Just as the World Cup had forced the British media to grudgingly acknowledge the obvious truth that Russia is an extremely interesting country inhabited, like everywhere else, by mostly pleasant and attractive people, we have a screaming reprise of the "Salisbury incident" dominating the British media. Two people have been taken ill in Amesbury from an unknown substance, which might yet be a contaminated recreational drug, but could conceivably be from contact with the substance allegedly used on the Skripals, presumably some of which was somewhere indoors all this time as we were told it could be washed away and neutralised by water.
Amesbury is not Salisbury - it is 10 miles away. Interestingly enough Porton Down is between Amesbury and Salisbury. Just three miles away from Muggleton Road, Amesbury. The news reports are not mentioning that much.
"I am all out of ideas Inspector. What can possibly be the source of these mysterious poisonings?"
Neither Porton Down nor the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has any idea where the substance to which the Skripals were allegedly exposed was made. Boris Johnson's great "coup" of obtaining a majority vote at the OPCW to expand its powers to place blame for chemical attacks, has proven rather otiose as the OPCW has no evidence on which to base any blame for Salisbury. In fact, four months on, May and Johnson's shrill blaming of Russia remains entirely, 100% evidence free.
I do however wish to congratulate the neo-con warmongers of the
Guardian newspaper for verbal dexterity. They have come up with a new formulation to replace
the hackneyed "Of a type developed by Russia", to point the finger for a substance that could have been made by dozens of state or non state parties.
The Guardian today
came up with "Russian-created novichok". This cleverly employs a word that can encompass "developed" while also appearing to say "made". It also again makes out that novichok is a specific substance rather than a very broad class of substances.
The Guardian's Steven Morris, by this brilliant attempt deliberately to mislead his readers, runs away with this week's award for lying neo-con media whore of the week. His achievement is particularly good as the rest of his report is largely a simple copy and paste from the Press Association.
I most certainly hope that the couple in Salisbury hospital recover from whatever is afflicting them. The media is, by making this the lead story on all broadcast news after last night's football, inviting us to make the connection to the Skripals. In which case I assume the couple were perfectly well for five hours after contact, able to be very active and even to eat and drink heavily, before being mysteriously instantly disabled at the same time despite different ages, sexes, weights, and metabolisms and random uncontrolled dosages.
Replicating that would be quite a feat.
Comment: What was earlier today an "
unknown substance" is now, officially, novichok, "the same nerve agent that contaminated Yulia and Sergey Skripal", in the words of Head of Counter Terrorism Neil Basu, who "received test results from Porton Down" this evening. The couple were allegedly found on Saturday, unconscious at a property on Muggleton Road, but there were no media reports or statements until today, four days later. Just as with the Skripals, the couple - Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess - was initially thought to have been having a bad
drug reaction:
The substance was initially believed to be heroin or crack cocaine from a contaminated batch of drugs, but police say they "are keeping an open mind" on what led to the incident. Further testing and an investigation are ongoing.
Police cordoned off and increased their presence in the areas in and around Amesbury and Salisbury, and the places the two frequently visited before they fell ill, as a precautionary measure. Meanwhile, Public Health England (PHE) said that a "significant health risk" to the wider public is not likely. There is also no further information on any potential dangers at this point.
Not likely. How would they know?
The incident happened 12km from Salisbury, but a similar distance from Porton Down. Counter-terrorism police were brought in to assist, though just this morning UK police said they weren't sure if a
crime had been committed:
On Saturday, June 30, Paramedics were called to an address in Muggleton Road, Amesbury in the morning after a woman collapsed at the property. They returned to the same location in the evening receiving reports that a man was unwell.
Rowley was reportedly a registered heroin addict.
It will be interesting to see how the Brits spin this. Will they really risk worldwide ridicule by trying to
blame Russia? But if they don't, how will they explain that they very same substance, which according to them only could have been used by Russia,
wasn't used by them in this "attack"?
Police have yet to determine if there is any connection between the March poisoning and the incident in Amesbury, Basu said, noting that "the possibility that these two investigations might be linked is clearly a line of enquiry for us."
It is not known if the substance that the British pair was exposed to "was from the same batch" that the Skripals were allegedly poisoned with, Basu stressed.
British Home Secretary Sajid Javid has announced he will preside over a meeting of the government's emergency committee on Thursday. He praised the "tireless professionalism" of Salisbury Hospital staff and said the new incident "follows the reckless and barbaric attack which took place in Salisbury." Javid asked that the police be "given space"to establish the circumstances of the new incident.
For what appears to be the only eyewitness account so far, see the statements of Sam Hobson, a "friend of the couple", included in
Moon of Alabama's latest piece:
He described how on Saturday morning Sturgess fell ill and was taken to hospital and how later that morning Rowley also became sick. He said both were in hospital in isolation and he was receiving regular calls from the authorities to check he was well. "They thought it was drugs at first. They now think it's a nerve agent," he claimed.
...
Hobson visited Rowley's home in Muggleston Road on Saturday morning. Sturgess, who lives in Salisbury, had spent the night there. "I saw lots of ambulances there and [Sturgess] got taken out on a stretcher. She needed to be helped with her breathing," Hobson said. Rowley came out in tears. "They said she needed to have a brain scan."
After she was taken to hospital Hobson and Rowley went to Boots in Amesbury. Later they went to a hog roast at the local baptist church.
...
Hobson said: "We went back to his place after the hog roast. We were going up to the hospital. Then he started sweating. His T-shirt was soaking wet. He got up and started rocking against the wall. His eyes were wide open and red, his pupils were like pinpricks. He began garbling incoherently and I could tell he was hallucinating. He was making weird noises and acting like a zombie. I phoned an ambulance. At first they thought it was drugs but ... they know now it isn't drugs."
...
Witnesses say that people in protective suits were seen on Saturday evening: ...
Some more details that might be of interest:
It has emerged Ms Sturgess lives in a homeless shelter close to the Zizzi's restaurant in Salisbury where Russian spy Sergei Skirpal and his daughter Yulia were targeted four months ago.
...
Sam Hobson, 29, said: 'Charlie was dribbling and was rocking backwards and forwards. He was in another world, he was hallucinating.
'He wasn't high or anything. He was stone cold sober. It was like nothing I'd ever seen. I called the ambulance and they took him away.'
The police early on lied to the people living near the place where the incidents happened. It first pretended the issue was a gas leak. Two days ago it still told local media that this was a case of contaminated drugs. But its actions showed that something else was going on.
Comment: What was earlier today an "unknown substance" is now, officially, novichok, "the same nerve agent that contaminated Yulia and Sergey Skripal", in the words of Head of Counter Terrorism Neil Basu, who "received test results from Porton Down" this evening. The couple were allegedly found on Saturday, unconscious at a property on Muggleton Road, but there were no media reports or statements until today, four days later. Just as with the Skripals, the couple - Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess - was initially thought to have been having a bad drug reaction: Not likely. How would they know?
The incident happened 12km from Salisbury, but a similar distance from Porton Down. Counter-terrorism police were brought in to assist, though just this morning UK police said they weren't sure if a crime had been committed: Rowley was reportedly a registered heroin addict.
It will be interesting to see how the Brits spin this. Will they really risk worldwide ridicule by trying to blame Russia? But if they don't, how will they explain that they very same substance, which according to them only could have been used by Russia, wasn't used by them in this "attack"? For what appears to be the only eyewitness account so far, see the statements of Sam Hobson, a "friend of the couple", included in Moon of Alabama's latest piece: