Dec 04 2006

More Chechen Ties To Litvinenko

I am taking this source with a huge grain of salt, but there is a claim now that Litvinenko’s ties to the Chechen Islamist terrorists was stronger – according to Chechen sources:

It has been reported from London and Chechen sources that ex-KGB and FSB Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was not only a convert to Islam but a supporter of the Chechen and Caucasus mujaheddin, a movement that has been linked to the so-called “Al Qaeda,” an organization that is looking more and more like an contrivance by neo-conservatives and their organized crime friends to bring about a state of constant war in the Middle East, Central Asia, Russia, and beyond to maximize political and financial gain.

OK, so the source is a fringe source. But they quote a Chechen website and a posting only a day after Litvinenko passed away:

The following dispatch came from the Chechenpress.org, a Chechen news web site, on November 24:

“The communication from London the day before at night arrived to us of the poisoning and passing away of Aleksandr Litvinenko. A. Litvinenko it was poisoned on 1 November. Doctors struggled for the life of A. Litvinenko, however, it was impossible to save him. Meanwhile, a while back Litvinenko accepted Islam and all Moslem rites were carried out before his death.

“A specially invited mullah read over the dying Litvinenko the ‘Sura Yasin’ [key passage from the Koran]. Aleksandr Litvinenko will be buried in a Moslem cemetery, with the observance of all proper rituals. Nearing death, and understanding that his killers are Putin and his criminal clique, Aleksandr Litvinenko requested to transmit to the Mujahadeen of Chechnya and Caucasus that they understand him as their brother in the weapon [emphasis added] and he requested to the Most High Allah for themselves the future of martyr (insha Allah).”

Now how is it Chechen’s had word of his funeral arrangements and wishes less than 24 hours after his death, with enough time to post this notice? Did Goldfarb or others pass on other last wishes to certain people in addition to reading Litvinenko’s statement about Putin as the assassin? Seems strange this would hit so quickly without some communications process in place – well oiled and practiced.

17 responses so far

17 Responses to “More Chechen Ties To Litvinenko”

  1. Lizarde1 says:

    and now we need to know Is Goldfarb, the lawyer, biologist, a convert too? Or is he just working with Boris to throw the ball in the Chechen court and why? Maybe the “moderate” Z man was the conduit to the Chechens and got the mullah in and called his friends in Chechnya, as L. lay dying. Goldfarb claims to be the person who arranged for L to get into Britain a number of years ago, by the way. These people and their relationships are unbelieveably complex (understatement)

  2. clarice says:

    Litvinenko’s Chechen neighbor was with him and read the koran to him. Undoubtedly he relayed the info back. Again, I remind you that thie Chechen movement began as an utterly honorable independence movement until Putin pulled the apt bombing stunt in Moscow and blamed them for it–something Litvinenko pulled the plug on. Litvinenko surely was considered their champion. (So was Politskaya , the journalist who was recently murdered.)

  3. Lizarde1 says:

    UPDATE: British embassy in Moscow being checked for radiation
    team of experts from Britain investigating the death of former spy Alexander Litvinenko are to carry out “precautionary tests” for radiation at the British Embassy in Moscow, the British foreign office said tonight.
    http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=203283522&p=zx3z84zz8

  4. Barbara says:

    Maybe they all knew there was no way he could survive. Maybe they made sure of this. In an earlier post I said something about Lugovoi bringing Litvinenko some vodka or something else from Russia. Maybe he separated some of the polonium on Oct. 25 to take some back to Russia to put in a bottle of vodka so the seals on the vodka bottle would be intact and Litvinenko would not suspect it was poisoned thereby starting this whole contamination trail. Maybe the polonium was put in the bottle straight or in a pill form in something that would dissolve in 24 or more hours so Lugovoi would be safe. If this was smuggling organization Lugovoi would know someone who could do this safely. After all, he had to know someone who could handle it on the other end of these transaction.

  5. Carol_Herman says:

    Before Iran “comes on line,” it seems Britain, France, and Italy, ALL have nuclear resources.

    So what we have, in this initial stage, is that Litvenenko “played with fire!” It’s possible he thought he was carrying stuff “that wouldn’t pass through a piece of tissue paper.”

    And, then? What if there was an accident, to a vial, that here comes out to cost $50-million dollars? Would that create panic? Or what?

    Tasteless. Odorless.

    Could it be? This is something like the dye put on money stolen from banks. That explodes. And, stains the bandits?

    What would Litvenenko (Sasha) use? Probably a Geiger Counter. NO CLICKS.

    His first realization that he’s been poisoned came when he began vomiting. Then he had diarhhea. And, then, blood coming out of every orifice. Eyes and ears, included.

    The first people to question him were doctors. And, they didn’t know!

    Litvinenko isn’t new to the spook’s game. Where false IDs. And, false cover stories. Are designed to keep people off his track.

    Then? He died. And, because there was deep curiosity about this, generated by the global media. We find we’re not even discussing the “spin” that Sasha “started.” All by the wayside, now.

    With everyone wondering where did the nuclear materials go?

    And, how happy are the black marketeers? To be stuck with merchandise, once worth a fortune. But now? Like those stained dollar bills. Not exactly “transferable.”

  6. Lizarde1 says:

    wacky theories on why one room ()where they don’t expect to find anything in the British Emb. in Moscow is being checked: here are could Luguvoi have gone there for some unknown reason – was he a double agent? Or was he being tailed or secretly bugged by a British undercover team with an office at the embassy who are concerned that they too might have had some minor contamination and tracked it back in after they secretly searched his stuff!?

  7. crosspatch says:

    Had he recently gone there to get visas for his family to travel to the football game?

  8. Lizarde1 says:

    that’s good CP – possibly you are right and your idea is much less John LeCarre wacky than mine

  9. MerlinOS2 says:

    As one who has followed for years the Russian nuclear program, I for one have very little confidence in the credibility of Russian claims as to accountability and adequate control of their nuclear production and byproducts and waste processing.

    Also if you follow the number of KNOWN black market transactions each year, it is clear there are sources somewhere to supply the market.

    Being somewhat familiar with the requirements for facilities where po is handled and the safety requirements and equipment used for handling and real world packaging for international transport it goes totally contrary to how the stuff had to be dealt with in either scenario end.

    Blending or splitting po 210 in a hotel room or a warehouse or office has all the appeal of mixing up 5 gallons of nitroglycerin in the paint shaker at your local home depot.

    There are all sort of contrary datapoints out there about po 210. If you look at the advertised price of a point source for nuclear instrument calibration and testing and then compare this to the fact that po was used in common everyday smoke detectors for a long time that had unit costs less than 10 bucks something doesn’t fit.

    Po 210 production for trigger replenishment would only need to proceed until weapons using that method of triggering had served to end of life and replaced by weapons that used a different triggering method or even old weapons with a substitute trigger design.

  10. crosspatch says:

    “Blending or splitting po 210 in a hotel room or a warehouse or office has all the appeal of mixing up 5 gallons of nitroglycerin in the paint shaker at your local home depot.”

    And considering the erosion/crazing/brittling potential on any container holding it, I would worry about its being kept contained for any length of time.

    I can see an idiot wanting to open it once, to check for alpha emissions to ensure they were delivered the real stuff. That is risky enough by itself. I wouldn’t want anything whatsoever to do with it outside of a lab designed to deal with it.

    To give an assassin this stuff is to possibly doom the assassin himself.

  11. Lizarde1 says:

    For some reason (wonder what that is) they are stuck on Russia as the perp:
    Russian security service ‘led poison plot’
    Stewart Tendler, Michael Evans and Daniel McGrory

    Intelligence services in Britain are convinced that the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko was authorised by the Russian Federal Security Service.

    Security sources have told The Times that the FSB orchestrated a “highly sophisticated plot” and was likely to have used some of its former agents to carry out the operation on the streets of London.

    “We know how the FSB operates abroad and, based on the circumstances behind the death of Mr Litvinenko, the FSB has to be the prime suspect,” a source said yesterday. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2487000,00.html

  12. MerlinOS2 says:

    I can see an idiot wanting to open it once, to check for alpha emissions to ensure they were delivered the real stuff. That is risky enough by itself. I wouldn’t want anything whatsoever to do with it outside of a lab designed to deal with it.

    That is a self correcting conduct, they most likely would not get the second chance.

  13. MerlinOS2 says:

    As a consideration, if you were to be blackmarketing PO 210, the only sensible alternative is to transport small amounts in unit containers. Then if someone wants the stuff you sell them x number of units.

    Then to validate the stuff to begin with so you are not buying a pig in a poke you have to have more than a chemical reagent to identify cocaine.

    Granted if you can afford the cost of bulk PO 210, you can afford the overhead of PO 210 certification.

    It is not just as simple as is it an alpha emitter, there are too many of those or just salting the sample possibilities.

    You need for verification something of a bit of a portable laboratory to handle securely and profile the nuclear characteristics of the sample. And if you are buying units, you have to do random sampling to give you whatever is your preferred level of confidence.

    Even with state of the art equipment you would have to equip at a minimum a multimillion dollar semi trailer of high tech gear to get even minimal assurrance.

  14. crosspatch says:

    “It is not just as simple as is it an alpha emitter, there are too many of those or just salting the sample possibilities.”

    It can be calculated. If you have a count of alpha particles and an idea of the quantity of polonium, the two should match. I don’t believe there are any higher emitters of alpha radiation available that have a half-life greater than a few minutes.

    If you have a solution that is supposed to contain 1 miligram of po-210 manufactured on a certain date, you should get a certain alpha count depending on how long since manufacture.

  15. crosspatch says:

    It would not likely be in metal form. Polonium metal is even more dangerous to handle than a solution. A solution would prevent it from heating so much. The metal would heat and vaporize, and redeposit on the inside of the container.

  16. Barbara says:

    It could be that there were more than the Chechens as customers. Bereszovsky said he would bring down Putin’s government soon and put himself in power. Also all this chatter from the jihadists and the fear of a dirty bomb in London and maybe the US. Makes you wonder if this smuggling ring is global instead of only in London. And maybe someone in the security firm Erinys smuggled the polonium from Iran via Iraq. Litvinenko was such good friends with these people and even took Lugovoi to meet them. The possibilities are endless.

  17. HJT says:

    You wondered upthread why the room at the embassy is being tested. This from teh BBC

    “Their arrival coincided with the news that a room in the British embassy in Moscow is to be tested for radioactive contamination; it is thought that the room is where businessmen Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun gave a statement about their London meeting with Mr Litvinenko to Britain’s deputy ambassador on November 23.

    I’m wondering how one person who is thought to have come in contact has teh arrogance to not be tested. That decision should be taken out of his hands if he could pose any threat at all to the public if he were contaminated.

    Also, being told that the contamination of aircraft is on very little threat is no consolation to passengers with infants. It might well not pass through paper or clothing, but toddlers need amusing on planes and travel with pencils, dummies, bottles, toys, all of which fall on the flal, on chairs and go back in their mouths.