One would think that representatives of a government are as smart as a gang-banger … If you hate someone that much, use a twelve gauge and just walk away from the body, and you chances of getting caught are near zero.

But … these KGB folks are human … and can be just as stupid as anyone else.

If this was a dirty bomb attempt, I think it would have been spread much further than just a trail left behind by someone accidentally contaminated.

Litvinenko lived for years in the North Caucasus near Chechnya. He sympathized with the Chechens and spent six years researching the Russian government’s wars in Chechnya, friends said.

“He wanted to be buried in Chechnya when the war was over,” said Vladimir Bukovsky, a well-known Soviet-era dissident who was exiled to Britain three decades ago.

“But he wasn’t a religious man. It’s ridiculous to talk about conversion. His last message from his deathbed was he asked God to forgive his enemies. That’s not a Muslim sentiment. That’s a Christian sentiment.”

http://www.latimes.com/wireless/avantgo/la-fg-poison8dec08,0,6905636.story

Since November 20, one of the most intriguing personages in the abovementioned list is Andrei Lugovoy. He is interesting as such, because he had once served in one of the most privileged and classified bodies of the Russian special services, being in the secrets of several key figures of the first post-Soviet decade in the history of his country.

It is not certainly known what was Lugovoy engaged in after his release from prison in the autumn 2002.

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1152

Many strange twists in this case make for some very interesting reading.
Quite a number of disenfranchised Russian agents with an axe to grind and some heavy duty Muslim connections.
What route did the Polonium actually take before Lugovoy, Kovtun and Litvinenko came to sinister results?
Mix in some disgruntled Oligarchs and one wonders where this tangled plot is headed.
Maybe Polonium was used as a warning to the Chechens after all.

See previous: Of cloaks and daggers and poison and suitcase nukesNew Radiation Traces Linked to Associate of Ex-Spy FRANKFURT, Dec. 10 — German authorities said today that they had found traces of the radioactive substance polonium in a car and…

SCOTLAND YARD HAS HAD ONE BIG BREAK IN the case: polonium, once released, is like a persistent, invisible dye that marks whatever it touches. Someone who ingests even small amounts will leave an unmistakable trail through sweat and even fingerprints.

And this is the main reason I don’t think it is Russian government involvement. Anyone knows that radioactive isotopes are persistent, hence the whole half life thing, and also trackable, hence the related radiation/decay thing. The Russian government knows more about this than I do.

Why choose a weapon that you can trace all over the world? Hell, apartments and couches in Germany, for ______ sakes.

The Russian government had dozens of different reliable, less trackable ways of killing a man. Smugglers or terrorists, however, would have no choice because if this is their product/weapon material, then they gotta handle and transport it.

Yep, that’s the one we’ll blame. If only we had followed whichever one of John F. Kerry’s many contradictory plans that turned out to be right, this wouldn’t have happened.

Alas, while Johnny was making an ass of himself during the campaign and after, Bush was making decisions to keep the American people safe.

No mass terror attack on U.S. soil since September 11… is not a coincidence.

So, Allahpundit, having reread your post, I’m not sure: Do you think it’s smuggling or assassination?

So, is the “war on terror” back in vogue?

Not if you’re a democrat. Not until they blow NYC off the map, and then it will be Bush’s fault.

Don’t forget the Chechen’s placed a dirty bomb in Moscow in 1995.