U S. To Expel 60 Russian Diplomats In Response To Nerve Agent Attack.

a reply to: frenchfries


"people should not defend bad russia because you're annoyed."

Pretty much, yeah.

a reply to: oldcarpy

That would be one example, yes.

Our nations refusal to engage with the procedures that prior leaders agreed to, is actually harmful to our international reputation, and will invalidate any conclusions come to on a unilateral basis. The whole idea of having an investigation by the OPCW, is that its findings are not unilaterally come to by agents of one or another state, but are come to by consensus of internationally derived agents and investigators.

a reply to: [post=23265271]TrueBrit[/pos



Yes, but Glocks are not difficult to come by, military grade nerve agents, not so much

a reply to: TrueBrit


What procedures are you referring to?

a reply to: oldcarpy

hmmm... Alexa talking ?

a reply to: frenchfries


No, just little old me, thank you, Mr Chips.

a reply to: oldcarpy

Well, for a start there is a procedure which requires samples be shared for testing by all parties capable of doing so, and who have an interest in working out the origin of a particular chemical. This makes sense, because it means that anyone tempted to try to pull a fast one, can be shown that they are the only people capable of getting the same, doctored result, which shows that result to be politically, not scientifically motivated. In essence, it forces nations agencies and investigators to be unbiased, lest they lose face and cause international incidents.

a reply to: TrueBrit


I have heard that but where can I find a source for this procedure - do you have one? Is it mandatory, or what?

a reply to: oldcarpy

And whats your point there?

The reality of the situation is that the chemical weapon which was used on Skripal could have come from any national laboratory for chemical weapons research. It could easily be American stock, UK stock, French or German, the list goes on. Any nation that could have a hope in hell of even identifying the stuff, can and has MADE some for itself, purely to experiment with it to find out its capabilities!

a reply to: oldcarpy

Well, here is a breakdown of how the OPCW is supposed to function.

It should be noted that up until now, the UK government have not even called the OPCW in, they have just made an awful lot of noise.

a reply to: TrueBrit


My point is that you are saying that the Govt should follow some procedure that "prior leaders agreed" and I just asked you for a source for that "procedure". Do you have one, please?

a reply to: TrueBrit


The OPCW has not been called in "now", it was a while ago.

a reply to: oldcarpy

Sorry, missed a link.

Hang on a tic....

Heres the website...

www.opcw.org...

Here is a part specifically pertaining to the order of events in the scenario where an investigation is required into an alleged use of chemical weapons...

www.opcw.org...

And, just for completeness sake:

en.wikipedia.org...

This is an official statement on the procedures being followed by our govt including the notification to the OPCW which was a while back Their inspectors arrived here on 19th March 2018:-

Involvement of the OPCW by British Govt

a reply to: TrueBrit


Thanks - our posts have crossed. I posted an official statement on the procedures being followed and the steps being taken so how are we not following these procedures?

a reply to: oldcarpy

Great, and what has been shared with the team? The OPCW has not come to any conclusions about the matter, a google search would reveal it if they had.

a reply to: oldcarpy

The only OPCW representative (the representative of the UK government) to state any conclusion so far, has not been part of the investigative team from the OPCW.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Perhaps you have not been searching hard enough?

Here is the Head of the OPCW saying their investigation will take 2-3 weeks, so no one is actually expecting their "conclusion" just yet:-


News China

a reply to: oldcarpy

Yes, interesting though, is it not, that Westminster is already harassing Russia, and this piece makes the as yet unproven statement that the material "traces back to Russia" even as it discusses the ongoing investigation by the OPCW.

It should be understood that no statement as to whom is responsible for the attack can be made in legitimacy and with accuracy, UNTIL that process has been completed. It is the OPCW who will determine whose chemicals these were, where they came from, which batch, and so on, not for the British government to make contextual assumptions about with no actual evidence at all, or for the press to continue to spin into an anti-Russia hit job.

a reply to: TrueBrit


All true, but in the meantime while due process is ongoing you can't really expect the Govt to sit back and do nothing when the evidence it does have points to Russia. That is not how things work.

So, you claimed that the Govt were not supposedly following agreed procedure by which I take it you now mean the OPCW route. In fact, it seems that that is exactly what we are doing.