Polonium 210 Found in Body of Former Russian Spy

Drudge Report.com ^ | November 24, 2006 | Drudge

[spanalot]

it can be encased in an enteric shell.

[nuconvert]

"Polonium is a highly radioactive and toxic element and is dangerous to handle. Even in milligram or microgram amounts, handling polonium-210 is very dangerous and requires special equipment used with strict procedures. Direct damage occurs from energy absorption into tissues from alpha particles.

The maximum allowable body burden for ingested polonium is only 1100 becquerels (0.03 microcurie), which is equivalent to a particle weighing only 6.8 × 10-12 gram. Weight for weight polonium is approximately 2.5 × 1011 times as toxic as hydrocyanic acid. The maximum permissible concentration for airborne soluble polonium compounds is about 7,500 Bq/m3 (2 × 10-11 µCi/cm3)."

[cricket]

Certainly sounds like a KGB hit from the past.

Think KGB hits as a MO were never abandoned. . .remain as part of their 'end; justifies means' practice.

Anyone remember who it was last year that they almost took out; but he survived. . .perhaps with a dioxin; he was ill; his body/skin damaged; but he survived. His appearance was a dramatic change. . .

[marvlus]

It is thought that polonium-210 was used to poison and kill the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in November 2006.

Someone has already updated Wikipedia with this statement.

[keeper53]

where did you get the info in post #1?
Thanks~

madIvan , any more insight on this?



keeper

[Right Wing Assault]

Here's a link from Drudge:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13553599,00.html

The guy sure looks like what I think a KGB should look like.

[spanalot]

What an F'in Joke - Putin denying this was a violent death.

The US Congress published over 800 pages of documentation on Russias murder of 10 million over 20 years ago and the Kremlin still denies that too!

http://genocidecurriculum.org/curriculum-resources/general-archive/united-states-congressional-commission-on-the-ukrainian-famine/1report-to-congress/cover-page-3/

[nuconvert]

Do you have a link/source for that?
Thanks

[Carry_Okie]

Just your garden variety rat poison available at any hardware store. /s

[Colonel Jim]

An extremely exotic way to kill!

[golas1964]

It's not nice to fool with Mother Russia.

[wally-balls]

Are you thinking of Ricin?

[MindBender26]

Previous KGB and GRU killings were often by injection of a small porous surface ,microscopic metal ball about 1/10 the size of the ball in the end of a ball point pen. It was injected from the tip of an umbrella, which are ubiquitous in London.

Other Sov assassinations were with a two barrel gas gun. It looked like a 1/3 size sawed off shotgun. It fired two shots of a very fast acting nerve gas that quickly dispersed. All shooter had to do was be upwind and hold breath, then walk away upwind. They usually wrapped it in a newspaper, which again, are carried by most everyone in London.

The interesting this in this case will be the radioactive and/or decayed trace elements in the Polonium 210. A good nukie could evaluate those trace elements and specify which reactor produced the Polonium. The could also probably get an age of the Polonium.

If if was made anywhere east of the Max Planck Institute, there is no denying who did it!

[jdm]

Endoplang gland?

I think it's somewhere between the endoplanf and endoplanh gland. :O)

[DBrow]

You can get small amounts of Po210 in certain anti-static devices.

Half life is a bit over six months.

[Right Wing Assault]

Endoplang gland?

Looks like a Wikipedia joke. It's gone already.

[CodeMasterPhilzar]

No, it doesn't. Doesn't sound like the kind of thing you'd accidentally come across. That makes it a hit. Not too subtle to use something that if/when found, couldn't realistically be anything other than a hit. A hit by someone with a lot of resources behind them...

[Caesar Soze]

Something like prepared food, could hold the polonium. Any alpha particles getting through would bounce harmlessly off the skin of the assassin. Only once digested would the polonium present a hazard, as it's absorbed into the tissues of the victim. I'd use something like hard candy, or bottled water. If I were a technically adept assassination organization, I mean.

Speaking of which, who handles that for the Russians these days, outside of Russia? SVR, FSB, or GRU? Mafiya? Someone else?

[MindBender26]

PS, the ricin was imbedded in the metal ball.

[quesney]

More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium_210