Knobs
and Knockers
Craig
Murray
5
April, 2018
What
is left of the government’s definitive identification of Russia as
the culprit in the Salisbury attack? It is a simple truth that Russia
is not the only state that could have made the nerve agent: dozens of
them could. It could also have been made by many non-state actors.
Motorola sales
agent Gary
Aitkenhead – inexplicably since January, Chief Executive of Porton
Down chemical weapons establishment – said in his Sky interview
that “probably” only a state actor could create the nerve agent.
That is to admit the possibility that a non state actor could. David
Collum, Professor of Organo-Chemistry at Cornell University,
infinitely more qualified than a Motorola salesman, has stated that
his senior students could do it. Professor Collum tweeted me this
morning.
The
key point in his tweet is, of course “if asked”. The state and
corporate media has not asked Prof. Collum nor any of the Professors
of Organic Chemistry in the UK. There simply is no basic
investigative journalism happening around this case.
So
given that the weapon itself is not firm evidence it was Russia that
did it, what is Boris Johnson’s evidence? It turns out that the
British government’s evidence is no more than the technique of
smearing nerve agent on the door handle. All of the UK media have
been briefed by “security sources” that the UK has a copy of a
secret Russian assassin training manual detailing how to put nerve
agent on door handles, and that given the nerve agent was found on
the Skripals door handle, this is the clinching evidence which
convinced NATO allies of Russia’s guilt.
“It amounts to Russia’s tradecraft manual on applying poison to door handles. It’s the smoking gun. It is strong proof that in the last ten years Russia has researched methods to apply poisons, including by using door handles. The significant detail is that these were the facts that helped persuade allies it could only be Russia that did this.”
Precisely
the same government briefing is published by the Daily Mail in a
bigger splash here,
and reflected in numerous other mainstream propaganda outlets.
Two
questions arise. How credible is the British government’s
possession of a Russian secret training manual for using novichok
agents, and how credible is it that the Skripals were poisoned by
their doorknob.
To
take the second question first, I see major problems with the notion
that the Skripals were poisoned by their doorknob.
The
first is this. After what Dame Sally Davis, Chief Medical officer for
England, called “rigorous scientific analysis” of the substance
used on the Skripals, the government advised
those who
may have been in contact to wash their clothes and wipe surfaces with
warm water and wet wipes. Suspect locations were hosed down by the
fire brigade.
But
if the substance was in a form that could be washed away, why was it
placed on an external door knob? It was in point of fact raining
heavily in Salisbury that day, and indeed had been for some time.
Can
somebody explain to me the scenario in which two people both touch
the exterior door handle in exiting and closing the door? And if it
transferred from one to the other, why did it not also transfer to
the doctor who gave extensive aid that brought her in close bodily
contact, including with fluids?
The
second problem is that the Novichok family of nerve agents are
instant acting. There
is no such thing as a delayed reaction nerve agent. Remember
we have been specifically told by Theresa May that this nerve agent
is up to ten times more powerful than VX, the Porton Down developed
nerve agent that killed Kim’s brother in 15 minutes.
But
if it was on the doorknob, the last contact they could possibly have
had with the nerve agent was a full three hours before it took
effect. Not only that, they were well enough to drive, to walk around
a shopping centre, visit a pub, and then – and this is the truly
unbelievable bit – their central nervous systems felt in such good
fettle, and their digestive systems so in balance, they were able to
sit down and eat a full restaurant meal. Only after all that were
they – both at precisely the same time despite their substantially
different weights – suddenly struck down by the nerve agent, which
went from no effects at all, to deadly, on an alarm clock basis.
This
narrative simply is not remotely credible. Nerve agents – above all
“military grade nerve agents” – were designed as battlefield
weapons. They do not leave opponents fighting fit for hours. There is
no description in the scientific literature of a nerve agent having
this extraordinary time bomb effect. Here another genuine Professor
describes their fast action in Scientific
American:
Unlike traditional poisons, nerve agents don’t need to be added to food and drink to be effective. They are quite volatile, colourless liquids (except VX, said to resemble engine oil). The concentration in the vapour at room temperature is lethal. The symptoms of poisoning come on quickly, and include chest tightening, difficulty in breathing, and very likely asphyxiation. Associated symptoms include vomiting and massive incontinence. Victims of the Tokyo subway attack were reported to be bringing up blood. Kim Jong-nam died in less than 20 minutes. Eventually, you die either through asphyxiation or cardiac arrest.
If
the nerve agent was on the door handle and they touched it, the onset
of these symptoms would have occurred before they reached the car.
They would certainly have not felt like sitting down to a good lunch
two hours later. And they would have been dead three weeks ago. We
all pray that Sergei also recovers.
The
second part of the extraordinarily happy coincidence of the nerve
agent being on the door handle, and the British government having a
Russian manual on applying nerve agent to door handles, is whether
the manual is real. It strikes me this is improbable – it rings far
too much of the kind of intel they had on Iraqi WMD. It also
allegedly dates from the last ten years, so Putin’s Russia, not the
period of chaos, and the FSB is a pretty tight organisation in this
period. MI6 penetration is just not that good.
A
key question is of course how long the UK has had this manual, and
what was its provenance. Another key question is why Britain failed
to produce it to the OPCW – and indeed why it does not publish it
now, with any identifying marks of the particular copy excluded,
given it has widely publicised its existence and possession of it. If
Boris Johnson wants to be believed by us, publish the Russian manual.
We
also have to consider whether the FSB really publishes its secret
assassination techniques in a manual. I attended, as other senior FCO
staff, a number of MI6 training courses. One on explosives handling
was at Fort Monckton, not too far from Salisbury. One in a very
nondescript London office block was on bugging techniques. I recall
seeing rigs set up to drill minute holes in walls, turning very
slowly indeed. Many hours to get through the wall but almost no noise
or vibration. It was where I learnt the government can listen to you
through activating the microphone in your mobile phone, even when
your phone is switched off. I recall javelin like directional
microphones suspended from ceilings to point at distant targets, and
a listening device that worked through a beam of infra-red light, but
the target could foil by closing the curtains.
The
point is that there were of course no manuals for this stuff, no
manuals for any other secret MI6 techniques, and these things are not
lightly written down.
I
would add to this explanation that I lost all faith in the police
investigation when it was taken out of the hands of the local police
force and given to the highly politicised Metropolitan Police
anti-terror squad. I suspect the explanation of the remarkably
convenient (but physically impossible) evidence of the door handle
method that precisely fits the “Russian manual” may lie there.
These
are some of the problems I have with the official account of events.
Boris lied about the certainty of the provenance of the nerve agent,
and his fall back evidence is at present highly unconvincing. None of
which proves it was not the Russian state that was responsible. But
there is no convincing proof that it was, and there are several other
possibilities. Eventually the glaring problems with the official
narrative might be resolved, but what is plain is that Johnson and
May have been premature and grossly irresponsible.
I
shall post this evening on Johnson’s final claim, that only the
Russians had motive.
Update:
I have just listened to the released alleged phone
conversation between
Yulia Skripal in Salisbury Hospital and her cousin Viktoria, which
deepens the mystery further. I should say that in Russian the
conversation sounds perfectly natural to me. My concern is after the
30 seconds mark where Viktoria tells Yulia she is applying for a
British visa to come and see Yulia.
Yulia
replies “nobody will give you a visa”. Viktoria then tells Yulia
that if she is asked if she wants Viktoria to visit, she should say
yes. Yulia’s reply to this is along the lines of “that will not
happen in this situation”, meaning she would not be allowed by the
British to see Viktoria. I apologise my Russian is very rusty for a
Kremlinbot, and someone might give a better translation, but this key
response from Yulia is missing from all the transcripts I have seen.
What
is there about Yulia’s situation that makes her feel a meeting
between her and her cousin will be prevented by the British
government? And why would Yulia believe the British government will
not give her cousin a visa in the circumstance of these extreme
family illnesses?
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