According to this source, an unnamed source familiar with the post-mortem examination of Alexander Litvinenko has revealed that the dose of Polonium which killed Alexander Litvinenko would have cost $30 million. Wow, that's an expensive hit, isn't it?
Lends more credence to my theory that the Litvinenko death was not a murder, but was instead the result of a messy smuggling operation by Alexander Litvinenko himself.
UPDATE: The London Times says the dose cost $10 million, and they are still going with the theory that it was a murder. Good luck with that. UPDATE: The Guardian says $20 million.UPDATE: The Australian says $12 million.
Reliapundit adds: Pastorius, it wouldn't actually COST Putin a penny - he could order it just to be taken. And answer me this: How could ANYBODY else get it out of Russia!? Or do you think that Putin's KGB wouldn't notice!? Lugovoi and/or Kovtun and/or Scaramella could EASILY be double agents actually working for Putin. Or do you think that Berezovky bankrolled it because he was DUPED by the Chechens and Litvinenko? Occam's Razor says it was Putin, and that he used polonium because it sends a powerful message. The polonium as suitcase-nuke trigger theory is too complicated and rests on the BELIEF that al Qaeda has one or more in London. ALL the other radioactive components of a nuke are more readily detectable than polonium - and I think that at this point the UK authorities would've fond them if they existed. In fact, polonium is NOT very easy to detect, and this might have led Putin's KGB to think that they'd get away with it.
Lends more credence to my theory that the Litvinenko death was not a murder, but was instead the result of a messy smuggling operation by Alexander Litvinenko himself.
UPDATE: The London Times says the dose cost $10 million, and they are still going with the theory that it was a murder. Good luck with that. UPDATE: The Guardian says $20 million.UPDATE: The Australian says $12 million.
Reliapundit adds: Pastorius, it wouldn't actually COST Putin a penny - he could order it just to be taken. And answer me this: How could ANYBODY else get it out of Russia!? Or do you think that Putin's KGB wouldn't notice!? Lugovoi and/or Kovtun and/or Scaramella could EASILY be double agents actually working for Putin. Or do you think that Berezovky bankrolled it because he was DUPED by the Chechens and Litvinenko? Occam's Razor says it was Putin, and that he used polonium because it sends a powerful message. The polonium as suitcase-nuke trigger theory is too complicated and rests on the BELIEF that al Qaeda has one or more in London. ALL the other radioactive components of a nuke are more readily detectable than polonium - and I think that at this point the UK authorities would've fond them if they existed. In fact, polonium is NOT very easy to detect, and this might have led Putin's KGB to think that they'd get away with it.
10 comments:
Wait a minute, Reliapundit. When you argue that Litvinenko might have been assassinated by Putin with Polonium-210 because Putin had wanted to kill Litvinenko so as to "get away with it," you overlook that there are far easier and far cheaper ways to kill him and go undetected. The old KGB favorite was just to push someone in front of a truck. Easy to arrange. The effects of radiation poisoning are however so grotesque, that using Polonium-210 to kill him would inevitably bring about discovery. The only reason Putin would have ordered Litvinenko killed with Polonium-219 was to leave an indelible signature. That sounded plausible to me at first. But I think a $50 million signature would be too expensive even for Putin. I don't believe it was a hit. I believe that Litvinenko was accidentally contaminated, probably more than once (see AJ Strata's latest posts) in the course of an ongoing smuggling operation. Dirty bomb or nuclear trigger. The key point is this: Polonium-210 has a short half-life. You don't smuggle it with the idea of storing it for months or years. You smuggle it when you are ready to use it. Something was up.
Your questions about Berezovsky's involvement are important. I don't think anyone has tied all the players together into a single story. I hope more evidence will be published in the near future.
However, I would not say that the Polonium-210 as nuclear trigger theory rests on the belief that Al Qaeda has a thermonuclear device hidden away in London. Rather, the smuggling of large quantities of an expensive isotope commonly used in the triggering mechanism of small atomic bombs is in fact the first real evidence that there might in fact be such an atomic bomb hidden in London.
the inevitability of discovery is dubious. a mer assertion.
and even if correct, putin may have WANTED it to be known - so as to make the "hit" more audacious and send a bigger message.
aj strata is asserting the polonium was headed INTO russia.
the news is otherwise: it CAME from russia.
no one would smuggle OUT poloniuym to make bombs to smuggle back in. it's ludicrous.
so if bombs were being made they were for use inthe UK.
i fail to see what th4e chechens or berezovsky gain from NUKE bombs going off in the UK, though i concede several dirty bombs might be exploitable by berezovsky - if indeed he is as evil a man as PUTIN asserts.
and putin is hardly a man i would believe.
therefore: the simplest theory is still a kgb hit. gone awry. with kovtun/logovoi and scaramella all double agents really working for putin.
I agree that Putin might have wanted it known that he killed Litvinenko; that was my first thought. But the $50 million price tag seems too steep.
I agree that the Polonium-210 was being smuggled out of Russia (there have been reports that the radiological signature of the material identifies it as coming from Russia) for use in London.
I don't think Berezovsky would gain anything from a nuke going off in the UK, nor would the Chechens. The Chechens would benefit however from being paid for the bomb and the Polonium-210, and it wouldn't surprise me that they would join other jihadists, i.e. Al Qaeda, on general principles.
I don't have a good explanation for the involvement of some of the parties we know to be involved.
I agree that it is possible that one of the conspirators was turned by the FSB and then deliberately poisoned the others is quite plausible.
Perhaps that explains why one of them, perhaps less seriously exposed than initial reports might have suggested, hightailed it back to Russia for "treatment."
50 millions is BS. it would cost putin ZERO. no repeat NO out of pocket money.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2534532,00.html
A RUSSIAN tycoon with shares in the Moscow newspaper that published the anti-government theories of poisoned former spy Alexander Litvinenko believes he survived a similar assassination attempt.
Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB operative and a banking billionaire, says he believes he was poisoned about eight months ago. His home was checked for radiation but no trace was found and he recovered.
In an interview in Tatler magazine, Lebedev says he lost 13lb after the suspected poisoning, but never found the source of any toxin. He believes his food may have been poisoned in a Moscow restaurant.
SO... ANOTHER PUTIN OPPPONENT... HMMM...
Well, that is interesting.
If it can be shown that Lebedev was in fact poisoned with a radionuclide, i.e. Polonium-210, months before Litvinenko, then the ongoing and continuing smuggling operation might plausibly be linked to ongoing and continuing assassinations.
But "believes he was poisoned" and proof that he was poisoned are two different things.
1 - how many pro-putin folks have died mysteriously or been assassinated?
zero. all the corpses belong to his opponents. funny ain't it.
2 - why would ANYONE select litvinenko to make polonium triggered suitcase nukes?
why spend 50million to give the job to someone who knows nothing of nukes? people with that sorta dough would hire a pro.
Valid points, but to some extent you are arguing against a straw man.
I don't think Pastorius or AJ Strata asserted that Litvinenko waws making suitcase nukes or triggering devices.
It's sufficient to suspect that he was involved in smuggling Polonium-210 for other parties. He was known to have ties to Chechen terrorists, he may or may not have been an Islamist himself. Why is it so far-fetched that if asked and paid by the Chechens, he would have used his contacts to organize the delivery of some Polonium-210?
And as an FSB agent, wasn't he a "pro"???
the suitcase bomb theory is exactly what pasto is arguing.
smuggling alone cannot explain why these russians were EXPOSEED numerous times.
WHAT!?!?!? do you think they spilled this stuff numerous times!?!?!
this is not credible.
they MUST have been using it numerous times, or been deliberately exposed to it numerous times.
the fact that it happened numerous times proves that it WAS NO ACCIDENT.
the simplest explanation is that the polonium was smuggled into the uk from russia to assassinate litvinenko, zakyev and berezovsky. and that only litvinenko got hit. the assassins failed to get their other targets. targets who are ALL enemies of... who....
OF PUTIN.
if the hit are always only united by their emnity with putin, then why go further for an explanation.
putin.
who arms iran and syria - and thereby arms hizballah and hamas.
if putin is willing to protect iran, then OF COURSE he is willing to assassinate a few of his personal enemies!
sheesh.
chechens have no use for polonium inside of the UK.
if chechens wanted polnium then they';d want it in russia. to attack russia.
chechens are given SAFE HARBOR in the uk.
nuff said.
the suitcase theory is BS.
based on current evidence.
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