Showing posts with label Amesbury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amesbury. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Did Vladimir Putin Just Admit Russian Responsibility for the Novichok Poisonings in England's Green and Pleasant Land?

As anyone visiting here on a more or less regular basis will know, we have written a number of posts about the Novichok poisonings in England of the Russian traitor, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Julia, and also the British citizens, Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess.

Throughout, we have been skeptical of the British position that the poisonings were perpetrated by the Russian state, roused to seek vengeance against Skripal, despite having formerly pardoned him in connection with a spy swap. Rather, it seemed to us more probable that the poisonings were a charade undertaken by British security services as means to stoke public antipathy toward Russia.

Our assessment has now to be questioned in light of Vladimir Putin's remarks on the case that were addressed to former UK Prime Minister Teresa May during the recent G20 summit.

Specifically, Putin said:

“Treason is the gravest crime possible and traitors must be punished. I am not saying the Salisbury incident is the way to do it, but traitors must be punished.”
Sounds pretty much like a confession of Russian responsibility to me, which in itself, makes the statement remarkable. But if it is a confession, it raises the question: for what was Sergei Skripal being punished? Not presumably, for the treasonous acts for which he was formerly convicted, jailed and subsequently pardoned.

The Russian State English Language broadcaster, RT, puts some spin on Putin's comment, stating:

At the same time, [Putin] made it clear that the poisoning of the former double agent Sergei Skirpal and his daughter Yulia, which took place in the British town of Salisbury back in March 2018 and was blamed on Russia by London, is definitely “not the way to do it.”

The president explained that the former Russian intelligence colonel already received his punishment under Russian law as he served his time in prison and was therefore “off the radar.”

He reiterated that this whole affair had little to do with Russia, while maintaining that London has failed to present any sufficient proof of Moscow’s alleged guilt to the public till this day.
Which, does not, it seems to me, settle the matter. Putin has exceptional skill in the diplomatic use of words, and RT's spin does little negate what seems the most plausible interpretation of his comment.

However, it is possible that Putin's statement was, in fact, a taunt, a taunt based on the knowledge, shared with Theresa May to whom his remark was addressed, that Sergei Skripal was a triple agent, who, having moved to England, ostensibly to continue in the service of the British to whom he had betrayed Russia, was in fact, acting in the service of Russia.

It might well then have been that his allegiance to Russia, having been discovered by the Brits, became the justification for a British charade intended to demonize Russia. That would explain the look of disgust, or is it despair, on Theresa May's face, during her interaction with Putin at the G20 Tokyo summit.

One hopes that Rob Slane, former UK Ambassador Craig Murray, and others who have been skeptical of the official British narrative of this peculiar case will offer their perspective on Putin's comment.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Ambassador Craig Murray Probes the Alibi of Petrov and Bashirov, the Alleged (by Theresa May) Skripal/Novichok Poisoners

On reading the interview given by the Russians, Petrov and Bashirov, alleged by the British Government to have poisoned the Russian traitor, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, by painting the, as-developed-in-Russia, WMD, Novichok (allegedly seven times deadlier than Britain's own deadly nerve agent, VX), on the front door-knob of Sergei Skripal's house, I was far from convinced of the innocence of their weekend visit to Britain.

To be unconvinced of their innocence, is not of course, to be convinced of their guilt, but it does mean remaining open to the possibility that their visit at the time of the Skripal nerve agent poisonings was not coincidental (or perhaps we should say alleged Skripal nerve agent poisonings, since the resident in Emergency Medicine at the Salisbury hospital to which the Skripals were taken for treatment denied that anyone had been admitted to the hospital with symptoms of nerve-agent poisoning).

Likewise, Ambassador Craig Murray was, initially, far from convinced by their account of the innocence of Petrov and Bashirov. On reflection, however, he concluded, for reasons set forth in this blog post, that the story offered by the Russians, is in fact, entirely credible, and, in this, I think Murray's arguments are compelling.

The Russians, Murray concludes, could very well have been, as they claim, on a weekend break to see the sights in and around Salisbury, including the city's superb Norman cathedral, and the nearby ancient settlement of Old Sarum, but were prevented from making the two-mile expedition from Salisbury to Old Sarum by the unseasonable snowfall that shut-down public transport that weekend.

Thus, the story of the Skripal poisonings remains what it was at the outset: an allegation against Russia by the British Government unsupported by any convincing evidence made known to the public. Indeed, since the now reportedly recovered victims of the crime have been kept entirely from public view with the exception of one video-taped statement by Yulia Skripal, a statement that, as I have previously explained, could very well be entirely fake, it is open to question whether any crime against the Skripals actually occurred.

More certainly, Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess of Amesbury, England were poisoned, with deadly effect in the case of Dawn Sturgess, by what the police report to be Novichok contained in a perfume spray bottle that Charlie Rowley scavenged from a litter bin in Salisbury. But how that connects with Russia, if indeed it does connect with Russia, has never been explained by British authorities.

It seems then, that the case against Russia consists in the following facts:

(1) The alleged victims of an (alleged) attack with the nerve agent, Novichok, were Russian.

(2) One of the alleged victims was a Russian spy turned traitor who, however, had been pardoned by the Russian state and released from Russian gaol some years ago under an international spy swap.

(3) The nerve agent by which the Russian victims were allegedly poisoned was developed in Uzbekistan, then a member of the Soviet Union, and is thus Russia-connected. The connection is essentially meaningless, however, since Novichok can be readily synthesized by any competent organic chemist, and has been synthesized in various countries, including, probably, the U.K.

(4) The Russians, Petrov and Bashirov, happened to be on a weekend visit to Salisbury, as tourists so they say with apparent plausibility (along with probably a number of other Russians), the weekend that the Skripals were poisoned.

(5) In May, two months after the Skripal poisonings (or rather we should say alleged poisonings), the police were reported, this month, (see the George Galloway video included in my earlier blog post, after 9 min and 12 seconds) to have investigated the London hotel room where Petrov and Bashirov apparently shared a bed on the night of March 3rd. There, the police report finding a trace of Novichok, yet despite the deadliness of this nerve agent, the police neither warned the hotel's proprietor of what they had found, nor instigated a chemical WMD clean-up at the hotel, and thus did nothing whatever to save from harm the many people who, since March 4th, have presumably slept in that Novichok-contaminated room.

The implication seems clear, the alleged Novichok contamination of the room of the "flea-pit" (George Galloway's description of the hotel) where the Russians stayed must have been so slight as to be (a) totally harmless, and (b) and to make its supposed identification questionable. Indeed, if Galloway's description of the hotel as a "flea-pit" is appropriate, it could well be that the organo-phosphorus compound found in the hotel room and claimed by the police to be Novichok was, in fact, a regular organo-phosphorus pesticide that is likely used on a regular basis in cheap London hotels catering to poorer people from around the world, many of them likely carrying with them fleas, bed bugs, and lice.

If there is other relevant evidence against Russia, the British Government has not revealed it, which suggests that the case against Russia has been fabricated as a justification for intensified Western economic sanctions against Russia, which provides both a military and, with its revival of Russian ethnic nationalism and Christianity, a cultural threat to the elites that rule the Western nations and seek to force the submission of the European peoples to global governance through the promotion of multi-culturalism and  mass replacement immigration.

Petrov and Bashirev might perhaps seek to reverse their present ill-fortune by suing Theresa May for defamation of character.

Postscript:
In response to the RT interview with the Petrov and Bashirov, Theresa May has stated through a spokesperson that:

[T]he suspects' comments [i.e., the comments of Petrov and Bashirov] were "an insult" and "deeply offensive."

Exactly how they were an insult, and deeply offensive, except inasmuch as that, if true, they implied that Theresa May is a big fat liar, was not explained by the Prime Minister's Spokesperson who went on to say:

"The lies and blatant fabrications in this interview given to a Russian state-sponsored TV station are an insult to the public's intelligence" and "More importantly they are deeply offensive to the victims and loved ones of this horrific attack," but again, no explanation is given as to how the claim of innocence when charged with murder can be considered offensive.

Furthermore, the prime minister's spokesperson told reporters that police had set out "very clearly" the evidence against the two suspects although, oddly enough, the public seems to have no idea what that evidence is, other than the claimed trace of Novichok in the London hotel room where Petrov and Bashirov are said to have stayed the night, a trace so insignificant that the police forgot to tell the hotel owner about it or do anything about a cleanup of the contaminated room. Indeed a trace so slight that the evidence that it actually was Novichok has never been made public.

PostPostscript:
And while we are dealing with unsubstantiated claims, here's what seems like a hypothesis worthy of consideration that was offered by CalDre at Craig Murray's blog:
... Sergei was a triple agent and these two gents were his handlers, probably sent to pick up something. UK discovered he was a triple agent, and the planned drop, and “attacked” the Skripals, blaming his handlers, to kill two birds with one stone.
Related:
Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: Owner of hotel where novichok spies stayed for two nights was only told by police about his killer guests YESTERDAY - and he still doesn't know which room they were in

Friday, July 13, 2018

Novichok on a Door Knob: An Official Conspiracy Theory

As promised, UK Ambassador Craig Murray has followed up his blog post on the Amesbury poisonings with an analysis of the Official Metropolitan Police/UK Government account of how Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley came to be poisoned with a deadly, as-developed-in-Russia, nerve agent, while rifling though garbage cans or gathering cigarette butts in a park in Salisbury, England.

The analysis confirms the faith that British authorities have in the capacity of the British public to swallow any lie provided it emanates from a sufficiently authoritative source, the Prime Minister, for example, or the Foreign Secretary and is then repeated endlessly with a multiplicity of trivial elaborations and distractions by the BBC and the commercial media.

Among other key points, Murray takes aim at the claim that the original "Russian" Novichok poisoning in Britain, namely that of the Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, was carried out by Russian agents specially trained to apply Novichok nerve agents to door knobs. Thus, Murray writes:

Why did nobody see them painting the doorknob? This must have involved wearing protective gear, which would look out of place in a Salisbury suburb. With Skripal being resettled by MI6, and a former intelligence officer himself, it beggars belief that MI6 did not fit, as standard, some basic security including a security camera on his house.
The Skripals both touched the doorknob and both functioned perfectly normally for at least five hours, even able to eat and drink heartily. Then they were simultaneously and instantaneously struck down by the nerve agent, at a spot in the city centre coincidentally close to where the assassins left a sealed container of the novichok lying around. Even though the nerve agent was eight times more deadly than Sarin or VX, it did not kill the Skripals because it had been on the doorknob and affected by rain.
Why did they both touch the outside doorknob in exiting and closing the door? Why did the novichok act so very slowly, with evidently no feeling of ill health for at least five hours, and then how did it strike both down absolutely simultaneously, so that neither can call for help, despite their being different sexes, weights, ages, metabolisms and receiving random completely uncontrolled doses. The odds of that happening are virtually nil. And why was the nerve agent ultimately ineffective?
Detective Sergeant Bailey attended the Skripal house and was also poisoned by the doorknob, but more lightly. None of the other police who attended the house were affected.
Why was the Detective Sergeant affected and nobody else who attended the house, or the scene where the Skripals were found? Why was Bailey only lightly affected by this extremely deadly substance, of which a tiny amount can kill?

A ludicrous theory indeed.

But read the whole piece: Craig Murray: Holes in the Official Skripal Story

Related:

CanSpeccy The Novichok File (17)

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Skripal Tripal, No. 39: Where the Skripals Crossed Paths With the "Amesbury Poisonings" Couple

Thus far, not much about the official account of the Skripal poisonings has made sense. Now, Rob Lane of the Blogmire Blog reveals a huge hole in the account of the affair as provided by the London Metropolitan police, the agency supposed, one might assume, to be investigating not obfuscating, what happened.

According to the Metropolitan police, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia fed the ducks in the Avon Playground, where they were soon afterwards found near death due to what was claimed to be Novichok poisoning.

However, it now emerges that the Skripals went to a different park, the Queen Elizabeth Gardens, not the Avon Playground, to feed ducks after they had been poisoned, a fact confirmed by a report in the Sun newspaper published more than three weeks after the alleged poisonings.

I say "alleged poisonings," since if nothing much else about this tale bears scrutiny, it is only rational to question the central fact of the case, namely the reported poisoning of the now disappeared Skripals from whom we have heard nothing other than a video statement of questionable authenticity from the "recovered" Yulia Skripal.

What this new fact that Rob Lane has brought to light reveals is not only that the original published reports about the movement of the Skripals the day they were poisoned were false, but that immediately before their collapse, the Skripals had been to the Queen Elizabeth Gardens where Charlie Rowley and the now deceased Dawn Sturgess, of the "Amesbury Poisonings" are believed to have been poisoned.

In other words, the media have thus far managed to avoid mentioning what was very likely the critical location at which the paths of the poisoned Skripals, and the poisoned Amesbury couple crossed.

Make what you like of it, but based on their performance on the Novichok file thus far, I wouldn't trust the London Metropolitan Police to investigate the theft of a bicycle, let alone acts of murder leading to an international crisis.

Indeed, it is clear that the performance of the Met in this case is sad evidence of a catastrophic decline in the competence and integrity of British institutions. My late uncle, a man of both intelligence and integrity, was a CID Inspector with the London Met back in the 60's and there's no way I could see him having been involved in such a ridiculous farrago of nonsense as the Skripal investigation.

Related: 

Sputnik: UK Police Says Found Source of Deadly Substance Used in Amesbury Incident
ARD Mediathek: The Skripal Case: Berlin has until today no evidence from London

Translation via John_a at Craig Murray's blog:

Until today the German Federal Government has been waiting in vain: As RBB Radio has learned from government circles, until today the British Government has presented absolutely no evidence to the Federal Government that would prove that Russia is responsible for the poison attack on the double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The Federal Government reported this yesterday to the Parliamentary Control Committee of the German Federal Parliament in a closed session. Up till now it has simply been learned that the poison concerned was Novichok, a chemical weapon that was produced in the Soviet Union. Beyond this the British Government has so far presented absolutely no evidence. It could neither prove that the poison used came from Russia, nor that the Kremlin was responsible for the attack, it was reported.

 According to RBB information, the German intelligence services also have no information from their own sources that would permit such conclusions.

 After Yulia Skripal, her father Sergei has also now left the hospital. In recent days, Yulia Skripal made a brief statement before the cameras in Great Britain.[A SHORT EXCERPT IN RUSSIAN IS HEARD.] She said that she still found it hard to believe that she and her father were attacked in this way, and that their recovery had been slow and painful. The doctors in the hospital in Salisbury said that the Skripals’ recovery bordered on a miracle; it had really been assumed that they would not survive.

The Skripal case led to a dramatic deterioration in diplomatic relations between Russia and numerous western countries. After the British Government had declared that it was convinced that Russia was responsible for the poison attack on Skripal and his daughter, over 140 Russian diplomats were expelled from a total of 26 European countries, the USA and NATO, an event that was unique in its scale. Germany also participated, and expelled four Russian diplomats. In return, Russia expelled the same number of diplomats from the countries concerned.

NDR, WDR, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit had reported that in the 1990s a Russian scientist had offered a sample of Novichok to the [German] Federal Intelligence Service [BND]. Since then it is known that the nerve poison was exported from Russia, at least to the West. It is not clear where else it might possibly have found its way to.

The conduct of the British Government is increasingly putting the German Federal Government in a position where it is difficult to explain itself. Beyond the fact that the poison has been identified as Novichok, there is no trail that leads to Russia, let alone to the Kremlin. The decision to participate in the expulsion of Russian diplomats therefore appears more than questionable.

Monday, July 9, 2018

UK Ambassador, Craig Murray, Gears Up to Demolish the Lies About the Amesbury Poisonings From Thereason May's Law 'n Order minister, Savidge Javidge

Craig Murray, who was booted from the diplomatic service for objecting to Britain's use of intelligence obtained by boiling people to death in an Uzbek gaol, summarizes on his blog the British Government's position on the recent fatal poisoning of Dawn Sturgess in Amesbury, Wiltshire. Sturgess became ill following a visit with her "partner" Charlie Rowley to the scene of the Skripal poisonings in the nearby town of Salisbury. Rowley also became ill and remains under medical care:

Russia has a decade long secret programme of producing and stockpiling novichok nerve agents. It also has been training agents in secret assassination techniques, and British intelligence has a copy of the Russian training manual, which includes instruction on painting nerve agent on doorknobs. The Russians chose to use this assassination programme to target Sergei Skripal, a double agent who had been released from jail in Russia some eight years previously.

Only the Russians can make novichok and only the Russians had a motive to attack the Skripals.

The Russians had been tapping the phone of Yulia Skripal. They decided to attack Sergei Skripal while his daughter was visiting from Moscow. Their trained assassin(s) painted a novichok on the doorknob of the Skripal house in the suburbs of Salisbury. Either before or after the attack, they entered a public place in the centre of Salisbury and left a sealed container of the novichok there.

The Skripals both touched the doorknob and both functioned perfectly normally for at least five hours, even able to eat and drink heartily. Then they were simultaneously and instantaneously struck down by the nerve agent, at a spot in the city centre coincidentally close to where the assassins left a sealed container of the novichok lying around. Even though the nerve agent was eight times more deadly than Sarin or VX, it did not kill the Skripals because it had been on the doorknob and affected by rain.

Detective Sergeant Bailey attended the Skripal house and was also poisoned by the doorknb, but more lightly. None of the other police who attended the house were affected.

Four months later, Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess were rooting about in public parks, possibly looking for cigarette butts, and accidentally came into contact with the sealed container of a novichok. They were poisoned and Dawn Sturgess subsequently died.

Source
Almost (but not quite) every sentence in the above statement, says Murray, is "very obviously untrue" for reasons he promises to set forth tomorrow.


PostScript:

To anyone who has followed the Novichok Saga in any detail, the following comment on Murray's blog is riveting:

Jack: 

[T]here is still the case of the suspicious couple [in the Skripals poisoning case] on CCTV back in march, that very much resemble [latest poisoning victims] Charlie and Dawn!


I summarised [the photo evidence] here. Feel free to spread.

Yes, its a convincing match.

Related: 

CanSpeccy: Understanding Theresa May's Novichok Bollocks

Thursday, June 14, 2018

The Novichok File (30)

March 18,2018: Skripal Tripal
April 11, 2018: Are the Skripals in Mortal Danger From the British State?
 April12, 2018: Novichok: Russia's Antidote to Seafood Poisoning?
April 13, 2018: Why Yulia Skripal, Released From Hospital, Is Being Held in UK Police Custody
July 9, 2018: UK Ambassador, Craig Murray, Gears Up to Demolish the Lies About  the Amesbury Poisonings From Thereason May's Law 'n Order minister, Savidge Javidge
July 12, 2018: Skripal Tripal, No. 39: Where the Skripals Crossed Paths With the "Amesbury Poisonings" Couple
July 13, 2018: Novichok on a Door Knob: An Official Conspiracy Theory
July 24, 2018: Understanding Theresa May's Novichok Bollocks
July 27, 2018: Britain's Novichok Poisonings: An Opportunistic Anti-Russian Propaganda Operation?
August 28, 2018: The ducks that didn't die
August 29, 2018: Ambassador Craig Murray Examines the British Deep State's Connection with the Skripal Nerve Agent Poisonings
September 6, 2018: Theresa May's New Statement on Russia's Nerve Agent Attack in England's Green and Pleasant Land Drives Intelligence Irregulars to Renewed Effort on the Novichok File
September 13, 2018: Ambassador Craig Murray Probes the Alibi of Petrov and Bashirov, the Alleged (by Theresa May) Skripal/Novichok Poisoners
April 16, 2019: MOON OF ALABAMA CIA Director Used Fake Skripal Incident Photos To Manipulate Trump
April 16, 2019: ROB SLANE: Trump in Dumps as Spook Picks Sick Kids’n’Dead Duck Trick Pics
April 18, 2019: CRAIG MURRAY, The Official Skripal Story is a Dead Duck
July 23, 2019:Were the Skripal Poisonings a British Intelligence Service Hoax?
October 17, 2019: Skripal Tripal Part 2: Well Wadderyerknow — the Conroner's Inquest Into the Death of Dawn Sturgess Has Been Adjourned indefinitely
March 7, 2020: Craig Murray - Pure: Ten Points I Just Can’t Believe About the Official Skripal Narrative
June 17, 2020: Craig Murray - The Miracle of Salisbury: The BBC Enters 'Propaganda Hall Of Fame' With Skripals Story
June 19, 2020: 5 Facts BBC’s “The Salisbury Poisonings” Forgot to Mention
July 30, 2020: Dances With BearsAUSTRIA CONFIRMS OPCW REPORT ON SKRIPAL FAKING BY THE BRITISH – VIENNA EXPOSES FINANCIAL TIMES LIES AND COVER-UP