THE SKRIPAL incident could be more sinister than previously thought. What we know for certain is that Sergei Skripal and his daughter were allegedly poisoned by a nerve agent called Novichok. However, the claims of it’s existence are sketchy and the claim that only Russia can produce it are almost certainly false. The UK responded by kicking out Russian diplomats and NATO allies followed suit, but Russia have rejected claims that they were involved.
The biggest problem is the silence over Skripal, when Litvinenko was poisoned, there were regular updates by the government that didn’t compromise security and kept the public informed.
It is almost certain Putin did order the assassination but there was no tangible evidence.
The Sergei Skripal conundrum
This time however, the government have been silent about almost all the details of the alleged poisoning and the timing itself makes no sense. Firstly, Novichok is something of a myth and it is debated whether it was actually developed as a viable nerve agent. Nonetheless, Russia completed the destruction of a stockpile of chemical weapons declared to the OPCW last year. But the United States is in the final stages of destroying its own stockpile.
Interestingly, over the last decade or so, there have been a number of military projects performed at UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), or Porton Down that were funded by the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) for around $70 million.
These include, experimental respiratory infection of non-human primates (marmosets) with Anthrax, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, Western equine encephalitis virus, and Eastern equine encephalitis virus. The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has also funded experiments on animals which were exposed to chemical agents such as Sulfur Mustard and Phosgene gas.
Plus, it was reported on the 8th March that Skripal still had close connections with former MI6 official, Christopher Steele, apparently becoming a close consultant of Orbis Business Intelligence, a company which Steele heads. Furthermore, Steel has also become a focus of the US election meddling investigation after producing a dossier which alleged that Trump was compromised by Russia.
Cambridge Analytica
This is where the plot thickens, Cambridge Analytica has been linked with Leave.EU but the official Vote Leave campaign had connections with Aggregate IQ, a Canadian data firm owned by CA’s parent company SCL. Whistle-blower Shahmir Sanni has also revealed that 40% of Vote Leave’s budget of around £6.8 million was paid to AQI, along with how money was moved between several entities and organisations which allowed them to exceed the spending limits during the campaign. Both Sanni and Wylie have also confirmed that the harvested information has been shared with Kremlin linked entities. This would include the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm in St Petersburg. This is accused by Robert Mercer of interfering with the US election.
But the London Economic has reported that “A source close to Skripal has said he was investigating the collusion between the Internet Research Agency, AIQ, Cambridge Analytica and its parent company, SCL.” If this is viable and does turn out to be true, this asks a lot of awkward questions over the competence of the government. Because, they either knew and didn’t want to do any about it or that they didn’t realise, highlighting their incompetence in protecting the peoples. This is merely conjecture at this point but this would be an eye-opening moment for many people if it is in fact true.
