Tag Archives: Skripal investigation

5 Facts BBC’s “The Salisbury Poisonings” Forgot To Mention, by Kit Knightly

Posted on June 21, 2020 | 2 comments

You have to wonder if the script for the BBC production was written by British intelligence. From Kit Knightly at off-guardian.org:

The BBC’s new drama “The Salisbury Poisonings” concluded over the weekend. A three-part story “based on actual events”, claiming to tell the story of the alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018.

It’s exactly what you’d expect. Schlocky tat. Poorly researched, badly written and woefully factually inaccurate.

The Guardian gave it four stars. Because of course they did. Because when you’re dealing with government-backed narrative everything that reinforces it must be described as having value. It’s one of the hallmarks of propaganda, that no story which supports the propaganda – however ridiculous – can ever be questioned, criticised or disputed.

There’s room for an in-depth review, and indeed Craig Murray has done a fine job deconstructing the series. But here, I just want to focus on everything they don’t tell you.

Here are five key facts the BBC simply forgot to mention.

1. Alison McCourt

Alison McCourt and her family were walking in Salisbury town centre when they came upon the Skripals convulsing quietly on a park bench in the early afternoon. They were, supposedly, the first people to discover the pair, and Alison and her family stopped to provide aid. Her daughter Abigail was given a special award.

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The Skripal Case – Two Years On, from off-Guardian

Posted on March 5, 2020 | Leave a comment

You don’t need to read the alternative media to conclude that the official Skripal narrative is riddled with holes, just read the official narrative itself. From off-Guardian at off-guardian.org:

Sergey Skripal with his daughter Yulia in their favorite Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury

It’s been two years to the day since disgraced former military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia, were allegedly found on a park bench in Salisbury, near unconscious and apparently very unwell.

A lot has been said about the unanswered questions revolving around the incident. But perhaps the best of way of demonstrating the peculiarity of the alleged situation is to simply relate, in full, the “official version”.

Here it is:

  • Sergei Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer, was found guilty of spying for the UK in 2006, and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
  • In 2010 he was released and traded to the United Kingdom as part of a spy swap. Having settled in the UK Sergei lived a quiet and comfortable life of retirement, so far as we know
  • Eight years later, in early 2018, with a Presidential election looming and just weeks before Russia was due to host the FIFA World Cup, Vladimir Putin decided to assassinate him for as yet obscure reasons.

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OPCW Manipulation Of Its Douma Report Requires A Fresh Look At The Skripal ‘Novichok’ Case, by Moon of Alabama

Posted on December 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

If we can’t trust the OPCW on its Douma findings, we certainly can’t trust them on the Skripal case. From Moon of Alabama at moonofalabama.org:

With regards to the revelations about the OPCW management manipulation of its staff reports the former UN weapon inspector Scott Ritter makes a very valid point:

Thanks to an explosive internal memo, there is no reason to believe the claims put forward by the Syrian opposition that President Bashar al-Assad’s government used chemical weapons against innocent civilians in Douma back in April. This is a scenario I have questioned from the beginning. It also calls into question all the other conclusions and reports by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which was assigned in 2014 “to establish facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic chemicals, reportedly chlorine, for hostile purposes in the Syrian Arab Republic.”

Besides its activities around dubious ‘chemical’ incident in Syria there is another rather famous case in which the OPCW got involved: The alleged ‘Novichok’ attack on Sergei and Julia Skripal in Salisbury, Britain.

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NYT Covers Up CIA Skripal Lie With Even Worse CIA Skripal Lie, by Tyler Durden

Posted on June 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

What a tangled web they weave, when intelligence agencies and their captive media practice to deceive. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the fact that the New York Times has corrected its CIA-Skripal story, saying that no ‘dead ducks’ or ‘sick kids’ in Salisbury due to the ‘Novichok’ nerve agent.

The New York Times corrected a report that stated UK officials shared photos with the CIA showing children and ducks who head been exposed to the Novichok nerve agent after coming into contact with the Skripals.

The NYT reported on April 16 that the British government had supplied images of “young children hospitalized” and of dead ducks, poisoned after interactions with Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia at a park in Salisbury in March of last year.

The NYT profile of CIA Director Gina Haspel had claimed the ‘dead duck’ images were used to convince US President Trump to expel 60 Russian diplomats from the US in response to the Skripal case. The New York Times now says no photos ever existed, and its report of such photos was inaccurate.

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The World: What is Really Happening, by Craig Murray

Posted on May 26, 2019 | Leave a comment

Neither the official story on the Douma chemical weapon attack nor the Skripal chemical weapon attack stand up to any serious scrutiny. From Craig Murray at craigmurray.org:

If you want to understand what is really happening in the world today, a mid-ranking official named Ian Henderson is vastly more important to you than Theresa May. You will not, however, find anything about Henderson in the vast majority of corporate and state media outlets.

You may recall that, one month after the Skripal incident, there was allegedly a “chemical weapons attack” in the jihadist enclave of Douma, which led to air strikes against the Syrian government in support of the jihadist forces by US, British and French bombers and missiles. At the time, I argued that the Douma jihadist enclave was on the brink of falling (as indeed it proved) and there was no military advantage – and a massive international downside – for the Syrian Army in using chemical weapons. Such evidence for the attack that existed came from the jihadist allied and NATO funded White Helmets and related sources; and the veteran and extremely respected journalist Robert Fisk, first westerner to arrive on the scene, reported that no chemical attack had taken place.

The “Douma chemical weapon attack” was linked to the “Skripal chemical weapon attack” by the western media as evidence of Russian evil. Robert Fisk was subjected to massive media abuse and I was demonised by countless mainstream media journalists on social media, of which this is just one example of a great many.

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Skripal and Khashoggi: A Tale of Two Disappearances, by Finian Cunningham

Posted on October 18, 2018 | Leave a comment

The presumption of innocence, as applied by the US government, is far stronger for Mohammad bin Salman than it is for Vladimir Putin. From Finian Cunningham at strategic-culture.org:

Two disappearances, and two very different responses from Western governments, which illustrates their rank hypocrisy.

When former Russian spy Sergei Skripal went missing in England earlier this year, there was almost immediate punitive action by the British government and its NATO allies against Moscow. By contrast, Western governments are straining with restraint towards Saudi Arabia over the more shocking and provable case of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The outcry by Western governments and media over the Skripal affair was deafening and resulted in Britain, the US and some 28 other countries expelling dozens of Russian diplomats on the back of unsubstantiated British allegations that the Kremlin tried to assassinate an exiled spy with a deadly nerve agent. The Trump administration has further tightened sanctions citing the Skripal incident.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Crime, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Investigations, Law, Politics

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Britain Should Be in the Dock Over Skripal Saga, Not Russia, by the Strategic Culture Editorial Board

Posted on September 11, 2018 | Leave a comment

The Skripal investigation has about as much credibility as Russiagate does in the US. From the editorial board of Strategic Culture at strategic-culture.org:

The latest announcement by British authorities of two named Russian suspects in connection with the alleged poison assassination of a former Russian spy and his daughter is more absurd drama in a long-running tawdry saga.

No verifiable evidence is ever presented, just more lurid innuendo and more refusal by the British authorities to abide by any due process and international norms of diplomacy. It is all scurrilous sound and fury aimed at smearing Russia.

This week, Britain’s Metropolitan Police released video shots of two alleged Russian men purporting to show them arriving at London’s Gatwick airport on March 2. Other video shots purport to show the same men walking the streets of Salisbury on March 3, the day before former Russian Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were apparently stricken with a powerful nerve agent. The two would-be assassins then allegedly flew back to Moscow from London late on March 4. Continue reading →

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