Posts
"She
Is Risen!" - Last Act Of 'Novichok' Drama Revealed: "The
Skripals' Resurrection"
29
March, 2018
It
seems that the 'Novichok' fairy-tale the British government plays to
us provides for a happy ending - the astonishing and mysterious
resurrection of the victims of a "military grade" "five
to eight times more deadly than VX gas" "nerve agent"
"of a type developed by" Hollywood.
Happy
Easter!
The condition of Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury along with her father, is improving rapidly, doctors have said.
Salisbury NHS foundation trust said on Thursday the 33-year-old was no longer in a critical condition, describing her medical state as stable.
Christine Blanshard, medical director for Salisbury district hospital, said: “I’m pleased to be able to report an improvement in the condition of Yulia Skripal. She has responded well to treatment but continues to receive expert clinical care 24 hours a day."
...
Her father’s condition is still described by the hospital as critical but stable.
Only
yesterday the Skripals chances to survive was
claimed to
be 1 out of 99. Nerve agents are deadly weapons. A dose of ten
milligram of the U.S. developed VX nerve agent will kill 50% of those
exposed to it. The 'Novichok' agents are said to be several times
more deadly than VX.
It
seems less and less likely that the British government claim about
'Novichok' poisoning is actually true. Way more likely are other
explanations, for example food poisoning or an allergic shock soon
after eating out at a fish restaurant.
The
claims of a nerve agent and 'Novichok' seem
to have been taken from
the script of the British-American spy drama Strike
Back (clip)
which recently ran on British and U.S. TV. The
sole purpose of the 'Novichok' drama is to implicate and damage
Russia.
The evidence is beside the point: here was the opportunity to close-off Trump’s ‘illusion’ of a possible détente with Russia. The narrative is all. We will likely never know the full story.
Yulia
and Sergej Skripal were found unconscious on the afternoon of March
4.
The
U.S. State Department says that its campaign to use the Skripal
incident as a tool against Russia started on March 6, only two days
after the incident and six full days before the British government
raised accusations against Russia.
In
her press briefing on March 27 the U.S. State Department spokeswomen
Heather Nauert talked about
the coordinated ousting of Russian diplomats by some "western"
countries:
Our Deputy Secretary Sullivan, Assistant Secretary Wess Mitchell, and many others in the building across the interagency process have worked tirelessly over the past three weeks to achieve this unprecedented level of cooperation and also coordination. The end result – 151 Russian intelligence personnel sent home to Moscow – is a testimony of how seriously the world takes Russia’s ongoing global campaign to undermine international peace and stability, to threaten the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and to subvert and discredit Western institutions.
The
above quote is from Nauert's prepared remarks, not the more free
wheeling Q&A section.
"It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.
This is part of a group of nerve agents known as 'Novichok'."
(See
our earlier pieces, linked below, for many details on 'Novichok' and
its history.)
May's
announcement was similar to Tony Blair's "45 minutes"
claim. A lie, concocted in a common propaganda operation with the
U.S. government. As the Downing
Street Memos said of
the preparations for the war on Iraq:
C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action,justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.
There
are several details that debunk the 'Novichok' thesis.
The
specialists in the British chemical weapon laboratory in Porton Down,
which gets
millions of
U.S. military research dollars, did not agree with the 'Novichok'
claim for whatever effected the Skripals. May's phrase "of a
type developed by Russia' was politically negotiated. As ambassador
Craig Murray provided:
I have now received confirmation from a well placed FCO source that Porton Down scientists are not able to identify the nerve agent as being of Russian manufacture, and have been resentful of the pressure being placed on them to do so. Porton Down would only sign up to the formulation “of a type developed by Russia” after a rather difficult meeting where this was agreed as a compromise formulation.
But
was there really a nerve agent involved?
A
doctor who administered first aid to Yulia Skripal for 30 minutes was
not effected at
all. The emergency services suspected the
victims had received on overdose of fentanyl.
Doctor
Steven Davies, who leads the emergency service of the Salisbury
District Hospital, wrotein
a letter to the London
Times:
Sir, Further to your report "Poison exposure leaves almost 40 needing treatment", (Mar 14), may I clarify that no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury and there have only been ever been three patients with significant poisoning.
A
Court of Protection judgment about
the Skripals issued on March 22 quotes as witness a Porton Down
chemical and biological analyst:
Blood samples from Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal were analysed and the findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound. The samples tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent or closely related agent.
"Indicated
exposure" is a rather weak formulation. It means that no
'novichok' was found but decomposition products of something that may
have been a nerve agent or not. A blood sample may "test
positive" for all kinds of stuff but that does not say anything
about the amount or about the lethality of any of the "positive
tested" elements. The 'Novichok' nerve agents are
organophosphates like many of the usual insecticides are. These break
down relatively fast. A walk through a field freshly sprayed with
some insecticide or the domestic use of such a product might leave
similar decomposition products in the bloodstream as a nerve agent
attack.
The
Court of Protection also said that no relative or friend contacted
the authorities about the Skripals. That was evidently false (ru).
Today,
25 days after the incident, the police say they suspect that the
Skripals were poisoned from
the front door of
their home. Today, 25 days after the incident, they removed the front
door. I believe that this decision was based on a "most
plausible story" guess and not on material evidence. If the door
had tested positive for a nerve agent it would have been removed
weeks ago. This is, like those people in high protection suits
roaming around Salisbury, just theater.
The
Skripals were said to have left their home at 9:00am in the morning.
They collapsed relatively sudden at 4:00pm in the afternoon. Is this
seven hour delay consistent with being severely affected by a
"military grade" highly toxic nerve agent? I doubt it.
But
even if a nerve agent of the 'novichok' type was involved the jump to
allegations against Russia is completely baseless. David B.
Collum is Professor
for Organic Chemistry at Cornell University. He really, really knows
this stuff:
Dave Collum @DavidBCollum - 12:54 AM - 27 Mar 2018
I will say it again: Anybody who tells you this nerve agent must have come from Russia is a liar--a complete and utter liar. They are simple compounds.
The
Skripals are getting better. Good for them. But their resurrection
from certain death is a further dint in the British government's
claim of 'nerve agent' 'of a type developed by Russia'.
The
whole anti-Russian campaign constructed out of it is just ridiculous
and deeply dishonest. The five page propaganda
handout the
British provided to other governments is a joke. It provided no
solid facts on
the case. To respond to it rationally, as Russia tries to do, makes
little sense.
An editorial (recommended)
in the Chinese Global
Times captures
the utter disgust such behavior creates elsewhere:
The fact that major Western powers can gang up and "sentence" a foreign country without following the same procedures other countries abide by and according to the basic tenets of international law is chilling.
...
Over the past few years the international standard has been falsified and manipulated in ways never seen before.
...
It is beyond outrageous how the US and Europe have treated Russia. Their actions represent a frivolity and recklessness that has grown to characterize Western hegemony that only knows how to contaminate international relations. Right now is the perfect time for non-Western nations to strengthen unity and collaborative efforts among one another.
Resurrection
or not - the result of the 'Novichok' nonsense will not be to our
'western' favor.
---
Previous Moon
of Alabama reports
on the Skripal case:
- March 12 - Theresa May's "45 Minutes" Moment
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