Dec 07 2006
Litvinenko Dies A Chechen
The Litvinenko ties to Chechen Islamo Fascists were shown today to be even stronger than previously thought:
Vladimir Bukovsky, a friend and fellow Putin critic, said Litvinenko had asked that his body eventually be moved to Chechnya. The region in southern Russia is mostly Muslim and plagued by rebel attacks as well as violence blamed on federal troops and forces of the Moscow-backed Chechen government.
“On his deathbed, he asked to be buried when the war is over in Chechen soil,” Bukovsky said. “He was a fierce defender of Chechnya and critic of the Kremlin.”
When Litvinenk died back in late November, the Chechen’s bestowed up him the title of ‘martyr’, which tells me he gave his life in the war against the infidel. Was he working for the Chechens and some plot involving nuclear material when he was contaminated? Obviously he had no real love or bonds to the UK or Russia.
Update: Much more here from a Canadian outlet regarding Litvinenko’s deep ties to the Chechen Terrorists.
The Canadian article you cite mentions that Litvinenko claims the KGB was behind the apartment bombings in Russia.
It doesn’t mention that some ordinary policemen arrested some KGB guys with explosives in an apartment building.
They said they were doing an anti-terrorist “drill.”
Do I know the truth? No, but this sounds fishy to me.
The Chechnya revolt was originally nationalist. The regime appears to have used Islamic extremists to undermine nationalists and give themselves an excuse to go in in the name of “anti-terrorism.”
These are very complicated, sneaky people.
The mosque wouldn’t let his casket INTO the chapel. Because of “fears of radiation.”
And, we’re sure the ding-dong in a dinner jacket isn’t frightening the iranians. What with all these “death stories,” now blossoming out of the Litvenenko hit?
Do you know the stories we’re told to believe, really don’t add up.
This was also at the CN site (report a “suspect” in the case is in a coma from radiation poisoning !)
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/12/07/2670644-ap.html
Which Chechen terrorists was Litvinenko allied with, AJ?
There are different Chechens fighting. Chechens aren’t all Al Qaeda, tho’ Al Qaeda is certainly going to take advantage of this.
Is Zakaev considered a terrorist by OUR government or by the British?
You need to say that it is the official Russian view (and yours, evidently) that Zakaev is a terrorist, but what is the offical view of the US and Brits?
Does YOUR government say Zakaev is a terrorist? Does the State Department say Zakayev is a terrorist?
Is every Chechen who fights the Russians a terrorist or Islamist?
Did you consider the Afghans who fought the Soviets terrorists?
This article is about the bombing of the President of Chechnya and others in 1996.
Were they Islamists?
http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?search=1&volume_id=3&issue_id=140&article_id=1663
Seems to me that this plutonium story is being spun to tar all Chechens as nuclear-toting Al Qaeda terrorists. This just isn’t the case.
Chechens and Russians have been fighting each other for hundereds of years.
Chechen nationalists like Maskhadov have appealed to the west. They supported us in Iraq.
Was Anna Politkovskaya an Al Qaeda operative? What about all the other dead journalists who criticized Russian actions in Chechnya?
You should read what all these dead people said.
Here is Berezovsky’s perspective.
http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=21&issue_id=1438&article_id=14636
AJ–
Some (dead) Putin critics have claimed that the state security was probably behind the hostage crisis in a Moscow theater.
A bit about Zakayev (BBC)
QUOTE:
With the collapse of the Soviet Union [Zakayev] took part in the first Chechen war of independence.
When the peace agreement with Russia was signed, he started to promote peace dialogue and in November 2001 held talks in Moscow with President Putin`s representative General Victor Kazantsev. During this time moderate Chechens and Zakayev himself were resisting pressure from extremists.
The Russian authorities of the time were very willing to negotiate with Mr Zakayev. They saw him as a powerful negotiator during the war, who did not share the more radical views of the extremist warlords Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev.
As President Maskhadov`s representative, Mr Zakayev made an offer to Moscow: he agreed to the status of wide autonomy for Chechnya and suggested the introduction of direct Moscow rule for the interim period.
But the Russians insisted on unconditional capitulation of the rebels. Some Russian experts believe that those who made this decision bear heavy responsibility for the hostage tragedy in Moscow in October.
THE ARREST.
In the wake of Moscow theatre crisis in October when more than 120 hostages died from the effects of the narcotic gas, Mr Zakayev was arrested in Copenhagen where he was attending a Chechen congress.
Moscow accused him of involvement with Chechen rebels who took more than 800 people hostage in Moscow, an allegation Mr Zakayev vehemently denied.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/archive/international/zakayev.shtml
The MURDERED reporter Anna Politkovskaya “accused the Kremlin of provoking the 2004 seizure of hostages at a school in Beslan, which ended in the deaths of 333 people, more than half of them children.
“All his problems, the theater siege, Beslan and the results, come from the fact he doesn’t understand that each person has rights, that he is not a cog in a machine,” Politkovskaya said.
“Putin doesn’t understand that, he has own logic, it is the logic of a KGB officer in the Soviet Union — the worst type.”
“The thing is that many people in our country share this view, many. But the life of a person is nothing … This Stalinesque psychology is very much alive in our country,” she said.
Politkovskaya said that his tenure had also seen a deliberate inflaming of tensions with Chechnya.
“The root of the problem is that he is reproducing terrorism. It is a kind of politics that creates people who want to be terrorists,” Politkovskaya said.
She said Chechens had no judicial redress over kidnappings of their relatives. “They had no one to appeal to in order to find their relatives … that led gradually to the theater siege,” Politkovskaya said, claiming the same motivations had also prompted the Beslan hostage taking.
Putin had deliberately muzzled Russia’s press, pressuring critical voices who challenged his authority, Politkovskaya said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/24/europe/EU_GEN_Britain_Spys_Slain_Friend.php
Snapple,
Those who claimed Putin bombed the apartments and was behind Beslan are as idiotic as those here who claim Bush and Cheney orchestrated 9-11. Sorry, tin foil doesn’t fit my head in any language. The Chechens claimed credit and their people were found in most of the attacks.
Not buying it, no matter how many times it is posted here. Folks should go compare notes with Cynthia Mckinney if they want.
This is serious. These people have claimed to have the desire and capability to release nukes or dirty bombs in our cities. Why is anyone listening to these other conspiracy theories when this is a stated goal of these people and now we find the covered in nuclear material?
Probably no one can completely judge Litvinenko’s intent in becoming a Muslim, but I would like speculate that it was not an entirely spiritual event. Why? Because it would have served him well to know that he was making himself a martyr, and he knew he would, to people who would avenge his death. And that fits with whatever or whoever caused his death, because Litvinenko’s goal was the same as Berezovsky’s — to bring down the current Russian regime.
But especially if he was murdered — converting would have been one of the last hopes and weapons of a dying man to fight back by becoming a martyr to his Chechen “brothers” and entrusting them to carry on his vendetta.
Even this is in dispute. Per today’s NYTimes article, his family disputes this. His Islamic friends says he converted. His family said he was insensate at the time and dying..The iman gave the prayer on his own and his wife stopped his Russian friends from stopping it only because she wanted some propriety for the funeral. This, is seems to me, is the most likely thing–
Clarice, I believe it’s true. His father has said it for weeks. I think there may ba a family rift involved on this issue, though. But because of what I said already, it makes sense to me that he might have.
“The Canadian article you cite mentions that Litvinenko claims the KGB was behind the apartment bombings in Russia.”
Snapple — don’t be disuaded: many people who aren’t frootloopy or nutty conspiracy theorists believe this to be the case.
In fact, the recently murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya also believed it, and over the years wrote several exposes linking various officials to the series of bombings in late 1999 which reignited the Chechen wars.
Ms. Politkovskaya wrote for the well-respected Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
What’s more, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Duma Deputy Alexander Lebedev own 49% of Novaya Gazeta, and they aren’t exactly considered crackpots.
The father I believe was in Russia when his son died. His wife was in London and a regular visitor. I say the conversion is contested and at best problematic.
The evidence of KSB involvement in the apt bombings is strong. IIRC our press covered it extensively at the time, but all this dropped when we needed Russian help on the EOT. Ditto the reports of Russian atrocities in Chechnya and the Russian effort to stomp out the independence movement.
**WOT (not EOT)**
From a contemporaneous stratfor analysis:
“The target and death toll from the recent spate of bombings in Russia are inconsistent with previous acts of political or criminal retribution dating from 1996. Bomb attacks in Russia are forms of political protest, gang warfare and ultra-nationalism. Hence, the target is defined for each case, inhibiting collateral damage. Strictly political bombings occurred in Moscow immediately before and after the 1996 presidential elections, killing four and injuring dozens in separate incidents. The highest toll on lives lost in the republics until the recent attack was in North Ossetia in 1998, with 53 dead and 100 wounded. The current casualty count for the first bombing on September 9 is 92, higher than any single bomb attack in Russia since World War II.
Russian leaders, including Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzkhov, have chosen the Chechens as the preferred scapegoat. Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo, who was appointed head of the investigation into the bombings, has also announced that his prime suspects are the Chechens. Although Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s September 13 statement that the bombing was ”a clear terrorist act” did not specifically name the Chechens, proof that they were responsible would legitimize further force in Chechnya. He said if a link is found between the bombings in Moscow and the fighting in Dagestan, the ”federal government will consider itself within its rights to use all resources at its disposal to rebuff the aggression.”
Russians may be willing to believe that Chechens are attacking in Moscow as well as the Caucasus, but it is highly unlikely. In his statement of denial, rebel leader Shamil Basayev said, ”We had nothing to do with the explosion in Moscow. We never kill civilians. This is not our style.”
Based on the group’s activities in Dagestan, Basayev is correct. Generally, Chechen forces have targeted military and police forces. The bombing early this month of Russian military housing in Buinaksk killed 64 people, including members of military families. The target, though, was clearly a military installation.”
http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/AI15Ag01.html
Clarice,
Forgive me but that Stratfor analysis is just silly. It is like saying 9-11 could not have been by Al Qaeda because they never before attacked the US homeland. There is a reason we have the word ‘escalation’ in the english language.
Dear AJ,
You wrote:
“Those who claimed Putin bombed the apartments and was behind Beslan are as idiotic as those here who claim Bush and Cheney orchestrated 9-11. Sorry, tin foil doesn’t fit my head in any language. The Chechens claimed credit and their people were found in most of the attacks.”
I happened to be talking about this today with a retired intelligence official with long experience in the USSR. He says he thinks it is Putin. He says the KGB are perfectly capable of blowing up their own people’s apartments. He feels it’s a no brainer.
Plus, ordinary police arrested KGB guys in some apartments with explosives doing a “terrorist drill.”
I have a degree in Soviet Studies. The fact that Bush didn’t blow up the WTC can’t be used as proof that Putin didn’t blow up apartments.
Bush is nothing at all like Putin.
The Chechen war has been going on for centuries, really.
Maskhadov was a former Soviet artillary officer, not an Islamic extremist.
You are the one who is like Cynthia McKinney–uncritically accepting the propaganda of a foreign government.
Putin’s propaganda theme is to say that the war in Chechnya is part of the War on Terrrorism.
You simply refuse to look at the experts on this or the words of all the people who have been dying like flies in Putin’s Russia. They are saying that Putin is a killer. The KGB frequently poisons people.
They poisoned Sakharov’s grandchild years ago, I think.
Charles Krauthammer has my view, and he is hardly Cynthia McKinney.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/07/AR2006120701439.html