So sayeth the Times UK:
“The world’s chemical weapons watchdog was empowered to name and shame those responsible for chemical attacks in Syria after Britain won a victory over Russia yesterday.”
“Russian efforts to protect the Syrian regime from censure for using chemical weapons collapsed after a western alliance led by Britain voted overwhelmingly to give the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) enhanced powers to identify those behind the attacks in Syria.
The vote, which passed by 82 to 24, came at the end of two days of wrangling at a special session of the OPCW in the Hague yesterday, the culmination of an intense diplomatic offensive by Britain to bolster the global ban on use of chemical weapons.
Pop the corks, break out the flutes: Russia loses!
‘Empowering the OPCW to ‘assign blame’ in Syria only serves western regime-change agenda’, Robert Bridge, RT July 3
“Up until now, it has been the primary task of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to determine if chemical weapons, and of what type, have been used during such suspected outrages. Its mandate did not include working as Sherlock Holmes, pointing the finger of blame at some state player or agency.
Now that is about to change.” [snip]
“Much of Russia’s concern over the newly empowered OPCW is based on the past behavior of the UN chemical watchdog. In fact, last year Russia denounced a report by the OPCW on the April 4 chemical incident in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun because its reasonable proposal that OPCW investigators visit the sites of the suspected chemical attack “was blocked by Western delegations without any explanations.”
“London, Paris, and the OPCW have given no answers to our questions as to where they took these samples, who took them, or when they were delivered,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated.
“I think we are very close to this organization [OPCW] being discredited,” he added.
Russia’s concern over the decision to award the OPCW with what essentially amounts to police powers is not limited to Syria. Consider the recent circus of the Skripal affair, for example, which involved the poisoning of Sergey Skripal, a former double agent who Russia handed over to Britain as part of a spy swap in 2010, and his daughter Yulia.”
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, citing the results of the examination conducted by state-owned Spiez Laboratory (the facility is controlled by the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection and by extension the country’s defense minister) that carried out an analysis of samples that London handed over to the OPCW, said that the substance used on the Skripals was an agent called BZ. This toxin was never produced in Russia, but was in service in the US, UK, and other NATO states.
Moscow has never been provided with a satisfactory explanation as to why the full details of the state laboratory were not included in the OPCW final report.”
As I remember it, the OPCW said that it doesn’t release the names of the labs that are in its transparent organization.
Now the OPCW press release doesn’t say that their new point-the-finger mandate includes any venues past Syria, say Novichok in the UK, but stay tuned.
‘Wiltshire novichok poisoning investigated by UK counter-terror police; Nerve agent used on critically ill UK couple same as that used on former Russian spy’, July 5, the Guardian
“Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer, Neil Basu, announced that expert scientists in chemical warfare at the world famous Porton Down laboratory had established that novichok had caused the collapse in Wiltshire of British nationals Dawn Sturgess, 44, from Salisbury, and Charlie Rowley, 45, of Amesbury.
They were taken ill at their home on Saturday, 8 miles (12km) from the Salisbury home of Sergei Skripal, who sold Russian secrets to Britain, and his daughter Yulia. They were attacked with novichok smeared on to their front door in March.
Britain holds Russia responsible for the attack on the Skripals in an incident that led to widespread criticism of the Kremlin and soured relations with the west.
Initially police thought that drugs had caused Sturgess and Rowley’s severe illness. But British security officials said the Porton Down test results on Wednesday showed novichok, developed by the Russian military, was to blame for the poisoning. They believed the danger to the public posed by the highly toxic materials used in March had been cleaned up and had thus passed.”
The pair was discovered unconscious in a property in Muggleton Road on Saturday, but Wiltshire Police did not report the incident until Wednesday. The UK’s chief medical officer said during the press conference on Wednesday that the risk to the general public from the Wiltshire case was low. Under a D-notice, we presume?
You’ll no doubt have read that the Brits had purchased the Skripal’s house and that of the cop who’d also been poisoned for over a million pounds, but not the seafood restaurant they’d left just before their ‘collapses’. George Galloway calls it: ‘‘Curiouser and Curiouser’: Salisbury, the Skripals & the epic failure of the British Fairy Tale’, via RT July 3
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast” – Alice in Wonderland. The problem for the British narrative in the Skripal case is that one would have to believe way more than six things.”
After citing ‘no evidence’ and ‘May’s rush to judgment against Putin himself, they didn’t die, seem to be in deep dark badger holes still, and more, then this once again:
“Even if it had been [novichock], it is untrue that the family of nerve agents called Novichok was “developed by Russia.” It was developed by the USSR, and not in Russia but in other republics, including the now-Western ally Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Its stockpiles were certified, destroyed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray attended a reception for the UN chemical weapons watchdog in Uzbekistan as they celebrated the successful conclusion of this work.”
Novichock! It’s everywhere! Even in baby wipes!
The OPCW just issued its preliminary report on the alleged gas attack in Douma on April 7, 2018. On April 14, the UK, US, and France had launched ‘precision strikes’ in Syria just ahead of the planned site visits by the OPCW.
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
It’s like saying based on Britain’s quarterfinal victory in the Word Cup today that they beat Russia in the semifinal next Wednesday — when you keep in mind that Russia has yet to play Croatia in the quarterfinal today.
lol; another rush to judgment?
sorry I haven’t read thru yet but I keep wondering why the hell any of us should care if Russia poisoned, stabbed, shot, hung, etc., the Skripals? I know using chemical weapons to do so is one thing, but that Russia would be doing something particularly heinous in knocking off these a-holes is a bit of a stretch.
hard to know how to answer you, j, esp. if you haven’t read thru. but the short answer is that ‘russia murders opponents/enemies’ (unlike ‘democracies’), and fights for syria…and assad who’s gassed his people numerous times’. proxy wars since the west is terrified of putin and a multipolar world. papa skripal was convicted of espionage in russia, and iirc, swapped after he’d served most of his sentence. natch, putin hadda kill him…oh, wait: they never died!
so in all cases, the u.s, Eu, Uk, and nato partners…accept is on faith that russia and assad did all of that. and syria is the quintessential nation in the pipelineistan saga.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/08/syria-ultimate-pipelineistan-war/
all i can manage; if you have more questions later, i’ll give ’em a go. but the fun part is that even sturgess and rowley determined to have not been killed by ba junk, no, but Novichok, now have the same playbook: a cop with similar symptoms, fer cryin’ in a barrel. ;-)
https://www.rt.com/uk/432248-policeman-exposure-salisbury-nerve-agent/
“the cop who’d also been poisoned for over a million pounds”?
but yes, a nice parallel, Russia in Syria & Russia in Britain. non-action over a non-event proves collusion between, e.g., Trump & Putin, right? indeed, a non-event is even a war crime.
well, the gummit also bought the skripal’s house with that lucre, but it’s not so hard to believe that they never want the actual (lack of) evidence to come out. but the other reason we might care is that the constantly used phrase “was likely committed by…” is reason enough to bomb the shit outta, sanction, putsch, anyone, anywhere the F.UK.US wants. so that the the new mandate for the OPCW is sincerely dark and ugly.
as to the upcoming putin-trump summit in helsinki, you might imagine how many ‘journalists’ and organizations are gamin’ it, but mainly all contain elements of ‘putin agrees to federalizing, spheres of influence, israeli demands, etc. and some note that even if trump (sometimes) wants out, the military, etc. ‘deep state says Nyet.
Thanks for this concise report, wendye, and it takes in additional scumduggery (I think that’s my own compilation, but let it stand) on the part of an organization that should be above pressure, but gone are those days.
The tie-in by davidly is apt, but sadly Russia did not overcome Croatia in the quarter final, though it was a rippingly exciting game in Sochi, and that first Russian goal was just beautiful to see – they had never made it to the quarter final in any world cup before, nor I think ever beaten Croatia, so the fact that they matched them goal for goal and had to go down in the high pressure penalty kicks at the end of the game – they came within a hair’s breadth of doing the impossible.
But in the end it probably was for the best, since there would have been calls of match fixing for sure from the Important People, and it clearly was a fair match. It might have been ‘fun’ for some to have Russia against England in a semifinal, but they were well served by just playing their hearts out, and they did that. Bravo, Russia!
welcome, juliania, and i had seen that croatia had won on RT. i’d meant to add to my reply to jason that some thought that while putin was busy in sochi…that there’d either be another white helmets gs attack in syria, or that the neo-nazis in ukraine would pounce again.
zo: it was another NovickoK! fable instead.
i’ve kept many links the ukriane stories afoot, but in the end…for now…i’m gonna try to get together a diary based on an essay by a mexican trouble-maker writer/translator that’s given me the absolutely inspirational shivers. and his linked footnotes have art images aplenty, which i love most of all, of course.
greyson smythe had brought a salon piece about what’s next for syria, and i have a number of other links including the david spook ignatius one that b had pushed back against at m. wheeler’s, but my heart just isn’t in writing, comparing, relearning the geography, etc. dunno if we’ll ever know what ‘deals’ really do down, but the ‘trump will give syria to putin’ and ‘putin will federalize syria’ seem to be two key themes. the latter we’ve heard before, haven’t we?
I have an off-topic comment just to point out one of the links at NC yesterday that dealt with a Federal Judge in Tennesee making a landmark decision that it is unconstitutional for that state to continue revoking driver’s licenses from people who can’t pay court costs. [My comment is right at the bottom of the links thread.]
It mightn’t be important to anyone who isn’t struggling to hold down a lowpaying job and trying to make payments on a car, with insurance costs on the rise, car repairs always a necessity, who runs afoul of the ever-vigilant traffic police, has nothing extra with which to pay the ticket and gets slapped with the loss of driver’s license to boot.
That was my son. He lost his job, his car, and now out of self-castigation is homeless. There are thousands like him.
The lawsuit in Tennessee should go viral – the judge made it into a class action status there. But the wheels grind slowly…
i’m sorry to hear that. having been licensed to drive for now 30 years, due to finances, I just let my license expire, probably mistakenly. found I have to retake the driving test to get my license back. licensing, incl certification via schools, is a gigantic rent-extracting fraud, for the most part. it’s a small trial, but if a person is CDL or Uber (shudder) or…and it’s this way about everything.
it’s a very important issue, and thanks for highlighting it. but no time to go there, nor desire to listen to the cross-talk on Dems, but others sure may want to. and good on da judge; there are a few good un’s left around.
scotus choice will be soon if not tweeted sooner. bet it’s a pip. id been sorely tempted to put a ‘trump nominates roy moore for scotus’ w/ a never mind link, but…i refrained. ;-)
day-um for your son’s plight, ww. and here he was ready to move closer to the bosque, no? pish, i had to let my own license expire as i couldn’t renew it online again, a big rule about passing the eye exam or seeing a specs doc. turns out i need one just to prove i’m not actually an un-person (for having documents notarized, mainly), and mr. wd’s gonna have to load me like luggage in my jeep w/ the seat out…haul my ass to zetroc (that’s cortez spelled backward, yanno…).
one kindly notary did stop by and allow me to say as on M*A*S*H*: ‘yep, this is me!’… and she put her stamp of approval on the document. whew! bless her! best to your son, though, ugh.
Nothing is really off-topic in the grand scheme, juliana. Your son has my sympathy, or, be as it might by his penitence opposed, you certainly have it – in the positive sense, if such a thing is possible.
The complex(ity) of control is deep, intentional or not. When we thought we were building a society between the seas, among the many selfish, short-sighted moves (or, as we’re too aware, perspicacious plans) (un)luckily linked big oil with a booming industry of publicly funded motorways and elbow greased wheels to make them worth winding, the result of which is our being beholden to one way of getting to where the getting is done, and if the sheer logistics of that travel were not daunting enough, what with the vastness of distance in the land of the free — and in spite of that century belong to them that are alleged to have lived it, bridled alone by small bumps in the rode that they, again, are alleged to have heroically overcome — there is also the tagging & licensing of the biped buffaloes roaming.
Thanks, davidly, and wendye as well, also j of 9 in oly. I had already written to the State Attorney General about this – got message back on my letter ‘not this department’. It was hard enough getting my ID renewed, so the less I deal with the MVD the better for my blood pressure. Good for the judge, indeed.
Sad about that lady – there’s something up at that British lab for sure. Shades of Masterpiece Mystery.
i’d begun musing about modern-day amerikan debters prisons, baltimore being the prime example. any ticket, any failure to appear bench warrant (even if someone were IN jail at the time). brilliant; ya can’t afford the ticket, the accruing interest, accruing charges, but no recourse to work at macDogfood for money to pay one’s debt.
colorado became the first state to outlaw the practice, but i can’t remember the details, nor do i know if any other states followed suit. a number of state aclu orgs made some mighty noises against it, and there may have been a bit of class action suit in baltimore, but again, i’ve forgotten if it even went to court.
but of course, private prisons loved it.
Well, that’s weird. I refreshed, and there’s my comment.
As you were, folk! Don’t mind me, just a witless woman.
lol. i’d restored the lost one; i’ll delete the other three, okay?
Thanks, wendye – do so!
I just watched latest Crosstalk, would recommend – very interesting especially Don Debar comments, degenerated in final rather stupid comments though, and title is also dumb.
all the world’s a gangster
and we are but the families…
“they’ve got guns, we’ve got guns, all god’s children got guns. gonna march all over the battlefield cuz all god’s children got guns”
we no longer even speak in the duplicity of business jargon. “strategic competitor” sounds better than “mob boss,” don’t it? and the mendacity of this British poisoning thing…
but that this Skripal thing supposedly occurred on British soil is part of the bear’s dastardliness. as far as I am concerned, the bear can devour all of MI6 and MI5 and all their turncoats and the world will sleep better. this Skripal incident proves that b/c of the constant provocations & fake “Gleiwitz” style incidents being manufactured by these villains for the sole purpose of justifying war against Russia. can’t say enough: fuck these people.
people who put children in cages, have their media lackeys cry tears over it w/ endless tears & handwringing & brows harrowed w/concern, while the same people are starting WW3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleiwitz_incident
Eliot in the 4 q’s mentions something about this world made like another world, i.e., hell. did Pompeo suck gangster milk from his mom’s tit? The inner precedes the outer darkness, but both are full of wailing & gnashing of teeth. the outer projection of strength & naked lust for domination masks the inner hungry ghosts, driven by resentment, envy, fear, hatred, ignorance, blindness, self-deception. this is as true of a Pompeo & Trump as it is of the rest of their crowd. want to see some teeth-gnashing? I see lots of hissing & bared fangs directed at Assange, for one. fathomless resentment at a bit of truth-telling. Putin, too. anybody not a developmentally-delayed jellyfish, basically. they are so strong that they *must* crush countries like Cuba. they can’t not defoliate Vietnam. etc., etc.
how big is your seatbelt? looks like we are in for a bumpy ride.
oh, my. tin soldiers played like a xylophone. sad, but so evocative. your ‘the inner precedes the outer’ sentences is brilliant; think how fetid the breath of those of his ilk must be. how often that image ha come to mind over those of similar bullying souls and their body types. and of course now with putrid pompeo: no relief on sanctions until full denuclearization. one wonders if he and bolton are soul brothers-in-arms. what ho trump’s nobel prize, dudes?
but remember: it was the D team who tried to undermine the deal. wonder who would win the ‘most hated by amerikans’ race: putin or kim jong un?
has the MSM decided who it should be already? have the spooks of both the US and UK?
well, here’s a piece of bad news for putin (?), a good one for brazil:
well the UK po-po can’t expressly say that the Novichok© that killed sturgess was the same that hadn’t killed the skripals, but everyone knows *who did it*.
(luke harding, ‘journalist’, author #1 New York Times best-selling book, “Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money and How #Russia Helped Donald #Trump Win”)
holy crow, t. scripps at wsws caught us up, and ooof, is he right, they can’t get their stories straight, but then may’s gummint is self-imploding…. did you know that dawn sturgess had died of a heart attack?
he wonders why the response and denunciations have been relatively muted in comparison to the skripals, while if they think the ‘novichok’ poisonings are related,
“and if they continue to insist that the first was a Russian assassination attempt, then Sturgess’ death would amount to the killing of a UK citizen through the actions of a foreign power. By their own logic, the government and media ought to be screaming from the rooftops.”
scripps parses the illogic of too much of the non-investigations, esp.not testing their friend hobson who’d been w/ them the evening before they went to hospital, and the next morning at rowley’s house where he’d phoned an ambulance. his coverage of the ‘contaminated sources’ being the main offerings from the 100 counter-insurgency po-po are almost hilariously surreal, the 1300 hrs. of cctv footage watched, the public is none the wiser, and gummint may be waiting to see how the nato and T-putin summits play out…before they decide.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/07/10/stur-j10.html