Secret facts

There's much talk of fake news surrounding the Skripal poisoning case.

But no news might be more accurate.

Going to the source of the latest chapter, that is to the OPCW, is only good for amusement.

Here's the OPCW's public report. There's about one sentence of interest:

The UK’s delegation to the OPCW requested that the Technical Secretariat share the report with all States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and to make the Executive Summary of the report publicly available.

So... here's the Executive Summary. To sum it up again:

The UK gave us samples. We found in the samples what the UK said was in the samples. What the UK said was in the samples is classified.

Now Lavrov goes after a Swiss laboratory involved in the samples' testing, knowing full well that the laboratory is forbidden by contract to comment on anything Lavrov says.

Where do we go from here? Believe Lavrov's tale of most convenient public facts matching? I smell a rat. But what Lavrov says could be true.

Nobody tells me nothin'.

If I was a journalist, I'd feel obliged to report what government officials are saying, but I would add the phrase:

based on information not for publication.

So, that's what happens to facts, when they are not published. Governments will say about them whatever they like and those who know better go to prison, when they comment.