Quote Originally Posted by Drummond View Post
No - judging by what I've seen, it couldn't have solely been a UK-Russian deal. My understanding is that the US certainly played a part in it. At minimum, the FBI cooperated with us, which they could've only done, as a domestic-based organisation, if ordered to by a higher US authority ....

I think this report confirms it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43315636



The UK will certainly take some sort of stance against Russia, once official confirmation of a Russian origin for the nerve agent is released. We're told it was a 'rare' agent ... meaning it may well be possible to track its exact origin, maybe even the very laboratory which produced it. What official response we come up with may not be much, in international terms, but it will be something.

Perhaps we'd do what Trump has attempted regarding N Korea, and call upon other powers to ally with us in a common cause ... maybe yet more sanctions ? Or, maybe we'll order Russian diplomats out of our territory. I don't know.

Anyway, our media tells us that UK-Russian relations are now in 'a deep freeze'. In fact, the BBC aired, just minutes ago, a commentary-programme suggesting that Russia was heading for diplomatic isolation from the West as a whole.

I think that Russia really did mean, primarily, to send an 'oppose Putin, ever, and see what it brings you' message to other Russians. I think it was simply that. However .. Russian arrogance is such that foreign lives mean very little to them. Therefore, they've no human constraints upon the method of execution they use. Besides ... the greater the loss of life, the greater the media coverage will be of it. Russia, in sending its message, may rely upon that extent of coverage, and so will work to maximise it.
Ouch --- I see what you mean about there being some sort of American connection. Murky. Thanks, there's nothing about that here, that I've seen. I hope it wasn't in any way our fault.

I wonder if perhaps you may find the very laboratory --- we did, with that anthrax attack shortly after 9/11. Unluckily it turned out to be Maryland's own Fort Detrick, where we are really NOT supposed to be doing biowarfare [sigh]. Well, that was embarrassing. I worked at another Army base at the time, not much if any cleaner, and have always assumed since, knowing how things really work, that it was a Muslim janitor hired by a maintenance company, who just slipped the vial in his pocket. There was only one vial, a very small amount. Killed a bunch of people, though. For awhile we were all afraid of a five-gallon bucket of the stuff.

I should think the relations between Britain and Russia would be in a "deep freeze"! They are certainly making a habit of this sort of thing. Casus belli is such a problem issue in these days. Hostile powers can sneak in so many subtle attacks it is hard to respond to. The days of "Tora, Tora" when hundreds of Japanese planes flew in bombing, with red suns painted under their wings, are over. Still, it's difficult to imagine who else besides Russia could have spread that nerve agent around, especially after the radiation death. Talk about a pattern!