Dec 04 2006
Litvinenko Was A Muslim, And Alex Pulls Another “Goldfarb”
The Litvienko case is very intriguing. One of the most intriguing stories we have seen in a long time. I think its intrigue comes from the fact that it could have major political implications across the globe and impact the overall war on Islamo Fascism. As the readers on this site know (and hash out everyday in the comments) there are two schools of thought: assassination and nuclear accident with contraband material. I won’t rehash the arguments here, but it is amazing that with all the revelations and twists and turns in this case that one of these theories has not been ruled out.
Anyway, to add to the debate today we have the news, now confirmed by his father at his side when he died, that Litvinenko wanted to have a Muslim burial:
Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian intelligence agent poisoned in London, requested before his death that he be buried according to Muslim tradition, his father said in an interview for the Kommersant daily newspaper published Monday. The former agent and critic of the Kremlin expressed the wish as he lay dying in his father’s arms, Valter Litvinenko said.
“He said I want to be buried according to Islamic tradition. I said okay son. It will be as you wish. We already have one Muslim in our family. The important thing is to believe in the Almighty. God is one,†he said in the interview.
Litvinenko and Berezovsky were strident supporters of the Islamists Chechen uprising. And in fact the Chechen Muslims hailed Litvinenko as a martyr when he died late last month – an honor they would not confer on some western infidel. And we need to note that this is the third death in a month asociated with the Chechens – as I posted here. The Chechen angle is still under reported and under appreciated because the Western Europeans have become partial supporters of the Chechen Islamo Fascists, as opposed to their views on Al Qaeda and other Arab Islamist movements. So would a Muslim Litvinenko do everything he could for his Muslim Chechen brothers in their fight against Putin? A serious question which has not yet been explored in the news media.
Update: Well, it seems the Times UK has decided to finally connect the dots:
Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian intelligence agent poisoned in London, is to be buried according to Muslim tradition after converting to Islam on his deathbed.
The spy’s father, Walter Litvinenko, said in an interview published today that his son – who was born an Orthodox Christian but had close links to Islamist rebels in Chechnya – made the request as he lay dying in University College Hospital.
Emphasis mine. Finally we are facing some facts here. – end update
The other strange event today is another in a long line of finger-pointing revelations out of one Alex Goldfarb. He seems to have come up with evidence of another killer. “Goldfarb’ is becoming analogous to desparate alibi production as the man, who speaks for Berezovsky and supposedly Litvinenko, has a trail of revelations which magically map to news stories of the day (sounds like a PR firm at work doesn’t it?). Goldfarb announced the theory the assassination was a hit from Putin. He announced the culprit could have been Scaramella. He magically produced scanned letters from a guy in a Russian jail saying he warned Litvinenko four years ago he was in danger (after four years I would assume the warning was in error). Goldfarb once claimed Litvinenko was in Berezovsky’s office sweating the Polonium and contaminating the offices there, until the timeline did not fit that theory. And now Goldfarb is claiming Litvinenko fingered another person on his deathbed, but hesitated to say anything to authorities because he wanted to lure the killer back to London???
Last night Alex Goldfarb, a close friend of the victim, revealed that on his death bed Mr Litvinenko voiced his suspicions about the former FSB agent. Mr Goldfarb said yesterday that his friend did not want to publicise details of his encounters with Mr Lugovoy and some of his associates, in the hope that he would recover and lure these men back to London when he was better.
Alex is quiet smart actually. I have said one of my issues with the assassination theory is that claim by Litvinenko was held until he passed away. It maximized the PR punch and allowed for the rare event Litvinenko pulled through. Alex has now covered himself somewhat on the charge that withholding Litvinenko’s Putin accusations was not for PR timing, but to allow for the chance to lure Lugovoi back to London. Which seems ridiculous since the man seemed to travel to London a lot. Goldfarb’s alibi dance is one reason I still think Berezovsky is at the center of this and not an innocent victim. Someone is paying him to put out these crazy ideas to the media. Someone who probably cares which way this investigation goes.
Intriguing, you say. I would say that your obsessed. It is definitely making for good reading. In the hindsight is 20/20 perspective, Russia would have been much better off just living with the outcome of the 1st Chechen war and not assassinating Dudyav. This is Diem all over again. Let’s hope the US doesn’t do the same thing with Maleki in Iraq.
Rich,
The sad thing is there is not much more news out there. The Dems are acting like Dems, Bush is being Bush and the Reps are not doing much of anything. I would actually love a break from this story – but I am a bit obsessed, yes.
regarding the timeline: who do you think is the source for this quote in the Mirror: could this be Goldfarb?
A source said tests found polonium concentrated “on the sofa where he was sitting while he drank wine”.
the same article shows the backpeddling:
Friends of Mr Litvinenko, a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alex Goldfarb said: “He obviously suspected him. He suspected Scaramella too but he suspected Lugovoi more.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=spy-poison-cops-to-quiz-ex-kgb-minder-&method=full&objectid=18203828&siteid=94762-name_page.html
Did we know that Goldfarb was Boris’ lawyer in 2005?:
Berezovsky’s lawyer Alexander Goldfarb told the AFP news agency after the searches that he saw Russia’s hand behind them. “It is very sad that France lets itself be led by the nose by Russia,†Goldfarb said. The lawyer accused Paris of being complacent with Russian authorities, who he said had used similar tactics in the past to obtain the extradition of the exiled magnate, who has also been charged with fraud.http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/05/12/berezsearch.shtml
.
The way the report of Lugovoi contaminating the sofa in Bereszovsky’s office reads you would think that he was the only one who had ever sat on that sofa. Litvinenko could have contaminated the sofa also. This is getting very involved. If this was an assassination (which I don’t believe) then maybe the message is don’t use polonium again because it spreads around too much and is too detectable. It also causes a sensation around the world. Unless, of course, that is your object.
Crosspatch
Would a lead container be an appropriate container for polonium?
I’ve decided that Po210 isn’t at all expensive to make if you’ve already got a reactor sitting around, just throw in some bismuth and charge it up, depending on how efficient the conversion to Po additional purification might be necessary for some applications (nuclear triggers) but not for poisoning. A government would probably have some ongoing schedule for Po production and a couple of milli- or micro-grams of scraps could be diverted to poisoning. So, I’d say that argument against assassination doesn’t hold up.
Interesting that Sasha was suspicious of the documents, copies of emails, I’d say he was poisoned either with those or tea. Scaramella’s 5x fatal dose supports the document theory IMO.
A scientist friend of mine–who admits his nuclear chemistry is rusty emailed me:
“Thallium is a byproduct of polonium production. It is easy to separate it from polonium by ordinary wet chemistry. In a high-class nuclear laboratory, producing high purity radioisotopes, one would expect them to do so. But in the case of crude polonium, e.g. for an energy source, one might not bother to do so. This may help identify the source.
Lead-206 is the direct daughter product of Po-210 and the end of the decay chain. Therefore, as the polonium decays, the lead builds up; after 138 days, the polonium-lead ratio should be 50-50. Therefore, the absence of lead would indicate piping hot fresh-from-the-reactor material, without the likelihood of any intermediary such as a dealer. “
That means the timeline can be accurately pinpointed based on lead content presumably – for example, at exactly what moment Boris’ office was contaminated.
I did a little (very fast) research on Polonium: It can be separated from pitchblende -yield is about 1 GRAM per ton.It can also be made in a reactor,but the yield is even lower. Russia says it made just 8 grams of Polonium last year, and knows where all of it is.
I’m going to make a VERY wild guess that the material that got into Litvinenko, and which contaminated so many people was made up of a TINY amount of Polonium+ a somewhat larger amount of Beryllium (a sweet-tasting-but-lethally-poisonous light metal); that the two materials were kept separate until deployment; and that a lot of “impurities” (nanoglass comes to mind) were present. I suspect it was made up for an “aerosol attack”- (much like a bio-weapon); and that it was spread by this means.
The combination of Po and Be would result in the emission of neutrons-which create secondary radiation contamination in whatever they hit.
“yield is about 1 GRAM per ton”
No, yield is less than 1 MILIGRAM per ton.
Also, you can not tell when something was contaminated based on lead content, all you can tell is how “old” the polonium is.
If I have polonium made in October and use it to contaminate one place in November and another in December, both places will have the same lead content. BUT, the lead content will tell me if both contaminations came from the same original source and about when the material was made. If it is 50/50 lead/polonium then I know it was made about 138 days ago.
If the delivery method were aerosol, could that explain the difference between the dose Scaramella got and Litvinenko got? That is, assuming they were both poisoned at the same time, is it possible that some of the more toxic materials were heavier (or lighter) in one spray than another?
Clarice: if one were the dose-er , one might get contaminated to a lesser degree. (It doesn’t sound like a choice assignment !)
Every says it’s quite heavy and hard to inhale -because of gravity. Let’s say you had a tiny aerosol, wore gloves and pointed it down away from you.
EveryONE****
“If the delivery method were aerosol, could that explain the difference between the dose Scaramella got and Litvinenko got?”
Yes, but I have a couple of concerns with that method. First is the amount in Litvinenko. We are talking about 100-200 micrograms. He would have had to practically snort the aerosol directly up his nose and get some on others around him. Secondly, if it was an aerosol, and if the solution was that concentrated, several other people would have probably been contaminated. My understanding is that the sushi bar was a very crowded place.
It would explain the rash on the woman’s legs, though, who served Litvinenko if that story is true. If some of that aerosol settled on her legs, at the concentration it must have had, it would have caused a rash not unlike sunburn.
Lugovoy’s flights and hotels:
Oct 16 met with Litvienko Sushi Bar and Chinese Restaurant and returns to Moscow on a Russian flight on Oct 17. Home 8 days. Plane and hotel (not named) not contaminated so far as we know but there are now allegedly 20 places contaminated.
Oct 25 Lugovoi flies to London from Moscow and returns Oct 28. Meets Litvinenko at the Sheraton Park Hotel. Significant contamination at hotel. Moscow to London plane contaminated but not the return plane on the 28th????? (note: 2 planes contaminated only)
Oct. 31 he flies back to London from Moscow with wife and kid and stays at the Millenium. Home 3 days Returns Nov 3. Plane to London contaminated. Hotel contaminated. No mention of return flight contaminated.
TWO DELIVERIES? and changed his clothes for return flights? Or were they the very same planes that flew Moscow/London that flew the return on the 28th and the 3rd and they haven’t mentioned that the contamination was found in different seating areas on both the planes ?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,1963271,00.html
Did Litvinenko commonly use a nasal spray or inhaler?
Again because it got eaten:
1. Oct. 16-18 Lukovoi in London unnamed hotel and returns on noncontaminated Russian plane…hotel not contaminated.
2. Oct. 25-28 Sheraton Park Lane contaminated. Plane from Moscow to London contaminated – return flight to Moscow not known to be contaminated
3. Oct 31-Nov 3. Millenium hotel contaminated; plane from moscow contaminated – return flight to Moscow not known to be contaminated.
TWO Deliveries and he changed clothes and took a shower?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,1963271,00.html
Fits into the early theory that an attempt was made earlier in October and scotched, doesn’t it?
Could fit both theories. Thing is Litvinenko knew Lukovoi and so if he delivered the poison at the sushi bar (only way I can figure Scaramella got such a high dose) then Litvinenko would have recognized him.