Russia: Trace of Western-made Nerve Agent seen in UK Samples

The Proverbial Smoking Gun?

Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko arrives for a press conference at his residence in London, Friday, April 13, 2018. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press)

By Associated Press

MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister says Moscow has received a document from a Swiss lab that analyzed the samples in the nerve agent poisoning of an ex-Russian spy, which points at a Western-designed nerve agent as a likely cause.

Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday that Moscow received the confidential information from the laboratory in Spiez, Switzerland, that analyzed samples from the site of the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

He said the analysis was done at the request of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The OPCW’s report confirmed British findings that the Skripals were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent, but didn’t say who was responsible.

Britain has accused Russia of poisoning them with a Soviet-designed agent, an accusation that Moscow denies.

Lavrov said the document indicated that the samples from Salisbury contained BZ nerve agent and its precursor. He said BZ was part of chemical arsenals of the U.S., Britain and other NATO countries, while the Soviet Union and Russia never developed the agent.

Lavrov added that the Swiss lab also pointed at the presence of the nerve agent A234 in the samples, but added that the lab noted that its presence in the samples appeared strange, given the substance’s high volatility and the relatively long period between the poisoning and the sample-taking.

Do you smell that? Gunpowder, and it was burnt not very long ago! If we believe the UK, the Skripals were poisoned with a chemical made in Russia, then shipped to the UK, then shipped to Salisbury and painted on the door-knob of the Skripal residence. 

Somehow, the highly volatile A234 remained stable for the 5 weeks or so, plus the trip from Moscow to Salisbury. Or, possibly, it was added to the sample sent to the Swiss lab shortly before it was sent. That might explain how it could have survived for so long. Smell the burnt powder now?

I don't have any difficulty believing the UK, or NATO, or some Deep State agent was behind the poisoning; it makes at least as much sense as believing Putin did it. But the presence of A234 suggests very strongly that the OPCW is, at the very least, complicit in a conspiracy to blame Russia in a false flag operation.

Now, do we trust them with Douma? 

He noted that OPCW’s report didn’t contain any mention of BZ, adding that Russia will ask the chemical weapons watchdog for an explanation.

Britain said that the A234 agent belonged to the family of Soviet-designed nerve agents dubbed Novichok.

Yulia Skripal, 33, was released from the hospital this week. Her father remains hospitalized but British health officials say he is improving.

US Will Act Against ‘Monster’ Assad With or Without UN ‒ Haley

USA - Sucked-in Again?

United States envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley addresses the Security Council, April 9, 2018. © Brendan McDermid / Reuters

The US will act against the Syrian government with or without a UN blessing, US envoy Nikki Haley told the Security Council, blaming Russian “obstructionism” for allowing the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria and beyond.

“We are beyond showing pictures of dead babies. We are beyond appeals to conscience. We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done,” Haley declared to the Security Council on Monday, accusing Russia of backing the “monster” [Bashar] Assad, who was murdering children with chemical weapons.

“The Russian regime, whose hands are all covered with the blood of Syrian children, cannot be ashamed by pictures of its victims. We’ve tried that before,” Haley said, adding that “no civilized government would have anything to do with Assad’s murderous regime.”

Moscow has challenged claims, made by the Western-backed NGO ‘White Helmets’ and Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam) militants, that the Syrian government conducted a chemical attack against civilians in the Damascus suburb of Douma. Russia’s envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia called it “fake news,” noting that no traces of the alleged attack were found in the area after Syrian troops liberated it from the militants.

Haley, however, spoke of the attack as if it and the Syrian government’s culpability were proven facts. If the UN refused to follow Washington’s lead and intervene in Syria due to “Russia’s obstructionism,” Haley said, the US will go it alone.

“History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria. Either way, the United States will respond​​​,” she said.

Nobody has vested you with the power to act 

like the world’s policeman, or to act 

like the prosecutor, judge, and executioner 

Earlier in the meeting, Nebenzia had warned the US and its allies of the possible “grave consequences” of unauthorized military action against Syria, where Russian troops have been legally deployed at the invitation of the country’s internationally recognized government.

“What [the] military misadventures of the West bring about is well known, as shown by the examples of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya. Nobody has vested you with the power to act like the world’s policeman, or to act like the prosecutor, judge, and executioner either,” he said.

The US cited humanitarian concerns to launch NATO attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999 and in Libya in 2011. The latter began as the UN mandate to establish a no-fly zone and, within days, turned into a “regime change” operation. In 2003, the US invaded Iraq without UN authority, claiming the threat of Iraqi nuclear and chemical weapons of mass destruction (WMD). No such weapons were ever found.

It is so blatantly obvious that every time Trump starts musing about pulling out of Syria, there is a chemical attack on civilians. 

Analysis of the 2013 attack in Ghouta revealed that it was not of the same chemical composition as that used by Syria at the time. 

No-one has investigated the Khan Sheikoun attack at ground level and taken samples for themselves. All samples were taken from NGOs like the White Helmets which are decidedly anti-Assad. Those samples could never have been verified as genuine. Will anyone from the OPCW actually enter Douma and take samples? We have documented White Helmets complicity in producing fake news in Syria.

Who benefits from the use of chemical weapons in Syria? Certainly not Assad! Only those who do not want the USA to pull out; that would be any of the rebel groups and Saudi Arabia. But the USA has no business in Syria - ISIS is routed and they should depart and stop using false flag excuses to remain. 

Without proof of complicity by Assad, there is no moral imperative to attack, just because you can. In fact, the moral imperative is to wait for proof and to do everything possible to verify the findings. Otherwise, you are being played for fools.