I have now asked a total of 50 questions around the Skripal case, which you can find
here and
here. Having gone back through these questions, as far as I can see
only three have been answered by the release of public information or events that have transpired. These are:
- Are they (Sergei and Yulia Skripal) still alive?
- If so, what is their current condition and what symptoms are they displaying?
- Can the government confirm that its scientists at Porton Down have established that the substance that poisoned the Skripals and D.S. Bailey was actually produced or manufactured in Russia?
On the first two points we are now told that Yulia Skripal's condition has significantly improved to the point where she is said to be recovering well and talking. However, although this provides something of an answer to these questions, it also raises a number of others.
Is she finally being allowed consular access? Is she being allowed to speak to her fiancé, her grandmother, or her cousin by telephone? Most importantly, how does her recovery comport with the claim that she was poisoned with a "military-grade nerve agent" with a toxicity around 5-8 times that of VX nerve agent?
On the other point, we do now have a definitive answer from none other than the
Chief Executive of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down, Gary Aitkenhead: No, Porton Down was not able to identify the substance as being
produced or
manufactured in Russia.
It is important that reasonable questions continue to be raised, as they not only help clarify the actual issues, but the answers - or lack thereof - are also a good barometer as to how the official narrative stacks up. As a keen observer of the case - especially since it took place just a few hundred yards from my home in Salisbury - I have to say that
the official narrative of the British Government has not stood up to even the most cursory scrutiny from the outset. In fact, there are three crucial issues that serve to raise suspicions about it, and to my mind these issues are the most important aspects of the case so far:
- The absurd speed at which the British Government reacted to the incident
- The British Government's ignoring of legal frameworks and protocols
- The large number of discrepancies between events and the official narrative
Let's just look at these in turn.
Comment: Slane presents a plausible third option. The fact is, there are several alternative scenarios, each with varying degrees of plausibility (accident, British assassination attempt, third country assassination attempt, organized crime assassination attempt, rogue Russian assassination attempt, official Russian assassination attempt). But the fact that the British government moved so quickly and incompetently to eliminate even the idea that there are alternative hypotheses points in their direction: either covering up their involvement with Skripal leading to an accident, or their active participation in his poisoning. For the latter case, see:
We Can Actively Assume That Skripal Was Poisoned by The British Government
Comment: Trump has a fight on his hands. Hopefully he will stand his ground. It is time to stop 'agenda wars' in someone else's country.