The Silence of the Skripals - Government Blocks Press Reports - Media Change The Record
by Moon of Alabama
April 28, 2018
There even seem to be attempts to change the public record of the case.
The British government alleged that the Skripals were poisoned by Novichok, a deadly nerve agent, and blamed Russia for it.
There are still many open questions to ask but the British media, otherwise not afraid of 'door stepping', are curiously uninterested.
We already noted in early April that the British press was throwing Novi-Fog™ onto the public. It was repeating outrageous and illogical claims from "security services" but did no genuine reporting on the Skripal case.
Some photo editor made sense of what the "security services" said and introduced an April 5 London Times piece with a picture of a likely source of the alleged Novichok poison:
Now the former British ambassador Craig Murray quotes Clive Ponting, another former senior civil servant, who suspects that the British government issued a D-Notice. Such a notice forbids British media to report on an issue. Murray also points to a tweet by Channel 4 correspondent Alex Thomson from March 12 in which Thomsen mentions a D-Notice specifically related to Mr. Skripal's MI6 handler:
The D-Notice attempt Thomsen mentioned was too late as some media had already reported the name of the Skripal's MI6 handler. We spelled it out on March 8.
One Pablo Miller, a British MI6 agent, had recruited Sergej Skripal. The former MI6 agent in Moscow, Christopher Steele, was also involved in the case. Skripal was caught by the Russian security services and went to jail. Pablo Miller, the MI6 recruiter, was also the handler of Sergej Skripal after he was released by Russia in a spy swap. He reportedly also lives in Salisbury. Both Christopher Steele and Pablo Miller work for Orbis Business Intelligence which created the "Dirty Dossier" about Donald Trump.
We early on suspected a relation between the "Dirty Dossier" and the Skripal affair:
Here are some questions:
- Did Skripal help Steele to make up the "dossier" about Trump?
- Were Skripal's old connections used to contact other people in Russia to ask about Trump dirt?
- Did Skripal threaten to talk about this?
If there is a connection between the dossier and Skripal, which seems very likely to me, then there are a number of people and organizations with potential motives to kill him. Lots of shady folks and officials on both sides of the Atlantic were involved in creating and running the anti-Trump/anti-Russia campaign.There are several investigations and some very dirty laundry might one day come to light. Removing Skripal while putting the blame on Russia looks like a convenient way to get rid of a potential witness.
Whistleblower Clive Ponting, quoted by Murray, now also suspects that the Skripal case was an 'inside' job that followed from the 'dirty dossier' fakery:
If [Sergej Skripal] was also involved in the ‘golden showers’ dossier then elements in the US would have a reason to act as well. The whole incident was an inside job not to kill him, hence the use of BZ, but to give him a warning and a punishment. The whole thing is being treated as though the authorities know exactly what went on but have to cover it up.
...
I meant to add that the policeman who ‘just happened’ to be around was almost certainly the special branch ‘minder’ who was keeping Yulia under surveillance. The media are not allowed to mention the existence of a D notice.
There is not only a very curious silence in British media about the Skripal case, but there seem to be active attempts to remove certain material about the case from the public.
In 2017 investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhiev reported about massive air transports of weapons to Syrian 'rebels' under diplomatic cover and got fired over it. On April 26 she made another interesting find:
Dilyana Gaytandzhiev @dgaytandzhieva - 21:24 UTC - 26 Apr 2018
The #Skripals were allegedly exposed to the drug #Fentanyl, not the #Novichok nerve agent, according to information obtained from the UK Clinical Services Journal https://www.clinicalservicesjournal.com/story/25262/...
The Clinical Services Journal piece Gaytandzhiev had found is from March 5 2018, the day after the Skripal incident in Salisbury. In its original version it read:
Salisbury District Hospital declared a “major incident” on Monday 5 March, after two patients were exposed to an opioid.
...
It followed an incident hours earlier in which a man and a woman were exposed to the drug Fentanyl in the city centre. The opioid is 10,000 times stronger than heroin.
On April 27, a day after the above tweet:
Dilyana Gaytandzhiev @dgaytandzhieva - 12:12 UTC - 27 Apr 2018
The #Skripals were exposed to #Fentanyl, not #Novichok. After I published this information yesterday (26.04.) the Clinical Services Journal redacted it today https://www.clinicalservicesjournal.com/story/25262/...
I personally read the CSJ story after Gaytandzhiev's first tweeted it on the 26th. I can confirm that it was changed.
The top line in the CSJ quote above now reads:
Salisbury District Hospital declared a “major incident” on Monday 5 March, after two patients were exposed to what is believed to be an opioid.
The second line has been changed to:
It followed an incident hours earlier in which a man and a woman were exposed to a substance in the city centre.
All reference to Fentanyl as cause of the Skripal illness in a March 5 article has been removed between April 26 and April 27.
Archive.org has the original version as collected on April 26:
The changed version as now available at the Clinical Services Journal site:
One wonders why such a tiny magazine would bother to change an old story after some journalist tweeted about it.
The CSJ was not the only outlet which mentioned Fentanyl. The local Salisbury Journal reported it on March 5 and the piece is still up:
Police declared a major incident after a man in his 60s and a woman in her 30s were found unconscious on a bench in the shopping centre on Sunday.
Emergency services at the scene suspected the substance may have been a powerful drug called fentanyl, but nothing has yet been confirmed.
They were taken to Salisbury District Hospital where they are in a critical condition in intensive care.
In November 2017 the Salisbury Journal had reported about an unrelated fenatanyl overdose case. In 2016 Salisbury had a spike in Fentanyl OD cases. The local emergency services were surely aware of the symptoms and effects of such a substance.
Another local news site, Devon Live, headlined on March 5: Major chemical incident declared after 10 people vomited fentanyl and two are critically ill
It is understood that police suspect fentanyl, a synthetic opiate many times stronger than heroin, may have been involved. A man and a woman are in a critical condition and up to 10 other people are involved.
Officers and paramedics were called to The Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury after the man and a woman fell ill. The woman, who was unconscious, was airlifted to Salisbury district hospital at about 4.15pm, while the man was taken by ambulance.
...
It was recently reported that fentanyl has claimed the lives of at least 60 people in the UK over the last eight months.
The Devon Live report is still in its original form. It links to the first Wiltshire Police statement on the case and quotes from it. Curiously the link is dead. The first official police statement on the Skripal case is "currently unavailable".
The British press is now totally silent on the Skripal case. Craig Murray and another former senior civil servant suspect that the government gave order to not report on the issue. They also suspect, as we did early on, that the case is related to the fake "Dirty Dossier" which the Clinton campaign ordered up to use it against Donald Trump.
It is not understandable why the British government would give a silencing order if, as the government alleges, Russia caused the incident.
Why is no public investigation by the media allowed? Where is Yulia Skripal and what is the health status of Sergej Skripal? Why have they been silenced?
Previous Moon of Alabama posts on the Skripal case:
March 8 - Poisioned British-Russian Double-Agent Has Links To Clinton Campaign
March 12 - Theresa May's "45 Minutes" Moment
March 14 - Are 'Novichok' Poisons Real? - May's Claims Fall Apart
March 16 - The British Government's 'Novichok' Drama Was Written By Whom?
March 18 - NHS Doctor: "No Patients Have Experienced Symptoms Of Nerve Agent Poisoning In Salisbury"
March 21 - Russian Scientists Explain 'Novichok' - High Time For Britain To Come Clean (Updated)
March 29 - Last Act Of 'Novichok' Drama Revealed - "The Skripals' Resurrection"
March 31 - Hillary Clinton Ordered Diplomats To Suppress 'Novichok' Discussions
April 3 - Operation Hades Blamed Russia - A Model For The 'Novichok' Claims?
April 4 - It's The Cover-Up" - UK Foreign Office Deletes Tweet, Posts False Transcript, Issues New Lies
April 5 - Novi-Fog™ In Fleet Street - Truth Cut Off
April 6 - The Best Explanation For The Skripal Drama Is Still ... Food Poisoning
April 7 - A Very British Farce
April 12 - New Developments In The Skripal Drama - Police Statement, OPCW Report Release
April 15 - Were the Skripals 'Buzzed', 'Novi-shocked' Or Neither? - May Has Some 'Splaining' To Do
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