From Russia With Love

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

'The bastards got me, they won't get us all'

Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor

November 24, 2006

The Times

Alexander Litvinenko, the spy poisoned in England, died.

Thugs are thugs wherever they are. Like it or not, Russia is still a threat. There are too many Russian journalists dropping recently without finding the murderers. That is a strong sign that other monkey-business is in the works.

I sincerely hope that poison was chemical and not biological.

Michael

[blackhorse]

I concur 100% with that assesment MSK. Putin and his communistic KGB thugs are a real danger to Russia and the rest of the world. There needs to be a big outcry from the USA on this whole tragedy.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

According to the news, it was a radioactive substance called Polonium 210. It is found in minute quantities in tobacco smoke, but mostly in pitchblende (the mineral where uranium comes from).

See the following story:

Spy 'Poisoned By Radiation'

November 24, 2006

(unsigned)

Sky News

What on earth are these Russians thinking? They know that something like this will be discovered.

EDIT - Here are some other stories. They are self-explanatory. You draw your own conclusions. Does anyone see any connections here? (Apparently the Islamist threat excludes Russia... I wonder about China...)

Russian rocket deliveries to Iran started

Russian nuclear chief to visit Iran to discuss economic co-operation

Russia sends air defense system to Iran

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

Michael; Russia is depressing! One hopes that Putin will leave office when he has said he will. This action sounds like a KGB operation from the 1930 and 40ths.

[blackhorse]

From littlegreenfootballs.com; Radio station Echo Moskvy reported Friday that Litvinenko converted to Islam. Litvinenko, it said, was read the Yasin surah, or prayer, and given Islamic death rites by an imam invited to the dying spy’s hospital bedside.

Ekho, a prominent liberal broadcaster funded by state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom, said Litvinenko would be buried in a Muslim cemetery in London. The station cited Chechenpress, the official news agency of the wartorn republic’s insurgency.

A statement dictated by Litvinenko two days before his death and read by friends on Friday said nothing about a conversion to Islam.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Blackhorse,

The information about Litvinenko having converted to Islam is pretty bizarre. For the record, here is the link to the Little Green Footballs blog entry:

Russian Spy Died of Radioactive Poisoning, Converted to Islam?

Here is where the Little Green Footballs blogger got his information on the UK Daily Pundit blog:

Alexander Litvinenko: Will We Ever Know The Truth?

Here is where the UK Daily Pundit blog got its information on the Zionist War blog:

Alexander Litvinenko poisoned by FSB converted to Islam before his death

The Zionist War blog claims its information came from the Chechenpress news agency. Either that site has been hacked or taken down. The best I could do was the following link (and even this might not work after a while):

http://www.chechenpress.info/english/

The Little Green Footballs blog mentioned another link, given below, and even quoted it about Litvinenko's alleged conversion to Islam:

Russians Blame Litvinenko Ally In Former Spy's Death

The name of this site is "Playfuls.com" and the article is signed by the "Playfuls Team." (heh) The article is copyrighted by something called "DPA." (double heh)

That article stated that its information came from Echo Moskvy, a radio station in Moscow funded by Gazprom, the government gas monopoly.

Now that's one hell of a daisy-chain. I am surprised to see an orthodox Objectivist site like the Little Green Footballs blog report something of this nature as if it were news without making an appropriate comment on the source. The ARI crowd has a habit of making oversimplifications, that's for sure, but rarely have I seen one of their own taken in by Russian misinformation like this. They are normally not so sloppy. After all, the Internet is so low cost it is practically free. Looking these links up was not rocket science.

Here is some other information for OL readers who want some quick basics on this affair.

Here is the book by Litvinenko that is one of the things causing Putin headaches:

Blowing up Russia : Terror from Within by Yuri Felshtinsky and Alexander Litvinenko, Geoffrey Andrews (Translator)

Also, I found the article below to be quite informative for those who don't even know what Chechnya is. It is by J. R. Nyquist, who writes a weekly column for the Financial Sense Online site called "Geopolitical Global Analysis with J. R. Nyquist." The date is November 20, 2006, so there is no mention of Polonium yet.

Kremlin Poison

Here are some quotes from that article:

A former lieutenant colonel of the KGB/FSB, Litvinenko wrote a book titled Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within. During an interview with Rzeczpospolita in July 2005 he explained that al Qaeda’s number two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri was trained by the FSB (KGB) in Russia along with other al Qaeda leaders. According to Litvinenko, “[there is] only one organization which has made terrorism the main tool of solving political problems.” And that organization, he said, “is the Russian special services.”

(...)

Litvinenko has argued that Chechen terrorism is a KGB-inspired provocation used to legitimize Putin’s dictatorship, and that Russia is pretending to fight terrorism with one hand while guiding it with the other.

(...)

The Russian strategy should be obvious by now. We know that China and Iran are being armed with Russian weapons – including Russian nuclear technology. Such moves deserve an explanation, but nobody wants an honest discussion of the problem. Given the economic logic of U.S. statesmanship, a confrontation with Russia is to be avoided. The Left/Right political divide paralyzes any and all realistic analysis because one side of this political divide is incapable of acknowledging a Russian threat while the other has attached itself to claims of victory and the prospect of “open” markets in “former” communist lands.

(...)

The suicide of the West is happening before our eyes. From the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya to the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, from the fall of South Africa to the electoral victory of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, the same old Communists continue to kill their enemies as they advance from victory to victory. The KGB rules Russia openly, flooding China with weapons, encouraging Iran’s nuclear ambitions, arming Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, subverting the Western alliance through economics, neutralizing Germany by way of German unification, undermining NATO as one Warsaw Pact country after another joins under false democratic colors. Do the Americans have eyes? Do they have sense?

(...)

From outward appearances it would seem that the old Soviet Union has returned. A thing crucified, dead and buried has been resurrected. Four weeks after Vladimir Putin’s re-election, a procession led by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church arrived at the Church of Christ the Redeemer in Moscow. In keeping with ancient tradition the doors of the church were shut, symbolizing the sealed cave where Christ’s body was placed following crucifixion. “After midnight,” noted Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, “the Orthodox faithful taking part in the procession await the opening of the church doors. The patriarch stands on the steps at their head and is the first to enter the empty temple where the Resurrection of Christ has already occurred.” In due course the Patriarch offered up a prayer, the doors of the Church of Christ the Redeemer were opened and out stepped President Vladimir Putin. If any Christians were present for this ceremony they offered no protest to this blatant sacrilege. The woman who reported this event for the benefit of Western readers has since been assassinated. The KGB defector who was investigating the circumstances of her death has been poisoned (i.e., Litvinenko).

Finally, here is a Wikipedia article: Chechnya. This country is a small republic in the southeastern part of Russia (to the north of Georgia) that declared independence when The Soviet Union collapsed, although it was only recognized by the Taliban before it fell. There is a separate language, Chechen. It is predominantly an Islamic country, although it practices "Islam light."

Since Litvinenko was blowing the whistle on a whole lot of monkey-shines by Putin's thugs over there, this could possibly be the reason the Moscow radio station wanted to brand (read "smear") Litvinenko as an Islamic convert. To me, this sounds like a case of classic misinformation from the cold war era.

EDIT - Here is a more thorough report than usual of the story by The Independent. Not one peep about Litvinenko allegedly becoming a Muslim.

Who killed Litvinenko?

By Cahal Milmo

November 25, 2006

Michael

[Charles R. Anderson]

The only reason to use a radioactive poison such as polonium 210 is if you want the means of death to be discovered and you want everyone to know that it was done by someone with high technology at hand. In this case, it was a clear pronouncement that Russia did it and they wanted to rub it in that they could get away with it.

If you have a few dissenters, a vicious leadership is likely to make them quietly and mysteriously disappear. If you have many dissenters and you are determined to hold onto power, then you send blatant messages about the deadly cost of dissent. This is what Russia is doing. They also have made the calculation that the US is too distracted and no longer has the will to make much of a fuss about what they are doing. Given Democrat control of the House and Senate, their calculation no doubt rests on solid ground.

Classic bullies like the Russian leadership and fanatic Islamists respond with better behavior only when confronted by determined and certain strength. Their response to uncertain and weak action is to push harder to take advantage of it. We will see Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and others who sense the same weakness pushing hard to take advantage of the USA's loss of will power over the next few years. The world will become still more dangerous.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Charles,

Great to see you again!

I agree with you that a "message" was being sent.

The plot now thickens. One recent story went completely south on everybody.

Litvinenko: police probe claims he may have killed himself

By Sophie Goodchild and Francis Elliott

November 26, 2006

The Independent

I know what the headline says, but the article doesn't bear that out. Scotland Yard was merely looking objectively at all angles for thoroughness. I don't think for a minute they thought this was probable. Here is where they probably got some information:

Some reports in the Russian press have suggested that Mr Litvinenko's death could have been a "martyrdom operation", on the grounds that no state would want to attract the attention of a radioactive poison plot.

Russian press?

Heh.

Here is a more plausible plot-thickening update:

Poisoned spy visited Israel with oil dossier

Daniel McGrory and Tony Halpin

November 27, 2006

The Times

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

We can hope the police will try and get to the bottom of this. This action is a message to the people who oppose Putin that there is nowhere in the world that you can be safe. Someone after the St. Valentine's Day Massacare said that only Capone kills like that. I think we maybe able to say the same thing about Putin.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here are some more updates. This thing gets more and more complicated.

Letters 'revealed secret hit squad'

Deadly polonium traced to Russian nuclear plant

Spy's friend 'tests positive for Polonium 210'

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Litvinenko did convert to Islam before dying after all.

Radioactive spy's coffin barred from mosque

Dayaamm!

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

The finger now points back to Moscow:

Radiation linked to contact of ex-spy

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here is the latest. The official finger is now pointed at Moscow.

ABC News Exclusive: Murder in a Teapot

ABC News

The Blotter

January 26, 2007

I wonder how many people had tea from that pot later...

Michael

[blackhorse]

After reading this articel; http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/Litvinenko , as well as googling this info. as much as I possibly could, I am of the mind that possibly it isn't Puitn who is the danger, but rather Alexander Litvinenko.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

blackhorse,

I will read that article and comment later. I would be very, very careful with that site. It uses "Homeland Security" in its name, but it has no USA government affiliation. I tend to be suspicious of organizations like that right from the get-go.

Here is a rundown of basic info, including personnel: Northeast Intelligence Network

Here is a report highly critical of the organization: BUSTED: Douglas J. Hagmann and Northeast Intelligence Network

Here is a lady claiming outright plagiary of her by Hagmann: UH-OH! Northeast "Intelligence" Network Steps In It: Fake "Terrorism Expert" Douglas Hagmann Admits Plagiarism, Fabricated Info

This doesn't mean anything yet to me since I merely Googled the info and scanned it over instead of reading it. But it does raise a red flag to be cautious.

Michael

[blackhorse]

MSK, thanks for the info. Of course, that was just one website, there were a legion of others who are reporting on the same findings.