Two more victims of "unknown substance" in U.K.

Elmer Blooker wrote: »

You just believe EVERYTHING you read.

No. Just the stuff claims that stand up to scrutiny.

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

So we have gone from completely ignored to only making the headlines for a day at most in the space of 3 or 4 posts. you guys really do like shifting the goalposts.

The world view of these types of posters is underscored by a profound trust in autocratic regimes like that of Putin, and unelected dictators like Assad, while maintaining a personal hatred against often the entire history and existence of certain democratic countries. We're not talking about opposing an administration here, we're talking about opposing a entire country's history, a basket of countries (which makes absolutely no sense)

If that wasn't mental enough, these people will distrust free press from e.g. Scandinavia, Netherlands, Germany, France, etc, press that over the decades as regularly savaged the establishment and political parties... yet these people will blindly support state-controlled press from autocratic regimes and tacky conspiratorial sources

That's putting it mildly

It's the equivalent of you hating *spins wheel*.. Peru. And any thread related to South America you will come in spamming it with vindictive distorted nonsense spanning the entire history of Peru

A repeated reminder as to what we are actually dealing with here

So anyway, back to the autocratic regime that put two stiff agents on (English speaking, in a country with where only 5% of the population speak English) state controlled TV claiming that on the very day that the Skripals were poisoned, these two surly looking men had a burning desire to book last minute tickets and see Salisbury Spire

An account so absurd as to make virtually no sense

Joshua J wrote: »

I'm saying that because someone disagrees with you/sky news, doesn't mean they're a paid Russian shill, which is what you and the lads are trying to infer. Let's not play silly beggars here.

I haven't accused anyone of that in this thread. Someone asked:

“Troll army” - what the hell is a troll army?

and I answered.

Elmer Blooker wrote: »

I'm not going to ignore the countless airstrikes on civilians AFTER Haley became ambassador to suit you.

feel free to discuss them but that is not what we were discussing and your mention of Nikki was both wrong and irrelevant.

kingc wrote: »

That sounds nonsensical. I don't believe Russia wants a war judging by their actions at the world stage. USA, Britain, France and co are pushing hard to overthrow governments that they cannot dictate and purposefully creating tension and hostilities with their rivals. It seems that people in Ireland and Britain have really fallen for the propaganda campaign making out Russia as the bad guys yet when we look at the countries track records it is clearly the West who have done and continue to do more harm to world peace

jaysus, invading Georgia in 2008, invading Ukraine in 2014, using chemical/radioactive substances on foreign grounds, sure, pure saint guys, how could anyone think that they want war, never :D:D

kingc wrote: »

If you don't see that our media is extremely biased then you are already brainwashed. Did you know USA bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital killing 42 people in 2015? If you didn't you can be forgiven because Irish media didn't show it. Crazy because you would think that is major news but it doesn't fit the agenda so better not to mention it. It is obvious our media is going to be biased towards USA when our country even allows their military to use our airport

What do you think I meant by "reasonably" free press? I am aware some press outlets are biased, but they aren't all state controlled and there is a wide varity to choose from.

Yes, I was aware about the hospital bombing clustf... because we do have a reasonably free press, as I said. You will find the story about that on pretty much every major western news site:

BBC

The US military has disciplined more than a dozen service members after an air strike on a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Afghanistan killed 42 people last year.

CNBC

The Pentagon, which has said it may have inadvertently struck the hospital during a military operation, said in a statement on Sunday that a preliminary investigation of the episode would be completed in a matter of days. The Afghan government also vowed to investigate the airstrike.

... and so on and so on.

It's not a suppressed secret as you seem to suggest.

The Irish media reported it, what absolute rubbish are you spouting?

Bellingcat is reporting more information on suspect Petrov. Another GRU operative, Col. Eduard Shishmakov.

Bellingcat and the Insider have previously investigated and reported on a different GRU officer who also travelled under a cover persona and passport. This was the case of Col. Eduard Shishmakov, a former Russian Military Attaché in Warsaw expelled by Poland in 2014 for espionage. Col. Shishmakov, using an undercover (albeit not very creative) persona and passport in the name of Eduard Shirokov, travelled to Serbia in October 2016 to supervise – as alleged by the Montenegro special prosecutor – a failed coup against the pro-Western government in Podgorica.

Anyway, it turns out that his fake passport number is also in the same sequence as the the other two's.

The numbers were from the same batch, with only 26 intervening passport numbers between “Petrov”’s (654341297), and “Shirokov”’s (654341323) number. “Shirokov”’s passport was issued in August 2016, implying that Petrov’s and Boshirov’s passports were issued by the same special authority earlier that year.

The article also shows that Petrov, or at least his passport, was very well travelled for the average Russian.

Of course, this won't make any sense to some people.

Cheerful Spring is an anagram of Cringe Help Surf

Cheerful Spring wrote: »

Bellingcat is a fake site. Do you honestly think they can just find out a person a secret agent by just looking up some passport information? How do you know what they showing you is even real there is no paper trail no sources who provided this info?.

Our two alleged GRU agents were smoking weed and having sex with a hooker and annoying and ranting at guests. They are not professionals. The GRU would not sanction a hit in broad daylight. Lets us just stroll along and let every camera see us? That blows their cover and they can never work again.

You say it's fake and there's another president who uses that word to describe news that he doesn't like. Anyhoo, according to mediabiasfactcheck...

LEAST BIASED

These sources have minimal bias and use very few loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes). The reporting is factual and usually sourced. These are the most credible media sources. See all Least Biased sources.
Factual Reporting: HIGH
Notes: Bellingcat uses open source and social media investigation to investigate a variety of subjects, from Mexican drug lords to conflicts being fought across the world. Bellingcat brings together contributors who specialize in open source and social media investigation, and creates guides and case studies so others may learn to do the same. They primarily cover Russian and Syrian stories. They source all of their information. (12/15/2016)

Now, your source for the getting high with a hooker. How reputable is that paper, not that it matters? It's not like GRU can't do that either.

Are the three passport numbers faked?

Cheerful Spring wrote: »

I could not tell you if this a fake passport for certain. I would have concerns about the lettering. It not consistent like you see where it says M/M that two Ms are not alike. Parts of the letters and numbers have faded too. For 2016 passport it should be in better condition. That my initial impression a passport expert probably notice more issues then I would.

Is USSR over the expiry date common? Honestly, I don't know. However, it's not unusual for fake passports of spies to be published.

Cheerful Spring wrote: »

Guests were interviewed and they described what they saw. One guest who was next door complained to hotel management about the smell of weed and noise.. They probably are misfits but not Russian finest secret agents. If GRU recruiting agents like this they are going to be outplayed by the CIA.

Hardly. Just look at the two of them, they would have to look like the stereotyped bad guy villains from some crappy Hollywood 'action' movie (probably with Liam Neeson in it!) They could only have travelled to England to carry out a hit looking like ....... well two Hollywood bad guy hit men!
They were never going to look like ordinary business men types in suits.