Nov 27 2006
The Polonium Trail – With Updates
Major Update: The Times has a great graphic up with a map and timeline of contamination. Note that Litvinenko buys a newspaper in the morning – that site has been searched and no contamination. Note that Litvenenko visits the Security company after talking to the Russians about a business deal. Litvenenko was a security consultant and I would bet he was going to discuss the opportunity with a company with which he was associated.
These contacts were late in the day and would tend to remove the Russians and the security company from consideration. That leaves sometime after the newspaper purchase as the time for the initial contamination.
One other note: the newspaper was purchased at noon but the meeting with Scaramella is at 3:00PM – leaving a huge window open. Let’s assume Litvinenko spends an hour at lunch to meet with Scaramella. That leaves only 30 minutes to get to the Hotel meeting. I seriously doubt Litvinenko went to Berezovsky’s office between the Sushi Bar and the Hotel meeting. Which puts the contamination at Berezovsky’s office possibly prior to the Sushi Bar – and that would make it the first site of Polonium-210 contamination! There is a more detailed map here to understand the distances involved and how out of the way the Down Street offices were to the other sites.
Update: More details on the investigation at Berezovsky’s offices – seems the police have the place under complete lock down:
Detectives have found traces of polonium 210 at the London offices of the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, it was revealed last night. Officers were searching 7 Down Street, Mayfair, after the discovery of the radioactive substance that killed Mr Berezovsky’s friend and former employee, Alexander Litvinenko.
A uniformed officer and at least one plain clothes policeman were stationed inside the lobby of the property last night. Outside another 15 officers were on standby in two marked police vans and the area was cordoned off.
That is a lot of firepower at the site. 19 armed officers just on guard duty? Note that the other locations of contamination do not seem to have this level of police presence. Correction: most of the sites are now cordoned off. The other office building is not even shut down. The hospital and the Sushi bar seemed to be cordoned off because of high levels of contamination. Which makes the presence at Berezovsky’s office even more intriguing. Berezovsky spokesman Alex Goldfarb confirmed to the BBC that the offices in question where Berezovky’s principle office location,
Update: As I suspected the trail of Polonium led right to Berezovsky’s office – which has now been cordoned off.
The offices of an exiled billionaire were sealed off tonight as police investigating the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko found traces of a deadly radioactive substance.
Evidence of polonium 210 were found in the London office of his friend, the tycoon Boris Berezovsky.
If I recall, Berezovsky and Litvinenko never mentioned contacting each other in early news reports – more on that in a bit. And don’t forget it was Berezovsky who brought in his PR firm to spin this story towards Putin and away from him and Litvinenko. Note that this earlier story makes no mention of a Litvinenko-Berezovsky meeting that fateful day. More here on Berezovsky’s PR role over the dying Litvinenko. I wonder of Litvinenko made a deal to gain lifetime support for his wife and child in trade for his deathbed accusation against Putin?
Update: More on those additional sites for the Polonium-210 contamination. And as I predicted one location leads right to Berezovsky:
The other location reportedly houses an office of Boris Berezovsky, the self-exiled tycoon and Kremlin critic wanted in Russia on money-laundering charges. Businesses listed at the address include a fund adviser, an investment firm, an energy company and offices of the newspaper publisher Metro International.
Berezovsky, who knew Litvinenko before both came to Britain, told The Associated Press on Monday he would make no comment until the investigation was over. He reportedly paid for Litvinenko’s house in North London.
What we need know is the order of visits to ascertain the sequence. If the contamination begins in the Sushi Bar, then did Italian consultant Scaramella give Litvinenko something contaminated? Or did the contamination begin ith the ex-KGB agents Litvinenko met at the Mayfair hotel bar? Or did it start at Berezovsky’s office. It would seem to me that somehow a transport container lost its containment which is why the Polonium trail exists. I doubt Litvinenko meant to kill himself, but we could have the transport of a black market item which leaked and ended up getting in Litvinenko by some act as simple as licking ones fingers.
Update: One new location of the Polonium-210 was an office complex in the Mayfair district near the hotel Litvinenko met two ex-KGB agents after his meeting at the Sushi Bar. It should be noted Boris Berezvosky has an apartment in the Mayfair area, and is into commercial real estate. I would not be surprised if the office site of the new contamination is linked to Berezovsky. – end update
Polonium 210 is highly radioactive, but with a quick half life (138 days). It loses half its radiative punch in 138 days. In 272 days it is a quarter as potent as its initial levels. It is an alpha emitter which creates low power radiation (which can be blocked by skin alone in some cases). It is a very toxic substance up close, which is why it needs to be ingested somehow to do the damage it did on Alexander Litvinenko (note: I am transitioning to the more popular spelling of his name). This is important to note because the Polonium trail is getting larger and larger – which indicates the Polonium was not just internal to Litvinenko’s body but travelled on the outside or on his clothes (or on something else).
Radiological testing has been ordered for three people who may have come into contact with the poison that killed a former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic, health officials said Monday, as the government opened a formal inquest into his death.
Traces of radiation were found at two restaurants and the home of the ex-spy, Alexander Litvinenko. Health officials, however, said there was no immediate public health danger.
If the Polonium was inside Litvinenko it is unlikely the contamination would be spread like this. The skin that acts as a barrier to the radiation coming into the body will perform the same function on the radiation leaving the body. The only way for a trail to exist at all is if the Polonium was external to Litvinenko’s body or was seeping from his body (though it took days to show up in his urine).
So what was the agent that left the trail? That is key to the mystery. If the Polonium is found in an acid solution (the only way to disolve Polonium, make it difficult to use as a poison) then the murder-suicide theories will have some support. But we should be clear that Polonium was obviously on the exterior of something that was walked around with Litvinenko. Was it him or his clothes? Was it in a disolved form or some other form that would not fit the murder-suicide theory? The trail makes the poisoning theory actually weaker, unless he took the food with him or was an incredibly messy eater.
Update: The trail of Polonium continues to grow to more locations. Was Litvinenko at all these locations?
Previous posts on this subject:
How To Kill A Spy
Litvenenko’s Death Staged As A Political Murder?
How To Play The Media
Litvenenko, Berezovsky & WMDs
Chechen’s Salute Fallen Comrade, Litvenenko
Italian Contact Of Litvinenko Has Nuclear Ties
Chechen’s Used Nuclear Dirty Bomb In 1995
I think you’re wrong on this one.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGYyMTI3Mjc0ZDE4OTM3ZmY5ZGE5OTM0Y2RhZTI4MDc=
Clarice,
I admire Ledeen a lot, but he is pretending to talk to a ghost. The fact is Polonium is not a Bond weapon but a Clouseau class weapon. There are many better ways to silence Litvinenko, if one even felt he was worth silencing. I seriously doubt this was a Putin ordered hit. Ledeen needs to do a lot more than talk to his alter ego to get me to believe these supporters of Chechen terrorists where victims of an evil Russian empire.
State sponsorship AJ:
“Nuclear expert John Large told The Guardian today that Mr Litvinenko must have been poisoned with a pill that could only have been made with sophisticated
state expertise. “You’re looking at intricate technology which is beyond the means of a hired assassin without a state sponsor,” he added. Russian sources continued to deny claims of involvement. ”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=418875&in_page_id=1770&ct=5
I do not know why the Chechens made that statement nor the source of what I consider the baloney conversion story–Litvinenko denied the Chechens were involved in the apt bombings in Moscow, and they do seem to have been suspicious. I’m not saying these guys are wonderful, but I do think they’d be handy dandy scapegoats on which to hang responsibility for the state’s dirty deeds.
Clarice,
If Litvinenko was poisoned by a pill there would be no trail. The Pollonium would have been in his gut and not left any traces. And no one else would have gotten ill either (unless they handled the pill). Polonium would not radiate beyond the skin to contaminate anything else.
Litvenenko and Berezovsky were persistent apologists for the Chechens and fed the conspiracy mill that Putin was the one who bombed the apartments. That\’s the same kind of BS we see here when people claim Bush/Cheney actually demolished the Twin Towers with pre-planted explosives. Anyone putting stock into the word of those kinds of folks is not going to be happy when the truth comes out. The ultimate Al Qaeda goal is to establish a rift between the US, Russia and Britain. Convenient how this one act may do just that?
My chain is not that easy to yank I am afraid. And Polonium is not a complicated material to find (the Pastuers found it in the mid 1800\’s) or refine. The problem is it is rare. State sponsors? Sure – Chechnya and Al Qaeda could have easily sponsored this.
Aj, did you read Aussiegirl’s comments (#14)at Lucianne.com under this subject (look on the front page for: Poisoned Spy visited Israel with Oil dossier)
Ivehadit,
That kind of “Putin bombed the apartments” talk is like the folks here he claim Bush and Cheney staged 9-11 and had the twin towers demolished with pre-planted explosives….
Just plain silly. These people also claim the Chechens, despite claims to by the Chechens themselves and Chechen terrorist bodies, did not execute the Beslan school massacre. Gullible people will fall for anything it seems.
That’s what I thought. I trust you, Aj, to know the story.
This is all very interesting…I am praying that the good guys survive and win in this incredibly tense time in history…
Berezovsky is not a nice guy himself…
–The fact is Polonium is not a Bond weapon but a Clouseau class weapon. There are many better ways to silence Litvinenko, if one even felt he was worth silencing. —
I agree. It may not be easy to come by, but it’s a dumb choice for a hit, for obvious reasons. Also, Litvinenko has been bad mouthing Putin for a LONG time and faced trial in Russia 2ce IIRC and was let go.
Berezovsky and in some ways Litvinenko are starting to remind me of the Russian version of VIPS.
Berezovsky obviously was contaminated from the hospital visit and or a plant in his own office by the FSB.
Some of you do not realize that this type of Kremlin culture allowed them to liquidate 20-30 million in the last century without the west knowing – the liquidation of one is a walk in the park.
Grow up, really.
BlackMinorCA,
Obvously? Well then why did his spokesman finally admit to meeting Litvinenko the day he was traipsing around London? Also, if Polonium-210 is ingested, then it cannot contaminate your surroundings. The skin blocks the Polonium radiation. So that means the Polonium was not inside Litvinenko when he left his trail. Grow up? Are you kidding? Take that hook at of your mouth and engage that thing between your ears.
A corrupt Russian businessman takes up with a defecting KGB agent who run a PR campaign for their Islamo terrorists friends in Chechenya, the one group to actually place a dirty bomb in a major city in 1995, and then these people run into material used in nuclear weapons and you conclude all that is meaningless?
LOL! OK – your blinders seem firmly attached, you can move along now. Nothing to see here.
Is it official? The polonium was ingested? Or is that a working theory?
First of all, if the Russians did this, they need to ‘fess up quietly to the British intelligence services because if this wasn’t done by the Russians, the implications are too scary to think about.
That he left a “trail” can mean many things. This material is highly toxic and it also takes an extremely small dose, smaller than you can see with the eye. Were some documents sent to them that were “laced” with this material? Did he get it on his hands when handling the documents? Does he smoke cigarettes or eat Sushi with his bare fingers? All he would need to do is transfer a small portion of this stuff to his mouth.
The main items for me are:
1. It takes a TINY amount of this stuff to kill and over 10 kilos of it have gone missing at one time or another. 10 kilos is probably more than enough for a fatal dose for every human on the planet several times over if it could be delivered to them.
2. We better hope the Russians did this because if they didn’t, the question then turns not only to “who did?” but also “how much more of this stuff do they have?” and “where is it?”.
If people who don’t care if they kill themselves in the course of their actions posses this, God help us. The only good thing is that in 183 days, whoever has this stuff will have only half as much of it as they have now.
Sue,
Polonium 210 cannot penetrate the skin much at all. It had to be inside him to kill him.
AJStrata
AJ,
Okay.
Yes, AJ, but all it takes is an amount as small as a particle of cigarette smoke to kill you. Also, the stuff is very volitile.
And guess who is making it …. google on “iran polonium” and there are links going all the way back to 2004. Gee, I wonder why Russia just decided to send those missiles to Iran. Could Iran have done the Russians a favor and demonstrated a weapon at the same time?
Russian billionaire crashes Ferrari
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aDxSu8kj5f5E&refer=europe
Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) — Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov was placed into a coma after suffering severe burns when the Ferrari he was driving crashed and burst into flames in Nice on the French Riviera on Nov. 25.
I accidently edited out a sentance after “the stuff is very volitile”. You can place a quantity on a heat source such as a light bulb and much of it will vaporize and can kill you from inhaling for vapor if you get a strong enough whiff of it.
Polonium is in lots of places – it is simply a question of purifying it. Heck, the Courie’s found it in the 1860’s! Yes, it is a small amount – but this trail is enormous. And it would not be contaminating areas if it was all inside Litvinenko. I still think he had a lot on him someplace and inhaled or got it on the tongue somehow. Then walked around dropping Polonium dust or something.
Easist way though is to get it onto someone’s hand. People often put their hands to their mouth without washing them first. Especially smokers. Did the guy smoke?
Give him a document or some other object laced with the stuff and wait for him to smoke a cigarette or eat with his fingers. I have heard reports that others have also come down with symptoms. Any reports yet on who those people are?