Friday, March 23, 2018



They Lied Us Into War, All of Them 



And I don’t just mean Iraq War II.
A friend wanted a list, so I whipped one up real quick.



Gulf of Tonkin 1964: McNamara knew it was a mistake before LBJ used it as an excuse to escalate. Daniel Ellsberg’s firsthand account from inside the Pentagon: 
Gareth Porter says Mac kept the truth from LBJ: 



Cold War’s End 1988-1991: CIA so busy lying about Soviet power under Casey and Gates, they missed the USSR’s fall. 


Iraq War I: 1990-1991: Lied about Iraqi preparations to invade Saudi, Iraqi forces murdering babies. 


Kosovo: 1999: Lied about 100,000 Albanian Muslims slaughtered by Serbs.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/aug/18/balkans3


Afghanistan: 2001: Lied that Taliban wouldn’t give up Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5


Iraq War II 2003: Lied that Iraq was making WMD, including nuclear weapons, was allied with al Qaeda. 


Somalia 2006: The Islamic Courts Union government was not truly in league with al Qaeda as claimed. 


Libya 2011: Lied that there was an impending genocide in Eastern Libya. 


Syria 2013: No Slam Dunk on al Qaeda false-flag sarin attack, they finally admit much later.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/03/10/neocons-red-faced-over-red-line/




Yemen 2015: Not really bad intel, but notably knew war would be “long, bloody and indecisive,” launched it anyway, just to “placate the Saudis.” 


Iran: Hasn’t led to war yet, but they’ve been lying for years about Iran’s intent and actions to make nuclear weapons, which never existed. 
CIA did finally admit this was so in 2007. 



Older phony casus belli:


1812: Impressment of sailors was the excuse when the Democrats really just wanted to seize Canada. 


1846: Mexico: U.S. invaded, called it defense from the Mexicans. 


1861: Civil War: Keeping Ft. Sumter open after South Carolina secession was a provocation. (Everyone’s got a different opinion about this one.)


1620-Current: Indian wars: Paid Napoleon for the land. God says we can. And they started it anyway. 


1898: Spain: Remember the Maine was an accidental fire which spread to the magazine. 


1898: Philippines: Must Christianize these Catholics. 


WWI: Lusitania was a deliberate provocation, Zimmerman telegram threat of German-Mexican invasion of U.S. Southwest was a ridiculous joke. 


WWII: Pearl Harbor: FDR Knew. 


Korea: Syngman Ree’s forces’ provocations preceded Northern invasion. 

  






Some additional references:


The Lavon Affair


100 years after that 'false flag' called 'The Lusitania', we have learned nothing, and are being led to war once more 



USS Maine: Spanish-American War
The story of the Battleship Maine and the Spanish American War.


History of American False Flag Operations


10 false flags operations that shaped our world


A List of Verified False Flag Attacks That Have Led to War








Tuesday, March 20, 2018


Did Putin Order the Salisbury Hit?



By Patrick J. Buchanan  
Posted on March 20, 2018


Britain has yet to identify the assassin who tried to murder the double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England. But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson knows who ordered the hit. "We think it overwhelmingly likely that it was (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s) decision to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the U.K."

"Unforgivable," says Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov of the charge, which also defies "common sense." 

On Sunday, Putin echoed Peskov: "It is just sheer nonsense, complete rubbish, to think that anyone in Russia could do anything like that in the run-up to the presidential election and the World Cup… It’s simply unthinkable."

Putin repeated Russia’s offer to assist in the investigation. 
But Johnson is not backing down; he is doubling down.


     


"We gave the Russians every opportunity to come up with an alternative hypothesis … and they haven’t," said Johnson... Why Russia is the prime suspect is understandable. Novichok was created by Russia’s military decades ago, and Skripal, a former Russian intel officer, betrayed Russian spies to MI6.

But what is missing here is the Kremlin’s motive for the crime.

Skripal was convicted of betraying Russian spies in 2006. He spent four years in prison and was exchanged in 2010 for Russian spies in the U.S. If Putin wanted Skripal dead as an example to all potential traitors, why didn’t he execute him while he was in Kremlin custody?

Why wait until eight years after Skripal had been sent to England? And how would this murder on British soil advance any Russian interest?

Putin is no fool. A veteran intelligence agent, he knows that no rival intel agency such as the CIA or MI6 would trade spies with Russia if the Kremlin were to go about killing them after they have been traded.

"Cui bono?" runs the always relevant Ciceronian question. "Who benefits" from this criminal atrocity? Certainly, in this case, not Russia, not the Kremlin, not Putin. 

All have taken a ceaseless beating in world opinion and Western media since the Skripals were found comatose, near death, on that bench outside a mall in Salisbury.

Predictably, Britain’s reaction has been rage, revulsion and retaliation. Twenty-three Russian diplomats, intelligence agents in their London embassy, have been expelled. The Brits have been treating Putin as a pariah and depicting Russia as outside the circle of civilized nations.

Russia is "ripping up the international rulebook," roared Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson. Asked how Moscow might respond to the expulsions, Williamson retorted: Russia should "go away and shut up."






[Alleged] Putin sympathizers, including Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, have been silenced or savaged as appeasers for resisting the rush to judgment.





The Americans naturally came down on the side of their oldest ally, with President Donald Trump imposing new sanctions.

We are daily admonished that Putin tried to tip the 2016 election to Trump. But if so, why would Putin order a public assassination that would almost compel Trump to postpone his efforts at a rapprochement?

Who, then, are the beneficiaries of this atrocity?

Is it not the coalition – principally in our own capital city – that bears an endemic hostility to Russia and envisions America’s future role as a continuance of its Cold War role of containing and corralling Russia until we can achieve regime change in Moscow?...

Was this act really ordered by Putin and the Kremlin, who have not only denied it but condemned it?

Or was it the work of rogue agents who desired the consequences that they knew the murder of Skripal would produce – a deeper and more permanent split between Russia and the West?

Only a moron could not have known what the political ramifications of such an atrocity as this would be on U.S.-British-Russian relations.





And before we act on Boris Johnson’s verdict – that Putin ordered it – let us recall:

* The Spanish, we learned, did not actually blow up the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898, which ignited the Spanish-American War.

* The story of North Vietnamese gunboats attacking U.S. destroyers, which led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and 58,000 dead Americans in Vietnam, proved not to be entirely accurate.

* We went to war in Iraq in 2003 to disarm it of weapons of mass destruction we later discovered Saddam Hussein did not really have.







Some 4,500 U.S. dead and tens of thousands of wounded paid for that rush to judgment. And some of those clamoring for war then are visible in the vanguard of those clamoring for confronting Russia.


Before we set off on Cold War II with Russia – leading perhaps to the shooting war we avoided in Cold War I – let’s try to get this one right.

To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM


Read more by Patrick J. Buchanan

Read the complete article:







A dangerous collective insanity has taken over the political and 'news' media elites of much of the Western world - the UK, US, Australia, and other countries that recklessly align with them.

Remember Iraq? - dodgy intelligence cooked up to fit the policy. Now it's anti-Russia hysteria, without the necessity of actual evidence or independent examination, which could lead to more disastrous wars, including between nuclear armed powers.

If there was real investigative journalism left in the Western corporate-state owned media, everyone should know this already. Instead, the role of the corrupted 'news' media is to whip up public sentiment based on lies, fear and ignorance, to advance the selfish interests of the Military-Industrial Complex.

When demonizing the designated 'enemy', the normal legal principle of “innocent until proven guilty” need not apply. It is also not necessary to add that most important word “alleged” before mak
ing unproven accusations of guilt.


If the truth must be told, for 'plausible deniability', it will be hidden somewhere less likely to be seen. Meanwhile, the official narrative dominates the headlines, front page, and lead stories, where getting the desired message across really counts.


This is not proper journalism; it is propaganda. 

When news reporters lie; innocent people die.

So here are some alternative investigative articles that will shine light in ways that the corporate-state media will not.   
- Bruce




Russian to Judgment: Who Poisoned Sergei Skripal?

The all-purpose “Russia did it” explanation makes no sense

By Justin Raimondo
Posted on AntiWar.com, on March 15, 2018

"The all-purpose 'Russia did it' explanation makes no sense... It makes no sense. But then again, war propaganda doesn't have to make sense, it has only to inspire fear and loathing... Don't fall for it: instead ask the question... Where's the evidence?"

Read more:






Of A Type Developed By Liars 
n
Craig Murray, a former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, explains why the official narrative about the 'UK-Russia chemical attack' story should not be believed:

"...It is very carefully worded propaganda. 
Of a type developed by liars..."

Read the article:



First Recorded Successful Novichok Synthesis was in 2016 – By Iran, in Cooperation with the OPCW
By Craig Murray
March 17, 2018

“The line that novichoks can only be produced by Russia is now proven to be a complete lie… 

Despite the lying propaganda regurgitated by virtually every corporate and state “journalist”, in truth it is now proven beyond dispute that “of a type developed by Russia” has zero evidential value and is a politician’s weasel phrase designed deliberately to mislead the public. The public should ask why.

…in late 2016, Iranian scientists set out to study whether novichoks really could be produced from commercially available ingredients. Iran succeeded in synthesising a number of novichoks. Iran did this in full cooperation with the OPCW and immediately reported the results to the OPCW so they could be added to the chemical weapons database.

This makes complete nonsense of the Theresa May’s “of a type developed by Russia” line, used to parliament and the UN Security Council. This explains why Porton Down have refused to cave in to governmental pressure to say the nerve agent was Russian. If Iran can make a novichok, so can a significant number of states…

Iran acted absolutely responsibly in cooperating with the OPCW… Russia has cooperated in the OPCW destruction of all its chemical weapons stocks, completed last year, which included regular OPCW inspection of all the sites alleged to have been in the original “novichok” programme…

Extraordinarily, only yesterday the Guardian was still carrying an article which claimed “only the Russian state” could make a novichok. 

Despite the lying propaganda regurgitated by virtually every corporate and state “journalist”, in truth is it is now proven beyond dispute that “of a type developed by Russia” has zero evidential value and is a politician’s weasel phrase designed deliberately to mislead the public. 

The public should ask why.”


Read the complete article:



The Novichok Story Is Indeed Another Iraqi WMD Scam
By Craig Murray


Bothered By Midgies



Hear Craig Murray, 
a former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan:
BBC Radio 5 Interview on Skripal Attack
(14:50) - 18 Mar, 2018



Russian Scientists Explain 'Novichok' - High Time For Britain To Come Clean
By Moon Of Alabama
March 21, 2018

“…The name 'Novichok' comes from a book written by Vil Mirzanyanov, a 1990s immigrant to the U.S. from the former Soviet Union. It describes his work at Soviet chemical weapon laboratories and lists the chemical formulas of a new group of lethal substances. 

AFP interviewed the author of the 'Novichok' book about the Salisbury incident: he is convinced Russia carried it out... The only other possibility, he said, would be that someone used the formulas in his book to make such a weapon.

"Russia did it", says Mirzanyanov, "OR SOMEONE WHO READ MY BOOK".

Western media claimed that Vil Miranzayanov is the developer of the 'Novichok' chemicals. It turns out that this is not the case. 

Interviews with two retired Russian chemists, both published only yesterday, tell the real story… Vladimir Uglev, like Renk and Miranzayanov, notes that these agents "of a type developed by Russia" can now be produced by any sufficiently equipped laboratory, including private ones.

Uglev mentions a criminal use of one of the agents in the 1990s… Journalist Mark Ames, who worked in Moscow at that time, remarks: This muddles the narrative a bit —"novichok" used in 1995 Moscow mafia poison hit on top mobster Ivan Kivelidi. So: 1) novichok [is] in mob hands too…

A new article in the New Scientists confirms the claims by the Russian scientists that the 'Novichok' agents which may have affected the Skripals may have been produced elsewhere: Weapons experts have told New Scientist that a number of countries legally created small amounts of Novichok after it was revealed in 1992 and a production method was later published…

In an interview with Deutsche Welle British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson admits that Porton Down had (illegal?)  'Novichok' agents when the incident in Salisbury happened… 

But Porton Down did not agree with the British government to claim that the supposed nerve agent was "made by Russia." It only agreed to the compromise formulation "of a type developed by Russia" i.e. it could have been made anywhere…

As usual in the military-industrial complex the people who push such scares, are the ones who profit from them.

The British Morning Star points to one former British military intelligence officer, Colonel (rtd) Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, as a common protagonist in the Skripal case, in the claims of Syrian chemical weapon use and in commercial interests around chemical weapon defense…

Other British agents involved in the Skripal case are Pablo Miller who recruited Skripal for the MI6. He was a friend of Skripal, also lived in Salisbury and worked for Christopher Steele, the former(?) MI6 agent who produced the 'dirty dossier' about Donald Trump for the Clinton campaign…

How could the British government be sure of "Russian" involvement within a week and even expel Russian diplomats when the primary chemical experts on the issue will need three weeks for their first analyses and the British police predicts a several months long investigation?

The Russian scientists and their government have explained their history and position in relation to 'Novichoks' and the Skripal incident. It is high time now for the British government, its scientists at Porton Down and its greedy mafia of former(?) British intelligence officer and their criminal Russian emigres to come clean about their own roles in it.”


Read the complete story, and read/post public comments:

and here:






30 Questions That Journalists Should be Asking About the Skripal Case
By Rob SLANE
EDITOR'S CHOICE | 25.03.2018
Online Journal, Strategic Culture Foundation

There are a lot of issues around the case of Sergei and Yulia Skripal which, at the time of writing, are very unclear and rather odd. 

There may well be good and innocent explanations for some or even all of them. Then again there may not. This is why it is crucial for questions to be asked where, as yet, there are either no answers or deeply unsatisfactory ones.

Some people will assume that this is conspiracy theory territory. It is not that, for the simple reason that I have no credible theory — conspiracy or otherwise — to explain all the details of the incident in Salisbury from start to finish, and I am not attempting to forward one. I have no idea who was behind this incident, and I continue to keep an open mind to a good many possible explanations.

However, there are a number of oddities in the official narrative, which do demand answers and clarifications. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist or a defender of the Russian state to see this. You just need a healthy scepticism, “of a type developed by all inquiring minds!”

Below are 30 of the most important questions regarding the case and the British Government’s response, which are currently either wholly unanswered, or which require clarification… 

If there are any journalists with integrity and inquisitive minds still living in this country, I would be grateful if they could begin doing their job and research the answers to these sorts of questions by asking the appropriate people and authorities.”


More on this and other subjects on Rob Slane’s blog:



Read all 30 questions that investigative journalists should be asking about the Skripal poisoning:




20 More Questions That Journalists Should be Asking About the Skripal Case
By Rob SLANE
EDITOR'S CHOICE | 29.03.2018
Online Journal, Strategic Culture Foundation

“To my knowledge, none of the questions I wrote in my previous piece – 30 questions That Journalists Should be Asking About the Skripal Case – has been answered satisfactorily, at least not in the public domain. 

Yet despite the fact that these legitimate questions have not yet been answered, and many important facts surrounding the case are still unknown, the case has given rise to a serious international crisis, with the extraordinary expulsion of Russian diplomats across many EU countries and particularly the United States… 

And so, for what it’s worth, here are 20 more important questions that I think that journalists ought to be asking regarding this case:...”





According to this article by Moon of Alabama, the U.S. State Department itself now admits that UK blaming Russia for the Skripal poisoning was “a lie, concocted in a common propaganda operation with the U.S. government” from the very beginning:

“…The U.S. State Department says that its campaign to use the Skripal incident as a tool against Russia started on March 6, only two days after the incident and six full days before the British government raised accusations against Russia. In her press briefing on March 27, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert talked about the coordinated ousting of Russian diplomats by some "western" countries: 

“Our Deputy Secretary Sullivan, Assistant Secretary Wess Mitchell, and many others…worked tirelessly over the past three weeks to achieve this unprecedented level of cooperation and also coordination…” 

Yet the British prime minister made her allegations against Russia only on March 12…”


Also from this Moon of Alabama article:


"…Today, 25 days after the incident, the police say they suspect that the Skripals were poisoned from the front door of their home. Today, 25 days after the incident, they removed the front door… The Skripals were said to have left their home at 9:00am in the morning. They collapsed relatively sudden at 4:00pm in the afternoon. Is this seven hour delay consistent with being severely affected by a "military grade" highly toxic nerve agent?...

But even if a nerve agent of the 'novichok' type was involved the jump to allegations against Russia is completely baseless. David B. Collum is Professor for Organic Chemistry at Cornell University. He really, really knows this stuff:

Dave Collum @DavidBCollum - 12:54 AM - 27 Mar 2018
I will say it again: Anybody who tells you this nerve agent must have come from Russia is a liar--a complete and utter liar. They are simple compounds…”


Also from this Moon of Alabama article:


“An editorial (recommended) in the Chinese Global Times captures the utter disgust such behavior creates elsewhere: 

“The fact that major Western powers can gang up and "sentence" a foreign country without following the same procedures other countries abide by and according to the basic tenets of international law is chilling... 

It is beyond outrageous how the US and Europe have treated Russia. Their actions represent a frivolity and recklessness that has grown to characterize Western hegemony that only knows how to contaminate international relations. 

Right now is the perfect time for non-Western nations to strengthen unity and collaborative efforts among one another.”…


From: Last Act Of 'Novichok' Drama Revealed - "The Skripals' Resurrection" (March 29,2018)



REVEALED: Pentagon’s $70 Million Chemical & Biological Program at Porton Down in UK

By Dilyana Gaytandzhieva
March 28, 2018 

“The Pentagon has spent at least $70 million on military experiments involving tests with deadly viruses and chemical agents at Porton Down – the UK military laboratory near the city of Salisbury… A total of 122,050 animals have been exposed to deadly pathogens, chemicals and incurable diseases over the last decade (2005-2016)… 

Porton Down is just one of the Pentagon-funded military laboratories in 25 countries across the world, where the US Army produces and tests man-made viruses, bacteria and toxins… and are located in former Soviet Union countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa. 

[They] are not under the direct control of the host state as the US military and civilian personnel is working under diplomatic cover. As the local governments and communities are prohibited from public disclosure of sensitive information about the foreign military program running on their own territory – the full extent of the public risk will always remain unknown…” 


- Dilyana Gaytandzhieva is a Bulgarian-based investigative journalist, specializing in covering conflicts and terrorism in Middle East and Asian conflicts, and international weapons trafficking operations.






Salisbury Incident Report: Hard Evidence For Soft Minds
Written by ORIENTAL REVIEW on 28/03/2018

“The UK government’s presentation on the Salisbury incident, which was repeatedly cited in recent days as an “ultimate proof” of Russia’s involvement into Skripal’s assassination attempt, was made public earlier today.

This 6-paged PDF is a powerful evidence of another intellectual low of British propaganda machine. Open it and you can tell that substantially it makes only two assertions on the Skripal case, and both are false:

First. Novichok is a group of agents developed only by Russia and not declared under the CWC” – a false statement. 

Novichok was originally developed in the USSR (Nukus Lab, today in Uzbekistan, site completely decommissioned according to the US-Uzbekistan agreement by 2002). One of its key developers,  Vil Mirzayanov, defected to the United States in 1990s, its chemical formula and technology were openly published in a number of chemical journals outside Russia

Second. “We are without doubt that Russia is responsible. No country bar Russia has combined capability, intent and motive. There is no plausible alternative explanation” – an outstanding example of self-hypnosis…

The prominent British academician from the University of Kent Prof. Richard Sakwa has elaborated on this on March 23 the following way: Rather than just the two possibilities outlined by Theresa May, in fact there are at least six, possibly seven…

The authors of this “report” mixed up a very strange cocktail of multitype allegations, none of which have ever been proven or recognized by any responsible entity (like legal court or dedicated official international organization).

Of course we are not committed to argue on every cell, but taking e.g. “August 2008 Invasion of Georgia” we actually can’t understand why the EU-acknowledged Saakashvili’s aggression against South Ossetia is exposed here as an example of “Russian malign activity”…

Have you totally lost your minds, ladies & gentlemen from the Downing Street?”




20 reasons why Skripal nerve agent story is fake news - former BBC Salisbury reporter Tony Gosling

(AUDIO - 1:01:45)







Hillary Clinton Ordered Diplomats To Suppress 'Novichok' Discussions
By Moon Of Alabama
March 31, 2018

“…some additional details of the history of 'Novichok' nerve agents come to light. Details on 'Novichok' nerve agents were published in a 2007 book by Vil Mirzayanaov, a Soviet scientist offered asylum in the United States. 

After the publication, the U.S. and the UK actively suppressed international discussions about the book and the 'Novichok' chemical weapon agents. 

Documents from the U.S. State Department published by Wikileaks show that then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton directed her diplomats to not talk about Novichok and to play down the matter should it arise in chemical weapon control talks…

In 1997 the Russian Federation and other states of the former Soviet Union joined the Chemical Weapons Convention and destroyed their chemical weapon stocks and production facilities. 

One production and test facility for the 'Novichok' agents was in Nukus, Uzbekistan. In 1999 the U.S. helped to dismantle that facility. It surely acquired additional knowledge about everything that was produced there.

In 2008 Mirzayanov published a book about his story and the chemical agents developed under the 'Foilant' program. The book included the chemical formulas of the agents… U.S. State Department documents published by Wikileaks provide that the U.S. and the UK tried to suppress any discussion of the book…

The above is not the only involvement of "CLINTON" in the 'Novichok' and Skripal affair. The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign paid the British company Orbis to create the 'dirty dossier' about Trump and his alleged connections to Russia. Christopher Steele, a former(?) MI6 agent, and his former(?) MI6 colleague Pablo Miller wrote the dossier, claiming that its information came from Russian sources. Pablo Miller was the MI6 agent who had recruited Sergej Skripal as a spy for the UK. 

Miller lives in Salisbury where Sergej Skripal lives and where he and his daughter were allegedly attacked with a 'Novichok' nerve agent. Miller was a friend of Sergej Skripal and regularly met him. It is quite possible that some of the shoddy rumors in the Steele dossier were sourced from Skripal or from his daughter Yulia. The incident in Salisbury could well be related to the dossier or other dubiously alleged campaign issues.

It is intriguing that the U.S. and the UK tried to downplay any discussion of 'Novichoks' and the book. Why did they do so? 

Until 2016 the OPCW's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) as well as scientists at the UK weapon laboratory in Porton Down sowed doubts about the very existence of 'Novichoks'…

The British government insinuates that Russia is the only country that could make 'Novichok' agents and must therefore have attacked the Skripals. This is obviously nonsense. The U.S. and the UK were deeply involved in the 'Novichok' issue. They certainly tried and succeeded to re-create these substances. 

After the formulas of the nerve agents were published by Mirzayanov, the U.S. and the UK suppressed discussion of the issue. The OPCW professed to know nothing about them. Only after Iranian scientists independently re-created the agents and published about them were they added to the OPCW database.

Three questions come to mind which the U.S. and British government should be pressed to answer:
  • Why did the Clinton State Department and the British government suppress international talks about the 'Novichok' agents?
  • Why did they try, successfully it seems, to keep the issue out of the OPCW's Scientific Advisory Board?
  • Why were the substances kept out of the OPCW database until independent Iranian scientists finally re-created them?”


Read the complete article, and read/post public comments:





Porton Down experts unable to verify precise source of novichok
Defence lab unable to definitively say where nerve agent that poisoned Sergei Skripal and his daughter came from

By Steven Morris and Pippa Crerar
The Guardian, Tuesday April 3, 2018

“British scientists at Porton Down have not been able to establish where the novichok nerve agent used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal was made, it has emerged. Gary Aitkenhead, the chief executive of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down, Wiltshire, said it had not proved it was created in Russia…

The comments are bound to be seized on by Russia, which insists it was not behind the attack and claims the British government’s accusations that it is behind it are a provocation…

Asked if it was possible to establish where the novichok was made, Aitkenhead added: “At this stage, with the work that we’ve done thus far, we’ve been able to establish that it’s novichok or from that family. We are continuing to work to help to provide additional information that might help us get closer to the question that you ask but we haven’t yet been able to do that.”…






"It's The Cover-Up" - UK Foreign Office Deletes Tweet, Posts False Transcript, Issues New Lies

By Moon of Alabama
April 4, 2018

“…The British government is trying to cover-up the lies it made with its false allegations against Russia. The cover-up necessitates new lies some of which we expose below.

Yesterday the head of the British chemical weapon laboratory in Porton Down stated that the laboratory cannot establish that the poison used in the alleged 'Novichok' attack in Salisbury was produced by Russia. This was a severe blow to the British government allegations of Russian involvement in the poisoning of Sergej and Yulia Skripal.

Now the British government tries to hide that it said that the poison used in the Salisbury was 'produced in Russia' and that Porton down had proved that to be the case. The government aligned media are helping to stuff the government lies down the memory hole. We all need to make sure that the new lies get exposed and that the attempts to change the record fail…

It is obviously the British government which at first rejected OPCW involvement and not the Kremlin. The OPCW is by statute a technical agency, not a court. It will release a technical assessment of the involved agent and not a judgment on responsibility or guilt.

The attempted cover-up by the Foreign Office of the lies the British government spread about the case has already failed. To play down the original strong claims against Russia as mere 'suggestions' is comical. Allegations that Russia was or is holding up a serious international investigation are also false. It was Britain which at first rejected the CWC and OPCW involvement.

The fact that the British government even makes these attempts must be seen as acknowledgement that it has no case and lied in it its official statements to the global public. It now covers its trail with more lies. What else is the British government lying about?”


Read the complete article, and read/post public comments:







Knobs and Knockers
By Craig Murray
April 5, 2018

“What is left of the government’s definitive identification of Russia as the culprit in the Salisbury attack? It is a simple truth that Russia is not the only state that could have made the nerve agent: dozens of them could. 

It could also have been made by many non-state actors… David Collum, Professor of Organo-Chemistry at Cornell University…has stated that his senior students could do it… 

There simply is no basic investigative journalism happening around this case. 

So given that the weapon itself is not firm evidence it was Russia that did it, what is Boris Johnson’s evidence? 

It turns out that the British government’s evidence is no more than the technique of smearing nerve agent on the door handle. All of the UK media have been briefed by “security sources” that the UK has a copy of a secret Russian assassin training manual detailing how to put nerve agent on door handles, and that given the nerve agent was found on the Skripals door handle, this is the clinching evidence which convinced NATO allies of Russia’s guilt…

Two questions arise. How credible is the British government’s possession of a Russian secret training manual for using novichok agents, and how credible is it that the Skripals were poisoned by their doorknob…

Can somebody explain to me the scenario in which two people both touch the exterior door handle in exiting and closing the door?... 

The second problem is that the Novichok family of nerve agents are instant acting… If the nerve agent was on the door handle and they touched it, the onset of these symptoms would have occurred before they reached the car. They would certainly have not felt like sitting down to a good lunch two hours later… 

This narrative simply is not remotely credible…

These are some of the problems I have with the official account of events. Boris lied about the certainty of the provenance of the nerve agent, and his fall back evidence is at present highly unconvincing. None of which proves it was not the Russian state that was responsible. But there is no convincing proof that it was, and there are several other possibilities. 

Eventually the glaring problems with the official narrative might be resolved, but what is plain is that Johnson and May have been premature and grossly irresponsible…”

Read the complete and compelling article on Craig Murray’s blog:




An Extremely Boring Video. 
Do Not Watch It.

By Craig Murray
April 6, 2018
VIDEO (18:38)

“I have managed to get hold of a copy, which you can see here, of my lengthy interview with Sky News about the Skripals yesterday, which Sky refused to put online because they allege I was boring. With the warning you might therefore be very bored, you may watch it if you wish… 

Kay Burley then appeared to suggest…that Sky News could not put the interview online as they did not record it and do not hold a copy, which is plainly untrue (and would be illegal under their broadcast license)… 

It is my policy when invited by journalists, to give considered and courteous answers to the particular questions which they ask. This is as opposed to what politicians do, which is to spout pre-prepared soundbites irrespective of what they are asked. I appreciate that mine is a very old-fashioned approach… 

But you must judge for yourself…”


I found it not in the least boring!
Watch the video interview (18:38) here:




The Economics Behind The Skripal Poisoning

Michael Hudson - The Hudson Report

The long history of collaboration between Russian oligarchs and Western banks, how it fits into the larger neoliberal project.

Posted April 06, 2018. 
AUDIO (17:27):








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