you say Shikhany - some say chicanery

Image: Trip Advisor

UK still trying to manage perception of nerve agent incident.

"Let's call the whole thing off?" [YouTube]

The following headline is from a Times article but if you want more than just a teaser you have to put in another quarter, like a common peep show. (The main talking points are reproduced here.)
​
Salisbury poison ‘made at Russia’s Porton Down’
Shikhany lab complex: cafés, schools – and a nerve agent lab

• Russia does not deny the existence of the site but nobody can visit Shikhany-2, the closed military part of the town, without a permit. In addition to the chemical facility, Shikhany-2 has cafés, groceries, hospitals and schools.

 
So, the UK is still doing the old Switcheroo?

• Russian lab "thought to have" produced the nerve agent

And in the same breath:

• has been identified as the source of the nerve agent used at Salisbury

Note the time frame of the admitted-to testing: "during the past decade". Trust me, if it were in recent months the Times would have screamed it in the headlines.

Look, the Russians have already been expelled; why keep trying to scrub the egg off certain faces? Or is this really a case of we (the UK) scratch your (the USA) back ... etcetera?

It's certainly clear that the US needs to get something serious going with Russia. Could it be because the US nuclear arsenal needs an overhaul and Trump has to justify the expenditure?

Americans won't go for it unless the bejeebers is (are?) scared out of them, anymore than they would have gone for the wars on Afghanistan/Iraq etc., if the Islamic menace hadn't been drilled into their psyches. (That and no jobs available except in police and military - which, by the way, is where Canada's young graduates may also be headed).

Well, lookee here, eh?: Russia has thought of that as well.

• At a time when the US national debt stands at just over $20 trillion, American taxpayers find themselves stuck with a massive maintenance bill to keep the nation’s nuclear arsenal operational over the next three decades.
• The modernization of US nuclear forces will carry a price tag estimated at $1.2 trillion from 2017 until 2046, according to the US Congress Budget Office (CBO) report.

From Mike Pence [try not to gag]:

• “There’s no greater element of American strength, there’s no greater force for peace in the world than the United States nuclear arsenal.”

Coincidence?  As Ian Richardson's cunning character, Prime Minister Francis Urquhart, said in To Play the King - "You might think that ...I could not possibly comment."

Sorry, but it's not at all unthinkable that the source of the poison was Portadown, and it's not yet been proven otherwise. Nor is there anything to indicate that it didn't originate in the US.

America has a less-than immaculate history with regard to its research labs having been implicated in poison attacks that were blamed on other entities - such as the bad, bad Muslims. So why should we assume that Porton Down is squeaky clean in that regard?

Either way, PM May and Boris have cancelled out their own arguments, so it's time to let things rest. Otherwise, all we can assume is what we've already surmised, that the news media are merely outlets for the manipulation of public perception.

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US HISTORY OF "ACCIDENTAL" RELEASE OF LETHAL PATHOGENS

US labs handling Ebola, anthrax inadvertently released lethal pathogens: report

• The report by the Government Accountability Office to Congress followed a series of mishaps in which dangerous pathogens were inadvertently released. The report, seen by Reuters, concluded that the Federal Select Agent Programme needs an overhaul.
• According to the report, a chief concern is that the programme is too focused on physical security measures, such as preventing theft from labs, and needs to focus more on bio-safety issues that could protect researchers and the wider public from errors.

Dr. Bruce Ivins, the former government scientist blamed for a string of deadly 2001 anthrax attacks ... 'Let me sleep,' anthrax suspect wrote before suicide

• The anthrax letters killed five people and sickened more than a dozen just after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The letters, filled with bacterial spores, were sent to Senate Democratic leaders and news organizations. Those who died were two Washington postal workers, a New York hospital worker, a supermarket tabloid photo editor in Florida, and a 94-year-old woman in Connecticut.

Image below from:
How secure are labs handling world's deadliest pathogens?

•  “I don’t have a lot of confidence in our biosafety right now.” ​