Dec 04 2006
Terrorist Attack Was UK Number 1 Threat
Here is an interesting reminder of what the UK intelligence and security people feared most, before Litvinenko took over the headlines (H/T Clarice Feldman):
Tuesday November 14, 2006
The GuardianBritish intelligence officials believe that al-Qaida is determined to attack the UK with a nuclear weapon, it emerged yesterday. The announcement, from an officially organised Foreign Office counter-terrorism briefing for the media, was the latest in a series of bleak assessments by senior officials and ministers about the terrorist threat facing Britain.
UK officials have detected “an awful lot of chatter” on jihadi websites expressing the desire to acquire chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons.
Asked whether there was any doubt that al-Qaida was trying to gain the technology to attack the west, including the UK, with a nuclear weapon, a senior Foreign Office counter-terrorism official said: “No doubt at all.”
The official explained: “We know the aspiration is there, we know the attempt to get material is there, we know the attempt to get technology is there.”
Really puts things into perspective – doesn’t it?
well if Lugovoy is not dead from radiation poisoning in the next couple of months he’s home free:
There is no bilateral extradition treaty between Russia and the UK, and Russian legislation passed to deal with one-off requests from European countries prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens. When signing up to the European convention on extradition in 1996, Russia granted itself an exemption in accordance with article 61 of the country’s constitution, which says: “A Russian citizen cannot be sent beyond the borders of the Russian Federation or given to another state.”
guardian.uk
oh this is really funny:
Furthermore, Russia responds to any extradition request with repeated demands for the extradition of a number of Russians living in the UK. Moscow has attempted to secure the return of 16 emigres, but has been rebuffed because the Home Office accepts they are targets of politically driven prosecutions and could not expect a fair trial in Moscow.
This group includes Boris Berezovsky, the multimillionaire who once employed Mr Litvinenko, and Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen separatist who lived opposite Mr Litvinenko, as well as number of former executives of the Yukos oil giant. Moscow has repeatedly attempted to extradite Mr Berezovsky, most recently accusing him of plotting a coup.
The site that claims Putin is a pedophile also claims that Bush is about to announce martial law. This is not a reliable site.
Russians have different customs.
They also grab other guys’ private areas, give them a squeeze, and make a little “fart” sound with their mouths.
It’s a guy thing over there. Friendly teasing.
Putin may be many bad things, but this is just some propaganda.
holy tamale: 68 people have traces of the stuff? or is this crappy writing?
Traces of the substance have been found on several planes, including two which flew between London and Moscow. The Home Secretary admitted that it is not likely that the authorities will be able to trace the origin of the radioactive material from the samples from Mr Litvinenko’s bod
He said test results from 68 people who might have been in contact with the material found on the planes or with Mr Litvinenko, including family and hospital staff, had shown “negligible” traces of radioactivity.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2040139.ece
Sasha apparantly trying also to broker a gas and oil deal the day he got sick: Not all sources agree they are only looking at the Russians (I hope)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20865991-2703,00.html
“It is thought the former Russian spy might have been killed in London after a deal that went wrong with associates involved in the ruthless world of Russian business. According to security sources, investigators are looking at the former spy’s dealings with Russian businessmen involved in the lucrative energy sector and the shadowy world of private security. ‘We are looking at a very long list of Litvinenko’s friends and foes since he has been in London,’ one source said.
“The list includes exotic figures ranging from billionaire businessmen, former Kremlin spies, and KGB agents to underworld bosses. In the six years that he was in Britain, Litvinenko appeared to have acquired a formidable collection of friends and enemies. Although he described himself as a journalist, Litvinenko tried unsuccessfully to muscle in on several lucrative business deals with Russians.
“On the day he fell ill, he was attempting to broker a gas and oil exploration deal involving a British conglomerate that he claimed to represent. He was envious of the money many of his former colleagues were making.”
I am willing to guess that if the check each plane as it comes up for a major cleaning, they would find even more. I believe this might turn into one of those “the more we look the more we find” things.
It looks to me like they’ve rather narrowed down the suspects..Helped by the PO trail, testimony and the elaborate CCTV system, they seem likely to crack this soon. Putin’s screaming bloody murder.
““On the day he fell ill, he was attempting to broker a gas and oil exploration deal involving a British conglomerate that he claimed to represent.”
I wonder if that is the company at 1 cavendish place. There are actually two energy firms there, FirstAfrica Oil and Energem.
Well, I don’t suspect they will get very far questioning the polonium fairy in Russia.
CP if you haven’t shut down yet – what do you make of the 68 people with “negligible” amounts above- is this bad writing or a shocking piece of info?
Snapple: “The site that claims Putin is a pedophile also claims that Bush is about to announce martial law. This is not a reliable site.”
I don’t claim it is. That site is simply reprinting an article that the murdered man Alexander Litvinenko wrote elsewhere about Putin this past July, making the claim that Putin is a pedophile.
When so many others have been poisoned and shot, do you imagine that Putin — who led a secretive group of highly-trained, elite killers — will simply allow Litvinenko, one of his worst enemies, to accuse him of pedophilia and walk away (especially when that same man is repeatedly embarrassing him by linking him to criminal activities that discredit him, his government, and their goals)? Somehow, I do not think that Pootie-Poot’s soul is that forgiving, but then, I could be wrong.
It’s a Creationist conspiracy, I knew it!
http://contradictions.darwin.ws/polonium.html
“what do you make of the 68 people with “negligible†amounts above- is this bad writing or a shocking piece of info?”
People who rented the hotel room and got some contamination on a shoe, or sat on the sofa and got some on their shirt or sat in the same airline seat and got some polonium on a sleeve … nothing much to worry about I would say. Most of that would be gone in the laundry.
If this is an FSB hit, heads are going to roll because this was a VERY sloppy job. Killing Litvinenko is one thing, but if they have also killed an Italian citizen in the process and in a very public way, someone is going to pay dearly. If even more people end up dead because of all of this, so much the worse. Keep an eye out for cancer hotspots around London over the next several years. Those poor cleaning maids might have got a dose but they would have been checked by now. Still, I don’t think there is a “safe” level of exposure to polonium. Having any contact whatsoever with it in the air probably increases your risk of lung cancer.
CP, agreed. This is a very sloppy job if it’s a hit. It appears that the goons were killer school drop-outs, not Andropov Institute grads (what an alma mater!) like Putin.
Greeed.
And, maybe? A clever hook. Someone who looked like a russian blackmarketeer “spoke” of Polonium. But then shifted over, and made the listeners think you could even “sniff it like cocaine. And, nothing would happen to you.”
Because prior to getting sick, no one on this trail had any fears.
Then, let’s say one of the vials “accidently empties.” The Geiger Counters are not going off. And, the idiots look to vacuum this stuff back up again. (As I said. I don’t know if they “borrowed” the maid’s vacuum. Because that bag just wouldn’t be “clean.” Or if they went out and bought a new one. And, then thought nothing of vacuuming this crap off the carpet. Or the bedspread. Whatever. $50-million is quite a tempting prize.
That Litvinenko was “chosen?” You say this was a murder attempt? Well, I think he was “chosen” to be the pigeon. While in the background there were scientists who knew full well how to get a “broken vial” substituted for good ones. Make purchases that got the greedy bastards interested. And, then left town.
Litvinenko was never gonna break down far enough to tell the truth. Besides, the one photo you see of him, you have no idea how he looked with projectile vomiting. Diarrrhea that also produced blood out of all his orifices. Eyes. And, ears, included. By the time he was “talking” however, medical doctors had him nearly in a comatose state with drugs. (Which had to be delivered in massive doses, to overcome the fact that his bone marrow was dead. And, all his organs were failing.)
You then get the PR agent. Double? Triple? Who knows?
Yes, Scotland Yard has to be well aware of terrorist threats. Because the political apparatus is already owned by the muslims. (And, besides Litvinenko, whose to say Prince Charles hasn’t also converted to “muslem-hood?”)
If this were the Keystone Cops, or the Pink Panther, you’d have multiple layers of incompetence. And, still not a single “good guy” in sight.
What was it that Winston Churchill said about Stalin? An inigma inside a box? It was like those Russian dolls. You open one, and inside is another. The best ones contain the most “dolls.”
putin as a pedophile? So was arafat. Very acceptable behaviors within UN circles. Not the motive for “murder.” But cracking a ring? Using the characters themselves? Why not? The Mossad could be that clever. Let alone, making the outcome worth all the risks.
What an insult and what a dipshit Ann Applebuam is…she wrote a fairly decent OP-ED in the WAPO and then devolves into smug- I told you so BS so typical of the leftists in the media…
Has Applebuam even slightly prepared herself to eat page A-29? She’s got forensic evidence there is NO islamic terror ties, really?
Well, perhaps if Applebaum ever allowed herself to read anything outside her comfort zone, she’d find their are PLENTY of bloggers and even columnist who have NEVER dismissed and continue to pursue the NUC black market connections between Russia and islamo-facist dying to make a dirty bomb, and where has this woman been? A rock? Has she ever even leafed through anything involving Oil for food – russian arms says to pretty much the entire middle east? Ever bothered?
Gawd.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120401050.html
The interest this is generating here in the USA is just………negligible.
Post something about illegal immigrants, or What’s-her-name? Spears flashing the photographers,or gay penguins, and website traffic will turn into a stampede.
Talk about smuggled nuclear material, or dirty bombs, or biowarfare,and you’ll get (perhaps) 26 people responding.
Ho……kay !
As of this morning: Lugovoy is either “ill” or not ill but being tested and is allegedly in the hospital in Moscow but “if his doctors allow it” the Russians will help the British question him…Reuters UK. Also the room in the British Embassy was checked because according to news accounts that is where Lugovoi made a statement to British authorities about his meeting with Litvienko. I guess either Clarise is right and the Russians did it or the British are going to go with that story no matter who did it or how or why it was done…that seems to be the media’s focus and spin across the board today. Other accounts I read here and there suggest that Scarmella (this guy sounds like a real wacko) might have exaggerated his amount of contamination as UK doctors do not seem to be supporting the 5 times the lethal dose statement of Scarmella.
Scaramella’s 5x dose was the fly in the ointment. That threw all other theories off. If he has a negligible dose maybe from hugging Litvenko
or even shaking his hand then putting his fingers in his mouth for some reason then its back to Litvinenko picking up a container with a flawed seal (all the seals seem to be flawed) from Lugovoi to be delivered to Zaparev or Bereszovksky (neither of whom we have heard anything about lately- as if they have dropped of the face of the earth) and I wonder what their conditions are like. I think Lugovoi coming to Bereszovsky was ploy to throw everyone off track. Maybe Lugovoi had nothing do with anything and sat on the couch where Litvinenko had sat. It seems he met with Litvinenko everytime he came to London. May he got contaminated at those times from Litvinenko. Or maybe not, who knows. That doesn’t explain the large spill at the hotel where he was staying or the four Greeks being contaminated at the game. I always thought the polonium came from Iran through to Zaparev to Litvinenko to the terrorists and paid for by Bereskovsky if any payment was needed. If it was Lugovoi who brought the stuff in why would the stuff come from Russia to London? Terrorist plot in London? But it seems strange that the polonium would come from Russia to London and then back to Russia unless it had to come through London so Bereszovsky could pay for it and check it out and Zaparev could send it to his cohorts the Chechens or maybe the smugglers didn’t want the sellers to know who the stiff was intended for. I will be surprised if this turns out to be officially a Putin crime and I don’t think I would really believe it. The British would have be crazy to let it go at that and ignore all the ramifications that this case could lead.