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posted by janrinok on Friday March 09 2018, @03:09AM   Printer-friendly

Police Say Nerve Agent Was Used in Attempt to Kill Sergei Skripal

Police say that they have identified a specific nerve agent as being used in an attempt to kill a Russian who once spied for the UK. They have not named the nerve agent that was used. Officers who responded to the scene have also been hospitalized:

A nerve agent was used to try to murder a former Russian spy and his daughter, police have said. Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious in Salisbury on Sunday afternoon and remain critically ill. A police officer who was the first to attend the scene is now in a serious condition in hospital, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said.

[...] Mr Rowley, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, said government scientists had identified the agent used, but would not make that information public at this stage. "This is being treated as a major incident involving attempted murder, by administration of a nerve agent," he said. "Having established that a nerve agent is the cause of the symptoms... I can also confirm that we believe that the two people who became unwell were targeted specifically."

[...] Two other police officers who attended the scene were treated in hospital for minor symptoms, before they were given the all clear. It is understood their symptoms included itchy eyes and wheezing.

After 15th Alleged Russian Hit in the UK, Counter Terrorism Command takes over Investigation

Mr Skripal, 66, who was imprisoned in Russia for working for British intelligence and later came to the UK as part of a spy swap, is currently in critical condition, along with his 33-year-old daughter who was also taken ill. Authorities say they are trying to determine if he was poisoned.

Russia has denied any involvement, but the case has put renewed scrutiny on a string of deaths in the UK in the past two decades. The chair of the home affairs select committee, Yvette Cooper MP, wrote to Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Tuesday calling for a review of 14 other cases.

... British police say they have found no evidence of Russian involvement in any of the cases barring Litvinenko's.

"British police are under no sort of political pressure whatsoever," Tony Brenton, the British ambassador to Moscow at the time of Litvinenko's death, told the BBC. "If they had found evidence of Russian involvement in those cases, we would have followed it up."

But the UK government has faced criticism over a perceived lack of action. In the wake of Litvinenko's death, the UK tried and failed to extradite two Russian agents alleged to have carried out the hit. Instead, several Russian diplomats were expelled, provoking a tit for tat response from Russia.
...
In Salisbury, counter-terror police have taken over the investigation. The park bench where Mr Skripal collapsed has been cordoned off and a restaurant where he ate lunch has been temporarily closed.

At BBC World.

Previously: Former Russian Spy Exposed to "Unknown Substance" in Salisbury, England


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 09 2018, @03:48PM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 09 2018, @03:48PM (#650029) Journal
    Sorry, I didn't complete the whataboutism above. You mentioned a "plan" by the US for false flag terrorist attacks, ignoring that it was far from being something serious. Meanwhile, we have an likely false flag terrorist attack, the kidnapping of a US ambassador, with heavy Soviet involvement in 1979 (as part of more than a century of known bad behavior by Russian intelligence stretching back to the time of the Czars). It would have been similarly convenient for Russia to stage an assassination attempt, but make it look like a US false flag operation to frame the Russians.

    Hell, half a dozen intelligence agencies could have done that, amirite? I didn't mean to present this as a serious argument, but instead to remind people that a) Russian intelligence has a long history of nasty schemes, and b) insinuation is not evidence.

    At some point, you have to go with actual evidence, not "it could have happened" arguments backed by a really weak military plan (the US military plans everything including wars with our allies and fighting off alien invasions) from back in 1962. After all, I can point to a seedy murder of an ambassador in 1979. That's more recent!
  • (Score: 2) by Pav on Friday March 09 2018, @11:55PM

    by Pav (114) on Friday March 09 2018, @11:55PM (#650309)

    Context is important. Someone in Russia would say the US security establishment has a history of bad behavior up to and including the assassination of a president (which is of course why I mentioned Kennedy). Someone in the US might point to the many (well earned) suspicions around the KGB and its successors, say the whole Kennedy thing is a conspiracy theory, mention Russia is literally ruled by an ex KGB guy, and say the FBI/NSA/CIA Wikileaks stuff is just a Russian psyop. Others on both sides might eye both their own and other security establishments with roughly equal suspicion, especially in instances where a "happening" might advance an official agenda.