John Chuckman
COMMENT – FURTHER ON THE MYSTERIOUS NAVALNY CASE
I don’t think there can be any doubt that something very unpleasant happened to Navalny in Siberia, and I would certainly like to understand just what it was. But, as I’ve said a number of times, I do have a bias for facts. I accept anything supported by facts, even if it should disturb comfortable assumptions.
It is simply the scientific method, under which, wonderful old ideas and theories get overturned regularly by strong new evidence that they are inadequate. That is how science advances, and for thinking people, the same approach applies to all important matters, including politics or criminal investigations.
What can you say about Germany’s behavior in the Navalny Affair?
Broad ugly charges have been made and no evidence provided, exactly, so far, as was the case in the Skripal Affair in Britain two years ago.
Insofar as Navalny being deliberately poisoned, that is a possibility. He has made many enemies of wealthy people with his anti-corruption campaigns. But, very importantly, the Russian doctors who were the first to treat him, ran many tests and found no poisons. And they still have their biological samples.
There is a definite “stink” around Germany’s charges.
First, a very costly air ambulance was sent to bring Navalny to Germany all the way from Siberia. Such efforts cost tens of thousands of dollars. Who paid for that?
A very odd-sounding NGO in Germany with a name of “The Cinema for Peace Foundation,” a name that almost screams "intelligence front organization."
And did Russia in any way interfere with his being sent to Germany in this extraordinary manner? Not at all. The Russian doctors at the Siberian hospital gave all the facts of which they were aware to the German crew. The Russian doctors almost certainly saved Navalny’s life by administering Atropine, a treatment the Germans continued.
Once Navalny was in Germany, the Germans made a totally unsupported accusation about poisoning with an exotic military nerve agent.
Odd, the Russian doctors in Siberia found no such thing despite extensive tests, and they still have their test samples to prove it.
And then Germany insisted that Russia investigate.
Russia said, "Sure, we'll investigate. Can you share your evidence?" It is normal procedure anywhere for investigators to receive evidence.
Germany did not respond except to say we gave our material to the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) in the Netherlands, and Russia should approach them.
The OPCW is an international organization having to do with control and oversight of chemical weapons, sadly one that we know the United States badly compromised previously in Syria with a false report about a poison gas attack in Douma by the Syrian government. Internal OPCW whistleblowers brought that to our attention through WikiLeaks.
In any event, it is an agency that has nothing to do with criminal investigations, so it is a rather odd place to send evidence for one while declining to provide evidence to criminal investigators in Russia about a crime which supposedly occurred in Russia, investigators responding in part to Germany’s own demand for an investigation.
The poison in question is a member of the family of military nerve agents called Novichok, the same agent that was named in Britain two years ago in accusations over the mysterious Skripal Affair, both the supposed victims of which have literally disappeared under British security service supervision.
Such chemical agents are known to kill almost instantaneously with even a very small exposure, but that is not what happened to Navalny or to Skripal.
Russia is known to have destroyed its stocks of such military nerve agents. It was done under international supervision in compliance with an international treaty. The United States, also a treaty signatory, has still not destroyed all of its poisonous stocks.
Germany, these days, is under immense pressure, including serious threats, from the United States, which deeply resents Germany’s multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline project with Russia (Nord Stream II) and also resents Germany’s “inadequate” level of defense spending. As a measure of Germany’s desperation, the country just offered to build an LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) facility for more than a billion dollars if the United States avoids its threat of (illegal) sanctions against the almost-completed pipeline.
That is effectively a bribe for American LNG producers. Germany doesn’t need the LNG, and LNG shipped from the United States is not competitive with natural gas shipped by pipeline from Russia. It costs money to liquify gas and ship it in special-purpose vessels and then store it at its destination. But Germany is willing to do this just for the right to buy natural gas the way people buy anything, seeking the best price and a dependable supplier, which Russia has proven over decades very much to be.
One can only imagine American politicians high-horse reactions to a third party coming along and telling them that they cannot buy a needed commodity or service from a certain country, but America does not think it is required to play by the rules it sets for others. America routinely for years, for example, has bought rocket engines from Russia. It has also bought transport for astronauts and supplies to and from the International Space Station. And it buys some important commodities from both Russia and China, despite all of its badmouthing of those countries.
I cite the natural-gas situation only to sketch out the kind of unfair pressure the United States puts on everyone these days, even traditional allies.
As I’ve said a number of times, I have a bias for facts. I accept anything which is proven. I admire Putin as one of the great statesmen of our era, but I would put that admiration aside were it proved he uses assassinations, assassinations which we know are part of America’s behavior abroad.
But I do not think there is going to be any need for setting aside my admiration for Putin because I don’t think we are going to receive any evidence – wouldn’t some good evidence be the first thing a government produced when making such extraordinary claims? – and we are too keenly aware of the pressures Germany is under to do “favors” for the United States. Just as Britain’s Theresa May provided a “favor” to the United States with its murky Skripal Affair.
I cannot accept accusations against anyone with no supporting evidence. As in all matters, the larger the charge you are making, the greater is the need for evidence, good, solid evidence. But we are given no evidence, only grotesque charges just as was the case with Britain’s Skripal Affair.
At least Chancellor Merkel, in requesting an investigation, has not repeated the shabby performance of British Prime Minister Theresa May during the Skripal Affair two years ago. May directly accused the Russian government of the “poisoning” and took immediate serious diplomatic steps in retaliation, desired preplanned steps that likely were the whole reason for her accusation in the first place.
Still to this day, there is not a jot of real evidence for what May claimed and indeed a huge number of circumstances arguing dead against it.
We know these days that the United States and allies under its powerful influence regularly lie to us about events in the world. Just one grotesque example was America’s recent public murder of an Iranian national hero, General Soleimani.
Trump told us that Soleimani was on some dark and dire task when he was killed. In fact, we know he was working on a peace initiative, but even if he were doing something else, no one has appointed the United States as global judge, jury, and executioner. And, by the way, one of the reasons General Soleimani is a national hero in Iran is his major role in defeating the ISIS terrorists in Iraq, something the United States likes to boast about despite having done very little.
Trump murdered Soleimani to please Israel’s ruthless Netanyahu – “ruthless” because he has killed many thousands of Palestinians, wounded even more, and regularly steals their property, and he may just have played a role in the set-up for the assassination. Trump wanted to gain bonus points before the upcoming election with America’s Israel Lobby and some big campaign contributors. It would be hard to think of a more unconscionable reason for murder.
NOTE
Recently published material supports the long-held suspicion that the United States engaged in various forms of biological warfare against North Korea and China during the Korean War. Previous work along those lines had supported the assertion, but that work was rejected by the United States and its eminent author was belittled. The new material is a large volume of CIA documents from the time of the Korean War released a few years ago.
So much for America’s credibility in such matters, even seventy years ago. And so much for any doubts about its willingness to use Nazi-like methods when it feels they are to its advantage.
