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2018-03-08 Britain
Nerve Agent Used in Attack on Former Russian Spy in England
[Freebeacon] Police in the United Kingdom announced on Wednesday that a former Russian Army officer who spied for the U.K. was attacked over the weekend with a nerve agent.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are in critical condition after they were found unconscious on Sunday in Salisbury, a city in Southwest England, the Associated Press reports. After years of imprisonment in Russia, Skripal was granted refuge in the U.K. as part of a 2010 spy swap between the United States and Russia.

The two were previously known to have come into contact with an unknown substance when they were found, and an investigation is ongoing. A police officer who first responded to Skripal and his daughter is also being treated in the hospital.

Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Mark Rowley made the confirmation that the pair had come into contact with a nerve agent and that they were believed to have been "targeted specifically."

"Having established that a nerve agent is the cause of the symptoms leading us to treat this as attempted murder, I can also confirm that we believe that the two people who became unwell were targeted specifically," Rowley said.

Russia has denied responsibility for the attack, despite the similarity between this attack and the death of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was killed by radioactive poisoning in London back in 2006. An investigation into Litvinenko's death concluded Russian agents poisoned him by lacing his tea with radioactive polonium-210 and that the killing was likely approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia has also continued to deny involvement in Litvinenko's death.
Posted by Besoeker 2018-03-08 03:21|| || Front Page|| [2 views ]  Top

#1 How soon can we get someone here from Porton Down? Very soon sir, very soon.
Posted by Besoeker 2018-03-08 03:31||   2018-03-08 03:31|| Front Page Top

#2 People seem to be able to just walk all this nasty stuff into Old Blighty at will. Story there somewhere...
Posted by M. Murcek 2018-03-08 07:45||   2018-03-08 07:45|| Front Page Top

#3 I do not believe them regarding the nerve agent. No proof is offered, just a 'we know but aren't saying'; that attitude isn't cutting it. They have completely eroded any intrinsic trust I might have had in their purported fairness and civic responsibility. They would CYA now purely out of habit or just to obfuscate. Damn them all.
Posted by Whiskey Mike 2018-03-08 09:41||   2018-03-08 09:41|| Front Page Top

#4 Russia has denied responsibility for the attack, despite the similarity between this attack and the recent death of one of Pudgy Kim's relatives.
Posted by SteveS 2018-03-08 10:38||   2018-03-08 10:38|| Front Page Top

#5 I didn't think one survived a nerve agent attack
Posted by Thusogum Untervehr8571 2018-03-08 11:17||   2018-03-08 11:17|| Front Page Top

#6 They used to supply atropine injectors for field use. Atropine works to a degree (it's better than nothing) but has its own problems.
Posted by Whiskey Mike 2018-03-08 12:09||   2018-03-08 12:09|| Front Page Top

#7 The nearby British CBRN facility may have
a...... Bruce Irvins problem.
Posted by Besoeker 2018-03-08 12:17||   2018-03-08 12:17|| Front Page Top

#8 Insecticide?
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2018-03-08 12:28||   2018-03-08 12:28|| Front Page Top

#9 Some of them were 'discovered' in research for improved insecticides. Some use the same base as common insecticides. This is a useful link:

https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts166.pdf

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2018-03-08 13:28||   2018-03-08 13:28|| Front Page Top

#10 Now 21 people are being treated for possible exposure to a nerve agent? I take back what I said earlier. This sounds like it might be a persistent nerve agent. Or herd behavior, but I'm tending to something persistent now. Sample is too large.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/03/08/uk-officials-say-21-people-now-being-treated-in-ex-russian-spy-poisoning.html
Posted by Whiskey Mike 2018-03-08 14:39||   2018-03-08 14:39|| Front Page Top

#11  This incident in DC last week appeared only once in the media & nothing since.
11 Marines affected in hazmat incident at Fort Myer near Pentagon
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2018-03-08 15:47||   2018-03-08 15:47|| Front Page Top

#12 #10

VX is persistent in the environment> That's why it is used as an area denial weapon.
Posted by DonM 2018-03-08 18:51||   2018-03-08 18:51|| Front Page Top










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