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Thread: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Quote
    Quote Quote Posted by Cidersomerset (here)
    Russian Minister Of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov Gave An Interview To BBC host Stephen Sackur.
    The BBC interviewer, Stephen Sackur, has bad manners, does not listen and is not factual ... just as Lavrov states.
    Lavrov is quite capable and credible.
    Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov - BBC HARDtalk rushes ...17/4/18
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zJ41whNgR0



    Yeah and I think Lavrov told him that in the interview or words to that effect.

    The show has been going for a long time and is like this to all guests its
    on after the watershed ( 9pm) as it can be controversial and its hall mark
    and is longer than the usual 5 - 10 min news sound bite. Saying that Stephen
    Sackur was not open minded and was coming from the mainstream media
    point of view completely....

    I thought Lavrov came over very well and as a canny old politician kept his cool and
    made valid points Sucker tried to ignore. Lavrov knew what to expect as he has
    been on before and though he is following the Moscow line as would be expected.
    The info so far does not make sense from the UK official story and being only 8
    miles from Porton Down the UK chemical weapons centre is another one of those
    coincidences that seem to appear in all these events....

    Sucker is 'hard' or rude to all guests Roger Stone was on a couple
    months ago.

    180207 BBC News HARDtalk Roger Stone
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYPov-AupeI
    Published on 7 Feb 2018

    Hard Talk with the Russian Press Secretary Mr Peskov
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNwy6tvRdH4
    Published on 11 Feb 2017

    ==============================================



    Russian spy: Skripal poison 'was in liquid form'

    17/4/18

    The nerve agent used to poison former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter
    Yulia was delivered "in a liquid form", the Department for Environment says.

    Only "a very small amount" was used on the pair, who were found unconscious
    on a bench in Salisbury on 4 March.

    A massive clean-up operation is beginning to decontaminate nine sites in the city
    - it will take several months and cost millions of pounds.

    The UK says Russia was behind the attack, but Moscow denies involvement.

    Yulia, 33, left hospital earlier this month. Her 66-year-old father is said to be
    recovering more slowly but is expected to eventually be discharged.


    read more....



    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43798068
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 17th April 2018 at 16:42.

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    No data on Novichok's country or lab of origin – UK delegation at OPCW



    Published on 18 Apr 2018
    OPCW representatives say they cannot identify the country or
    laboratory of origin of the nerve agent used in the Skripal poisoning.
    READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/93j2

    ================================================
    ================================================


    Britain admits OPCW did not confirm 'essential evidence' on origin of Skripal poison


    Published on 18 Apr 2018
    "The formula for these agents are out in the world" says Annie Machon as Britain
    admits Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) did not
    confirm ‘essential evidence’ on origin of Skripal poison.

    MORE: https://on.rt.com/93j2
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 18th April 2018 at 21:58.

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Another informed and well stated viewpoint from Craig Murray here: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archi...pal-poisoning/

    He is extremely well placed to comment having worked for the FCO himself, and being privy to civil service practice, first hand.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Senior Civil Servants Still Deeply Sceptical of Russian Responsibility for Skripal Poisoning

    18 Apr, 2018 in Uncategorized by craig

    Well-placed FCO sources tell me it remains the case that senior civil servants in both the FCO and Home Office remain very sceptical of Russian guilt in the Skripal case.

    It remains the case that Porton Down scientists have identified the chemical as a “novichok-style” nerve agent but still cannot tie its production to Russia – there are many other possibilities. The effort to identify the actual perpetrator is making no headway, with the police having eliminated by alibi the Russian air passenger on the same flight as Julia Skripal identified as suspicious by MI5 purely on grounds of the brevity of their stay.

    That senior civil servants do not regard Russian responsibility as a fact is graphically revealed in this minute from head of the civil service, Sir Jeremy Heywood, sent to officials following the attack on Syria. Note the very careful use of language:

    "Their work was instrumental in ensuring widespread international support for the Government’s position on Russian responsibility for the Salisbury attack."


    This is very deliberate use of language by Sir Jeremy. Exactly as I explained with the phrase “of a type developed by Russia” about the nerve agent, you have to parse extremely carefully what is written by the senior civil service. They do not write extra phrases for no reason.

    Sir Jeremy could have simply written of Russian responsibility as a fact, but he did not. His reference to “the government’s position on Russian responsibility” is very deliberate and an acknowledgement that other positions are possible. He deliberately refrains from asserting Russian responsibility as a fact. This is no accident and is tailored to the known views of responsible civil servants in the relevant departments, to whom he is writing.

    This in no way detracts from the fact that Sir Jeremy takes it as read that it is the duty of civil servants to follow “the Government’s position”. But it is an acknowledgement that they do not have privately to believe it.

    Allied missile strikes on Syria – a message from the Head of the Civil Service

    In the early hours of 14 April, the armed forces of the United Kingdom, the United States and France launched a series of co-ordinated strikes on sites in Syria linked with the production and storage of chemical weapons.

    This was in response to the use of prohibited chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against the civilian population of Douma, whose horrific consequences were widely reported.

    I want to thank civil servants in a number of departments, but especially in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, Department for International Development, Department for Health and Social Care (and Public Health England), Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, and the Cabinet Office, for their work after the attack on Douma and throughout the allied operation.

    This response was designed to degrade the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capability and as a deterrent to their future use.

    Coming after the nerve agent attack in Salisbury just over a month ago, I also want to take this opportunity to renew my gratitude to the hundreds of public servants – at home and abroad – involved in the response to that attack and the ongoing investigation. Their work was instrumental in ensuring widespread international support for the Government’s position on Russian responsibility for the Salisbury attack and the participation of many nations in the diplomatic sanctions that followed.

    We could wish it was in different circumstances. However, the response to the Salisbury incident and the chemical attack on Douma showed the public service at its best: collaborative, professional and quick to act in the national interest, even under the greatest pressure.

    Jeremy Heywood
    Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service


    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    The man who made Novichok - BBC News
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trqUxpPzb3g
    Published on 19 Apr 2018
    Skripal poisoning: The man who made Novichok.The BBC's Steve
    Rosenberg speaks to retired Russian scientist Vladimir Uglev who
    says he manufactured a Novichok nerve agent.



    Salisbury attack: Scientist Vladimir Uglev 'helped create Novichok'

    19/4/19

    Moscow continues to deny the existence of a chemical weapons
    programme called Novichok. But this is a question of semantics.
    On Russia's Black Sea coast I meet Vladimir Uglev, a scientist
    who helped develop nerve agents for the Soviet Union.

    "The aim of the programme was to produce a substance far
    more powerful than the nerve agent VX - 10 times more powerful,"
    he tells me. "And that's what we got." Mr Uglev, 71, claims he
    created the poison that was used in the attack on Sergei and
    Yulia Skripal in Salisbury on 4 March. It has been identified in
    Russia by the code A-234.

    read more...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-43828580

    ========================================



    Spy poisoning: Salisbury residents warned of toxic 'hotspots'

    20/4/18

    Toxic "hotspots" of the nerve agent used to poison a former spy
    and his daughter could still be present around Salisbury, a
    government scientist says.Ian Boyd was addressing a public
    meeting in the city, during which people expressed frustration
    at the continued closure of several sites.
    Read more....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43833582

    ===================================================

    Russia to OPCW: Russia gave proof 'Novichok' patented in US in 2015


    Published on 19 Apr 2018
    "The more this story goes on, the more the wheels fall off the wagon of the initial
    allegations" says independent journalist Martin Summers as Russia reveals to
    Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) they gave
    proof 'Novichok' was patented in US in 2015.
    MORE: https://on.rt.com/93kp
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 20th April 2018 at 06:40.

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    UK: Yakovenko slams UK for 'abduction of Russian citizens' for Skripal case



    Published on 20 Apr 2018
    Russia's Ambassador to the United Kingdom Alexander Yakovenko claimed that
    the Russian side sent a request to allow the medical examination of Yulia Skripal
    and received no answer, adding "now we have more reasons to qualify the situation
    as the abduction of two Russian citizens," during a press conference in London on Friday.

    He went on to say that “This is just the international law, and declining our request is
    just the violation of the international law. What do we want? We want to see that she
    is in a good shape, in a good health, and [if] she will tell us personally that 'I
    don'tneed your services' and that's it.”

    Answering a question on whether Yulia Skripal might be "fearful" to meet the Russian side,
    Yakovenko answered, "I don't think so. Why she is not allowed to talk to her sister, to her
    cousin?," adding “I want to talk personally, sorry about that. [It's] very simple. We're old fashioned."

    Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were allegedly poisoned by a nerve agent
    in Salisbury on March 4. The UK has blamed Moscow for the incident, while the Kremlin has
    denied any involvement in the affair.

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Novichok: Behind nerve agent (Inconvenient facts surrounding Skripal saga)



    Published on 23 Apr 2018
    Keep calm & blame Russia: RT’s story of inconvenient facts surrounding Skripal saga:
    If countless Russia-bashing pieces don’t help you get the big picture of the lingering
    the saga, a report by RT’s Murad Gazdiev may. He scrutinized the major slipups in
    the UK government’s (and their pundits’) narrative.
    READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/93ud

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    So two Russian pranksters pretended to be the Polish Prime Minister, called the OPCW and got an official to admit the poisoning agent could be from anywhere.... another dent in the case.

    This is not the first prank call they’ve made to western officials.... a quick internet search finds a few more cases easily, including Nikki Haley (https://sputniknews.com/viral/201801...o-nikki-haley/)

    Quote LISTEN as OPCW Chief Allegedly Admits Skripal Poison Could Be Made Anywhere

    Vladimir 'Vovan' Kuznetsov and Alexei 'Lexus' Stolyarov, the pair of Russian telephone pranksters well-known (https://sputniknews.com/viral/201801...o-nikki-haley/) for their constant trolling of Western officials, have put out an audio recording of what they say is their conversation with Ahmet Uzumcu, the director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

    Posing as Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the pranksters got the man in the tape to admit that the nerve agent used to poison Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia could have been made anywhere, and to point out that the British government never gave the OPCW the mandate to trace the source of the chemical.

    Here is a partial transcript of their conversation:

    Alleged Ahmet Uzumcu: As far as the OPCW involvement is concerned Mr. Prime Minister, we were asked by the United Kingdom to provide technical assistance, to take samples and to analyze them in our designated laboratories, which are very reliable. The work was done and it is now concluded. The results in fact confirm as far as the identity of the chemical which was used. We were able to confirm the results achieved by the British authorities. We don't call it with the same name, but the nature of the chemical is in fact identical, as far as the chemistry is concerned. So the formula is the same and so on. They call it Novichok; we cannot call it Novichok because Novichok is a terminology used by Western countries. It's not universally used…It's like calling water and H20.

    But our laboratories and experts of course were not mandated to trace the source, the origin of this chemical to any country. The British have of course taken their own position, because they may have additional information which we do not have. In any case, our mandate was limited to identifying the chemical, which is done now…

    Pranksters posing as Morawiecki: I understand and I know. You know I don't specialize in chemistry, and I have only basic knowledge, so please excuse me if I ask you to explain to me some basic simple things. First of all, Salisbury: based on the report we defined the chemical composition and now understand that those who prepared the substance had a high level lab, correct?

    Alleged Ahmet Uzumcu: Our laboratories found that the toxic chemical which was used was of a high purity. That means according to our experts that it could not be done by say a terrorist or organized crime or individuals, but rather should have been done by real experts who had experience in this field. This could only be done in full-fledged facilities or laboratories. It could not be done [just] anywhere.

    Pranksters posing as Morawiecki: But you are not sure that it could be produced by a state?

    Alleged Ahmet Uzumcu: We cannot be sure. Our experts cannot verify this, but they think that it was done by real experts.

    Pranksters posing as Morawiecki: Ok. So it's not possible that it was produced by a private actor?

    Alleged Ahmet Uzumcu: Oh no. I think we can exclude this, yes. I don't think it can be done.

    Pranksters posing as Morawiecki: Ok, so if it is a state, I hope you understand that it could be only Russia. If not, do you have any ideas which other states could have developed this substance? In theory such labs are in Russia, but [also] in Great Britain, the USA, Ukraine and even in Poland as well.

    Alleged Ahmet Uzumcu: Mr. Prime Minister, according to our experts, it can be produced in any state. This cannot be excluded. However, also, the Russians claim that there were some research activities on such substances elsewhere, which may be true. But the states which may have conducted such activities would have done it for protective, defensive purposes [aimed at determining] how to detect it, how to defend or develop some antidotes against the use of such substances and so on. But these activities are allowed by the [Chemical Weapons] Convention. They can be conducted, and they don't need to be declared.

    However, if such research activities are conducted for the production of such substances, and for their use in fact to harm people in warfare and so on, of course they need to be declared, and so far we didn't receive such as declaration from any member country of the OPCW.

    Pranksters posing as Morawiecki: So it could be produced in any country?

    Alleged Ahmet Uzumcu: In theory yes!

    Pranksters posing as Morawiecki: In theory yes…So even in the US?

    Alleged Ahmet Uzumcu: Oh absolutely! In any country where there would be some chemistry expertise. Because the material which is used, as I'm told by our experts, is accessible. So that's the problem we face with this toxic chemical. The material to produce it is available without any restrictions. However, a high degree of expertise is required, and also a good laboratory is required.

    Listen to the full audio of Vovan and Lexus' conversation with the man believed to be Ahmet Uzumcu here:


    In the second part of the audio, the man identified as Uzumcu tells the pranksters that Russia seems supportive of OPCW investigators' deployment to Syria to investigate the alleged Douma chemical attack. He adds that he "cannot verify" speculation by some Western powers that Russia and Syria were "cleaning up the place" before the investigators' arrival.
    From here: https://sputniknews.com/europe/20180...ank-phonecall/
    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    An update from Craig Murray today on this peculiar episode.

    This blog entry deals with the issue of D-notices.

    Here's a description of what a D-notice is:

    (DA) Notice system
    www.dnotice.org.uk/

    The DA Notice system is a voluntary code that provides guidance to the British media on the publication or broadcasting of national security information. The objective is to prevent inadvertent public disclosure of information that would compromise UK military and intelligence operations and methods.

    Of particular interest are the comments from Clive Ponting, another person who would have inside knowledge on how certain agencies are likely to either have been involved, directly, or, tasked with throwing snow over the whole affair.

    And the article in full, below.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "That the [UK] government’s very first act on the poisoning was to ban all media mention of Pablo Miller makes it extremely probable that this whole incident is related to the Trump dossier and that Skripal had worked on it...."

    Probable Western Responsibility for Skripal Poisoning

    28 Apr, 2018 in Uncategorized by craig | View Comments

    UPDATE: Stupidly I had forgotten this vital confirmation from Channel 4 News (serial rebel Alex Thomson) of the D Notice in place on mention of Pablo Miller.

    Name:  Screenshot-440.png
Views: 203
Size:  93.1 KB

    Back then I did not realise what I now know, that the person being protected was Pablo Miller, colleague in both MI6 then Orbis Intelligence of Christopher Steele, author of the fabrications of the Trump/Russia golden shower dossier [my emphasis - TQ].

    That the government’s very first act on the poisoning was to ban all media mention of Pablo Miller makes it extremely probable that this whole incident is related to the Trump dossier and that Skripal had worked on it, as I immediately suspected. The most probable cause is that Skripal – who you should remember had traded the names of Russian agents to Britain for cash – had worked on the dossier with Miller but was threatening to expose its lies for cash.

    ORIGINAL POST: This comment from Clive Ponting, doyen of British whistleblowers, appeared on my website and he has now given me permission to republish it under his full name:

    "I have been reading the blogs for some time but this is my first post. Like Craig I was a senior civil servant but in the ministry of defence not the FCO. I had plenty of dealings with all three intelligence agencies. It seems to me that the reason none of the MSM are doing any investigating/reporting of the Salisbury affair, apart from official handouts, is that the government have slapped a D-Notice over the whole incident and it is not possible to report that a notice has been issued.

    Here is another theory as to what happened.

    The Russians pardoned Skripal and allowed him to leave (spy agencies have an understanding that agents will always be swapped after an interval – it’s the only protection they have and helps recruitment). In the UK Skripal would have been thoroughly debriefed by MI6 and MI5 (his ex-handler lives near Salisbury).

    If at some point they discovered that Skripal was giving them false information, perhaps he was told to do so by the FSB as a condition of his release, lives may have been endangered/lost. If he also was also involved in the ‘golden showers’ dossier then elements in the US would have a reason to act as well. The whole incident was an inside job not to kill him, hence the use of BZ, but to give him a warning and a punishment. The whole thing is being treated as though the authorities know exactly what went on but have to cover it up."


    Addendum

    "I meant to add that the policeman who ‘just happened’ to be around was almost certainly the special branch ‘minder’ who was keeping Yulia under surveillance. The media are not allowed to mention the existence of a D notice."


    Those of us who have been in the belly of the beast and have worked closely with the intelligence services, really do know what they and the British government are capable of. They are not “white knights”.

    I would add it has been very plain from day one that there is a D notice on Pablo Miller.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Last edited by Tintin; 28th April 2018 at 18:26.
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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Salisbury-gate smoking gun found? Initial reports said Skripals poisoned with Fentanyl

    Nick Griffin Sott.net
    Tue, 01 May 2018 20:00 UTC
    :


    The entire UK press is refusing to tell the British public of revelations about the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury which - if revealed - would surely lead to the sacking of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and could even bring down the entire Theresa May regime.

    The UK's press has gone strangely quiet on the Skripal case. After the huge uproar over the Salisbury poisoning incident and the miraculous recovery of all the victims of "Putin's deadly nerve agent Novichok", there is only silence. But remarkable revelations in the small print of a local newspaper and the website of a specialist health journal tell us why.

    First, consider for a moment what is missing: Where are the further statements from Julia Skripal? Where is she and why have there been no further briefings about the health? Has she visited her father in hospital? If yes, why has this not been reported? If, no, why not?

    What has happened to the daily updates on Sergei Skripal? The last reports suggested that he would shortly be able to leave hospital, so has he done so? If not, how is he? How did he take the news that the British state killed all his pets and incinerated the evidence that they were not contaminated with Novichok?

    But the failure of the UK's mainstream media to update the British public on important aspects of the Skripal case goes much, much further than this.

    First, we have the little noticed fact that the May regime has used at least one D Notice to stifle press coverage of the affair. The government order gagging the press was apparently issued to protect the cover of the MI6 operative who was Sergei Skripal's 'handler'. With the customary incompetence of this government, the D Notice was actually issued after some sections of the press had published his name, and more importantly, the fact that he worked for Orbis Business Intelligence, the company which created the fake news "Dirty Dossier" about Donald Trump.

    It is customary for the media not to reveal that they have been hit with a D Notice; after all, they don't like to admit that they are under government control and obey government censorship diktats - that's something that's supposed to happen only under 'totalitarian regimes', after all.

    In this case, however, the truth was revealed by Alex Thomson, chief correspondent and presenter of Channel 4 News. Thomson tweeted about it on March 12th:



    While the D Notice apparently warned off Britain's pitifully compliant 'mainstream', however, one Bulgarian journalist was much more tenacious and principled.

    In 2017 investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhiev reported about massive air transports of weapons from Europe to Syrian 'rebels' under diplomatic cover and got fired over it. On April 26th, however, she made another interesting find. She tweeted that:

    Quote
    Dilyana Gaytandzhieva‏ @dgaytandzhieva

    The #Skripals were allegedly exposed to the drug #Fentanyl, not the #Novichok nerve agent, according to information obtained from the UK Clinical Services Journal https://www.clinicalservicesjournal.com/story/25262/response-unit-called-as-salisbury-hospital-declares-major-incident …


    2:24 PM - 26 Apr 2018
    20 replies 233 retweets 212 likes

    Clinical Services Journal
    is a specialist publication for healthcare professionals in the UK's acute healthcare sector. It is thus a serious publication written by and for people very familiar with issues such as opioid poisoning.

    The Clinical Services Journal piece Gaytandzhiev had found is from March 5th, 2018, the day after the Skripal incident in Salisbury. In its original version it read:
    Salisbury District Hospital declared a "major incident" on Monday 5 March, after two patients were exposed to an opioid [...] It followed an incident hours earlier in which a man and a woman were exposed to the drug Fentanyl in the city centre. The opioid is 10,000 times stronger than heroin.


    On April 27th, a day after the article was publicised, but more than seven weeks after the Skripals were poisoned, the article was changed. Once more, it was Dilyana Gaytandzhiev doing the work that the compliant and cowardly UK media failed to do. She tweeted again:

    Quote
    Dilyana Gaytandzhieva‏ @dgaytandzhieva

    The #Skripals were exposed to #Fentanyl, not #Novichok. After I published this information yesterday (26.04.) the Clinical Services Journal redacted it today https://www.clinicalservicesjournal.com/story/25262/response-unit-called-as-salisbury-hospital-declares-major-incident …


    5:12 AM - 27 Apr 2018
    30 replies 426 retweets 343 likes
    The second line of the doctored article now reads:
    "It followed an incident hours earlier in which a man and a woman were exposed to a substance in the city centre."
    All reference to Fentanyl as the cause of the Skripals' illness in the March 5th article was removed between April 26th and April 27th. That said - again displaying the sloppy incompetence of those responsible for the monstrously irresponsible Novichok hoax - the article still contains a reference to an opioid:


    Nor was the CSJ the only outlet which reported the Fentanyl. The local Salisbury Journal reported it on March 5th and - at present - the piece is still up on its website:
    "Police declared a major incident after a man in his 60s and a woman in her 30s were found unconscious on a bench in the shopping centre on Sunday.

    "Emergency services at the scene suspected the substance may have been a powerful drug called fentanyl, but nothing has yet been confirmed.

    "They were taken to Salisbury District Hospital where they are in a critical condition in intensive care."
    Now, it could be argued that the initial fentanyl diagnosis was mistaken, and that the Skripals were indeed suffering from the effects of the ultra-deadly nerve agent which failed to kill either them, the people who first went to their aid on the bench, the police officer, the guinea pigs or the cat.

    Such a claim would however clash with the government's explanation for the Skripals' miraculous survival - that as soon as they arrived they were given the antidote to Novichok which just happened to be in stock at an ordinary District General Hospital which does not even have a Poisons Unit.

    Self-evidently, if they had been rendered unconscious through Novichok poisoning but treated for Fentanyl ingestion, the treatment would have failed and they would either have died or been left in a permanent vegetative state. After all, the press and medical experts all assured us that the effects of Novichok are fast-acting and irreversible.

    If, one the other hand, they were indeed poisoned by Fentanyl, and treated as such, they would have stood a much better chance of survival and recovery.

    All the more so because staff at Salisbury DGH have become somewhat expert at dealing with the effects of the heroin substitute. In November 2017 the Salisbury Journal reported about an unrelated Fentanyl overdose case. In 2016 Salisbury had a spike in Fentanyl OD cases.

    Another local news site, Devon Live, also carried the original report on March 5th, under the headline: 'Major chemical incident declared after 10 people vomited Fentanyl and two are critically ill':
    "It is understood that police suspect Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate many times stronger than heroin, may have been involved. A man and a woman are in a critical condition and up to 10 other people are involved.

    "Officers and paramedics were called to The Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury after the man and a woman fell ill. The woman, who was unconscious, was airlifted to Salisbury district hospital at about 4.15pm, while the man was taken by ambulance. [...]

    "It was recently reported that Fentanyl has claimed the lives of at least 60 people in the UK over the last eight months."
    The Devon Live report is still (at present) online in its original form. It links to the first Wiltshire Police statement on the case and quotes from it. Curiously the link is dead. The first official police statement on the Skripal case is "currently unavailable." 1



    All of which leaves us with one huge, unanswered question: Is the total silence of the entire British press on this extraordinary demolition of the government's "case" against Russia over the Skripal poisoning the result of a further D Notice?

    Or is it a shocking example of collective self-censorship by a media elite which is as committed as the May regime and the hawks in Washington to the demonisation of Russia and increased Western intervention in Syria and Ukraine?

    Because the evidence uncovered by a solitary young Bulgarian journalist could and should bring down at the very least Britain's sabre-rattling buffoon of a Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson. And, given the extraordinary international crisis the deliberate misdiagnosis has caused, Theresa May and the entire Tory government as well.

    The scandal was far more dangerous, the failed cover-up is far more ridiculous, and the exposure is far more dramatic, than the events that brought down Nixon and made the classic film about Watergate. And Skripalgate surely has just as good a ring to it? But does the British media have a Bob Woodward or a Carl Bernstein? I think you can guess the answer...
    Author Nick Griffin is a former Member of the European Parliament (2009 - 2014)

    Note
    1 The Wiltshire police report is cached on the Wayback Machine archive
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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Czech President says country produced Novichok,
    same nerve agent used on Skripals ...


    Published on 3 May 2018
    Czech Republic's president Milos Zeman has confirmed that the country
    has been involved in producing the type of nerve agent believed to have
    been used to poison the former Russian spy, Sergey Skripal, and his
    daughter in the UK in March.
    READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/94jb

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Ritchie asks the obvious questions and plays a clip from the BBC correspondent
    Martin Blunt and comments. Some strong language....

    The Monologue: Where The Hell Are The Skripals? Iran Fights Back & More.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU5Z-xw645E
    Published on 10 May 2018...( 19 mins )...
    Richie Allen has been producing and presenting television and radio programs for
    the best part of twenty years. The Richie Allen Show airs Monday - Thursday at
    7 PM GMT and at 11 AM UK Time each Sunday.

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?



    MI5 chief: Russia trying to undermine European democracies

    2 hours ago...14/5/18

    Russia is seeking to undermine European democracies with "malign activities",
    the MI5 chief has warned.Speaking to security chiefs in Berlin, Andrew Parker
    also condemned Russia for the "reckless" poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury.
    Russia has denied involvement in the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal
    and his daughter Yulia.Mr Parker also warned Islamic State aspires to commit
    "devastating" and "more complex" attacks in Europe.

    In his first public comments about the nerve agent attack in March, Mr Parker
    accused the Kremlin of "flagrant breaches of international rules"."The reckless
    attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, using a highly lethal nerve agent, put
    numerous lives at risk, including that of his daughter," he said."It was only
    through near-miraculous medical intervention that his and his daughter's lives
    were saved, and wider preventive action was able to be taken."

    The Russian government has repeatedly rejected accusations it was involved in
    the attack. It has been the subject of condemnation and diplomatic sanctions
    from the West over its alleged involvement.

    read more...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44104260

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Ex-spy Sergei Skripal discharged after poisoning - BBC News

    Published on 18 May 2018
    Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal has been discharged from hospital after
    being poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury.The 66-year-old was found
    slumped on a park bench in the city on 4 March, with his daughter Yulia.
    They were taken to Salisbury District Hospital's intensive care unit, where
    they were stabilised after being exposed to Novichok.

    Ms Skripal was released on 9 April and was moved to a secure location.
    Director of nursing Lorna Wilkinson said treating the Skripals had been "a
    huge and unprecedented challenge".She added: "This is an important stage
    in his recovery, which will now take place away from the hospital."

    ================================================



    Ex-spy Sergei Skripal discharged after poisoning

    12 minutes ago...18/5/18

    Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal has been discharged from hospital, two months
    after being poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury.The 66-year-old was found
    slumped on a park bench in the city on 4 March, with his daughter Yulia.

    They were taken to Salisbury District Hospital's intensive care unit, where they
    were stabilised after being exposed to Novichok. Ms Skripal was released on 9
    April and was moved to a secure location.It is not known whether Mr Skripal
    has been taken to the same location as his daughter.The Metropolitan Police said
    its investigation into the attack continued and it would not "be discussing any
    protective or security arrangements that are in place".

    read more....

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44165718

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Sergei Skripal discharged from hospital after being poisoned by ‘deadly’ agent

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u41hj0QWhEU
    Published on 18 May 2018...RT...( 6 mins)...
    Just over two months after reportedly being targeted by 'one of the most deadly
    nerve agents ever produced', former Russian spy Sergei Skripal has been discharged
    from a British hospital. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/95jc

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    The UK owes Russia an explanation over Skripal case, and an apology

    Robert Bridge RT
    Tue, 22 May 2018 16:12 UTC


    Sergey and Yulia Skripal. © Global Look Press

    Ever since the suspected poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal on British soil, for which the Kremlin has been duly blamed, the recovering pair has not been seen. Russia says the Skripals are being held against their will.

    If ever the world needed the likes of a Sherlock Holmes to help solve a crime, now is certainly the time. But even London's legendary super sleuth would have trouble cracking the case of the missing Skripals - Sergei and his daughter, Yulia - and not least of all because their story is deeply fraught with political intrigue and skullduggery.

    Indeed, not only does the British government refuse to share information on the case with Russia - despite the fact that it involves an apparent murder attempt on two Russian citizens - it has even refused to allow family members from visiting the victims in England.

    Viktoria Skripal, the cousin of Yulia Skripal, has just had her UK visa application rejected for a second time, with no explanation provided.

    Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, told Sky News that with regards to the fate of Yulia Skripal, "We have suspicions that she's been abducted, held against her will."

    For those who may be unfamiliar with the story, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were reportedly exposed to the deadly nerve agent A-234, also known as 'Novichok,' in Salisbury, England on March 4.

    Just days after the alleged poisoning, UK Prime Minister Theresa May promoted a conspiracy theory when she declared - without any evidence - that it was "highly likely" the Russian government was to blame for the incident. She then proceeded to put Moscow on notice, saying it had 24 hours to come clean. To which Vladimir Putin dryly responded that one does not normally give ultimatums to a nuclear power.

    The fact is, even an amateur sleuth could detect some glaring inconsistencies with the official story that should have prevented members of the UK government, like Boris Johnson, from jumping on the crazy train against Russia. Consider, for example, the manner in which the Skripals were said to have been exposed to the nerve agent.

    Detectives investigating the case "found the highest concentration of the nerve agent on the front door at the address,"according to a report in The Guardian. Thus, we are expected to believe that after being exposed to the deadliest nerve agent to ever escape from a lab, Sergei and Yulia Skripla then spent the next several hours wining and dining at a restaurant in Salisbury before police discovered the pair unconscious on a park bench.

    They are both said to be recovering from their experience.

    To understand just how preposterous that sounds, it is necessary to know a bit about this thing called Novichok. This nerve agent, which is said to be 5-8 times more lethal than the VX nerve agent, produces symptoms in its victims within just 30 seconds to 2 minutes following exposure. A very unpleasant death - not a relaxing dinner - would typically soon follow.

    Thus, if a military-grade nerve agent had really been used against the Skripals, how is it possible that the only resulting fatalities were that of the Skripal's pet guinea pigs, which reportedly succumbed to dehydration - not poisoning - after being neglected inside of his house for many days? Moreover, does such glaring incompetence bear the hallmark signs of a "state-sponsored attack," as the British government claims it to be?

    Meanwhile, efforts to shed some light on the mystery have only produced more confusion. Last month, for example, Alexander Yakovenko, Russian Envoy to the UK, slammed a probe carried out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which he said "was conducted under control" of the British side.

    "What we discovered is that the OPCW experts' work in the UK was not in accordance with the CWC standard procedures, but in bilateral format with the UK, which lacks transparency," he said.

    Yakovenko emphasized what Russia has been saying all along: that the formula of the nerve agent A-234, also known as Novichok, "can be made and researched in any chemical laboratory."

    Slowly but surely, that truth is being exposed.

    Earlier this month, Czech President Milos Zeman admitted that his country had been involved in the production of Novichok.

    "One has to conclude that our country produced and tested Novichok, even though [it was produced] only in small quantities and then destroyed," the Czech leader told the Barrandov TV Channel. "There is no need to lie."

    Meanwhile, just this week, a number of German broadcasters and daily newspapers, including NDR and Die Zeit issued a report revealing that a Russian scientist had provided German intelligence with information on the development of Novichok following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It cited unnamed sources within the German foreign intelligence service, the BND.

    The report went on to disclose that then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl ordered the BND to share the formula with Berlin's "closest allies," including the intelligence services of the US and the UK.

    Thus, many NATO countries, including the US and the UK, have long been aware of the chemical makeup of Novichok. This inconvenient truth significantly increases the number of possible suspects who may have been tempted, for whatever reason, to murder the Skripals.

    Framing Russia, which is certainly in fashion these days in Western capitals, would seem to rank high on the list of possible motivating factors.

    Whatever the case may be, none of this bodes particularly well for the future well-being of Sergei and Yulia Skripal - wherever they may be - two Russian citizens who seem to have been swept up in a game of high stakes at a time when hysteria-driven Russia-bashing has become all the rage.

    At the time of writing, NHS England said Sergei Skripal had been discharged from the hospital. However, that announcement will unlikely provide any details as to the whereabouts of Mr. Skripal and his daughter, who was released in March. Citing patient confidentiality, NHS said they were unable to comment on any details about the patients.

    =============================================

    All these emphases about "Novichok" which couldn't have been used against the Skripals -- or they be dead long ago -- leads me to conjecture it was a setup/prelude to a chemical bombing in Syria which didn't happen, for whatever reason, in order to get Russia to hold the bag... someone must have said "No!" like in Kosovo...
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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Returning to Russia is the ‘long-term’ goal: Yulia Skripal gives first interview

    RT
    Published time: 23 May, 2018 17:39
    Edited time: 23 May, 2018 18:30
    Get short URL


    Dylan Martinez / Reuters

    In her first interview since surviving an alleged nerve agent attack, Yulia Skripal said she eventually wants to return to Russia. She has not shed any light on what happened in March in Salisbury.

    "I came to the UK on the 3rd of March to visit my father, something I have done regularly in the past. After 20 days in a coma, I woke to the news that we had both been poisoned,” Skripal said in a video that was recorded by Reuters. She reiterated her words in a handwritten statement.

    She and her father, Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double-agent, were found unconscious on a public bench in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. The UK government immediately accused Russia of being behind their poisoning, but it has yet to provide evidence for the claim. Skripal did not comment on who she thought was to blame for her poisoning.

    "I still find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that both of us were attacked. We are so lucky to have both survived this attempted assassination. Our recovery has been slow and extremely painful,” she said. "The fact that a nerve agent was used to do this is shocking. I don't want to describe the details but the clinical treatment was invasive, painful and depressing.”






    A detail of a signed, handwritten statement by Yulia Skripal. © Dylan Martinez / Reuters

    She also said that she was “grateful” for the offers of assistance from the Russian Embassy, “but at the moment I do not wish to avail myself of their services.” Skripal reiterated what she had said in an earlier written statement released by British police: “no one speaks for me, or for my father, but ourselves."

    Following the release of the interview, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman addressed Yulia Skripal in a comment to RT.

    “We’d like Yulia Skripal to know that not a single day passed without the Foreign Ministry, Russia’s Embassy in London trying to reach her with the main purpose to make sure she was not held against her will, she was not impersonated by somebody else, to get the first-hand information about her and her father’s condition,” Maria Zakharova said.

    Skripal said that the ordeal had turned her life “upside down,” both “physically and emotionally.” She added that she was now focused on helping her father to make a full recovery, and that “in the long term I hope to return home to my country.”

    London was quick to point the finger at Moscow over the incident, arguing that the alleged nerve agent used in the attack, A-230 or ‘Novichok,’ was only manufactured in Russia. However, UK officials have so far failed to provide evidence linking Moscow to attack, and the claim that the nerve agent could have only been made in Russia has been disputed by London’s own European allies.

    In May, Czech President Milos Zeman acknowledged that his country had previously produced a nerve agent similar to the one that Britain claims was deployed against the Skripals. The admission was followed by an explosive story in the German media, which claimed that a sample of Novichok was obtained by German intelligence back in the 1990s and that Western countries, including the US and the UK, have long been aware of the chemical make-up of the nerve agent.

    Russia has asked NATO to provide a full list of the member states that have conducted research on Novichok.

    The Russian government has expressed serious doubts about whether a “military-grade” nerve agent was even used in the attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently noted that if Novichok had been used, the Skripals would have died almost instantly.

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    The statement that Yulia has signed has either been dictated to her by a third-party, or her words and sentences have been taken and Anglicised and then written by her hand. Certain words, phrases and sentences are not those of a Russian national, speaking/writing English.




    [From Hervé: Right: See post # 173 and #174]
    Last edited by Hervé; 23rd May 2018 at 21:35.

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Quote The statement that Yulia has signed has either been dictated to her by a
    third-party,
    This does feel a bit staged as she implies ,and the fact she hopes to return to
    Russia and seems not to recall how she ended in the coma does suggest that she
    is not particularly worried about going back home or out right blaming Russia for
    the incident other than what has been told by UK authorities.




    Russian spy poisoning: Yulia Skripal hopes to return to Russia


    1 hour ago...23/5/18

    Short vid on link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YGOewnOreU
    "My life has been turned upside down" - Yulia Skripal's video statement in full

    The daughter of an ex-Russian spy poisoned in Salisbury has said she is
    "lucky to be alive" after the attack.Yulia Skripal and her father, Sergei,
    were exposed to nerve agent Novichok in the city on 4 March.

    In her first filmed public statement since the attack, Ms Skripal told Reuters
    that her life had been "turned upside down" but she hoped to return to Russia
    in the future.Her father was discharged from hospital earlier this month.
    Ms Skripal spent six weeks in Salisbury District Hospital, and was discharged
    after doctors there said she had responded "exceptionally well" to treatment.

    Speaking to the news agency, she said she was continuing "to progress with
    treatment" and her focus remains on her recovery."After 20 days in a coma,
    I woke to the news that we may have been poisoned. I still find it difficult to
    come to terms with the fact that both of us were attacked in a such a way."

    Ms Skripal thanked the Russian embassy for its offer of assistance. But she
    said she and her father were "not ready to take it".

    read more....
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-4423...cky-to-survive


    ===================================================
    ===================================================

    URGENT: Yulia Skripal gives first media interview since Salisbury Poisoning


    Published on 23 May 2018
    Yulia Skripal - the woman poisoned in the UK alongside her double-agent father -
    gives her first media interview since the incident, saying her life's been turned
    upside down, and that she wants to return to Russia.
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 23rd May 2018 at 21:50.

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    Default Re: Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning?

    Quite what the fictional Sherlock Holmes would have made of all this is something to ponder.

    Today's blog post from Craig Murray summarises some of the key points brought to light over the last few weeks, and I'm also going to link here to Hervé's submission further back in the thread so that we don't get bogged down with 'novichoks', which clearly do not seem to have had any part to play in this whole episode.

    In case anyone here viewing this thread may have inadvertently 'switched off' or hasn't been paying close attention the word you will be looking for is fentanyl.

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

    Here's the article - I have emphasized some key points here:

    Yulia Skripal and the Salisbury WUT
    24 May, 2018 in Uncategorized by craig | View Comments

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archi...salisbury-wut/

    It was happy to see Yulia alive and looking reasonably well yesterday, if understandably stressed. Notably, and in sharp contrast to Litvinenko, she levelled no accusations at Russia or anybody else for her poisoning.

    In Russian she spoke quite naturally. Of the Russian Embassy she said very simply “I am not ready, I do not want their help”. Strangely this is again translated in the Reuters subtitles by the strangulated officialese of “I do not wish to avail myself of their services”, as originally stated in the unnatural Metropolitan Police statement issued on her behalf weeks ago.

    “I do not wish to avail myself of their services” is simply not a translation of what she says in Russian and totally misses the “I am not ready” opening phrase of that sentence.

    My conclusion is that Yulia’s statement was written by a British official and then translated to Russian for her to speak, rather than the other way round. Also that rather than translate what she said in Russian themselves for the subtitles, Reuters have subtitled using a British government script they have been given.

    It would of course have been much more convincing had Sergei also been present. Duress cannot be ruled out when he is held by the British authorities.

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

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

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

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

    Most telling was the Sky News interview with the head of Porton Down. Interviewer Paul Kelso repeatedly pressed Aitkenhead directly on whether the novichok could have come from Porton Down.

    Aitkenhead replies:

    “There is no way, anything like that could…leave these four walls. We deal with a number of toxic substances in the work that we do, we’ve got the highest levels of security and controls”.

    Asked again twice, he each times says the security is so tight “the substance” could not have come from Porton Down. What Aitkenhead does NOT say is “of course it could not have come from here, we have never made it”.

    Indeed Aitkenhead’s repeated assertion that the security would never have let it out, is tantamount to an admission Porton Down does produce novichok.

    If somebody asked you whether the lion that savaged somebody came from your garden, would you reply “Don’t be stupid, I don’t have a lion in my garden” or would you say, repeatedly, “Of course not, I have a very strong lion cage?”.

    Here you can see Mr Aitkenhead explain repeatedly he has a big lion cage, from 2’25” in.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    The Orbis report is mince.

    Skripal knew it was mince and how it was written.

    Skripal has a history of selling secrets to the highest bidder. The Trump camp has a lot of money. My opinion is that as the Mueller investigation stutters towards ignominious failure, Skripal became a loose end that Orbis/MI6/CIA/Clinton (take your pick) wanted tied off. That seems to me at least as likely as a Russian state assassination.

    To say Russia is the only possible suspect is nonsense.

    The Incompetence Factor

    The contradiction between the claim that the nerve agent was so pure it could only be manufactured by a state agent, and yet that it failed because it was administered in an amateur and incompetent fashion, does not bother the mainstream media. Boris Johnson claimed that the UK had evidence that Russia had a ten year programme of stockpiling secret novichok and he had a copy of a Russian assassination manual specifying administration by doorknob.

    Yet we are asked to believe that the Russians failed to notice that administration by doorknob does not actually work, especially in the rain. How two people both touched the doorknob in closing the door is also unexplained, as is how one policeman became poisoned by the doorknob but numerous others did not.

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

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

    And Paul Roderick Gregory's article, here, published in Forbes.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulrod.../#7e2af5896867

    "The Orbis report claims, that as the election neared (July 2016), Igor Sechin, Putin’s right-hand man and CEO of Rosneft (Russia’s national oil company) offered Trump a deal that defies belief."

    "This story is utter nonsense, not worthy of a wacky conspiracy theory of an alien invasion."

    The Trump Dossier Is Fake -- And Here Are The Reasons Why

    A former British intelligence officer, who is now a director of a London private security-and-investigations firm, has been identified as the author of the dossier of unverified allegations about President-elect Donald Trump’s activities and connections in Russia, according to the Wall Street Journal.

    A Christopher Steele, a director of London-based private intelligence company, Orbis, purportedly prepared the dossier under contract to both Republican and Democratic adversaries of then-candidate Trump. The poor grammar and shaky spelling plus the author’s use of KGB-style intelligence reporting, however, do not fit the image of a high-end London security company run by highly connected former British intelligence figures.

    The PDF file of the 30-page typewritten reportalleges that high Kremlin officials colluded with Trump, offered him multi-billion dollar bribes, and accumulated compromising evidence of Trump’s sexual escapades in Russia. That the dossier comes from former British intelligence officers appears, at first glance, to give it weight especially with Orbis’ claim of a “global network.” The U.S. intelligence community purportedly has examined the allegations but have not confirmed any of them. We can wait till hell freezes over.

    The material is not verifiable.

    President-elect Trump has dismissed the dossier’s contents as false as has the Kremlin.

    Trump is right: The Orbis dossier is fake news.

    I have studied Russia and the Soviet Union professionally since the mid-1960s. I have visited Russia as a scholar, as the head of a multi-year petroleum legislation project, and as a business consultant close to one hundred times. My first visit was in 1965 shortly after Nikita Khrushchev’s removal. I have a wide circle of friends and acquaintances in Russia, and I follow the Russian press regularly. I personally witnessed the creation in the early 90s of Russia’s giant energy concerns in the offices of the oil minister.

    I met with St. Petersburg officials in the early 90s but do not remember meeting then deputy mayor, Vladimir Putin. I have written and co-authored reports for the State Department, Congress, and the intelligence community; so I sort of know how these things work.

    With the brief exception of the early to late 1990s, Russia has had a non-transparent system of rule that deliberately reveals little about itself. Both insiders and outsiders must look for subtle signs and signals. Russians and Russian experts are gossip junkies. They recite their tales of who is up and who is down to those foolish enough to listen. Outside researchers must grasp for flimsy straws to write their scholarly articles and books. Despite the greater openness of contemporary Russia, we are back to Kremlinology to learn how Putin’s kleptocracy works.

    The Orbis report makes as if it knows all the ins-and-outs and comings-and-goings within Putin’s impenetrable Kremlin. It reports information from anonymous “trusted compatriots,” “knowledgeable sources,” “former intelligence officers,” and “ministry of foreign affairs officials.”

    The report gives a fly-on-the-wall account of just about every conceivable event associated with Donald Trump’s Russian connections. It claims to know more than is knowable as it recounts sordid tales of prostitutes, “golden showers,” bribes, squabbles in Putin’s inner circle, and who controls the dossiers of kompromat (compromising information).

    There are two possible explanations for the fly-on-the-wall claims of the Orbis report: Either its author (who is not Mr. Steele) decided to write fiction, or collected enough gossip to fill a 30-page report, or a combination of the two. The author of the Orbis report has one more advantage: He knew that what he was writing was unverifiable. He advertises himself as the only Kremlin outsider with enough “reliable” contacts to explain what is really going within Putin’s office.

    As someone who has worked for more than a decade with the microfilm collection of Soviet documents in the Hoover Institution Archives, I can say that the dossier itself was compiled by a Russian, whose command of English is far from perfect and who follows the KGB (now FSB) practice of writing intelligence reports, in particular the practice of capitalizing all names for easy reference. The report includes Putin’s inner circle – Peskov, Ivanov, Sechin, Lavrov. The anonymous author claims to have “trusted compatriots” who knew the roles that each Kremlin insider, including Putin himself, played in the Trump election saga and were prepared to tell him.

    The Orbis report spins the tale of Putin insiders, spurred on by Putin himself, engaging in a five-year courtship of Donald Trump in which they offer him lucrative real estate deals that he rejects but leaves himself open to blackmail as a result of sexual escapades with prostitutes in St. Petersburg and Moscow (the famous “golden shower” incident). Despite his reluctance to enter into lucrative business deals, Trump “and his inner circle have accepted regular intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals,” according to the Orbis report.

    This story makes no sense. In 2011, when the courtship purportedly begins, Trump was a TV personality and beauty pageant impresario. Neither in the U.S. or Russia would anyone of authority anticipate that Trump would one day become the presidential candidate of a major U.S. political party, making him the target of Russian intelligence.

    The Orbis report claims, that as the election neared (July 2016), Igor Sechin, Putin’s right-hand man and CEO of Rosneft (Russia’s national oil company) offered Trump a deal that defies belief. I quote:

    “Speaking to a trusted compatriot in mid-October 2015, a close associate of Rosneft President and PUTIN ally Igor SECHIN elaborated on the reported secret meeting between the latter and Carter PAGE, of US Republican presidential candidate's foreign policy team, in Moscow in July 2016.

    The secret had been confirmed to him/her by a senior member of staff, in addition to the Rosneft President himself…Sechin’s associate said that the Rosneft President was so keen to lift personal and corporate Western sanctions imposed on the company, that he offered PAGE associates the brokerage of up to a 19 per cent (privatized) stake in Rosneft in return PAGE had expressed interest and confirmed that were TRUMP elected US president, then sanctions on Russia would be lifted.”

    This story is utter nonsense, not worthy of a wacky conspiracy theory of an alien invasion.

    To offer Trump either the entirety of, or a brokerage commission on, the market value of 19.5% of Rosneft shares—even a 6 percent commission on $12 billion worth of Rosneft shares would amount to an astonishing $720 million—would deplete the cash that Putin desperately needed for military spending and budget deficits, all in return for a promise to lift sanctions if—and what a big “if”—Trump were elected.

    Rosneft, as a public company, would have to conceal that the U.S. president was a party to this major transaction. This remarkable secret-of-secrets seems to be bandied about to an Orbis “trusted compatriot," a senior member of Sechin’s staff, and disclosed by Sechin himself. I guess there are a lot of loose lips in Rosneft offices.

    The story of the purported bribe was picked up by the Russian liberal press directly from the Orbis report without comment but with a big question marks in the title “A 10.5 billion Euro bribe? Putin and Sechin gifted Trump 19.5% of Rosneft shares? This story has given Putin’s weak opposition the chance to accuse him of wasting national treasure on a stupid bribe.

    The huge bribe for (perhaps) lifting the sanctions makes Nikita Khrushchev’s hare-brained schemes—for which he was fired—look eminently reasonable.

    One of the few verifiable facts in the Orbis report is the key role played by Trump’s “personal lawyer” Michael Cohen. Cohen purportedly took over the negotiation of the Sechin deal, and, when the Kremlin got cold feet over its hacking campaign, it turned to Cohen to cover up the operation, meet with the Kremlin’s Presidential Administration, and make illicit payments to shut up and move the hackers to Bulgaria. A key meeting was held in Prague in August of 2016 with Cohen accompanied by three colleagues. The meetings took place in the offices of a Russian quasi-state organization, Rossotrudnichestvo.

    Cohen has denied any such meetings with the Kremlin Presidential administration and claims never to have visited Prague.

    According to the Orbis report, Cohen engaged in potential criminal activities, such as illicit payoffs to hackers and the buying of their silence. I doubt that he will let such accusations pass.

    Another noteworthy claim of the Orbis report is that Vladimir Putin personally directed Russia’s intervention in the 2016 campaign: “The TRUMP operation was both supported and directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Its aim was to sow discord both within the U.S. itself, but more especially within the Transatlantic alliance.”

    The Orbis report claims that Putin personally controlled the dossier compiled on Hillary Clinton and held by his spokesperson, Peskov. He ordered that any disposition of the Clinton file would be decided by him personally.

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

    After reading the Orbis report I got the queasy feeling that it may have influenced the intelligence community’s unclassified report. Leaks of classified bits by NBCNews and the Washington Post suggest the findings were, in part, based on British intelligence and spies. I wonder if the reference is to Putin’s role, which the intelligence report characterized as direct. This is a matter the new administration must look into.

    We have reached a sad state of affairs where an anonymous report, full of bizarre statements, captures the attention of the world media because it casts a shadow over the legitimacy of a President-elect, who has not even taken the oath of office. For example, the Trump dossier is tonight’s lead item on German state television and on BBC. False news has become America’s international export to the world media.

    UPDATE: This article has been updated to reflect the dual possibility that Trump was offered the brokerage commission of, or the entire value of, 19.5 percent of Rosneft shares.
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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