Dec 10 2006
Trail Shows Kovtun Was Contaminated, Smuggler
Major Update: Well, one prediction of mine has been proven wrong. It seems Kovtun flew from Moscow to Hamburg first, and then onto London. One has to wonder why he would do this round-about route to get to London. Did he need to pick something up in Hamburg was he trying to provide an indepedent route for the material he was carrying?
Major Update: Some Polonium 210 must have come in from Germany with Kovtun since it is now pretty clear his trail begins prior to his trip to London:
German authorities said Sunday they have found traces of the rare radioactive substance polonium-210 at an apartment visited by a contact of poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko before they met in London.
Prosecutors said they were investigating Dmitry Kovtun on initial suspicion of improper handling of radioactive material, but said any connection with Litvinenko’s death was for British police to clarify.
Investigators said the Russian businessman visited his ex-wife’s Hamburg apartment the night before heading to London, where he met Litvinenko on November 1 — the day the former spy is believed to have fallen ill.
Litvinenko was killed by polonium-210. Gerald Kirchner of the German Federal Radiation Protection agency said at a news conference that tests on traces of radiation at the apartment “clearly show that it is polonium-210.”
Kovtun arrived in Hamburg from Moscow on October 28 on an Aeroflot flight, officials said.
This is some big news because the material is not coming in from Russia as suspected. As I noted below, there is a history of smuggling nuclear material out of Russia and Europe to the ME from Germany in the 1990’s (I will get a link here soon). So it would make sense this same network could reverse the flow now. And Oct 28th was not Kovtun’s first trip to London. He was with Lugovoi and Litvinenko on Oct 16th, which is associated with another hotel contamination in Knightsbridge.
Radiation was found on a couch where Kovtun is believed to have slept in his ex-wife’s apartment, on a document he brought to Hamburg immigration authorities and in the passenger seat of the BMW car that picked him up from Hamburg airport, police said.
This last item is also important. It seems Kovtun had simply stayed over between flights from someplace else on his way to London (thus the car contamination). And it seems the German police are being much more realistic in their reporting of events:
Prosecutor Martin Koehnke said Kovtun was not initially treated as a suspect because of the possibility that the polonium was inside his body.
Subsequently, Koehnke said, an investigation against him on suspicion of improper handling of radioactive material was begun “because at least at the moment, at this stage of the investigation, we have sufficient initial cause to believe that he brought the polonium traces to Hamburg outside his body, or that these traces are the result of contact with polonium 210.”
This confirms something else I have assumed – authorities can distinguish one form of contamination from the other. Therefore there is no doubt when something is being contaminated from a human vector (infected person) verses material itself being transported by someone (knowingly or unknowingly).
Addendum: OK, switched computers, had a crash and now recovering my research links. I am not going to try and synopsise these, instead I leave it for the readers to ingest. But these links give a picture of the nuclear smuggling history and paths.
First is this report on nuclear smuggling between 1995-2000 which speculates on the reasons for an apparent lull in activity during this period. Take special note on the Iridium smuggling into the UK that took place. And there was a case when material was smuggled from Russia into Germany which caused a big stir.
Second is this chronology of nuclear smuggling cases from 1993-1995. The third item of interest is this report on nuclear smuggling involving Turkey, which seems to be a gateway between Europe and the Middle East. The next link focuses in on a 2004 investigation in Switzerland regarding alleged nuclear smuggling activities. Next is this recent report regarding these same smuggling activities in Switzerland and how they relate to AQ Kahn’s nuclear black market activities which were linked to nuclear programs in Iran and Lybia. Next is a recent news report that one Boris Berezovsky is now under investigation in Switzerland for many laundering. Let me save here and see if I need to add some more links tying all this to Germany. But you will see Germany mentioned in many of these reports as one path of the smuggling paths used in the 1990s. The same time Kovtun moved to Germany to start his business. OK, one more on smuggling in general.
More: Here is a link between a German and AQ Kahn’s network, and here is a report from 1994 showing how Germany was the frontline for nuclear smuggling at that time. OK, that should establish the fact there is a case to be made this was a smuggling effort and a natural path was through existing resources and players. I would not be surprised to learn Kovtun had returned from some country near the mid-east on his way to London.
Even More: Link between Switzerland, Germany and AQ Kahn network. Details starting coming out at the trial as well.
– end update
Details released by German authorities indicate Kovtun was trailing Polonium-210.
Hamburg- German prosecutors have opened an inquiry against Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun for spreading radioactive polonium as he travelled through the city of Hamburg on October 30-31, senior prosecutor Martin Koehnke said Sunday. At a news conference in Hamburg, Koehnke said Kovtun was not yet being accused of the murder the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London three weeks later.
The suspicion of spreading a dangerous substance in Hamburg came after polonium-210 was found on a couch where Kovtun slept, on the passenger seat of a car in which he travelled and on an immigration document he personally signed at a German government office.
© 2006 dpa German Press Agency
The question now is how is it he did not get any in his own house. And of course we need to know when this was relative to Litvinenko’s poisoning. I have been researching smuggling paths for nuclear material and it turns out the Germany was in the 1990’s one such regular path out fo Russia. And of course there are paths to the ME as well. I would not be surprised if this Polonium-210 originated in Iran and found its way over old smuggling routes from the 1990’s into Europe. Experience ounts on these things. Kovtun and others could have been asociated with the export of material heading towards Iran and Pakistand and Libya.
“Would they be traveling around with an actual hunk of metal?”
It would be tiny. They woud be in posession of metallic polonium if they were trafficking in it.
“Wouldn’t it have to be shaped or designed somehow into a triggering device?”
I don’t believe anyone has speculated as to their trafficking in finished trigger devices. I have no knowledge of what form it would take in a finished trigger.
“The other day there was a story posted about polonium-210 triggers being packed in foil with beryllium-9; is that what we’re talking about?”
Possibly. But there has been at least one article published (that I am currently too lazy to look for) that mentioned polonium available on the black market. Again, I have no information that they would be trafficking in finished triggers.
“If so, wouldn’t that be manufactured in a highly-specific lab used for creating radioactive weaponry?”
Yes, and they would then be of recent manufacture and very easy to trace. And since there has been no such manufacture of such triggers recently according to any sources I can locate, it seems unlikely to be the case.
In order to get a chain reaction going or to boost one, you need a lot of neutrons. One way of doing that is adding a source of neutrons to the device. Polonium emits alpha particles. When these particles strike an atom of beryllium, it causes the release of a neutron. This neutron then flies off and hopefully strikes an atom of fissile material and causes fission which results in the release of more neutrons which strike more fissile atoms … and so you have a chain reaction.
Packaged triggers from an official source would have had to be of recent manufacture. Russia claims they aren’t producing polonium and probably wouldn’t have any weapons that used that kind of trigger anyway as it is ancient nuclear technology and would be replaced with better, longer lasting triggers. In other words, Russia would have no need to manufacture such a thing and old ones would be useless by now. We are talking about 1950’s technology for the super powers. Iran and/or Pakistan might be using such triggers, though.
Does anybody find this bizaree:
Six Irish people who stayed at the hotel at the same time as Mr Litvineko was poisoned are being sought by officials, it was confirmed today.
Presumably they left their names, credit cards and other personal info on the check in form – the Paper makes it sound like they don’t even have the names. Or are these people fugivtives?
“The Department of Foreign Affairs said it has located four of the six names given by UK officials earlier today and will continue to trace the whereabouts of the remaining two.”
I wouldn’t read much into it. They are looking for something like 200 people. Maybe 6 of those were Irish and the British passed on their names to the Irish authorities so they could be tested for contamination. It doesn’t mean those people were involved in anything or even knew each other.
It could be a blackmail scheme and the pay-off was saturated with polonium. And they became contaminated when they counted the money and since Litvinenko probably got the most money
Hmmm…how odd is this…
http://www.policeone.com/writers/columnists/ScottBuhrmaster/articles/96472/
That’s a weird coincidence, TSK9, and good catch on finding the story.
CP, thank you once again for taking time to answer questions.
The thought of tainted cash occurred to me last week some time. It’s possible. More probable than a state hit.
If the “tea cup” held $30 million dollars worth of polonium, what’s the whole cost to building “the bomb?” The Saudis are usually looking for cheap deals. Like the airplanes that flew on 9/11. Weren’t even there’s!
And, then? Litvenenko’s corpse spooks the imam at the mosque, because he fears radiating the entire roomful of congregants.
What set this in motion? Just an “accident?” Like Chernobyl? Poor quality controls are a known russian hazard. (Where if something breaks, let’s say on an oil rig; to fix it, they just go to another, and rob pieces. Soon you have two broken rigs. Or cars. Or trucks. But it IS the russian way!
Carelessness of handling the product(s) hasn’t been ruled out.
And, if Israeli investigators asked Scotland Yard for permission to come and looks at the collected evidence. Or more likely, the HOW this stuff would ultimately be used, why would Britain turn Israel down? WHY NOT COOPERATE? Londoner’s are as exposed as residents of Tel Aviv. Show me where terror information shouldn’t come into the hands of the Israelis? Where’s the secret? They asked. Where’s the harms? (They have good scientists in their country.)
And, we KNOW the FBI also is involved. It seems this is a global terror network. After all. The russians aren’t the only ones with enough money to fund a “package of mischief” either.
And, I sure like to know what made the Italian’s (Sacramella?) e-mail, such a thrust that Litvenenko would go running to the billionaire boss, Mr. B?
With enough time for the bad guys to ADD McGuffin’s. Or elements. To the chase. (Especially, the tea cup.)
Any time you involve citizens who’ve “seen a crime,” or know something about it, the first thing you run into are the memory differences. (Too bad Libby can’t produce his own expert at his own trial.) Because most people do not know the scientific evidence, when you try to go back and ask humans “what they remember.”
“The tall, short, big, fat, skinny, man, with a beard, who was clean shaven and bald.” Would be identified, here.
While Le Carre? He painted the Jackal as someone unknown to have ever been photographed. So assassins really do take care to keep their tracks covered.
So, it’s SMUGGLING. And, everyone who is one is still on the loose.
Then? What’s this with 200 people? A cell that large, is larger than the senate! And, you KNOW how they leak! Way too many people here are marked as “in the know?” While none of us know, “what’s to know.”
But again, it wouldn’t be contaminated with polonium metal, it would be contaminated with a soluble salt if that is the case. Again, the nature of the polonium contamination would go a long way toward answering a lot of questions and only a very few people would know the answer to that at this stage.
I can’t explain the tea cup (perhaps it’s just a question of saliva) and the dishwasher and the 7 exposed bar workers but I have no doubt that all three were exposed to PO by the 16th and that their hands were contaminated with it frequently enough to leave traces all over the place. The Germans note that it was seemingly random – that some places Kovtun went were not contaminated including a restaurant and a betting lounge and the plane he flew in to London.
from times online new article:
In an interview with Der Spiegel Mr Kovtun claimed he was a victim of the same plot. He said: “Much is contaminated — my body, my clothes, my office in Moscow, it’s simply everywhere.â€
Andrei Lugovoy, a former FSB officer who is a central figure in the inquiry, said he would speak to Scotland Yard detectives in Moscow today.
December 11, 2006
Spy’s murder prompts fears over plans for dealing with ‘dirty bomb’ attacks
Stewart Tendler and Daniel McGrory
# Police not told of polonium-210 risks
# Christmas terror attack ‘highly likely’
Emergency services have been told to review their contingency plans for a dirty bomb attack after criticism of the Alexander Litvinenko investigation.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2498284,00.html
from that article – wow:
However, the only contact one of the contaminated detectives had with the poison was when he removed items such as clothing from Litvinenko’s home. Evidence of the substance was reportedly found in a tea cup at the Millennium Hotel more than a month after Litvinenko was killed and countless washes. Seven bar staff who had minimal contact with Litvinenko all show evidence of exposure.
To explain my previous comment, it would be like contaminating money with sodium metal or any other kind of pure metal, very difficult to do. But easy to contaminate with a solution of a salt.
It would be very dangerous for anyone that handled a lot of it, and probably not dangerous to anyone that handled a single bill if they were all equally contaminated. See if any bankers come down sick soon. But considering the amount of poison in Litvinenko, that level couldn’t come from handling money, unless he chewed on it or something. To contaminate cash to an extent that it would give Litvinenko such a dose just from handling it would require a massive amount of polonium.
Also remember that Lugovoi is contaminated all the way back to October 16. Now if Litvinenko had already been significantly poisoned over the previous two weeks and symptoms hadn’t shown themselves yet, he might not have gotten anywhere near the 50-100 times dose on November 1. He simply had that much in him by the time he went to the hospital.
Thanks for the article, Lizarde1. It is mind boggling that a radiologist will say something like this:
“Nick Priest, a radiology expert at Middlesex University, said yesterday that terrorists were unlikely to use polonium-210 as it was hard to find in Britain and difficult to import. But, he said, there were other radioactive materials they could use, some of which could be found in hospital radiology departments.”
Hard to get hold of? Apparently not…
New NYTimes article, lots of interesting things for everyone:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/world/europe/10cnd-spy.html?ei=5094&en=591c46e7565638fd&hp=&ex=1165813200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
Crosspatch, what about if you use a Po-bill for snorting?
my guess is probably nothing. You would be inhaling through it for a period of seconds, there would have to be a ton of polonium on that bill to get you 100 times the lethal dose.
Jerry from your NYT link – this is patently false:
The confirmation that traces of polonium 210, a radioactive isotope, were found in Hamburg as early as Oct. 28 is critical because the British police have so far found no evidence of polonium contamination in London earlier than Nov. 1, the date of the fateful meeting in the Millennium Mayfair Hotel.
Thanks, Jerry. From the NYT article:
“Gerald Kirchner, an official from the Federal Office of Radiation Protection, said polonium could have spread to Mr. Kovtun’s hands if he mishandled a container of the substance, which is lethal, but dangerous only when swallowed, breathed in or absorbed through an open wound.
“If it did come out of a container, it was very carelessly done,†Mr. Kirchner said at the news conference.
The other traces of contamination — at the apartment of Mr. Kovtun’s ex-wife, the house of her mother and in the immigration office — could have been deposited through sweat or saliva, Ms. Sweden said.
Officials inspected a plane belonging to the airline Germanwings, which carried Mr. Kovtun to London on the morning of Nov. 1, but found no evidence of contamination. They also found no traces at a restaurant or a gambling hall, which Mr. Kovtun visited during his stay.”