Recent Russian Intelligence Operations

[davidbfpo]

Today there has been a flurry of reports, all of which appear to cast doubt on the official version. In part as ministers and others referred to 'evidence' when it would have been wiser to say 'assessment' or 'intelligence'.

This via the NYT on March 29th via Twitter and not in the UK media:

Sergei Skripal's door is being removed from his Salisbury home, hours after police say he was exposed to nerve agent there....(From Shashank Joshi, of RUSI) 25 days after the poisoning.

Here is a headline today from the conservative Daily Telegraph:

Salisbury nerve agent 'probably state made' but Porton Down scientists unable to say it came from Russia

Gary Aitkenhead, the chief executive of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down, said that:

We were able to identify it as novichok, to identify that it was a military-grade nerve agent. We have not verified the precise source, but we provided the scientific information to the government who have then used a number of other sources to piece together the conclusions that they have come to. It is our job to provide the scientific evidence that identifies what the particular nerve agent is, we identified that it was from this family and that it is a military grade nerve agent, but it is not our job to then say where that actually was manufactured.

Link:https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...e-nerve-agent/

A dissident voice on Open Democracy (which leans to the left IMHO):

It is difficult to obtain 100% proof in cases such as the Sergey Skripal poisoning. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't demand as much evidence — from our politicians and law enforcement — as possible.

Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-rus...se-is-lacking?

A more detailed analysis comes from a group of academics who watch propaganda and the media; one - not one of the three authors - of whom I have heard in person who would never be sympathetic to a Conservative government here. A key point made:

The UK government’s declared case therefore rests only on subjective judgements of “intent and motive”, which are open to question.

Link:http://syriapropagandamedia.org/working-papers/update-to-briefing-note-doubts-about-novichoks