Something is cooking...

[BIAD]

I left this one alone to run for a few days and now Porton Down has announced that two people
in a nearby town to the Skripal incident have been infected by the infamous Novichok nerve agent.

Amesbury poisoning: Couple exposed to Novichok nerve agent.

'A man and woman found unconscious in Wiltshire were exposed to Novichok -the same nerve agent
that poisoned ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, police say. The couple, believed to be Charlie Rowley,
45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill at a house in Amesbury on Saturday and remain in a critical condition.


Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley.

Police say no one else has presented with the same symptoms.
There was "nothing in their background" to suggest the pair were targeted, the Met Police said.


House cordoned off.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid will chair a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee later
to discuss the developments.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said it could not be confirmed whether the nerve
agent came from the same batch that Mr Skripal, and his daughter Yulia, were exposed to.
But he said the possibility was "clearly a line of enquiry".

Mr Basu said no contaminated items had yet been found, but officers were putting together a "very detailed
examination of [the couple's] movements" in order to determine where they were poisoned.
He added that members of the public should not pick anything up if they didn't know what it was.
"We have no idea what may have contained the nerve agent at this time," he said.

Novichok, a resilient and resistant nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, takes
effect within minutes, blocking messages from the nerves to the muscles causing bodily functions to collapse.

The Counter Terrorism Policing Network is now leading the investigation, working with Wiltshire Police.
The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera said: "The most likely hypothesis is that this is leftover
Novichok from the attack on the Skripals back in March."

Chemical weapons expert Richard Guthrie said it was possible that the Novichok which poisoned the Skripals
may have been disposed of "in a haphazard way". If the couple had come across it in a syringe or pot, it might
have been better preserved, he told BBC Breakfast.

England's chief medical officer, Sally Davies, said: "I want to reassure the public that the risk to the general public
remains low." The Skripal episode meant officials had a "well-established response" in place, she said.
"As before, my advice is to wash your clothes and wipe down any personal items, shoes and bags, with cleansing
or baby wipes before disposing of them in the usual way.

"You do not need to seek advice from a health professional unless you are experiencing symptoms, as any individual
who had been significantly exposed at the same time would by now have symptoms."

Asked whether the people of Salisbury and Amesbury were at risk, security minister Ben Wallace said the nature of
Novichok meant it was "an absolute tiny needle in a very large haystack that we have to find".
He said the "best intelligence officers in the world" were working on the investigation but until the full picture of the
Skripal assassination attempt was known, he couldn't offer complete reassurance.

"I can't guarantee you will be 100% safe in Manchester from terrorism nor can I guarantee in the west country that
you are going to be 100% safe from a further contamination until we know the full details of what happened back
in March," he told BBC Breakfast.

On Saturday, paramedics were called twice to the property in Amesbury -in the morning, after Ms Sturgess had
collapsed, then later the same day, after Mr Rowley had also fallen unwell.
"It was initially believed that the two patients fell ill after using possibly heroin or crack cocaine from a contaminated
batch of drugs," Wiltshire Police said...'

Here's another example of the media running away with a narrative. Amesbury is ten miles away from the town
where the Skripals were effected and there's no evidence at this point that this new couple visited Salisbury after
that incident.

'...The news that Novichok was to blame was announced following analysis at the defence research facility at Porton
Down, Wiltshire. Sites in Amesbury and Salisbury believed to have been visited by the couple before they fell ill have
been cordoned off as a precaution, including a church, park and chemist...'

Yet, set in a black text blocks beneath images of this BBC web page, it states:
'...The Amesbury branch of Boots was closed on Wednesday morning as a "precautionary measure"...'
'...Police have cordoned off a number of areas including Muggleton Road in Amesbury...'
'...The couple, believed to be Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were found unconscious on Saturday in Amesbury...'
Not Salisbury.

'...On Thursday morning, the focus of police activity was in Muggleton Road where the couple first fell ill, BBC
correspondent Jon Kay said. But there is no evidence to suggest either visited the sites that were decontaminated
following the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March...'

See...? Many of the comments are from BBC correspondents and ex-security 'experts' who offer exciting punditry
They imply a chain of suggestions and then state an opposite official statement further on.

'...Local residents have been warned to expect to see an increased police presence -including officers wearing
protective equipment. Security correspondent Gordon Corera said the poisoning was "hugely significant" as the
public would be worried.

He added: "Perhaps this is some of the Novichok prepared for the attack [in Salisbury in March] and discarded
-maybe somewhere like a park, a house - and maybe these two came across it."
He added it could give counter-terrorism investigators new leads on where the nerve agent was "brought and put
together" before the attack on the Skripals.

On Wednesday evening, before police had made the Novichok link, government-run TV station Rossiya 1 suggested
that the Amesbury poisoning may have been staged by the British government out of spite over the "fabulous" World
Cup hosted by Russia.

And state TV's Channel One and Gazprom-Media's NTV sarcastically argued that it may only be a matter of time
before Russia gets the blame. Home Secretary Sajid Javid said his thoughts were with the two affected and thanked
the emergency services and staff at Salisbury District Hospital, where the Skripals were also treated.
He said the events followed "the reckless and barbaric attack" in Salisbury in March.

"The government's first priority is for the safety of the residents in the local area but as Public Health England has made
clear, the risk to the general public is low," he said...'

BBC:

What I find odd is that at the weekend -and before this incident was reported, three people died in my hometown in
the North-East of England from what the Police thought was a 'bad batch' of contaminated heroin.
Two were found dead on Saturday morning and the third died on Sunday evening.

It was reported in my local newspaper and never hit the mainstream media. Yet the initial Amesbury case was
first offered as an overdose of 'bad drugs' and reported by the BBC and Sky News. The two major news outlets in
the UK.

'..."It was initially believed that the two patients fell ill after using possibly heroin or crack cocaine from a contaminated
batch of drugs," Wiltshire Police said....' Why would you think that unless you had information that this couple used these
types of drugs?

Paraphernalia and heroin found in the couple's house would be a fair indication -as well as previous convictions, but now
it seems to have morphed into another Novichok encounter... and the connection is being pushed by the media.
...........................................................

Edit: After I had posted the above, this was on the Sky News website:

LIVE: Amesbury victims ‘not linked to Skripals’ - minister.

Sajid Javid is to chair a Cobra meeting after a couple were poisoned by novichok, the nerve agent used against the Skripals.
09:19, UK...'

SKY News Updates:

So that's the MSM narrative disposed of, but I'm sure they'll arc it back to 'the Ruskies did it' by the late-afternoon!