Where's George Smiley when you need him?

[Scott_F]

So we concur on one thing at least.

Yes indeed.

It was your notion of the EU beefing up NATO that really finished me.

 

[anglaslt]

The Russians really are an enigma. What we see from the west's perspective is institutionalised cheating sanctioned by a hard man bully at the helm of a fake democracy. Surely real Russian's are not all like Putin.

It's an interesting question. I think the answer is, no they're not, but he is widely admired and supported for his hard man image in the modern World. Whilst election results do not reflect the true level of support, many will still accept that the plundering of State assets is a price worth paying for strong leadership. Russians admire strength and exploit weakness.

It is said you cannot be true friends until after the fight.

 

[Dryce]

It was your notion of the EU beefing up NATO that really finished me.

It's OK I make allowances for you most of the time - just occasionally the margins need to be recalibrated.

You should perhaps put me on your ignore list.

 

[Scott_F]

It's OK I make allowances for you most of the time - just occasionally the margins need to be recalibrated.

You should perhaps put me on your ignore list.

But then I'd miss out on all the cheap laughs.

 

[Dryce]

But then I'd miss out on all the cheap laughs.

I rarther suspect you'd simply 'find' them elsewhere.

 

[grober]

Traces of nerve agent 'found at Zizzi'

 

[Darrell]

Traces of nerve agent 'found at Zizzi'

Might make the food taste better!!

 

[TheFoX]

Might make the food taste better!!

I've heard that some of these foreign restaurants use exotic ingredients to make their food taste different. Adding a dash of nerve agent would certainly give their meals a bit of a kick. Mind you, they might have overdosed some of their food if it knocks you out, as it did with this couple.

 

[grober]

Unfortunately nerve agents in the main are generally colorless tasteless liquids that may evaporate to a gas. Agents sarin and VX are odorless; tabun has a slightly fruity odor and soman has a slight camphor odor. Its one of the reasons they are so deadly - no physical warning of their proximity till the effects are felt by which time it may be too late unless you are carrying a self injecting syringe of atropine on you. If they were attached by a slow acting binary agent it may be the reaction [ which produces the deadly material as the end product] was just starting in the restaurant but they had been exposed prior to this?

 

[grober]

Salisbury diners told to wash possessions

 

[Steveml63]

Salisbury diners told to wash possessions

Everything seems to be happening so late after the event!

 

[grober]

Possibly a reflection of the difficulty in the detection of novel chemical weapons in the field. First you have to identify the agent- which in a well equiped laboratory with expensive specialised instrumentation might be fairly rapid. Once identified specific field monitoring equipment[ chemical/enzyme/instrument ---based] might have to be--calibrated /transported from deployment elsewhere/imported from abroad/ or even manufactured [ limited shelf life?] before reliable deployment in the field. I imagine that as soon as such portable monitoring equipment became available a survey of likely sites of contamination as they became known, would have been carried out with the results we have seen in the last couple of days. I imagine the staff at Porton Down will have pulled out all the stops on this one- any delay is perhaps more to do with what stops were available for them to " pull out " at the time, if I can put it that way.
ps Alexander Litvinenko's case would have been different as he was poisoned by ingestion of a radioactive isotope which would have been localised and also easily monitored by conventional portable ionising radiation detection equipment . This particular attack was different being characterised by a disregard for any potential "collateral damage"

 

[grober]

"It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia," Theresa May told the House of Commons. "This is part of a group of nerve agents known as Novichok."
Novichok agent - Wikipedia

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Historically we seemed to leave the likes of Philby well alone ....

And if Blunt is anything to go by then we can even make deals with those who bretray us and stay on home soil and let them live out rather long natural lives.

It was rather a long time ago.

 

[grober]

UK to expel 23 Russian diplomats

 

[Darrell]

UK to expel 23 Russian diplomats

I cycled past the Russian Embassy about 2pm today.
Police and the media everywhere.

 

[grober]

del

 

[John]

I've read a few things on this now.

There is speculation that some of the nerve agent may have gone walkies in the early 90s.

I wonder if this likely.

 

[GLK]

There is speculation that some of the nerve agent may have gone walkies in the early 90s.

That would depend, on how stable the binary components are, but even then, it is likely they've degraded over 25-odd years, enough to significantly affect the potency of the mix ...
A good excuse from the vengeful midget though.

 

[John]

That would depend, on how stable the binary components are, but even then, it is likely they've degraded over 25-odd years, enough to significantly affect the potency of the mix ...
A good excuse from the vengeful midget though.

I'm sure I read from the original inventor that it should be fine after 50 years.

I guess with a lot of things, there are many points of view, agendas, interventions, bullshit etc.

My gut feeling is "they did it" given some of the strange reactions by some of the reps etc. but interesting reading all the different accounts and speculation.