THE C NSPIRASPHERE
With the surprising recovery of the victims and new questions about the nerve agent used on them, the Skripal affair grows curiouser and curiouser, says NOEL ROONEY...
SKRIPAL 2.0
My last article on the Skripal affair really didn’t do justice to the growing complexities of the incident. The story appeared relatively straightforward, in some respects, at the time; and the responses of the mainstream (the Russians did it!) and the Conspirasphere (oh no they didn’t!) looked for all the world like familiar reactions to a done deal. Not so, it now appears.
The first, and most surprising, development concerns the health of the victims. Yulia Skripal has now been discharged from hospital, and her father, while recovering more slowly, is expected to follow at some point. This is pretty unusual given the alleged nature of the assassination weapon; nerve agents are generally deadly, and where they aren’t, the effects are disabling, usually for life. The police officer who was affected is also recovering. The only fatalities seem to be the family pets, and some reports suggest they actually died from starvation.
The nature, provenance, and very existence, of the nerve agent in question (see p14) have come under scrutiny from other quarters. Scientists at Porton Down and various international bodies have expressed doubt as to whether Russia ever actually developed the Novichok class of nerve agents; other commentators have pointed out that, for Porton Down, or any other body, to identify the substance, they would need previous access to an independent sample of it. In either case, the certainty that pervaded the mainstream media in the immediate aftermath of the incident is now giving way to a growing sense of, at best, puzzlement, and at worst, outright suspicion of the official account.
Novichok was supposedly applied to the front door of the Skripal residence in Salisbury. But then how did Sergei Skripal and his daughter manage to go for a walk in town, have a drink at a riverside pub and a meal at a restaurant in the hours afterwards? Nerve agents are very fastacting; the Skripals should have been disabled more or less immediately. And some experts have suggested that, if the agent were applied as reported, large numbers of people in the immediate area should also have been affected. Yet, and despite reports at the time, only three people were harmed. The area should still be contaminated; yet it has not been evacuated or cordoned off. None of this makes any sense, and the Conspirasphere knows it; responses are plentiful, and have a gleeful ‘I told you so’ ring to them.
Novichok is in danger of promotion to the ‘magic bullet’ class of weaponry usually reserved for the elite end of the conspiracy market. If it exists. Russia is asking for a joint investigation, and no one wants to play; meanwhile, other members of the Skripal family have been refused entry to the UK, on dubious grounds (do the UK authorities really believe the Russians could have hired or forced family members to finish the job for them?). The principal victims will now, it appears, be spirited away to start new lives, possibly in the USA, under new identities; while the rationale given is to protect them from further attacks, this part of the story sounds more like the treatment reserved for ‘supergrass’ witnesses or spies. Some have suggested this is designed to keep the Skripals out of the public eye (and possibly the news loop) and there are dark mutterings about The Powers That Be wanting to silence them permanently (which is where we came in, but the pantomime villain has changed costume).
The doubts expressed by some in the Conspirasphere (which I wrongly dismissed as knee-jerk reaction) have leaked into the mainstream with a vengeance (and with somewhat more efficacy than Novichok, it appears). This is very different from the mainstream’s use of conspiracy stories for comic distraction. The rabbit hole has edged a little closer.