RTSat, 17 Mar 2018 11:29 UTC
The investigation into the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia will likely take weeks, if not months, the Metropolitan Police has announced,
calling the probe "extremely challenging and complex.""This is an extremely challenging and complex investigation and we currently have around 250 exceptionally experienced and dedicated specialist officers from the counter-terrorism network working around the clock on this case," Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu
said on Saturday.
"They are being supported by hundreds more officers from across the police family, as well as the military and other emergency services." He went on to state that detectives are examining around 4,000 hours of CCTV footage. "They are making good progress in what is a painstaking investigation that is likely to be ongoing for weeks, if not months."
Basu's comments were published in a renewed appeal for information from anyone who may have seen Sergei Skripal's burgundy BMW 320D saloon car with the license plate HD09 WAO. It comes after an initial appeal for information was issued earlier this week.
Authorities are hoping that any information on the whereabouts of Skripal's car on March 4 will lead to further information.
"We need to establish Sergei and Yulia's movements during the morning, before they headed to the town center. Did you see this car, or what you believe was this car, on the day of the incident? We are particularly keen to hear from you if you saw the car before 1:30pm. If you have information, please call the police on 101," Basu said. He also stated that anyone who has images or footage which could potentially assist the investigation can upload them to a secure UK police website.
The renewed appeal for information also includes an updated timeline of what is currently known regarding the whereabouts of the Skripals on March 4. It begins with Yulia's arrival to Heathrow Airport on a flight from Russia the previous day, and continues to document a meal at the chain restaurant Zizzi's in Salisbury on March 4, followed by emergency services being called to attend to an "extremely ill" Sergei and Yulia less than 45 minutes after they left the restaurant.
Comment: By the statements coming out of the British government, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the investigation has already been concluded. They have their man: Vladimir Putin. In reality, of course, they know nothing. The investigation is ongoing, basic details are still in the air, there are no suspects, and the British government has been totally irresponsible in their statements, all but tainting the impartiality of any investigation. No wonder the police are calling the investigation "extremely challenging and complex". How can you conduct a real investigation when the government is already telling you who is guilty?
That fact is, the government's statements are all hot air, not based on any evidence. So Lavrov is correct when he says
the following:
The UK's failure to send a request to Moscow over the Skripal case via Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) channels points to a lack of legal basis for a proper investigation, Russia's Foreign Minister said.
"The fact, that they [UK officials] categorically rejects to file an official request and deliberately and arrogantly fan anti-Russian rhetoric in the public sphere bordering on hysteria, indicates that they clearly understand they have no formal pretext to go down a legal road," Lavrov said on Friday, referring to the British authorities' allegations that Russia, and, notably, President Vladimir Putin, were behind the plot to poison the former double agent and his daughter.
Instead, UK officials have tried to "move all this to the sphere of political rhetoric, to Russophobia in the hope that, as it was in many other cases, the West will align," Lavrov said.
The Russian top diplomat argued that British PM Theresa May's accusatory tirade in the Parliament, as well as the summoning of the Russian ambassador in the Foreign Office, cannot serve as a substitute for the formal proceedings envisaged in the Convention for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Claims made by British authorities to the contrary are "absolutely illiterate," Lavrov stressed, noting that the UK must file an official request in writing if it genuinely seeks to elicit the truth. For the moment being, Russia is still waiting for British authorities to submit such a request under the framework of the convention, he said.
The fact that the UK government is unwilling to question its own snap judgments should be a cause for concern in a society that prides itself as a democracy, Lavrov said. He was referring to the outrage that was sparked by Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn when he was heckled by the MP after he cautioned them against drawing instant conclusions in the case and asked for concrete evidence of Russia's culpability.
Are the puppet masters really in power or are they no less puppets to fear or fear framed 'choices'.
The nature of this 'power' is more obviously based on stories of accusation seeking to pass off as true.
When the false seems to protect against a feared truth, will we cling to our illusions?
Does what we want to be true have power over self-honesty.
Is that the way the world 'works'?
But isn't that how we become 'invested' in schemes and identities that are 'too big to fail'? - and thus bring down everyone and everything for the 'worth-ship' of the lie?
If I read it - I see a script operating to help us release the false investment in an insane 'reality control'.
Rather than engage in such competing narrative identities, I feel to cultivate presence of mind.
Looking at what is - instead of looking through the lens of wishes and fears.
Competing/conflicting identity is the device of 'mind-capture' by which the freely chosen is sacrificed to the compulsive mandate.
So while the form of 'negotiated' outcomes are not altogether known, the nature of the outcome is from an honouring basis.
Of course existing identities hold all kinds of agenda - but listening to find any common ground from which to take a step together remains a choice in which further choices can arise. Any thinking that operates the denial and exclusion of freedom of willingness is tyrannous - and no less so when masking as the protector of freedom.