ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Written by  Craig Murray ; Originally appeared on  craigmurray.org.uk Craig Murray was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. In my last post I set out the official Government account of the events in the Skripal Case. Here I examine the credibility of this story. Next week I shall look at alternative explanations. Russia has a decade long secret programme of producing and stockpiling novichok nerve agents. It also has been training agents in secret assassination techniques, and British intelligence has a copy of the Russian training manual, which includes instruction on painting nerve agent on doorknobs. The only backing for this statement by Boris Johnson is alleged “intelligence”, and unfortunately the “intelligence” about Russia’s secret novichok programme comes from exactly the same people who brought you the intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s WMD programme, proven liars. Furthermore

Illustrative image On July 14, a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (SVBIED) of the Taliban targeted a joint center of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police (ANP) in the area of Bashran Dasht in Lashkargah, the capital of the southern province of Helmand, according to the Taliban news agency Voice of Jihad. The Taliban claimed that 37 personnel of the ANA and the ANP were killed and 11 others were injured in the SVBIED attack. According to Voice of Jihad, 6 armored personnel carriers (APCs) of the ANA were also destroyed as a result of the explosion. A spokesman of Lashkargah’s governor, Omar Zowak confirmed to the Afghan TOLO TV that a SVBIED targeted a joint center of the ANA and the ANP in Helmand. However, Zowak said that only one Afghan policeman was killed and 11 others were injured in the attack. According to the Taliban, the suicide attack is a part of its spring offensive, codenamed “Operation al-Khandagh”, which  was launched