FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
British Novichok Poisoning Hoax of Skripals Exposed by Swiss Lab
April 16, 2018 (EIRNS)—The British lie that Russia carried out an attempted assassination of the former Russian agent turned British double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, on March 4, has exploded over the weekend, with the revelation by an OPCW-designated laboratory in Spiez, Switzerland, that the poison used on the Skripals is actually one invented by Hoffman LaRoche in 1951 and used only by NATO countries, but never developed by Russia!
The Associated Press broke the story on April 14, followed with more details by Dr. Andrea Galli in Modern Diplomacy on April 15; TASS reported it April 14.
The Swiss Institute for NBC-Protection of nuclear, biological, chemical weapons in Spiez is a world-renowned Swiss government-run center of excellence in WMD forensic analysis. It analyzed the substance found at Salisbury at the request of the OPCW. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he received confidential results from this laboratory; OPCW has not reported them yet.
According to Galli, in his article, “Swiss Governmental Lab Identifies the Substance Used on the Skripal Case as Being Linked to NATO?” that Swiss lab reported
“the poison found at Salisbury by OPCW investigators looking into the Skripal affair, there are traces of the toxic agent 3-Quinuclidinyl Benzilate [BZ] and traces of A-234—one of the nerve agents of the novichok group—in its original form and in a concentration that would have killed the Skripals, not explaining the clinical picture of the Skripals. However, the presence of 3-Quinuclidinyl Benzilate explains the clinical picture of the Skripals.”
3-Quinuclidiny benzilate was developed and weaponized in the 1960s as a new chemical agent for battlefield use as a psychochemical, and assigned the NATO code agent BZ. It is a nerve-poisoning agent and a chemical weapon that is non-lethal but causes a wide array of potentially incapacitating symptoms in its victims: soldiers can become disoriented or even experience hallucinations, Dr. Galli wrote.
“Less than 1 mg of BZ takes 30-60 minutes to act and can produce acute brain syndrome, characterized by delirium lasting for 3-5 days, which can be reversed by physostigmine and other anticholinesterases.”
It is a psychotomimetic agent, which is a class of chemicals which consistently produced changes in thought, perception and mood, such as LSD, the best known of these agents, Galli explained.
On the evening of April 15, an interesting exchange took place on Twitter. First, the lab in Spiez, Switzerland, which had made no comment, itself, wrote that it “had no doubt that Porton Down had identified Novichok.” But another expert tweeted back:
“You’re in the best position to say what your findings were. Answering that you agree PD had identified Novichok is like answering a question with a riddle. What the world needs is straightforwardness.”
And @SpiezLab replied,
“No, we are not in the best position. The OPCW rejected the Russian demands to publicize the designated labs involved. Wait for the meeting of the OPCW Executive Council on April 18.”
So the possibility of OPCW withholding the Spiez lab results is circumspectly raised.
The Skripals’ symptoms match those of BZ: 30-60 minutes to take effect matches the report that they went to lunch and that witnesses, who saw them there and on the park bench, said they appeared to be suffering from hallucinations.
Lavrov, in the AP report April 14, pointed out that
“the Swiss lab also pointed to the presence of the nerve agent A234, [novichok] in the samples, but added that its presence appeared strange, given the substance’s high volatility and the relatively long period between the poisoning and the sample-taking.”
TASS quoted Lavrov as saying,
“We are asking the OPCW a question: Why was the information that would reflect conclusions of the experts from the laboratory in the city of Spiez omitted in the final report?”
