Thursday 12 April 2018

It's Time For The Big Distraction.

On or around March 4th (4/3/18) three individuals were taken ill in the UK city of Salisbury.

They have since been identified as Sergei Skripal a Russian agent of Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6, his daughter Yulia and a British police officer Nick Bailey.

On March 12th (12/3/18) British Prime Minister Theresa May claimed that the three had been poisoned by Russia. Specifically using a nerve agent known as; "Novichok" which had been produced at the Shikhany-2 facility located just outside of Moscow.

This is the type of allegation that is very easy to test scientifically. And in doing so either prove or disprove.

Shikhany-2 has been described as; "Russia's Porton Down." In reference to Britain's Porton Down Chemical Warfare facility which is located around 12km (8 miles) outside of Salisbury. This seems a reasonable comparison.

Neither Shikhany-2 nor Porton Down give tours to the public. However the existence of either is hardly a secret.

In 1997 Russia, along with 164 other nations, signed up to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. In the area of Chemical Warfare research this put Russia, and all other signatories, under the authority of the regulatory body to the convention - the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

In accepting the authority of the OPCW the Shikhany-2 facility was registered with the OPCW. As Porton Down was.

This registration involved the OPCW inspecting the Shikhany-2 and collecting reference samples. Not just of any chemical agents which had been produced there but also of the manufacturing processes and raw materials used.

In order to identify an chemical compound you use a process called; "Mass Spectrometry." This is so widely used and accepted amongst the scientific community if you've seen a TV cop show you've more than likely heard it discussed.

Mass Spectrometry works by blasting a chemical compound with either electrons or ionising radiation. This breaks the compound into its ionic state. You then measure the mass of those ions.

For each chemical compound Mass Spectrometry produces results which are as unique as any fingerprint of DNA test.

You would compare the results in the same way you would compare a fingerprint of DNA test. Either to a library of known reference samples or to an individual sample you have collected elsewhere.

Most modern Mass Spectrometry machines do this comparison automatically using computer software. However it can also been done manually. It is a simple as placing one line graph on top of another line graph and seeing if they match up.

So if the chemical used in Salisbury had been produced at Shikhany-2 it would already be in both the OPCW's and Porton Down's reference library.

On March 22nd (22/3/18) the British Court of Protection (COP) released details of Porton Down's analysis of the chemical used in Salisbury.

In itself this is highly unusual.

As the name suggests the Court of Protection deals with matters of protection for people who lack the mental capacity to protect themselves. The majority of its work deals with children who are being physically or sexually abused or people who have been incapacitated by medical conditions.

Due to issues of patient privacy the COP is one of, if not the most secretive of Britain's Courts. It is most certainly not in the habit of making its proceedings public.

To give you an idea of the level of secrecy involved if I were to simply confirm that I have participated in COP proceedings I would potentially be in contempt. The same would be true if I were to simply confirm that I have a written warning from a COP Judge stating just that.

The analysis presented by Porton Down to the COP identified the chemical used in Salisbury as; "A Novichok class nerve agent or closely related compound."

This is the sort of inexact language which puts scientists teeth on edge.

The class of nerve agent of which Novichok is member of is the "Organophosphate Class." More specifically it belongs to the "V-Series" subclass. Novichok was invented as an easier to manufacture member of the V-Series which was first produced at Porton Down.

Obviously the exact manufacturing processes of Organophosphate class nerve agents are not widely available to the public. However while this has been going on Porton Down have been talking about a manufacturing process being reduced from 40 steps to just 2 steps.

This evidence by Porton Down is so inexact it could mean that the chemical compound is some sort of commercially available Organophosphate pesticide. These are banned by just 23 or the World's 192 nations.

However Porton Down's evidence stops short of identifying the chemical as the specific Novichok compound. It certainly stops far short of identifying it as Novichok produced at Shikhany-2.

At the time the release of the COP ruling was widely reported by both the British and global media.

However they all collectively failed to mention the detail that Porton Down had not identified the chemical as Novichok.

Instead they focused on sensationalist claims that the Skripals may never recover from the poisoning.

In doing this the media have either wilfully attempted to mislead the public. Or they have simply not understood what was being said to them.

In deciding whether it can make a decision regarding an individuals medical care the COP must consider a very narrow question under the 2005 Mental Capacity Act.

In short it is whether that person has the mental capacity make that decision for themselves.

If a person is unconscious they are quite reasonably considered to lack that mental capacity. Unless the reason for that lack of consciousness is something simple like them being asleep or drunk that lack of mental capacity is considered long term.

Of course if the person does regain consciousness they can overrule whatever decision the COP has made.

So rather than being an assessment that the Skripals will be permanently brain damaged that part of the ruling was just standard COP boilerplate.

With the media collectively failing to report that Porton Down have not identified the chemical as Novichok Porton Down themselves were forced take unusual action.

On April 3rd (3/4/18) the head of Porton Down Gary Aitkenhead insisted that Sky News interview him. As the was the same day Sky New's parent company presented regulatory remedy proposals to the UK Competition & Markets Authority they decided to go ahead with the interview.

Aitkenhead used this interview to clearly state - on tape so even the illiterate could understand - that Porton Down has not identified the chemical as Novichok.

Having falsely accused Russia Prime Minister May then convened a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the matter on March 14th (14/3/18).

Of the 15 members of the UNSC 11 did not believe Prime Minister May's claim. Instead they voted for a statement demanding an OPCW investigation.

This forced the UK to exercise its veto to prevent the statement effectively calling it a liar being passed.

Again though the, particularly British media, failed to report this. 

They showed only statements from the three other members of the UNSC that did not vote for the statement. They completely failed to mention that a vote had taken place and the UK had been forced to veto.

Britain though did take the hint. On March 15th (15/3/18) the invited the OPCW to conduct an investigation. The alternative being weeks and weeks of the UNSC demanding an OPCW investigation and the UK being repeatedly forced to use its veto.

This OPCW has been really bad news for the people of Salisbury. 

Although as with bringing their Skripal's out of their induced comas the risk is best assessed using accurate data the cordons around Salisbury could probably have come down around March 14th (14/3/18). 

Pretty much my entire family spent the Easter (1/4/18) Weekend in Salisbury. I was not even remotely concerned about their health.

However because the OPCW launched an investigation the scenes needed to be preserved so the cordons stayed up. With literally the entire World's media camped out at the cordons Britain had to keep the theatre going to keep them entertained.

For example on Monday (9/4/18) Yulia Skripal was released from hospital and taken to a safehouse.

On Sunday (8/4/18) evening UK TV had broadcast Episode 8 or Season 7 of the US TV Show; "Homeland." This entire season has centred around a Novichok like contact poison. This specific episode centred around a Russian woman holed up in a safehouse.

This disruption has pretty much destroyed Salisbury's tourist economy. The irony is that when they do finally remove the cordons the first thing they're going to have to do is put down a lot of poison to kill all the rats.

Today the OPCW has finally released the results of its investigation.

The OPCW have confirmed Porton Down's evidence. They are unable to identify the chemical as Novichok. 

Prime Minister May and her government have lied. Both to the British public and to the international community.

It should come as no surprise then that the UK has not cleared the entire OPCW report for publication. Instead only allowing the Executive Summary to be published.

It will take me a little while to fully digest that Executive Summary. However at first glance it appears the OPCW have gone further than Porton Down in making it clear that Theresa May has lied.

The inability to match the chemical to reference samples of Novichok taken from Shikhany-2 does not 100% rule out Russian involvement. There is an outside chance that they could have used a secret, temporary lab. A "Gypsy Lab" as it were.

The OPCW describe the chemical used as being of very high grade and almost entirely lacking in impurities. That seems to rule out a Russian gypsy lab.

You would think that having being exposed as a liar by not just Britain's scientists and Britain's Courts but now the OPCW and scientists from four nation Prime Minister Theresa May would now be desperately apologising to all concerned.

Instead though she is holding a cabinet meeting to authorise airstrikes against Syria.

Apparently she is as certain that Syria used chemical weapons on April 8th (8/4/18) as she is that Russia used chemical weapons on March 4th (4/3/18).

I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with keeping the fact that the OPCW have declared her to be a liar off the news.

16:15 on 12/4/18 (UK date).

Edited at around 14:45 on  14/4/18 (UK date) to add;

It should come as absolutely no surprise that Theresa May and her cabinet decided that yes, they do need a war to distract from the fact both British scientists and the OPCW have declared them to be liars.

It should also come has no surprise that Theresa May and her cabinet needed that distraction to begin before Saturday April 14th (14/4/18).

On April 14th the OPCW were going to arrive in Syria. To investigate recent claims of a Chemical Weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma. This OPCW investigation has been undertaken at the request of the Syrian government.

Without any investigation Theresa May has accused the Syrian government of conducting the Douma attack.

From experience we know that in about three weeks the OPCW will again demonstrate that Theresa May is a liar.

So in technically the very early hours of April 14th the UK conducted airstrikes against Syria.

They were supported by France. French President Emmanuel Macron is currently facing mass unrest amongst his voters over three months of strike action which have crippled France's transport network.

The UK and France were also supported by the US. I don't think I need to restate the pressure US President Donald Trump is under from the Democrat Party's Mueller investigation which repeatedly accuses him of being a Russian spy.

Involving more than 100 missiles the British led strikes targeted the Syrian military bases of Barzah near Damascus alongside Him Shinshar in Homs Province.

These are the two bases the OPCW have been invited to inspect. In order to prove or disprove the claim they were involved in the Douma.

Obviously that providing that proof of either guilt or innocence is no longer possible. The bases and their contents have just been blown up.

I see no reason why this latest development should distract from the fact that;

Theresa May has lied to the United Nations.

Theresa May has lied to NATO.

Theresa May has lied to the European Union.

Theresa May has lied to the British Parliament.

Most importantly Theresa May has lied to the British public.

She has now killed to try and cover up those lies.




15:00 on 14/4/18 (UK date).

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