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!
it has been translated by someone whos English is not so good!
Interesting to read in the following Novosti op-ed in relation to this statement by German police, clipped from the article I cited in my previous post: “Investigating [German] officers still did not have contact with their Russian counterparts despite repeated requests for assistance from Moscow, police said.”
Polonium incident: a rehearsal for a dirty bomb?
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna) – The ado around the polonium incident in London has a certain quirk to it which I find annoying. Why is everyone talking about the victims (real and potential) and piquant details of secondary importance, when there is something far more important to worry about?
Nuclear physicist Alexander Borovoi, a professor at the Kurchatov Institute research center, pinpointed my cause of concern: “The worst part of the story is that it was like a rehearsal for a dirty bomb.
[More: http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20061214/56931137.html ]
Why isn’t investigating the smuggling of polonium 210 important enough for Russian agencies to cooperate with investigation teams and requests from other contaminated countries?
As usual, an excellent point, Mariposa.
Velichko, referred to above is reportedly head of the Dignity and Honor (or is it Honor and Dignity) group of former KGB agents whom many have said are the assassins for Putin. I believe they are named in the Limarov note Scaramella showed Litvinenko.
Mariposa,
This is actually an Interpol investigation now. Russia is a part of Interpol.
And in the center are two “in deep financial trouble” and probably ready for anything personalities.
Who used them (and they are definitly puppets in a bigger game) that’s another story.
If you believe Svetlichnaya, Litvinenko was a clinic case of psychopath. As axisglobe link suggests Kovtun has somewhat strange personality too: good for nothing type of person who dreams about instant personal enrichment.
Likbez, I think you might want to check out Svetlichnaya a bit more. Check her employment history, for example. I think it altogether possible she is part of a Russian disinfo campaign against Litvinenko.
“If you believe Svetlichnaya…”
Likbez, I don’t believe Svetlichnaya at all. Nor does most of the Western press now because she has no evidence of “hundreds of emails” to back up her claims.
Look up the tips that the Norwegian media source Aftenposten received on Svetlichnaya. Her roots as a communication manager for the brokerage company OAO Russin Investors, and their roots to Russian state ownership, make her statements suspect.
Kovton’s phone WAS TAPPED: der Spiegel
At the same time, the German daily Berliner Zeitung reported on Thursday that police had traced a phone call Kovtun made from his cellular phone to his mother-in-law in Hamburg, and determined that he was in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district at the time he made the call. Although police officials in Hamburg confirmed the phone tap, spokeswoman Ulrike Sweden said they “found no indication that Mr. Kovtun was in Berlin at that time or at any other time. … That turned out to be a false lead.
Claris,
Thanks. It might be that she is a plant. But there are other signs that he was a very strange person. Why he converted to Islam on his deathbed and at the same time claimed that he love his wife. It complicates life for both his wife and son, especially for son now.
Also some his previous statements were on the edge of insanity: he claimed that Putin is a pedophile, that FSB organized Beslan
http://halldor2.blogspot.com/2004/09/litvinenko-on-beslan.html
IMHO no person who is not clinical psychopath can claim such things.
Actually, I spoke too soon about that Reuters report (the one which I linked to and destroyed the format) being a throwaway.
There’s a quote in it from an Aeroflot spokesperson saying that the Russian state’s consumer watchdog agency determined that no further radiation tests are needed on their planes:
“Russian airline Aeroflot said the country’s consumer standards watchdog had decided no more radiation checks were needed on planes that had flown to Hamburg in the last two months, despite requests from German investigators.
“We check all the planes on a continuous basis and nothing untoward was found,” said a spokeswoman for Aeroflot.
Hamburg police said they had requested a check on just one plane — the one on which Kovtun flew from Moscow to Hamburg on October 28. The police were still waiting for a response.”
***
But Interfax now runs a story saying that Aeroflot will test 2o planes that the company flew between Hamburg and Moscow in the last few months:
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=11647326
Dec 14 2006 3:10PM
Aeroflot flights to Hamburg to be checked for traces of radioactivity
MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax) – Aeroflot – Russian Airlines (RTS: AFLT) planes which have flown to Hamburg since October are to be examined for possible traces of radioactivity at the request of the German authorities, a company source told Interfax.
The request was made to Russia’s Federal Consumer Rights and Human Well-Being Service (Rospotrebnadzor).
“About 20 commercial planes will be examined,” the source said.
***
These contradictions are irritating, but probably unavoidable in a fast-moving story.
I’ve boiled this puzzle down to just two scenarios, and I’m more or less 50-50 on which one best fits the facts.
Let’s start with one key assumption to filter out the various theories: Was there incompetence involved, or was this some sort of set-up? I don’t believe it was a set-up. There is no way it could be a smuggling operation and involve some sort of set-up, because the smugglers would want to keep this whole thing quiet. If it were an assassination set-up, it seems unusually complicated and convoluted, with an awful lot of people involved, not to mention a substance that is very hard to control.
So I am taking as a starting point a major dose of incompetence, or (if you prefer) ignorance about the substance at hand. Who in the world has experience with it? You could portray polonium as being dangerous to ingest but not to handle and still be within shooting range of the truth. (Remember that it was depicted by one ‘expert’ as being safe if stored in a knotted baggie.) It is also not detected by geiger counters and the like and so would not be of concern in terms of passing through customs. However, a suitable container that would not draw suspicion could be a problem, so the transporter did not use an adequate container.
This incompetence or ignorance would apply equally to assassins or smugglers. If we assume incompetence, we don’t need to rely on complicated backstabbings or smuggling leading to murder or murder leading to smuggling, we have our accident, and that is sufficient.
So my two scenarios are, simply, a Putin-directed hit, or a Berezovsky-managed smuggling ring.
Why assassination? Because, again with the benefit of hindsight, the assassin may have thought all he had to do is spike Litvinenko’s drink a time or two and get out of dodge, presumably undetected. Yes the death would be mysterious and yes people would suspect Putin, but it would remain at the level of speculation. Putin not only has his assassination law in place now, but also he seems particularly emboldened by recent events, most notably the aftermath of our very own midterm election. He is in bed with Iran, he is taking over others’ oil and gas operations, and he is assassinating his enemies. So Lugovoi and / or Kovtun carry out the assignment, and lo and behold, Houston we have a problem. But hey, polonium happens, and they’re safely back in Russia, with no chance of extradition, the ruble (and the investigation) stops here. And yes they’re exposed, but who would have known, which leads us back to incompetence.
Why smuggling? Because of all of the reasons provided in these comment sections over the course of the past ten days. There just flat out seems to be too much of the stuff around to have been a hit. The press has had a hayday with how extremely lethal this stuff is, and I have to think that the transporter(s) would at least have known that. Is it really a coincidence that polonium is used in nuclear triggers; that Litvinenko was sympathetic to the Chechnens; that he converted to Islam shortly before his death; and that the UK is all aflutter about a dirty bomb?
Both theories have their problems but I don’t see that either can be eliminated. Have I forgotten something, am I leaving some key piece of evidence out?
Clarice,
See also Justin Raimondo assessment:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10066
Lizarde, good catch on that.
I think his conversion was an act of defiance , he may have believed that his poisoning was becuase of Chechnya, I believe it was his way to show his sympathy for the Chechen cause. But remeber as has been said by his friends he was very heavily sedated. i dont see see that it has really caused his familly any trouble – aside from the funeral arrangments. But they seemed to deal with it by offering prayers at the Mosque and a Chrisitan burial.
Those statements are not insane if they are true (not that I am saying they are)
Tempester,
When a person face death this is no good time to make additional enemies.
Unless he was involved in dirty bomb plot or smuggling and wanted to justify his death by this symbolic move.
If there were ever a foam flecked nutter in this matter it’s Justin Raimondo. PHEH
This story is a mess. Now this on Aeroflot plane inspections:
Dec 14 2006 3:48PM
Ministry denies receiving German request to examine Aeroflot planes
MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax) – The Russian Transport Ministry’s Federal Transport Supervisory Service has not received official German requests for it to examine Aeroflot planes for traces of radioactivity, a source at the ministry’s press service told Interfax on Thursday.
“The service has not received official requests for examining the planes,” the source said.
He told Interfax that German police had only asked the Aeroflot local office for information about passengers on Moscow-Hamburg flights.
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=11647371
Clarice,
I understand your personal preferences pretty well 😉
but you need to agree that for November 27, 2006 his article was far ahead of the media crowd both in depth and substance.
Ha, Clarice! I will attempt to be nice, and say “no comment” on Justin Raimondo’s opinions.
Likbez, are you Russian?