The two most basic claims made by the Government and investigators regarding the method and the mode in the Salisbury poisoning are these:

  1. That military grade nerve agent was used to poison Mr Skripal
  2. That it was applied to the door handle of his house

These claims raise a number of very obvious questions. For example, how did the assassin(s) apply such a powerful chemical without wearing protective clothing? How did the people who are said to have come into contact with the substance not die immediately, or at the very least suffer irreparable damage to their Central Nervous Systems? How did this military grade nerve agent manage not only to have a delayed onset, but also managed to affect a large 66-year-old man and his slim 33-year-old daughter, both of whom would have vastly different metabolic rates, at exactly the same time?

These are perfectly reasonable questions that deserve reasonable answers. I am aware, however, that no matter how obvious and rational such questions might be, doing so places one – at least in the eyes of the authorities – in the camp of the conspiracy theorist. This is disingenuous. One of the marks of a true conspiracy theorist is that he is someone who refuses to accept an explanation for an event, even after being presented with facts which fit and explain it coherently. But when the “facts” presented in a case do not fit the event they are supposed to explain, and are neither rational nor coherent — as in the Salisbury case — then calling the person who raises legitimate questions a “conspiracy theorist” is a bit rich, is it not?

Nevertheless, for the purposes of this piece, what I’d like to do is work on the assumption that the “Military Grade Nerve Agent on the Door Handle” claim is correct. And working from this assumption, I want to ask some questions about how the authorities have handled the case. The point is this: These questions are not really intended to challenge the official claims; rather the intention is to ask whether the authorities have handled the case correctly on their own terms.


1.  Prior to the investigation’s focus on the door handle, for a period of almost three weeks there were at least nine other theories proposed by the authorities as to where the Skripals came into contact with the poison. These included the restaurant, the pub, the bench, the cemetery, the car, the flowers, the luggage, the porridge and even a drone. During that time, police officers and investigators were entering and leaving the house, by the door, since it was not known to be the place where the poison was located.

Can the authorities explain how these officers and investigators were not poisoned?

 

2.  Once the door handle theory was established, those who had been in and out of the property during the previous three weeks would naturally have been concerned about the possibility that they had been contaminated.

Can the authorities tell us what steps were taken to reassure these officers?

 

3.  Every officer who entered the house after 4th March, and before the door handle became an object of interest, should have been given a medical examination to check for signs of poisoning.

Can the authorities confirm that this took place for every officer?

 

4.  Initial reports about Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey stated that he was poisoned at the bench, after coming to the aid of Mr Skripal and Yulia. However, on 9th March, Lord Ian Blair stated that D.S. Bailey had actually become poisoned after visiting Mr Skripal’s house. Since he was thought to have been poisoned with a military grade nerve agent, and since it was thought that this had occurred at Mr Skripal’s house, the immediate next step should have been to seal off the house and set up a mobile decontamination unit outside. However, numerous photographs show officers in normal uniforms standing close to the door long after Lord Blair’s claim.

Can the authorities confirm why the house was not sealed off and a decontamination unit set up immediately after it became known that D.S. Bailey had been there, and why officers with no protective clothing on were allowed to continue standing guard outside the house for the next few weeks?

 

5.  Can the authorities explain how these decisions did not put the health and even the lives of those officers in jeopardy?

 

6.  Before the door handle theory was settled on, the majority of competing theories put out by the authorities tended to assume that Mr Skripal was poisoned long before he went to Zizzis. For example, the flowers, the cemetery, the luggage, the porridge and the car explanations all assume this to be the case. What this means is that according to the assumptions of police at that time, when Mr Skripal fed the ducks near the Avon Playground with a few local boys, at around 1:45pm, he was already contaminated. Yet although this event was caught on CCTV camera, it was more than two weeks before the police contacted the parents of these boys.

Can the authorities explain why it took more than two weeks to track down the boys, who – as the CCTV apparently shows – were given bread by Mr Skripal?

 

7.  Can the authorities comment on why they did not air the CCTV footage on national television, in an effort to appeal to the boys or their parents to come forward, and whether the delay in tracking them down might have put them in danger?

 

8.   If the door handle was the place of poisoning, it is extremely likely that the bread handed by Mr Skripal to the boys would have been contaminated. Certainly, areas that he visited after this incident were deemed to be so much at risk that they were either closed down (for example, The Mill and Zizzis, which are both still closed), or destroyed (for instance, the restaurant table, the bench and – almost certainly – the red bag near the bench have all been destroyed).

Can the authorities comment on how the boys, who were handed bread by Mr Skripal, managed to avoid contamination?

 

9.   It has been said that one of the reasons the Government is/was so sure that the ultimate culprit behind the poisoning was the Russian state, is the apparent existence of an “FSB handbook” which, amongst other things, allegedly features descriptions of how to apply nerve agent to a door handle. Given that the Prime Minister first made a formal accusation of culpability on 12th March in her speech to the House of Commons, the Government must therefore have been in possession of this manual prior to that day. However, claims about the door handle being the location of the poison did not appear until late March (the first media reports of it were on 28th March). What this means is there was a delay of several weeks between the Government making its accusation, based partly on the apparent existence of the “door handle manual”, and the door handle of Mr Skripal’s house being a subject of interest to investigators.

Can the authorities therefore tell us whether the Government’s failure to pass on details of the “door handle manual” put the lives of the officers going in and out of Mr Skripal’s house from 5th March to 27th March in jeopardy?

 

10.   On 17th March, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said:

“We are learning more about Sergei and Yulia’s movements but we need to be clearer around their exact movements on the morning of the incident. We believe that at around 9.15am on Sunday, 4 March, Sergei’s car may have been in the areas of London Road, Churchill Way North and Wilton Road. Then at around 1.30pm it was seen being driven down Devizes Road, towards the town centre. We need to establish Sergei and Yulia’s movements during the morning, before they headed to the town centre. Did you see this car, or what you believe was this car, on the day of the incident? We are particularly keen to hear from you if you saw the car before 1.30pm. If you have information, please call the police on 101.”

Now that Sergei and Yulia Skripal have been awake and able to communicate for around four months, these details are presumably now all known to investigators. In the normal course of such a high profile investigation, details such as these would be relayed to the public in the hope of jogging memories to prompt more information. And in fact, many such details have been released to the public in this case. Yet, confirmation of Mr Skripal’s and Yulia’s movements that day remain conspicuous by their absence.

Can the authorities confirm that the movements of the Skripals that day are now understood, and that they will be made known shortly, in order that more information from the public might then be forthcoming?

 

These questions have nothing to do with any conspiracy theory. On the contrary, they are all based on the assumption that the two central claims made by the authorities regarding the mode and the method used in this incident are correct. They are, however, very serious and perfectly legitimate questions about the way the authorities have dealt with this incident, on their own terms and on the basis of their own claims.

We await their explanations.

306 thoughts on “The Salisbury Poisonings: 10 Questions for the Authorities to Answer About Their Handling of This Case”

    1. I am 90% certain that is DS Bailey showing the woman his hand. You have uniform there, there is a load of paperwork on the table, so they aren’t customers.
      Flip back and forth to the only pic of Bailey it looks like him.
      They aren’t cleaners. The guy behind has some red lanyard type stuff hanging down. Please @rob look at it!

      2. If that were true, it would fit well with the official narrative and timeline — and the authorities would have readily announced that Bailey came in contact with the nerve agent late on Monday at Zizzi’s, admitted to DHS early Tuesday, and therefore, a table and other objects at Zizzi’s were confiscated for destruction due to contamination. Would still beg the question of why only Bailey and none of the other officers or restaurant employees were poisoned, but officials haven’t bothered with that same problem at any of the other scenes.

        So, reasonable to conclude that it’s not Bailey in those Zizzi photos.

        1. Marie – does it look to you that the hand is red and blotchy? The woman in red seems to be looking at the hand. The Zizzi aproned guy is looking at her as is the WPC. It’s like those three saying to her “why and how is this hand like this?”.
          I have put Bailey/Red Hand Guy photos up and flick between them – to me it looks like Bailey.
          As you say it would explain (if Bailey) why he took off to hospital. If it is not Bailey who is it?

          1. I’ve studied the photo at least ten times. Not seeing a blotchy red hand nor any of then , including the subject, looking at the man’s hand. It appears that he’s holding a pen (or similar small object) and pointing it at something (the coffee maker?) on the counter, and what is being pointed at the seems to be where all of them are looking.

            Based on a single formal photo of Bailey, the man doesn’t look like Bailey to me, but in fairness, I probably couldn’t pick Bailey out in a line-up men of medium stature, 30-40 years old, and dark hair.

            1. Marie – is there a Specsavers in Newbury? Do you really think they are ordering coffee? Please.

    2. What I find odd about those pictures is that nobody seems to need any safety gear… surely the whole place was dripping with novihoax? Didn’t they know novihoax is a military grade weapon? It kills in seconds (or less… or, maybe more – who knows?) I thought they were talking about demolishing the building? It’s still closed isn’t it?

      The idiots running this show really are clowns.

      1. Novihoax hadn’t entered the narrative by the time they were checking out Zizzi’s. SOP for fentanyl had been followed Sunday evening when the park, walkways, bench, etc. were hosed down by officials in hazmat suits.

        One Monday the police were canvassing the local stores and restaurants for sightings of the Skripals on Sunday. The official public request for information concerned their whereabouts from 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM. The necessity for that request claimed that Skripal’s phone had been turned during that time period. Reporters (other than SJ that collected little) weren’t in Salisbury until, at best, later on Monday.

        The next public request for information was for the 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM period. The third request was reduced down to the 1:00 PM to 1:40 PM period. No official announcement of what, if anything, was received from the first two requests. The last one got them the CCTV of Skripal’s car on Devizes heading towards the town center.

        Were these authentic info requests to the public?

        1. Exactly! The day after the incident, everyone was in there with no hazmat suit because they hadn’t thought of Novihoax by then, it was just a Fentanyl poisoning. A few days later, you couldn’t go anywhere near it. And now they want to knock it down. Pure lies and theatre to create a narrative.

          ‘Were the requests authentic’ – it is my belief that on Sunday and Monday an honest investigation was begun by the local police but by Monday evening a lot of things already did not fit. The Met took over on Tuesday and it has been nothing but lies ever since – to protect the guilty (absolutely NOT the public).

          1. I’ll recheck, but a careful reading of the official statements indicates that The Met assumed control on Sunday or Monday morning (leaked in one of the statements a few days later) and it was formally assigned to the Met counter-terrorism unit on Tuesday. However, SDH was in contact with the NHS “Radiation, etc.” unit on Sunday evening and that unit contacted the Met Counter-terrorism before the first formal statement by WPD on Monday.

            What was omitted until weeks (months?) later was the presence of Porton Down “scientists” from the get-go. Has the Monday statement included all the identifiable units engaged in the major incident up until that point would skepticism have been higher or lower? In a world of non-politicized police, hospitals, and scientists, the active presence of qualified employees from the various agencies would increase public acceptance of the official statements. Such a time never truly existed but some agencies seemed to do better 1950-1990. The WMD hoax put a big hole in officialdom, but with all the smaller holes over the decades, that the cloak is in tatters. More people than ever today get that they’re being lied to. It’s crazy making because they don’t know where the truth and the lies begin and end.

              1. From the first WPD statement (Monday 3/5 — no longer accessible):

                Wiltshire Police and partners have declared a major incident after it is suspected that two people have been exposed to an unknown substance in Salisbury.
                …
                Police are carrying out a full investigation and working with partner agencies, to clarify the exact circumstances.
                …
                A Public Health England (PHE) spokesman said: “Based on the limited information available there doesn’t appear to be any further immediate risk to public health.
                “PHE understands that those exposed to the substances have been decontaminated, as is standard practice in situations like this.
                “Scientists from PHE’s Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, will continue to assist the response and review information as it becomes available.”

                The update later that day or early Tuesday included:
                …

                Chief Executive of Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, Cara Charles-Barks, said: “In conjunction with our partners, we declared a major incident in response to an incident that took place in Salisbury …

                What had disappeared between Sunday evening and Monday was substitution of suspected fentanyl overdose replaced with “unknown substance.” A clue that the communication was coordinated and not by WPD or SDH.

                Will now check through my notes on the first mention of The Met.

              2. Here’s one The Guardian 22 Mar Salisbury attacked medical staff contracted police when antidotes failed to work

                Appears to have been obtained from statements made in the court case to obtain new blood samples from the Skripals:

                Pritchard explained that initially police believed they were responding to a medical emergency when Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, were found ill on a bench in Salisbury on Sunday 4 March.

                When it was realised on Sunday night that the antidotes that medical staff were using were not working, the force contacted the counter-terrorism network and on Monday morning a major incident was declared, he said.
                [emp added]

                Not the same story they pitched on 5 Mar — wherein it was NHS – PHS “Radiation…” that contacted The Met Counter-terrorism. Now that would explain why those first two WPD statements were taken down.

              3. This is interesting — BBC 5 Mar 2018 didn’t identify Skripal by name or as a former Russian spy. That was part of the BBC’s 6 Mar report.

                On camera statements from officials seem to be more difficult to find if they aren’t included in a written report. For example, can’t locate that first oral statement by a WPD spokesperson on 4 Mar, included in SJ’s first article. In my notes file on this, I made the notation – “MET took over at 7:00 on Sunday,” but I didn’t record the source for it. Have a vague recollection that this was in a video recording with a senior WPD official. Struck me as odd enough that I jotted it down but didn’t expect to need it or that it would become difficult to find again. Now that official could have misspoke, and it’s possible that I misheard. However, as more bits that have been released, the timelines for the official actions have become clearer and The MET in command at 7:00 on Sunday is a good fit.

    3. Patrick another photo (not sure where it is but I’m sure I could find it if you doubt it) taken a moment later has the perp holding the bottle of Corona, he’s reaching for the bottle. At a time when the police were aware that Nerve agent was involved.

  4. One more thing folks. Can anyone help me out with regard to the timeline of The Mill to Zizzis. Most pieces I have seen say that the Skripals went for a drink at The Mill and then onto Zizzis. This particular piece, from 10th March, in which Skripal is described as being unsteady in his feet, has them at Zizzis first and then The Mill.

    https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20180310/281625305816856

    I’d love some confirmation if anybody has anything.

    1. Not sure if this helps –

      Restaurant [Zizzi] in Salisbury City Centre Closed in Connection with the Ongoing Major Incident. (WPD #1739) – and WPD tweet on Zizzi closing 2:11 PM 5 Mar 2018 (that’s twitter time and date).

      The Mill Pub closing wasn’t announced until the next day – Update on Major Incident in Salisbury —tweet at 3:31 AM 6 Mar 2018

      Suspect the Zizzi’s to Pub timeline order was an error by one reporter that was repeated by others — much like that of the air ambulance transporting the unconscious woman. As time went on the actual drink and lunch times for the Skripals were defined – Mill Pub after 1:40 until approximately 2:15 and Zizzi’s 2:20 to 3:35.

      Do you know if reservations were required for Zizzi’s? If not, that 2:200 arrival time may not be all that precise and Skripal may not have been as easily identified by restaurant staff by his name.

  5. Hi Peeps,

    There seems to be a bit of a desire for something a little more structured in terms of how the comments are organised on this blog, as they can easily get lost. I’m reluctant to open up new posts or pages for each specific topic (i.e. the substance; D.S. Bailey etc), as this would mean people having to bounce around from one page to another, and something of the cohesiveness that currently exists would be lost.

    Ideally, what I think would work best would be to have one open thread, but with the comments section split into various specific topics. So if you wanted to comment on, say, the substance, you could go to that open thread, scroll down to the comments, and select the section you wanted to comment on.

    That way, all comments would appear in one place, and so the cohesiveness would remain, and you wouldn’t have to jump around, but it would be neatly arranged into sections so that you could look at the one that is of particular interest to you.

    I have no idea if that’s possible, and if there’s a WordPress plugin that allows this to happen. If anyone knows of something, do let me know. But the important point is this: it has to be something I can set up in about 10 minutes or so, as I am on holiday 🙂

    Rob

  6. Is this correct? The Bailey Time Line

    Sun 4th Salisbury Incident, Bailey contaminated somewhere, by something

    Mon 5th Major Incident Declared

    Tues 6th Wilts statement says Met take over, statement omits to mention Bailey but mentions “man and a woman were taken seriously ill”

    Wed 7th Met say Bailey is Poorly in Intensive Care

    Thur 8th Wilts Plod say Bailey is talking

    I’m aware of the report of Bailey being admitted and discharged and later re-admitted. And speculated that the Major Incident Declaration was in response to Bailey being re-admitted but is there an official report (time / date) on when Bailey was admitted for the second time and kept in?

    2. Peter,

      The lady who was the spokesperson at SDH, (I can’t recall her name, but she was a hospital person, not Public Health England) sais that the Major Incident declaration was because:

      The two “opioid victims” were not responding to treatment and,
      Sgt Bailey presented himself with symptoms.

      A couple of points:
      I think Sgt Bailey’s car stayed at SDH that night, although it may well be that he left in another vehicle and presented himself at SDH on Monday. ( Any inputs Blog readers?)

      To Rebecca Hudson it seemed perfectly normal that two Porton Down scientists were at the hospital that early Sunday evening, so when the SDH clinicians declared “Naloxone not having any effect, what now?” It would seem reasonable that PD chaps were called away from the canteen and Sky Sports to suggest treatment.
      Full toxicology tests would not have been complete by Sunday evening, so with three victims and an unknown cause = Major Incident.
      NHS toxicology would not have identified nerve agents, this would take a specialist lab.
      Where could a specialist lab be found on a Sunday evening near Salisbury?

      Also reasonable to assume that SDH on the doorstep of PD, had all the necessary drugs to treat nerve agents of many types.
      A cynic may say that having all three victims in an induced coma for a while kept the press away, and allowed the “official” story to be optimised.

      1. A cynic may say that having all three victims in an induced coma for a while kept the press away, and allowed the “official” story to be optimised.

        A cynic would say allowed the “official” story to be written. Have now discovered that I did grab the first on — Monday the 5th – WPD #1737:

        Major Incident after two people suspected of being exposed to unknown substance in Salisbury

        Wiltshire Police and partners have declared a major incident after it is suspected that two people have been exposed to an unknown substance in Salisbury.
        Police received a call at approximately 4.15pm yesterday (4 March 2018) regarding concern for the welfare of a man and a woman in The Maltings, Salisbury.
        They were taken to Salisbury District Hospital and are being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance. They are currently in a critical condition.
        At this stage it is not yet clear if a crime has been committed and a multi-agency response has been co-ordinated.
        Police are carrying out a full investigation and working with partner agencies, to clarify the exact circumstances.
        At this stage, Wiltshire Police does not believe there is any risk to the wider public.
        Salisbury District Hospital is advising people to still attend routine appointments unless they are contacted.
        There are a number of locations in Salisbury which have been cordoned off in relation to this matter.
        WIltshire Police will update the public as soon and as regularly as possible.
        A Public Health England (PHE) spokesman said: “Based on the limited information available there doesn’t appear to be any further immediate risk to public health.
        “PHE understands that those exposed to the substances have been decontaminated, as is standard practice in situations like this.
        “Scientists from PHE’s Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, will continue to assist the response and review information as it becomes available.”
        If anyone has any information regarding this incident, they should call Wiltshire Police on 999 immediately.
        If anyone is concerned that they may have come into contact with the substance, we would advise that they contact NHS 111 for medical advice.

        I only retained the following from the 5 Mar WPD update (#1737)

        Update on major incident in Salisbury
        …
        “Police officers, as well as colleagues from the ambulance and fire services attended the scene and cordons were put in place.
        …
        Chief Executive of Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, Cara Charles-Barks, said: “In conjunction with our partners, we declared a major incident in response to an incident that took place in Salisbury after it was suspected that two people had been exposed to an unknown substance in Salisbury town centre. They are currently being treated here at Salisbury District Hospital and their condition remains critical.
        …

        Note: there were only two patients up until 11:59 PM 5 Mar. DS Bailey was admitted sometime on the 6th (as early as 12:00 AM and as late as 11:59 PM). (I’m going with the guess that there was no way for the officials to alter the SDH record on Bailey’s admission.)

  7. Rob, I hope more and more people (also locals) will join the discussion.
    But we have so many threads and so many comments, that it is really difficult to work through the stuff. None of the newcomers will bother to read all threads, let alone their comments.

    My proposition :
    1) Rob, could you write an extra thread for DS Nick Bailey ?
    There is still so much to say.
    Anyone could then copy his previous (relevant) comments into the new thread, so we have everything on the subject in one place.

    2) Most results from the comments did not go into the texts of the previous threads, although they were important. Important contributions should not be lost !
    I imagine this as follows : You copy all the important statements of a thread and evaluate them. From this one creates then an extra post, which stands at the beginning of each thread = summary of the comments.
    Since Rob can not do all the work alone, I suggest we share the work.
    I would be willing to take over the last 3 threads.
    Who can evaluate other threads?

    Rob, is that okay with you ?

    I would like to participate in the 3 pages letter. But not in writing it but contributing with documents, links and graphics (if needed).
    Rob, I agree that you give Duncan my mail for this purpose. Then he can contact me if interested.

    I wish you a nice time out, Rob !

    1. “Temporary Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police Kier Pritchard said: “As you are aware, we declared a major incident yesterday after a man and a woman were taken seriously ill in Salisbury on Sunday. They both remain in a critical condition in hospital and our thoughts and best wishes are with their families during this difficult time”

      From statement 1742 issued at 3:00pm Tues

      Still no word of Bailey

      1. No mention of Bailey on the 6th but the Met’s 7th statement has;

        “In addition, we can also confirm that one police officer, who was part of the initial response, is also in a serious condition and receiving intensive care. Officers from Wiltshire Police are providing support to his family and colleagues.”

        Why was it being kept secret until the 7th?

        http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-incident-in-salisbury-297589

    2. Liane great that you want to join the doc team! Send an email here in the next hour please. If you miss this box, I will set up another one at 9:00pm anyone (this is a special one for you – but others can use it too!):
      ralmidaspe@etoic.com

      Regarding your suggestions for document handling: Rob does too much already, I really don’t want to ask him to do any more. We need to organise that between ourselves – amybe an archive somewhere. It is an idea I am working on atm.

      2. Liane, I have deleted that mail box. Next one at 9:00pm will be at the top of the thread.

        If anyone sent a message to that mailbox but has not received a reply from me, then I am afraid your message was not received.

      1. Duncan, we are trying to organise our group without using Rob as a post box. If you send an email to: ralmidaspe@etoic.com within the next 30 minutes, that would be great. The mailbox will be deleted at 2:00pm but another will be available at the top of the thread at 9pm today.

  8. Has anyone kept a note of formal police puplic statements

    We know Wiltshire police took down their

    https://www.wiltshire.police.uk/article/1736/Major-incident-after-two-people-suspected-of-being-exposed-to-unknown-substance-in-Salisbury

    Also could be found as https://www.wiltshire.police.uk/article/1736

    The previous one to that was https://www.wiltshire.police.uk/article/1735

    “Craig was appointed Assistant Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police in February 2018.

    Craig has more than 20 years’ service within policing after joining Cheshire Police in 1994.

    He transferred to Wiltshire Police in 2000 where he has worked in a variety of roles including Uniform Policing, CID, covert operations, Organised Crime Investigation and Intelligence. Between 2012 and 2014 Craig was seconded to the Regional Organised Crime Unit, returning to Wiltshire as a FIM within the Crime and Communications Centre.

    In recent years, Craig has been the Director of Intelligence, Head of Public Protection and Head of Crime for Swindon.

    Outside of policing, Craig is married to Ruth and has two young children. He tries to remain active with cycling, running and swimming.”

    Not sure where the next Wiltshire statement can be found.

    The first Met one that I can see is http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-incident-in-salisbury-297589

    Worth a read, I have copied it if it goes missing

    So is anybody can help in identifying any or all statements that would be good or a whizz that can unearth a cached copy of the Wilts deleted statement.

      1. https://www.wiltshire.police.uk/article/1742/Statements-from-Wiltshire-Police-on-Major-Incident-in-Salisbury

        Please find below the following statements from Wiltshire Police, which were read during a press conference in Devizes at 3pm today.

        Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon Angus Macpherson said: “It is particularly shocking that an incident such as this appears to have taken place on a quiet Sunday afternoon in the cathedral city of Salisbury.

        “I have been briefed by the Chief Constable and can say with confidence that the matter has received the full support of police and partner agencies in a coordinated major incident response.

        “I can also say that the measures necessary to ensure the safety of the public in and around the scene have also been taken.”

        Temporary Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police Kier Pritchard said: “As you are aware, we declared a major incident yesterday after a man and a woman were taken seriously ill in Salisbury on Sunday. They both remain in a critical condition in hospital and our thoughts and best wishes are with their families during this difficult time

        “A full multi-agency response was activated and currently involves Public Health England, the NHS, Local Authorities both in Swindon and Wiltshire and a range of other key partners.

        “This has been a fast paced investigation and our focus has been on trying to establish what has caused these people to become critically ill and whether or not any criminal activity has taken place.

        “Since Sunday, we have had access to a wide range of specialist resources and services that have been working alongside us.

        “You will be aware that this afternoon, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed that, due to the unusual circumstances, the Counter Terrorism network will now be leading this investigation, as it has the specialist expertise to do so.

        “It is important to reiterate that they have not declared it as a terrorist incident and at this stage they are keeping an open mind as to what happened.

        “The advice from Public Health England remains that, based on the evidence to date, currently there doesn’t appear to be any immediate risk to the public.

        “We can confirm that a small number of emergency services personnel, including some police officers and staff, were assessed immediately after the incident.

        “I would like to sincerely thank members of the public for their continued assistance and for respecting the cordons which remain in place in and around the Salisbury area.

        “I would also like to thank our partners, staff from supporting agencies and our officers, staff and volunteers for their dedication and hard work over the last few days.

        “I fully understand the concerns that many of our residents in Salisbury and across the wider county may be feeling today and I want to again reassure you that there does not appear to be any immediate risk to the public.

        “During this time, it is vital that we continue to provide an increased policing presence in the Salisbury city area as this plays an important part in helping to reassure our communities.”

        1. https://www.wiltshire.police.uk/article/1740

          Our investigation into the major incident in Salisbury continues.

          On Sunday afternoon (4 March 2018), at approximately 4.15pm, Wiltshire Police received a call from a member of the public who was concerned for the welfare of two people.

          The two people – a man aged 66, and a 33-year-old woman – were found unconscious on a bench in The Maltings in Salisbury.

          Police officers, as well as colleagues from the ambulance and fire services attended the scene and cordons were put in place.

          The pair, who we believe are known to each other, did not have any visible injuries and were taken to Salisbury District Hospital. They are currently being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance.

          Both remain in a critical condition in intensive care. Our thoughts are with their families.

          As part of our enquiries, a number of scenes have been secured. These include the Zizzi restaurant on Castle Street and The Bishop’s Mill pub in The Maltings. At this time, we cannot confirm how long these cordons will remain in place.

          The advice from Public Health England remains that, based on the evidence to date, currently there doesn’t appear to be any immediate risk to public health.

          We can confirm that a small number of emergency services personnel were assessed immediately after the incident and all but one have been released from hospital.

          The public are likely to continue to see an increased police and emergency services presence in the city centre today to provide reassurance.

          We continue to work with a range of partner agencies, including Counter Terrorism Policing, Public Health England and Salisbury District Hospital.

          We have access to a wide range of specialist resources and services that are helping us to understand what we are or aren’t dealing with at this time.

          We would continue to appeal to any members of the public who may have information in relation to this incident to contact us immediately via 101 or 999. We would like to reassure members of the public that incidents of this nature are taken extremely seriously.

          We would like to take this opportunity to thank members of the public who have assisted us so far and respected the cordons which remain in place.

          1. https://www.wiltshire.police.uk/article/1739

            A restaurant in Salisbury City Centre has been closed in connection with the on-going major incident.

            Zizzi, on Castle Street, has been secured as a precaution by Wiltshire Police while the investigation continues.

            Public Health England are aware of this and have reiterated that, based on the evidence to date, there is no known risk to the public’s health.

            However, as a precaution they have advised that if you feel ill contact NHS on 111. If you feel your own or another’s health is significantly deteriorating, ring 999.

  9. Displayed inside Salisbury Cathedral is our most famous symbol of justice, fairness, and rights, Magna Carta, which established the principle that government was not above the law and sought to prevent rulers from abusing those they rule by enshrining limits on authority and protections for individuals in law.

    Displayed outside Salisbury Cathedral is authoritarian contempt for Magna Carta.

    …..

    1. It was a con, it was a Baron’s Law, it was for the benefit of the greedy Barons who wanted a bigger cut, the surfs were just that and always would / will be.

      Don’t rely on Justice in this case that was abolished long ago.

      1. Yes Peter – I’m trying to work up an attention-grabbing opener to the con – as exemplified by novihoax.

  10. Dear All,

    Can I just remind commenters of something when commenting here on this fascinating case. The tone of comments is generally great, and I’ve been very impressed by the level of detail and commitment to reach the truth – whatever that may be.

    But I just want to caution people not to let it descend into a slanging match, and not to let disagreements over theories or interpretation of facts turn into nasty exchanges. It’s so easy to let that happen, but we must resist.

    The one fact I can say for certain about this case is that none of us knows exactly what happened on 4th March. And so we are all shooting in the dark somewhat. So whatever we think, let’s all respect one another and hopefully by doing that, we’ll have a better chance of coming to the truth together.

    “Let your speech be always seasoned with grace” – Colossians 4:6.

    Other than that, keep up the great work.

    Rob

  11. I see we have a few more interested readers.
    Just to follow up on what I have been told by the SJ.

    Yulia was not transported by air ambulance helicoptor to SDH.
    Rebecca Husdon, (who more than likely is reading all of this, and why not) confirmed this.
    Thanks to Liane for the indepth summary of what we believe are DSB’s Sunday movements, however, I am sure we will find that the “official” March 4th/5th timetable will become vague.
    Already we have the Wiltshire Police statement from March 5th withdrawn from their site.
    However, the link is good, so it was there once.

    Anyway, in a typical incorrect fashion, I am putting this on DSB and looking at facts, reports, non reports to confirm this.
    This means I should be looking at contrary eveidence to shoot down my theory.
    Who better to turn to than the Blogmire readers?

    DSB did it, he sprayed the Skripals, then went to the Skripal home, sprayed the door handle, got sick, hid the bottle at home, then placed it in QEG, contacted Rowley, Charlie found it, thought it would make a nice gift for Dawn. etc. etc.
    The spray was BZ or similar to make Col Skripal back off on some naughty activity.
    The attack was planned to coincide with Yulia visit, to make an old man concerned about his daughters safety too.
    The anti-Russian part fitted in with Mrs May’s agenda, and now that Skripal is “safe” and still not talking, he is out of harms way.
    DSB, with his house, car, furniture, famiily all gone, is probably not how heroes are treated.
    He was no hero.

    1. Until I see any evidence that says the people on the bench were the Skripals I have to go with the only evidence that we have that says they weren’t.

      One reason that could account for not using the real Skripals is that Sergei’e health was suspect and his chances of surviving what ever was sprayed were in doubt.

      And part of the plot (at that point) was to keep him alive (to answer a few questions?) (to make him disappear?)

      I’m tending to think that the DI was present when the bench spraying took place. The delay in his reaction though is niggling me because even if he got a small whiff I would think it s effect would be immediate but reduced rather than severe after a time. But we don’t know the severity of Bailey’s condition, he may not have been effected much or even at all.

      So yes Bailey could have hotfooted it to the Skripal residence to complete his task and coat the door handle and that’s where he got a whiff.

      It was only after the OPCW announced their gatecrashing intention that the Novi was added because it really didn’t matter what was initially on the door handle because it was always going to be what the government said it was but the OPCW were a different kettle of fish.

      I really don’t know but if I saw the bench cctv and/or Bailey’s body cam record I am sure things would be a lot clearer.

      1. The other thing that niggles

        Bailey’s Body Cam, we are told he had one and it was operating. Just why a DI who just happened across drug / suicide / murder attempt event on a late Sunday afternoon in early March in Salisbury town centre, wearing an operating Body Cam I’m not sure, but I am confident in the fullness of time we will be informed.

        But the Body Cam, it was there for only one purpose (as all Body Cam’s worn by police officers) it was there to gather evidence. (Quick reality check – we don’t know for certain that there was a Body Cam, we think there was because the police say so but their information on all things Skripal to date has not been very helpful or reliable)
        So Bailey knows the body Cam is on, he knows the footage at some point in the future may get into the hands of someone who doubts the official version of events so he is going to make what he does seem pukka.
        And if that was the case we would have seen Brave Bailey in action by now, but we haven’t, so disappointing!

    2. Thanks for confirming the bit about Yulia not being transported by air ambulance, Duncan. Very interesting given that many reports claimed that she was.

      But if that’s the case, who was transported to SDH by air ambulance. Paul has gone through the flight tracker data with me, and although there are parts where the transponder is off, he says it definitely did go there. But why would it go there if both S & Y were taken to hospital by a normal ambulance?

      I suppose someone could say that it went there just in case SDH couldn’t cope and they needed to be taken to Southampton, but it wasn’t at SDH for very long – not long enough for the hospital to make a decision that they needed taking elsewhere, I would think.

      So why did so many reports say Y was taken there, when she wasn’t, and why did the helicopter go to SDH when neither S or Y were on it?

      1. Also remember the route to Salisbury Hospital from the car park

        First SW on taking off (still off tracker)

        Then back on tracker fly N / NE towards St Marks / London Road / Cemetery area and doing a circuit before heading S to the hospital and landing.

        1. There is the not so obviously conclusion which I mentioned before, the bench female may have been taken by land ambulance and the helicopter took Yulia

          Other reports say both Yulia and Sergei were taken by helicopter

          1. So possibly a bit of dithering.

            Yulia and Sergei are evac’d out of the town centre to be flown to a rendezvous point

            But the rendezvous was reset for the hospital at the last moment.

  12. I think it possible that some people have picked up on the Skripal escapade or any other high profile news story and read things into the media accounts that were not intended to convey what they have interpreted.

    Take this example from Lou in Cornwall, I think she must have got the wrong end of the stick from one of the Skripal articles she read;

    “Lou, Truro, United Kingdom, about an hour ago

    I bought the boots snore spray for my husband as I was going to kill him as I felt I hadn’t slept for weeks! It has proved to be a total miracle!”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6008079/Can-spray-REALLY-stop-snoring-help-lose-weight.html

  13. There were plenty of other “first responders”, the doctor, the running paramedic, the uniformed cops. None of their houses need demolishing.
    Bailey somehow knew he had been exposed. I remember it was said he drove himself to hospital (on the Monday, I believe). That is when the hospital went in to lockdown.
    That is why I think Bailey had direct contact with a container that in some way he realised was suspicious.
    My hypothesis is while looking for the keys/ID in the bag he pocketed the “Chanel” purse spray. Or he found a boxed one at the house. Either way he brought it home. His wife then realised it wasn’t right, Bailey put two and two together, he panicked and drove to hospital.
    The “Dawn” spray could be a genuine back-up to the original (source – FSB, Yulia, PD or Orbis) that somehow got into the public domain (found, knicked, donated to charity shop).
    Or it is a replica foisted on Charlie belonging to MI5 or Orbis (to stir the s**t) or by the FSB (to take the p**s).

  14. Munching on Dots (aka factoids) I

    The Air Ambulance

    A dot that didn’t grab me. Seemed like ‘noise’ and then possibly a first responder flub that they preferred not to own. Let it hang out there without any comment as if it’s not worthy of attention. Thus, I didn’t pay that much attention to the comments attempting to run this down.

    What now suggests that I may have been wrong is Rebecca Hudson’s timeline tweet of March 8, 2018:

    Sunday 5:16 pm
    Journal receives video of air ambulance landing in Salisbury Central car park.

    Sunday 5:43 pm
    Reporter Rebecca Hudson and photographer Tom Gregory head to the scene.
    …

    Where’s the video? What does it show? Who forwarded it to the Journal? Why would an air ambulance video prompt reporters to check out ‘the scene?’

    ‘The scene’ would be Salisbury Central car park and not Maltings. Although by Sunday a few minutes after 5:43 pm there was still sufficient police/fire brigade activity at Maltings for Hudson and Gregory to have seen that and moved on to that ‘scene.’

    Continuing with Hudson’s timeline:

    Sunday 5:48 pm
    Journal publishes first breaking news story online about a major incident developing at the Maltings.

    Police tell Journal they are investigating a possible drug related incident.

    What exactly was published at 5:48 pm? As I only looked at SJ some time later (not before the 6th and most likely a week or more later), what I saw were two March 4th articles:

    LATEST Two in hospital after medical emergency at Maltings and Russian spy is one of two in hospital after medical emergency at Maltings

    Which came first? Regardless only one article now exists and is titled “Russian spy …” and includes:

    A police spokesman said in a statement: “We received a call at approximately 4.15pm today to a report of a concern for the welfare of a man and a woman in The Maltings, Salisbury.
    “Colleagues from the ambulance service are in attendance and the air ambulance has landed at the scene.
    “The area has been cordoned off to allow officers to carry out inquiries at this time
    “Anyone with information should call police on 101.”

    However, undefined is the time on the 4th that the statement was isssued by the unidentified ‘police spokesman.’ (The earliest formal Wiltshire police statement that I found was issued on the 5th Major incident after two people suspected of being exposed to unknown substance in Salisbury. Unfortunately, that statement is no longer accessible and I failed to grab it back when it was.)

    What is apparent is that SJ and WPD reported the presence of an air ambulance at the emergency event. SJ claims to have received a video of the air ambulance. What SJ published in its pictorial of that day are three photos of an air ambulance at the Salisbury car park. The three photos were attributed to three different photographers, none of whom were the SJ photographer Gregory who wouldn’t have been on the scene until long after the air ambulance had departed. None of these photos show anything other than the air ambulance’s presence at that location, at or near sunset (5:58 pm on 3/4/18) as far as I can tell.

    And yet, SJ went with :

    The woman, who was unconscious at the scene, was airlifted to Salisbury District Hospital at about 5.15pm.

    And:

    The man, a former Russian spy, was transported to SDH by road and is understood to be conscious.

    If SJ edited in “former Russian spy” on the 5th, why didn’t they edit out that the woman was airlifted to SDH after WPD denied the airlift? (Stay with me, will return to the air ambulance later.)

    Why not do some real reporting and obtain the time stamps for the ambulance service departures from Maltings and arrivals at SDH? I’ve seen reports citing as early as 4:38 pm and as late as 5:00 pm and some are under the impression that it was later still. If the actual departure times were between 5:35 and 4:45, an onsite police officer would have obtained the name of the man and nearly simultaneously have logged it into the WPD system. As such, there would have been nothing odd about a police officer doing a routine welfare check at Skripal’s house at approximately 5:00 pm. (Info not obtained until the 5th or 6th from an eyewitness Skripal neighbor; so, it may not be as accurate and reliable as some seem to believe it is. While I’m willing to accept this limited recollection from an eyewitness neighbor, the more detail such eyewitnesses claim, accuracy and reliablity declines.)

    What I want to interject at this point is the possiblity that the incident and Skripal’s name also hit the MET computer system or alternatively that WPD directly contacted the MET within an hour. Inconsistent reports from the various official “partners” requires further exploration of this point, but it’s best addressed separately.)

    Now can we hear again from the air ambulance flight trackers here at The Blogmire. My memory is too fuzzy and I’d prefer not to go back through thousands of comments to suss this out. Is there flight tracker information that puts the air ambulance at Salisbury car park at
    approximately 5:00 pm on the 4th? If so, how long was it there and where did it go after that? And any other relevant info on this for which I can’t even formulate an intelligible question. Thanks.

    1. Marie, The helicopter was called at 16:16 (or 16:19!) at which time it was at Minety. It took an odd route but at 16:43 the signal was lost at Tilshead. The next known time is 16:53 when it arrived at the car park. It left the car park around 17:10. The transponder data from 16:43 is missing, so you will not find it at the car park on any flight tracker.

      The next data from the transponder is at 17:14 (near Bourne park) – the data is available for 3 minutes. In that time it flew to the NE did a loop around The London Rd cemetery area and then headed SW in the ‘general’ direction of SDH – the signal disappears again at 17:17.

      The signal returns at 17:51 at SDH, from which point the helicopter returned to base.

      1. Thanks again. Good to know that the call for the ambulance services and the air ambulance were made at approximately the same time and that the air ambulance tracker has it at the car park location when photos of it were taken and it didn’t proceed directly from there to SDH. However, it’s now much clearer to me that it’s the thirty-four minute gap from 17:17 heading in the direction of SDH to 17:51 at SDH that’s curious. However, it may be nothing more than being positioned on stand-by at SDH.

        But what did the video that SJ received show? Would an air ambulance landing at the car park be anything close to enough for reporters to go to the scene?

          1. That 50 second video of an air ambulance taking off from the car park tells nothing more than what the flight tracker does — the chopper left the car park.

            If that’s all SJ received, find it odd that a journalist and photographer would head over to ‘the scene.’

            1. There is actually ONE thing it does show. A straight line to SDH was almost over the top of the spire (very slightly to the left). Watch the last 2 seconds of the video in slow motion – you will see it starts to turn left, taking it even further away from the route to SDH. That does, however, fit in with the 3 mins of transponder data that shows it on a joy ride over the London Rd cemetery area. The video was at approx 17:10, so the SJ got it very quickly indeed! 17:16 they say.

              1. But the “joy ride” conflicts with what SJ reported on 3/4, or the possible edited version on 3/5, that claimed an unconscious female patient was airlifted from the car park?

                Did the chopper EMTs even leave the vehicle?

                1. Very odd that the SJ has not edited out the reference to Yulia being in the helicopter, now they know it’s wrong… you would have thought they would have done that when they ‘edited’ it to put in ‘Russian spy’ (but didn’t bother to include a name…)

                  Very odd journalism indeed… makes you wonder if someone told them what to write doesn’t it?

                  1. Such uncorrected misreporting has definitely added to the overall confusion and complexity. Bad enough that the authorities are doing enough editing and manipulation.

                    A part of me would like to cut Hobson some slack as she’s only twenty-three years old. But sheesh — editing a published piece without disclosure is what hacks and not what real journalists or reporters do. Other than rushing to the scene on Sunday, no evidence that she collected anything other than official statements from then on. Reporters only had that Monday morning window to collect less contaminated eyewitness statements. Sadly that opportunity was lost and can’t be recaptured.

    2. Marie, Your WPD article is here:
      https://web.archive.org/web/20180305183334/https://www.wiltshire.police.uk/article/1736/Major-incident-after-two-people-suspected-of-being-exposed-to-unknown-substance-in-Salisbury

      This is the whole text:

      Quote
      Major incident after two people suspected of being exposed to unknown substance in Salisbury

      Wiltshire Police and partners have declared a major incident after it is suspected that two people have been exposed to an unknown substance in Salisbury.

      Police received a call at approximately 4.15pm yesterday (4 March 2018) regarding concern for the welfare of a man and a woman in The Maltings, Salisbury.

      They were taken to Salisbury District Hospital and are being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance. They are currently in a critical condition.

      At this stage it is not yet clear if a crime has been committed and a multi-agency response has been co-ordinated.

      Police are carrying out a full investigation and working with partner agencies, to clarify the exact circumstances.

      At this stage, Wiltshire Police does not believe there is any risk to the wider public.

      Salisbury District Hospital is advising people to still attend routine appointments unless they are contacted.

      There are a number of locations in Salisbury which have been cordoned off in relation to this matter.

      WIltshire Police will update the public as soon and as regularly as possible.

      A Public Health England (PHE) spokesman said: “Based on the limited information available there doesn’t appear to be any further immediate risk to public health.

      “PHE understands that those exposed to the substances have been decontaminated, as is standard practice in situations like this.

      “Scientists from PHE’s Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, will continue to assist the response and review information as it becomes available.”

      If anyone has any information regarding this incident, they should call Wiltshire Police on 999 immediately.

      If anyone is concerned that they may have come into contact with the substance, we would advise that they contact NHS 111 for medical advice.
      End Quote

      Note the part where they say:

      “PHE understands that those exposed to the substances have been decontaminated, as is standard practice in situations like this.

      That will be why it was deleted.

      1. Thanks. Perhaps not deleted but only archived and no longer available? (Along with number 1737 and picks up again with #1739) That sentence appears in The Independent report on the major incident declaration.

        As WPD doesn’t include a date on its formal statements, it’s not easy to know the issuance date and time which is what I was interested in tracking. Guess WPD relies on twitter for date stamps. Twitter 5:02 AM would have been what time in Wiltshire on 3/5? (Also note that #1737 was gone by April 28.)

        1. It has been removed from their website but still exists in archives.

          I think the date.time of the post was: 2018-03-05 18:33:34

  17. @A
    You said:
    “The bag was stolen at Zizzi as the restaurant was the last known Skripals’ location (and where he got agitated). He calls his handler for help. The CCTV couple gets poisened from what was in the bag. The rest is the fallout due to the local police being out of the loop and Sergei’s handlers attempting a ‘remote controlled’ clean up.”

    So the poison belonged to Sergei (for whatever reason) and the people who stole it poisoned themselves. OK. So:

    1) why do Sergei and Yulia have to vanish?
    2) why would the police be out of the loop – it is just a straight forward poisoning?
    3) why would the story be switched around so that it was ‘a Russian spy’ that got poisoned?
    4) etc.

    Sorry, I don’t get why a simple case of theft and poisoning has to be so complicated. I am not saying that it is impossibel the bag was stolen, I just don’t understand how we get from there to here.

  18. DS NICK BAILEY

    Neighbors of Sergei Skripals home at 47 Christie Miller Rd, Salisbury stated, that a police car arrived at 5pm. Since then, the house is under constant surveillance.
    The names of three neighbors are known :
    Blake Stephens, 24, Mark Medhurst, 43, James Puttock, 47.
    I think it was Bailey´s police car at 5pm. So there was not a strong police presence, only one car.

    Bailey´s police car no. 488, licence plate KN67 JYZ, was cordoned off on March 5 early in the morning at SDH parking lot. That means Bailey was already in the SDH at this time.
    Also, his car was not photographed in front of Skripal’s house on the 5th and 6th of March.

    Read carefully the four following statements by Keir Pritchard. On the one hand he says Nick Bailey went to Skripal’s house on Sunday the 4th of March – on the other hand Pritchard claims that Nick was not admitted to the SDH until March 6th. If Nick indeed would have been poisened at the door handle, the effect would have occurred only after about 36 hours, if his admission had been on 6 March.

    Quote : James Thomas sits in & talks to Wiltshire Chief Constable Keir Pritchard about Salisbury.
    Pritchard says : Nick Bailey was the first responder at the bench, but as an investigator to look if a crime has taken place. „Nick forms part of our investigate response, as we didn´t know what we were dealing with.“ He was in plain clothes, but has a body camera. Then Bailey and other officers went to Skripals home. This was filmed by a body camera, too.
    Pritchard did not clearly say, how and where Bailey was poisoned and why the other officers were not. But he clearly say „Nick was exposed to the nerve agent at the home adress.“
    Pritchard also didn´t really answer the question why the pets died. He only said that they responded to some rabbits and fishes outside the house.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p067fqg4

    Kier Pritchard says DS Nick Bailey poisoned at Skripal house
    Exclusive by Rebecca Hudson
    DETECTIVE Sergeant Nick Bailey was poisoned with a nerve agent when he and other officers attended Sergei Skripal’s home looking for evidence including signs of drug use or suicide notes.
    Chief Constable Kier Pritchard told the Journal he had watched evidence from body-worn cameras used by officers who first attended the scene on March 4, and that their response to the incident was “first class”.
    CC Pritchard said DS Bailey was one of a team of officers who attended Mr Skripal’s home in Christie Miller Road.
    He said officers were looking for information to establish a timeline of events and explain why the Skripals had fallen “gravely ill”, as well as making sure there was nobody else affected.
    “That [information] could be a suicide note, it could be evidence of drugs, it could be evidence of some form of substance,” CC Pritchard added.
    CC Pritchard said officers at the scene underwent a “decontamination process” at Salisbury District Hospital overnight on Sunday and into Monday morning, after details of the attack became clearer.
    http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16270991.DS_Bailey_poisoned_at_Skripal_house_as_he_searched_for_evidence/?ref=twtrec

    Quote : Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, a Wiltshire police officer who was amongst the first to respond to the incident, also fell seriously ill after being exposed to the nerve agent and was admitted to hospital on 6 March. Since being discharged from hospital on 22 March, Nick has continued to make good progress but remains off work.
    http://news.met.police.uk/news/ongoing-investigation-into-incident-in-salisbury-on-4-march-309256

    Quote : The Wiltshire chief constable added that his officer DS Nick Bailey, who was exposed to the nerve agent at Sergei Skripal’s home, was still off work recuperating with his family.
    He said his officer had done exactly the right thing by going to the house to make further inquiries on the Sunday evening.
    Responding to speculation that the detective may have known Sergei Skripal or had previously had contact with him, the chief constable told Sky News: “As I understand it Nick went to that address and I don’t believe he had had contact with Sergei and Yulia up to that point.”
    https://news.sky.com/story/day-will-come-for-answers-on-skripal-poisoning-police-chief-says-11396076

    1. I remember the rumour that Bailey had been to the property in the days before the 4th, but with no evidence that’s what it was a rumour

      But I remember this;

      “As I understand it Nick went to that address and I don’t believe he had had contact with Sergei and Yulia up to that point.”

      And I thought that was a straight question parried with a bendy answer

      Had Bailey ever met Sergei Skripal

      As far as I know Bailey hadn’t met Sergei and Yulia (together) before

      Also Bailey did not have his first contact with the Skripals at the address, wasn’t that at the bench?

      Its just words but I would still like to know had Bailey had any contact with Sergei before the 4th

      1. “met” should be ” had contact with”

        face to face, phone, email, surveillance ?

    2. Liane, fantastic summary.
      Many thanks.
      It might just be me, but reading the “official” statements even they contradict each other.

      Did you notice in the last one about Bailey’s prior meetings with Skripal?

      The answer was he had not met Col Skripal AND Yulia before.
      No surprise if she is in Russia.

      AND not EITHER

      Duncan

    3. “As I understand it Nick went to that address and I don’t believe he had had contact with Sergei and Yulia up to that point.”

      I notice something else : “contact”.
      That does not exclude that Bailey has shadowed Skripal. When tailing someone you have no contact, too. That would also explain why Bailey was so fast at the bench.
      Do you notice that a colleague of Bailey is never mentioned ? If there were one, he would surely have spoken up. No, Bailey is a lonely wolf.

      1. Lone wolf’s are sinister

        Lonely one’s are sad

        I think you are quite correct my opinion of brave Bailey has deteriorated to the extent that I’m thinking he is a lonely B… with good reason (in my estimation).

        Who puts their family at risk like that?

    4. Liane, with respect, place less weight on eyewitness statements. All the research on this demonstrates that they are highly unreliable. With regard to conflicting official statements, pay close attention to what was said, what wasn’t said, and when the statement was made. I’m accepting that DS Bailey was part of the team that entered Skripal’s house on the evening of Sunday the 4th (at or after 7:00 pm). If he was at Maltings near the bench, it would have been after the incident — in other words, after 5:00 pm on the 4th or sometime on the 5th. I’m also going to accept that DS Bailey was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday the 6th (12:01 am or later) which iirc was included in an official statement that day or the 7th but without naming the patient. Originally the authorities were coy as to when he’d been admitted. Only many days later conceding that it had been Tuesday. As the official narrative of “nerve agent poisoning” works ever so much better if Bailey’s admission had been late on the 4th or early on the 5th, that’s what they would have said if it were true.

      Sequentially, the officials and news reporting on Bailey being hospitalized for poisoning went from hero unnamed first responder police officer to hero DS Bailey. That fell down because people correctly questioned why a DS would have been at the incident. So, the official story was changed to Bailey in Skripal’s house. The problem with that is that he wasn’t alone and none of the other officers were poisoned. So, it was switched up to he was at both locations. Then came the door knob hypothesis. Aha — Bailey was first on the scene at Skripal’s house. Still begs the question of why a DS would do the initial welfare check visit. So, he’s back with the team that entered the house but is still the only one poisoned. And instead of four hours to develop symptoms as the claim with the Skripal’s, it was at a minimum more than 24 hours. Explains why there was no initial report as to when he’d been admitted. They’ve now dropped it because it’s inexplicable and trust that the public will take their lead from the MSM and do the same.

      Needless to point out, the MET counter-terrorism unit, PM May, etc. appreciated the emergence of a third victim. It heightened the story they were pitching to the world; so it served their purpose. It was fortuitous for them regardless if it were accidental, purposeful, etc. and nobody in the know is going to talk anytime soon, if ever.

      1. Marie, I agree with all you have written.
        When I follow the chronology of events, the story on Bailey has been rewritten several times.
        We do not know if the current story is true – I doubt that.
        There is something in Bailey’s actions that should be kept secret.
        I’ll write more if we have an extra thread on Bailey.

        1. There is something in Bailey’s actions that should be kept secret.

          Alternatively, actions and/or statements by the MET (in control of all statements from the 5th and after), and/or any of those who had contact with Bailey shortly before he was admitted to SDH. Many possibilities — and while I don’t exclude something skivvy by Bailey, his description of his experience as surreal suggests to me that he wasn’t an active participant in whatever was done to him.

  19. Fellow Blog readers.

    I mentioned this to Rob in an earlier reply, so perhaps it was missed, so I will make it a new post.

    In terms of known facts.

    Is it correct that DS Bailey was one of the first responders at the park bench around 4:15pm Sunday

    It is reported that he also went to the Skripal home around 5pm on Sunday.
    However, some reports say there was a large police presence at the Skripal home on Sunday.

    Bailey went there to look for a suicide note/drug stuff, it is my contention we went there having left the Skripals to do other things, including applying chemical agent to the door handle.
    If there indeed was a large police presence at the home, this would be AFTER Bailey arrived, indeed, he may have called them to come on over.

    If there was a large police presence at 5pm, then this is remarkable also, as at that stage it was a story of two drug overdoses. So why would the police mobilise so quickly when the house was not part of the “scene”.
    In my view, Bailey was at the park bench, already knew Skripal, found his keys, (or even had one anyway) left to go to the house, on his own, sprayed the door handle, had a look around, THEN called in the reinforcements.

    Does what Lord Blair, ACC etc confirm that?
    I had seen the story about Bailey leaving for the Skripal home to look for a suicide note/drug gear, and that just does not seem like sufficent reason to leave two victims, (having rifled the pockets of Col. Skripal, yes?) and go to the house.
    Also, as a side note, how could the police be sure that Bailey was not contaminated at the park bench? Why do the insist it was the door handle, where no other person (from this large police presence at the house) fell ill.

    Why? Because it fitted the story that the door handle was how the two Skrypals were dosed.
    Try closing a door with a partner and see how awkward it is for you both to need to touch the outer handle.

    1. The above temporary box is now deleted. Next box tomorrow at 9pm.

      If you sent a message but have not had a reply, your message was not received.

  21. Dear Rob

    Some of us on here have been mulling over putting a handout document together to better explain what has been going on in Salisbury and tackle the government propaganda that has been deployed on the case.

    I envisage a possible 2 or 3 of A4 (one sided) pages that could take a collaborative team 2 or 3 weeks to put together a finished document with consensus. The editorial team would set the rules, scope and content.

    Are you interested in 1) Participating, 2) considering taking editorial control & 3) having this blog a focal point of the activity? By editorial control I mean one person need to make a final decision if full consensus cannot be reached or presentational issues can’t be agreed)

    Cheers and well done again for all the hard work and dedication

    Peter

    1. Other thoughts but mine so up for debate

      Electronic Format

      A brief description of how propaganda has been deployed in Salisbury.

      A description of what propaganda by citation of a reference work eg
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques

      Then take each “Specific Technique” that applies (most in the Salisbury case) and an example of how it has been used in Salisbury

      Then the finished document could be used in 3 pronged attack

      1) The documents lays out the concerns

      2) Then promulagated as widely as possible

      3) Sent to every MP asking them to raise the concerns in Parliament, Officials Involved, Ministers and the Police

      I hoping that the ground rules include no ad hominem attacks, personal attacks or even slightly considered defamatory comment.
      The finished document should use quotes (in context) and where false or fallacious statements are alleged they are accompanied with a explanation of why they are considered false and what effect that statement could have whether or not it was deliberately designed to deceive.

    2. Thanks Peter,

      Yes, I’ve seen you folks talking about this and it seems to be a good idea. Sorry for my unresponsive ness on this.

      In answer to your questions though, to the first two the answer is basically no, for a couple of reasons. I’m on holiday for two weeks from today, and so my ability to contribute to anything is pretty much negligible. Also, just generally I would like to take a bit of a step back from the case for those two weeks or so, as I seem to have written so much about this wretched case this year, and I think I’ve hit a bit of a road block with it. That being said, I said exactly that a few weeks ago, and then the Amesbury case popped along and I couldn’t help myself, so I’ll probably be back on it soon when something comes along.

      On point number 3, though, I’m more than happy for you to use this blog as a forum to put this together. Let me know what you need me to do and I’ll do my best (for example, I was going to create an open thread during my holiday for discussions anyway, so I can do that perhaps tomorrow, if that will help).

      I am also happy for you all to use any of the stuff from any of the pieces I have put out on this case.

      Can I make one suggestion though. Although I think the idea of a document is good, I think there is something else to consider. I get the impression, from various comments I’ve seen, that many if not most people don’t believe the official narrative. However, they’re not necessarily sufficiently interested to have registered the sheer level of disinformation going on. They are, however, unlikely to read or be persuaded by a document (I know you say you want to reach MPs, but I think there’s great merit in trying to reach the people too).

      What I think people are more likely to react to, is a very simple, visual presentation of the disinformation going on. For example, you could start by listing all the official narrative stories, and how they have either changed or do not fit other facts. And if there’s anyone out there with the skill and the time to put that into a simple, eye catching infographic, which could be shared around, that might just start to wake people up to the sheer level of propaganda that has been spread.

      I hope that makes sense.

      Rob

      1. It does indeed make sense Rob and cheer for the offer help and support and for your advice.

        One thing that I did after I posted the last message to you was look again at the Specific Propaganda Techniques linked in the Wiki ref above and quickly picked out the headings, and there’s nearly 70 of them and most apply in one way or another.

        One thing I have been aware of in previous cover ups is the Overload or Swamping of the target audience with information so as to make the comprehending the whole picture virtually impossible (interestingly overload / swamping doesn’t appear in the wiki piece).

        As you say we do not want to fall into that trap so I think the first job for the team is to decide on the format and scope to simplify the issues as far as possible, hopefully you can still assist there.

        So I am re thinking already, maybe a statement that uk government propaganda has been used against the people of Salisbury with the linked description of what propaganda is, why it is used and what the Specific Techniques are.

        Then a few short simple to digest examples of what has been said / reported in the case and a challenge set to the reader to pick out from the examples given, which Techniques were likely to have been used in that piece. Then it auto-tailors its appeal to a range of interested parties who chose to interact with the document and interrogate it at the level they are comfortable with but all coming away with the same message.

        I dunno

        Anyway hope you and your family enjoy the holiday.

        Peter

        1. ps there is one thing those interested want to swap email addresses but not particularly by publishing them publicly, and there will be some that want to come on board (I hope) whilst you are on holiday

          Any ideas, anyone? A new FB private group page?

          1. Furthering Robs idea of an infographic

            man labelled “Salisbury Resident” in the centre of a circle thinking “what should I believe”

            https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/man-thinking-question-mark-vector-illustration-cartoon-s-style-92389271.jpg

            Around him is a large circle labelled the Government Propaganda Techniques Deployed on Salisbury – within the circle 50-60 Specific Propaganda Techniques’ name in varying colours floating around, evenly distributed the letters at slightly off horizontal at random angles

            We could have that done by supper time

          2. Peter, that is fine except we want somewhere safe… and FB is not it!

            The safest way to do it is by using Telegram – that is encrypted and we can set up a chat group that alows us to send files and speak to each other, if we need to, with end to end encryption. Our discussions will be 100% beyong prying eyes and ears!

            The other advantage of Telegram is that you can set it up on your phone and also desktop (unlike Whatsapp which only allows you to have a single device registered) – so it combines: chat, file sending, calling, etc and it is safe.

            1. I just set up this temporary email address:
              hatradepso@etoic.com

              It will be available for the next hour and then it will be deleted – never to reappear!

              If anyone interested sends an email to that address, I will circulate the addresses from all who reply.

              1. I’ll send mine in a mo but what about those who want to show an interest later, next week? I suppose we can figure that out.

                I’m afraid because of previous dissident activity I may monitored quite a bit, but I don’t care. But what if a spy joins the camp. Can we torture people?

                Peter

                1. All under control Peter!

                  I can keep creating temporary addresses for anyone who is interested – it is private so nobody else gets it.

                  I will create the next address at 6:00 pm and it too will be available for 1 hour.

                  1. The above email box has now expired and has been deleted. If you have not had a reply, your message was not received.

                    A new temporary address will be posted at the top of the thread at 6:00pm and will also be available for 1 hour.

        2. Peter ~ Format…

          Formatting for MPs should be different – MPs are duty bound to respond in writing to mail from constituents raising issues (but they disregard correspondence from people who aren’t on the voters roll of their constituency) so comms need to show name and residential address and state writer is on their constituency voters roll, if not it will either get ignored or some time later if it was an email one of the MP’s support staff usually will reply to ask about said before it’ll get the MP’s attention.

          Statements as such don’t get their attention, but if each point or set of points is formatted as a question then they will need to read and respond – MPs should research before responding but first their staff (on their behalf) check the common database for stock answers to cut & paste as reply – as often as not their answers don’t actually address the point/s (research assistant uses something they think they can fob writer off with) so follow-ups may well be called for to drive home that writer is serious and wants questions answered properly. MPs of any party have a duty to raise issues on behalf of their constituents with relevant senior members of the government and advise constituents of feedback if they don’t know themselves and can’t pull the answer/s from the collective database of previous Q&As.

          This all can become time-consuming for MPs and ensures raising of the profile – apart from the work / distraction / discussion prompted, comms get logged by subject and analysed by parties / govt. With a good campaign on multiple MPs, the matter moves up the hit parade so the more serious attention it gets.

          NB Care should be taken to avoid phrasing questions to MPs which they can justifiably claim can’t be answered for bona fide legal / secrecy reasons; also should be careful to frame questions to MPs in a way that makes questions appropriate for MPs / parliament so as not to get fobbed off by referring writer to some other body.

          We used this to good effect during the latter stages of the ‘Justice for Marine A’ campaign in parallel with the renewed under-new-leadership legal challenge.

          1. PS I hope to be able to contribute but I’m unable to commit to anything (anything at all – not just novihoax campaign) due to dire health issue wreaking havoc.

        3. Hi Peter. Forgive my chipping in like this, but I would urge you to encourage devil’s advocates before you finalise the document, rather than criticize them. You and others have worked so hard at this, so it would be a great shame if your efforts got shot down in flames because you had overlooked some vital point.

              1. John,
                I wouldn’t have apologised if I were you but you clearly have more dignity and respect than certain others on here. Your previous post only voiced what many of us were thinking, only put more politely! No doubt I will be insulted as well but I am of an age where I am past caring.
                CF

                1. Dear Charlie – just read your kind words of support. Thanks. I apologised because I felt sorry for him; he obviously has a problem. A touch of Tourette’s, d’you think? Or a sad ‘n’ lonely who spends almost all date and half the night (judging by the time stamps on his posts) working hard on this blog, cherry-picking evidence which supports his theories? When an ‘arse’ like me suggests they might be questioned, he loses it…

                  Best wishes,
                  John

                  1. John, Quite. I have myself on occasion been challenged on other blogs by similar personalities (maybe one and the same individual, who knows?) who seem to make a habit of aggressively confronting people, even those who are actually coming from the same viewpoint and have the same ultimate objective. Not what I would call ‘team players’ but such is the rich tapestry of life. They clearly have their own reasons for doing what they do. The worst thing we can do is react in similar vein.
                    All the best
                    Charlie

      2. Hello Rob,

        Enjoy your holiday but don’t buy any duty free perfume.
        I have been chatting with Rebecca Hudson by email, going over a few things.
        One item that did surprise me is that the intervention by the Porton Down scientists on Sunday evening did not come as a surprise.
        Apparently at SDH they are always present, in case there is some sort of disaster incident.
        Sounds like a good overtime shift to get, as there are beds there, canteen, etc.
        One item Rebecca did query, and I don’t have the link on hand.
        Did the police confirm that Bailey went from the park bench to the Skripal home?
        I am sure he did, looking for the suicide note, drug stuff.
        But is that in the actual police version too?
        Other bloggers have said there was a strong police presence at the Skripal house by 5pm on Sunday. Is this the case?
        If Bailey was there on his own, that would be more significant.

        I will be down in Salisbury in mid August and expect to have this case cleared up by then.

        Regards,

        Duncan

        1. Duncan I looked for a Kier Pritchard statement that I had seen recently but can’t find it, it contained much from a statement that had previously released but with additions

          Bailey visited the home
          He was with a team
          Bailey was wearing a body cam
          Bailey was admitted to hospital but was discharged (the one I can find said the whole team were checked out at hospital and given the all clear)
          He was later admitted again

          There may be something in that disappeared statement that was embarrassing, I can’t
          remember

          Many media reports had Bailey as the first person at the scene at the bench

          Also I posted a link here recently to a news report that said neighbours say police were at the Skripal home at 5pm. The same report answered another query I had but I can’t remember which post at the mo I will check it out if you would like

  22. Rebecca Hudson seems to be very open and gives Duncan time perhaps you could ask her (Duncan), out of curiosity and interest for an electronic copy of each of the edits / updates from original to final published articles.

    I for one would be very interested how the story developed and how and when the local newspaper reacted at each stage of drama unfolding.

    1. I think it likely that the name was released first then the “spy” bit was worked out quickly.

      From web info on the 4th if the name was known then the spy thing could easily be learned from a Google search of the name.

      at 192 search would have revealed “Sergey” Skripal was a resident of Salisbury

      1. @ 5pm on Sun 4th a large police presence had started to amass at Sergei’s home (10 minutes before the bench couple were taken off to hospital), some of the neighbours would have known his name and it would not have taken long after the bench drama when the news started to drip out to consider the Christie Miller Road resident and his daughter were the ones caught up in the Salisbury bench incident.

          1. No, didn’t get your email address.

            But It occurred to me neither of us asked him directly if he would want to be part of the project and whether he would be happy for this blog to be a focus point of it.

            So to the top of the page

  23. Third and last from the SJ.

    Best read in reverse order.

    From Rebecca

    “The story was published on March 4, but updated the following day. I wish we’d known on the Sunday who it was but at that point we were still thinking it was fentanyl poisoning”

    Rebecca Hudson

    Head of News

    Salisbury Journal

    Direct dial: 01722 426548

    Rebecca,

    Lets start with this one.

    http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16064166.LATEST__Two_in_hospital_after_medical_emergency_at_Maltings

    This is dated Sunday the 4th.
    Your earlier message told me you found out on Monday evening from the BBC.

    Am I missing something?

    ————————————————————–

    1. @Duncan
      If I understand what you have posted, Rebecca is saying that the 4 March article was revised to include mention of the man being a spy. This is the SJ from Monday morning:
      http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16064949._Major_incident__at_Salisbury_hospital_after_Russian_spy_found_unconscious_at_Maltings/?ref=ar
      It also speaks about a Russian spy but does not name him – presumably this was also revised to include mention of a spy?

      Would you please ask her if she can please confirm exactly when the published versions were edited to include mention of a ‘spy’.

    2. And when you have done that, you can ask her why, if they went to the trouble of editing TWO previous reports they didn’t put his name in as well.

      Their third article is this on Monday evening:
      http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16066343.Critically_ill_man_is_former_Russian_spy__BBC_reports/
      Note that the web address mentions “BBC reports” and the article mentions ‘Sergei Skripal’.

      This is where that comes from:
      https://twitter.com/BBCDomC/status/970720831591546881

      At 10:02am, on Monday 5 March, after the SJ had already published 2 stories that do not name him, the BBC disclosed that the man in Salisbury was a spy AND they named him as Sergei Skripal.

      The very first BBC involvement mentions the spy by name so why did the SJ not name him as well if they edited the articles?

      1. I forgot the Twitter date stamp is set to Pacific Time so the BBC tweet would be 18:02 GMT – sorry for any confusion but the rest of the comment stands.

    3. And then you can ask her why they:
      1) edited the article to say he was a spy;
      2) changed the web address to include: “Russian_spy_is_one_of_two_in_hospital” (see below)
      https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16064166.Russian_spy_is_one_of_two_in_hospital_after_medical_emergency_at_Maltings/?ref=ar
      [they must have also revised the document name on Tuesday morning as well!]
      3) decided not to name him.

      No newspaper ever changes the web address when they edit an article! The reason is simple – the old version will still exist with the old name, so there would be 2 different articles available! If they edit the article, they do NOT change the page address.

  25. The SJ to their credit update their site more frequently than most of the media.
    I asked Rebecca based on my research on their archive when she (the SJ) knew the identity of Col. Skripal.

    Pasted below is her response this morning:

    Hi Duncan

    It wasn’t until the evening of the 5th, the Monday, when the BBC revealed the information.

    Kind regards

    Rebecca Hudson

    Head of News

    Salisbury Journal

    Direct dial: 01722 426548

    1. Ah but this is the point I was making to Paul, Duncan. They may have only found out the *exact* identity of Sergei Skripal on 5th March, from the BBC, but they knew that a “Russian Spy” was in hospital on 4th March, as seen in their headline covering the initial reports on that day:

      http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16064166.LATEST__Two_in_hospital_after_medical_emergency_at_Maltings/

      So basically at some point between 4:15pm and 11:59pm of the same day, the Salisbury Journal managed to establish that one of the people involved in the medical emergency was a “Russian spy”, yet they did so without knowing his name or who he was.

      How does that work?

      In other words, they did not establish this information themselves (if they had done, they would have known his name). It therefore seems highly suggestive to me that the information of his being a “Russian spy” was leaked to them very deliberately by someone who wanted this information let out into the public domain as soon as possible.

      The only other explanation I can see is that they went back and updated their original headline of 4th May to include the words “Russian spy”. But I doubt that, especially as the article itself makes the same reference.

      1. Rob,
        Rebecca claims the story dated March 4th got a retrospective edit and update when the SJ received identity information from the BBC.
        The March 4th article kept its March 4th dateline despite March 5th content.(?)
        It seems strange journalism tactics, but strange descibes most Salisbury affairs.

        1. What seems odd about that is that they didn’t update it to include the name. So basically:

          4th March – They publish a story about a couple being taken ill and going to SDH. No info is given about the people.

          5th March – The BBC publishes piece naming Skripal.

          5th March – The SJ writes a piece also naming Skripal. It then goes back to update its 4th March piece, but instead of naming him, it simply updates it to say “Russian spy”.

          I suppose it’s possible, but very odd. But I’m beginning to think that the explanation for all this is that somebody put something in the water on 3rd/4th March and the whole of Salisbury went a bit potty. At least I think we were quite normal before then.

          1. Rob,
            Indeed.
            If you are going to go back and edit, (Didn’t Michael J Fox do a movie or three about this?) Then why not go back to the Sunday evening article and make it as comprehensive as possible?
            The concept of retrospective edits possibly makes sense if there were severe untruths in the first version.
            Or maybe something revealed that should not have been revealed breaching data privacy, patient confidentiality etc.

      2. “information of his being a “Russian spy” was leaked” – yes 100%

        And the same leak was the origin of Yulia being airlifted to hospital.

        Which also begs the question: “why was the helicopter ever called?” From the bench to the area of the car park where the helicopter landed, is over 0.3 miles on foot: What were they going to do: 1) put her on a stretcher and run there, or 2) move her into an ambulance and then drive round Salisbury to get to the helicopter?

        Both are nonsense, from the bench, the fastest way to SDH would be in a normal ambulance – it is only 11 mins by car, so an ambulance would be faster.

  26. The photo of House of Skripal at the head of this article:
    It was mentioned in an earlier comment that that the door opened inwards.
    Look carefully at the photo and you will see that it opens outwards. Also, look at the size of those hinges!
    No conclusions, just obseving.

  28. Avoiding any “conspiracy theories” or theories of any other kind and sticking only to facts, we know;

    1) A couple were found in a distressed state of a bench in the Maltings on Sun the 4th March

    2) They were carrying ID that suggested they were Sergei and Yulia Skripal

    3) Shortly before they were discovered on the bench a cctv camera in a gym a few yards from the bench captured a couple walking towards the bench direction

    4) That video clip and stills appeared in the national and local media, first with statements that this couple were the Skripals or it may be the Skripals and then one from the police asking the public to help with identifying them.

    5) There has been no word from the police since to inform us whether they are still searching for that couple, have identified / found them or ruled them out of their inquiries as possible witnesses.

    6) An eyewitness who worked at the gym where the cctv footage was taken saw the distressed couple on the bench moments after she left work that day, she is reported in numerous media sources and quoted as saying the couple on the bench were 100% Definitely the same people that she saw in the video.

    7) A user of the gym also saw the couple on the bench and referred to the female as a “blonde bird”, Yulia Skripal has reddish brown hair that day.

    8) The couple in the cctv video were 100% Definitely not the Skripals

    9) The police have failed to explain this contradiction (two people were taken to hospital with ID saying they were the Skripals and evidence says those people are not the Skripals)

    10) Police have High Definition Council cctv footage taken from the Maltings area that day, they have withheld that evidence from the public, they could show the public what the Skripals looked like that day, what they were wearing, who they interacted with and when but the police continue to keep that evidence secret.

    So what’s the conclusion(s) ?

  29. Some thoughts on Yulia Skripal´s phone calls to Viktoria.

    Call on April 5 (only excerps) :
    Victoria : Look, if I am granted a visa tomorrow, I’ll fly to see you on Monday. So, well
    Yulia (interrupting, calmly) : No-one will give you a visa, Vika.
    Victoria : Ah well… well, I was also thinking that. That’s it. Whatever. Won’t they, yes? Anyway, if I am given a visa I need you to say ‘Yes’ when you are asked if you wish to see me
    Yulia : I think no, here the situation is now…we’ll deal with it later
    Victoria, at the same time : That’s it, I know, yes, I know everything
    Yulia : Later, yes, we better sort it all later. Everything is good, and then later we’ll see what we see, we’ll sort things as we get to them.

    „No-one will give you a visa“ – How could Yulia be so sure ? She was the victim of an assassination attempt, but it does not sound like she just feels as a victim.
    With this phrase, she wanted to make Victoria understand that the secret service knows something, that doesn´t allow her to have contact with the outside world.

    „… here the situation is now…we’ll deal with it later… later we’ll see what we see, we’ll sort things as we get to them.“ – Another hint to Viktoria not to talk too much.
    Yulia uses the word “situation”, which I find strange. If someone had just wanted to murder me, I would say something different.
    Viktoria answered „I know everything“, but I´m not so sure that she really understood.
    Question : What does Victoria actually knows ?

    Call on July 5 (only excerps) :
    Yulia : „I am just asking that no-one interferes in this situation.“
    Viktoria : „All I want is that you return home and live your life.“
    Yulia : „No-one is stopping that, do you understand ? I can do that any day.“
    „The fact that this was made public has ruined our lives.“
    „I cannot now return to Russia only because all of this was on this stupid talk shows.“
    „I think you made this public.“

    „I am just asking that no-one interferes in this situation.“ – Again „situation“.
    Obviously Yulia does not want a lot of fuss about her “situation”.
    At the time, Yulia still did not know how much attention her “situation” has aroused in the world.

    „No-one is stopping that, do you understand ? I can do that any day.“ – So she thinks that she is allowed to return to Russia „any day“.
    But than she blames Viktoria that she „cannot now return to Russia“. That contradicts itself.
    What did the MI5 whisper to her ?

    Keep in mind that Yulia on July 25 for the first time spoke to her grandma.
    Call on July 25 (only excerps) :
    Victoria Skripal said (google translate) : “Julia called from her mobile phone and, before delivering the phone, she asked me to tell her what my grandmother knew about what had happened.”
    Julia wanted to know beforehand that she could tell her grandmother about the poisoning.
    “She knows that you live in Moscow and that everything is fine with you. You can say that you flew to your father, dad is in the hospital and that you just poisoned yourself in the restaurant, so you do not get in touch”, Victoria answered her question.
    After talking with her grandmother Julia told Victoria that she had access to the Internet and she read everything that the media wrote about her poisoning. Also, according to Victoria Skripal, Julia said: “I understood everything. Sorry”.
    https://www.rbc.ru/society/26/07/2018/5b5a10c49a79475ac1dbb672
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=69&v=ETLctcn7hQ4

    “… dad is in the hospital and that you just poisoned yourself in the restaurant…” – Obviously, the grandma was told that the two suffered from food poisoning.

    “I understood everything. Sorry” – It would be good to have a propper translation. I don´t trust Viktoria’s memory.
    Obviously Yulia sees the “situation” now from a different angle.

    At the end of the talkshow Victoria appeals to the audience with the words “I just ask all citizens of Russia to understand that we are fighting for the fact that we should return two citizens of Russia to their homeland”.
    Two citizens !!! This is clearly addressed to Yulia and Sergei.
    But most Russians view Sergei as a traitor. It wouldn´t be easy for them to return.

    1. Super helpful Liane. This is crucial stuff as it appears to me that back in April, when the first call took place, Yulia had not the first clue what was really going on. Nor does she at the time of the second call. But if the third call is correct, then it looks like she’s just beginning to catch on.

      If you (or anyone else) are able to get an accurate translation of this last call, that would be great.

      1. Further to this, since Yulia only appears to have been granted internet access at some point in July, I would think that a human rights lawyer who was interested in the whole case could take this up.

        Personally, I find the idea of access to the internet as being a *human right* to be one of those laughable pledges drawn up by silly utopians who love to come up with ideas that make them look really good, but which have no basis in reality. How about access to 3 Michelin Star restaurants as a fundamental *right* as well? But anyway, regardless of what I think about it, it is the sort of thing they would come up with, and in fact have, in this very grand sounding (but probably worthless) document, “The promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet”:

        https://www.article19.org/data/files/Internet_Statement_Adopted.pdf

        Article 10 states:

        “[The Human Rights Council, Guided by the Charter of the United Nations] condemns unequivocally measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online in violation of international human rights law and calls on all States to refrain from and cease such measures;”

        The UK is a signatory to this document, although I don’t know whether it has any legal standing here. If it does, then if Yulia was denied access to the internet, is there not a case for claiming that her *rights* were violated?

  30. “Dawn will be honoured on Monday at a crematorium service in Salisbury. Special health measures will be in place to keep mourners safe at the funeral and her coffin will already be in place when people arrive. Investigators may have identified two people in connected with the attempted assassination of ex-spy Skripal through CCTV facial recognition”

    https://metro.co.uk/2018/07/29/deadly-novichok-poison-salisbury-7774213/

    RIP Dawn

    Goodbye evidence

    2. Unless the family clips a lock of her hair, as does happen sometimes, as a memento
      I did it with my own mother, I must say it felt barbaric but I couldn’t help it

    3. What utter rubbish!
      There’s Charlie free to frequent every liquor store in Salisbury
      Hard to see how Dawn could possibly be a risk to the public

      2. Peter, the Met quickly realised that it took a special man to get a grip on this fast moving investigation.

        We await that special person.

        1. Duncan – typo – you missed out ‘not’…

          “the Met quickly realised that it took a special man to NOT get a grip on this fast moving investigation.”

  32. Another point that may be relevant :

    Both Bill Browder and Christopher Steel are currently undergoing a libel trial due to the Steel Dossier since the Internet Research Company ( indicted but they never thought they’d present themselves to challenge them legally) . It would be in their interest that Sergey Skripal would not be available to participate in this trial .

    Mueller and Steel seem to be in a bit of a pickle .

    https://www.google.ie/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1GS2L2

    1. Correction , only Steele . Browder was in two orher libel trials but not related to this . Apologies

  33. Were licenced to kill anachronistic MI5/6 originally acronyms of ‘Ministries of Imbeciles’? [Pre-PC shrinks used ‘imbeciles’ to denote a category of criminals with moderate to severe moral and intellectual disability.]

    Perhaps we should begin referring to the ‘official’ narrative as “The Heath Robinson version”… See Heath Robinson depiction of Mrs May piloting “strong and stable government”:
    http://memoiredimages.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RobinsonWH-Uncle_Lubin.jpg
    .

  34. https://twitter.com/BBCMonitoring/status/1015152166040997888?s=19

    I missed this (sorry if posted before) transcript of Yulia/Viktoria conversation 6 July.
    Yulia seems to believe the whole thing would have been kept quiet only for Viktoria.
    Presumably she was unaware of all the hoo-ha in the UK.
    Then we know when she “got internet” she apologized.
    So MI5 were telling here it was tight at this end – only blabbermouth Viki let the side down. Why? Were they to “die” of fentanyl OD and “disappear”? Only Viki making a fuss stopped it.
    Was she unaware it was Bailey’s hospital visit that let the cat out of the bag?

    1. Patrick,

      Thanks for this. I hadn’t seen this. It’s very interesting and very important. I can’t read Yulia’s unpleasant comments in any other way than that she was “in on all this” from the start. You don’t happen to know if there’s a transcript of her subsequent conversation in which she apologised, do you?

      Rob

    2. Thanks Patrick,
      Very interesting.
      Can it be that some branch of the UK intelligence community staged the initial attack and then “rescued” Yulia and her father.
      If DSB or whoever carried out the initial park bench “spray” then would Col. Skripal not have recognised DSB, and maybe some other local “handler.” Certainly, getting Col. Skripal to meet “known” people at the park bench would be possible.
      Then the double cross and the spray, and now because it went badly, staging the rescue and recovery to show that the UK are really the good guys?
      This would be a lot more believable to me and maybe even Yulia, if ger father had not survived.
      I know we have not heard from him, but we are assuming he is still alive?
      It is a bit strange that he has not contacted his 90 year old mother.
      The plot thickens.

    3. If this transcript is accurate then Yulia has to be part of it as in that both Yulia and her father poisoned themselves with something that would not be lethal and possibly an antidote ( curiously atropine abd BZ seem to be in the same family ). They did this either so that Sergey could disappear and Yulia would go back to Russia or to incriminate Russia in it .

      Regarding the door handle , no matter what Charlie says and regardless of what the actual truth is ( probably very little truth in the whole affair ) the fact is that the authorities are , to their despair , irreversibly tied to it because of the Russian spy manual on novicoking doir handles that they amateurishly sold to the international community as evidence . Diplomats were expelled from countries because of that , now imagine the reaction if the door handle was to become no more …

  35. The video by Graham Phillips has triggered a thought: ‘we’ all consider the bench to be ground zero, right? When the original couple (whoever they are) were dosed with something (whatever it is), the bench is where it happened. But the authorities say ground zero was the doorknob, and Sergei and Yulia proceeded to spread the contamination everywhere they went after that, presumably by the time they reached the bench their hands would have lost most of the material. So the bench would be a lesser risk area than the front door.

    So what have they done at the bench vs Sergei’s house? As far as I can see from the footage, compared to photos back in March, all the wooden walkway barriers have been removed, and replaced with ropes on posts. It looks like the ground has been dug up, as the grass looks new on the area behind where the bench used to be. There was also a sort of bandstand with blue uprights in the pictures taken in March, yet I can’t see it in Grahams video, has that been removed as well? Any locals be able to say whether the paving looks like new? It seems to me that the entire area has been gutted. Yet this must be the lowest contaminated site, Sergei’s infamous doorknob would be red hot by comparison. Yet nothing at all has been done to the door or the surrounding area and policemen and women have been photographed standing guard in just their uniforms.

    So by the authorities own actions, the bench site MUST be a far higher contaminated one than Sergei’s front door, which proves conclusively they’re lying. Why is none of this being pointed out by the media?

  36. More door stuff.

    Thanks to Liane who linked the Daily Mail info, that if correct has the Skripal front door removed around March 28th.
    Rob, I assume there is a cordon around the house now. Meaning that all pictures of the door being guarded by ordinary uniform police must have been taken prior to March 28th?
    If the door is gone, then of course something else must be there, but maybe we cannot see what is there as there is a cordon in place. Rob can you confirm please?

    Skripals first contacted nerve agent on front door | Financial Times
    https://goo.gl/images/7TyYZt

    The reason I ask, is that the door has three hinges on the right hand side, there is no “knob” only a normal handle.
    With a door opening outwards, as this one does, it is impossible for two people leaving at the same time to both touch the door handle.
    The door swings shut with the hinge action, unassisted, or more normally, the first person holds the door open, by the handle, until the second person steps out.
    If the Skripals left the house more than a few seconds apart, then possible they would both need to open the door.
    Col. Skripal as the owner would lock the door, but the whole excercise cannot have both Yulia and her father dosing up from the door handle.

    Try it at home with a partner or loved on, (no, not nerve gas), step out through a door that swings shut and see who touches the door handle.

    1. Duncan,

      I’ve only been that way once, and the entire road was cordoned off (except for people who live that way, I assume) with a policeman or two standing there manning the barricade. So I haven’t actually seen the house itself, but arial pictures of it show that the front is all boarded up with flakeboard (or was it fakeboard – I’m not sure).

      Rob

        1. Rob, Duncan
          Reading this again I’ve been reminded of how I found the language in the news coverage about Bailey being a “super boy” particularly jarring. It seems such a strange, awkward phrase, especially to use to describe a mature police officer. I also noticed the phrase was repeated three times in the article and once in a photo caption, as well as being in the headline. Maybe I’m too sensitive to such nuances, but because we were told from the start that Novichok – which it turns out is the Western name for the toxic substances produced in the Foliant programme – translates as “new boy,” that made “super boy” stand out. I actually wondered if it was some kind of unsubtle message.

          1. Novichock [новичок in Russian] is a widely used word for a new arrival / newcomer of just about any type of anything.

          2. Yes, and if you wait a few weeks all of his electronic footprints will have been removed.
            There is no reason for this chap to be out of the public view.
            No one needs this tactic unless they are in fear of their safety or have something to hide.
            Why not promote him to inspector and give him a community role?
            A survivor and a hero.
            Why buy his house and car and furniture?
            When did the UK start doing stuff like this?
            The BBC did not even report it.

      2. Rob,
        I see a direction in the Blog where the Skripals are swapped for another couple between Zizzi’s and the park bench.
        I am struggling to follow who benefits and who would carry this out.
        If the prize was to make Russia look bad, then there is no need to swap couples.
        If the Skripals need disappearing then stage a road traffic collision.
        If Col. Skripal is being given a warning then why swap couples?

        Who gains by having a complicated swap of two people who were immediately named, in recovery and now communicating?
        If anyone has been eliminated without a trace it is the couple who took their place.

        1. “I am struggling to follow who benefits and who would carry this out.”
          The only people who have benefitted are those who would not want Sergei to speak. The one thing that has been a consistant result, is that Sergei has vanished… it is possible that this was the primary goal.

          “If the prize was to make Russia look bad, then there is no need to swap couples.”
          The original plan was not to make Russia look bad. That idea started on Tuesday, when the original plan had gone wrong – it went wrong on Monday morning when DS Bailey drove himself to hospital and started a media circus.

          “If the Skripals need disappearing then stage a road traffic collision.”
          There were lots of ways it could have been done – they chose to do it this way.

          “If Col. Skripal is being given a warning then why swap couples?”
          He wasn’t being given a warning – nothing happened to him. He was whisked away to safety so he would/could not talk.

          “Who gains by having a complicated swap of two people who were immediately named, in recovery and now communicating?”
          Firstly it wasn’t complicated. The Skripals left Zizzi and got into a waiting car. The other couple only had to walk down Market Walk and sit on a bench. The press was supposed to name the Skripals – because they were one ones that were going to disappear.

          “If anyone has been eliminated without a trace it is the couple who took their place.”
          That couple lived in Amesbury and were recently in the news.

            1. Duncan, It is not complex. One of the most difficult things to do is forget what we know now and just look at what was going on at the time.

              I believe the original idea was for Sergei to disappear (lets not worry about why for now).

              MI5 organised a very simple scam and the local police were not in on it.

              Sergei and Yulia were to head to Salisbury, walk around for a couple of hours making sure they were seen. At 3:30 after they left Zizzi, they got into a car and handed over ID and bills etc to the spooks. They then just had to wait for the helicopter.

              The other couple had been brought to Salisbury and at 3:47 they walked through Market Walk. They sat at the bench and were sprayed with Fentanyl by the spooks. The spooks were therefore ‘first on the scene’ and put the Skripals ID in their pockets and then left. There followed a ‘normal’ Fentanyl poisoning response – paramedics etc.

              That day the ‘story’ was noted in the local press. If things had gone to plan, another story was planned for a few days later, saying the couple had died. (In the meantime, the other couple spent a couple of days in hospital and then went home).

              With a little bit of luck, Sergei and Yulia would have ‘died’ – never to speak again.

              Sunday went to plan.

              Monday morning, DS Bailey drove himself to hospital – that story was what started the circus. The police went to the gym and found the CCTV of the couple who had been on the bench and published it. Then we all saw the pictures of the real Skripals…

              On Tuesday the Met took over and we have had nothing but lies ever since.

              It was actually a very simple plan but it went horribly wrong and then snow-balled.

              1. This is the story that started the circus:
                http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16064949._Major_incident__at_Salisbury_hospital_after_Russian_spy_found_unconscious_at_Maltings/?ref=ar

                Note the bit where it says:
                “The cordon was lifted at around 11.20am and the department is now open again.”

                That was the response to DS Bailey going to hospital. The hospital declared a ‘major incident’ and all hell broke loose – on Monday morning. The national press picked up on that story and the connection with a ‘spy’… That was not supposed to happen.

                1. Hmmm??? I’m not sure about all this Paul. You know, it’s amazing how many articles I seem to have missed in all this, and I find that one such piece is one linked to the article you linked to. It is in the Salisbury Journal and is dated 4th March.

                  http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16064166.LATEST__Two_in_hospital_after_medical_emergency_at_Maltings/

                  What interests me is that it carried the headline “Russian spy is one of two in hospital after medical emergency at Maltings”. I hadn’t previously realised that they had identified him as a “Russian spy” that quickly (even though he was of course a “British spy” not a “Russian spy”, but let’s not quibble over this).

                  And so this is what is bugging me about the theory of “disappearing” the Skripals and it just being a local event, soon to be forgotten about. I don’t see how that could ever have been the case. The “Russian spy gets poisoned” theme was always going to get picked up on, especially given the Litvinenko case, the terrible relations between Russia and the UK/West anyway, and of course the fact that lots of people like James Bond movies.

                  The SJ picked up on this fact *before* DS Bailey went to SDH, and it would have become national news regardless of DS Bailey. I guess what I’m saying is that there is simply no way that you could “disappear” a Russian spy in this way and hope to keep it reasonably quiet and local.

                  On the other hand, it seems to me fairly remarkable that the Salisbury Journal found out that he was a “Russian Spy” that very night. If only all the journalism that followed had been equally inquisitive and determined!

                  1. Rob, I understand exactly what you are saying, I linked to all 3 of the initial reports elsewhere but will repeat them here:

                    http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16064166.Russian_spy_is_one_of_two_in_hospital_after_medical_emergency_at_Maltings/?ref=ar
                    http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16064949._Major_incident__at_Salisbury_hospital_after_Russian_spy_found_unconscious_at_Maltings/?ref=ar
                    http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16066343.Critically_ill_man_is_former_Russian_spy__BBC_reports/

                    That is Sunday evening and then Monday morning and Monday evening.

                    The Sunday evening report you link speaks about a ‘spy’ and Yulia being ‘airlifted’ to hospital – and that is pretty much it.

                    There was no national coverage in the Monday morning papers but after SDH declared a ‘major incident’ it was all over the national Monday evening papers and again on Tuesday morning.

                    Recall the BBC interview with Nursing director Lorna Wilkinson, who said a key moment came when policeman Nick Bailey was admitted with similar symptoms?
                    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44278609

                    SDH declared a major incident ONLY because Bailey turned up. If he had not done so, I suggest the whole nerve agent nonsense would never have started. There were no nerve agents! SDH declared it all over by 11:20 and cordons were lifted – so presumably at that point SDH regarded it as a false alarm… but the damage was already done and the press arrived in Salisbury by the bus-load!

                    1. As to it becoming national news anyway, yes I agree it would have done and it would all have been over in a day or two when he ‘died’ – but there would be a proper story to back up the fact that Sergei was indeed ‘dead’.

                      “Russian spy dies from Fentanyl overdose in Salisbury” – all over the news for 24 hours… perfect!! EXACTLY what they wanted!!

                    2. Rob, I said elsewhere on this thread that one of the hardest things to do, is to divorce ourselves from what we know has happened since. It is now a HUGE story – start from the point where it was not a huge story and think how differently it might have gone. Why would a former Russian spy, dead in Salisbiry have been a MAJOR national story? It wouldn’t.

                    3. OK last point on this here. 2 people were poisoned on a park bench in Salisbury. Why?? We have no official reason for it at all except the ludicrous Russian narrative. It wasn’t that, so what was it?

                  2. I already wrote about my thesis that Bailey delivered himself to hospital already Sunday night.
                    Here is an article that supports my claim (although Bailey is not mentioned) :

                    Quote : Wiltshire police got in contact with the counter-terrorism network on the night of the attempted murder, the force’s chief constable, Kier Pritchard, said on Thursday.
                    Pritchard explained that initially police believed they were responding to a medical emergency when Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, were found ill on a bench in Salisbury on Sunday 4 March.
                    When it was realised on Sunday night that the antidotes that medical staff were using were not working, the force contacted the counter-terrorism network and on Monday morning a major incident was declared, he said.
                    http://archive.is/u4PIa#selection-1703.0-1711.10

                    1. Liane, I have seen that and am familiar with the idea that Bailey went to SDH on Sunday evening but was discharged. He went home but felt ill again on Monday morning and then drove himself to SDH.

                      “Lorna Wilkinson, the nursing director at Salisbury District Hospital, told the BBC that the first clue that it was not a drug overdose was when Sgt. Nick Bailey, a police officer and first responder, was admitted to the emergency room with similar symptoms.”
                      http://archive.li/zbuv0#selection-1453.0-1453.257

                      That was why the major incident was declared on Monday morning.

                  3. “On the other hand, it seems to me fairly remarkable that the Salisbury Journal found out that he was a “Russian Spy” that very night. If only all the journalism that followed had been equally inquisitive and determined!!

                    Once the casualties names were known to the press a quick background check would have revealed Sergei’s past, at that stage a drug incident isn’t going to interest any newspaper but a local one so a national would not be looking.

                    But when Sergei’s name was known and and if you replace drugs overdose with “poisoning” and add in “spy” then the nationals clamour on it even if the truth was Sergei and Yulia were crack heads. And the opportunity for a bit of Russia bashing in the run up to the world cup would have been too much to pass over.

                    I can’t find much about Sergei pre March 4th 2018 except these two pieces

                    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/11/british-security-services-debrief-russians-spy-swap

                    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-spy-who-was-sent-into-the-cold-2029214.html

                    And a search on 192 at the very beginning and still now reveals a Salisbury Location for Sergei (but he is listed as Sergey)

                    So an early alert to ex spy in a drugs / poisoning incident.

                    Then Bailey comes on the scene, his contamination was immediately explained by his “first on the scene” arrival and the “fact” that some recreational drugs users overdoses can contaminate others in close vicinity eg fentanyl and touching. Then this is still run of the mill even if the MSN now want to milk it ’till the cows come home.

                    The short lived Major Incident alert doesn’t add much except drama to pad out a dry news day at beginning to the week.

                    Then oh dear, Snap Fitness cctv, Freya “its them”, the Skripal photos start appearing in the press and the Met get involved.

                    This is no longer personal drug abuse gone wrong, its a cover up. How can two people who turn up at hospital with ID that says who they are not be those people? And why have the Met taken charge?

                    And that’s where it went downhill. Motive? I dunno!

    2. This Mirror article shows the door on 6th March, days after the attack:

      https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/spy-suburbia-families-shock-lovely-12136609

      Note the horseshoe hanging on the door.

      There are then multiple examples of pictures of PCSOs (ie dogsbodies assigned to nothing type duties) standing guard on the Skripal house around the time the announcement was made that ‘the doorknob did it!’ at the end of March. Here’s one, Mirror again:

      https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/poisoned-russian-spy-sergei-skripal-12269328

      Note door looks identical, including horseshoe still pinned to the top. At that point (the point they’d released the doorknob story to the world) the door appears to be the same one, and unprotected PCSOs were ‘guarding’ it. However one article using these pics (the same two female PCSOs) suggests they were taken on March 6th as well:

      https://www.rferl.org/a/novichok-creator-predicts-origin-of-skripal-poison-will-remain-a-mystery/29182827.html

      Can anyone find a later dated picture of the Skripal door, and see if it has the horseshoe on it still?

    3. There’s a metal screen in front of the house now and the biggest Pie Wagon just a few yards away on the Right Hand side (looking at the house) where Salisbury’s finest can get their coffee doughnuts and pies

    4. Duncan

      It is a handle not a doorknob.

      The picture of the ” front door ” is interesting.

      It is what is called a Storm Porch. I used to be in the Upvc business and that’s what it looks like to me.

      If I’m right and it is a Storm Porch then the actual front door into a hall or living room should open into the hall or living room.

      In other words there may be two doors. One for the porch and one for the house itself.

      Two doors need two sets of keys of course.

      1. The Skripal door looks like it opens out, on Google Street view (2009) it was a different door and looked perfectly fine, that one opened inwards.

      2. Thanks Ken,

        I always thought of it as a handle, the terror squad used the “knob”.
        Interesting comments on the two door theory.
        I defer to your industry knowledge and would assume an inside door too.
        Did the Novichok terror gang have access to an inner door knob, and that where the reference comes from.
        Is the first door acting as a screen in all of this?

        1. Hi Duncan

          Most people use a Storm Porch as a place to put wellies umbrellas – wet dogs and pot plants I think.

          It’s more for aesthetic effect mixed with not wanting to ruin your best carpet.

          Some don’t even lock them, but in a town you probably would.

          You have to sign for parcels now I think so leaving parcels in the porch might not be allowed now?

          The Gas/Electric meter in the olden days was usually in there too.

          I don’t know which door was taken away as ‘ evidence ‘

          It could have been left unlocked

        2. Duncan

          You might be right.

          For all we know it could be a wooden door. With a letterbox?

          I don’t know of any Upvc door that has a doorknob.

    5. Duncan, google “Sergei Skripal´s front door removed” and you will find some aerial pictures.

      1. Liane, assuming the Mail is correct….
        This means the OPCW team swabbed the door while it was in place around March 21st, some 3 weeks after the attack.
        Then on March 28th or so, the door was removed?

  38. What happened at a very early stage is they lost control of the cover up (we can guess at the triggers) then one dum “correction” on to of another led to the death of a homeless women.

    Things cannot get worse for them (you would think but they may surprise us yet)

    Public tolerance in the lack of information has broken, the people at the coal face of the cover up are rightfully panicking.

    There are people looking at seriously long jail time and the defence of “I was just following orders” will not wash.

    Some of the people involved are living a nightmare at the moment.

    Which leaves a couple of options if we want to help the people of Salisbury.

    1) Wait and see how the disaster disintegrates further and watch with a bottle of beer and a tub of popcorn in much the same way as Obama, Clinton et al watched on their TV the assassination of bin “Laden” or

    2) Do stuff now to make it worse for the TPTB and accelerate the decaying decomposition of the cancerous façade that they created to harm us but instead they got infected by it. Poetic Justice!

    RIP Dawn.

    1. The early panic triggers

      1) They got Yulia’s substitute hair colour wrong

      2) They chose the wrong poison

      3) They chose the wrong poison source

      4) They chose the wrong incriminating evidence to link it with Russia and only Russia

      5) Inconvenient private cctv had not been considered

      6) The Salisbury Council cctv control centre should have been put out of action with a “technical fault”

      But apart from that it was a great plan

      1. Me thinks that there is a better narrative than a pre-planned bench swàp theory, viz. Sergei is dealing something (old stolen novi ampules or pure fentanyl, does not matter). The red bag with stuff is stolen by the cctv couple. Sergei panicks at zizzi and calls his handler for help. Told to wait for avac. Clean up team is sent in to take out a couple with a red bag pronto, or the couple poisoned themselves before found by going through the bag. Mess insures when local plods thought they were skripals based on ids in the stolen bag. Rest is a failed series of cover ups as handlers feared thiefs were Russian agents.

  39. Claims made by the investigators
    1. That military grade nerve agent was used to poison Mr Skripal
    2. That it was applied to the door handle of his house

    Additionally, the UK government also stated that Russia was behind the attack. Either as a direct action, or the loss of control of their stock of nerve agent.
    With respect to the two claims, I believe both are correct.
    BZ or a similar nerve agent was employed, (not Novichok) and during the course of Sunday, March 4th, the same nerve agent was applied to the Skripal home front door knob.
    This application took place after the park bench incident, and probably happened at 5pm when a policeman, lets call him DSB visited the house after being with the Skripals at the park bench, around 4:15pm

    There are two types of facts in this case.
    Facts that we know, that have had sufficient corroboration to be believed.
    Facts that we think are correct because that would seem sensible based on what we believe, and as yet have not been challenged
    There are also actions, where something has been done, but in the case of Skripals and Salisbury, there are significant NON-actions, which in turn make some of the investigative statements seems confusing or contradictory.
    In this regard, unlike other terror incidents, there has been no release of CCTV footage, and no call for the public to come forward to help the investigation. On the contrary, there seems to be no follow up on witness statements, and even some cases where public safety seems to be taking a back seat to the ongoing investigation and the lack of communication.
    One reason may be that the authorities already know what happened and also who was involved.
    This is not a conspiracy theory, as described by MP John Glen, this is more of public help and video footage is not needed if the investigation already knows how it happened and who was involved.
    So, based on what we know, and possibly what we can surmise.

    For whatever reason, Col Skripal was misbehaving as far as some element of UK intelligence was concerned.
    MI6, MI5, Home Office, Foreign Office etc.
    Misbehaving in that he was involved, maybe a dossier, maybe as drug supplier of fentanyl.
    The UK intelligence agency involved was fully aware of the impending visit of his daughter Yulia, who arrived on Saturday March 3rd.
    A chap known as DSB was told some days earlier, that Skripal and his daughter were to be sprayed in the park and then leave.
    Leave the park and go to the Skripal home and spray the door knob. Then get rid of the spray bottle.
    All along, with such a public display of violence, what could be better than cranking up the anti-Russian rhetoric especially with Putin looking forward to World Cup glory, and possibly getting up cosy with Trump.
    Well, for the Russian card to work, what better to do than use a nerve agent, possibly BZ where a non-lethal dose would send a warning to both Skripals, and maybe have Yulia persuade her father to stop his drug dealing/dossier/whatever activities.
    Where in Salisbury could such a nerve agent be obtained? I know, it is a tough one, but we will move on.
    CCTV footage tracked the Skripals from at least 1:45 as they fed the ducks with the three boys, went to the Mill Pub, walked to Zizzi’s.
    At Zizzi’s Col Skripal seemed agitated as he might miss an appointment. They left and went to the park bench. Would have to assume that was where the appoint was.
    Why rush out of a restaurant because you are late for an event and go to a different location?
    At the park bench a chap called DSB sprayed the Skripals and they immediately became ill.
    DSB searched Col Skripal for the front door key, (Sidebar: Has it ever been reported that Skripal had/did not have his house keys on him at admission to Salisbury District Hospital SDH?)
    DSB went off to the home and sprayed the door knob.
    He knew that other eye witnesses at the scene had seen him, so quite naturally his appearance at SDH later that evening was quite reasonable.
    However, he made a mistake and inadvertently sprayed himself, and on Monday felt unwell enough to go back to SDH for treatment for nerve agent exposure.
    SDH was not part of a team searching the Skripal home, that came later. The local ACC referring to body cameras and proper protocol.
    To dose the door knob on Sunday afternoon around 5pm, that did not require entry, but possibly, with house keys in hand, DSB could remove drug/dossier/incriminating material, just to be sure it was not found in a more comprehensive search that would happen later in the week.
    At SDH that Sunday evening, to Porton Down scientists just happened to be there when the two Skripals were presented.
    By now they realised that DSB had been seen, and the mission starting to unravel.
    Possibly the BZ agent was meant to kill, and maybe DSB had reported his contact with the spray.
    Whatever the cases the SDH clinicians reported that they were very thankful that the Porton Down scientists had quickly determined that acetylcholine esterase inhibitors were at work and treatment began.
    Later that evening there may have been some communication from the “intelligence agency” to DSB that he better get back to SDH for treatment.

    As we now, this elevated DSB to hero status. Although the media have never really been clear as to the extent of his heroic actions.
    By Monday, March 5th the cover up was on.
    The narrative was now door knob sprayed by the Russians, then both Skripals receiving their dose, then off to the town that afternoon.
    Several inconsistencies here:
    Skripals went out that morning to his wife’s grave.
    Door knob sprayed after they came back, but before they left for the Sainsbury car park, duck feed with Aiden and his friends Mill Pub, Zizzi’s, Park Bench.
    That would mean the assassin would need to time the door knob spray quite carefully, as the Skripals might touch the door knob on the way into the house after the cemetery visit.
    However, that would mean the door knob would be sprayed while the Skripals were at home, before they left on their afternoon journey.
    CCTV
    There is really no need to share CCTV footage with the public.
    As the spray happened at the park bench, the boys were never in danger.
    Mill Pub customers, Zizzi restaurant etc, did not encounter BZ or anything else.
    However, for the door knob attack timeline to fit, we better make sure we have some contaminated artefacts from the places Skripal visited before the park bench.
    If necessary, we could have them carted off to Porton Down and spray them there.
    That’s a good idea, because when they arrive we can spray them with Novichok, because that is what Mrs May is telling the world is the nerve agent employed.
    We can get Skripal blood too, and spike it, just in case OPCW or some other inspectors want proof of what the nerve agent was.

    What about DSB and the spray.
    Well, unlike most heroes, he has to be kept out of the public eye.
    No big deal, because unlike other heroes he did not do anything heroic anyway, so there will be no real clamour for interviews. “DSB, tell us how you felt the moment you found the house key?”
    He was a bit messy, he got BZ on himself, and he spilt it at his house.
    Well we need to buy his house to destroy it, remove any evidence. While we are doing that, we need to do the same to the Skripal’s home, otherwise our actions in buying DSB’s house will look even stranger.

    Where did the spray go, after DSB dosed the door knob and took it home?
    Theories at this stage.
    1) He might have been instructed to continue with the “Novichok Gang” theory and take it to QEG to be found. Apparently, there are drug users who bin dive there.
    2) It cannot have been repackaged and placed on a Boots shelf at Amesbury, if DSB was working on his own. DSB could not have had the opportunity to place the packaged spray bottle on a Boots shelf in June, for Mr Rowley to steal it on June 30th.
    3) Why would he be on his own? Perhaps another agent recovered the discarded spray, from DSB’s home, or QEG and then placed in Boots.

    Note, Boots usually have perfumes in a locked cabinet, and there is normally some security packing. If the plan was to have the spray bottle found, then Boots seems too exotic a location.
    A thrift shop would be simpler or leave it in fact in a park.

    So, if we go back to Rob’s questions we have I believe a good fir for what we know happened, what we suspect happened and what we know could not have happened.
    There is still the option for the authorities to blame the Russian Novichok gang, and soon we will get the drip drip of known agents hiding behind Putin’s regime.

    1. I wonder how a local Salisbury newspaper might react to your above being submitted as a ‘letter to the editor’ for publishing Duncan…? Is it worth reformatting and trying – it is a very comprehensive thought provoking summary.

      ‘Hero’ ~ It saddens me how the meaning of this very special word gets degraded by MSM. What will they say when the truth about DSB eventually comes to light – will they ignore or bury it? How many of the psyops operatives will appear on Queen’s Honours lists I wonder…?

      1. Thanks Kevan,
        I think Jimmy Saville was a hero once, but that soon changed.
        While I appreciate your comments on my rambling, I really don’t think the UK media will run with this.
        In my own research and pondering I have steered away from the “why” and thought only about the “how”. How this was done is not affected by press restrictions, D notices etc.
        However, despite this, the MSM do not want get involved in what would be the biggest story for decades.
        I watch All the President’s Men to cheer me up.

    1. It could be a discarded Russian submarine.
      (In all of this, nothing sounds like a crazy plot line.)
      If there is an ancient Scottish guy in town, that’s the captain of Red October.

    2. I don’t really understand why they have fenced off the whole run of those buildings that overlook the River Avon…?

      The back of Zizzi’s doesn’t seem to have any rear connection through to the River Avon.

      https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0699358,-1.7953486,129a,35y,270h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3

      There is some large brown brick building with office-like windows overlooking the river, and something below them at street level which is windowless, but has a opening at the top, a bit like an underground car park.

      I’m not a resident of Salisbury so I can’t confirm whether I’m right or not.

      It suggests that something important has also taken place along the pathway between the buildings and the River Avon, (or perhaps within the buildings themselves). I just don’t understand why it’s all fenced off, if there is no rear entrance to Zizzi’s from the River.

      1. Hi Max,

        Actually, the bigger question is what they didn’t cordon off. The Market Walk was NEVER cordoned off, and people were free to walk along there from 5th March to this very day.

        Since there was a suggestion made at various times that Skripal and his daughter may have had MGNA on their shoes, this was mighty odd and suggestive of two things:

        Either:

        1. The Skripals never walked through Market Walk and/or

        2. The authorities knew full well that they were not contaminated at that time.

        But given that the “Market Walk Two”
        were originally thought to be the Skripals, I always thought the failure to close off Market Walk was very important and suggestive from the outset that the official narrative was not true.

        Rob

        1. They closed the playground because the Skripals were there feeding ducks there but Market Walk was never closed? That is significant. Is there anywhere else that we believe they must have been, that was not closed off?

          How much inconvenience would have been caused if Market Walk had been closed? Are there other ways to get from the playground or Mill Pub to Zizzi that were cordoned off?

          1. Yes indeed. You could walk from The Mill to Zizzis, (although the pub and restaurant themselves were and remain closed off) through Market Walk at any time since 4th March unhindered.

            The only area cordoned off was the Avon park area.

            I have tried to represent this on a map. So you can see Zizzis and The Mill as the red markers. And the translucent red is (very roughly) the park that was cordoned off. The blue are areas of interest where no restrictions on walking have ever been set up. So you will notice that I have marked (very roughly) a blue line to the left of the translucent area. This is a pathway between Sainsbury’s and the river, with the Avon playground/park (which was closed off), the other side of the river.

            But more significantly, you will see the blue going from The Mill to Zizzis, through the Market Walk. At no time has there ever been restrictions on these areas.

            MAP

            1. That is very helpful. Presumably, the car park where they left their car, has not been restricted either.

              The bread is also a curiosity. As far as I can see that either came from home, or was purchased in Sainsbury’s or Greggs. I am guessing that neither Sainsbury’s nor Greggs have been restricted?

              If they brought the Novihoax with them from their home, it is odd that all these places have been presumed safe.

              1. The car park was not (so far as I know) restricted, although I think I read that the ticket machine had been cordoned off for a time.

                Sainsbury’s was not restricted at all. Gregg’s was, but not because it was being contaminated, rather on account of its being within the cordon.

                Anecdote: There is a hardware store called Robert Dyas next to Greggs. A friend of mine happened to be speaking to someone from Porton Down who remarked something along the lines of there being more dangerous chemicals in the fertiliser section of Robert Dyas than there was on the street near the bench outside.

        2. What’s the large brown brick building, with windows at the top, but windowless brick wall at street level…

          There also appears there may be a pedestrian opening though the wall…

          1. OK, I think I get it now, there vaguely appears to be some sort of fire exit door in a small rear enclosed courtyard right at the back of Zizzi’s… and I’m guessing that’s how people are entering Zizzi’s. Parking their vehicles outside the closed entrance to Tesco Metro, and walking along the pathway, I’m guessing into some sort of open space under that large brown brick building, and then into the back of Zizzi’s.

    1. There was no possibility of Novichok in the park the police have confirmed that.

      The Skripals, who fed the ducks, never had Novichok go anywhere near them, they did not go to the bench.

      The couple on the bench were not poisoned with Novichok, they were poisoned with an incapacitating spray.

      There was no incapacitating spray in the area at the time the Skripals and boys were feeding the ducks.

      That’s what the available evidence says , possibly the police have some evidence to debunk those conclusions but they are keeping it secret.

      1. The Skripals disappeared immediately after Zizzi – there was no need for them to be around anymore. They had done what they had to do, so the plan required them off the streets with no possibility that any CCTV camera would pick them up. When they left Zizzi, where would be the best place for them to go and get into a waiting car – without attracting any attention?

        With the Skripals off the street, the next part of the plan was to get the CCTV couple into play. We don’t know where they came from but at 15:47 they smiled at the camera and went to the bench.

        [It is possible that the car waiting for the Skripals, was the same one used to bring the CCTV couple to the scene.]

        1. A car at the door of Zizzis would make sense so would ushering them next door into Sarum House, (former occupants the MoD SAS reservist intelligence unit recruiting office) and keep them there until they were ready to be moved (a fuss at Sarum house a day or two later required the closing off of Castle Street and ambulances / support vehicles attend, two women were taken away by ambulance, one caught on camera was not Yulia).

              1. Yeah, I remember that. Didn’t make any sense… [laughter]

                I was thinking about the other couple too. Let’s say:

                1) Spook’s car picks up CCTV in Amesbury at 3:00
                2) Spook’s car drives to Salisbury (about 25 mins)
                3) Drops off CCTV couple and waits somewhere
                4) 3:25 Sergei and Yulia leave Zizzi
                5) 3:30 Sergei and Yulia get into car and vanish…

                Why would they use 2 cars when they can do it all with one?

                And the reason Sergei was agitated in Zizzi was not because of some meeting which was still 25-30 minutes away, at a bench – it was because there was one with a car at 3:30.

              2. Pure supposition ;

                Did the woman that had the panic attack see Yulia and Sergei on the premises (Sarum House) on 4th March and she told people, she’s told the police, she;s told others in the building, nobody believes her.

                She’s seen the news coverage, she’s being going mad with worry, she thinks her and everybody else is going to be stricken down at any time, she goes into panic mode, screaming eventually someone takes notice..

                The “authorities” have refused to comment on the case

      2. I get the ‘swap couples’ theory, there is some evidence for it, namely the non matching descriptions of the bench couple vs the Skripals. However witnesses are not 100% reliable, studies have repeatedly shown this to be true, people saying they saw X when subsequent footage proves that never happened at all. So I wouldn’t base a whole theory of a couple swap on just a few inconsistencies in witness reports.

        That being said, let go with the theory and a couple swap it is. So firstly who are the couple? Sturgess and Rowley? MI5 operatives? Why do their clothes not match the Skripals? Indeed why not get a couple that match the Skripals age wise too, old man and young woman? Are the stand-ins in on the act, do they know they’re going to get dosed with something? Highly dangerous for them no doubt. Why would a highly complex MI5 operation be planned involving local drug addicts and alkies? Bit risky isn’t it? What happens to them afterwards? Are they just released into the wild again? If so again very risky that they’ll spill the beans. If the couple aren’t R&S or MI5 operatives but some other 3rd party, where are they now? Have any couples gone missing recently?

        I can see a couple swap operation making sense, but not like this. There’s too many inconsistencies and high risks involved.

        1. James, There was only 1 requirement for the swap couple and that was that if they disappeared for a couple of days, nobody would notice, nobody would care and nobody would ask any questions.

          Just for a moment forget that this became a media circus and we all want to know who was wearing what. That was never supposed to happen – the story was never supposed to be this big.

          That couple did not need to know what was going to happen. They walked to the bench as they had been told to do. They were poisoned, probably by Fentanyl. The ambulance came to pick them up. They would then spend a couple of days in hospital and when they woke up would not have a clue what had happened to them. They would be released from hospital and would go home.

          And that would be it. They would not know what happened and nobody would care of ask where they had been for a few days. They were not part of a normal family unit.

          1. Thinking a bit more, the less that couple knew the better. So for sure don’t tell them what to wear – they might remember being told later. Just make sure they are on the bench at around 15:50. Keep their role as simple as possible.

            Pick them up in a car, take them to Salisbury, drop them off near Market Walk and let them go off.

            You need a completely dysfunctional couple!

          2. Yes, fair enough, that was the plan but what happened to them once the whole thing went pear shaped? Are you saying the bench couple are Rowley and Sturgess and after they were nursed back to health they were then released back into Salisbury circulation? Then poisoned AGAIN because reasons? Or are they a third party couple of alky/druggy types who disappeared for weeks on end, without anyone reporting them missing? Even druggy types have friends and family, I know someone who would fit into the Sturgess/Rowley milieu very well, but if he disappeared for a month people would notice. I just can’t see the logic in resting such a sensitive operation on people as flaky as Rowley and Sturgess.

            1. !) The only ‘job’ of this couple was to walk from the car, to the bench, down Market Walk – anyone could manage that job.
              2) The couple had no idea what was going to happen.
              3) Yes I think it was Rowley and Sturgess. The spook’s car picked them up in Amesbury and took them to Market Walk.
              4) They spent a few days in hospital and went home – they were not told what had happened to them – they were probably given some nonsense cover story but it did not include the mention of ‘Skripal’. They did not vanish for a month, only a few days.
              5) When the SHTF maybe Rowley got greedy, maybe he and Sturgess were taught a lesson.

        2. “So I wouldn’t base a whole theory of a couple swap on just a few inconsistencies in witness reports”

          They are not “just a few inconsistencies” the ONLY evidence available to the public says the couple on the bench were not the Skripals. There is NO corroborating evidence, in the public domain, to suggest that the pair were the Skripal.

          The are NO inconsistencies.

          The police may have the evidence to debunk the evidence currently in the public domain and prove beyond reasonable doubt that the couple were the Skripals but they are refusing to release that. That evidence is secret.

          1. Thats not true. At least one witness of the bench couple stated it was an older man and a younger woman. Which fits the Skripals, and not Rowley and Sturgess. I think what we’re forgetting is that from the Graham Phillips video of this little park there are multiple benches in a small area. It entirely possible that witnesses have seen another couple but thought they were looking at the Skripals, especially if shown the gym CCTV footage. It could even be that R&S were sat on a bench yards away from the Skripals (or there to meet them no less).

            1. Not all the ‘witnesses’ were real – I think there were some ‘plants’. Just try finding some of the names on social media….

              1. Here is the list of witnesses who keep on being reported:
                1) an off duty doctor; 2) an off duty nurse; 3) Freya Church; 4) Jamie Paine; 5) Jamie’s girlfriend; 6) Georgia Pridham; 7) Dan Holmes; 8) Emma Pearson; 9) Olly Field.

                A clue is that some of those names gave an interview and the original interview is referenced in all subsequent recitals. So something like: “xxx in an interview with yyy said zzz”. Other witnesses just pop up with no original source given. The former are all easy to find, like Freya Church for example, the latter, ummmm not so.

            2. James, I have been a non-contributing reader of this website for a while now. When I read your comments I just had to direct you to another significant piece of information. According to ‘The Saker’, supported by photographs, for the first few hours after the bench incident the police appeared to have cordoned off the ‘wrong’ bench and not the one that we were subsequently told the Skripals had been sitting at. The latter was technically left open to public access until the day after the incident although presumably the police were restricting access to the whole precinct area on a ‘needs must’ basis:
              https://thesaker.is/a-curious-incident-part-v/

              1. Hi Charlie,

                I remember seeing that piece and the image, and I have to say it is a bit of a red-herring. I visited the scene after reading that, which was at the end of March. What I saw was that the police tape was in exactly the same place as it is in the picture (weeks after the incident).

                In fact, it was in exactly the place I would have expected it to be. The tape going to the left of the image is tied to the fence along the river. The tape towards the back is tied (if I recall correctly)to a lamp post. What this did was to stop unauthorised people from going into the area where both benches are, as far as the tape at the far side.

                Rob

                1. Hi Rob,
                  Thanks for your personal observations – very helpful. I’ve had another look at the photos and I can see that the true significance probably lies in what we can’t see on them, so probably a red herring as you say.

                  Anyway good luck with you continuing endeavours to get to the bottom of this very mysterious case. I shall chip in if I find myself with any helpful or interesting information to offer, to add to the info supplied by your intrepid team of co-investigators!
                  CF

              2. That picture is very interesting – there are two benches pretty close together on that section of walkway, with a little bandstand type thingy between them. It is inconceivable that one couple (the Skripals) were sat on one, nearest the river, and the gym CCTV couple (whoever they were, I still think they are R&S) were sat on the other? And witnesses have noticed one but not the other and given their view of reality?

                2. James,
                  Nothing would surprise me or should be discounted without very good reason. There are hardly any known facts in this saga that enable us to create any semblance of truth, other than the fact that the Govt, investigators and MSM are all conspiring (consciously or otherwise) big time to sustain an ever increasing catalogue of lies or deceptions. I think your overall summary in the final paragraph of your comment at 12.32 seems to sum up the situation pretty well based on what little we know.

              1. Are you having a dig at me?

                If anyone is promoting nonsense on this blog its people suggesting that the UK intelligence services would try to run a highly complex op to ‘disappear’ one of their former double agents via a fake drug overdose death (which I don’t consider unbelievable BTW) by incorporating two local drug addicts as the most important people, the ones doing the impersonating bit. Its just ludicrous to suggest it. Intelligence services may get up to all manner of jiggery pokery, but suggesting this is madness. If they were going to do a ‘disappearance’ op they’d do it professionally. Not include flaky MoPs who have a high risk of screwing the whole thing up.

                For the record, I don’t believe the official story line one bit, I don’t believe it was a nerve agent used, I don’t believe the doorknob story, I don’t think the Russian did it either. The authorities are covering up some sort of highly embarrassing incident, what I don’t know, my best guess is drugs, because the one thing in all this we can trust will be the initial reaction of the emergency services, and in both cases they said drugs immediately, so Occams Razor says drugs is the best fit. Nerve agents come in later, which IMO is the disinformation operation kicking in. Drugs also would place R&S in the frame, as they are known heroin users.

                1. James, the craziest idea is the narrative that says Putin did it. He had no motive and the suggested means (poison on a door knob) is risible.

                  I get that you don’t like the ‘disappearing’ idea – but it does have the singular merit of fitting with the most solid fact we have. Sergei has disappeared.

                  Now I gladly admit that everything else is ‘theory’ – we take a known event and try to fit it in with the other things we know or presume and then try to explain it. Your citicism of the ‘disappearing’ idea is fine but it is simply an opinion – you don’t offer any alternative idea to explain what we know. You just say: “Nah, I don’t like that.”

                  It is very easy to criticise. Offer us all some other idea that we can discuss. Please start by giving us a motive for what happened. Then give us a story that fits the known facts.

                  1. I reckon my alternative theory posted above provides a better fit than the pre-planned swap and disappearing act

                    1. Ok well can you expand it a bit? The CCTV couple steal the red bag somewhere (must be after Zizzi, because we know the Skripals left there) – then what? Why did somebody end up poisoned on a park bench?

                  2. Hey, Guys! Any contribution is valuable, especially if it holds your own pet theory over the flames. And it’s okay to question without putting an alternative theory forward. An open mind and tolerance of others is important.

                    2. Sorry, John. Responding to Paul to his message above which has no reply button for some reason. To the point – the bag was stolen at Zizzi as the restaurant was the last known Skripals’ location (and where he got agitated). He calls his handler for help. The CCTV couple gets poisened from what was in the bag. The rest is the fallout due to the local police being out of the loop and Sergei’s handlers attempting a ‘remote controlled’ clean up.

              2. Steady the Buffs! Peter, you are doing a brilliant job and have come a long way. Don’t spoil it now by rubbishing the ideas of others. If your theories are correct, nothing will disrupt them.

                1. I didn’t, James trivialised the fact that the only evidence in the public domain pointed to the bench people not being the Skripals he countered by saying one report said the male was older than the female as support that they were the Skripals.

                  I didn’t discount the eyewitness evidence, I didn’t dismiss it as ” few inconsistencies in witness reports.”

                  The only eyewitness reports available say the couple on the bench were not the Skripals not including “well he was older than her so it could have been” (paraphrased)

                  If we are going to reject the evidence then I have a theory but it includes a spaceship.

                  1. Peter, you’re absolutely right. You didn’t do those things. But you did say to James “I think you are deliberately disrupting this blog with nonsense”. Take a break. We need you at your best.

    2. Just trying to nail down the duck feeding routine.

      I hear it was garlic bread they fed to the ducks ( and kids form the sounds of it) so if this was at 1.45 they couldn’t have the garlic bread from Zizzis.

      Did they bring it from home?

      If they did then if Mr Skripal touched it – it would be contaminated.

      Even if it was from Zizzis it would still be a bit contaminated form the Skripal’s hands. A bit but enough to harm a kid.

      Garlic bread – a taste sensation – it’s the future!

      1. Rob has spoken to the parents of one of the boys, Aiden Cooper, they have different recolections of the time, the mother thinks definitely 1:15 and the father thinks 1:45, so before Zizzi’s, possibly before they left home to drive to Salisbury at 1:30.

        The accuracy of the MSM cannot be relied on, one newspaper showed a photograph of Aiden Holding bread feeding ducks next to water in a park and said this was the spot where he met Skripal. It wasn’t the photograph was from Queen Elizabeth Gardens and the duck feeding took place in the Maltings park play area.

        So could be garlic bread, could be Russian black rye or hovis

  42. OK now for a public apology, I had been insinuating that the people of Salisbury don’t care based on the lack of defensive reaction to the absurd and wicked treatment they have been dealt from the government and police

    Sorry. No I am deeply sorry for what I thought, for saying it and most importantly for the situation that the people of Salisbury find themselves in for no fault of their own. You didn’t / don’t deserve any of it.

    I’m now going to think about what I can do about it but with an idea, in the back of my mind, of a targeted attack on the hostile propaganda.

    The people of Salisbury are variously; scared, confused, frustrated, angry and feel helpless.

    Some of them may appreciate our help, how best can we do that?

    ………….

    Start here a link found from comment prompt by Paul

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vufLXmnl2KI

    ………….
    https://www.facebook.com/graciekateslater
    ………….
    Linked In profile

    Grace Slater
    Store Manager at Caffè Nero

    Salisbury, United KingdomHospitality
    Current Store Manager at Caffè Nero
    Past Membership advisor at LA Fitness, Customer assistant at Tesco Stores Ltd, Customer assistant at WHSmith
    Education Home Schooled
    Summary Hi! My name is Gracie, I’m 23 and live in sunny Salisbury (recently more well known for the former Russian spy assassination attempt!). I have been working for Caffè Nero nearly 5 years now and am currently Store manager of the Salisbury store.

    1. I think it is very easy to assume that nobody in the country cares because the MSM is not even trying to describe the true situation. Everyone I ask about it, tells me they don’t believe any of it, the MSM coverage is rubbish and the official narrative is risible: “But what can I do about it?” [shrugs shoulders and gets on with life.]

      The fact that the MSM is so far away from what most people believe is actually a story in itself – but that is not going to change. They know what we think, they know our theories… but they don’t care.

      Dozens of people saw what happened that day and know the truth – we need one of them to speak and then to find a way to get that message circulated, so everyone will know the truth even though the MSM is still silent.

      1. The local police, media and MP have dropped in behind the Met. MSM and goverment / Parliament.

        So at least we know who the enemy is and we know their strategy & tactics that they are using.

        But the people that are steering their unquestioning behaviour are not very bright, in fact they are incredibly thick.

        So we know our enemy, we know their strategy & Tactics and we know their weakness.

        We might be off to a slow start but we have at least one march on them. And we have the benefit of not having to keep our responses secret.

        This battle should not be too difficult to win the only problem is that the casualties on the other side will be devastating so we can expect a violent and disproportionate countermeasure when we are eventually ready to mobilise.

        But remember we didn’t start this war and dying in the process of winning it is far more preferable than losing.

        1. …and I get this following your link to Gracie’s FB page Peter…
          “The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed”
          !?

  43. Rob wrote : „The door handle was not mentioned until 28th March.“

    The DOOR HANDLE (door knob) mentioned in the media :

    DailyMail on March 16 :
    Quote : Hamish de Bretton-Gordon : „I expect it might be a tiny bit of liquid which has been secreted on clothing or a door handle.“
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5508633/Police-fear-131-people-came-contact-Salisbury-nerve-agent.html

    BBC on March 17 :
    Quote : The BBC understands police believe the nerve agent was left on the door handle at the house and that the father and daughter had it on their hands.
    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43586715

    Guardian on March 21 :
    Quote : Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have begun working at the scene of the nerve agent attack on the Skripals.
    A team started work on Wednesday at the Mill pub in Salisbury, which the former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, visited with his daughter, Yulia, before they collapsed on 4 March.
    The inspectors arrived in unmarked vehicles and street clothes before disappearing behind metal police barriers at the back of the pub.
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/21/chemical-weapons-inspectors-begin-work-at-scene-of-salisbury-attack

    I think at the same day the OPCW took swaps from the door handle.

    SCP on March 22 :
    Quote : The inspectors arrived in the UK earlier this week and will now collect fresh blood samples from the Skripals in order to conduct their own analysis about the use of nerve agents and confirm the results of tests already undertaken by UK experts from Porton Down.
    On Thursday, they visited Col Skripal’s home, which has been cordoned off by police since the attack, and took swabs from door handles inside and outside the house, along with swabs from a keyboard and other objects.
    They have also visited the Mill pub, where the Skripals enjoyed a drink shortly before they collapsed, and the Porton Down chemical weapons research centre to take samples of the nerve agent gathered by police from locations in Salisbury in order to carry out their own analysis.
    http://archive.is/SCP58#selection-2543.0-2609.268

    It was never mentioned that the OPCW were at Zizzi ! But supposedly that was the last abode of the Skripals. Remember : The Mill Pub was declared a crime scene and NOT the Zizzi !

    DailyRecord on March 25 :
    Quote : It also emerged that investigators are now focusing on Skripal’s front door knob as the site where the poison may have been smeared.
    It came as it was revealed that no trace of novichok was found in Yulia Skripal’s suitcase, ruling out the theory she unwittingly brought it back from Moscow.
    https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/russian-kids-fall-ill-after-12247329

    MET police on March 28 :
    Quote : Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing said: “At this point in our investigation, we believe the Skripals first came into contact with the nerve agent from their front door. We are therefore focusing much of our efforts in and around their address.“
    http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-salisbury-investigation-300644

    MIRROR on March 31 :
    Quote : Evidence showing Moscow’s spies were trained to put poison on door handles has been uncovered by UK intelligence.
    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/spy-manual-reveals-russian-agents-12284582

    Craig Murray´s article „Knobs and Knockers“ on April 5 :
    Quote : All of the UK media have been briefed by “security sources” that the UK has a copy of a secret Russian assassin training manual detailing how to put nerve agent on door handles, and that given the nerve agent was found on the Skripals door handle, this is the clinching evidence which convinced NATO allies of Russia’s guilt.
    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/04/knobs-and-knockers/

    MIRROR on April 13 :
    Mark Sedwill : „DSTL established that the highest concentrations were found on the handle of Mr Skripal’s front door.“
    Mirror printed the full text of the letter from Mark Sedwill to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
    Try to count all the lies and half-truths.
    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/britains-national-security-chief-sets-12357035

    Russian Embassy on April 16 :
    Quote : If UK had “known” Russia was testing application of nerve agents on door handles, why would police spend weeks studying bench, car, restaurants etc, @marksedwill?
    https://twitter.com/RussianEmbassy/status/985849034404380674

    2. Thanks, Liane, that pushes the start of the door handle story back further than the public announcement on 28 March. I don’t think the first two links you give are relevant, though.

      Hamish de Bretton-Gordon has proposed so many theories that it seems that he says whatever idea comes into his head. He originally said that the poison was not even a nerve agent, then he said it was Sarin, then it was Novichok in powder form, then in liquid form. On the same day as he made those remarks to MailOnline about where the ‘assassins’ applied the Novichok, he also spoke to the Guardian but only mentioned clothing – nothing about door handles. A door handle could be a car door handle anyway, not necessarily on the door of a house.

      The second link (from the BBC) is actually from 29th March, not the 17th.

      The rest of your links show that the ‘evidence’ for the the door handle story was found by Thursday 22 March, at the latest, the day the OPCW took those samples. The theory was leaked to the press a few days later (Daily Record on 25 March), and was officially announced on 28 March.

    3. ‘The Mill’ pub seems like ground zero to me – i.e. in so far as it appears to be the the place where the largest amount of contamination occurred. That you have discovered that the OPCW inspectors visited there, makes me suspect that this is correct.

      We are told there was a trail of contamination between Skripals house, and the bench where they were found. I don’t know if that is true. However, if we assume for arguments sake that it is true, and that the largest amount of contamination occurred at The Mill, some time after the trail begins… it does require a theory that accounts for this… for example, something like a leaking container which held the substance.

  44. Bailey did it!
    It’s the only way the facts fit and the non answers add up.
    Put it to the test.
    Answer Rob’s questions from the perspective that Bailey was given BZ to quieten Col. Skripal.

  45. Why were Sergei´s pets not rescued in time ?
    The police knew perfectly well that they were in the house.
    Even if they thought the pets could have been contaminated, they could have given them food and water inside the house.
    No British animal welfare organization has taken up the issue.
    D-notice on pets ?

    However … if all the drama was just staged to keep Sergei from being summoned to the Mueller investigation … then his animals could be with him now.

  46. It now seems like there was another Fentanyl related death in Salisbury on the 14th March, less than ten days after the Skripal’s poisoning…

    A 23 year old man living in John Baker House died suddenly. This is the same house where Dawn Sturgess was living, and where Charlie Rowley had been living (we don’t know when he left).

    What little information was divulged by the police suggests there are really only two options to explain the death as not being suspicious… either Suicide or Drug Overdose…

    http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/16099466.Man__23__dies_suddenly_in_city_centre_supported_housing/#comments-anchor

    The inquest was opened and adjourned on the 26th March as toxicology tests were ordered by the coroner. This strongly suggests it was a drug related death…

    http://www.yourvalleynews.co.uk/frontpage-news/cause-of-death-not-found/

    Little doubt they will find a powerful Fentanyl Analogue in his blood… the same stuff that killed Dawn Sturgess, and poisoned Rowley, Bailey and the Skripals.

  47. Two questions to the media:

    Did you ask the above mentioned questions to the authorities?

    Why not?

  48. Romanian Mercedes story in the Mail isn’t cutting any ice, looking at the posted comments. We must be winning the argument if Mail readers aren’t rabidly responding !

    1. Jeez… that story came from a very concerned old woman at the Amesbury public meeting (Video on Salisbury Police Facebook Page)…. it’s amazing what crap gets picked up and spun out as significant.

  49. The Mirror story is real conspiriloon rambling.
    An FSB operation would have imported the drug in a diplomatic bag. Not rely on smuggling it through customs.
    And the FSB wouldn’t use a “Russian bottle”. As I said before Chanel 7.5ml purse sprays are refillable and I assume the same everywhere.
    Unless Count Arthur Strong is the Russian Q.

  50. We are close to the end.
    The Mail, that bastion of truth and clarity are reporting a Romanian registered Mercedes with 4 shifty characters including (drum roll) a woman was seen several times cruising around the vicinity.
    This was reported by locals, so it must be genuine.
    ACC Basu hopes to confirm the ANPR camera footage can trace the vehicle movements all the way back to Moscow.
    He declined to comment that the recent Euro tunnel delays were the result of a Met stop and search campaign.
    “This is a live and fast moving investigation…”

  51. Didn’t see this coming

    “We once again urge the British authorities to observe their obligations under international law, as they are keen to require from other states,” he indicated.

    According to the version of events promulgated by the UK authorities, the former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, who had served a term for espionage in favor of the UK in Russia, and his daughter Yulia sustained the impact of a nerve agent from a group notionally codenamed ‘novichok’ [a new arrival].

    The British government came up with the assertions that Russia was ‘highly likely’ involved in the incident. Moscow strongly rejected all the assertions in this regard, saying neither the USSR nor Russia had ever developed substances of this group.”

    http://tass.com/politics/1015166

    Its a very odd statement given what we heard from the “inventors”, about the plant that was dismantled and OPCW overseeing the clean up and certifying a clean bill of health, I thought it was a fact.

    The Russians are not going to pass a mistake of that magnitude to the British for them to beat the Russians around the head with it unless the game has significantly changed.

    I can’t see the answer being yes we did develop a 4th generation of new nerve agents but didn’t call then Novichoks, no this is something very perplexing.

      1. No – not yet.
        But the Russian Embassy press officer’s release was dated Friday 27th and the interesting section was subsequently added before TASS released internationally the following day, perhaps indicating a pre-action firming of position and/or recognition that such should be led by Moscow, not by their London Embassy press office.

    2. Methinks key is the term “of this group” referencing the following stated earlier in the TASS press release (and note the use of “notionally” + “[a new arrival]”):

      “Yulia sustained the impact of a nerve agent from a group notionally codenamed ‘novichok’ [a new arrival]”.

      Russia has been demanding novihoax specimens from UK to compare against their own database and the records of OPCW decommissioning inspectors to disprove they were of a type developed by USSR / Russia. UK is in breach of international law – Russia was/is entitled to such. Perhaps Russia is about to escalate demands for enforcement of their right to such.

      1. I did find some news reports from March where the Russians were denying they ever developed “Novichok” but if that was the nick name given by the design team then that might be explanation.

        But what I was thinking is Russia would hold their hands up to the development of 4th generation binary / unitary nerve agents but I don’t think they would be happy (to introduce a risk of this stuff being used against Russia) to hand the formulas over to the OPCW for fear of it leaking from them and for the same reason not leave a trace that could be put in a mass spec but they would say yep we did, we have some but destroyed it all, its gone and this is where we developed it.

        That would leave the “inventors” (who defected) and had the formulas in their heads. Those guys by virtue that they a re still alive may not have been involved at the advanced, final stages of development for a potential stable weaponised substance.

        The Russians would however know what the defectors knowledge was and by being given a sample of what was foumd in Salisbury could say; no this formula never came anywhere near our labs or; this was one of the early contenders of an early research programme but was rejected as being unsuitable for weaponisation for these reasons x, y & z. But they could also say if this stuff has turned up in Salisbury you would be well advised to go and have a chat with our defectors in the US because that is the only place that a existing sample of this formula could have come from.

        Britain should have involved Russia in the identification of the substance found in Salisbury, it was the logical, correct and legally sound thing to do. Britain refused.

        Britain deliberately stymied the investigation. You have to ask yourself why.

        1. Putin may by now have determined with a high degree of certainty what the novihoax stuff was, from whence it came, who made it, who was responsible for poisonings in Salisbury and Amesbury – Putin wasn’t going to take May & co’s accusations lying down and has the resources up to the task at his disposal. I posted earlier today that I thought Putin probably has the answers by now. And Q has just issued a few (a lot for him) bullets mentioning / inferring Steele, Skripal, dossier, MI5/6 – see Paul’s post below at http://www.theblogmire.com/the-salisbury-poisonings-10-questions-for-the-authorities-to-answer-about-their-handling-of-this-case/#comment-6879

      2. Notionally = hypothetical or imaginary notions or ideas not evident in reality, especially speculative or imaginary, abstract.

        Novichock [новичок in Russian] is a widely used word for a new arrival / newcomer of just about any type of anything.

    3. One way of reading the Tass article is:
      1) the Brits said there was a poisoning
      2) the Brits said the poison was of a type that the Brits notionally codenamed ‘novichok’
      3) Russia has actually tested the poison and knows what it is
      4) Russia now knows what it is the Brits are calling ‘novichok’
      4) neither the USSR nor Russia ever developed substances of the type that the Brits are calling ‘novichok’

      1. Yes Paul, and as the UK powers-that-lie digest this they will surely react with another series of spurious psyops, in so doing digging themselves even deeper into their grave. I regard the latest nonsensical Mirror article as probably a rapid-reaction-installment.

        1. But the Russians will wait to use whatever they have got. They have known all about MH17 since day one and have still not disclosed it 4 years later.

          1. I wouldn’t disagree Paul, however the prospect of the Kremlin having gained hard evidence to expose the truth would likely panic our powers-that-lie into adding / changing / rearranging the pieces of the jigsaw to create a different picture, causing the picture to become ever more Heath Robinson.

  52. Rob, I miss three questions :

    1) Why was the police at Skripal´s house already at 5:00pm on March 4 ?
    At the time the Skripals were still receiving medical treatment at the bench.
    Who ordered the police to enter Skripals house and why ?

    2) At what time DS Bailey delivered himself to SDH ? Is it true that he was discarged first and than returned to the hospital ?

    3) How is it possible that in this quite cul de sac nobody saw the perpetrators approching the house ?
    They must have smeared/sprayed the door handle in bright daylight, because there was no poison on it when the Skripals left the house in the morning to visit the cementary.
    Proof : No poison found at the cementary.

    1. 1) The only excuse that is lawful for an officer to enter the home (in this case) is if there is a reason to think doing so will save live or limb.
      So the excuse that will be given is that Bailey feared for the lives of the bench people and thought by using his initiative to visit the home in a hurry and find a possible candidate for the poisoning and that information would be able to assist the medics in a more rapid and targeted life saving treatment.
      But there are a lot of hole in that excuse
      2) Yes a police statement (quite recently) said Bailey went to hospital was discharged and later returned, in the same statement it was said Bailey was wearing a body cam.
      3) It’s Salisbury, no one apart from Rob gives a F*** about anything.

  53. You’re right the narrative from the beginning seems to be the Skripals were assumed poisoned at their home which seems like unreasonably closing down other points where the assassination attempt may have occurred. But there again immediately blaming Putin rather that suspecting others including his former colleagues that he betrayed was a bit limiting.

    It needs someone to go through the early reports and discover when and where the original traces of Novichok were detected (I know this sound like I am giving credence to the official narrative, I don’t but we need to assume they are telling us what they actually believed in order to interrogate that narrative.)

    So very early on Yulai and Sergei then Bailey are diagnosed with nerve agent poisoning, (not necessarily Novichok), the flowers were a guess, no contamination there. But from memory and this I think it important to tie down at least the dates of where the first traces were found; first on the door handle of the car and then the ventilation system but not the steering wheel or gear knob or demister or heater so the initial assumption must have been based on the stuff being applied externally to a locked car. Which is strange because as soon as you open the door to get in you are contaminating everything in the car that you touch.

    But nevertheless the car is contaminated and unless they went back to it whilst in Salisbury to get something out of it which is entirely possible then the poisoning took place whilst it was parked at the Skripal home, cemetery or wherever they went after 9:15. We don’t know when the substance was applied or where but the contamination in the home will give a clue to if they took the contamination back with them after wherever they visited in the morning or did it occur when they left the home for the last time c 1:30 or the previous night (no contamination found at the grave / on the flowers)

    Because if the hit was made at the cemetery(big dollops on the parked car ‘s door handles) whilst the Skripals were paying their respects and they went straight home afterwards it would explain the heavy contamination of the house door handle. Both car door handles smeared would explain both getting a similar dose.

    Of course the long time delay from being poisoned and the rapid onset on the symptoms remains a problem in any of these scenarios.

    And St Pauls Roundabout has cctv camera coverage so the to and fro journeys to the cemetery should be known to the police. Unless they returned to their homes from the Wilton or Devizes directions. (There is also a cut through back to their home from the Stratford area but that route and the Devizes direction takes you along India Avenue where we know a cctv was operating that day).

    We can dismiss the Novichok being dispensed from a perfume atomiser that is just too dangerous for an assassin.

    And you’re right the knowledge of the Russian Door Handle Poisoning Techniques must have been known prior to the discovery that nerve agent was involved but does anyone know when that story first appeared? So if the Russian were suspected and nerve agent implicated the bells should have been ringing (or the door knocker knocking), anybody know the first appearance of the house door handle contamination discovery? And yes how many entries and exits were made through that door even wearing gloves before that discovery was made?

    What we had at the beginning was a fairly large pothole of confusion, unknowns and nonsense but at every opportunity they had to fill that pothole they took a spade and started digging, now they can’t see the bottom of it because its so deep.

    There must be a few involved in the cover up who really, really don’t want to turn up to work on Monday to hear what next week’s addition to the Noviboloks is going to be.

    1. “There must be a few involved in the cover up who really, really don’t want to turn up to work on Monday to hear what next week’s addition to the Noviboloks is going to be.”

      Well here it is…

      EXCLUSIVE: Counter terror police are working on a theory that more than one team of hitmen were responsible. [They] are working on the theory one group arrived on British soil to plant the poison weeks before Sergei Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were poisoned. A second team then arrived to ­administer the nerve agent. A Whitehall source said: “The net keeps widening – they almost can’t predict what’s going to turn up [be made up] next. The bottle they put it in could only have been bought in Russia. [Yes this is really quoted!]
      https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-novichok-two-bottles-salisbury-12996699

      1. Kevan,

        I think there was a misprint in the Mirror article you linked to. It said:

        “A Whitehall source said: ‘The net keeps widening – they almost can’t predict what’s going to turn up next. The bottle they put it in could only have been bought in Russia. The suggestion this didn’t come from Russia is almost laughable.’”

        But it meant to say:

        “A Whitehall source said: ‘The net keeps widening – we almost can’t predict what they’re going to make up next. The bottle they put it in could only have been bought in Russia, cos professional Russian assassins are too stupid to get an ‘international’ bottle off the internet. The suggestion that we are going to come up with anything sensible any time soon is almost laughable. Oh, and by the way, when Charlie Rowley said the bottle was labeled “perfume”, he really meant it had the label “духи”, and he can read Russian. Oh and by the way, no we’re not going to show a photograph of said Ruskie container.’”

      2. That’s hilarious ! So Charlie must be a frequent traveller to Russia since the brand was well known to him and I wasn’t aware that well known brands bottled their perfume in different bottles according to market … Maybe it’s special glass of a kind only produced by Russia . I would laugh if this wasn’t so alarming .

        1. Exactly Isa,

          “According to Charlie, because the bottle appeared unused and packaged in a well-known brand, it ‘made me think it was quite safe.’”

          http://uk.businessinsider.com/novichok-oily-substance-disguised-as-perfume-charlie-rowley-2018-7

          So now all we have to do is think of a well known Russian brand of perfume and we’re half way there to cracking this case. Unfortunately, I’m not very au fait with perfumes generally, and my knowledge of well known Russian brands is very poor indeed. Perhaps someone could help me out.

          As an aside, just when you thought they couldn’t possibly come up with anything more potty than what has gone before this is it. I’m becoming convinced it’s all just an absurd dream I’m having and in a moment I’m going to wake up on 4th March and nothing much will happen.

          1. Thanks Rob but when you wake up you will find an english translation of the book “How to paint a doorknob and send annoying callers to oblivion”. This book is a must read as it will be very rare indeed and comprehensive too I guess. Maybe it is like that book ‘How to train your dragon’ (the original) which consisted of one page containing the advice “YELL AT IT”. Professor Yodish ?. Apologies to Ms Cowell of course.
            The UK government case is absurd for sure. But could we get an opportunity to read this erudite work. Perhaps John Cleese could volunteer to review it for the London Review of Books.

    2. I have to say it is entirely possible that the car was not contaminated at all, nor the Mill nor Zissis we only think they were because the government tell us and they have been lying. The advice of very low risk to the public and total indifference of the risk to the duck children supports this conclusion.

      I don’t think the house door handle was treated until many days after the bench incident only when it was known the OPCW were coming.

      The known evidence available suggests the people on the bench were not the Skripals but they were poisoned with something other that Novichok at or near the bench.

      1. Further I think the original plot was the source was the car door handles, it was only after Bailey’s unlikely appearance at the bench had the be rewritten out of history that the house door handle became the source.

        No one else other than Bailey was effected at the bench or the house.

        The bench and Bailey are an awkward couple because if the first responders who had heavy contacts with the bench people had no ill effects that puts Bailey present when the poisoning took place or in contact with what ever poisoned the bench people which is ……… well as I say awkward.

        Not at all awkward but sub-humanly wicked is the killing of Dawn Sturgess for the purpose of plot embellishment.

        1. Peter,

          The door handle was not mentioned until 28th March. I googled “door handle” (I’m that sad) when I was writing this piece, and the only door handle references I saw were relating to the car door handles, until 28th, when the door story becomes a thing.

          This was more than 3 weeks after the initial incident, and just under 3 weeks after Lord Blair stated that Bailey had gone to the house.

          So the door handle thing wasn’t written in immediately after Lord Blair’s D.S. Bailey revelation, but several weeks later.

          Rob

          1. I remember a story (and I am afraid that’s what all of them seem to be) that Yulia’s luggage was checked and cleared of traces of Novi. Well they wouldn’t just have checked the luggage, all high traffic areas must have been checked, no report of Novi in the house.

            So Bailey, it has been decided must have been poisoned at the house, he has been in the house and presumably had a root through Yukia’s luggage (underwear?) but his contamination was not detected.

            That was the problem, Bailey had to separated from the bench, he was not poisoned by Novi later found on the door handle but he was poisoned by whatever poisoned the bench people.

            So what to do? He hasn’t had contact with the car.

            Inside the house is clean, even after Bailey enters. The new history says he wasn’t at the bench.

            He must have been poisoned by a major source at the home.

            And it continued downhill (or deeper down the hole) and continues to do so.

        2. Thank you Peter: the bench and DS Bailey are items of extraordinary interest in my view. The bench being inanimate is fairly easy to rationalise but I would suggest DS Bailey is a very large accident in the chain of events. There is much invention going on to erase his very presence.

          That’s the problem with CCTV DS Bailey’s maneuvers are transparent.

    3. Peter,
      In the early days when the door knob was identified as the “dosing point” I wondered if the reports were backwards.
      In that, what if Sgt Bailey was the rogue operative and he poisoned the Skrypals at the park bench.
      Leaving them there, he then smeared the door knob inadvertently poisong himself.
      Many of the facts and timings fit this.
      Including the decon of the pub and Zizzi’s as cover.
      This is also how the police knew the boys were not ill.
      The CCTV that we don’t see might incriminate him too.
      You may remember the ACC went out of his way to tell us the body camera footage, Bailey and his colleagues at the Skripal home for the search etc.
      Plus we have Bailey and family disappeared and we are buying his house.

  54. This was what the Saker said:

    “Here is an experiment.

    Go get the syrup of your choice and apply it to your doorknob. Note what happens. It will run off. It may take an hour or so but it will eventually form a noticeable pool beneath the area of application.

    Now grasp the handle to which you applied the agent and open the door. Notice anything strange? You now have some gunk on your hand. The Skripal investigation asks you to believe that Skripal and his daughter left the house, closed the door, got something very strange on their hands, and did nothing about it. They went to lunch.”
    https://thesaker.is/a-curious-incident-part-vi/

    But here is an even more serious problem. Contrary to what we have been told about Novichok being odourless, it actually has a strong smell. Who says so? Igor Nikulin, a former chemical-weapons adviser to the UN secretary-general says so!

    “I think its improbable because this substance, unlike sarin gas, is difficult to use without detection. It has a strong and unpleasant odor. Sarin is colorless, odorless. It can be applied without detection. But this substance (Novichok) cannot be used without detection.”
    https://www.rferl.org/a/timeline-deny-distort-novichok-russia-changing-stories-poisoning/29113561.html

    Oh dear! Now that is a problem, not only did the Skripals not notice thay had an oily substance on their hands (I still don’t understand why they would both have touched the front door but this story is so ridiculous, who cares at this point?) we are also being asked to believe they didn’t notice the smell either.

    Conversation in the car, heading towards Salisbury at approximately 1:20pm:
    Yulia – Dad, did you just do something?
    Sergei – No Yulia! I thought it was you!
    (Sergei sniffs hand)
    Sergei – Ah, don’t worry Yulia. It’s just this Novohoax I have on my hand. Have you got it too?
    (Yulia sniffs hand)
    Yulia – Wow that’s really bad!
    Sergei – Forget it. Let’s go feed some ducks.

    1. And as for Dawn Sturgess spraying herself with it and not noticing how bad the smell was – but Rowley still thought it was ‘perfume’… drugs can do very funny things to your head.

        1. “American filmmaker and radio host Lee Stranahan, who works out of Washington DC… took his camera to Salisbury … of the dozens of people he spoke to at the heart of the crime scene, not a single one of them believed the state version of events.”

          Stranahan used to work for Breitbart and has written for The Huffington Post and Daily Kos. He is working on a documentary about this incident.

          The problem is not just that individual elements of the story are clearly bonkers – the whole story is illogical and the pieces cannot be made to fit together. Let us imagine that there really was a nerve agent on the door handle. What happens next? He gives some bread to a child… but the child survives. How? And then, the military grade poison does its deed, 4 hours after you encounter in. Not only is that not military grade, I can’t imagine any use for such a product. Why would anyone develop a nerve agent that does nothing for 4 hours? How would you ever use it against an enemy?

          TPTB don’t seem to care that we think they are clueless clowns. There has been no change whatsoever in their approach. No attempt to improve PR. They have not released any CCTV and there is no logical reason for that at all. They have stood by and watched their standing and trust evaporate and that cannot be accidental. Exactly the same thing is happening in the US with the Mueller investigation. I smell a rat.

          1. I will say more and make the totally evidence free assumption that you know about Qanon.

            Q has previously referred to the ‘fake dossier’ and to ‘STEELE’.

            Yesterday Q said: “Creation of fake dossier using ex spy”
            Today Q has said: “FISA = IMPLICATES SENIOR MEMBERS OF UK MI5/6”
            And also today: “THE ‘DIRTY’ ‘FAKE’ DOSSIER WAS USED AS PRIMARY SOURCE TO SECURE HIGHEST LEVEL OF INTEL SPYING”

            Now if you have been following Qanon since last October, you know he never wastes a word – keeps saying ‘everything has meaning’. So why would he say “Creation of fake dossier using ex spy” when he could have just said ‘STEELE dossier’ or (as he did today) ‘fake dirty dossier’? I think he was drawing attention to the ‘creation’ of the dossier – Steele did not create it. Steele organised it and he sold it to Fusion but he did not create it. So who was the ‘ex spy’ that created it? Qanon has never used the term ‘ex spy’ before.

            Yesterday, Q was telling us that the dossier was created by an ex spy (who was not Steele) and today he is telling us that the dossier was the primary source for the spying operation on Trump. He goes on to say it implicates senior members of UK, MI5 and MI6. Frankly we already knew that: May and Johnson approved the FISA applications and the spying operation of MI6 on Trump. A wild guess says the ‘ex spy’ was Sergei Skripal.

            I still believe this was a plan to make Sergei disappear because what he knew about the dossier could never be told. When that plan went pear-shaped, the same clowns at MI5/6 were there to pick up the ball and they effortlessly turned it into a baseless attack on Russia. That is exactly what Mueller’s investigation is. 2 weeks ago Mueller/Rosenstein approved 12 indictments against (what they said were) Russian operatives, based entirely on the Guccifer2 dossier – which has also been shown to be 100% fake and made in the USofA. Who says that dossier is fake – Bill Binney, the former technical director of the NSA.

            We know who is behind the baseless attacks on Russia and to them facts simply do not matter. Being able to say something is good enough, because it keeps the narrative rolling. Those are bad people and this is a conserted attack on Russia from both sides of the ‘pond’.

            Finally Q also said today:
            “NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS THE MEDIA WILL NOT PUSH THE TRUTH.
            MSM IMPLICATED IN HIGHEST LEVEL TREASON EVENT IN US MODERN DAY HISTORY.”

            Sound familiar?

          2. You’re right Paul – they don’t seem to care.
            Could it be megalomania, ie delusional about one’s own power or importance, typically as a symptom of paranoid disorder – a type of insanity?
            Makes me think of Mussolini and his clique.

            Stranahan’s documentary could be helpful to the cause – Galloway will have surely been priming him well as to what to focus on. It didn’t surprise me that he found not one novihoax believer in Salisbury among the dozens of locals he spoke with – when I read Goebellian Glen MP’s PR attempt in the Guardian yesterday I was left in no doubt it was a panic reaction to similar experience on his part.

            1. Thanks for the video-link – phone-in local’s experience / opinions illuminating – glad he’s ‘on the scent’!

    2. And how many times was that door handle used to open and close the door before the stuff was discovered on it? They are lucky there was any left to test let alone loads and of high purity.

    1. Hi Ian,

      I’m really sorry but I got it completely wrong. I couldn’t get sound on the video and so I assumed it was Skripal’s front door. But a couple of people who could get sound on it wrote to tell me it was actually a neighbour’s house.

      Please accept my apologies. I really thought I had got something there, but unfortunately I messed up.

      Rob

      1. Thanks Rob, we trust you. And your messing up is nowhere as serious as DS Bailey’s. More strength to your spirit.

Comments are closed.