Nov 30 2006

A Chechen Connection To Litvinenko’s Death?

New reader Lizarde noticed this truly interesting news item:

A week after the death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko from suspected radiation poisoning, the Muswell Hill road in which he lived remained sealed off in two places after traces of radiation were discovered.

Polonium-210 has been found at the 43-year-old’s home in Osier Crescent, off Coppetts Road, where he lived with his wife Marina and their 12-year-old son.

Across the road, a car – believed to be a silver Mercedes belonging to a Russian-speaking neighbour who knew Mr Litvinenko well – had also been cordoned off yesterday with a white and blue tarpaulin placed over it.

So, who lives across the street from Litvinenko? A Chechen rebel leader in exile named Akhmed Zakayev.

Mr Litvinenko’s home, on a newly-built crescent of large middle-class homes in leafy, prosperous Muswell Hill, was under police guard last night.

Officers had erected a tent on the drive outside, covering the front door and Mr Litvinenko’s car. An England flag flew from the first floor balcony.

The crescent is also home to Akhmed Zakayev, the foreign minister of the Chechen government in exile, who lives just opposite Mr Litvinenko.

Berezovsky’s PR mouthpiece Alex Goldfarb implicated Litvinenko, Berezovsky and Zakayevas the true targets for the attack in a recent statement:

British mass media, including The Times, suspect that polonium-210 might have been sent to London by diplomatic mail from Russia, and that employee of Russian consulate in London Anatoly Kirov might have been involved. He arose suspicions first of all because his name was repeatedly mentioned by Litvinenko, who claimed that the diplomat is the intelligence officer spying on him. “Alexander said that Anatoly Kirov controls agent network which is spying on us: Boris Berezovsky, Akhmed Zakaev, Alexander Litvinenko, and me,” said Goldfarb.

It is truly, truly interesting that this car is now a possible site of contamination. Now in all fairness maybe Zakayev drove Litvinenko to the hospital the night he fell ill. So it is too early to over speculate (yes, I know I over speculate all the time). But it would seem this would implicate another possible member of a potential underground movement set to destabilize the West. I mentioned early on there was a possible Chechen connection because Litvinenko and Berezovsky were maniacally determined to claim all the Chechen attacks were actually the work of the Putin government (like the bizarre left here claims Bush-Cheney faked 9-11).

So who is Akhmed Zakayev? He is one very disturbing person:

Akhmed Zakayev, a former actor at Grozny theatre, became a Minister of Culture in the government of Dzokhar Dudayev. After the start of the First Chechen War he left his job and eventually became an important field commander of a Chechen resistance group. His group operated in the South West of the country with its headquarters in the town of Urus-Martan. In August 1996, Zakayev’s group took part in the Chechen recapture of Grozny, where he led the attack on the city’s Central Railway Station.

Zakayev was involved in negotiations with Russian representatives before and after the September 1999 Russian offensive. In the course of the Second Chechen War Zakayev briefly fought on the Chechen side. In 2000, after having been wounded, he left for abroad and turned into the most prominent representative of President Maskhadov in Western Europe.

Twice this man took up arms against Russia and allied himself with a Islamic terrorist group responsible for killing hundreds of school children (Beslan Massacre), the Moscow Theatre attack, downing two civilian airlines with bombs, and bombing four apartment buildings. That is like saying Al Qaeda leader Zawhiri is a moderate because he personally never carried out any attacks – he just leads Al Qaeda. He has been personally implicated in the Moscow Theatre attack. So I have my doubts this man is a sainted resistance fighter.

For the Chechens to break free they need to put a wedge between the UK and US and Russia. What better way than to link a nuclear attack back to Putin?

52 responses so far

52 Responses to “A Chechen Connection To Litvinenko’s Death?”

  1. crosspatch says:

    “It looks to me like someone is going out of their way to be very messy with all of this”

    In other words, these are being done for one reason … to attract a lot of attention. That much of the plan appears to be working.

  2. HJT says:

    From GuardianUnlimited

    The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera has uncovered something very interesting.

    Scaramella worked on the Mitrokhin Commission. This commission was set up ostensibly to uncover the KGB’s presence and operations in Italy. In fact, SISDE (the civilian security service) which despises SISMI the fascist military security service) taped conversations between SISMI, the CIA, the right wing Senator Guzzanti (a Berlusconi man) and guess who, Scaramella. All were contriving to frame (tying them to the KGB) Prodi (the new PM) and others in the left wing coalition before the elections. Which Prodi thankfully won. Robert Seldon Lady (the CIA station chief in Milan), who had to escape from Italy to avoid arrest for the extraordinary rendition problem is named as one of the people who were taped in these conversations.

    It seems to me, that given the right-wing/US connections of Scaramella it would not be him to kill an enemy of Putin, unless it is an attempt to frame Putin.

    http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/11_Novembre/30/mitrokhin.shtml

    Here is the article but the Google translation is hard to understand.

    The info is available in English in different sites by Googling Mitrokhin Commission, the European Herald has an interesting take on it.

  3. clarice says:

    PHEH–Nonsense and more nonsense.

    As to Gaidar, Isn’t it possible that he had no idea of the seriousness of his ailment before he returned him and before news of Litvinenko ?

  4. clarice says:

    before he returned HOME, I meant.

  5. Lizarde1 says:

    he KNEW already about Litvinenko – read the reports. Daughter said they were well aware

  6. clarice says:

    Well in that event , perhaps he wanted to be home with his family and trusted his doctors and assumed his illness was not poison, poison which is so odd his doctors cannot diagnos it.

  7. Sue says:

    Maybe he will be able to diagnose himself, like Litvinenko did.

  8. crosspatch says:

    His condition is currently reported to be “recovering” so whatever it was, it apparently wasn’t fatal. He had to be well away of the Litvinenko case considering the time lag between the two events and the fact that the Litvinenko story was on every single channel and in ever single paper on the globe. Anyone on the planet having even a passing interest in the news would have known.

  9. clarice says:

    Perhaps, but his account in the FT is that he collapsed, couldn’t move for hours and was vomiting blood. Just perhaps he wasn’t thinking clearly at the time he decided to head home.

  10. crosspatch says:

    He was initially put into intensive care in an Irish hospital and only moved to Russia once the worst of it was over. In other words, he is “recovering” in a Russian hospital but spent the worst of his illness in Ireland.

    Since he lives in Russia, if Putin wanted him dead, Putin could find it much easier to kill him there than to send someone to Ireland the day AFTER Litvinenko died to kill him. In other words, by the time he fell ill, Litvinenko had been in the news for some three weeks and had died the day before. Also, his daughter says this:

    While Gaidar’s daughter, Maria, is more critical of the Kremlin than her father, she ruled out that suggestions that Putin or his government were involved in his illness, and it could have been masterminded by forces seeking to discredit Putin.

    “I am absolutely sure that it is something that could not have been done by Putin, by official sources, by somebody related with the official authorities in Russia,” Gaidar, who heads a liberal youth movement, told the British Broadcasting Corp.

    “It could have been (in the) interest … (of) some people who are fighting against Putin and who want destabilization in the country,” she said.

  11. clarice says:

    She may be telling the truth or–like the Venezuelans answering pollsters–she may be saving her father’s life. And her own.

  12. jerry says:

    Wayne Madsen has an interesting speculative post claiming, among other things, that the Russian mafia is very active in Ireland due to their banking privacy laws.

  13. clarice says:

    Meantime, Russia is supplying weapons to Chavez and anti missile equipment to Iran which will protect the nuclear facilities from attack.

  14. clarice says:

    We know very well who are the enemies of Litvinenko. The work we did for years was to underline the links among Russian mafia and some high-level corrupt officers in the Russian government,” Scaramella told BBC radio.

    “I can only imagine that the people who he worked against … may be interested to attack him. The quality of his work, the level of expertise of this man, is so high that he can really represent a danger for them.”

    Scaramella said that when he met Litvinenko on November 1 in London he showed the Russian emails from a mutual source warning their lives may be in danger.

    http://home.eircom.net/content/reuters/uNews/9351616?view=Standard

  15. Lizarde1 says:

    FBI has been called in to help http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=133162&region=4
    The FBI has been asked to join the British investigation of the killing of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s experts in weapons of mass destruction will assist with some of the scientific analysis, Mr Kolko said.

    Previously, the FBI had only been involved in informal consultations in the case, he said.

  16. Lizarde1 says:

    witness at the Millenium describes activities there:
    Dean Bartlett was staying in a room at the Mayfair Millennium hotel where the Russian had a meeting before being struck down by radioactive poisoning.
    Mr Bartlett said his hotel room was next to the one police examined for radioactive traces and there were armed guards outside the door.
    “The hotel wouldn’t even tell us what was going on. We had to find out ourselves from the reporters outside,” said the solicitor who works at Clarkson Penhale in Morecambe.
    Mr Bartlett and his wife Julie were given no details when they checked into the hotel in Grosvenor Square on Friday afternoon and given the keys to room number 439.
    About an hour later they noticed police standing outside room 441, who refused to answer their queries.
    and
    After they had left the hotel, police confirmed that ‘several’ of the rooms had tested positive for traces of the heavy metal, but the hotel has refused to say whether room 441 was one of them.
    http://www.lancastertoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=31&ArticleID=1905889

  17. Lizarde1 says:

    hope I’m not clogging the site but here’s another article out of Italy where Scaramouche (lol) is now being investigated and more shenanigans among the expats.:
    http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/6-0&fp=456f6047b835c64b&ei=6FlvRbivIY_MpwKItfSIDQ&url=http%3A//www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/30/europe/EU_GEN_Italy_KGB_Inquiry.php&cid=0
    Italy’s Prodi to sue unnamed parties in a case loosely related to Litvinenko poisoning

    Separately Thursday, Italian news agencies ANSA and Apcom reported that Rome prosecutors were investigating Scaramella for violating secrets of his office and possible arms trafficking.

  18. Lizarde1 says:

    Irish police now investigating sick guy
    DUBLIN – Ireland’s police force has opened an inquiry into the illness that has stricken former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, a spokesman for the police said on Thursday.

    Ireland’s Green Party earlier called for a precautionary investigation of allegations that Gaidar was poisoned during a visit to the country on November 24.

    The police investigation is being supervised by Detective Chief Superintendent Philip Kelly, part of the Special Detective Unit.

    The statement issued by the Irish police said that “enquiries to date have been conducted with hospital and medical staff and through the diplomatic corps”.

    “Tracing the movements of the subject and establishing the facts is the focus of Garda (police) enquiries,” it said.

    “Public health and safety is of paramount importance and there is nothing known which indicates that any member of the public is at risk. If this situation changes, appropriate action will be taken.”

    Police inquiries were ongoing, the statement said.
    http://nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/read.php?newsid=30020460

  19. Lizarde1 says:

    me again: here are the 12 places (note only one car so who did drive L to the hospital – most likely the Chechen and not Boris IMO) 9 buildings 2 planes and 1 car:
    In a further development it was disclosed that extremely low-level radioactive contamination has been discovered in nine buildings, two British Airways planes which flew to Moscow, and a car used to take Mr Litvinenko to hospital. A third BA aircraft is being examined in Moscow.
    http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/22-0&fp=456fb93b03d4222c&ei=BnxvRdPLBqv8aIHa0IcI&url=http%3A//news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2029289.ece&cid=0
    Scotland Yard pinpointed the sushi bar when they traced Mr Litvinenko’s movements after he left his home in Muswell Hill, north London. By using information from his mobile phone records, Oyster travel card and CCTV footage, detectives plotted his route to Piccadilly Tube station. Locations where he stopped along the way were tested for radiation contamination, but all proved negative.

  20. Lizarde1 says:

    British intelligence sources increasingly suspect that Alexander Litvinenko, the former spy killed with a radioactive poison, was the victim of a plot involving “rogue elements” within the Russian state, the Guardian has learned.

    While ruling out any official involvement by Vladimir Putin’s government, investigators believe that only those with access to state nuclear laboratories could have mounted such a sophisticated plot.

    Detectives were last night closing in on a group of men who entered the UK among a large crowd of visiting Muscovite football fans. The group of five or more arrived shortly before Mr Litvinenko fell ill and attended the CSK Moscow match against Arsenal at the Emirates stadium on November 1. They flew back shortly afterwards. While describing them only as witnesses, police believe their presence in the country could hold the key to the former spy’s mysterious death.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,1961546,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1