This changes everything. Was the guy working with Chechen terrorists? Was he a secret islamist? This story gets weirder and weirder.
Of course he was. His claim is that the FSB (the Russian security service he worked for) worked with Chechen terrorists as a matter of policy. Apparently, two of the terrorists who took over that theater in Moscow were in the employ of the FSB, and their bodies were not found in the theater after it was over.
Does he have ties to the Beslan massacre?
This changes everything. Was the guy working with Chechen terrorists? Was he a secret islamist? This story gets weirder and weirder.
Oh, it gets better. Russia's Peace and Unity Party was the recipient of some 34 million dollars worth of Iraqi oil vouchers, controlled by party chairwoman Sazhi Umalatova, A Chechen and a radical leftist. Was this a part of Saddam's WMD program?
Litvinenko Crazy Enough To Build Chechen Bomb
Associates of Litvinenko point to a man desparate for money, and crazy enough to build a Chechen dirty bomb:
In early May, Litvinenko first approached Julia Svetlichnaja, a 33-year-old Russian-born academic who is examining the roots of the Chechen conflict for a book she is writing. Litvinenko asked if she was interested in becoming involved in his ‘blackmail’ project.
‘He told me he was going to blackmail or sell sensitive information about all kinds of powerful people including oligarchs, corrupt officials and sources in the Kremlin,’ she said. ‘He mentioned a figure of £10,000 they would pay each time to stop him broadcasting these FSB documents. Litvinenko was short of money and was adamant that he could obtain any files he wanted.’
It appears Litvinenko, a vociferous critic of President Vladimir Putin, may have finally acquired the firepower to hurt some of the Kremlin’s most powerful interests. Svetlichnaja said: ‘He did not seem worried. Quite the opposite; Litvinenko sensed he could finally make some money of his own after years of being supported by his friend [and fellow Russian exile] Boris Berezovsky.’
… Among the theories that remain open is that the poisonings were an accident that happened while Litvinenko tried to assemble a dirty bomb for Chechen rebels. Those who know him believe he was crazy enough to attempt such a thing and, in the past week, some have implicated him in the smuggling of nuclear materials from Russia.
This week should bring the results of the postmortem on Litvinenko. For the first time, detectives will know how much polonium he ingested. Vast quantities would point to a murder; smaller quantities possibly to accidental contamination. From Washington to London to Moscow, detectives, governments and spies are watching and waiting.
So it seems we have a man desparate for cash and fearless about how he could obtain it. As I wrote earlier today here and here, I am of the opinion an assassination attempt would not spend the extra amounts of money to procure 100’s of lethal doses for just one man. A single dose of Polonium-210 should cost around $1 million dollars (a heavy price to pay to replace one bullet). Since Litvinenko had 100 times the lethal dose I doubt seriously we are talkiing about a $100 Million hit job. No way. So I am of the opinion the more Polonium-210 found the less likely it is an assasination attempt.
Update: It seems “Sasha” (as Litvinenko is known) was involved with nuclear material smuggling last year - tied to Scaramella:
FOUR ITALIANS PROBED ON SUSPECTED URANIUM TRAFFIC
Source: Corriere della Sera website, Milan, in Italian 11 Jun 05
ACC-NO: A20050612118-BB2A-GNW
LENGTH: 647 words
HEADLINE: FOUR ITALIANS PROBED ON SUSPECTED URANIUM TRAFFIC Text of report by Virginia Piccolillo, “Uranium to make atom bomb sold to four Italians”, published by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera website on 11 June
Rome: “During the month of September 2004 I was approached by an Ukrainian national, whom I know by the name of Sasha, who wanted to sell me a briefcase containing radioactive material, and, more precisely, uranium for military use.” There is enough testimony by Giovanni Guidi, a Rimini businessman, and by other defendants - Giorgio Gregoretti, Elmo Olivieri and Giuseppe Genghini - to fuel a spy story [preceding two words published in English] worthy of a novel by Le Carre. Involved is a briefcase containing five kilos of highly enriched uranium, half of which would be enough to build an atomic device, which remained for months in a Rimini garage. A briefcase, however, which eluded investigators, and which managed to get back into the hands of the Ukrainian national, who perhaps is still in Italy. Together with another briefcase having a similar content, and a third believed to conceal a tracking system. The entire kit geared to the assembly of a small tactical atomic bomb.
A mystery story fuelled by information supplied the Rimini police department by a consultant of the Mitrokhin committee, Mario Scaramella, who, acting on behalf of the agency presided over by Paolo Guzzanti, was trying to track illegal funds from the former USSR that had transited through [the Republic of ] San Marino. The two defendants’ defence attorney warns that this “could be the trial of the century, but also the century’s biggest hoax”. The mystery, however, continues, and emerges from the testimony of the defendants, who were questioned Wednesday [8 June] night and all day Thursday, and subsequently released with the charge of possession of war weapons.
The uranium was allegedly contained in a hermetically sealed, black, leather briefcase, along with a photo illustrating its content. Five uranium bars weighing one kilo each. Sasha delivered the briefcase to Guidi. “My precarious economic situation induced me to accept,” explains the 46-year-old Rimini businessman, who is married to a Russian woman, and runs an import-export firm that has dealings with Russia and Ukraine. Guidi in turn informed Giorgio Gregoretti, who “placed it [the briefcase] in a cardboard box, which he subsequently stored in his garage.” There it remained until it was placed in the trunk of Gregoretti’s car, where it was seen by Elmo Olivieri, a financial consultant. Time passes “without their finding anyone interested in the material”, says Guidi, and the Ukrainian “asks for the briefcase back”.
Guidi also testified that “even another briefcase was to arrive” from the warehouse of a multinational firm in Basel. At which time he makes another bid, this time asking for 60/70,000 euros, in addition to bank guarantees sealed by a three-million-euro credit letter. “We often went to San Marino,” but nothing came of it, says Guidi. At this point, the three decide to ask for Genghini’s help, “who in the past had proven to be a war-material expert”, says Guidi, who reports having learned from Genghini himself that the uranium was worth 30m euro per kg. Genghini admits having spoken of radioactive material, but “geared to hospital use”. Later, according to Guidi, Olivieri mentions a prospective purchaser: a Swiss multinational. Then, the affair gets muddled. Guidi boasts of being protected by the intelligence services, and claims he was threatened on 2 June. The only sure thing is that the Rimini police, headed by Sebastiano Riccio, start looking for the “atomic” briefcases on 9 June, as soon as they learn that the defendants are planning to transfer to Lugano. The case is by no means closed, with search operations still under way.
Source: Corriere della Sera website, Milan, in Italian 11 Jun 05