A Small Town in Wiltshire.

This is really a follow up from Tuesday's post; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/the-circus-continues.html

UK authorities have since revealed that the Skripals were poisoned with some sort of Chemical Weapons Nerve Agent. They have not yet revealed precisely which type of Nerve Agent.

However it would be some variant of one of two classes of Nerve Agent.

The G-Series: These were produced by Nazi Germany in the 1930's under the leadership of Gerhard Schrader. The most famous of these is "GB" more commonly known as; "Sarin."

The V-Series: These were developed in the 1950's by Britain at the Porton Down laboratory in Wiltshire. They're based on a group of chemicals discovered by Swedish scientist Lars-Erik Tammelin known as; "Tammelin's Esters." The most famous of these is; "VX" which stands for; "Venomous Agent X."

Both the G-Series and the V-Series are Organophosphates. This is a class of chemical widely used in agriculture as an insecticide. Both the G-series and V-series started life to be used for that purpose.

There is actually a lot of similarity in the way that so-called; "Legal Highs" and Chemical Weapons agents are legislated.

In the UK it used to be that there was a list of banned drugs. Such as Heroin, Cocaine, Marijuana etc.

The problem was that these synthetic legal highs would arrive on the market quicker then they could be added to the banned list. Once they were added to the banned list they would simply re-emerge with a slightly different formula making them legal again.

In 2016 UK law was changed. It now bans all compounds except for some which are placed on a permitted list. Often for medical use.

Nitrous Oxide is an interesting example. It is on the permitted list as a medical anaesthetic. However it remains to be clarified by the Courts whether that exemption permits its sale and use as a recreational drug.

The use of Chemical Warfare agents in war is governed by the 1925 Geneva Protocol. It's provisions have been taken further by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention although not all nations have ratified that agreement.

The Geneva Protocol takes the same approach as the UK's legislation against Legal Highs. It imposes a blanket ban on the use of all; "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases." Regardless of what those other gases actually do.

This is specifically to stop people slightly changing the formulas of chemicals so they can use ones which aren't on a banned list. In the heat of battle where thousands of people are being killed it is very difficult to identify the exact formulas of chemicals being used.

The Geneva Protocol's approach leads to some bizarre contradictions.

For example it classes Chlorine as a chemical weapon. This despite Chlorine presenting no real threat to human health.

I myself was exposed to Chlorine gas during the war in Syria. Fair point I did it to myself by accidentally mixing bathroom cleaning chemicals thousands of miles away from Syria.

This was an extremely unpleasant experience for a couple of hours. However that is all that it was. I did not require medical attention and while I did it on the Friday it was more or less forgotten about by the Monday.

In fact I didn't even need to throw my clothes away. I actually wore them again the last time I visited the IC/TU at Salisbury hospital.

This is why Chlorine has become so popular amongst Islamist terrorists in Syria to fake attacks. It allows them to claim that chemical weapons have been used in violation of the Geneva Protocol without putting themselves at any risk of harm.

The Geneva Protocol also bans the use of Tear Gas or CS gas in war.

So outside of a war police forces can use as much of those chemicals as they like to disperse crowds. However if an army were to use it in a war it would be a war crime. That despite using live ammunition against the crowd not being considered a war crime. Provided that there is a proportionate threat to life.

One of the key differences between the Geneva Protocol and the Chemical Weapons Convention is that the Convention introduced difference classes or schedules of Chemical Weapons.

Rather like how in the UK you get Class A drugs, Class B drugs, Class C drugs etc. The further you go down the classes the less serious the drugs are considered and the less severe the punishments for using them.

It must be said that the US' response to events in the UK has been alarmingly shambolic.

On Tuesday (6/3/18) David Coates the head of the Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) - the body which oversees all US intelligence agencies - appeared in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Coates informed the committee that the US intelligence community consider the use of Chlorine to be equivalent to a nerve agent such as Sarin. A weapon of mass destruction. That position belies a complete failure to understand different chemical weapons, the effects they have and how they are legislated against.

It also suggests that the US considers the Chemical Weapons Convention is too sophisticated for them and they want to revert to the system used by the League of Nations. Although given their attitude towards the United Nations (UN) that's hardly a surprise.

Later on Tuesday (6/3/18) the US announced that it believed Malaysia's account of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) using VX to assassinate Kim Jong-nam on February 13th 2017 (13/2/17). This automatically triggered the imposition of sanctions on the DPRK.

The sanctions it triggered against the DPRK have been in place for about 30 years. Therefore that was not the real reason behind the US' announcement.

The real reason was to enquire whether a VX like nerve agent had been used in the UK. The fact the US had to ask that question really tells you something.

It makes clear that Britain is not prepared to share sensitive intelligence with the US intelligence community. A dramatic step with the UK being one of the US' closest allies and a member of the NATO alliance.

Concerns about the US' intelligence community's ability to be trusted with sensitive information have been growing for a while.

Back in May 22nd (22/5/17) there was an Islamist terrorist bombing in the UK city of Manchester.

Under the Five Eyes agreement the UK shared intelligence on that bombing with the US. The FBI under acting Director Andrew McCabe then chose to share that intelligence with the terrorists by making it available to the media.

This led to British police formally suspending the Five Eyes agreement and refusing to share further intelligence on the bombing with the US.

Then of course there is the July 1st 2016 (1/7/16) Islamist terror attack at a restaurant in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Almost to the minute this mimicked a lunch I was having with my mother thousands of miles away. Creating the question of how Islamist terrorists had become aware of my plans for that day.

I feel that I should confirm that I have, with my mother, eaten at the restaurant and drunk at the pub at the centre of the Skripal investigation. I doubt either will be inviting me back in a hurry.

Before all that though there was Hillary Clinton. A investigation led by Andrew McCabe found that Hillary Clinton had committed 110 offences of espionage against the US. By way of mishandling Top Secret intelligence. However the FBI inexplicably declined to prosecute her.

The US' decision to confirm Malaysia's account of Kim Jong-nam's death to pose this question was itself extremely reckless.

Malaysia's account of Kim Jong-nam's death was the start of a discussion which led to the April 4th 2017 (4/4/17) use of Sarin by Turkey in Syria. As it was intended to do that in turn led to illegal US air and missile strikes against Syria on April 7th 2017 (7/4/17).

By endorsing Malaysia's version of events the US appears to be giving permission for Turkey to conduct another Sarin attack in Syria.

The Skripal case actually serves to underline why no-one believes Malaysia's account of Kim Jong-nam's death.

There are actually three serious casualties of events in Salisbury. The Skripal's and a police officer who first attended to them. Last night all three were in comas in hospital however today the news has emerged that the police officer has regained consciousness.

Malaysia contend that two untrained women with no protective equipment administered VX to Kim Jong-nam. He was then attended to by various first responders also without protective equipment.

Yet mysteriously Kim Jong-nam was the only person taken ill.

The use of a nerve agent has been taken by some as evidence of a state sponsored killing. The implication being that state is Russia.

That is to use the correct technical terminology Bullsh*t.

If I was looking for the source of an organophosphate poison the first place I would look is the many farms in and around Salisbury. Technically they shouldn't be using organophates but farmers in Northern Ireland shouldn't have been using Republic of Ireland produced Net Nitrate either.

One of the most famous nerve agent attacks was the March 1995 Sarin attack on the Metro system in the Japanese capital Tokyo. That was carried out by a non-state actor in the form of the Aum Shinrikyo cult.

On February 14th (14/2/18) there was a mass shooting at school in the Parkland area of the US state of Florida. While all that was going on the FBI were quietly arresting the Toro brothers for building bombs in the Bronx district of New York City.

The bizarre ideology of the Toros with their Japanese themed name was very similar to the ideology of Aum Shinrikyo. That mixed elements of Asian Animist religions with western Christianity. Rather like the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics did.

At the time there was significant concern that along with events in Parkland and the actions of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller the arrest of the Toro brothers was the FBI unilaterally giving Turkey permission to use chemical weapons in Syria.

16:00 on 8/3/18 (UK date).