Massive Overkill
The British authorities investigating the murder of Alexander Litvinenko are saying that the killers used ten times more polonium 210 than is needed for a lethal dose. That large an amount indicates – very strongly – that a government is behind the operation. The street value of that much of the radioactive isotope is $10,000,000.
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.”
Alexander Goldfarb, a friend of Litvinenko, said: “Only a state-sponsored organisation could obtain such a large amount of polonium-210 without raising suspicion on the international market.”
In Moscow, Scotland Yard detectives have asked to question further two Russian businessmen who met Litvinenko several times in the fortnight before he died, including November 1, the day he fell ill. 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.
The nine British detectives sent to Moscow to investigate the murder are likely to return home this week. Russian authorities have blocked their inquiries and left them on the sidelines as their own officials question the main figures in the investigation.
It sounds like the two men the Russians are protecting played out a live version of Hansel and Gretel, leaving a trail of radioactive breadcrumbs all across Europe. Because of the short half-life of polonium 210, 138 days, this stuff was pretty fresh and there was a lot of it. That isn't really a comforting thought.
World news | Gaius December 18, 2006
By crosspatch, December 18, 2006 @ 3:25 pm
I belive they were engaged in smuggling. 10 times the required dose might also point to an accident. The dose could also have been accumulated over time and not received all at once.
Lugovoi was contaminated on a trip on the 16th of October, a trip on the 25th of October, and the final trip around November 1. Kovtun was contaminated on the trip of the 16th. Did not attend the trip of the 25th and showed up contaminated again on the trip of the 1st.
What is interesting is that Kovtun was trailing contamination from Moscow to Hamburg but not from Hamburg to London but does appear contaminated again in London (hotel room contaminated and subsequent trip back Moscow showing contaminated airline seat). German police say that he was shedding two kinds of contamination. 1st being a kind consistant with the material being in his body fluids. In other words, somewhere along the line he had ingested the stuff too. German police also found contamination “inconsistant” with body fluids which I take to mean particles.
I believe they were smuggling the material. May not have been told exactly what it was or how dangerous it was. And had somehow contaminated themselves in contact with the material. The amount that killed Litvinenko would be about 1/100 of the size of the period following this sentance.
If a person is shedding particles of this stuff, a particle on a sleeve or a cuff of a jacket or shirt could easily be shed into one’s food or drink or if on their hands, ingested in the course of a snack.
Kovtun had the stuff inside him before Litvinenko fell ill. I suspect it will be shown that Lugovoi did too and I would bet you a burger and a shake that Litvinenko was already poisoned well before he was sick. Also note that his wide and his father showed contamination in their urine meaning they had also injested the material.
I don’t believe it was an assassination. And I am not convinced the Russians are “protecting” the other two, I believe they are likely being detained. If they have been severely poisoned, they are likely quaranteened as polonium poisoning could cause the bone marrow to die resulting in the loss of their immune system.
We will see. I am not jumping to any conclusions but it sure looks like a sloppy smuggling ring to me. Russia has nothing to gain from this. It would be like Bush assassinating Lyndon Larouche.
By crosspatch, December 18, 2006 @ 3:33 pm
That $10 million is a fabrication.
That is how much it would cost you to buy that much polonium by buying a zillion alpha sources from United Nuclear over the Internet.
Litvinenko ingested 10 micrograms if the 10x lethal dose is correct. (100x and 50x have also been reported).
For 10 micrograms to be worth $10 million, then a gram would have to be worth $1 Trillion. We purchase 6 to 8 grams a month from Russia and I *know* we are not paying 6 to 8 trillion dollars a month for it.