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The Strange Timestamp In The New Novichok 'Evidence'
September 05, 2018
The Strange Timestamp In The New Novichok 'Evidence'
Today, in a politically convenient moment, the British government released new information about the poisoning of the British spy Sergej Skripal, his daughter, and three other persons. It claims to have identified two men with Russian passports who arrived in London from Moscow on March 2, went to Salisbury on March 3 on a 'reconnaissance' trip, came back to Salisbury on March 4 to put Novichok poison on the doorknob of Skripal's home and flew back from London to Moscow on the same day. The names of the men were given as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov which are Russian language equivalents of Joe Smith and Sam Jones. These names are likely false.
The police says that CCTV pictures were taken at several steps of the men's travel. The British news agency Reuters seem to distribute these. Several media have picked up copies.
Here are screenshots of two CCTV pictures, taken from an 18 picture gallery in a report by The Independent headlined Salisbury poisoning suspects are Russian state assassins, Theresa May tells MPs.
These are pictures 7 and 8 of a 18 picture gallery within that piece.
,Pic 7 of 18 - full, uncropped screenshot
,Pic 8 of 18 - full, uncropped screenshot
(Update: The pics are also available at the Metropolitan police site: 1, 2.)
Notice that the time stamp on both pics is identical, 02/03/2018 16:22:43. But the pictures show two different men, each walking alone through the same part of a jet bridge as they arrive in Britain. How can it be that both of these pictures were taken at the exactly same second? And who tilted the permanently installed CCTV camera between the two shots? How did the camera angle change between pic 1 and two which were apparently taken at the very same place and at the very same time?
If these two pictures can not be trusted how much can one trust the other CCTV pictures the Met showed to support its claims?
The full statement of the Metropolitan police is here. Excerpts of Prime Minister Theresa May's statement are here.
While May claims the two men were send by Russia's military spy service GRU, the Metropolitan police makes no such claims. Theresa May did not say on what evidence she based her conclusion. There seems to be none.
It also seems a bit curious that a 'Russian assassin' team, allegedly from a highly professional secret service, would travel together and use direct flights from Moscow to London and back. That seems extraordinary careless. Why not fly separate and via a third country?
And why would a professional assassin team drop a cellophane wrapped, unopened perfume bottle with the same poison into a charity bin behind shops in Catherine Street in Salisbury where Charlie Rowley would find it some 14 weeks(!?) later?
The police says that it found traces of Novichok in the crappy hotel the 'Russian agents' stayed in between March 2 and March 4. It found those traces on May 4 but it waited until today to publicly ask other guests at the hotel to contact the police?
If the incident was a professional assassination attempt with a highly potent 'Novichok' compound why did 4 out of 5 people who came into contact with it survive? The 80% failure rate is inconsistent with the scary tale about the highly potent 'Russian' Novichok poison. A decent dose of Megachok is probably more lethal.
,bigger
Sergej Skripal has not been seen in the public or even on video since the incident happened. His daughter Yulia Skripal appeared in a British government hostage video but then vanished. The Russian Embassy in London says that it has no access to them. The policeman, who allegedly was also injured during the incident, also never reappeared in public. Why are these people held incommunicado and under arrest?
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Previous Moon of Alabama posts on the Skripal case:
Posted by b on September 5, 2018 at 01:33 PM | Permalink
Comments
Novichok is also damn durable, and the room cleaning in English hotels is not that great: traces of Novichok were found two months after the alleged agents checked out. But hotel guests were not affected.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 5, 2018 1:52:11 PM | 2
I watched the police present the timeline and can't help but wonder. on the surface it seems excellent police work. it is also somewhat shocking just how much cctv they have in England but that is passed over without comment by most. The police seem to know everything about these two people. I wonder why they did not contact them. They should have addresses and such since their passports were scanned at immigration. Oddly there is no mention of the police calling the numbers or asking the Russian police to go by their homes and ask them to account for their travel to Salisbury. nothing.
what if those people actually exist and they can explain everything? If the people with the same names and addresses of those in the passports are completely different people then there is absolutely no reason to blame Russia since the two guys in England were using assumed identities. Seems to me that a detective would want to go the final mile.
the police presentation was well done and those who easily agree with the government line will feel better. For the rest of us remain too many questions.
someone once said that if you must tell a lie, make it a huge lie, for if it is just a little lie people will question it whereas if it is huge people will think that something so big must be the truth. that must be what is happening here.
Posted by: dan of steele | Sep 5, 2018 1:54:54 PM | 3
I was going to note the continued use of weasel words by the UK officials, such as : "almost certainly", but the use of weasel words have apparently been baked into the plot at this stage, that is they have been gamed as the domaIn of the sceptical:
According to the original descriptions of the effects of "Novichok", from the Soviet scientists involved with it thirty years ago, both of these alleged agents should have died from the alleged trace release in their hotel room, the Skripals should have died on their driveway, as should have the policeman. This ridiculous story is not meant to be "solved", it is meant to serve as a blunt tool for geopolitical positioning directed at both a designated rival but also to herd the civilian population. It is the UK equivalent of the (deliberately unsolved) anthrax letters in the US in 2001.
Posted by: jayc | Sep 5, 2018 2:06:12 PM | 4
thanks b... good sleuthing on your part.. your questions go to the heart of the situation as well..
the uk and west are so predictable at this point in time.. anything to blame russia will do..
Posted by: james | Sep 5, 2018 2:08:45 PM | 5
The pictures of the 2 men released by the the Police are said to be from their passports. I have just taken a quick look at the Wikipedia page for Russian passports -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_passport#The_Russian_Federation
Note that on the non biometric passports the pictures have a seal over them, whilst the biometric passports do not. This indicated the passports are biometric. Not only do we not have the actual images of the passports, we do not have the biometrics either. Given that this information would be valuable in finding these "suspects" and would not in any way jeopardize the investigation, I can only conclude that either a) the Police know these are not actual suspects or b) the Police are deliberately withholding vital information, either way I believe this amounts to an Attempt To Pervert The Course of Justice which is a very serious criminal offence.
Posted by: TJ | Sep 5, 2018 2:12:22 PM | 6
According to establishment man Brian Whitaker of Guardian fame they are in different tunnels at the same time.
So they managed to get flights from Moscow to Heathrow arriving at the same time and managed to disembark at the exact same time. Right you are mate.
Posted by: Bob | Sep 5, 2018 2:13:08 PM | 7
Where did they stay in England ? How did they get visas what info real or not they provided to get it? Did they visit spot at or near areas of suppose attacks? Are there any witnesses who publicly identify them at the time of supposed crime, What language they spoke, must have interacted talked with U.K. Immigration, when and where did they leave exactly and what flight, if names are fake why not contact people with those names in Russia and ask them, see how they look? Verify if they traveled to England.
Just few basic questions before any real Analysis can start otherwise as I see it it is so vague info so no one can enter any reasonable path of verification of those so far random faces accused of ... actually what exactly we do not know how it was done and with what as symptoms indicate strong version of synthetic opioids or shellfish toxins, not weponized nerve agent.
That is the basic propaganda method description as vague as possible to feed or spread rumors only to attack them with some hidden/made up facts if Analysis by others comes to close to truth.
Corruption in security apparatus is so bad that they even are set up to believed their own lies.
Posted by: Kalen | Sep 5, 2018 2:18:04 PM | 8
Another problem?
The camera alignment is slightly different on each shot.
If you switch quickly between pics, you can easily see that the orientation is slightly different. Pic7 is vertical, Pic 8 is slightly turned. (I use two browser tabs so the pics are the same size, they click on each one quickly in succession.)
Alternatively:
On pic 8 you see the top of the door on the left and the side of a sign (red line) on the right.
On pic 7 you don't see the top of the door and you see the top left corner of the sign (red) on the right.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 5, 2018 2:20:14 PM | 10
Beyond doubt uk ect ect have trained spy's in Russia some home grown some Russian. The Salisbury fake flag would would have used these deliberately to leave a false 'paper trail' similar to the 'polonium' trail in a previous false flag !
Posted by: Mark2 | Sep 5, 2018 2:22:00 PM | 11
This is so ludicrous - according to some Russian media the UK refuses to hand over additional information to the Russians, like fingerprints and passport-numbers. The UK should have these informations as these two "top-trained GRU agents" applied for a tourist visa in Moscow - imagine that.
Besides it also looks that both names are in Russia pretty equivalent names like John Smith in the US. Apparently there are over 70'000 Alexander Petrov just in the russian social media.
I also have been following some of the reader comments in the GB media, it looks some of the readers are just rediculing May as needing again distraction from the Brexit fiasco and more and more seem to become angry, because they feel being taken for stupid.
Posted by: Fran | Sep 5, 2018 2:22:41 PM | 12
@Bob #7 -Yes, was about to say the same thing as I haven't been to Gatwick in a long while but many airports whisk you out through parallel tunnels. However, if these guys are GRU then the west has nothing to worry about. I mean, if you fly in team members on the same commercial flight on a kill mission you are stoooopid beyond belief. The GRU is not known for stupidity so I'd guess it's way more likely they had nothing to do with the poisoning.
Next, I'm waiting for the UK to release an audio tape where the men, speaking in heavily accented English, ask each other if they remembered to pack the novichok.
Posted by: worldblee | Sep 5, 2018 2:22:51 PM | 13
Almost every airport I have ever disembarked from has a set of parallel one-way sluice gateways as you leave the airside and enter the baggage reclaim area. If you approach these with a companion walking beside you at the same pace, you will find that you will both exit the sluices at the same time. The slight variance in camera angle is because the two cameras are set up in almost identical but parallel sluices.
There is so much in the UK gov narrative about the Skripals that makes zero sense, this is so obviously not one. In fact anyone insisting that this timestamp is some gotcha loses a lot of credibility in my eyes.
Posted by: Køn | Sep 5, 2018 2:24:15 PM | 14
That may be a canary.
The people whome May regime coerced into producing fake evidence are sabotaging the criminal ordeal they are forced to take part in.
Notice, it was not enough for a "photoshopper" to make the blunder, all the "editors" and supervisors had to turn a blind eye too.
During WW2 there were some bombs and shells that did not explode, and sometimes inside there were found broken details and notes "all we can help with".
This timestamps seems to be 21st century of Hitler's slave "rebel pk the knees"
Posted by: Arioch | Sep 5, 2018 2:29:22 PM | 15
@K 14. Two people walking through parallel tunnels, even if only 5 metres long will never move at exactly the same rate. Perhaps highly trained military personal marching in lockstep might be very close, but not precisely to the same fraction of a second. There is too little being released about their visit to be able to calculate what their mood was and hence the pace of their gait. Was it hurried, relaxed, frantic a gentle amble? This is a U.K. Govt. Part in a plan to discredit Russia. Hearing British M.P.’s call for the expulsion of Russia from the UNSC and a new entity set up in it’s place might suggest what this is aimed at in achieving.
Posted by: Beibdnn. | Sep 5, 2018 2:40:58 PM | 16
FYI, Craig Murray has a new post on the same subject: "The Impossible Photo".
Some commenters there who claim to be familiar with the airport have already noted that the men were surely exiting from parallel walkways ("channels"), and/or that the CCTV clock was simply malfunctioning.
Even if both claims are true, it doesn't explain away the remarkable congruence between the men's supposedly separate and independent progress through the walkways. Again, some commenters who purport to be personally familiar with the location assert that there are visible differences in the "two" walkways shown in the photos-- but to me they look identical.
This is still another dodgy, ambiguous piece of "evidence" to prop up the ongoing Big Lie. In the weeks following the Skripal event, the UK officials began making such ludicrous and incredible assertions that I naïvely expected that their colossal deceit would blow up in their faces sooner than later.
As with the fraudulent "Mueller investigation" in the US, despite the united efforts of government officials and a colluding, servile mass-media insisting that there's a (sinster Russian) "there" there, I foolishly thought that the overall absence of actual evidence, or even a plausible rationale connecting the dubious dots, was an overreach that would rapidly reach a fatal point of diminishing returns.
But I underestimated the staying power of Big Lies, and the Big Liars who tell them.
Posted by: Ort | Sep 5, 2018 2:41:45 PM | 17
Another oddity, the hotel the men stayed at, which was supposedly contaminated by Novichok as discovered on May the 4th - I did a news search for this hotel for the period March - September 4th and couldn't find a single reference to it being cordoned off or investigated by the police. Did they let people continue to use the hotel without telling them it could be contaminated? Did nobody notice police and men in hazmat suits there? Or was the name of the hotel d noticed?
Posted by: Teganjovnka | Sep 5, 2018 2:42:29 PM | 18
Everyone,,, EVERYONE knows it's all BS. BUT, everyone talking about it gives it traction.
I find this no different than the USA scoundrels worried about Syrian citizens in Idlib.
Anything the West says or does is USDA Grade AAA horse hockey.
Posted by: ken | Sep 5, 2018 2:42:47 PM | 19
As to the UK government being able to fake the involvement of GRU agents - remember that Sergei Skripal himself was a British spy while working for the GRU. Why not others?
The most worrying angle, as far as I am concerned, is the utter unbelievability of these stories. Exactly in line with 9/11 (three buildings knocked down by two planes), the Boston Marathon bombing, countless supposed multiple murders in the USA that do not seem to have taken place as officially described, MH17, and the Syrian "chemical weapons" attacks.
The official explanations of all those stories are so weak and inconsistent that they would be rejected as plot lines for Dr Who or CSI. So what is their little game? I can think of two unpleasant possibilities.
1. They are trying to calibrate exactly how grotesque a set of lies they can pass off without any public protest or outcry.
2. They are compiling a list of the few people who are both intelligent and bold enough to point out the obvious discrepancies in public.
Posted by: Tom Welsh | Sep 5, 2018 2:58:07 PM | 21
Clearly those timestamps are planted on the pictures taken from screen.. Well maybe they thought that they only need 24 hours or something.
Posted by: rndmdude | Sep 5, 2018 3:16:12 PM | 22
So we had Bolton clearly stating in the media time and time again --- if chemical weapons are found in Idlib it would be a game changer to US policy in Syria, thus prompting those desperate cornered brutal rebels, offering a last way out of there situation.
Now we have the prime minister. UK giving a statement about new evidence re Salisbury,chemical Russia. I would put a weeks wage on there being a chemical attack in Syria Idlib enytime now !
This is the UK prime minster aiding a massive brutal crime.
This prime minister got in to power by a slim margine on the back of 3 false flag terror attacks 2 in London one in Manchester persuading the public to go for the get tough vote . Are we gulable or what ?
Posted by: Mark2 | Sep 5, 2018 3:45:06 PM | 24
It is obvious this whole novichok thing is a false flag op.
The only question is why did the UK government did this.
Posted by: vk | Sep 5, 2018 3:56:16 PM | 25
UK agencies have a long track record back to before WW2 running operations to get the US into a war. Their recent false flag operations inside the UK are to soften up the US/UK public in advance of the UK managed chemical weapon false flag attack in Syria they are clearly threatening in advance.
This is beyond ridiculous that the dried out husk of the UK is beating its chest for war with Russia. I almost wish that they would get their war and be beaten flat.
Posted by: AriusArmenian | Sep 5, 2018 4:00:47 PM | 26
There are times of the day when 2 passengers could arrive at an empty passport control, enter two different tunnels at the same time and arrive at exactly the same second at equivalent gates.
Not many times, because it means that there is no queue at either tunnel.
And 16:22 is not one of these times.
Posted by: mdroy | Sep 5, 2018 4:06:42 PM | 28
@16
My experience through those boarding bridges is that when boarding people walk normal pace and when exiting they do so at a faster pace down the bridge. I guess they want get to their luggage quickly.
Posted by: Circe | Sep 5, 2018 4:12:03 PM | 30
Køn @ 14 "In fact anyone insisting that this timestamp is some gotcha loses a lot of credibility in my eyes."
Don't be a gallah, Køn! You think that two members of a highly trained hit squad are going to walk through Heathrow together? You've got to be dreaming. Have you no concept of Operational Security? Dear oh dear...
Posted by: Deltaeus | Sep 5, 2018 4:16:44 PM | 31
The two strong-looking men take it in turns to carry what looks like a light backpack which is kind of odd in itself. If nerve gas had either been sprayed or smeared, one or both would have to have used a full protective suit, which consists of a bulky gas mask, jacket, trousers and substantial boots, which would have called for a much bigger backpack.
Posted by: Lochearn | Sep 5, 2018 4:30:37 PM | 32
These photos show the same time but different locations. These are the security barriers between passport control and the baggage reclaim hall, there are a number of parallel gates that open automatically and are monitored by CCTV. The high resolution photos on the Met website show a different camera angles: The Petrov photo shows a white flat surface with a thin red stripe in the lower right corner and the top of the wall panels on the upper left. The Boshirov picture show a much wider red stripe (and no white surface) and the top of the panels is not visible. So you have two different gates entered at the same time.
Posted by: eyespy | Sep 5, 2018 4:33:10 PM | 33
I'm no expert but allow me to play devil's advocate. What if they have two cameras on different angles with separate receivers in case one goes offline and their clock is not in sync so the second camera stamps same time when it's one second later on first. It just seems that if there was Photoshop involved they would think of changing the timestamp and inserting person in precisely same angle. Of course it doesn't explain why they would take pictures from two different cameras, but maybe face appeared clearer?
Posted by: Circe | Sep 5, 2018 4:44:50 PM | 34
Which airports have parallel disimabarkation tunnels then? I've been through 4 airports in 3 different countries in the past two months and each time it was a single tunnel. The only time I've seen two tunnels was when I was on a flight witha first class and even then it sort of branched off, near the door of the plane.
Posted by: rac | Sep 5, 2018 4:46:28 PM | 36
Could it be the same corridor at two different locations at the same moment? This would explain the different angles of the cameras, which maybe were placed at a similar location to the railings etc.
Posted by: Pictorex | Sep 5, 2018 4:58:53 PM | 37
The door of the plane only accommodates one boarding bridge. Whoever has been through that airport can clear this up.
Posted by: Circe | Sep 5, 2018 4:59:23 PM | 38
@ 37
And how would they manage to pass at the exact same time through two different corridors?
Posted by: Circe | Sep 5, 2018 5:03:10 PM | 39
Historian and political analyst Vladimir Kornilov wrote an article for RIA Novosti comparing the famous 1924 SIS forgery, "Zinoviev letter", to the ongoing Skripal affair: https://ria.ru/analytics/20180905/1527822792.html (machine translation; the translation is good, except that "the Violins" should read as "the Skripals").
Posted by: S | Sep 5, 2018 5:10:46 PM | 40
Deltaeus... kindly please desist from insulting me in anitpodean.
I make no assertions about trained or untrained hit squads or how they might behave.
I am merely saying that anyone who thinks these timestamps represent anything suspicious or out of the ordinary is chasing their own tails.
The UK authorities present pictures of two men that travelled together on a flight from Moscow to London Gatwick. They went through parallel security sluices at the same time as they were walking together. At which point they were automatically photographed. It could just as easily have been that the time stamp was 1 second apart or even 2 seconds, or as is in fact the case, less than 1 second apart. NOTE: They may have triggered the automatic camera 999ms apart and still had the same timestamp so it is not strictly accurate to say that they were pictured at exactly the same time. The sluice appears to be about 4 metres long up to the point where the camera is triggered. I can walk 4 metres in less than 2 seconds. Which does not give a large time frame in which the walking pace of these two men can diverge.
There is so much more suspicious and contentious in todays UK announcement that it is ridiculous and counter productive to waste time on an easily explained time stamp.
Posted by: Køn | Sep 5, 2018 5:16:47 PM | 41
interesting article in russia on this ..it goes into the 2 men and what they know of them.. i ran it thru google translate..
Posted by: james | Sep 5, 2018 5:18:44 PM | 42
They are not even trying anymore.
I wonder if it has a direct correlation to the gullibility and intelligence of the West's public.
Posted by: Occidentosis | Sep 5, 2018 5:24:45 PM | 44
This is an obvious fabrication of evidence. What they did was to take 2 photos from the same tunnel using the same camera at different times, but with the camera rotated about 20 degrees between them (notice the slightly different fish-eye lens distortions). Afterwards they flipped one of the images horizontally and added time-stamps to the images, but forgot to change the times between them.
I reversed the above process, aligned the images and made a GIF animation to prove it, see https://postimg.cc/image/x1ixk7r4x/
These people are stupid.
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5, 2018 5:29:46 PM | 45
The timing is interesting. This is an attempt to buttress a future claim that Assad used chem weapons in Idlib. Lame. Who believes this stuff?
Good catch on the time stamp B.
Posted by: Alaric | Sep 5, 2018 5:36:15 PM | 46
Gatwick not Heathrow. I highly suggest reading the comments to Craig Murray's blog post. Yes, as here there're some repetitive comments, but many good points are also raised. Perhaps the best is the lack of a "tag" identifying the camera location as at the security station you have many CCTV images that are very similar: Something like Jetway2 Customs4, or some such. IMO, the photos and story are contrived just as the rest of the hoax is--except for the fact that at least one person has died and likely the Skripals most certainly--she wanted to return to Russia and take Sergei with her.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 5, 2018 5:52:02 PM | 47
Well done UK comrades! So now you will release all the cctv from the original Salisbury incident so we can see every detail of the cunning ruskies eh! including the entire street videos, Mill pub and park videos too; and in high resolution this time please. Plus as the case is solved would you be so kind as to release the complete OPCW reports and the Porton Down reports too.
Can't have enough open government in the worlds foremost democracy now, can we?
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 5, 2018 6:00:03 PM | 48
Sy Hersch blames the poisoning of Skripals on the Russian mafia who found out he was working with MI6 to reveal their European operations.
Could these two guys be of the Russian mafia? Them being not of the Russian IC might explain how the poison was less than lethal for all who came in contact.
Posted by: Bart Hansen | Sep 5, 2018 6:03:11 PM | 49
@49 Sorry Sy but your theory doesn't hold up. Teresa May has said they were from the GRU. Here are her exact words...
"Based on this work, I can today tell the House that, based on a body of intelligence, the Government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and CPS are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU.
The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command. So this was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state."
Please try harder.
Posted by: dh | Sep 5, 2018 6:17:48 PM | 50
dh
Sorry Sy but your theory doesn't hold up. Teresa May has said they were from the GRU.
Incredible. You believe that what May said is true, because she said it!
Posted by: Laguerre | Sep 5, 2018 6:23:59 PM | 51
Here is an interesting side note, relating to the statement made by "Sue Hemming, the CPS director of legal services" (e.g. as in this Guardian piece.
We will not be applying to Russia for the extradition of these men as the Russian constitution does not permit extradition of its own nationals. Russia has made this clear following requests for extradition in other cases. Should this position change then an extradition request would be made.
This is a blatant lie. Russia's Constitution (available here in Russian states the following in Article 63, Section 2:
В Российской Федерации не допускается выдача другим государствам лиц, преследуемых за политические убеждения, а также за действия (или бездействие), не признаваемые в Российской Федерации преступлением. Выдача лиц, обвиняемых в совершении преступления, а также передача осужденных для отбывания наказания в других государствах осуществляются на основе федерального закона или международного договора Российской Федерации.
Which means (my own translation, but Google Translate is your friend if you do not believe me):
In the Russian Federation it is not permitted to extradite to other states individuals who are persecuted for their political beliefs, as well as for actions (or inaction) that are not deemed criminal in the Russian Federation. Extradition of individuals accused of committing a crime, as well as transfer of convicts to serve their sentences in other states, is performed on the basis of federal law or international agreements of the Russian Federation.
I must confess that I am not up on the most current version of Russian criminal law, but I believe "attempted murder utilizing a banned chemical weapon" does still qualify as a crime over there, and, moreover, is not considered "political beliefs". But, of course, an official extradition requests would entail also handing over the Crown's evidence against the accused, which...well, clearly there is so much of it that the Crown just doesn't wish to share any.
Anyhow, something to ponder.
Posted by: Angry Panda | Sep 5, 2018 6:27:41 PM | 52
@47 karlof1
Perhaps the best is the lack of a "tag" identifying the camera location as at the security station you have many CCTV images that are very similar: Something like Jetway2 Customs4, or some such.
Se my post @45 (animation link). The camera location is the same in both images, they just rotated the camera, and flipped one image horizontally. If you download the MET "originals" and repeat what I did you find the match to be 100%. With identical time stamps, you know this is fabricated evidence. There is really no other plausible or (even possible) explanation.
It is virtually a confession from the police.
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5, 2018 6:28:15 PM | 53
It isn't the GRU (Glavnoye Razdevyvatel'noye Upravleniye, Main Intelligence Directorate) any more. In 2010, the name was changed to GU (Glavnoye Upravleniye, Main Directorate).
Posted by: lysias | Sep 5, 2018 6:29:40 PM | 55
"Norwegian" is correct. These pics have been tampered with bigly. "Kon" points out that one has a "red line" while one has a more solid looking red area. That is explained by the picture flipping and tilting. The red line is a framelike border of something. In one pic we see that part that's further from the camera and it looks like a slim red line. In the other pic we see the part of it which is closer to the camera, and is ALSO the corner of the line, so it appears to be something completely different when it's actually just 2 parts of the same puzzle.
My bet is that they were taken at different times of day, those tunnels always let natural light in. Unless a filter was intentionally applied(to further suggest two tunnels). There has been some photoshop fussing with the other identifying blobs - like the dirt on the camera lense and on the floors have been erased or blurred in the flipped pic! It's mad obvious.
Thanks Norwegian, I am posting that gif all over the place.
Posted by: sejomoje | Sep 5, 2018 6:44:10 PM | 57
Norwegian @53--
Thanks for your reply! Another comment mentioned the ability of such digital cameras to self-crop as both pics are cropped as someone provided the pixel dimensions. IMO, this is just more BigLie piled atop the preceding BigLies--doubling-down is the Neocon way after all. All timed with Idlib, no doubt. My question along with many others: Where are the other passengers having to travel through the same portals?
My explanation: Human images were added to an image(s) of an empty portal(s).
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 5, 2018 6:46:54 PM | 58
"It is virtually a confession from the police". Yes, one doesn't know whether to be hopeful of a whistleblower, or just devastated at the incompetence of the so-called intelligence agencies behind these fabrications. It's hardly ever the former unfortunately.
Posted by: sejomoje | Sep 5, 2018 6:47:28 PM | 59
James, I agree about the sarcasm. But when May brings her "resolute" voice to bear, one bows before her gravitas.
After all, it is "highly likely" that Putin decided to queer the time-honored rule not to mess with a spy swap.
Posted by: Bart Hansen | Sep 5, 2018 6:52:04 PM | 61
@Norwegian
Nice work with the gif, it appears exactly how you describe it... just amazing fuckery. Re: the timestamp, its so sloppy it pretty much a taunt: 'none of you sheep give a toss cos there's not a critical thought amongst ya'
Posted by: MadMax2 | Sep 5, 2018 7:02:05 PM | 62
I agree Madmax, so much taunting in these things. This seems ahole 'nother level though. A virtual middle finger to the "conspiracy theorists".
Posted by: sejomoje | Sep 5, 2018 7:06:07 PM | 63
@54 Thank you james. Obviously I am going to have to work harder on my sarcasm mode. Or maybe just quit posting.
Posted by: dh | Sep 5, 2018 7:06:08 PM | 64
How can May be so sure they belong to the GRU if they do not know the real identity of the two guys?
Posted by: Virgile | Sep 5, 2018 7:07:18 PM | 65
@65 Good question. And with all due respect to b I don't think the airport pictures prove much. Who were these two? Why did they go to Salisbury? It looks too sloppy to be GRU.
Russian Mafia contract killers is my guess.
Unless the whole story is an elaborate MI6 concoction and all the CCTV photos are fake.
Posted by: dh | Sep 5, 2018 7:22:25 PM | 66
It may be the release of this material was scheduled to coincide with the US sanctions announced a few weeks ago, as those were said to be motivated by the Skripal case, but then held back for domestic political reasons, as May's position has weakened just the past two weeks. The bonus gratuitous finger-pointing at Corbyn would serve its purpose today or back in August.
Posted by: jayc | Sep 5, 2018 7:27:59 PM | 67
It all relies ultimately on" a body of evidence gathered by intelligence" and we know from recent past experiences of anglo/ ameriocan Intelligence that that cannot be trusted to be either valid or reliable .
Posted by: Kane | Sep 5, 2018 7:33:18 PM | 68
Up next, a false flag chemical attack in idyllic Idlib and the predictable FUKUS response to save those brave freedom fighters. It is so predictable. The only question, will novichok be used in Syria to complete the circle.
Posted by: Tom | Sep 5, 2018 1:47:50 PM | 1