UK Authorities Unable To Prove Novichok Nerve Agent Came From Russia
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Tue, 04/03/2018
The chief scientist from the UK’s Porton Down military laboratory facility, Gary Aitkenhead, told Sky News that they had been unable to prove that the novichok nerve agent used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal came from Russia.
“We were able to identify it as novichok, to identify that it was military-grade nerve agent,” Aitkenhead said. “We have not identified the precise source, but we have provided the scientific info to government who have then used a number of other sources to piece together the conclusions you have come to.”
The chief scientist said that establishing the Novichok’s origin required “other inputs,” some of which are intelligence based and which only the government has access to.
Aitkenhead added: “It is our job to provide the scientific evidence of what this particular nerve agent is, we identified that it is from this particular family and that it is a military grade, but it is not our job to say where it was manufactured.”
Oh good, at least Europe did not expel most Russian diplomats based on a Colin Powellesque assumption that since Russia is the only possible source of Novichok, so it must be. Oh wait…
Of course, this humiliation to the official narrative that Putin was clearly behind the assassination attempt all along also begs the question: whose job is it to say where the Novichok came from?
That said, it was also noted that the nerve agent involved required “extremely sophisticated methods to create, something only in the capabilities of a state actor,” and that there is no known antidote to Novichok – nor was any administered to either of the Skripals.
Aitkenhead would not say whether the Porton Down facility had manufactured or maintained stocks of Novichok – long rumored to be the case.
“There is no way anything like that could have come from us or left the four walls of our facility,” said the chief.
News of the UK’s inability to trace the origin of the Novichok comes as a chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is set to hold an executive council meeting in The Hague on Russia’s request.
In a letter, Russia’s ambassador to the OPCW, Alexander Shulgin, asked for the meeting to discuss Britain’s allegations “in a confidential sitting”.
OPCW experts have taken samples from Salisbury to try to verify the nerve agent used and its origin. -Sky News
The Rest…HERE
