll get nostalgic very soon.
You’ve clearly imbibed deeply of the IR dictatorship’s talking points. But their power to convince has completely eroded with Iranians, and only still works on foreigners like you.
“When the Manchester Arena attack eventually did happen, it turned out that MI5 had been the perpetrator’s sponsor and he and his father had been ferried from Libya by the British armed forces. ”
The Manchester Arena attack was another of those terrorist attacks that seem to happen all over Europe just before a general election or referendum in the country, with the usually dead perpetrators surprisingly often leaving their passport(s) at or near the scene of the crime so that there can be no doubt who did it.
Or a copy of the Koran, but not usually their bar tabs or casino receipts.
(See the 2016 Nice attack and also the 2001 New York and Pentagon attacks.)
Nearer to Craig’s home was the swoop and round up of Algerian men in the Leith area of Edinburgh in December 2002. Prominently reported with breathless prose in MSM. Police were reaching out to the ‘Muslim community’ to assist their enquiries. It later emerged that the suspects were bona fide tourists and that their maps were not marked with bombing targets but transport points.
I realised the story had to be bunkum at the time since one group was arrested right next to a bar well patronised by football fans attending Hibernian matches. A lovely bar where opposing fans can meet to chat before and after the game, right in the heart of working class Leith. A group of genuine terrorists from Algeria would have never chosen such a location since they would have stood out immediately from these surroundings. When I pointed this out to fellow football fans who knew the area, most of whom had accepted the news story, they agreed that the terror plot narrative was a bit far fetched. I have remained suspicious of these terror plot stories ever since.
Ironically now the biggest British Youtube PINAC ‘auditor’ is from Morocco I believe. AB Auditing Britain, he’s yet to go to Scotland but has mentioned it.
(The Laughing Auditor is a Scot in London)
If the US is gathering its full strength, including B-52 and B-2 bombers, in Diego Garcia, Iran has also eyed perfectly every move of the US and its dignitaries. The recent cancellations of the negotiations between the two countries suggest that Iran smells the essence of betrayal alongside such talk. So if the US is preparing itself for launching a gigantic operation against Iran, it must also be ready to bite the bullet: Iran has prepared for them.
The core of your writing presents a powerful perspective which describes the power of Resistance and its impact on the people from Latin America to the Middle East. Whatever MI5 had done in the past and is planning to do in future, if the power of resistance surges from the Levant and Persia alongside the region of deprived Africa, it will be the gigantic force which could ruin the plans of MI5. The propaganda machinery activated by Ken McCallum’s direction will soon bite the dust due to his lies.
“It is worth noting that the United States has this last few days currently concentrated four B-52 and six B-2 bombers on Diego Garcia. This is an extremely rare concentration and indicates preparedness for a major operation; Iran is the most likely target.”
Could also be Yemen, or “the Houthis” in Britgov-speak.
Doesn’t surprise me. The British intelligence and whatever is behind it is just as evil and the American. The food situation in Gaza is extreme, yet all the media gabble about is rubbish from MI whatever and Washington.
Great Post Craig..Lots of Hidden Outcome for this war.. And Iran Is Not defenceless Like Syria. Gonna be be Bad .
This one is crude even compared with the Iraq lies, Manchester and Skripal. Virtually Israeli levels of crude.
Why do the chaps think they can get away with it? It is precisely as you say: because in 2025 there is no longer any media pushback against such garbage AT ALL.
A very convincing analysis. Thank you.
In the event that Scotland wrestles its independence from the Spookocracy, the University of Glasgow (being the Petri dish which spawned McCallum, and many, many officers of MI5 & MI6 before him) will need a good redd oot.
So all terrorist events that have happened or have been prevented are false flag operations by the deep state ? I understand conspiracies and I am certainly not naive enough to believe everything told to me, but to claim that only the West and the evil capitalist neocon leaders are capable of false flag atrocities and media manipulation is ludicrous. I am certain that Iran, China, Russia and a plethora of other states and actors both hostile and “friendly” are plotting and conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, crime, sabotage and espionage against us every day. We are doing the same to them that’s the big game all governments and terrorists play. It is very easy to see conspiracies everywhere and make up stories such as blaming the English nationalist spooks for infiltrating the Scottish government to corrupt and fit up Saint Nicola and her husband. This is an argument often heard to excuse and explain the fall of the Scottish saint when the truth either goes against your life long belief in someone or something. It is hard not to believe the obvious and easier to fabricate some story to not shatter your ideals.
I guess what I am trying to say, but failing miserably is that we should all look at things with an open and enquiring mind but if you see conspiracies everywhere people will start to think you are losing it and stop believing you. Sometimes what is reported and in front of you is just that and nothing more.
You miss some of the nuances here. Since July 2013 when their security services destroyed the hard drives of the Guardian computers, reporting by the press on security matters became prohibited and not subject to any questioning. A lot of what happens is therefore not dug out journalism but handed out by the state. When seemingly absurd and internally contradictory stories begin to proliferate it is impossible to find what the truth is. And we now live in a world where a large part of news is manipulated to suit the underlying narrative.
” I am certain that Iran, China, Russia and a plethora of other states and actors both hostile and “friendly” are plotting and conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, crime, sabotage and espionage against us every day. ”
Why are you certain? How do you know? From what unbiased source does your information come?
Steve, if Iran and China are plotting terrorist attacks against the UK every day, could you enlighten us to the last terrorist attacks carried out on UK soil by either Iran or China?
andy
of course he can’t they have all been prevented before they happened. No details available because of national security concerns.
Thanks for another fascinating and illuminating article. These bastards will stop at nothing. Why don’t we leave other countries alone, stop murdering their civilians and stealing the natural resources? The UK, US and Von der Leyen led Europe have so much blood on their hands. Solidarity. Free Palestine and leave Iran the fuck alone.
Hmmm soon be the 20 year anniversary of the totally not suspicious at all 7/7 attacks and then a few days later the bizarre execution of Jean Charles de Menezes. Just saying…
With Two-Tier as PM the chances of a false flag are approaching 1, a near certainty. It might be a much grander production than just the UK’s ‘services’ making (I fear).
Trump might end up being the perfect ‘sucker’ president for it as well. His ego and macho man personality means he could be played like a cheap fiddle like he was in Syria first time around as Prez. (Macho man is Trump’s true Village People song BTW.)
This is the beginning of the end of American hegemony and we have a highly ignorant macho man, with an ego the size of Manhattan who lives in a delusional world and who surrounded himself with neocon cranks and nutcases, as US president. He is not stupid but he is so ignorant that he is most influenced by the last person who speaks with him. It is stunning to witness and scary.
Meanwhile the people running Two-Tier and the UK have decided they are in an existential battle with Russia. And they think they can win that one, that they must win that one. No rational reasons are ever given why but they are ‘all in’ for some reason and they want to drag us along as battle fodder on their suicide mission. I expect he will introduce two-tier conscription as well, don’t you.
To have their front man cut the winter fuel allowance after energy prices had gone up so (gosh I wonder why) much really reveals just how unhinged, psychotic, disgusting and inhuman they have become. They are totally out of control.
Apparently, there is a new documentary out on disney+, ‘Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes ‘. Haven’t seen it yet but it’s supposed to be endorsed by the De Menezes family.
I think it’s a dramatic retelling of the case in mini-series format. Wish it was a real documentary. It’s on Hulu, BTW, at least in the States.
Thanks.
Keep an eye on how the Polish supermarket fire story is developing. Polish PM Donald Tusk has now openly blamed Russia. If there’s an anonymous or false flag attack in Britain, Iran might not be the state it gets pinned on. See also Britain’s recent electricity grid problems which may not only have been to do with instability caused by dependency on non-hydrocarbon energy sources.
Curiously Tusk ran to Musk at Twitter (what a plonker) to say the Russians did it in Warsaw last year, but he didn’t expel the Russian ambassador (or any other Russian diplomat as far as I know) or trigger NATO’s Article 5.
One day Craig Murray might thank British Intelligence for saving his life or indeed the lives of those close to him. In the meantime he should assume nothing, believe no one including himself and check everything before reaching conclusions especially like those reached in this article.
The morale of all this is: Just resist your urge to read the so-called MSM, and you won’t get fooled again, as Daltrey and Cie used to sing…
Most reasonable persons no longer read these fag rags and are totally unaware of MI5 fake terror attacks. The publicity you give them -with the best intentions- is undeniably deeply counterproductive.
the Guardian and others are always ready to fill the gap with more propaganda; somehow that is ineffective, but Craig mentioning the propaganda is “deeply counterproductive”. Is that because Craig has much greater reach than the MSM? .
Tony Farrell was an employed “terror analyst” who lost his job when he reported that the main danger to the British public was not “Muslim terrorists” but British intelligence. He had studied both 9/11 then the London bombings, where there were no “suicide bombers” at all: just murdered dupes with their ID scattered everywhere.
are they going to “save his life” by warning him of one of their fake terror plots? i think it is far more likely that they will frame him and send him to prison (again) for exposing propaganda.
Excellent article Craig – dusted with lines of sarcasm, brilliant, McCallum is a a treacherous Glaswegian – who sold out Scotland decades ago – anyway there’s been plenty of false flag attacks in London – as we wait for another to unfold.
Take care, this one might ruffle a few feathers at Thames House.
Interesting. Reminds one of Annie Machon’s presentation from Chicago in 2006 and the July 1994 Israeli Embassy bombing false flag (mentioned at around 28:10). See here: https://avalonlibrary.net/Annie_Machon_Keynote_Address_911Truth_%28June_03_2006%29.mp4
Re: ‘the perfume bottle had been sitting in plain sight on the kitchen counter all along!’
Evidence presented at the recent Dawn Sturgess Inquiry showed that the bottle was not in plain sight on Charlie Rowley’s kitchen counter, but hiding behind stacks of his dirty washing-up. This might explain why it took Counter Terrorism Police five days to find it, especially as they had no idea what they were looking for and were probably concentrating on his drug paraphernalia.
On a related note, anyone who hasn’t read my post-Inquiry report concerning what may have happened in Salisbury & Amesbury in 2018 can find it here:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/the-salisbury-poisonings-episode-was-all-staged/page/6/#post-103404
(TL;DR? Skip to the end paragraphs headed LA’s verdict.)
P.S. If you’ve found my report enlightening and don’t already do so, please consider donating to the upkeep of this blog.
Hiding behind his dirty washing up! Oh that explains it all, no wonder it took them five days. If they thought it was just a drug overdose, it wouldn’t have been Counter Terrorism police.
It was confirmed on 4th July that Sturgess and Rowley had been exposed to Novichok. Discovery of the perfume bottle was announced on the 13th.
Pears Morgaine
I would love to read the Coroner’s report on the Novichok being the cause of Dawn’s death or Charlies non death.
As far as I know there wasn’t one – just an Inquiry.
Let’s hope the searching police had Hazmat Suits on as according to some Novichok was all over the place in Salisbury.
The protection – Police Tape.
thank you, hard to believe that some people are still bleating about “Novichok” and at least pretending to believe the associated propaganda.
“Novichok”, one of the deadliest bio agents on the planet, so deadly that a single drop could wipe out the entire population of a city, so deadly it apparently only killed one poor innocent woman and a cat. Oh wait, the cat was killed by the police. No it wasn’t Vx from Porton Down. Where’s the Skripals ?
If the coroner’s report did conclude that Dawn died from Novichok it would only be dismissed as part of the conspiracy; the same will happen when the inquiry report is issued later this year.
Perhaps somebody might like to explain why Sturgess and Rowley had to be poisoned at all and how.
You are the Queen of Hearts and I claim my £5.
It is possible to conclude that someone died of exposure to SOME phosphororganic nerve gas; however, Novichok works at concentrations so low that it won’t be possible to conclude with confidence post mortem that it was Novichok that killed or poisoned someone; not Sarin, Soman, VX etc. This is why the Germans claimed that they had proved that Navalny was poisoned by Novichok by a new, secret method they won’t disclose and they never published their results. Those skilled in the art of chemical analysis know this is not possible, but those who wanted to believe this did believe, of course.
In the only proven case when Novichok has been used, the murder of Ivan Kivilidi, the collateral damage included 2 others dead. The fact that nobody died in Salisbury in the Skripal’s case suggests that there was no Novichok there.
PhD level chemist here Yuri. Despite what you may have been told, A-234 Novichok probably has a similar level of potency to VX. Using highly selective proteases, and high-res mass spectroscopy with a gentle ionisation technique, it should be possible to determine whether A-234* is present in the active sites of acetylcholinesterase in the blood. By the way, A-234 is fairly easy to make – you don’t need specialist equipment. I’m now fairly confident that the Skripals, Dawn Sturgess, Charlie Rowley were exposed to Novichok. If you ask me, the fact that neither of the Skripals died is largely down to the fact that Dr Helen Ord, who just happened to be passing, was able to administer life-saving first aid.
* More specifically, A-234 or one off its analogues with a chloro, bromo etc leaving group, since the nerve agent will likely have ‘aged’ in the active site by that point.
Thanks for your reply Boss. It was several days worth of washing up – like the man himself, Charlie’s flat was a bit of a mess. As Pears has noted, at the time they started the search, the police didn’t think it was a drug overdose because Dawn & Charlie’s test results had come back indicating very low active acetylcholinesterase levels in the blood, and therefore nerve agent poisoning. The source of the nerve agent could easily have been an item of drug paraphernalia, e.g. a syringe or a plastic drinks bottle that Charlie had found and turned into a make-shift crack-pipe – or one of lots of other things that were lying around his flat and would need to be sent to Porton Down for testing.
If you haven’t already, and want to find out more about what was going on, read my report that I’ve linked to – lots of new stuff came out at the Inquiry.
Of course, one molecule of poison inhibits only one molecule of the enzyme and the poison still needs to inhibit the same number of the enzyme molecules to cause death, so in the end the LD50 of nurve gases depends only on their specificity. So I agreee, the Novichoks should not really be way more poisonous than VX. Their advantage at the battlefield is that, unlike the case of Sarin and VX, the deactivated acetylcholinesterase can’t be regenerated by simple antidots like pralidoxime.
However, the lethal dose is still very low (indeed, they say Kivilidi’s secretary who died with him didn’t even touch the poisoned phone) and with the lethal dose the death comes soon, so the Skripals would be already dead by the time people noticed something was wrong with them. And if analysis was that straightforward as you claimed, the Germans in the Navalny case could have simply published their mass spec results and say, Hey, here is the Novichok peak! Instead they went through the “secret method” circus. I do not know if the analysis results in Rowley’s case were made public.
Thanks for your reply Yuri. In fact, A-234 & VX are considerably more potent than sarin because they bind more strongly to the active site. Sarin, however, is much more volatile and therefore more useful on the battlefield, or to kill significant numbers of civilians (see the Aum Shinrikyo attacks*). After a short length of time has passed, oximes will also be little use for sarin poisoning, because like A-234 (and unlike VX) it also ‘ages’ due to its fluorine atom, which is a good leaving group. I’d estimate the lethal dose of A-234 in adult humans to be around 5 milligrams, but even small amounts like this can take a while to be absorbed through the skin (see Part 3 of my report which I’ve linked to above).
Samples from the Skripals’ blood were analysed by an OPCW lab in Europe and the results made available to state parties, including the Russians. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has confirmed that A-234 (or technically, either A-234 or one of its close analogues) was detected by them. The Navalny ‘underpants’ affair is a separate case – maybe Novichok was involved or maybe it wasn’t. As far as I’m aware, Charlie Rowley’s blood tests have never been made public but, in view of his symptoms, it’s likely he was poisoned by a nerve agent, probably a Novichok.
* Aum Shinrikyo also made VX, but only used it to kill particular individuals they didn’t like.
It is not the strength of binding matters because the same kind of covalent bond is formed. What matters for LD50 is what %%% of poison molecules will reach the enzyme. Some will be hydrolized, some will react with other proteins and simple molecules, and thus be wasted.
Thanks for your reply Yuri. Covalent bonds between nerve agents and acetylcholinesterase are only formed in the ‘aging’ process. Nerve agents don’t need to form covalent bonds in order to inhibit acetylcholinesterase at the active site: intermolecular forces, such as hydrogen bonding, dipole-dipole & van der Waals forces, are sufficient. In sum, these intermolecular forces are stronger for VX & A-234 than for sarin, leading to lower dissociation constants, which is why they are more potent nerve agents. In general, nerve agents are fairly stable, comparatively few molecules will be hydrolyzed in the blood before they reach acetylcholinesterase. Enjoy the weekend.
Re-lapsed: You misunderstand the chemistry of nurve gas poisoning. In the 1st stage, the serin’s hydroxyl of AChE is phosphorylated by the agent with the formation of P-O covalent bond, the leaving group in the case of Sarin is F(-). The “aging” is the 2nd stage, whereupon the product of the 1st stage is hydrolyzed, the leaving group in the case of Sarin is isopropyloxy.
In the case of the Novichoks, the 2nd stage goes on much faster, that’s the only difference.
Thanks for your reply Yuri.I wouldn’t always believe what the textbooks tell you, especially when there’s evidence in the literature to the contrary. In the case of VX, its analogue with the nitrogen atom in the amine group replaced by a carbon atom (plus a hydrogen) has been shown to be over 10000 times less reactive with AChE than VX. As the nitrogen atom is two carbons and a sulfur removed from the phosporus and there’s no conjugation, it can’t really be affecting the susceptibility of the molecules to nucleophilic attack (and covalent bond formation). Therefore the reason for the huge difference in reactivity has to be largely due to intermolecular forces, probably hydrogen bonding to the N atom.
Think about it: If nerve agents can survive for minutes against hydrolysis in the blood, getting attacked from all angles by thousands of high-energy water molecules, they should be able to survive for a comparable time (if not a lot longer) in an active site in the presence of constrained amino acid residues. AChE was designed by natural selection over hundreds of millions of years to lower the energy of a transition state of a specific molecule, acetylcholine, so that it could undergo hydrolysis which happens over milliseconds. It wasn’t designed to form covalent bonds with organophosphines – though usually that does happen, but over a longer period depending on how reactive the phosphorus is towards nucleophilic attack. This is what happens in the ‘aging’ process.
The kitchen scene in Charlie Rowley’s flat
https://dsiweb-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/INQ006189.pdf
Quite a task there for the chaps. Surprised it only took them 5 days.
The kitchen scene in Charlie Rowley’s flat, looks nice.
The photo of Charlie’s kitchen with the reasonably clean surfaces around the sink was taken on 12th July, Peter, after the police had moved the washing-up and found the perfume bottle.
How much dirty washing up could you move in five days? That’s forty hours. Lets say you moved one item in say three minutes, including examining it for anything suspicious and there’s only one of you. That means you would move twenty items in an hour, a hundred and sixty in a working day, eight hundred items in all. Are you saying that Charlie Rowley had eight hundred items of washing up in his kitchen? Where did he get them all from? How did he fit into the kitchen himself?
oh it was hidden behind a towel? well nobody would ever think of such a insanely inaccessible spot.
Brilliant, isn’t it? No need to go to all that bother about secret drop-boxes, hiding stuff in hidden panels, loose floorboards with heavy objects on top, wall sockets, light switches and so on. No, all you need to do is put it behind a stack of unwashed dishes, and voila! You have the perfect hiding place, which an entire team of detectives wouldn’t discover even with weeks of searching.
Take note, spies and thriller writers!
Thanks for your reply, pretzelattack. I don’t recall anything about a towel being mentioned at the Inquiry. Charlie Rowley’s flat was full of all sorts of shit. (He even had an astronomical telescope in there for some reason. Where he got that from I don’t know – maybe he found it in a bin.) It’s possible that the police did spot the fake perfume bottle hiding behind the washing-up on day one of the search. However, there’s only so many items that Porton Down can analyse in a day. The police would likely have given priority to those things that they believed Charlie & Dawn could have handled shortly before they fell ill, such as drugs paraphernalia, drinks glasses etc. Things hiding at the back of kitchen counters would be unlikely to fall into that category – it’s not as if the bottle was sitting in the middle of an otherwise pristine surface, sticking out like a sore thumb. The story is that what alerted the cops to the bottle was finding its packaging in a carrier bag that Charlie was using as a bin. That seems reasonably plausible to me.
God man, do you actually believe this drivel you’re writing ?
I won’t thank you for your reply Steven. Of course I believe what I write on here, otherwise I wouldn’t write it, having learnt early on that any irony, bar the most heavy-handed sarcasm (see Glenn’s comment above), is generally lost on these comments sections. I will repeat: the police had no idea what they were looking for in Charlie’s flat. It’s not like they were told they needed to find a Nina Ricci perfume bottle. If they had found it on day 1 of the search rather than day 5, people on here would be saying that they must have known what they were looking for, and therefore must be in on the whole thing.
With reference to your previous comment at 21:39: A drop of A-234 Novichok is not enough to kill an entire city, even if that city is tiny St David’s in Wales. It’s probably not enough to kill 100 people. I would say that the Skripals are probably both dead, though, having said that, Yulia’s fiance in Moscow has apparently completely disappeared as well, so maybe arrangements have been made for them to be together in captivity. Who knows?
“He even had an astronomical telescope in there for some reason”
Perhaps for looking at the stars.
Thanks for your reply Johnny. By day he rummages through bins; by night he scans the cosmos for the next supernova – all while maintaining appreciable light & dark habits. Charlie Rowley, the one and only.
” it’s not as if the bottle was sitting in the middle of an otherwise pristine surface, sticking out like a sore thumb. ”
We’re talking about police looking for evidence here, not some forgetful old person trying to find their car keys. When police search for evidence, one would hope that they are looking for things not in plain sight, not just give a quick glance around and say “nah, nothing obvious here, let’s try the bedroom” They were looking for drugs, so they would be suspicious of any bottle containing liquid or powder. Recreational drugs are, you know, illegal, so the chances are very high that they will be concealed in a container that purports to contain something else, like scouring powder, sugar or even perfume. Dirty washing up is just pretty obviously just that, dirty washing up, whereas a perfume bottle is definitely suspect, as is an almost empty packet of white crystals, even if it does say “sea salt” on the outside.
Come on, this is just one of the more than six impossible things that we are supposed to believe before breakfast when it comes to the Skripal/Novichok farce. Either that, or our police are criminally crap at doing their job.
Thanks for your reply Bayard. Around a decade ago, I used to live in a house-share with a guy who sold knock-off cigs (not to me, I hasten to add). As he was a bit of an idiot, one day he got caught selling them in Kings Cross station (what are the chances of there being any bizzies round there?) and the police came round to search his room, having got the keys from our landlord. Five of them took over three hours searching and confiscated 6 boxes of stuff (mostly sleeves of cigs but also his desk-top PC, which he eventually got back, having to borrow one of my lap-tops in the interim). However, they missed around 20 sleeves of knock-offs that were in a suitcase in his room, which, when he was released, he was able to sell. Think about the size difference between a small sampler bottle of perfume and 20 sleeves each of 10 packs of cigarettes – and remember that the cops were *specifically looking* for the sleeves.
P.S. If want to find out more about the Skripal farce, why not read my report?
“Think about the size difference between a small sampler bottle of perfume and 20 sleeves each of 10 packs of cigarettes ”
A pin might be more difficult to find than a box of matches, but that doesn’t mean that a box of matches is more difficult to find than a tobacco tin. Once something is over a certain size, anyone without defective sight can find it if it is not deliberately hidden, although it sounds like the police in your case were particularly slapdash, “empty” suitcases being a well-known hiding place for valuables, well, to the burgling profession at least, perhaps not to Mr Plod. In the case of Charlie Rowley. the police knew what they were looking for, which which was anything that might have contained the magic Novichok, or at least they should have been or WTF were they doing in his flat in the first place? Given that this nerve agent is supposed to be a colourless liquid, then the police should have been looking for a container with a colourless liquid in it. Also, given that one drop of it could kill 100 people. even if it couldn’t wipe out an entire city, it is also highly likely that the container would be a very small one and yet, somehow they failed to find a small container with a colourless liquid for five days. No, they didn’t know it would be a NIna Ricci perfume bottle, but come on, the average plod may not be the Brain of Britain, but they are not that thick.
Thanks for your reply Bayard. Members of South-East England Counter Terrorism Police’s forensics team are probably a cut above the average bizzie, but it’s unlikely that any of them have extra-sensory perception. Porton Down doesn’t have limitless resources. It could probably only handle 10 to 20 items or swabs per day (each HPLC-MS will take about half an hour to run). The police had to prioritise the items that they believed Dawn & Charlie had touched most recently, and they probably will have believed that as little as a milligram of Novichok smeared on an item and then absorbed through the skin would have been enough to kill. In any event, how does their claiming that they only found the bottle on day 5 of the search, rather than day 1, further the narrative that Petrov & Boshirov must have done it?
Interesting report, @Relapsed.
I was going to say why did the perps use the bin route, but you’ve covered that.
But you skip lightly over the goings-on at the hospital. Operation Toxic Dagger would have involved senior figures at hospitals. There’s no way medics would have thought “Hey, this looks suspiciously like poisoning by a nerve agent” without picking up the right phone within minutes, and the army would have turned up in a jiffy.
You are being very silly about the untidy kitchen BTW. Which is a shame because you’ve done a lot of good work on this.
Thanks for your reply Brian, and for your kind words about my report. After it became clear that Sergei & Yulia had been poisoned with nerve agent, Salisbury District Hospital might have phoned the MoD to ask about Toxic Dagger, but the MoD would have probably informed them that no nerve agent was actually being used as it was just a series of battlefield simulations, so any Novichok in Salisbury couldn’t have come from that.
I’m not being even slightly silly about Charlie’s kitchen. It was a mess, and there would have been many items in there that could potentially have been the source of the nerve agent. There would have also probably been several more items in Charlie’s bedroom and bathroom (where Dawn collapsed) that the police may have been interested in.
Commander Dominic Murphy (also a prominent witness in the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry) as Met Head of the Counter Terrorism unit had some interesting things to say about the police methods used to arrest and convict the Bulgarian 6 “conspiring to obtain information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to Russia”, where the leaders of the spy cell allegedly fed information to an Austrian who was working with the Russian intelligence services.
Good James Bond stuff, except according to Commander Murphy it is part of a modern trend to outsource spying and espionage so that in any internationally diverse country there could be lots of paid informer networks knocking around making detection complex and difficult.
With the Bulgarian 6 the police “sifted through more than 200,000 messages and seized hundreds of items after a co-ordinated series of raids and arrests were carried out on 8 February 2023”. This must explain why it has taken so long to bring the case to a conclusion from the arrests with a 3 month Old Bailey trial for some at the beginning of this year to sentencing due this month; based on convictions obtained under Section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 which concerns “Conspiracy” with three already having pleaded guilty to offences under the Official Secrets Act.
https://www.counterterrorism.police.uk/group-convicted-of-being-part-of-russian-spying-operation/.
However as far as I can see there was no reporting of the trial only the outcome by such as the BBC and Guardian. It does not appear to have been trial by jury. (Hansard debate about the Bill 1977 raised concerns about the lack of provision for this).
Other recent arrests for similar alleged offences seem to have been made under the National Security Act 2024 so the police have clearly a wide range of legal tools for spinning whatever phantasy they want to dupe and frighten the public with.
There is a summary of the 6 “operations” carried out by the network, which included spying on a Bellingcat operative on the CPS website
https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/bulgarian-trio-convicted-conspiring-spy-russia
It gets murkier and murkier.
Okayyyy, so the CPS are heroes now as well as MI5.
Perhaps we should all fit ourselves up in homage.
Britain reminds me of the USSR so much. Perhaps there should be a National CPS Day or a CPS orchestra performing patriotic songs for BBC television.
There have been many reports on the way the security services operate when questioning, particularly, foreign nationals. Usually threats are issued of deportations and reporting them to foreign security services. This was the case with the Libyans involved in the Manchester bombing. As such, any admissions of guilt or prosecutions should be taken with a bucket load of salt. Also, the security services were explicitly involved in renditions and associated torture.
Believe nothing that comes out of MI5, MI6, GCHQ, MoD, etc. They are all inveterate liars.
“Believe nothing that comes out of MI5, MI6, GCHQ, MoD, etc. They are all inveterate liars.”
One would hope so. Lies are their stock in trade, at least with the first three.
Dear Craig,
Thank you for the post. It is most interesting.
I am curious though about you thinking the Manchester Arena bombing was blowback but most of what happened before and since false. As in, the official story of the Arena bombing is more or less true? There’s an independant journalist called Richard Hall (Who you may well already be aware of) who investigated the official story of the Arena bombing and, to cut a long story short, suffered a similar miscarriage of justice in the High Court that you suffered, where the court refused to allow Hall to present any evidence in his defence. That evidence pointing out the many discrepencies in the official story and the obvious public interest in it. He has a website where you can download for free a book he’s written about the bombing and many videos.
David Hughes has written an interesting series about the case on Substack:
https://dhughes.substack.com/p/the-law-vs-the-truth-getting-to-the
Cheers
Hall was taken to court in a private prosecution by two of the bomb victims on charges of harassment. The case hinged on whether or not he did harass the two people he accused of being ‘crisis actors’, the veracity or otherwise of his inane conspiracy theory was irrelevant. It would not have excused his behaviour.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c86q0ypq7q0o
Incidentally, being in possession of a blog does not make anyone a ‘journalist’.
“Incidentally, being in possession of a blog does not make anyone a ‘journalist’.”
I think Craig would have something to say about that. I hope you didn’t offend him.
But an interesting point. What is the definition of a journalist ? Obviously, anyone can set up a blog but that doesn’t mean therefore that anyone can be a journalist, or does it ?
The only respectable definition is scribes selected by ruling-class media, happy to promote approved establishment narratives and suppress inconvenient truths.
For specific examples, ask Pears who his favourite journalists are.
@zoot – Agreed. Someone wanting to criticise the system while being a “journalist” is a right plonker. It’s right up there with the vomit-inducing “speaking truth to power”.
As for blogs, I call them Christmas round robins.
Craig has consistently been one of Britain’s best journalists in recent years using the medium of this blog.
Matt Kennard and Kit Klarenberg too are top-notch investigative journalists exposing key facts about Britain’s ruthlessly suppressed roles in the Gaza Genocide, Ukraine etc.
See also Kit’s colleagues at the Grayzone on US imperialism** and Arnaud Bertrand on China.
(**Forewarning, you will hate those guys’ truths about the US Democratic Party and about liberals in general).
Yes, but our host Mr Murray wants/wanted to be a recognised ‘journalist’ but couldn’t get accepted by the NUJ and his status online wasn’t recognised by the courts as being a journalist. As far as I can remember. So what makes Craig Murray a journalist as opposed to just a commentator/blog owner ?
The state seems to define it as ‘working for the MSM and being a member of the NUJ’.
Pears Morgaine.
Next you’ll be claiming that Dr David Kelly committed suicide – give it a rest, no one with half a brain believes you.
OK so the Manchester Arena bombing was faked, all the 14,200 who attended were ‘crisis actors’, the 22 dead never existed and the 1,071 injured are all faking it. The Arena management and staff must’ve been in on it too as well as the emergency services and the undertakers who buried the non-existent bodies and aside from asking where ‘they’ secretly recruited all these people none of them has ever had a pang of conscience and gone public. It’s a critical flaw in so many conspiracy theories, so many people would need to be in the know that secrecy would be impossible.
Faked no, people did die, planned yes, Salman Abedi was well known to the English security services – he was backed and supported in the coup of Gaddafi – in which Abedi fought against Gaddafi and his forces – Abedi was used as a patsy in the Manchester Arena bombing – its a mainstay of the English security services to coerce vulnerable Muslim men in England, into carrying out acts of terrorism – these acts allow the British government to apply stricter laws on the Muslim community, and the rest of us as well – and to come down hard on dissidents, by planting evidence in the patsy’s apartment that leads to them.
Innocent people die in many of these events – events that are created not by domestic or foreign terrorists – but by those in power, who wish to demonise certain sections of society, their are many Muslim men on the payroll – who’ll identify the next patsy for the security services – to aid and abet in planned events of the future.
Richard Hall disagrees with you. After some kind of investigation he has concluded that nobody died and nobody was injured which allegation lay behind the his being sued.
You can’t both be right.
“– give it a rest, no one with half a brain believes you.”
If it wasn’t for Piers and others like him, who faithfully regurgitate the official narrative, people like me would have to actually read/watch/listen to the MSM in order to find out what I am supposed to believe.
Dear Pears, quoting a BBC article here is laughable and your other comments just show you don’t know what you are talking about.
You should visit Richards web sit it is a bit more than a blog he also used to have a tv series
https://www.richplanet.net he has had to remove most of the Manchester material
He spent months putting together most of the cctv evidence and a tool that let you view it.
You say his views are insane but have you checked his evidence.
In the trial not only was Richard not allowed to show his evidence when he requested the prosecution present the evidence that they had this was also denied. Main stream reporters do much worse every day than Richard did Brenda Leyland was door stepped twice by Sky reporter and shamed in the news she committed suicide as a result sky put out this statement “The team at Sky News followed its editorial guidelines and pursued a story in a responsible manner that we believed was firmly in the public interest.” so no harassment there then
Hi Brian, I have read Richard Halls blog. I didn’t put a link to it because I thought that David Hughes has done a pretty comprehensive look at the high court case
The issue is (most likely) a phoney attribution to the iranian government, same story with alleged russian hackers past couple of years, yes there are russian hackers but just because they are russian does not mean they are working for the russian state.
The manipulative intelligence services of the west always do this, they state whatever unverified claim because they know the media will never push them on evidence and if some reporter actually do question them, they will end up claim that it is classified information anyway.
This is a way to get the population more anti-iran and get them on board for a possible war.
It could also be a sting operation:
2016: The FBI is ‘manufacturing terrorism cases’ on a greater scale than ever before.
“The FBI has ramped up its use of sting operations in terrorism cases, dispatching undercover agents to pose as jihadists and ensnare Americans suspected of backing ISIS, aka the Islamic State, Daesh, or ISIL”.
https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-is-manufacturing-terrorism-cases-2016-6
Jack, if the FBI want to find the backers of ISIS they would do well to talk with the CIA, or Mossad, or MI6, …
Thanks for the link.
Related:
“FBI And Other Agencies Paid Informants $548 Million In Recent Years With Many Committing Authorized Crimes”
11/18/21
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/11/18/fbi-and-other-agencies-paid-informants-548-million-in-recent-years-with-many-committing-authorized-crimes/?sh=1e67567ff4dd
Another US domestic case is the fake Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot that was orchestrated by a group of morons under the covert leadership of an FBI agent. The same agent would be rewarded with a post in Washington D.C. and was entrusted with taking care of the Proud Boys. i.e. FBI knew about musings over Jan. 6th well before the event took place. Not a single PB being present there eventually.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Gretchen_Whitmer/Kidnapping_plot
The wildly blatant and openly cynical exploitation of terrorism legislation to suppress free speech means all that terrorism legislation should be repealed. Everything the critics warned us would happen has happened and much worse. It is becoming glaringly obvious that ‘our’ ‘security’ services are not securing us they are oppressing us.
For some reason that has not become visible to us the real powers running the UK are somehow badly fucked and they evidently see their only ‘solution’ as immediate death (of some description) or existential war with Russia. So naturally they are choosing war with Russia which is like death, but a bit later. On the surface it makes no sense at all. So there is obviously stuff we don’t know…
Sunak’s instructed political suicide to pave the way for Two-Tier was the first clear sign the UK had jumped the shark. The UK is the most rabid apparently for this war… I say the UK but it is not us the people of Britain, it is them. But why?
Why ? Good question. There is absolutely no reason for the UK government to hate Russia other than the liars in the security services telling them to and them blindly believing all that they’re told. I guess this is what happens when imbeciles are put in charge.
Of course, the MIC needs war to justify it’s existence and to aid in enriching it’s executive class from the tax payers purse.
Virtually all the defence companies in the UK are now owned and controlled by the USA, so British defence lobbying will be driven by American MIC needs.
I think Geography plays a part in Russophobia as well. While it’s true that the Baltic countries and Poland can match the UK in terms of rhetoric, these countries tend to be more circumspect about putting NATO troops on the ground inside what is now Western Ukraine.
As the European country furthest from Moscow, the UK has the luxury of shouting loudest. It has, historically, never had to confront Russian military on its own soil. Thus we are being sold this piece of window dressing about UK troops acting as a security guarantee, something that Russia will never allow and which Starmer presumably knows is a non starter.
re: Baltic insanity
I agree. However there is this issue with rhetoric vs. fact and deeds.
The governments cultivating their insane hatred might demand and suggest all sorts of irresponsible moves.
But when it comes to in fact enact those ideas reality cannot be ignored as pointed out by their own military.
Those people might be crazy but not suicidal.
After all this entire scheme serves one major purpose and that´s diversion from the real internal problems all European nations face and saving the elites´ careers attached to the outcome of those crises.
That is to say they will push the envelope of rhetoric threats as long as they can but only as far as it serves their interests.
Historical comparison between the 3rd Reich and today as is happening in Germany 24/7 makes very little sense therefor.
While I will never be a supporter of nukes, it is an undeniable fact that the world would look different without them today.
On the other hand Hitler would have never attacked in a comparable situation. If the lives of the governing elites who are giving the order to go to war are at jeopardy too just like any common soldier´s – as the Oreshnik most likely was messaging to Washington – then self-preservation sets in. And this is true for the Baltics no less.
“The wildly blatant and openly cynical exploitation of terrorism legislation to suppress free speech means all that terrorism legislation should be repealed.”
That does rather presuppose that the supression of free speech wasn’t the point of the legislation in the first place. Which do you think the government is more bothered by, terrorism or free speech?
Another case of fabrication to me appears to be the new case of sexual misconduct against Karim Khan.
Dropsite News today featured a long story by Alice Speri.
– Speri who with THE INTERCEPT had a a mixed bag of works sometimes depending on who the alleged perpetrator was –
I dislike Khan. Enough was said about his failures on this blog. But this to me is very odd.
I am putting it in the blog discussion here since it´s brand new and concerns Gaza and I assume this will be certainly picked up by the Western media coming week. Which might be the reason why Dropsite published it Sunday.
“Hiding Behind Atrocities”
As Prosecutor Karim Khan seeks a flurry of arrest warrants, ICC staff accuse him of using court cases to dodge sexual abuse allegations.
by Alice Speri
May 11, 2025
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/karim-khan-abuse-allegations-icc-israel-warrants
Three good critical reader´s comment there so far. Others believe the allegations are true. It is interesting that the notion of innocent until proven guilty is not seriously addressed.
p.s. Was there possibly an intention by Dropsite of trying to not appear too biased with all there other work when putting this online?
Sexual abuse
Antisemitism
Financial irregularities
All tools of the zionist lobby used to silence anyone who objects to genocide.
Whenever Iran is being framed for something, start with the assumption that the Zionists are involved. They kind of own Iran’s whole presentation in the US and bumsniffer countries’ media and have done since the late 1980s. (That was around the time they stopped supporting the ayatollahs’ regime so much.)
Yes it is the arrests and the blazing publicity that goes with it that is timed to create the effect of an Iranian threat. My comparable memory in this respect is the sending of the army to protect Heathrow just prior to the invasion of Iraq.
Israel, USA and their henchmen like the UK are just itching to have a go at Iran. But by the time the judicial process has come to an end which could take years the world has moved on and any connections with the original events have been lost. Using obscure laws to find offences is probably quite a deliberate ploy to drag things out to disconnect spurious causes from the damp squib like effects that some of these cases inevitably have as they are more difficult to prove.
Who could forget too the two terrorist attacks that MI5 failed to foil during the 2017 general election campaign, in Manchester and London, at a time when Theresa May was floundering politically, and the media was trying to smear Corbyn as a “terrorist-lover”. Sabre-rattling and blowing their own trumpet via the media is one thing but when people have died as a result of conveniently-timed atrocities that MI5 (and, to be fair, other government agencies) failed to prevent that seems extremely sinister.
Tom74
The Biggie in London, 7/7 – the four patsies never even set foot in any tube station – let alone blew anything up – if I recall right, not long after the event, most of the eye witnesses were, shall we say silenced, along with the patsies, some of who were gunned down at Canary Wharf, as they tried desperately to tell their story to the media – as was Charles de Menezes, because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut – or maybe they were just tidying up loose ends.
Or maybe he was entirely unconnected and gunned down by trigger happy plod.
Pears Morgaine.
No I think, if memory serves, that de Menezes – was an electrician – who worked on the event – and he was murdered to shut him up – seven bullets in the head will do that, eleven fired into him in total, it should comes as no surprise to us, that Starmer cleared those police officers of any wrong doing – when he was at the CPS – and that the head of the hunt to kill de Menezes – was led by Cressida Dick.
Yes he was an electrician and on his way to fix a fire alarm in Kilburn. Are the security services so short of technical expertise that they have to hire a jobbing sparky to do their dirty work; and then let him wander around London for a fortnight before ‘silencing’ him? Doesn’t seem very likely does it and it was a poorly organised, messy hit, you’d have thought they could’ve made it look like a burglary or a mugging gone wrong.
Pears Morgaine.
If it wasn’t for Lana Vandenberghe of the IPPC, whistleblowing what actually happened – we’d be none the wiser – she was sacked for her honesty.
None of the official narratives, stood up under scrutiny.
“Original Narrative 1.0
The Metropolitan police claimed that de Menezes was wearing a bulky coat that could have concealed explosives, vaulted over a ticket barrier and run down an escalator to escape firearms officers. A government spokesman boasted that “the police and emergency services have acted superbly”.[4] On the day after de Menezes was killed, the Daily Express quoted Patrick Mercer (“Tory homeland security spokesman”) as saying that “If this is what it takes then so be it. I am very pleased that the police were willing to engage their target.”
Original Narrative 2.0
After a leak by Lana Vandenberghe, the first story was exposed as a falsehood, so the official narrative was changed to state that he walked through the station quite normally and used an Oystercard to get through the barrier[3], stopping to pick up a copy of the free London newspaper Metro on his way. The “Independent Police Complaints Commission” concluded that de Menezes was misidentified as a fugitive associated with the bombs left on the tube the previous day’s failed bombing attempts.[5]”
“After the killing, Ian Blair, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis telephoned the Chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission and wrote a letter to the Home Office stating that “the shooting that has just occurred at Stockwell is not to be referred to the IPCC and that they will be given no access to the scene at the present time”.”
C11 and C12, the trigger happy cops both lied in their statements on what happened – but no matter – the ever compliant CPS (Starmer) found they had no case to answer.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Jean_Charles_de_Menezes
A general point: soon it won’t be allowed to say this kind of thing about the secret police. It will be considered sabotage, treason, public health danger, mental illness, the witting or unwitting assistance of terrorism and plague.
Within three years, maximum.
Hi Red,
I basically agree with your somber prediction.
Just to make sure, why “Within three years, maximum” i.e. before the currently scheduled next general election?
Meanwhile, is there still such a thing as the ‘secret police’? They’re all over the place, and elsewhere too. To turn things around, there are still a lot of police secrets. But eventually, we’ll find out…
If there is a cautionary tale in all these allegations it is that – if you are going to lie – you need to have a very good memory.
A Google search ‘ reveals this:
‘ But the previous inquest into Ms Sturgess’ death was converted into an independent inquiry to allow it to have access to secret intelligence, some of which will be considered in private. An inquiry is not the same as a trial.’
the most interesting thing for myself was that three people were saved at the time and one died.
Suggesting that in all three cases (except Dawn) that Porton Down successfully identified a solution.
Great work and in this case they did have their uses.
But – to come up with an anti-dote you need to know hat the Nerve Agent was.
There’s no need to name Agent XY or Z just define what the Nerve Agent was.
I don’t think that Porton Down have said that it was Novichok.
Others have.
CCTV Cameras were a plenty ( 60 + according to a few residents) but nothing shown to the public.
No Crimewatch on the BBC?
Begging the question as to who else was around that didn’t want to be seen?
Murky business.
” I don’t think that Porton Down have said that it was Novichok. ”
This guy disagrees.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-44716597
Everything on the BBC is, of course, true.
BBC fact check verifies that the BBC never lies …
Is that the best you can do?
“Is that the best you can do?”
I find it touching and rather quaint that there are still people who rely on “sources” which they believe are telling them the truth and haven’t made the logical connection between “I can’t trust everything this person/organisation says” and “I can’t trust anything this person/organisation says”. Given that there is not a single source available anywhere that hasn’t either lied or been honestly mistaken about something, the only recourse anyone has to decide whether a piece of information is true or not is the question “how likely is this to be true?”. On that count the Skripal saga fails abysmally, even allowing truth to be stranger than fiction and even if you discount the self-contradictions in the official narrative.
I think it lazy and desperate to attack a source and not the content. Play the ball not the man as the saying goes.
MR MARK CUTTS: ” I don’t think that Porton Down have said that it was Novichok. ”
O contraire, mister cutts.They did say that it was Novichok, very clearly. This is the first paragraph from DSTL Porton Down’s Summary Analytical Report on the matter::
“This report summarises the analysis undertaken at Dstl on biomedical samples recovered from Dawn STURGESS pre- and post-mortem. Analysis of blood collected on admission to hospital confirms that Dawn STURGESS was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. Analysis of blood and tissue samples collected from Dawn STURGESS at the post-mortem demonstrate that butyrylcholinesterase and acetylcholinesterase were close to completely or completely inhibited at the time of death, and that the characteristic marker of Novichok nerve agent was still detectable in her blood. Analysis of liver, kidney and brain tissue samples demonstrates the presence of characteristic Novichok metabolites in all three sample types. Furthermore, very low levels of free intact Novichok were detected in the brain homogenate. These results indicate systemic presence of the Novichok agent.”
Further details of the tests and the results are further down, if you want to argue about the science behind it.
Hmmmm, it seems the statement read out by the assistant commissioner plod in the BBC news clip was true after all. Who knew?
Pears Morgaine
You mean the Local Salisbury police who were side lined in the ‘ investigation while the Spooks took over?
Must be true as it has two elements:
The Bigger Police said it was Novichok.
And the BBC said it was.
You don’t get bigger confirmation than that – do you?
Porton Down didn’t say it was Novichok and the initial diagnosis at the Hospital was Fentanyl Poisoning for The Skripals.
‘ A type made in Russia ‘ May read out to try and get the story straight.
Apparently the Russian recipe to make it is online.
Dawn and Charlie mysterious became poisoned two months later.
How?
Was the same antidote given to Charlie and Dawn?
If so – why did Charlie survive and Dawn didn’t?
Unless Dawn drank it of course?
p.s. Mr Menedes was a victim of a copper going for a piss whilst surveillance and losing track of him.
What came into play then was better safe than sorry tactics as he went to work.
Unfortunately he had the ‘ tinge ‘ of skin that made him a possible danger.
Cressida Dick should be in jail – not on retirement.
She gave the order to shoot on a guess.
The BBC were only reporting what they’d been told, other news outlets did the same. It’s what they do.
Yes Rowley and Sturgess were treated for a drug overdose but when they didn’t respond samples were sent off to Porton Down who identified Novichok but couldn’t say for sure that it was manufactured in Russia. I guess that would be difficult if not impossible to ascertain.
Dawn may have ingested some of the substance yes or maybe Rowley just has a stronger constitution.
” Cressida Dick should be in jail ”
Now that we can agree on. She lost control at Stockwell and her officers lost control of themselves. At the very least she should’ve been fired, not given a gong and promoted.
MR MARK CUTTS: ” Must be true as it has two elements: The Bigger Police said it was Novichok. And the BBC said it was. You don’t get bigger confirmation than that – do you?
Porton Down didn’t say it was Novichok. ”
Wrong! Porton Down did in fact say it was Novichok – which is why both the police and the BBC reported the fact. See my response to your earlier comment above, especially the link to Porton Down’s summary analytical report.
From another excellent source on the Skripal affair:
“Yulia Skripal communicated from her bedside at Salisbury District Hospital on March 8, 2018, four days after she and her father Sergei Skripal collapsed from a poison attack, that the attacker used a spray; and that the attack took place when she and her father were eating at a restaurant just minutes before their collapse on a bench outside.
The implication of the Skripal evidence, revealed for the first time on Thursday, is that the attack on the Skripals was not perpetrated by Russian military agents who were photographed elsewhere in Salisbury town at the time; that the attacker or attackers were British agents; and that if their weapon was a nerve agent called Novichok, it came, not from Moscow, but from the UK Ministry of Defence chemical warfare laboratory at Porton Down.”
https://johnhelmer.net/yulia-skripal-reveals-the-biggest-secret-of-all-at-novichok-show-trial-the-attack-was-a-british-operation-not-a-russian-one/
A semi-conscious woman, doubtless in a confused state of mind, who can only communicate by blinking being asked a series of leading questions…
Yeah, I’m convinced.
Doesn’t prove the attackers were British anyway.
A few more intriguing questions are:
Where and when did Ms Yulia Skripal learn English, how proficient in this language was she, and how familiar with a broad Wiltshire accent? Or was her interrogating doctor fluent in Russian?
Unless we have very convincing answers to these questions, whatever she’s supposed to have revealed on her hospital bed by blinking once or twice amounts to a poor script for a B-series on your favorite streaming platform.
But as any minister will tell you, only faith can save…
You may be right but as in most recent events it’s not so much whether this is true or false it’s the fact that the establishment dismiss it out of hand and cover it up. Would be so easy for an (honest) enquiry to investigate and expose it to the light – they didn’t.
BTW.
Point one is irrelevant since it is a fact that both the Skripals were competent in English way before Salisbury, probably the result of a good state education !
Point two, ‘broad Wiltshire accent !’ which orifice did you pull that one out of ? Have you ever been to a UK hospital, or spoken with a UK doctor ? People who live and work in the provinces are not all hayseeds or peasants.
There’s conflicting evidence about Yulia indicating that she’d been sprayed in Zizzi’s, Stevie. Read Part 2 of my report for more details:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/the-salisbury-poisonings-episode-was-all-staged/page/6/#post-103404
Many questions of which we can be sure of one thing, we’ll probably never get a clear answer.
Thanks for your reply Stevie. We’ll probably get a clear answer from Lord Hughes’ report (due later this year) that Dawn Sturgess was killed by a bottle containing Novichok left in the charity shop bin by Petrov & Boshirov. I doubt that that will be the right answer though.
“But it is already becoming harder to access true news from Gaza. Fewer images are available as the murder of countless citizen journalists and the throttling of internet in Gaza takes effect.”
I am currently in the Philippines working with a Romanian woman in the Netherlands who has contacts in Gaza. We are trying to put them on a WeChat group so that they can send video clips directly from their phones to ours. I have two so far. They are desperately short of food and cash. I have been able to get money through a bank in Ramallah, they can access digitally.
Here is a post I put up on Substack a week ago to explain what we are doing. Unfortunately internet contact there is poor but if I can get sufficient material I will post it next Sunday.
https://waltking.substack.com/p/eyeless-in-gaza
There is a short video there concentrating on Gaza children I filmed in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem in 2019. Only 15 minutes.
“My reporting and advocacy work has no source of finance at all other than your contributions to keep us going. We get nothing from any state nor any billionaire.”
Put your stuff on Substack, you can monetise it there. I don’t personally ask for money but thousands do. Join us there!
If mobile phones and big internet brands changed anything for the better, the rulers would make them illegal.
I’d much rather hear actual stuff you’ve got to say rather than read a brand-strewn advert for it. “My other car’s a Porsche”. What’s in these videos? I prefer text. I don’t want to watch f***ing 15 minutes of video to describe what could be written in 200 words. So what have you got to say, or to report about what other people say? Can you say here what it is?
“I am currently in the Philippines working with a Romanian woman in the Netherlands who has contacts in Gaza.” You global s*d!
Basically you’re living in a hotel in a poor country?
…talking about big brands.
I don’t mean to be horrible, because you are obviously on the right side, but maybe you might reflect on how people think about those from rich countries who jaunt in carrying expensive video equipment, devices that cost more than maybe 5 years’ annual local salary, from the POV of getting the news out to rich western audiences “where it really matters”.
This isn’t going to end like the US effort in Vietnam.
Mr Red, kudos on answering yourself so brilliantly. Many people, including our gracious host, usually wait for others for pouring down compliments…
I certainly have no reason to support the Walt you replied to. But What is the point?
As you wisely say: “This isn’t going to end like the US effort in Vietnam.”
And it’s the first time I hear Napalm described as an effort. Even Hollywood wasn’t this nice.
Again I have no idea what you are talking about.
I have no video equipment, expensive or otherwise.
People in Gaza will send us videos on a Chinese social medium that they have taken on their phones and yes, the idea is to get money for them from rich, western audiences, which, if you read what I wrote before, I do not live among.
So every point you make has no substance at all. I have a Morons List for imbecile commenters to scroll past, and you are now on it.
Brian. Appears to me that Walt is actually doing something positive, what are you doing ?
Recall this is similar to what our host was recently doing in Lebanon. What are you doing ?
Your posts are largely incomprehensible. Brand strewn, Porsche, I have no idea what you are talking about.
But I’ll take a moment to tell you what it is about, as you can’t take the trouble to look at the post I have linked. If you did you will see that it is a relatively short article about what we are trying to do to help the people in Gaza that the western world (and no doubt, you) will not lift a finger to help. The 15 minute video is an additional item to present some Gaza children to you to show you that they are human beings who deserve to be freed from the devastation that the world’s most obnoxious, most evil regime is imposing on them.
My wife and I live much of the time in China, but we also have residence rights in the Philippines. I employ people here and am trying to create further businesses to provide work for the people in this desperately poor country where large numbers live in leaky squalid sheds barely fit to house chickens, while the government kowtows to the USA instead of working with China like the rest of their neighbouring countries to improve their standard of living.
Thanks Stevie!
After I wrote that I discovered that Craig actually has a Substack, I hadn’t noticed it, my apologies.
The nebulous allegiances attributed to Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev seem to recall the alleged “Bulgarian Connection” proffered by notorious neoconservative Michael Ledeen and the serial fabulists at SISMI in the case of the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II by Turkish Gray Wolves who otherwise displayed CIA/NATO ties via “Operation Gladio” networks (for instance, see Lucy Komisar, “Turkey’s Terrorists: A CIA Legacy Lives On,” The Progressive, April 1, 1997).
In any case, while Dovtaev’s alleged ties to the Russian state, and Russian government infiltration of Chechen separatist organizations more generally, should not be reflexively ruled out (for example, see my comments on Joe Lauria’s article “Putin Thinks Al-Qaeda in Syria Is Reformed Too,” published in Consortium News on Dec. 20, 2024) — which would still not justify leaping to the immediate conclusion that Iran is somehow involved — the more likely culprit of a potential terror plot employing Chechen militants against a media organization that they sponsor would be the Saudis themselves (and, possibly by extension, their US/UK patrons who also have ample ties to Chechen separatism – see here: tinyurl.com/UkraineMujahids).
“[Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan] told Putin […] ‘I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian territory’s direction without coordinating with us. These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role or influence in Syria’s political future.’
Putin thanked King Abdullah for his greetings and Bandar for his exposition, but then he said to Bandar, ‘We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned.'”
Source:
Sahar Ghoussoub, “Russian President, Saudi Spy Chief Discussed Syria, Egypt,” As-Safir (Beirut), translated for Al-Monitor by Rani Geha, August 22, 2013