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WATCH: Sky News “technical trouble” or censorship? The TV station experienced an alleged glitch which silenced an expert doubting the Douma narrative

The bizarre UK/US “action on Syria” narrative is falling apart before our eyes. Germany, Italy, Canada and the Netherlands are bailing on any immediate involvement. The impression is strong that the UK’s Theresa May is being pressured into a statement of resolve she is by nature too cowardly to get behind. Even Mad Dog Mattis and Mike Pompeo are sounding notes of caution.

Meanwhile the Russians are going all out on claiming the alleged gas attack was a hoax or a false flag, and a gutsy presser this morning from the Russian ambassador to the UK has been followed by more allegations about the UK’s direct involvement in pushing for a fake or false flag chemical attack in Douma.

The establishment’s collapsing confidence in it’s ability to sell this newest and most insane war is best exemplified by this brief clip in which Sky News experiences sudden technical trouble while interviewing a British military expert on chemical warfare who unexpectedly veers from the approved script.


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vexarb
vexarb
Apr 14, 2018 6:15 PM

A day or two ago, Bundy BTL on SyrPer predicted Russia was about to launch a truth bomb. Launched by Lavrov today: the Skripals ingested a British military poison namely, BZ. Reported on sputnik news.
CasablancaMoon BTL on SyrPer 1hr ago:
“BZ is usually disseminated as an aerosol with the primary route of entry into the body through the respiratory system; the secondary route is through the digestive tract. BZ blocks the action of acetylcholine in both the peripheral and central nervous systems. As such, it lessens the degree and extent of the transmission of impulses from one nerve fiber to another through their connecting synaptic junctions. It stimulates the action of noradrenaline (norepinephrine) in the brain, much as do amphetamines and cocaine. Thus, it may induce vivid hallucinations as it sedates the victim. Toxic delirium is
very common.”
Hoenig’s “Compendium of Chemical Warfare Agents”
It is a nerve agent with a very high lethal to effective dose ratio of about 400:1. This means it is good for incapacitating but is not very likely to kill unless massive doses are given. This is an ideal agent for the Skripal scenario. There is no wonder the UK wanted to keep this quiet.
[BZ (B for British?) is quick acting and lasts about 4hr. Would explain the Skripals miraculous recovery, and some other miracles worked by St.Theresa of Salisbury]

mohandeer
mohandeer
Apr 14, 2018 7:02 PM
Reply to  vexarb

I wonder why the Swiss shared the findings of the OPCW with Russia, not that I’m complaining – methinks the Swiss are going to be kicked out of the club.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 14, 2018 7:20 PM
Reply to  mohandeer

My feeling is that someone at the Swiss Lab probably realised their conclusions were being misrepresented in the OPCW report and felt duty bound to tell the Russians. The Russians may try to protect them by suggesting that THEY contacted the lab to clarify something and the reference to BZ toxin emerged. Who knows? And was the same information identified by the other three labs as well? Either way, as you say, I doubt this lab will be called upon again any time soon.

Roger
Roger
Apr 14, 2018 11:41 PM
Reply to  mohandeer

The swiss lab in question is one of the few accredited to work with them, and received samples as per OPCW protocol. An important point is the it is run by the Swiss federal government, not privately.
Of course not mentioned in the unclassified part of the OPCW report.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 14, 2018 10:54 PM
Reply to  vexarb

I was wondering how the use of BZ toxin might tie in with the ‘clarification’ letter from Dr Stephen Davies at Salisbury Hospital in which he said “No patients have experienced symptoms of nerve agent poisoning”. BZ toxin is described scientifically as a nerve agent so I was initially a little confused as to how we might overcome this apparent inconsistency. But then I thought that he would initially be treating the clinical symptoms and the information suggests that the symptoms start to alleviate after about 4 hours and completely clear up within 48 hours without the need for an antidote. So if the patients were already starting to show signs of improvement when they arrived at the hospital they might have thought it unnecessary to suspect or treat for ‘nerve agent’ poisoning. Also the symptoms are likely to start appearing within 1 hour of breathing it in, which would probably point to administration in the restaurant, although I can’t recall how long they were believed to have sat on the bench for before being overcome. This scenario would point more and more to the probable co-operation of the Skripals and the mysterious ‘DS Bailey’ in a staged event, knowing there would be no long term effects. And it would explain the haste with which the table in the restaurant and the bench had to be destroyed. I have also mentioned on this website before that I recalled a witness account in a newspaper from a day or two after referring to dilated pupils so this was puzzling because nerve agents cause constriction whereas opiates for example cause dilation. Well, guess what? BZ poisoning causes dilation which again might explain why Dr Davies was so confident in his assertion. Bingo. Case solved?

Admin
Admin
Apr 15, 2018 12:57 AM
Reply to  JudyJ

where is BZ described as a nerve agent? It’s an hallucinogen, more like LSD, not a nerve agent.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 15, 2018 9:29 AM
Reply to  Admin

It was in the quotes directly attributed to Sergei Lavrov about the toxin (see the Sputnik International website which I checked again this morning). He may have been using the term slightly loosely or been mistranslated. I think I did see it also in other descriptions, but I agree that on other sites there doesn’t appear to be a mention of it as a ‘nerve agent’. But my conclusions remain unaffected.

Kathy
Kathy
Apr 14, 2018 5:54 PM

Watching Question Time this last week from Liverpool. Johnson the younger and Johnathon Freedland both trying to convince the audience of the need to police Syria and punish it over its alleged chemical weapons attack and how distasteful it is that Putin and the Russians were supporting Assad. Dimbleby asked a random!!!!!! audience member for his opinion and oh what a coincidence he was a Salisbury Man and immediately reminded everyone in no uncertain terms that the Russians had already attacked the UK in his home town with the Skripal poisoning. so as suspected this line is now beginning to be pushed. I have now heard this three times in the last couple of days. For a government who insists that only Russia has the motive to poison the Skripals it sure is convenient for this escalation by the UK France and US.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Apr 14, 2018 6:59 PM
Reply to  Kathy

Thanks Kathy.
How the hell did a man from Salisbury end up on QT in Liverpool edition – screening for a pass is done in advance and is supposed to be representative of the area. Dimbleby reliving his Bullington days and a special invite for a man from Salisbury – whatever next?

Basil P Jones
Basil P Jones
Apr 14, 2018 7:37 PM
Reply to  Kathy

I think the ‘Skripal poisoning’ affair is linked to the Brexit talks. It could have been staged to bargain for more liberal concessions from EU to help May’s government out of the mess. ‘The Russians are coming’, that old trick in new guise. The EU would then not want to antagonize the UK, the military power of Europe, that could confront the Russians.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 14, 2018 9:06 PM
Reply to  Basil P Jones

Indeed. But there is a multitude of reasons why the Skripal affair followed by the Syria False Flag would be of benefit to the UK as well as other Western powers. I don’t think it’s just for one of the many possible reasons …I think it’s for all of them wrapped up in one supposedly tidy package which seemingly – or at least we can hope – is starting to get kicked around in the sorting office and come apart.

vexarb
vexarb
Apr 14, 2018 5:19 PM

ZiadFadel editor of SyrPer commented racily on the game and reported the final score 2hr ago. If you want to know how many $2M cruise missiles were fired, who fired what (F UK US) and what were the agreed rules of the game, then Syrian Perspective seems the goto site.
https://www.syrianperspective.com/2018/04/attack-on-syria-big-flop-air-defenses-robust-massive-failure-for-trump-may-macron-and-the-usual-gang-of-idiots.html

Yonatan
Yonatan
Apr 14, 2018 5:58 PM
Reply to  vexarb

We used to have USUK in Syria, now we have FUKUS. It is amazing what difference a day makes.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Apr 14, 2018 4:21 PM

Reblogged this on Worldtruth.

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Apr 14, 2018 3:56 PM

The relentless smearing of Corbyn makes sense now.
Labour’s leader had to be discredited in the media so as to feel sufficiently insecure about calling out May’s decision to bomb Syria without due process.
Syrians are not allowed into the US and Britain was loath to take more than a handful of Syrian asylum seekers fleeing Jihadi extremists so its impossible to believe Trump and May have evne the faintest concern for the welfare of the already beseiged Syrian population.
The only possible explanation for the indecent haste shown by May is to ensure bombs were dropped before the chemical attack claims could be properly investigated raising the distinct possibility, actually make that near certainty, that this story will prove to be yet another in a very long line of false flag operations such as the baby incubators in Kuwait, WMDs in Iraq, and of course 9/11 in NYC.

BigB
BigB
Apr 14, 2018 3:54 PM

According to Sergei Lavrov, it was BZ toxin, not Novichok: “of a type possessed by the UK and US” and not Russia – that was used to poison the Skripals. If true, BOTH of our bi-partisan parties will be caught with their pants down, lying. Details, denials, recriminations, and faulty JIC intelligence blaming to follow.
https://sputniknews.com/world/201804141063562843-russia-lavrov-bz-uk-us-poison/

mohandeer
mohandeer
Apr 14, 2018 4:37 PM
Reply to  BigB

Unfortunately Sir Mark Sidwell wrote a letter full of lies and misinformation to the NATO Secretary General outining how it was Novichok and could only have come from Russia:
https://gosint.wordpress.com/2018/04/14/sir-mark-sedwills-letter-on-the-skripal-poisoning/
and then this:
“The word ‘Russia’ does not occur in today’s OPCW report. The OPCW Report says nothing whatsoever about the origin of the chemical which poisoned the Skripals and certainly does not link it in any way to Russia. The technical ability of Porton Down to identify a chemical has never been in doubt, and the only ‘finding of the United Kingdom’ the OPCW has confirmed is the identity of the chemical.” Craig Murray — Former UK ambassador.
The UK can never backpedal on this one it’s gone too far. Years from now there will be an investigation, just as there was fro Blair’s lies on Iraq 2003 and he’s still not in prison.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 14, 2018 5:35 PM
Reply to  BigB

Interesting report on RT. Apparently one of the four OPCW labs that did the analysis was in Switzerland and discussed their findings with the Russians, revealing that THEY had identified BZ toxin in the sample they were given. This didn’t appear in the final OPCW report. The Russians have asked the OPCW to explain the omission. A US expert on RT explained that BZ toxin is not meant to kill, it simply incapacitates causing hallucinations and other cognitive dysfunction for a matter of hours. Makes you wonder if BZ was used and then the samples tampered with by adding ‘Novichok’. That would make sense in the circumstances.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 14, 2018 2:02 PM

Another advantage of this attack on Syria for May is that it has conveniently moved on the media and public’s attention from the ever increasing inconsistencies and holes in the Skripal narrative. All the public will choose to remember is that Russia attempted to kill a couple of Russians in Salisbury and we’ve now moved on to the next “Aren’t Russia evil” story for their insatiable and unquestioning consumption….the same tactic with Litvinenko, MH17, Ukraine etc etc – all stories which never did have definitive, conclusive endings but ‘the average man on the street’ will tell you that “the Russians did it”.

Harry Law
Harry Law
Apr 14, 2018 2:01 PM

Charles Bausman on ‘Russia Insider’ high lights 23 lies in Trumps statement last night…
https://russia-insider.com/en/trump-lied-american-people-last-night-23-times-7-minutes-destroying-his-presidency/ri23133

Dave Massingham
Dave Massingham
Apr 14, 2018 1:04 PM

Re the SKY NEWS cut-off-
I see this joke TV output in Thailand – I remember some weeks back when they were reporting on either the Skripals or Syria, that it suddenly went off-air completely. Another ‘technical hitch’?!
The report seemed to be edging towards doubts about government info I think. So someone pulled the plug!
As it is said, ‘You are not paranoid if they are out to get you’…
I hope the Russians / Syrians can hit back, best shot would be the runway at RAF Akritiri.
Come on Russia, 25million of you didn’t die in WW11, to leave the world in this position…

mog
mog
Apr 14, 2018 12:46 PM

What troubles me most at the moment is not the threat of actual war (although this looks like it will soon become central to my mind), rather it is the blithe indifference and denial shown by people around me. It’s just not the done thing to talk about the initiation of World War III.
The American attitude of ‘whatever’ has its British brand equivalent of ‘Keep calm and carry on….’, which leaves me imagining a scene where Mr. and Mrs. Normal BBC-Couple stand at the end of their garden and stare as the mushroom clouds billow skywards on the horizon, then one says to the other, “well, standing here won’t get the lawn mowed will it?”.
It makes me think that the powers have, in a sense, already won (at least for now). We’ve created a screen based society that mixes entertainment with ‘reality TV’, with news, history, celebrity garbage, computer games, social media and so on. Politicians – i.e. the people supposedly in control of the guns and ten megaton thermonuclear devices, are ballroom dancing with soap opera actors and athletes. It’s all a cosy mush of village gossip and tittle tattle.
But follow the wires and it’s Armageddon.
Few people seem to express the gravity of this situation that we are in.
“I think Theresa May must be right about those poor people in Douma, I mean, look her sharp dress sense. And that Bashar Assad has got a funny shaped head…I don’t trust anyone with a funny shaped head”.
This is the kind of conversation I imagine in ‘the offices’ of Slough.
Such destruction of morality and reason took many decades and careful long range planning.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2658998
(h/t Colin McKay.)
I keep returning to that question, ‘Did Orwell see ‘the plan’ and fictionalise it, or did he write a fiction that became ‘the plan’ ?’. Whichever way, I see the sky darkening with that eternal boot raised over our heads.
I went to a Stop The War protest yesterday evening. About twenty people there, Everyone left after half an hour.
I spoke to a ‘socialist’ who was keen to emphasise that he was opposed to ‘Russian imperialism’ – which is how he saw as Russia’s involvement in Syria, as well as Western aggression. Blah blah Crimea, Georgia….etc.
Strange to find myself watching Tucker on Fox news or Paul Joseph Watson and thinking, “these guys are running rings around the so called Left”.
Everything upside down.
Reading about Cuba 1962. The Kennedys managed to “stop the generals” then….

Mikalina
Mikalina
Apr 14, 2018 4:06 PM
Reply to  mog

Interesting that the paper you link to brings together different fields of research – when education policy is to refine and separate them…… Thanks for ssrn link – FREE reading!

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 15, 2018 12:22 AM
Reply to  mog

The central problem is that the fakestream media, the sole source of (dis)information for 90% of the drones, is nowadays a propaganda system of such vicious virulence, with TOTAL Groupthink, complete service to power, and with a uniform policy of denying publicity to any dissenting voices. I’ve not seen a ‘debate’ with opposing opinions anywhere in the Austfailian brainwashing system for years. All guests and panels of guests are Rightwing, either the hard Right of the neo-liberal capitalist and Imperialist consensus, or the soft Right, pretend Left, Identity Politics liberals of the Fraudian type, who accept Imperial diktat over lies like Douma, but wax wrathful over gendered toilets in Damascus and Moscow. Very occasionally you see a not properly vetted guest go native, and start spewing Badthink, and the host generally, after a period of terrified petrification as they fear that they will be considered ‘unreliable’ by association, cuts them off peremptorily, and the guest is never seen again.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Apr 21, 2018 3:41 PM
Reply to  mog

The Kennedy’s may have stopped the Generals but the Generals then stopped the Kennedy’s.

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Apr 14, 2018 12:16 PM

The problem with lying of course, is that the lies have to get bigger and bigger.
Until the liar’s head EXPLODES.

mog
mog
Apr 14, 2018 12:35 PM
Reply to  Fair dinkum

Better that than the world explodes.

Garfy
Garfy
Apr 14, 2018 12:09 PM

I had my first community standards Facebook breach today for sharing a VT post of German made chlorine gas.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Apr 14, 2018 4:43 PM
Reply to  Garfy

Probably because VT is becoming more and more rabidly anti Zionist and with a tendancy to conflate Zionism with Jews. Duff has already admitted that some of the content is made up – a rather stupid thing to do. Ian Greenlagh is well into holocaust denial, which is why I left them.

Big B
Big B
Apr 14, 2018 11:38 AM

Well, I’ve just solved the MH17 shoot down: it was Syria! And they developed, manufactured and supplied the Novichok to the Russian assassins. And it must be obvious by now, because they have repeated it enough times – “Animal Assad” gasses his own. Probably using Sarin developed in the same facilities where he developed the Novichok? Ergo, it must be “right and legal” to attack an apartment block in Homs – “to protect civilian lives” – by designating it a sarin factory? But don’t worry, it was a “one shot” provocation retaliation: because we do not have the mandate, money, or political resolve to sustain our cowardly amoral breach of international law.
This is my paraphrase of what Treason May really meant in her spineless, supine and Washington-vassal justification speech. “Sentence first – evidence of no evidence later”? With the OPCW yet to investigate: and on the singular source of USAID Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS); plus some online videos posted by (our) terrorists: it must be true? Well, I’m with the Russians: there was no chemical attack in Douma: only another British instigated false flag. The Russians are rightly going on the offensive in the information war. It looks like there were people killed in a conventional strike that were manipulated for the camera. And it seems possible that some freshly gassed “victims”, children of course, were added to the pile.
https://www.rt.com/news/423968-douma-gas-attack-aftermath-footage/
So this was the proof that justified a “right and legal” act of aggression? A White Helmets and SAMS co-produced massacre marketing production; pressured and instigated by London; featuring recently gassed (possibly elsewhere and on demand) children’s corpses; their precious lives extinguished in order to justify an illegal, post-sovereignty, and unjustifiable escalation of British Foreign Policy? Not only #NotInMyName; but no one in the country, no matter how partisan, would stand for this …if there was anything like a functioning media to join the dots and expose the litany of lies. But everything I have just written can be easily dismissed by the anti-critical, anti-dialogue, and post-logic tropes of “Russian propaganda” and “conspiracy theory”. Well, this ‘propaganda and conspiracy’ – that style-leader and alternative history buff, Karen Pierce, described as “grotesque,” “a blatant lie” and “the worst piece of fake news we’ve yet seen from the Russian propaganda machine” – has far more grounding in reality than the May Queen’s ‘sentence first – evidence of no evidence later’ post-truth verdict. What really bothers the authoritarians, who would rather operate behind a painted veil of secrecy, is that their lies are becoming more and more transparent. They do not, thank God, even have the conviction of them themselves: because at heart, they are amoral cowards. Lying is not the least of their character flaws?
https://www.rt.com/news/424047-russian-mod-syria-statement/

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 14, 2018 1:46 PM
Reply to  Big B

You could drive a tank through the holes in the ‘ coalitions’ ‘ lies. Theresa May’s ‘open source reports’ is presumably a ‘cover- all’ description for social media and White Helmets/SAMS testimonies. Why don’t they tell us precisely how they obtained blood and urine samples? And they seem incapable of acknowledging that the evidence is coming from terrorists (yes, May, the ones who kill people) or terrorist sympathisers and just because they send you video of dead bodies it doesn’t necessarily mean that it must have been the Syrian or Russian forces who killed them. Surely everyone, whichever side they support on this, must be inclined to question the timing of this onslaught with the OPCW literally on the point of carrying out their inspection in Douma. But who will call out the US, UK and France for their aggressive abuse of power, illegalities and downright lying?
With regard to some of the video ‘evidence’, there is no doubt that these are genuine bodies but it’s obvious they are being used for propaganda. And, as has been observed previously on this website, isn’t it strange that the victims are never wearing shoes? As you say the bodies are moved around and added to for the purposes of producing the emotive still pictures and I have my doubts as to whether the amount of ‘froth’ coming out of the mouths is what you would expect to see after a chemical attack. Presumably the people taking the video would have had to wait some while after such an attack to access the bodies because of residual chemicals in the area. The froth produced in reality is, as I would understand it, air filled bubbles of fluid expelled by the lungs as part of the breathing process whilst the chemical agent takes effect; you would expect it to dissipate relatively soon after death occurs or at least not be as prominent as these images show. I am not saying these victims were not killed with chemical weapons but my suspicion is that foam was squirted into the mouths/noses of the bodies by the terrorists for the benefit of the pictures (we saw aerosol foam being used in the video recently released of children going through a chemical attack ‘drill’). There is also the issue of when and indeed where these pictures might have been taken. As the Russians reported after they inspected in Douma, there was no evidence of dead bodies (‘they would say that, wouldn’t they?’). It’s more than likely that these poor people were killed and the video shot days, weeks, even months ago, and who knows where? But why should the US, the UK and France worry about minor details like this? It is just a shame that relatives of these dead people cannot be found who might be able to explain the circumstances of their deaths.

Big B
Big B
Apr 14, 2018 2:58 PM
Reply to  JudyJ

They (UK, US, France) make policy and propaganda for sound-bite social media types, and attention-deficited glib consumers of the information spectacle. The information is meant to be hypnotic in its simplicity and speed of generation. The news cycle literally spins a web of an alternate reality.
*”“We’re a[n] Media empire now and when we act we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality judiciously, as you will, we’ll act again, creating other new realities which you can study too. And that’s how things will sort out.” My interjection into Karl Rove’s prophetic statement.
This is what Jean Baudrillard meant when he said “the [First] Iraq war did not take place”. It was plenty real enough for those killed; but for the insularised electronic spectator it was like watching a ‘simulacra’; a realistic but removed and diffused motion picture; directed by the Pentagon …not Hollywood. There was spectacle and atrocity masquerading as war: but the reality and the representation were not identical and ‘simulated’.
We are not meant to analyse the evidence or determine the false and delayed distance between the fact and its fictionalised representation. We are only meant to uncritically consume the intended implication heirarchically handed down. You must not think for yourself! War will come when we can be convinced that war is coming. You will need to be re-educated if you stop to think; or question the authority of our three national leaders! Critical assessment of the unreality based community implies dissent. The fact that the evidence produced is either non-extant or worse; logically incoherent is to be ignored!!!
Which is my way of saying the evidence was never meant to be scrutinised, as we might do. The ‘sentence’ has already been passed last night. For as many as they need to convince: that will be proof enough for the surface veneer of consensus building. For those who stop to think; we are outside the Looking Glass looking in …wondering what the fuck is going on?

cicatriz
cicatriz
Apr 15, 2018 4:00 PM
Reply to  Big B

Long time reader etc.
Your final comment resonates strongly. This is a far more dangerous time than the previous Iraq war, yet there seems to be barely any voice speaking out against this. Was a lesson learned then? The manufacturing of consent, the speed of the reprisals.
I’m remain uncertain of our motives, yet many spring to mind. I wonder if this is also part of the game. The assymetric warfare that ensures we can never be certain of anything.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Apr 14, 2018 4:51 PM
Reply to  Big B

@BigB. Heard from Ziad Fadel of Syrian Perspective:
“…..The attack involved two U.S. cruise missile carrying destroyers in the Red Sea; tactical aircraft flying from one aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean; and a several B-1 bombers traced to new runways in American-occupied Al-Tanf near the Jordanian-Iraqi borders. The British fllew a wing of Tornado bombers carrying cruise missiles out of Akritiri Airbase in Cyprus while the French used their Mirages and Rafal bombers based in Jordan.
The combined forces used 110 cruise missiles 71 of which were either intercepted and destroyed by Syria’s Pantsir air defense systems or were electronically toppled by a force which will remain unmentioned. Only 39 cruise missiles reached any target, many of them falling harmlessly in the Syrian Desert.
The only targets hit were a scientific research facility in Barza which contained classrooms and laboratories. All material had been removed so that the Americans could claim falsely that they had destroyed a CW-related institution. Another building which the Americans were allowed to destroy was a military warehouse in Homs, at Misyaaf, which the Americans could not hit because all the missiles aimed at that target were electronically toppled. As the cruise missiles were being deflected, they exploded on the ground injuring 3 civilians.
Of the 110 cruise missiles fired, 14 of them were American Tomahawks. Most of the others were British and Fench. None of the British or French missiles hit any target. Complete failure and a lesson to the allies of the U.S. An helicopter airbase near the Lebanese border was also struck. However, because the attack took place in the early hours, nobody was at the base and, conveniently, no aircraft were to be found…..”
An expensive exercise in futility considering there is no money in the Exchequer for care facilities, children’s facilities and welfare.

BigB
BigB
Apr 14, 2018 9:19 PM
Reply to  mohandeer

Susan: my first thoughts when I read about al-Tanf were …the B1 is not a small bomber: my the Yanks have been busy. I think we know where the capital of the imperial occupation is going to be; with the Turkish threat to Manbij? I think it was Konashenko (Russ MOD spox) who said that the Yanks are hosting their CW training for terrorists summer school there; so I doubt this will be the last CW attack. Freedland gave the game away on BBC QT. He said that their should be a targeted attack to deprive Assad of an element of his brutal oppression (I’m paraphrasing) each time he uses CW. Well that is more or less a greenlight and carte blanche for the terrorists to murder (those dead bodies did not appear out of thin air; and not one had a scratch on them). For what? A very expensive firework night? That is some pretence for a very expensive somniferous cover story to sedate the kids back home?
As I have said before, we are at least £2.5bn in for this shitshow [according to Alistair Burt]. But the decisions as to where to spend money are ideological, not constrained by the amount of tax we can collect. The “Deficit” is an ideo-economic smoke screen. UKGov is backed by the “full grace and favour” of government. It can create or borrow as much money as they choose and spend it where they will. Like the DUP moneytree! We can have new roads, a welfare state, whatever we want …particularly if we work within, or even choose to enhance, environmental considerations (with a sustainable circular economy for instance). They could have bought out Carillion and rescued hundreds of SME subcontractors from the risk of bankruptcy. They could not magic up or shake the magic moneytree for that: but they could conjure up a couple of mill to light up the Syrian skies. ‘Almost free money for nothing’ as Mark Knopfler might say! To keep the kids asleep: they must be really desperate for them not to wake up!

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 15, 2018 12:37 AM
Reply to  Big B

The loathsome Hamish de-Bretton Gordon, in my opinion one of the vilest jihadist propagandists of all, was on our Murdoch-controlled ‘Government’ ABC radio this morning. His interlocutor egged him on while kissing his posterior in the usual fashion, and Gordon went full ‘postal’ in the lies. there have been ‘one thousand VERIFIED’ gas attacks’ by Animal Assad. The Russians have vast stocks of chemical weapons including ‘novichoks’ etc, etc.
The ABC hack kept up the required breathy, agitated, tone of barely suppressed moral outrage at the sheer brutality of Putin and ‘animal Assad’. There is more and more a palpable atmosphere of barely suppressed hysteria, and agitated histrionics about the media vermin’s performances, as if they feel as if they are under constant surveillance, and insufficient venom and outrage will be judged harshly.

Francis Lee
Francis Lee
Apr 14, 2018 10:54 AM

Now that the Jihadis have acquired an airforce there will be every incentive to stage further fake chemical attacks on Syrian children. After all it worked against Gaddafi and Saddam, what is stopping them now? But Syria is not the real enemy – Russia is next in line. I have raised the issue of Putin’s policy in Syria before embarrassing as it may be to some. But I wonder if this ‘masterly inaction’ is going to prove effective in the rampaging beast of the Anglo-Zionist empire. Appeals to reason, international-law, and common-decency, doesn’t work, and it will continue not to work as long as there is no blow-back. Sooner or later Putin must make a stand or the provocations will become more dangerous and blatant to the point where Russia is backed into a corner; we can then expect a full-scale attack from the A-Z empire. The lesson of history: Appeasement does not work. As Churchill once remarked of Chamberlain’s peace-treaty with Hitler. ”You had a choice between honour and war, you chose dishonour and you will get war.”

Harry Law
Harry Law
Apr 14, 2018 1:27 PM
Reply to  Francis Lee

Francis Lee Agree with your last two sentences, Putin does not act impulsively and will use this attack to consolidate and expand his influence in the middle east, these attacks prove the impotence of the ‘West’ in deciding the future not only of Syria, but the region.
Interesting take by the young Putin…..
In recent documentaries, Putin has shared candid memories of his youth in a working-class neighborhood of St. Petersburg — then known as Leningrad. He said he learned lessons there that have lasted a lifetime.
“The streets of Leningrad taught me 50 years ago that when a fight is inevitable, you must strike first,” was one of the recollections.
Another telling episode was an encounter with a rat in a seedy entrance of his crumbling apartment building. After he cornered the rodent, it turned back on him and attacked.
“She ran forward and chased me, jumping from one flight of stairs to another and even tried to leap on my head,” he recalled in an interview for a recent documentary. “You shouldn’t try to corner anyone.”
Interestingly enough George Galloway was asked on his talk show, If you were Putin what would you do if the US,UK and France attacked Syria? He said I would come out with all guns blazing. I agree with that, the West will never stop trying to destroy Syria, the ‘West’ needs to be given a bloody nose. Putin’s more restrained response will be to bolster the defences of his allies, and watch Israeli and Saudi aggression slowly rolled back and finally confronted by the ‘arc of resistance’.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Apr 14, 2018 4:59 PM
Reply to  Harry Law

@Francis Lee and Harry Law.
I keep hoping that Putin is getting all his ducks in a row and making sure with Turkey, Iran and China, that Russia will be able to retaliate, by whatever means at his disposal, including economic, with allies, possibly even Qatar now that SA is shovelling it’s only land border with their nucleaar waste. I do wonder what Putin is thinking, he is a far superior intellect than any on the opposing team, so I wish him luck and a fair wind behind him.

vexarb
vexarb
Apr 14, 2018 10:51 AM

The A and the Z in the A-Z-C connection:
Bundy☭
Syrian Arab News Agency SANA claim all British missiles that targeted an ammo depot east of Homs were “jammed” and shot down , leaving three civilians injured … big news if confirmed
150 missiles were fired and a lot of decoys in them. Israel also fired some.
confirmation of Israeli UAV downed by an SA-6 missile.
Here’s how the U.S led strikes on Syria developed in the Capital Damascus in the early hours of this morning
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/985006337091305474.html

vexarb
vexarb
Apr 14, 2018 11:02 AM
Reply to  vexarb

Bundy adds BTL SyrPer 4hr ago:
‘This was purely a Syrian defense, Russians played no active part in it. Since no Russian targets were hit or targeted. US was very careful to stay far away from any Russians. Although Russian planes were in the air provided only blocking of US planes from firing.
Russian air defense in Syria S300 and S400’s were not engaged.
About 100 missiles — at $2M each? — billed to the taxpayer for saving St.Theresa’s pretty face. Someone should ask her if she thought it was worth the price.

Harry Law
Harry Law
Apr 14, 2018 10:33 AM

This illegal attack will have severe blow back for the US, UK and France, for from deterring the ‘Arc of resistance’ Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah backed by Russia, now they all have a steely determination to finish off the Western backed head choppers, worse for the War criminals Trump, May and Macron is the knowledge that as a top Russian General said this morning the sales of S300 and S400 air defence systems will proliferate in the region. Iran, already producing highly accurate missiles will supply Hezbollah with them. Hezbollah already in possession of over 130,000 missiles, enough to obliterate Metropolitan Tel Aviv [where most of the industrial infrastructure and population are] and the ability to take out both Ben Gurion airport and the Dimona nuclear plant. The West in their arrogance think only they have the technological means to produce these highly accurate missiles, they are wrong, Iran is producing them at this moment, that is why the US want to scrap the nuclear deal, the US want to include Iranian missiles in the new deal, they have no chance of success. The US/UK have declared that International Law does not apply to them, others will have taken note, and will be determined to prove that if the West applies the doctrine that might is right, then others indigenous to the region will take up the challenge. The postage sized state of Israel will be the loser.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 15, 2018 12:41 AM
Reply to  Harry Law

Hezbollah will never target Dimona because the nuclear fallout would pollute the region, including southern Lebanon, for millennia, and because it would be immoral to do so.

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Apr 14, 2018 8:36 AM

The media are right up to their neck in this shit.
As Jimmy Dore says as soon as the MSM start pushing stories about chemical attacks it virtually guarantees harrowing images of children looking like seal-pups who are just about to be culled – but where are the pictures of the Syrian children killed by western air strikes, or children damaged or dying in the Yemen?
The deeply cynical nature of the media is revealed by which seal-pup children are deemed worthy of our attention and which children aren’t – suggest this at the Guardian and you will memory holed quicker than you can say ‘community standards’.

Francis Lee
Francis Lee
Apr 14, 2018 8:01 AM

Yipee! The British and French haven’t had so much fun since they bombarded Alexandria in 1882. The British lost 5 men, but the Egyptian dead amounted to approx. 2000. Still their deaths don’t really count since arabs (or WOGs westernised oriental gentlemen – a term of abuse used the British soldiers) are essentially sub-human. The Alexandria episode was followed by the one-sided massacre at the battle of Tel-El-Kebir. Gladstone the putative ‘pacifist’ wanted guns fired in Hyde Park and Church Bells ringing throughout the land. Times haven’t changed much and the Israelis carry on in the same mode, as did the French in Algeria and Indo-China.
The deeply sick pathology of western imperialism is apparently alive and kicking with the overwhelming endorsement of the of the racist quartet of the US/UK/France/israel by the west’s liberal class.

vexarb
vexarb
Apr 14, 2018 7:40 AM

The A-Z-C reincarnation of Hitler’s New World Order is doing a Goebbels. Murdoch’s Sky News “technical” silencing above, last night Facebook erased Syrian news carrier South Front, this morning AZC hack Syrian Perspective:
“SYRPER UNDER ATTACK AGAIN; APOLOGIES TO READERS Ziad Fadel / 11 hours ago
I was informed that readers’ comments were being deleted. You must know that I would never delete comments, even from trolls who used to harass us regularly a few years ago. Please accept my apologies and we will get to work on this new problem immediately. Thank you for your patience. I will be posting tomorrow about the bombshell declaration from Russia that Britain was behind the CW attack in Douma.

vexarb
vexarb
Apr 14, 2018 7:20 AM

LPetros BTL Indie 3 hours ago:
Don’t panic !!! don’t panic !!! Everything has been worked out !! The Syrians have allowed US/UK/France to bomb the heck out of an old factory and an abandoned air base to save face and in return the US supported jihadists are getting out of Syria. It has all been worked out .. down to how much this attack will cost the taxpayers to replace the spent missiles.
-2
[Vexarb’s view as well. Doesn’t seem to be popular, -2]

Roger
Roger
Apr 14, 2018 11:56 PM
Reply to  vexarb

That is essentially what it boils down to.

vexarb
vexarb
Apr 14, 2018 5:29 AM

From today’s Saker Vineyard:
Facebook is censoring SouthFront’s website and videos.

All posts with links to southfront.org have been removed;
All SouthFront videos released in 2018 have been removed;
No more links to southfront.org can be posted on Facebook;

The formal reason is that southfront.org doesn’t meet Facebook’s Community Standards.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 14, 2018 6:44 AM
Reply to  vexarb

Has there EVER been a more bizarre lie from these pathological liars than that the Russians have been ‘spying on’ Yulia Skripal for five years? What, like the NSA spies on every American, or the way Facebook spies on billions, including non-Facebook users? Or the manner in which Cambridge Analytica (and numerous others like it) spied on millions for electoral advantage? Or like the way in which ‘the authorities’ spy on the English through the tens (or it hundreds by now)of thousands of CCTV monitors?
And why would they spy on Yulia Skripal? To what end? And how intrusively, actually? On and on the questions arise, yet you can bet your life that not one fakestream media presstitute would dare ask any of them, and put their current and future employment prospects in the mortuary. What really impresses about the May, Micron, Trump and the other Western liberal regimes is how well they adhere to Arendt’s observation concerning the ‘banality of Evil’. And its imbecility.

vexarb
vexarb
Apr 14, 2018 7:15 AM

@Mulga. The Russians have indeed been “spying on” Skripal; keeping him under observation because of his ongoing activities as middleman in the Porton Down area for chemical weapons transfer between UK and the NATZO controlled Ukrainian regime. I posted a clip on this in OffG somewhere.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Apr 14, 2018 6:38 PM
Reply to  vexarb

F/B have sent a message out that unless you perform a certain instruction one will have to pay for using F/B. I guess I’ll have to learn how to live without it.

Admin
Admin
Apr 14, 2018 6:44 PM
Reply to  mohandeer

Think that’s probably fake

alaffcreator
alaffcreator
Apr 14, 2018 2:43 AM

Haha, what a clownery. “Eh-eh.. eh.. ugh.. Sorry, we have some technical difficulites, we have to turn you off, sorry..”.
Reminds me a famous episode on some US channel (Fox News?..) back in 2008, when a girl and her mother – both from South Ossetia – were interviewed, and they started to say what was really going on there, who saved them and who was the aggressor.
TV presenter tried to shut up them.

intergenerationaltrauma
intergenerationaltrauma
Apr 14, 2018 2:26 AM

With MSM reporting on Russia and Syria we are have now quite clearly moved beyond satire, farce, theatre of the absurd, slapstick and burlesque – and have now entered a world of mass delusions, hallucinations and sheer unadulterated idiocy all posing as journalism. Western leaders have clearly lost their collective minds over their increasing inability to control and plunder the planet at will as we in the West have for the last 500 years. Perhaps its time we learned to share and get along with the rest of humanity. Just a thought. Of course the alternative is to simply incinerate the entire planet through nuclear war, which seems to be the current game plan of our “leadership” class.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 14, 2018 7:05 AM

Faced with economic implosion under debt and inequality, an ecological collapse caused by the inevitable working of neoplastic Free Market capitalism, and the geo-political rise of states not total stooges to the USA, and who refuse to become so, the psychopathic ‘elites’ of the West, always Evil, but once rational and coolly calculating, have gone stark, raving, mad. They have taken their propaganda scum along with them, but only a dwindling proportion of the home audience, and generally the duller, more ignorant and more viciously xenophobic. So, they are going for broke, out of the simple but incontestably vicious impulse to destroy everything that they do not control. It worked a treat in Korea, Indochina, Central America, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Libya, Panama City, Somalia, Syria etc, but up against Russia and China it is a mad gamble.

Mikalina
Mikalina
Apr 14, 2018 3:16 PM

And meanwhile, on the back of this theatrical farce, they have ‘captured’ and eviscerated the US.
https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/04/the-slippery-slope-to-a-constitution-free-america/
We now have in place many similar ‘laws’ in the UK. I can’t remember who said that you only notice the chain around your ankle when you try to move away from the desk but it is now true. Try some ‘action’ and see what happens.
The ‘enemy’ is, was and always will be us.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 15, 2018 12:46 AM
Reply to  Mikalina

The fanatic drive of the Zionazis to ban and criminalise ALL criticism of Israel or support for BDS, under the filthy lie that they represent the new Supreme Crime, ‘antisemitism’, will utterly destroy Freedom of Opinion and Freedom of Speech in all the countries where their money power buys success in this vile endeavour.

rtj1211
rtj1211
Apr 13, 2018 10:57 PM

Check RT for 34 page Russian State Statement.
A very professional document and an insightful read.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 13, 2018 11:52 PM
Reply to  rtj1211

I have only read through the first 10 or so pages so far but, as you say, an impressively compiled record. I note that it would appear that the Russian Embassy informed the FCO of Viktoria Skripal’s existence and interest on 6 March (two days after the incident), contradicting the impression we were given that the UK weren’t aware of any close relatives. (And Viktoria lives with Sergei’s mother so it was only appropriate to keep her informed.) Also worth looking at is a chronological listing of other key information on the Russian Embassy’s website. It includes efforts by the Embassy to get clarification on Dr Davies’ letter to the Times about what the ‘victims’ were receiving treatment for at Salisbury Hospital. In short, information has been provided but nothing to suggest his letter was inaccurate.

archie1954
archie1954
Apr 13, 2018 10:47 PM

Sky News are a bunch of phony journalists and this particular talking head is a complete bozo! I will never trust anything that perverse corporate and government propaganda outfit has to say from now on!

Ffidel Bennett
Ffidel Bennett
Apr 13, 2018 10:08 PM

This is how you deal with interviewers who only want to reinforce government policy
See edwige’s comment/video (6 min)
https://off-guardian.org/2018/04/12/international-lawyers-strike-against-syria-would-be-illegal/

RJ Vela
RJ Vela
Apr 13, 2018 10:07 PM

Dark times in the UK. Yes there have been plenty of dark times in the past. Yet those dark times were different because there is no shame in legitimate struggle. However this Skripal case has added something to today’s struggle that should never be, and that is shame. Shame is the only word that can describe the conduct of British rule at this time when there are serious issues, scandals, and poverty, plaguing the people more than ever. Shame indeed. That is what happens when you’ve been in bed too long with the USA.

Brutally Remastered
Brutally Remastered
Apr 13, 2018 10:48 PM
Reply to  RJ Vela

I would add that this is what happens when one’s Imperial right to others’ natural resources has lapsed and become tediously complicated and when a very powerful tribal lobby group has one’s politicians and media by the throat.

Mikalina
Mikalina
Apr 14, 2018 3:24 PM
Reply to  RJ Vela

The USA, or the good people of the USA are the fodder – they are there to fight the wars and be killed. The control centre is elsewhere.
As for British shame, the starvation of the Bengali people?; the starvation of the Irish?; the stealing of the homeland of the Diego Garcia people:; the torture of the Kenyan people?; the stealing of the land of the Palestinians in the Balfour Declaration – I’m am sure you know that I could go on and on……….

Roger
Roger
Apr 15, 2018 12:00 AM
Reply to  RJ Vela

Too long in bed with the USA, eh? Of course you eventually get fucked.

sokolnik99
sokolnik99
Apr 13, 2018 9:44 PM

The trajectory of UK politics is down… straight into the bin. I wonder whatthe credibility of the government will be when the local election results come in on 05-06/05/18?

Betrayed planet.
Betrayed planet.
Apr 14, 2018 10:45 AM
Reply to  sokolnik99

I wouldn’t put it past the dictator Theresa to try to cancel the May elections. She knows they have been outed as the conscienceless depraved that they clearly are by the majority of people of the U.K. Today comments everywhere are aghast at this governments warmongering. Cancelling the elections would be no problem for someone with a mindset such as hers. The problem is she appears to get away with her fuckery , we all know we no longer have a media.
How can such an inadequate, incompetent and crazed person such as her be in the position she is in? It beggars belief.

Mikalina
Mikalina
Apr 14, 2018 3:33 PM

You could be right about the elections. We are one major disaster away from martial law.
Bearing in mind that: (1) the cannibalistic cabal running the world love to repeat a successful narrative; (2) that the greatest public mourning in the UK was for Princess Diana and (3) the establishment in Britain will never allow ‘mixed race’ children in the royal family; (4) the Russians “are known” to shoot planes out of the sky; (5) there is the technology to cause this to happen (plenty of practice)…………
I wouldn’t advice getting on the same plane as Harry and Megan…….

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 15, 2018 9:34 AM

May is a total groveler to the Zionists-THAT is why she is PM. They have a veto over who holds the office.

David Lee
David Lee
Apr 13, 2018 9:14 PM

Her response reminded me of an AI host on Westworld starting to glitch. The response did not fit her programming and it was causing her discomfort.
The difference being, of course, that the hosts on Westworld have developed actual consciousness and the ability to disobey their programmed commands…

Dominic Pukallus
Dominic Pukallus
Apr 13, 2018 9:58 PM
Reply to  David Lee

This may have been the Media equivalent of doing a Yul Brynner on him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsMC6d8DeMo

kweladave
kweladave
Apr 14, 2018 1:00 AM

Video not available!

Alan
Alan
Apr 13, 2018 8:58 PM

Is this 2018 or 2003, is Mr Blair the gang leader or Mrs May? How history repeats itself.

Jo
Jo
Apr 13, 2018 8:39 PM

Can Craig get a ststement from this guy?How many others such as Peter Ford out there…who could unite against the TM narrative and false information and lies?

BlunderOn
BlunderOn
Apr 13, 2018 8:31 PM

Sky did not have a good afternoon. On top of this they failed to bully Corbyn into making a slip up. Peter Oborne said Corbyn represented the viewpoint of decent minded people and then the director of GNOSOS pointed out that they had been using year old footage of a nusra front attack on Kurds as part of reporting on Douma. Notice how Corbyn was suited but the dug put a clip of him in tracksuit for headline.

MichaelK
MichaelK
Apr 13, 2018 8:11 PM

We all have freedom of speech… one each!

A. J. B
A. J. B
Apr 13, 2018 7:58 PM

Good God!

Binra (@onemindinmany)
Binra (@onemindinmany)
Apr 13, 2018 7:53 PM

Only power to terrorise can operate such conformity of compliance.

Betrayed planet.
Betrayed planet.
Apr 13, 2018 7:46 PM

The facade is cracking, the Skripal case falling apart, international law flouted, diplomacy abandoned and the final personal insult to Russia, Yulia very oddly disappears, into the mists of time without contacting her fiancé, Gran and several close cousins. And the U.K. Us and France are going in to bomb Syria to save the Syrians as a result of another false flag event ( a lot of them around these days) supposedly by a leader on the brink of victory for his country , finally.
Give me a f*cking break.

Betrayed planet.
Betrayed planet.
Apr 13, 2018 7:51 PM

Went of the subject of General Shaw’ s report though it is related. Of course she shut it down rapidly before the stressed, broke brainwashed people of the U.K. might start to think . Thinking cannot and must not be allowed.

S-creep-pal
S-creep-pal
Apr 13, 2018 7:44 PM

He might be novichoked soon

Anandamide
Anandamide
Apr 13, 2018 7:42 PM

Goodness me… That was a ridiculous interruption and so blatantly obvious that he was touching into very uncomfortable territory that was a no go for the UK audience.
I hope that good man of experience and integrity, has access to this playback and finds another opportunity to complete what he was explaining, once he realises he was silenced…

Harry Law
Harry Law
Apr 13, 2018 6:44 PM

It sounded like he was just cut off deliberately by the interviewer, shouldn’t the Metropolitan police take him to a safe house for debriefing?

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 13, 2018 7:16 PM
Reply to  Harry Law

As obvious a deliberate silencing as you can have.

Tim Hall
Tim Hall
Apr 13, 2018 6:15 PM

It’s disgusting how the MSM is attempting to manipulate the HERD, as for the Politicians, our lot makes me feel ashamed to be British.

The Devil Incarnate
The Devil Incarnate
Apr 14, 2018 12:01 PM
Reply to  Tim Hall

Dear Mr Hall – I concur entirely with your take on this – I would just add that you need not feel ashamed – it is not your fault you were born in Britain, neither is it mine. Furthermore, I do not personally identify in any way with the current ‘valuation’ of being ‘British’ for such are not ‘British Values’ but, in truth, are the anti-values of the current military orthodoxy which are being forced upon all and sundry by this ‘International Community’ which is no more than the cabal of belligerent interest. They are all blinded by their arrogance and self-righteousness to the obscenities of their ambitions – such ambitions not being shared by the greater majority of nations who have already declared themselves ‘nuclear free’ and ‘non-belligerent’. It is up to us, as citizens of the world, rather than subjects of any ‘sovereign state’, to question everything that is being presented, as our political classes have, in general, closed their minds to any notion that they could be mistaken in their presumptions and preconceptions. If such an accomplished and experienced observer such as Daniel Ellsberg can conclude his excellent work “The Doomsday Machine’ with the observation that our only imperative here, is to survive as a species, and that he bases his optimism on a deep seated belief that wisdom will prevail, then I would prefer to be influenced by him, rather than by those who further contribute to the mischief by ‘talking up’ the worst possible outcome and in that respect, many of the ‘on-line’ threads are no better than the trashier elements of the mass-media.