[Peace-discuss] Navalny poisoning reporting fails to acknowledge CIA, MI6, and discredited state-funded Bellingcat role in accusing Russia

[J.B. Nicholson]

I wrote:
> Aaron Maté's article for The Grayzone
> 
> https://thegrayzone.com/2020/12/27/navalny-poisoning-cia-mi6-discredited-state-funded-bellingcat-play-key-role-in-accusing-russia/ 
> 
> cover reasons why there's plenty of room to be skeptical about
> establishment-serving media outlets (such as CNN and Democracy Now) in their claim
> that Russia poisoned opposition activist Alexei Navalny.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=jMliTYf3X_4 is a discussion on The Gaggle (this episode 
is hosted by two of the show's co-hosts Peter Lavelle & George Szamuely). They raise 
a number of useful questions including: how did Navalny know who he was talking to? 
Is it possible Navalny was not speaking with the person he and the establishment 
media claim Navalny was speaking to? How did Navalny get this alleged FSB person's 
contact info?

What are the real goals of these poisonings that all seem to involve one of the 
novichok poisons? The only person who has died from this alleged poison is Dawn 
Sterling who (as far as we know) might have been (according to one report) a heroin 
addict and thus may have had a precondition which made her easier to kill from many 
things. And with all of these poisonings, how much of a threat are they to us really? 
Is the goal to keep relations bad between the US and Russia which they choose to 
implement by maintaining a low-level threat? Something else (like a Russian organized 
crime involvement, as Seymour Hersh has said[1])?



[1] 
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/seymour-hersh-interview-novichok-russian-hacking-9-11-nerve-agent-attack-a8459596.html 
-- Sy Hersh has not investigated the story but says the Russian mafia is involved in 
this:

> Hersh is also on the record as stating that the official version of the Skripal
> poisoning does not stand up to scrutiny. He tells me: “The story of novichok
> poisoning has not held up very well. He [Skripal] was most likely talking to
> British intelligence services about Russian organised crime.” The unfortunate turn
> of events with the contamination of other victims is suggestive, according to
> Hersh, of organised crime elements rather than state-sponsored actions – though
> this files in the face of the UK government's position.
Seymour Hersh told RT in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJgTiP6WBss

> Sy Hersh: Those two [the two men interviewed on RT] were helping the British
> intelligence services with information about the Russian mafia. That's what they
> were doing here [in the UK]. In other words, the people that were high on the list
> of people who would want to hurt him [Sergey Skripal] would be the Russian mafia.
> Russians, but not the Russian government.
> 
> Afshin Rattansi, RT host: Do you mean the Skripals?
> 
> Sy Hersh: Yeah, I mean that was the understanding. There was also some reporting
> out of Europe about that that's been pretty much widespread. [...]