Posted on 12/17/2006 6:10:09 PM PST by shrinkermd
BRITISH investigators believe that Alexander Litvinenko's killers used more than $US10 million of polonium-210 to poison him. Preliminary findings from the post mortem examination on the former KGB spy suggest that he was given more than ten times the lethal dose.
Police do not know why the assassins used so much of the polonium-210, and are investigating whether the poison was part of a consignment to be sold on the black market.
They believe that whoever orchestrated the plot knew of its effects, but are unsure whether the massive amount was used to send a message - it made it easier for British scientists to detect - or is evidence of a clumsy operation.
A British security source said yesterday: "You can't buy this much off the internet or steal it from a laboratory without raising an alarm so the only two plausible explanations for the source are that it was obtained from a nuclear reactor or very well connected black market smugglers."
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Both men, Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitri Kovtun, were contaminated with polonium-210 and remain isolated in a clinic. The men - who have been friends since they were 12 and attended the same Moscow military academy - deny any role in the poisoning and claim that they are victims.
German police, however, have begun a criminal investigation into Mr Kovtun after traces of polonium-210 were found at severallocations he visited in Hamburg. Neither man has explained why the radioactive poison was discovered in London in places they visited as long ago as October 16.
As usual, some idiot thought he was so smart and technically understanding, and that this was the "perfect crime".
In reality, there is a symphony of evidence being examined. Whoever did it will not be able to run or hide.
There is so much more to this story than I think any of us can fathom. Who kills someone... a single person... with a $10m weapon?
He really, really, really wanted him dead.
Or, the Polonium was HIS, and he really, really, really screwed up.
This was a smuggling case gone awry and there is more of this poison out there somewhere.
Why not just drop a piano on him and pocket the difference?
My thoughts exactly. He was a proffiteer. A dumb one.
Is it possible that Litvinenko inadvertently poisoned himself -- that HE was the one who had the polonium and had intended to use it to poison others? When it came out that he made a deathbed conversion to Islam, and had sympathies with the Chechens (remember the Beslan massacre), it roused my suspicions. Perhaps he was in the process of planting polonium in various places as a terrorist act. Does anybody else think this is a possibility?
how was this ten-million number, determined?
Whatever the reason...it is really, really, really fun to watch....heh heh heh
"Why not just drop a piano on him and pocket the difference?"
Exactly right. This wasn't a "statement assassination,"- it was far worse: 1 gram of Polonium can kill 100 million people. It took a speck less than 1/10 millionth of the size of an aspirin to kill this "spy." If I lived in the UK or Russia right now, I'd be extremely worried about where the rest of this stuff is. In fact, I'm not feeling too secure here.
from the article
"United Nuclear Scientific Supplies of New Mexico, one of the few companies licensed to sell polonium-210 isotopes online, said that as a single unit costed (sic) about $US69, it would take at least 15,000 orders, costing more than $US10 million, to kill someone.
"The company said that as it sold to only a handful of outlets in the United States every three months, anyone placing an order for 15,000 units would be spotted. Experts reckon that as little as 0.1 micrograms of polonium-210 would be enough to kill - the equivalent of a single aspirin tablet divided into 10 million pieces."
Hank
How much is shipping?
Somewhere here on FR is an article (sorry, did not book mark) that figures he was smuggling the stuff to activate one of those suitcase nukes that needs refreshing.
Ten million dollars worth? Then perhaps this is a case of smuggling and accidental death rather than a murder.
"How much is shipping?"
HazMatPS will deliver for under $40k. By 10am.
The sheer amount used indicates they had some help from the Russian Government as even the Russian Mafia wouldn't have the means to get that much polonium.
http://www.strata-sphere.com/blog/
Excellent discussions here.
No one. An ice pick, a bullet, a lethal dose of ricin, would all be Chekist-style. The Russian mob would probably uses something equally cheap, but a bit more gruesome.
The amount of polonium, Litvenenko's Chechen connections and conversion to Islam, the possible use for polonium in neutron sources needed in the triggers of 'suit case' nukes, or even--given its toxicity--its utility as a component in a 'dirty bomb', all point away from the assassination theory, and toward a smuggling operation in support of Islamist terrorists operating against the West.
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