There was an interesting piece on PM this evening. The commented the fact that everyone, the PM, the EU, the USA, are all using the same phrase - "a military grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia.
On a blog by the former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, he says he's been told that Porton Down scientists are not able to identify the nerve agent as being of Russian manufacture, and have been resentful of the pressure being placed on them to do so. Porton Down would only sign up to the formulation of "a type developed by Russia" after a difficult meeting where this was agreed as a compromise formulation.
PM has been in touch with Porton Down and were refered to the foreign office who had not replied at that point.
They then interviewed Gerry Smith, a risk consultant and was an inspector for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He was very interesting and its well worth going on to the PM site and listening to his interview. He was asked what he thought about what Craig Murray had blogged and he said:
The tension they you mentioned between Porton and the Government is entirely credible; I don't know whether it's true or not, but it's entirely credible where scientists are always looking to ensure that degree of accuracy whereas politicians do thrive a little more on ambiguity.
Interesting ...