Great to be reading Isikoff on SpyTalk. His skepticism is invaluable. And that book of his (with David Corn, of course), is well worth tracking down.
It's good to have your assumptions challenged and the point about the size of the Havana Syndrome energy weapon or, rather, it's power source, is a deal-breaker. Ditto the random nature of the targets. Like most people, I too had passively accepted the conventional wisdom: its dramatic narrative suckered me. There's obviously a long way to go before we know for sure what went on.
I hate to say this, but that's also true of the Nord Stream bombings. This time the seductive narrative is that a small team in a tiny yacht led by this Ukrainian colonel set the explosives. It's the stuff of action movies and I think Mike's fallen it. The better evidence is the extensive and verifiable work of Scandinavian investigative journalists and OSINT researchers who have identified a small fleet of Russian specialist dive vessels loitering above the blast sites beforehand. If it doesn't get reported by the NYT or Der Spiegel I guess it's not news.
Finally, for anyone not up to date with the Skripal assassination attempt, a lot more is known about the assassins than that they were "Kremlin operatives". This time, OSINT researchers at Bellingcat got at least as far as MI5, if not further.:
Skripal Suspect Identified as GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga
It seems kinda cheesy to plug your book in a blog that I and many others pay for.
Great to be reading Isikoff on SpyTalk. His skepticism is invaluable. And that book of his (with David Corn, of course), is well worth tracking down.
It's good to have your assumptions challenged and the point about the size of the Havana Syndrome energy weapon or, rather, it's power source, is a deal-breaker. Ditto the random nature of the targets. Like most people, I too had passively accepted the conventional wisdom: its dramatic narrative suckered me. There's obviously a long way to go before we know for sure what went on.
I hate to say this, but that's also true of the Nord Stream bombings. This time the seductive narrative is that a small team in a tiny yacht led by this Ukrainian colonel set the explosives. It's the stuff of action movies and I think Mike's fallen it. The better evidence is the extensive and verifiable work of Scandinavian investigative journalists and OSINT researchers who have identified a small fleet of Russian specialist dive vessels loitering above the blast sites beforehand. If it doesn't get reported by the NYT or Der Spiegel I guess it's not news.
Finally, for anyone not up to date with the Skripal assassination attempt, a lot more is known about the assassins than that they were "Kremlin operatives". This time, OSINT researchers at Bellingcat got at least as far as MI5, if not further.:
Skripal Suspect Identified as GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/09/26/skripal-suspect-boshirov-identified-gru-colonel-anatoliy-chepiga/
Second Skripal Suspect Identified as Dr. Alexander Mishkin
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/10/08/second-skripal-poisoning-suspect-identified-as-dr-alexander-mishkin/
Third Suspect Identified as Denis Sergeev, High-Ranking GRU Officer
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2019/02/14/third-suspect-in-skripal-poisoning-identified-as-denis-sergeev-high-ranking-gru-officer/