UN Hearings - Salisbury nerve agent attack

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It was announced on the 18th May that Sergei Skirpal was discharged from hospital - location unknown.
It didn't get much media coverage given all that was occurring for the royal wedding on the 19th May.
This would be typical standard practice where its a 'good day to bury bad news', or in this case a good day to divert attention. But that's just me with my conspiratorial hat on. Not that any such behavior could occur in the world of spies and double spies!
 
With all due respect TBS, I very much doubt those with an interest in this case would be relying on the tabloids to keep abreast of what is happening here...
 
So Novichok is back in the news!
Apparently, two more people are in life-threatening conditions after being contaminated by the same military grade nerve agent that failed to kill the Skirpals.

On this occasion however, one week after the incident, British security intelligence are not pointing the finger at Russia for a direct attack. But that somehow, a 'contaminated item' is responsible, but yet to be found.
And if a contaminated item remains at large, so to speak, then doesn't that put the whole Skirpal/Russia affair into question?

That the unfortunate couple affected, accidentally came into contact with it (not far from Britain's experimental science laboratory, Porton Down) is wholly bizarre I have to say.
 
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A British citizen dies after coming into a Russian nerve agent, Novichok.
British authorities say an investigation needs to be carried out before attributing blame.

When two Russian citizens allegedly were attacked some 60+ Russian diplomats were expelled from US and Europe, without investigation.

Surely this blows a hole in the entire Skirpal affair?
If this latest tragic incident is a consequence of the previous attack then surely futher US,EU sanctions, Parliamentary attacks on Russia etc should be on the cards without hesitation?

On the other hand, if this is not related to the Skirpal affair, and that it is a separate event altogether, then that opens the real possibility that Russia was never responsible for Skirpal in the first place. And the EU and US have expelled diplomats without any justification or due process carried out.
These are not the actions of a democracy, built on principles of law and order, innocent until proven guilty.
 
This is weirder than a Agatha Christie plot. So this death is not accidental, not manslaughter but murder. What can possibly be the connection between the two incidents?

I agree that the anti Russian hissy fit now looks very dubious. UK not looking good on many fronts except of course the football field.
 
I agree with your general approach to this .

However

TheBigShort said:
And the EU and US have expelled diplomats without any justification or due process carried out.
These are not the actions of a democracy, built on principles of law and order, innocent until proven guilty.
Click to expand...

this is not correct. Expelling diplomats without any form of due process is the only way diplomats can be expelled. Diplomatic immunity means that they cannot be subjected to any form of legal process.
 
cremeegg said:
I agree with your general approach to this .

this is not correct. Expelling diplomats without any form of due process is the only way diplomats can be expelled. Diplomatic immunity means that they cannot be subjected to any form of legal process.
Click to expand...

Very true, indeed.

Instead, no due process was taken to come to the decision to attribute blame to Russia and in turn expel its diplomats, is probably a better way of putting things.
This compares with statements on the latest incident that suggest an investigation is to be carried out first before attributing blame.

In the meantime, the OPCW investigating the alleged chemical weapons attacks in Douma, Syria, resulting in NATO air strikes on a sovereign nation, has said

"OPCW designated labs conducted analysis of prioritised samples. The results show that no organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties."

"Along with explosive residues, various chlorinated organic chemicals were found in samples from two sites, for which there is full chain of custody. Work by the team to establish the significance of these results is on-going. The FFM team will continue its work to draw final conclusions."

I take this to mean that while chlorinated organic chemicals were found in samples, it is far from certain the origin of these chemicals are and as much as they may have originated from a weapons attack, it is also possible that they originate from some other obvious source.

Despite this, TM today in HoC was still peddling the "it was the Russians line" with regard to Salisbury, whilst the President of US, the UK's supposed closest ally, was standing shoulder to shoulder with Putin.

The US media is going to town on Trump after his summit with Putin. I cant help think that the war-mongers in the Pentagon and NATO feel their objectives of bringing Ukraine under their wing has taken a huge step backwards.
Afterall, Ukraine is a country that routinely blames Moscow for a number of atrocities including the assassination of journalists, only to subsequently admit that it was a fake plot planned months in advance.
If you are inclined to make up stories about who was responsible for 9/11, WMD stockpiles, ability to strike UK in 45 mins, invade foreign nations without UN sanction, allege chemical weapons attacks in Syria without proof, bomb first ask later, expel first investigate later - then fake stories about assassination is everything you could possibly want in a prospective ally.
 
Notwithstanding the tradgedy that has befallen Dawn Sturgess, we are a far cry now from the UN Security Council hearings that had respective ambassadors from UK, Russia and US throwing verbals at each other.
Instead we are with the homeless guy, searching in the garbage bin, finding the bottle of 'perfume'.
Did Russian agents plan a revenge attack on on a former spy only to chuck the incriminating evidence in the bin afterwards?
 
"All eyes on the actions of Assad, Russia and Iran in Idlib" - Nikki Hayley

https://twitter.com/nikkihaley/status/1036758129462128640?s=19

I like the first response "Meanwhile in Yemen..."

Idlib has been reported as being in the control jihadi Islamists, by US White House officials

"Idlib provice is the largest al-Qaeda safe-have since 9/11, tied to directly to Ayman al Zawahiri, this is a huge problem.” - Special US envoy Brett McGurk.

Anyone believe that this is a fight for good over evil?
Or is it all about the money? Ask about the money.
 
The Salisbury investigation is heating up again. British police revealing details of suspects, their movements, photo id and images of the perfume bottle used in the attack.
The police say the two suspects "Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov" were likely travelling under aliases and that these are not their real names.
Police wont be applying for extradition from Russia as Russian law does not permit extradition of its own citizens.

Some key points on Sky news.

- Two Russian men named as suspects in the Salisbury novichok poisoning.
- The men are Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov
- They are charged with attempted murder of Sergei and Yulia Skirpal and police officer Nick Bailey
- They are also charged with conspiracy to murder Mr Skirpal and the use of novichok.

Just a couple of points/questions to note that automatically jump out from the press releases.

- If the suspects are 'likely' to have been travelling under aliases and not their real names, how have they been identified as Russians?

- The timeline of their arrival from Russia (Mar 02 ), executing the attack (Mar 04) and departure through Heathrow (Mar 04) is very narrow.
This would suggest to me that they must have had prior knowledge of Skirpals whereabouts, their movements and intended movements.
They must, most likely, have had prior knowledge of the locality to execute the attack without any apparent distractions (confirmation of Skirpals residence and its precise location).
Probably meaning that they have been to UK before, either under real names or possibly same or different aliases.
I suspect the details being released today have been in the posession of police for sometime so some of the questions above should be easily answered.

Coincidentally, Russian support for Syrian regime (also accused of chemical weapons attacks) that is moving to recapture Idlib, is also heating up.
 
from The Guardian (T May)

We were right to say in March that the Russian State was responsible.

And now we have identified the individuals involved, we can go even further.

Mr Speaker, just as the police investigation has enabled the CPS to bring charges against the two suspects, so the Security and Intelligence Agencies have carried out their own investigations into the organisation behind this attack.

Based on this work, I can today tell the House that, based on a body of intelligence, the Government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and CPS are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU.

The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command.So this was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.


https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-mps-after-first-pmqs-of-autumn-politics-live
 
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