Breaking News: Porton Down to Make Public Statement
The government is putting up the Chief Scientist at Porton Down to give a press interview on Sky News this afternoon on the Skripal affair.
If the government were not confident he would implicate the Russian state, they would not be doing this. But nevertheless I would be surprised if the Chief Scientist were to lie outright*, and we need to study his language very carefully. Much of course will depend on the questioning, and undoubtedly Sky News (a Fox affiliate) has been selected as unlikely to be be forensic or difficult. I have however passed to the producers, who contacted me for potential comment, the three questions I would ask given the chance:
Are you saying definitely this can ONLY be made in Russia?
How long from contact would this agent take effect?
If it is an extreme military grade nerve agent (according to Boris Johnson “novichocks” are “ten times more powerful”) then why was it thankfully comparatively ineffective?
We shall see if Sky are anything like this challenging. My fear is they will rather feed him questions like “How do you react to claims it was Porton Down that produced this nerve agent” in order to allow him to appear pained and wronged.
I shall post again after the interview. Thank you to the many people who expressed concern for my welfare at my recent sudden silence, following the rather nasty personal attacks I was encountering – I traveled last week to a family funeral at my childhood home, and was just reflecting for a few days.
*On the other hand another Porton Down scientist, Dr David Kelly, told the truth to a journalist in a broadly comparable situation and met an extremely suspicious death as a result.
Note of the poster: David Christopher Kelly, CMG (14 May 1944 – 17 July 2003) was a Welsh scientist and authority on biological warfare, employed by the British Ministry of Defence, and formerly a weapons inspector with the United Nations Special Commission in Iraq. He came to public attention in July 2003 when an unauthorised discussion he had off the record with BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan about the UK Government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was cited by Gilligan and led to a major controversy. Kelly's name became known to the media as Gilligan's source and he was called to appear on 15 July before a parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee investigating the issues Gilligan had reported. Kelly was questioned aggressively about his actions. He was found dead two days later.[2]
The Dstl Board
. Sir David Pepper is the chairman,
— Gerard Connell
— Sir David Grant CBE
— Professor Dame Wendy Hall
— Mark Preston
— Jeremy Monroe
The Sky News report. The interviewee was Gary Aitkenhead, the CEO.
Porton Down experts unable to identify ‘precise source’ of novichok that poisoned spy
16:02, UK, Tuesday 03 April 2018
Mr Aitkenhead would not comment on whether Porton Down keeps novichok (Photo)
By Paul Kelso, Health Correspondent
Scientists from Porton Down have not been able to establish where the novichok nerve agent used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal was made.
Gary Aitkenhead, chief executive of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down, told Sky News they had not been able to prove it was made in Russia.
He said: “We were able to identify it as novichok, to identify that it was military-grade nerve agent.
“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.”
He said establishing its origin required “other inputs”, some of them intelligence-based, that the Government has access too.(sic)
Mr 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.”
However, he confirmed the substance required “extremely sophisticated methods to create, something only in the capabilities of a state actor”.
He said there is no known antidote to novichok, and that none was administered to either of the Skripals.
Porton Down’s boss would not comment on whether the lab had developed or keeps stocks of novichok, but dismissed suggestions the agent used to poison the Skripals came from Porton Down.
“There is no way anything like that could have come from us or left the four walls of our facility,” said Mr Aitkenhead.
It comes as the chemical weapons watchdog said it would hold a special meeting on Wednesday into the UK government’s claim that Russia was behind the attack.
The OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) said its executive council would meet in the morning 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”.
https://news.sky.com/story/porton-down-experts-unable-to-identify-precise-source-of-novichok-that-poisoned-spy-11315387
Shake on Theresa and Boris and the rest of the bunch.
http://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/defence-science-and-technology-laboratory/about/membership