Evidence lacking in allied stand against ‘Russian’ poisoning case

Greg Barns says the public is being hoodwinked by the UK and its allies, including Australia

WHAT evidence is there the Russian Government ordered the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in London three weeks ago? At this stage none. But, of course, the neoconservative warmongers who prevail in Washington, London and Canberra do not care for the truth. They simply want to destroy Russia. Telling lies in the mainstream media about the Skirpal case is part of that strategy.

Last week, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced the expulsion of two Russian diplomats. They were acting, they said, on intelligence and in solidarity with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

The mainstream media on the Left and Right, which hates Russia, has fallen in line with the lies being pushed by London and its allies about the Skirpal case. But if you want facts, you can turn to a range of sources. They include the Ron Paul Institute in the US, former US analyst Justin Raimondo, and ex-UK diplomat Craig Murray.

Daniel McAdams, of the Ron Paul Institute, named after one of the great opponents of the Washington war machine, made a telling point last week when he rightly observed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has no motive to order the poisoning of an “out to pasture” former spy.

“What reason would Putin have for poisoning a has-been, washed up former double agent who was living out his retirement in the UK, having not only served his time in a Russian jail, but been sent to the UK by Russia?” Mr McAdams said.

Evidence before the UK High Court makes a lie of what Ms May said on March 12: “It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as ‘Novichok’. Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down.”

But this is not what the Porton Down experts said.

According to the Court on March 22, the evidence from the experts at Porton Down was that blood samples “were analysed and the findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound. The samples tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent or closely related agent.”

In other words there is a possibility the substance was not a nerve agent at all. Ms May’s lie has been repeated by the mainstream media and politicians in Australia.

Justin Raimondo pointed out that the Novichok class nerve agent has not been in Russia’s hands and hasn’t been since 1991. The facility that produced Novichok is in Uzbekistan. “Uzbekistan was no longer a part of the Soviet Union: the country declared its independence on August 31, 1991. After that, whatever

happened to the Novichok production facilities in Uzbekistan was out of Moscow’s control — and stores of the lethal poison could’ve wound up anywhere,” Raimondo wrote.

On March 16, Craig Murray published a disturbing revelation that brought back memories of what the Blair government did in the lead-up to the Iraq war in 2003 when scientists were bullied by politicians into declaring Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Murray said he received confirmation from a foreign and commonwealth office source that Porton Down scientists were not able to identify the nerve agent as being of Russian manufacture, and have been resentful of the pressure being placed on them to do so. Porton Down only signed up to the formulation “of a type developed by Russia” after a rather difficult meeting where this was agreed as a compromise formulation. The Russians were allegedly researching, in the “Novichok” program, nerve agents that could be made from commercially available insecticides and fertilisers.

“This substance is a ‘novichok’ in that sense. It is of that type. Just as I am typing on a laptop of a type developed by the United States, though this one was made in China,” Murray wrote.

Then there is the hypocrisy. Israel and the US routinely interfere in domestic affairs of nations like Australia and the UK. Last year an Israeli Embassy official was caught on tape boasting of “taking down” MPs he regarded as hostile to Israel, via the mechanism of setting up “independent” organisations. Unlike the Russia case, this was an embassy caught red handed. Why weren’t Israeli Embassy staff expelled by UK allies? Why didn’t Australia express its solidarity and do likewise?

The US has the worst track record of any nation when it comes to covert operations in other countries that have resulted in the killing of civilians. Yet there is no outrage by London, Canberra and its allies.