Skripal’s relatives don’t believe it, Jacinda Ardern doesn’t believe it, Paul Buchanan doesn’t believe it, and I never believed it. But a story planted in the UK Sunday Times that the Skripals are here lets our media rerun the assassination attempt that failed, even though the most deadliest poison in the world was involved. Stuff website has a British Minister from Theresa May’s time rerunning the old lies,as does the NZ Herald. Fits in nicely with the SIS anti-Russian history.
While the US government is running an information war against the Chinese, the other main Five Eyes government in the UK is also running an information war against the Russians. And we should be absolutely certain it is a war, even if it is about information and narrative management. The British Army operates its 77th Brigade involved in media manipulation and narrative management.
The other story that has surfaced in this focus on Russia is that the Soviet Union was trying to manipulate Labour party members in the Lange government. I don’t know about that, but what I do know for certain is that the CIA was trying to influence Labour Party members and MPs. I was the Party’s Trade Union Liaison officer at the time, and the US Embassy Labour attache Greg Talcott was indefatigable in his attempts to win support for US policy among trade union affiliates.
Back to the Skripals. The story never rang true, if only for the reason that they lived after apparently being dosed with the “deadliest poison ever.” The best the British government could offer in the absence of any evidence that it was “highly likely” they were poisoned. We do not know what if anything the Russian government did at the time, but we do know that they have been held incommunicado ever since by the British government.
And evidence just revealed from the inquest on Dawn Sturgess shows that her death was most likely from a drug overdose, not a Novichok perfume bottle. Someone’s death was necessary to provide adequate space for indignation.
The UK government boasted of their diplomatic coup in getting so many countries to expel diplomats. My favourite story about the whole shoddy affair is how Abu Ghraib graduate and CIA chief Gina Haspel persuaded Trump to expel 60 Russians by showing him a photo of dead ducks at a Salisbury lagoon, supposedly as a result of being fed bread by the Skripals. Children who had been given the bread were also traumatised by police attention but not poisoned either.
Showing great good sense and unwillingness to be so influenced the New Zealand government did not expel any Soviet diplomats at the time.
Jacinda Ardern’s advice to New Zealand media also makes very good sense – don’t believe every rumour you hear.
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