On March 5th (5/8/18) a British police officer, Nick Bailey, investigating the incident was also taken ill.
On March 11th (11/3/18) British Conservative Party MP Thomas Tugendhat made a series of public appearances demanding that the poisonings be blamed on Russia.
This is hardly surprising because Tugendhat has received large amounts of money from the lobbyist Bill Browder to get a piece of legislation called the Magnitsky Amendment passed. To earn his money Tugendhat immediately leaps on anything that might help him pass the legislation Browder is paying for.
Tugendhat's actions though were highly premature. At that point Britain had not identified the poison used. Let alone identified potential suspects who might have administered the poison.
However Britain is currently led by a weak, minority government. Lacking a Parliamentary majority the Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May is effectively held to ransom by backbenchers such as Tugendhat.
So on March 12th (12/3/18) Prime Minister May did what Tugendhat ordered her and blamed Russia.
On March 14th (14/3/18) Britain did identify the poison used. It's findings were confirmed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on April 12th (12/4/18).
This presented a huge problem for May, Tugendhat and Britain.
The poison used did not match reference samples taken from Russia's Shikhany-2 Chemical Weapons facility taken as part of its registration with the OPCW. Thus disproving the piece of intelligence May, Tugendhat and Britain had blame Russia.
By this point Britain had already led 27 nations in expelling at least 150 Russian diplomats as punishment for poisoning the Skripals.
This prompted British police to launch a frantic search to find just any Russian they could come even close to blaming.
Yesterday (5/9/18) British police released the efforts of that frantic search.
They identified two Russians - Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - who they claim are the prime suspects. They also provided a timeline of the two men's movements around the time of the poisoning;
March 2nd (2/3/18).
- 15:00 - The men arrive at London's Gatwick Airport.
- 17:40 - The men arrive at London's Victoria Railway station from Gatwick Airport.
- 18:00 - The men arrive at London's Waterloo Railway station from Victoria station and check into the near-by City Star Hotel.
- 11:45 - The men leave the hotel and board a train at Waterloo station bound for Salisbury.
- 14:25 - The men arrive at Salisbury Railway station.
- 16:05 - The men return to Salisbury station and board a train for London.
- 20:05 - The men arrive at Waterloo station and return to their hotel.
- 08:05 - The men again leave their hotel and board a train at Waterloo station.
- 11:48 - The men arrive at Salisbury station.
- 11:58 - The men are spotted on Wilton Road in Salisbury. Although unverified the police claim the men then travelled to Sergei Skripal's home on Christie Miller Road and applied the poison to his door handle. At some point between 12:00 and 13:00.
- 13:05 - The men are spotted on Fisherton Street in Salisbury.
- 13:50 - The men return to Salisbury station and board a train for London.
- 16:45 - The men arrive at Waterloo station and return to their hotel.
- 18:30 - The men return to Waterloo station and board a train for Heathrow Airport.
- 22:30 - The men leave depart London's Heathrow Airport aboard a scheduled flight for Moscow, Russia.
The official explanation as to why no deaths occurred - put forth by both Britain and the OPCW - is that the poison had be left exposed to the elements, including rain. So had become degraded and lost its potency.
It is almost impossible to precisely calculate the effects of environmental factors on something as small as a door handle. Particularly if you didn't realise that you were supposed to be conducting an experiment at the time.
However for this level of degradation you are talking in terms of 6 to 12 hours rather than 1 to 2 hours. In cleaning up after the poisoning Britain estimated that functional environmental degradation will take a period of months if not years.
The last rainfall recording in Salisbury before the Skripals was taken ill occurred at 03:00 on March 4th (4/3/18). Therefore the poison would have had to be applied to the door handle before then.
According to the timeline provided by the police the only time these to men could have done this is between 13:50 and 16:45 on March 3rd (3/4/18). However this does not fit with the police's account of the Skripal's movements.
Yulia Skripal arrived at London's Heathrow Airport at 14:40 on March 3rd (3/4/18) where she was met by her father. They then drove to his home in Salisbury. The exact time the arrived is not known. However the typical journey from Heathrow Airport to Salisbury is 90 minutes. That means they arrived at around 16:10.
If the poison had been applied to the door handle at that point they would have immediately come into contact with it. Meaning that they would have become ill no more than a few hours later. Long before the rain at 03:00 the following day.
On March 4th (4/3/18) both Skripals left the home at around 09:15 returning around lunch time. At 13:30 the left the home for a second time. Arriving at the Sainsbury carpark in the town centre at 13:40.
If as the police claim the poison was applied between 12:00 and 13:00 then the Skripals would have come into contact with it no later than 13:30. That would give the poison absolutely no time to be degraded by the weather.
Thus disproving Britain's claim that it did not cause death because it had been degraded by the weather. While raising the question of why this freshly applied poison took more than three hours to take effect.
Therefore what the police have done with their investigation is prove that these two men could not have poisoned the Skripals. The police have provided them with an alibi showing that they were in a entirely different city 125km (80 miles) away.
Then of course there is the subsequent poisoning of Charles Rowley and Dawn Sturgess on June 30th (30/6/18). On Tuesday (4/9/18) the OPCW confirmed the pair were poisoned by the exact same poison used in March.
Despite their extensive investigation British police can find no indication that either Petrov or Boshirov returned to the UK after March 4th (4/3/18). Providing them with the even stronger alibi of not even being in the same country.
You would think that having proved these two men innocent the British police would start looking for the people who actually were responsible. You would certainly hope they would stop investigating the pair.
It would almost be beyond belief that they would publicly accuse the men on the crime and pursue a prosecution.
Unfortunately launching malicious prosecutions when there is clear evidence of innocence is a common practice within the British legal system.
In the same period as the Skripal investigation there has been a growing scandal in Britain as a number of high profile rape cases have collapsed. The Liam Allen case being perhaps the most high profile.
In the course of investigating each of these cases the police uncovered clear evidence that not only had the men not committed rape that in fact no rape had occurred.
However the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided to prosecute the cases anyway. They even went so far as to break the law by hiding this evidence of innocence from the defendants.
In the course of this scandal it emerged that 916 of these cases had occurred in 2016. A 70% increase from 2015.
In April 2018 the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Alison Saunders was told that her contract of employment would not be renewed when it expires in October 2018. The type of announcement which no doubt made her grateful she wasn't tied into a longer contract.
One explanation that has been put forward for this situation is that the police were simply inventing rape case to support the claims made by feminist activists and politicians.
This particular British constituency was probably on most prominent display on June 15th (15/6/18). This saw the proposed Voyeurism Offences Bill - sometimes referred to as the; "Upskirting Law" - defeated by the objections of a single Conservative MP. Christopher Chope.
Chope's objection was based not on the law itself but by the manner it was introduced. It was introduced as a private members bill. This Parliamentary loophole allows laws to be sneaked onto the statute books without the proper procedure of committee, review, amendment and vote.
The Voyeurism Offences Bill was reintroduced yesterday (5/9/18). Just after the police's Skripal announcement. However having had three months to review it the bill's sponsored decided they needed to amend it.
This practise of malicious prosecution is most commonly used in Britain to persecute political activists and dissidents. Although they rarely result in conviction they can drag on for years being very expensive and stressful for the target.
One of the most high profile examples is the Brighton based; "Smash EDO" campaign directed at the EDO MBM arms factory. This is something Anna Campbell who in March 2018 was killed fighting with the SDF in Syria would have been very familiar with.
The reason Smash EDO has such a high profile is that the police targeted them under the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act. This was passed in the name of feminism in order to protect women from stalking and domestic violence. It was almost immediately used to persecute political protesters.
The way that the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act has been abused by Britain's police and Courts is exactly why all laws, including the Voyeurism Offences Bill need to go through the proper Parliamentary procedure.
Not least due to my peripheral involvement with Smash EDO I have encountered many of this type of malicious prosecution. So many in fact that they've started to blur into one.
For example I remember reading about Sergei Skripal's initial arrest in Russia at the time.
I read about this in a Courthouse waiting for a trial to begin. However for the life of me I cannot remember which Courthouse or what the charge was. Although given my links to Salisbury I'm starting to think it might be worth the effort of checking my records.
Britain is currently a member of the European Union (EU). As part of that membership Britain must agree to abide by a range of what are considered; "Common European Values." Chiefly laid out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). These include the right to conscience, expression, assembly and justice.
In short you are expressly forbidden from using the legal system to persecute political protesters and dissidents. Such as through malicious prosecution.
So over the years Britain's practice of persecuting political protesters and dissidents has caused considerable tension between it and the EU.
These tensions are called into sharp focus now Britain is leaving the EU - the "Brexit."
As part of a post-Brexit deal Britain is proposing the idea of a so-called; "Common Rule Book." Essentially Britain and the EU agree to voluntarily follow the same rules.
This suggestion by Britain has caused quite some amusement. After all Britain was unable to follow the EU rules when it was legally obligated to do so.
Despite Britain's decision to pursue criminal charges against Petrov or Boshirov the have opted not to seek their extradition from Russia. The common practice in cases such as this.
The reason for this is that an extradition request would result in Petrov or Boshirov being arrested and put before a Judge.
It doesn't take a genius to work out what any Judge is going to do when presented with a case where the prosecution are providing clear evidence of the defendants innocence.
17:25 on 6/9/18 (UK date).
Edited at around 14:20 on 13/9/18 (UK date) to add;
The police also claim to have found traces of the poison in the men's hotel room. Obviously I need more detail on that before I can comment in detail.
However there will have been a period of time between the men vacating the room and it being first identified by the police and then searched. This creates a significant chain of evidence problem.
During this time there will likely have been multiple other occupants of and visitors to that room. Providing ample opportunity for someone to plant those traces. Particularly if that person had links to the intelligence services.
Meanwhile there has been this peculiar case of John and Susan Cooper. Two British citizens who died on August 21st (21/8/18) in their hotel room in Hurghada on the southern part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
Britons like all other nationalities die every single day. Some of them even die in foreign countries while they are on holiday or travelling for work. However it is normally quite obvious why they have died.
British tourists in particular have a reputation for getting drunk and falling off balconies. Other common causes such as food poisoning also have obvious, easy to detect symptoms like several days of severe vomiting and diarrhoea. Carbon Monoxide poisoning causes a signature reddening of the skin.
What has made the Cooper case strange is that it involves none of the normal indicators that can be picked up by non-medical professionals. Even if they don't automatically know what those symptoms indicate.
The official cause of death has been given as respiratory and cardiac arrest. These are the two most commonly used indicators of death. So it's a bit like saying the people have died because they are dead.
One of many things that can cause respiratory and cardiac arrest are Nerve Agents. This is an uncommon cause but one that comes up a lot in discussions about nerve agents.
Referring to a nerve agent does not automatically mean a military grade chemical weapon.
One theory that has been put forward for the Cooper's death is that they were poisoned by the air conditioner in their room. Certain types of Freon - the chemical in air conditioners - can function as a nerve agent. However to receive a lethal dose you will pretty much have to swim in a lake of the stuff.
The fact that nerve agents are so widely available and used has always significantly undermined Britain's claim that only Russia could be responsible for the Skripal poisoning. VX was originally invented as a pesticide. Novichok was developed specifically because it could be very easily synthesised from two commonly used pesticides.
Due to their potency the use of these Organophosphate pesticides are strongly discouraged within Europe and elsewhere. The import or export is banned however their use is not.
Alongside Organophosphates there is another group of Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors known as Carbamates. These were tested as potential Chemical Weapons by the US and others in the 1940's and again in the 1960's.
Less effective than Organophosphates Carbamates continue to be widely used. Particularly outside of the US and Europe.
Egypt is of course closely linked to the ongoing conflict in Syria.
On June 30th 2012 Mohammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was sworn in as Egypt's President. Turkey's President/Prime Minister/Emperor marked the occasion by sending a Turkish warplane to invade Syrian airspace. The hope being it would be shot down providing Erdogan an excuse to invade and establish his new Ottoman Empire.
Following Morsi's overthrow in a popular uprising in 2013 the Islamist terror group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (ABM) suddenly became extremely well funded and started calling themselves the Sinai Province of the Islamic State and the Levant (ISIL). They have conducted numerous terror attacks across the northern Sinai Peninsula.
Killing British tourists obviously threatens Egypt's tourist economy. A long standing objective of ABM. It also serves as a threat to Britain to support the Muslim Brotherhood or else.
I gather the career of Ahmet Uzumcu, the head of the OPCW has recently taken a similar trajectory to that of Britain's DPP.
15:00 on 13/9/18 (UK date).
Edited again at around 14:10 on 9/10/18 (UK date) to add;
It finally all clicked into place last night. Annoyingly about 5 minutes after I'd gone to bed.
Sergei Skripal was first arrested for spying for Britain in December 2004. However Britain did not confirm this until January 2006.
I first heard about this in Brighton Magistrates Court while awaiting a hearing in a drunken and disorderly case against me. Which carried a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment.
I remember the apparent ineptitude of the British intelligence services gave me a bit of a confidence boost.
Although that particular case was valid and I was eventually sentenced to a conditional discharge it shows how disruptive and time consuming malicious prosecutions can be for the target.
The initial arrest occurred in August 2005. Despite the hearings in January the case was not complete until June 2006. That is for a case involving one of the most simple misdemeanours on the law books. An offence that is normally dealt with rather like a traffic ticket.
Complex felony cases can drag on for years. Time the target of the prosecution often spends in prison on remand.
14:20 on 9/10/18 (UK date).
No comments:
Post a Comment