Russia To Expel UK Diplomats As Crisis Over Nerve Toxin Attack Deepens

[High_Plains_Drifter]

Agreed .. most definitely !

Sorry, though ... Europe as a whole has gone down the 'politically correct' route.

By all means, visit ... just don't say a word ..... !! ....

Yeah us Americans in Europe are probably like a bull in a china shop...

We're so used to being able to say and do pretty much whatever we want... SO FAR. The fascist, PC democraps here are trying to shut down free speech everywhere. I swear these people are retarded fascist trash. I love being able to come here and say pretty much what we want through the graciousness of board owner Jim and his respect for the first amendment, free speech, and the leftist that visit here CAN'T SHUT US UP. They try on twitter and facebook though, they sensor as much as they can get away with, with 'shadow banning' and such. Such nice people, they don't like your opinion so their solution to that is just SHUT YOU UP... it's FASCISM in it's purest form. Freakin' leftist filth. As a conservative if I don't like your opinion, I'll just IGNORE YOU. I don't want to shut you up. You're free to talk like the biggest idiot on the planet and I don't care. People will decide if they want to listen to you or not. But DEMOCRATS... oh no... they want you to SHUT THE FUCK UP... just like a damn NAZI.

[Gunny]

Yeah us Americans in Europe are probably like a bull in a china shop...

We're so used to being able to say and do pretty much whatever we want... SO FAR. The fascist, PC democraps here are trying to shut down free speech everywhere. I swear these people are retarded fascist trash. I love being able to come here and say pretty much what we want through the graciousness of board owner Jim and his respect for the first amendment, free speech, and the leftist that visit here CAN'T SHUT US UP. They try on twitter and facebook though, they sensor as much as they can get away with, with 'shadow banning' and such. Such nice people, they don't like your opinion so their solution to that is just SHUT YOU UP... it's FASCISM in it's purest form. Freakin' leftist filth. As a conservative if I don't like your opinion, I'll just IGNORE YOU. I don't want to shut you up. You're free to talk like the biggest idiot on the planet and I don't care. People will decide if they want to listen to you or not. But DEMOCRATS... oh no... they want you to SHUT THE FUCK UP... just like a damn NAZI.

It's not safe for me to even go to another state . I thought we lived in the US, but a couple of trips to the Northern Midwest and NM cured me of THAT notion. Bunch of unfriendly f*cks for one thing. Everybody says hello around here. Yankees act like you're after something just saying it. Weird-ass people

[Drummond]

Thank you for this.

The BBC itself confirmed today that OPCW people will visit our Porton Down facility soon to collect a sample of the nerve agent, to determine what it is for themselves, and to establish its point of origin. We're told that the thoroughness of their testing will mean we may have to wait around two weeks for results to come through.

The OPCW has its own concern in this. If (as of course we expect) they DO confirm its Russian origin, then Russia will have to explain that against a background of having claimed decades ago to the OPCW that all such stocks had been destroyed. It looks as though Russia lied to the OPCW about that at the time.

However - this is all subject to confirmation.

A small development this morning ... and it's a pity that the BBC's iPlayer system doesn't allow for viewing outside the UK ... anyway, on BBC1's Andrew Marr programme, Russia's ambassador to the EU dropped a hint (introduced the idea) that 'maybe' Porton Down, in Wiltshire, UK, was ITSELF the source of the nerve agent. Marr, in his interview, of course tried to pin him down on this ... but Vladimir Chizhov, the ambassador in question, then said 'I don't know' when pressed for his definitive statement.

Our Foreign Office has wasted no time in dismissing that as, I quote, 'absolute nonsense'.

A great pity that I can't post the Chizhov interview as a video clip (if a chance to post it here, maybe from YouTube, comes along, I'll certainly do so). It comes across as a slimy performance, a mischief-making one, from Chizhov's attitude.

I can now, using YouTube, post the Chizhov interview from this morning (the Andrew Marr show, BBC1, 9am) ...

In it, he suggests Porton Down as a possible origin of the chemical agent used (though backtracks a little ..).

[He also claims that Russia never had produced the Novichok nerve agent in the first place ! See 3 mins 24 seconds into the clip ...]

Judge it for yourself, folks ... by my reckoning, it's a somewhat slimy, possibly perceivable as smug, performance, intended to whitewash Russia entirely ....



Note one other point made during the clip. This ambassador flatly denies there was any possibility of any nerve agents 'escaping' out of the old Soviet Union territory at the time of its collapse. I suggest this be specifically remembered, in case Russia (upon being confirmed as the source of the agent) subsequently claims that this is what must have happened ...

[Gunny]

Sure was a lot of talking in a circle just to say "we didn't do it".

[Drummond]

Sure was a lot of talking in a circle just to say "we didn't do it".

He says more, though. He denies the existence of any chemical stocks in Russia (the OPCW understood this to be true, so the alternative is a mass deception on an international scale .. and, an illegal one !). He says none were stockpiled in any former Soviet territory. He denies that this particular agent ever existed !!!

He also - disgustingly - puts the thought out there that just maybe, the Russian nerve agent 'which never existed as one' came from Porton Down.

I won't give vent to my disgust ... I refuse to ...

[Gunny]

He says more, though. He denies the existence of any chemical stocks in Russia (the OPCW understood this to be true, so the alternative is a mass deception on an international scale .. and, an illegal one !). He says none were stockpiled in any former Soviet territory.

He also - disgustingly - puts the thought out there that just maybe, the nerve agent came from Porton Down.

I won't give vent to my disgust ... I refuse to ...

So now y'all are setting up Russia by killing your own citizens? I sure hope there's more to this "theory"

Tell us, Drummond, what does the UK gain by making look Russia look worse than Russia already looks?