Dec 10 2006
Millenium Hotel Room Contamination Confirmed
Update: I agree with readers here that the German police were thorough and complete and were able to resolve Kovtun’s travels and the contamination trail much faster than their British counterparts – unless the media is being spun by UK authorities. The German authorities are being very pragmatic and they too note that Kovtun probably did not bring Polonium-210 with him from Russia, but probably handled it there.
The German inquiry focuses on whether he was in illegal contact with radioactive materials rather than the murder of Mr Litvinenko itself. At a press conference, a senior prosecutor said that one possible explanation was that while “packaging or transporting” the polonium before the meeting, Mr Kovtun had been “sloppy” and accidentally touched it.
However, the German authorities said the evidence did not necessarily mean that Mr Kovtun had carried a polonium source with him from Moscow to London via Hamburg in order to poison Mr Litvinenko. He may simply have been contaminated by the material and carried traces with him.
…
German state prosecutor Martin Köhnke said an investigation had been launched on the suspicion that Mr Kovtun had been in “illegal contact with radioactive substances”. But it was unclear whether he had swallowed the polonium or merely touched it.
“One possibility is that he came into contact with polonium while transporting or packaging it in Moscow. But we can’t say at this point whether he is a victim or a suspect.”
Since Lugovoi had departed London for Moscow around the time Kovtun was leaving it may be Lugovoi was the source of the contamination – or he brought the Polonium 210 from London to Moscow. It could be the contamination happened in Moscow or in London days before that. As I said in an earlier post, there is a possibility this material is flowing into Russia from London for Chechen use.
Major Update: More news out today regarding the first stop for Litvinenko that fateful day he went about his business, and it is – as I suspected – the Millenium Hotel.
A £1.50 BUS ticket proves that murdered Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in a London hotel.
The ticket for a No 134 London bus was found in Litvinenko’s coat pocket after he was dosed with deadly polonium 210.
It was bought near his home in Muswell Hill, North London, from where he travelled to meetings in the West End on November 1.
Checks reveal that the bus he boarded has not been contaminated by radiation.
This, police say, almost certainly proves Litvinenko was poisoned at London’s Millennium Hotel where he drank tea that day with former colleagues Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi.
The hotel is the first place he is known to have visited after leaving the bus. Strong traces of polonium have been uncovered on a cup and saucer at the hotel.
The only question now is did he visit the hotel twice that day. If everyone recalls, Lugovoi and Kovtun said they had to go off to a meeting early in the day which is why the third Russian did not spend the day with those two. Also recall Litvinenko visited a security firm nearby as he and Lugovoi did everytime Lugovoi came into London and contamination traces were found in hotels. In fact, the last time the three men – Litvinenko, Lugovoi, Kovtun – were together was Oct 16th, at which time they went to Erinys, a security company in Grosvenor square. We have reporting that Erinys contacted authorities and notified them that Litvninko had visited that day, and the office was found to be contaminated. Scaramella also testified that Litvninenko had been at a meeting prior to their get together at the Sushi Bar.
It is not hard to believe Lugovoi and Kovtun would try and keep from authorities the earlier meeting with Litvinenko if it involved something illegal. So how do we know that Litvinenko did not go to the rooms of these men where the serious contamination occured, as they prepared to go to a meeting elsewhere. This makes sense because LItvinenkoi would then report back to Berezovsky at some point after he Scaramella meeting, before a final tag up at the Pine Bar. Now there are problems with this theory because the third Russian is now not sosure he ran into Litvinenko in the Pine Bar before the game. But Lugovoi’s son was supposed to have seen Litvinenko at this later, pre-game meeting. – end update
Just as the tea cup found in the Millenium Hotel is one critical clue which will shed light on whether the Litvinenko incident is an assassination attempt or a nuclear smuggling ring accident, the other contamination sites in the Hotel are just as important. And now we have another indication
Kovtun says he met Litvinenko only twice – on October 16 when Lugovoi introduced him to the political émigré and at the fatal meeting on November 1. Another man, Sokolenko, denies taking part in the November 1 meeting with Litvinenko, saying he flew to London to watch football. He admits, though, to greeting Litvinenko at the entrance of the Millennium Mayfair hotel.
This explains how traces of radiation have come to be found at the Emirates Stadium in London where the three Russians went to see football after meeting Litvinenko. Kovtun was there with polonium in his system. The poisoning of Kovtun makes the enigmatic case even more intricate. If he suffered too, Litvinenko was poisoned by someone else. However, one may surmise that Kovtun got poisoned by accident. British police says somebody dropped a capsule with polonium on the floor of the Mayfair hotel’s room which was presumably taken by one of Litvinenko’s FSB friends.
As with the tea cup, the indications are this was contact with a Polonium-210 metal or dust, not somthing with Polonium suspended or disolved into an acid-salt mixture. Again we see indications that something disasterous happened in a room (not the hotel bar). And there is no way to say for sure Litvinenko was not in this room earlier in the day. But it does fit a pattern of Lugovoi and associates coming to London, staying in hotels which later show PO-210 contamination in multiple rooms. In this case it seems one room showed a searing contamination level, like the tea cup. My guess is it would be consistent with an amount of PO-210 much higher than found in Litvinenko.
I read someplace (here?) that the other contaminated rooms were not rented by Lugovoi et al. Could it be that those rooms might have been used on earlier visits? Say maybe even much earlier? If Lugovoi made over 20 trips and met Litvinenko “12 or 13” times, I would be very interested in his accomodations going back as far as possible to establish how long this contamination period might be. I realize it gets harder with each vacuuming of the room, though, so it might be asking too much. I would have a feeling that Scotland Yard would already have an answer for this by now.
If it was a mob hit made to look like the Russians poisoned him, wouldn’t you want to make sure there was a contaminated cup for them to find? Just continuing to play devil’s advocate on the scenario that Boris had his boys knock Litvinenko off.
The government at least has a reason for being aside from money, but the mob has none. I can’t see the mob blowing $50-100 million on a hit.
Why?
Don’t know if this is a repost, but it’s been reported that Litvinenko showed no sign of poisoning when he got on the bus close to his home.
Note that they say that he was on his way to the hotel – possibly confirming that he did indeed meet these LSK before Scaramella.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,9294,2-10-1462_2043107,00.html
That said, I can’t see how the bus ticket would prove that it wasn’t an accident. But anyway.
There is a good, simple explanation for the multiple-room contamination, and it’s not good from an investigative standpoint: The chambermaids could have spread it. Chambermaids go to every inch of a room, they clean the bathrooms, vacuum, fix the beds, throw away and take out the trash. It would be necessary to see the hotel records in order to nail down whether or not the other rooms could have been contaminated by paying guests.
Small point: a person who has been exposed to radiation is not going to leave a trail of Polonium dust behind him-unless his body,clothing,or other carried/stored materials are contaminated.
Question: Did one of these “poor chaps” pay a visit to a nuclear storage area?
Well Lugovoi was contaminating the room at the Sheraton Park Lane on Oct 25, 26 so he must have been the one running back and forth to the nuclear storage facility – but Kovtun could have contaminated Lugovoi on the trip on the 16th – I still don’t buy the shadow group trailing these people. Also as the Germans found the leaving of polonium traces was somewhat random – some places had it and some Kovton visited did not.
just because there was no PO on the bus ticket in the a.m. does not prove that Litvinenko had no PO in him prior to Nov. 1 – these people really have to keep an open mind – as I ‘ve said repeatedly, they should be checking places that Litvinenko went alone between Oct. 16 and Nov. 1 such as any restaurants, doctors, dentists, government agencies for paperwork, homes he visited (has anybody checked the INSIDE of the Z man’s house across the street) etc. etc. The Germans did all of this rather quickly for the three day or so period Kovton was in town – there is no excuse for this – find out where Lit. went prior to Nov. 1 and then we can put an end to the Millenium as the one and only time Lit was contaminated….and we might make some headway in the case. Ok I know they checked Erinys etc. but I mean places Lit. went ALONE
Just a little point – I’ve read that the Z man Chechen across the street used to drive Litvinenko around a lot – so why did Litvinenko who apparantly had tons of cash per the Sushi girl take a BUS? Did he want to go to the a.m. meeting without Z. knowing? Or did Z. want to remain unconnected to the a.m. meeting? or is it just a coincidence? I believe the first meeting was around 10 a. m. just after Kovton arrived from Hamburg on a 6:20 or so flight arriving 7:20 or so – Kovton seems to have hurried to this meeting from Hamburg carrying WHAT? I’d also like to point out the penny pinching going on by Kovton – there were perfectly exceptable expensive BA flights in the a.m. from Hamburg to London and also the night before – why did Kovtov hang around at his ex wife’s when he could have flown Oct. 31 evening to the Millenium and stayed there comfortably without having to get up at 4 a.m. in order to make the discount German Wings flight?
update: the ex wife of Kowtun in hospital for symptoms of radiation
http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/fall-litvinenko_nid_40845.html
German press conf. going on right now in Germany regarding the case and the ex wife
Correction – it looks like it was not the ex wife but a Russian woman who went to the Hamburg Police saying she had symptoms and had contact with Kovton in the Oct. 29-Nov 1 timeframe
Lizarde1,
Litvinenko did not have a driver’s license and it is much easier to get around by bus and tube in London. Litvenenko left late in the day and probably missed any ride.
AJStrata
Well ok AJ – just a passing thought from a non bus taking cab taker snob!
I suppose Kuvtun could have been unknowingly contaminated while meeting Lugovoi in Moscow. Lugovoi still seems the high probablility killer IMO.
I continue to think that a “searing” level of contamination in the hotel room is an elaboration not supported by the reporting (unlike the cup, and now saucer, for instance).
Can someone catch me up?
–Who is the Z Man? Do we not know him by name?
–Why, Lizarde1, can we assume the Millenium was the only Ground Zero if we know where Lit went prior to Nov 1? I’m getting lost…
Thanks
And according to that article, she is showing signs of radiation poisoning, so it’s not just a check-up.
Perhaps Litvinenko did not want a clear trail to the Milennium hotel, hence the bus. I think he picked up material at the hotel and either handed it over to Scaramella, BB or some unknown. Why else would he come to the hotel and hang around their Po stash? Then he went back there and paid them for their services or gave them material (beryllium, to make a bomb?) or checked on how their Po handling was going. I wonder if they’re checking these places for beryllium.
Lizarde1, so the focus report about the ex-wife is wrong? They do state it’s the ex-wife who’s sick there.
In Hamburg sind mehrere Menschen mit dem Strahlengift Polonium 210 kontaminiert. Bei der Ex-Frau des früheren russischen Geheimdienstlers Dmitri Kowtun, bei ihren beiden Kindern und ihrem Lebensgefährten sind laut Polizei Anzeichen für Kontamination festgestellt worden.
4 people in Hamburg contaminated: ex wife 2 kids by other boyfriend and her live in boyfriend