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| Remember: denials don't have to be plausible, and always "cooperate" with any international investigations. |
Tell me something I don't know. |
Posted on 12/09/2006 11:03:43 AM PST by lizol
Something to Hide?
by TOL
8 December 2006
If the Kremlin's hands are clean in the Litvinenko case, why won't it let British investigators do their work?
When Alexander Litvinenko's remains were laid to rest in London's Highgate Cemetery on 7 December, his body was so radioactive that it had to be buried in a specially sealed casket. It will be a lot harder, however, to contain the fallout from the ex-KGB spy's death.
As a week filled with a series of bizarre revelations in the Litvinenko case drew to a close, Scotland Yard detectives appeared to be inching tantalizingly closer to the truth.
The Times of London reported that investigators now suspect that Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-210 on 1 November when he met two Russian businessmen at the Pine Bar in London's Millennium Hotel. All seven bar employees working that day have tested positive for the radioactive substance.
Police suspect that the lethal mixture that killed Litvinenko, either via a contaminated drink or cigarette, was prepared in a room at the hotel. Adding to the intrigue, investigators have found large traces of polonium-210 in a fourth-floor room that was occupied by an unidentified visiting Russian.
The killer, according to police, apparently stalked Litvinenko throughout the day on 1 November and unsuccessfully attempted to poison him in the Itsu sushi bar in London's Piccadilly neighborhood. Traces of polonium were also found on Italian academic Mario Scaramella, who ate with Litvinenko at Itsu.
Suspicions that the assassins came from Russia appeared to be vindicated by the fact that traces of polonium-210 were discovered on British Airways jets traveling between Moscow and London.
But as Scotland Yard has been painstakingly reconstructing this macabre series of events in London, Moscow has been busy throwing up roadblocks. And the roadblocks strongly suggest that the Kremlin has something to hide.
The two Russian businessmen Litvinenko met at the Pine Bar on the day he was poisoned – Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB colonel, and his partner Dmitry Kovtun – could obviously shed some light on what happened. That is, if they were able to speak freely to British investigators. Problem is, both of these men are back in Moscow and Russian law-enforcement officials appear determined to control access to them.
British investigators are especially interested in speaking to Lugovoy, who met with Litvinenko four times in the two weeks before he was poisoned. Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said on 6 December, however, that British police would not be allowed to interrogate him directly, but only to sit in while Russian authorities questioned him. That meeting, however, has been repeatedly delayed.
British detectives have been able to speak to Kovtun, albeit only together with Russian police. Reports in the Russian media that Kovtun had collapsed and fell into a coma due to radiation poisoning shortly after being questioned have been denied by his lawyer – and have fueled suspicions that Moscow isn't exactly playing straight in the investigation.
TOO MANY COOKS Russian prosecutors, claiming that Lugovoy and Kovtun were also targets of the killer who poisoned Litvinenko, announced on 7 December that they were opening their own investigation. The move will likely emasculate the Scotland Yard investigation in Moscow. Russia is also considering sending its own team of investigators to London – all in the spirit of cooperation, of course.
Russia's state-controlled media, meanwhile, has been busy spinning alternative theories about what happened. The latest brings in the Kremlin's favorite bogeyman: Litvinenko, who apparently converted to Islam on his deathbed, was helping Chechen rebels make a radioactive dirty bomb.
Given the fact that the Russian authorities, and possibly even Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, are widely viewed as legitimate suspects in Litvinenko's death makes it extremely hard to trust Russia's law-enforcement officials.
Over the years, Litvinenko had his hand in exposing a plethora of things the Kremlin would rather remain hidden – assassination plots against political opponents, the 1999 apartment bombings, and the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, just to name a few. And anybody who knows anything about Russia's police, prosecutors, and secret services will tell you that they are highly politicized at best, and hopelessly criminalized at worst.
It is unclear what kind of game Moscow is playing with Lugovoy and Kovtun. What is clear is that the two are unlikely to be candid with British investigators while Russian officials are standing in the room. If Moscow is serious about helping in the investigation, the best thing it can do is get out of the way and let Scotland Yard do its work. That is, if they have nothing to hide.
Ping
I'd hate to be that guy. Whoever he was, he must be dead by now.
This Putins actions seem familiar. Is he related to the Clintons in any way?
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| Remember: denials don't have to be plausible, and always "cooperate" with any international investigations. |
Tell me something I don't know. |
From Soros' (remember him ?)mouth to your ears. TOL is funded by Soros' Open Society Institute and is a mouthpiece for the Oligarchs.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Russians ARE cooperating with their British counterparts;evidence has been found in Britain and Germany-and a virtual road map is being drawn.
It is a paramount importance the entire world remember Putin's "state-controlled media" has not changed one bit since the anti-American propaganda era of "Radio Moscow" & "Pravda". A totalitarian is a totalitarian, no matter what con-job Putin's public relations firm attempts to foster on the public.
Example:
From Pravda:
The USA executes its citizens every 10 days
The Evil Empire never died, it just took a brief nap and is now more sinister then ever.
How about something other than a politically motivated source,hmm?
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus/f?p=2400:1001:8898722845787805302::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,35449
You mean Google News is a "politically motivated source"?
You know Google draws from a variety of sources,and you can find something to your taste without too much of a problem.
If you wish to believe Putin (and, yes : he is a genuine ogre at times ) engaged in a convoluted multi-million dollar scheme to murder some jerk - whom he could have disposed of for the price of a pistol bullet during his many trips back to "the old country"- God bless !
Whoo-ee ! Litvinenko wrote a book - that virtually nobody read.Why shoot ! That's good for a death sentence right there !
"Russia's state-controlled media"
Pretty much says it all.
The agenda shows.
Which agenda ? That of the FOGS (Friends of George Soros) ?
Soros is not Lucifer, judging by his work against the kegebuns' agenda. Quite the opposite. The kegebuns' agenda.
Do you trust Putin to be anything other then a KGB tyrant?
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Putin is a Soviet Premier, and this picture proves it.
Whatever this Soros guy is doing or is working for ( I think he is an agent provacateur for the Russians and a KGB agent), he is providing an excuse for crackdowns throughout the world, and someone that the dictators can blame, meanwhile the dictators fund him.
Yep, saviour of the Russian nation.
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