Nov 28 2006
Litvinenko Admitted Smuggling Of Nuclear Contraband
Well, well – seems I was close to the truth on this one, if the reporting from the Independent is to be believed:
Alexander Litvinenko, the poisoned former Russian agent, told the Italian academic he met on the day he fell ill that he had organised the smuggling of nuclear material out of Russia for his security service employers.
…
In an interview with The Independent shortly after the poisoning became public, Mr Scaramella said that Mr Litvinenko, a friend and professional contact since 2001, told him he had masterminded the smuggling of radioactive material to Zurich in 2000.
Mario Scaramella, who flew into London yesterday to be interviewed by Scotland Yard officers investigating Mr Litvinenko’s death, said Mr Litvinenko told him about the operation for the FSB security service, the successor to the KGB.
More as I review the material, but I said early on this seemed less like an assassination and more like the accidental disclosure of a smuggling operation. I would guess the fact the Chechen Islamo Fascists praised Litvinenko as a martyr that the smuggling was for their benefit or Al Qaeda’s.
If you want to know what I suspect it has to do with this company located at one of the two new contamination sites. It has abosutely no public information whatsoever. Looks like a front company to me. What company doesn’t advertise? Note: Someone did a search for me on this company and it supposedly has two directors and looks like a very small SW company of some sort – basically nothing jumps out. Probably a dead end.
Update: I found a timeframe for the meeting at the Sushi Bar with Sacaramella. It is 30-45 minutes (while Litvinenko ate). While that might give enough time for Litvinenko to go to Berezovsky’s office and then onto the 4:30 meeting at the Mayfair (60-45 minutes) it in now way gives enough time to go to Berezovsky’s office, some place at 58 Grosvenor Lane and the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel. Now not all three may have been done in that window, but it is still tough to get all that done in what I would say is a 45 minute meeting/lunch. The timeline is key to the Polonium trail and the original location of the contamination (which may not be the place where Litvinenko accidentally ingested the Polonium).
Update: OK, here is my quick take. Litvinenko was a spy – he would say what he needed to and would mix truth and fiction to meet his needs and manipulate people. My guess is the information Scaramella had was Litvinenko was targetted because of smuggling charges (and not for death). Litvinenko made up the dodge to his friend that it was ‘old news’ from his KGB days – admitting and not admitting to the charges. I would wager Litvinenko was smuggling nuclear material, possibly for Berezovsky or someone else, and that is why he had to defect – he was uncovered. Clearly we have a situation that represents a grave problem if looked at in a certain light. We have a turncoat KGB agent who admitted to smuggling nuclear material out of Russia (ignore who he says it was for, he would never divulge the truth) who was poisoned be contamination from contraband nuclear material. This ain’t rocket science folks. And it is not a Putin led assassination attempt.
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
UK’s COBRA An Ominous Sign
The Polonium Trail – With Updates
Alexander Goldfarb Slips Up
The Trail, And Poison, Spread In Litvinenko Case
Polonium Trail Gets More Complicated
Ok the newly rich who exploited the budding capitalist system after the fall of the Russian government all have been targeted. Even though these are the same group who selected Putin to ascend to power.
Some have been simply convicted of tax evasion, imprisoned and stripped of their assets. Others have moved assets and themselves offshore from Russia but could still be targets of retribution.
If the new rich are utilizing those assets in a way that Putin considers destabilizing to his plan then it is an issue. If they are stooping to nuclear smuggling for just business reasons or other motives then that is also a major issue.
One isolated target with a Bond thriller death could be discounted, but multiple targets if true make it easier for the investigators since they now only have to look for the common thread rather than a thread of little exposure.
Back from my early days in working with nuclear power the commonly held belief was that alpha emitters even in a weaponized form were mostly a threat due to airborne transmission and ingestion to the lungs and embedding there to cause radiation damage. Simply washing your hands or taking a shower were sufficient to decontaminate skin contact.
To ingest it would require consumption of a substance that was eaten with your fingers or drank. The act of drinking would only contaminate the cup, not it’s contents. If you used chopsticks or other utensils to handle your food, ingestion would be less likely.
Alexander Litvinenko & The Russians…
I’ve been getting lots of e-mails for the past few days urging me to link to stories about Alexander Litvinenko the former spy who was recently poisoned. I haven’t. Here’s why. I spent some time in Russia. I went to……
Spy-Games: Litvinenko – A “Simple” Story of Smuggling Gone Bad or the Start of the Russian Presidential Campaign???…
I mentioned the other day that this entire evolving affair seemed like a soap opera. This morning, especially after the Gaidar poisoning and with the disclosures yesterday of radioactive traces being detected on 12 airplanes, it may be nothing more…