Dec 13 2006
Some Litvinenko Thoughts
The news on Litvinenko’s death and the Polonium-210 trail has succumbed to the moder Ripper news, so obviously something very quiet is being done behind the scenes or the trail is growing cold. I think it is the former because this quick response by the Germans in response to some possible evidence that Kovtun made a phone call from Berlin during his period in Germany between Moscow and his trip to meet Lugovoi and Litvinenko in London.
I meant to note I find the constantly shifting stories by Lugovoi and Kovtun to be a clear sign they new full well they have been in contact with radiactive material. The tanning salon excuse is just pathetic. I also find their pointing to Oct 16th as possible contamination point telling as well. They knew that their illnesses were due to Polonium 210, but they only realized their problem after Litvinenko fell ill and died. Up until they could not hide the truth anymore (i.e., they needed medical attention) they tried to divert suspicion using one lame excuse after another. But they knew it was Polonium 210.
Add this the fact Berezovsky’s mouthpiece Goldfarb went out of his way to dismiss any idea that Lugovoi and Kovtun could have been involved in the assassination effort and one can see he too was trying to divert attention from them as culprits in Litvinenko’s death. When in reality they represented the best lead to Putin and Russia as part of an assassination effort. Why would Berezovsky/Goldfarb go out of there way to publically vouch for the best supporting evidence of a Russian assassination plot to ever surface? Diversion. Only when it became clearly obvious that Lugovoi was ill did Goldfarb go silent again.
Finally, the delay in questioning Lugovoi could easily be seen as negotiations for a plea agreement. Lugovoi has been giving the public perception he is working for investigators on this case, and investigators are not out denying anything. We still have this mysterious fourth contaminated hotel out there, and we have police backing away from the poisoned tea cup theory. I would not be surprised if within a few days we see some sweeping actions by authorites. Then again, I would not be surprised to see nothing new happening for days on end as well. My latest musings for all to rip apart at their leisure!
The link doesn’t work and I recall no backtracking from the tea cup theory.
“Add this the fact Berezovsky’s mouthpiece Goldfarb went out of his way to dismiss any idea that Lugovoi and Kovtun could have been involved in the assassination effort and one can see he too was trying to divert attention from them as culprits in Litvinenko’s death. When in reality they represented the best lead to Putin and Russia as part of an assassination effort. Why would Berezovsky/Goldfarb go out of there way to publically vouch for the best supporting evidence of a Russian assassination plot to ever surface? Diversion. Only when it became clearly obvious that Lugovoi was ill did Goldfarb go silent again.”
AJ I lost you, can you go over that again? Why would Berez want to vouch for these two, and why create a diversion?
Of cloaks and daggers and poison and suitcase nukes — Update 2…
See previous: Polonium linked to Kovtun days before Litvinenko poisoningSpy’s Poisoning May Have Been EarlierWitness Says Former Russian Spy Alexander Litvinenko Was Poisoned Earlier Than Is BelievedMaria Danilova MOSCOW Dec 13, 2006 (AP)— A key wit…
Like Clarice, I’m unaware of any backtracking from the “poisoned cup” scenario (almost mythic religious allusions there, BTW).
The teacup seems to have gone from being something significant to something that was “tested” for contamination along with the dishwasher.
I recall nothing about it not being highly contaminated. When was the shift?
“Why would Berezovsky/Goldfarb go out of there way to publically vouch for the best supporting evidence of a Russian assassination plot to ever surface?”
Because Lugovoi has been a Berezovsky man for years and Lugovoi recruited Kovtun. To point the finger at Lugovoi and/or Kovtun is to point the finger at Berezovsky.
I also found it interesting to hear the irritation Lugovoi expressed concerning Litvinenko where he talks about Litvinenko’s inappropriate behavior in meetings with customers (repeatedly interjecting with “don’t forget to wire us 100,000 pounds!”) causing Lugovoi embarrassment.
Starts looking like Litvinenko was getting desparate for money. There is also that piece that made the rounds saying that both US and British intelligence had warned Litvinenko to distance himself from Berezovsky or his life could be in danger. I am not sure how much weight to give that report, though. As much as I would like to believe it, I would need confirmation of it which we aren’t likely to get.
Apparently there was one report that it was damaged or really super contaminated or something and suddenly all those reports seem to have disappeared and we are back to “testing” a teacup and a dishwasher without any mention of contamination levels. Might be one of those things like where Scaramella is not contaminated, then he is, then he isn’t.
Just like the people in Germany that yesterday weren’t contaminated very much, today reports are that they are all contaminated and in the hospital. We are getting reports all over the place. The media reporting on this story is really bad with a lot of conflicting information out there.
Maybe that was correct and there was nothing else to report on it.
It’s hard enough following this without people exaggerating things or making them up. There’s not been a single story revising the original tea cup story, and until there is, I think we have to assume that report has not been challenged or revised.
I can’t even find it anymore and I can’t find it reported anywhere else.
I am not going to rely on one single report for anything in this story. I am not believing anything until it has been confirmed. Like the bogus story about the source of the polonium being traced to some Russian reactor, for example. Sounds to me like someone possibly exaggerated the teacup story. The levels of polonium we can detect are miniscule. They might have just found the teacup that Litvinenko had handled and the 7 contaminated workers might simply have been smokers for all I know.
A google news search for teacup polonium contaminated returns only one story dated December first that has only this WRT the teacup:
“Checks by police at the hotel have found traces of polonium in the rooms the two men used and on a teacup Mr Litvinenko is thought to have drunk from.”
And as media sites have an interesting policy of re-writing history these days, it wouldn’t surprise me to discover articles now are different than they were several days ago. They tend to edit the articles and change the content after they are published without any notice that they have done so.
Here’s the story AJ reported. It has its very own thread:
“POISONED former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko WAS murdered by radioactive tea, it was revealed yesterday.
Scotland Yard detectives have quarantined cups and saucers which show signs of being heavily contaminated with polonium 210 from the Pines Bar at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair, Central London.
They are convinced that is where Litvinenko was slipped the fatal dose in a cup of tea during a meeting with former KGB colleague Andrei Lugovoi and his business partner Dmitri Kovtun.
Seven bar staff who served them have been sent home showing signs of radiation poisoning. Colleagues say four are already suffering from a “flu like†illness.
A senior Counterterrorism source said: “It’s now a near certainty Mr Litvinenko was poisoned by having polonium 210 slipped into his drink at the hotel, probably while distracted by a phone call or other interruption. The contaminated staff are those who cleared up the crockery and took it to the kitchens”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=poison-spy–it-was-in-his-tea-&method=full&objectid=18235402&siteid=94762-name_page.html
Excellent, thanks Clarice. So are they are convinced he was poisoned there and convinced he was poisoned elsewhere earlier. Sounds to me like a deliberate attempt by the authorities to keep the water muddied. I am not going to believe much being reported at the moment until there is some official news from NSY.
But so far, Boris’ boys would be the prime suspects.
Oh, Brother!
I’ll ramble…. Why is Po210 distracting us all? Well, because one person died and there’s a big Po mess spreading most everywhere in Europe now… almost everywhere anyway. Where does this Po210 stuff come from anyway? Well, it has to be specially made, only governments do this. Why do people outside governments have any Po210? That, is a very interesting question…. some people think Po210 could be sold to some atomic wannabee nations for their fission attempts or for a dirty bomb. Who cares about this Po210 stuff really (gosh knows I have no interest in it)? It’s something scientists really like (those crazy scientists). Could other people be interested in Po210? Well, that’s a good question actually – there’s no reason to be interested in Po210 unless you are a nuclear scientist. How did all these people get contaninated by Po210? Another good question, Po210 is only something that a scientist could make. It has been used for firing atomic bombs (sort of like a firecracker), and could still be used for this though it isn’t the best choice these days… you should ask if someone contaminated with polonium was trying to build an atomic bomb. Do Russians want to build atomic bombs? I don’t think so, like the USA they have more atomic bombs than anyone would choose to have. So, why are all these Russians contaminated with polonium? Right, it’s important to know if this is really true, we have to wait and read the news… only one person has died from polonium poisoning (Sasha), and it may be that he was the only person who was poisoned. What about all these contaminated hotels and airplanes and… everything? It’s not a problem, these places are not dangerous, the stories are really press hysteria (think of a bad party where people head off to cause more mayhem) everyone really has to react responsibly when they hear about radiation, it’s a foreign idea to most people but not dangerous in most cases. Are people in Russia smuggling polonium to make a profit? Heh, no, there’s no evidence for this that I know of. 🙂
From only a few hours ago:
“The ex-wife of a witness in the case of a murdered former Russian spy, her two children and boyfriend have been hospitalised in Germany with suspected polonium-210 poisoning. ”
You don’t get that level of poisoning simply from being exposed to someone who has been poisoned.
I believe these reports are newer than the ones that said their contamination was minor and posed no health problems.
Police: Relatives of dead ex-spy’s contact show no trace of polonium
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/13/europe/EU_GEN_Germany_Russia_Poisoned_Spy.php
What’s your reference?