The cold war.

[Dutto]

Just a thought on the subject of "Nerve Agents" and the poisoning of Russian born Mr Skripal. (NB: Mr Skripal was convicted of being a British spy by a Russian Court, acknowledged as a British spy by the British Government and swapped as a British spy by the British Government in exchange for Russian spies that had been captured and convicted in the UK.)

Nerve Agents
One

This is Wikipedia's take on the subject:

"Poisoning by a nerve agent leads to contraction of pupils, profuse salivation, convulsions and involuntary urination and defecation, with the first symptoms appearing in seconds after exposure. Death by asphyxiation or cardiac arrest may follow in minutes due to the loss of the body's control over respiratory and other muscles."​

Nerve Agents
Two

The BBC reported:

"The half-brother of Kim Jong-un was killed by a chemical attack in Malaysia on the orders of the North Korean government, the US has concluded.​

Kim Jong-nam died after a bizarre encounter at Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017, when two women smeared his face with VX nerve agent."​

Nerve Agents
Three

The Independent reported:

"Theresa May told the House of Commons. “This is part of a group of nerve agents known as Novicho."

According to Professor Gary Stephens, pharmacology expert at the University of Reading: “This is a more dangerous and sophisticated agent than sarin or VX and is harder to identify."

The article also states that Novicho is "eight times more potent than VX".​

As of today, the three people apparently poisoned with "Novicho" are still alive; whereas Kim Jong-un's half brother is still dead.

From these articles I draw a single conclusion and offer a single question:

Conclusion:

The people who manufactured and administered the "nerve agent" that poisoned the three people in Salisbury did a crap job of either making it (it failed) or administering it (also a failure)!​

Question:

Does any organisation spring to mind when thinking "That lot couldn't manage a p!ss up in a brewery."?
​

I find it difficult to relate such incompetence with what I have been told of certain "ruthless" regimes. This particular scenario, even though it was evil in its intent and tragic in its outcome, is coming to look more like a "Carry On" film than reality.

PS

I hope everyone saw our esteemed Foreign Secretary squirming in his seat yesterday!

Andrew Marr let him ramble on about tainted Russian money and all the things that his government was doing about it, then asked him about the Russian lady who had paid £160,000 to play a game of tennis with him!

Boris explanation that "someone would have checked" that the money wasn't tainted was too daft to laugh at.

The interview is an absolute classic that is well worth watching on the BBC On Demand service.

Enjoy!:thumb:

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerve_agent
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-43312052
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...an-spy-poisoning-sergei-skripal-a8252426.html

 

[dad_of_jon]

when money is involved some people with drop their trousers for anyone