UN chemical weapons inspectors have confirmed UK claims on Skripal nerve agent – but not on its origin
Contaminated: Investigators examine the park bench in Salisbury where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after they were poisoned.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has not accepted the UK’s claim that Russia was behind the alleged nerve agent attack against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury last month.
The UN inspectors’ report stated, “The results of the analysis by the OPCW designated laboratories of environmental and biomedical samples collected by the OPCW team confirms the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical that was used in Salisbury and severely injured three people.”
It doesn’t actually name the chemical, although the UK has firmly stated that it was a Novichok nerve agent. The classified (non-public) version of the OPCW report gives its chemical composition – a “complex” formula, according to The Guardian.
This is odd, as Cornell University professor David Collum has stated, “The compounds are simple as hell to make. Doing so without killing yourself would be more challenging but within the capabilities of many laboratories.”
So we now know that the chemical used against the Skripals was both simple and complicated. That’s helpful!
And what of the claim that it could only have been created by the Russian government? Boris Johnson has leapt in to claim (again) that the OPCW report confirms this: “There can be no doubt what was used and there remains no alternative explanation about who was responsible – only has the means, motive and record.”
There’s only one problem: The OPCW report actually corroborates what chemical experts at Porton Down said – neither report even attempts to identify the origin of the nerve agent.
So we now know that the chemical used against the Skripals could have been manufactured by the Russian government or in many other laboratories. That’s helpful too!
Or rather, it isn’t.
And what makes it worse is the jabbering of a warmongering racist like Boris Johnson, pumping up international tensions with Russia on the basis of nothing but his own hot air.
There is no evidence to prove that the Russian government created the nerve agent that attacked Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
And now we know, based on the evidence of Porton Down and the OPCW, there never will be.
There certainly is not enough information to take us into conflict with that country.
This Writer would still like to know how the Skripals were treated and whether this treatment corresponds with known remedies for nerve agent attack. Let’s say I want to know for my own peace of mind.
The only other possible way of finding out the origin of the nerve agent is if investigators track down the people responsible for the alleged attack.
My concern about that is the fact that the UK’s Tory government leapt to the conclusion that Russia was responsible so quickly that all other options were ignored – and this may have prejudiced investigations beyond repair.
What is the current situation with regard to this part of the story?
Does anybody know?
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Its almost as if our idiot politicians want to start a war with Russia – they should pause and look at what happened to Napoleon’s and Hitler’s armies when they tried it.
Bear in mind that OPCW were not called in for 2 weeks and only then because of the insistence of Corbyn to stick with protocols and procedures and not jump to conclusions.
There seemed to be no intention to call them at all.
We want a war a lovely war and get rid of lots of people the ones that don’t come back we can label as Hero’s well that’s if we win if we loose you will never hear a thing about them again British Intervention in South Russia, 1919
I have seen discussions around the apparent quality of the agents reported by the OPCW. These compounds degrade relatively quickly once exposed to the environment and so it does seem odd that there were no “impurities” that would have been inevitable three weeks after the deployment of the agent. The OPCW report we have been allowed to see simply adds to the questions, not the answers.