“When you have eliminated the impossible, that which remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” — Sherlock Holmes He began as a Russian, was poisoned with polonium 210, and died an expatriate Russian spy in London. He converted to Islam……

Commercially, Web sites and companies sell many products based on polonium 210, with labels warning of health dangers. By some estimates, a lethal dose might cost as little as $22.50, plus tax. “Radiation from polonium is dangerous if the solid material is ingested or inhaled,” warns the label of an antistatic brush. “Keep away from children.”

The method of poisoning was polonium powder loosely adhered to the hard copy emails in the envelope delivered by an unknowing Scaramella given to him by an unknowing Berezovsky passed on by an unknowing Lugovoy who originally received it from an unknowing Russian courier, coincidentally going to the soccer match, who received it from a lowly production polonium production technician who got the emails from a friend who knew agents from the FSB were planning to assassinate Litvinenko because he was trying elbow his way into the polonium blackmarket and the technician who was going to partner with Litvinenko unknowingly knocked the small sample of polonium on his desk onto the printouts. Litvinenko opened the envelope and rifled the pages causing the second cloud and exposing Scaramella, rifled the pages and got the additional lethal dose on his fingers and then proceeded to eat the sushi without chopsticks and also licking his fingers. After this he went to visit all the original intermediaries to thank them for forwarding the emails which he had in the breast pocket of his jacket that, at each stop he took off, shook out the wrinkles and set next to where he sat which caused all subsequent clouds contaminating all these other locations.

So, this entire episode is one long accident.

My thanks to Crosspatch [crosspatch on December 4, 2006 at 1:24 AM] for providing the visual that lead, in part, to my epiphany.

And if the Kremlin is behind it, they’re not paying retail. They’re only paying what it costs to produce it. Of course, I have no idea what that is, but I assume it’s considerably less than retail when once you’ve got the operating reactor.

Exactly.

Also, didn’t the Russians attempt to murder the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, with a rare, hard to detect poison? He has up to 6000 times the normal levels of TCDD Dioxin in his system.

That sounds awfully similar. Perhaps its only in Russia that they just use thugs to physically murder someone because it’s less provocative to foreign powers, and can always be blamed on Russian crime lords or something.

While the government has insisted there is no cause for panic, MI6 and Britain’s internal security service, MI5, have jointly launched a top-priority hunt on how further quantities of Polonium 210 could be smuggled by al-Qaida.

The hunt began a week ago in Peshawar. The ancient Pakistan city hosts a joint MI6/CIA surveillance operation supported by America’s National Security Agency satellite surveillance.

Using the latest cyber-technology, the intelligence officers in Peshawar picked up a short-burst transmission from somewhere in Peshawar’s Old Town. It was in response to a call that appeared to have come from beyond the towering Khyber Pass, possibly from Afghanistan.

The call was automatically recorded on one of the computers in the offices the MI6/CIA team share.

Just as automatically, it was dispatched down the line through cyberspace to GCHQ, the British Government Headquarters in the Cotswold town of Cheltenham. Simultaneously it reached America’s NSA at Fort Meade, Md.

The words from Peshawar were part of the trillions of words in 500 languages that the GCHQ/NSA super computers are programmed to listen to, shift, reject or retain so they can be analyzed by the thousands of experts both GCHQ and NSA employ.

By late last week, MI6 knew of al-Qaida’s offer to purchase Polonium 210.

You’re missing the point. The point, if AJ’s theory is true, is that no one spent a large of money to kill him, rather, he was part of an organization selling smuggled nuclear materials from Russia (something that everyone in intelligence is worried about) possibly to a terrorist organization such as al-Quaeda, which makes sense because they can afford it and have some obvious nefarious uses for it.

And if the Kremlin is behind it, they’re not paying retail. They’re only paying what it costs to produce it. Of course, I have no idea what that is, but I assume it’s considerably less than retail when once you’ve got the operating reactor.

Fascinated with the poisoned Russian spy case but no time to read multiple British papers? Obsessed bloggers like Allahpundit and AJ Strata provide handy daily summaries. Allah worries about long-term addiction: “If I’m still blogging about Litvinen…

Good Gravy. How many more directions can this thing go?

http://www.state.gov/t/us/rm/35281.htm

I have read reports that the polonium is of Chinese origin. I believe it is more likely of Iranian origin.

I believe Litvinenko could be involved in the trafficking of it but HE isn’t stealing it. In other words, it isn’t free to him or his associates. It might be stolen but it is someone else doing the stealing. To my mind it is probably Iranian polonium.

If it was organized crime, smuggling, or a rogue faction they would not have put out that kind of money or used such a valuable and rare commodity to pull this off.

You’re missing the point. The point, if AJ’s theory is true, is that no one spent a large of money to kill him, rather, he was part of an organization selling smuggled nuclear materials from Russia (something that everyone in intelligence is worried about) possibly to a terrorist organization such as al-Quaeda, which makes sense because they can afford it and have some obvious nefarious uses for it.

This may partly explain why the U.S. is investigating (although they would anyway, I think, so this is only so-so telling) and this is one of the thing AJ is worried about.

Am I supposed to click over to AJ Strata’s?

Yes, that was the point. If you want to understand the theory as opposed to dismiss it without thinking about it, you should read its proponent’s reasoning and evidence.

kaltes on December 4, 2006 at 2:55 AM

Given Kaltes theory, it is really not okay to think that Russia would be very concerned about a critic who has no influence and worst of all, no permanent job.

Assuming the polonium was stolen is the flaw in that logic.

crosspatch on December 4, 2006 at 3:13 AM

What do you guys think that we are dealing with here? L.A backyard deals.

So you have Litvinenko who is a recent convert to Islam, has previously engaged in smuggling of nuclear material, is pro-Chechen and is poisoned and just about every single one of his close associates contaminated.