© Henry Nicholls / ReutersForensic investigators in Amesbury, Britain, July 6, 2018
UK police say they have found the source of the nerve agent that allegedly poisoned two people in Amesbury, killing one. They claim the source appears to be a small bottle discovered in one of the victim's homes.
The bottle was apparently found in Charlie Rowley's house in Amesbury on Wednesday. "Scientists have now confirmed to us that the substance contained within the bottle is Novichok," a Friday
statement by police said.
Investigators say they've not yet determined how a bottle of supposedly weapons-grade chemicals ended up in Rowley's home, or if there are more like it around. Police cordons will remain in place around the scene "for some considerable time."
Rowley, 45, and his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess, 44, took ill on June 30, with what British police later said was nerve agent poisoning caused by Novichok, citing researchers at the nearby Porton Down chemical lab. Both were admitted to the Salisbury hospital in critical condition.
Sturgess
died a week later, while Rowley's condition improved. By Wednesday this week he was no longer critical, medics said.
Novichok is the same nerve agent that British authorities claim was used in the March poisoning of former Russian-UK double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Russia is being blamed for that incident, although the investigation is ongoing and no conclusive evidence has been produced in over four months. Both Skripals survived the alleged poisoning and left hospital for undisclosed locations.
Police and counter-terrorism investigators looking into the Amesbury incident say they haven't yet determined if there's a link to the Skripals' case. The UK Defense Secretary, though, was among the people who didn't hesitate to make the leap.
"The simple reality is that Russia has committed an attack on British soil which has seen the death of a British citizen,"
Gavin Williamson, of the 'Russia should go away and shut up' fame, told the Commons following Sturgess' death. Other officials and establishment journalists rushed to
label the Russian President Vladimir Putin a 'murderer'.
Russia has repeatedly asked to be given access to investigation materials in the Skripals' case so that it could assist the probe on the grounds that Yulia Skripal retained her Russian citizenship, but the requests were ignored. Instead, saying Moscow was "highly likely" to blame, the UK and its allies initiated a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats, resulting in more than 100 Russian embassy and consulate workers getting sent home from over a dozen countries.
Comment: Andrea Sella, professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London,
described the bottle found in Amesbury as a "forensic gold mine" and a "treasure trove" providing "significant clues". Indeed, what a fantastic find, just like a real-life episode of Poirot or
Midsummer Murders- the murder weapon was found with the contents still intact, even after four months... case closed?
Unfortunately for the UK government, there are still some major holes in the official story, as
Craig Murray writes:
We are continually presented with experts by the mainstream media who will validate whatever miraculous property of "novichok" is needed to fit in with the government's latest wild anti-Russian story. Tonight Newsnight wheeled out a chemical weapons expert to tell us that "novichok" is "extremely persistent" and therefore that used to attack the Skripals could still be lurking potent on a bush in a park.
Yet only three months ago we had this example of scores from the MSM giving the same message which was the government line at that time:
"Professor Robert Stockman, of the University of Nottingham, said traces of nerve agents did not linger. He added: 'These agents react with water to degrade, including moisture in the air, and so in the UK they would have a very limited lifetime. This is presumably why the street in Salisbury was being hosed down as a precaution - it would effectively destroy the agent.'"
In fact, rain affecting the "novichok" on the door handle was given as the reason that the Skripals were not killed. But now the properties of the agent have to fit a new narrative, so they transmute again.
It keeps happening. Do you remember when Novichok was the most deadly of substances, many times more powerful than VX or Sarin, and causing death in seconds? But then, when that needed to be altered to fit the government's Skripal story, they found scientists to explain that actually no, it was pretty slow acting, absorbed gradually through the skin, and not all that deadly.
For more information see the NewsReal episode and articles below:
One reason given for the Skripals not dying on the spot was that the Novichok (on the door handle) had deteriorated
In the second incident, the Novichok should be full strength given that it had been sealed in container ... however it was over 24 hours before Rowley fell ill ... though the police were trying to report is as being under 24 hours (maybe the felt that 27 hours was farcical and unbelievable)
The police also claim to have found this bottle in Rowley's home after 6 days of searching ... the reason for it taking so long is that use of hazmat suits which reduce visibility and searchers were restricted to 1/2 hour at a time ...
Novichok is still so deadly that even being in the vicinity, in full hazmat protection is dangerous for more that 1/2 hour!