Death By Extreme(ly Vicious) Misadventure
"Many thousands of members of the public, both British residents and visitors from overseas, might have been at risk from the radioactivity."
Robin Tam, Russian assassination plot inquiry lawyer
"It was an act of nuclear terrorism on the streets of a major city which put the lives of numerous other members of the public at risk."
"[The assassins had no knowledge of the deadly substance, or they] would have realized that they were leaving a trail of nuclear trace footprints that prove directly that it was them who committed the murder, almost as sure as the path of breadcrumbs left by Hansel and Gretel."
Ben Emmerson, Litvinenko family lawyer
FILE
-- May 10, 2002 file photo of Alexander Litvinenko, Kremlin critic and
author of the book "Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within", photographed
at his home in London . (AP Photo/Alistair Fuller, File)
"Andrey [Lugovoy, former KGB bodyguard] asked, 'Would you like anything?' I said, 'I don't want anything', and he said, 'OK, well, we're going to leave now anyway, so there is still some tea left here, if you want to, you can have some.'"
"And then the waiter went away, or I think Andrey asked for a clean cup and he brought it. He left, and when there was a cup, I poured some tea out of the teapot, although there was only a little left on the bottom and it made just half a cup."
"It was green tea with no sugar, and it was already cold, by the way. I didn't like it for some reason -- maybe in total I swallowed three or four times. I haven't even finished that cup."
Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB agent, living in London, November 2006
Alexander Litvinenko's job in Russia was to combat organized crime, working as a FSB officer. He accused his own agency of corruption and state-sponsored terrorism, and wrote two books chronicling what he stated had been his experience leading to his accusations; they were titled Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, and Lubyanka Criminal Group. He fled Russia to take up domicile in Britain.
Some have suggested that the man was assassinated resulting from his research on the campaign against Yukos by the government. Following his death, the British police investigated Litvinenko's trip to Israel where he is held to have given information regarding the Russian oil company Yukos to the former deputy head of Yukos who had himself fled Russia to live in Tel Aviv. Material was said to have transferred hands including documentation on the deaths of former Yukos workers and information on the imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorevsky.
Alexander Litvinenko didn't have to finish that cup of tea he hadn't enjoyed sipping from, for it to kill him. And it wasn't the first time he had been slipped the deadly potion, but it took the second dose to turn him into a living corpse. A Russian "death squad" consisting of a former soldier and one former KGB agent known to Mr. Litvinenko and obviously trusted by him, were directed to murder him. It took 23 agonizing days of bodily disintegration for him to finally die.
Andrey Lugovoy and former soldier Dmitry Kovtun were named as the suspects in the death of Mr. Litvinenko, but they never never, unsurprisingly, expressed a desire to return to London to stand trial, and nor will Moscow render them for trial in London. Russia has long accused Britain of charging it unjustly and with no evidence whatever, in a grisly assassination. But then, where else but by state involvement would deadly radioactive material be obtained by a former KGB agent and a former soldier tasked to administer it to silence a Kremlin critic?
Robert Owen, a senior British judge heading the inquiry, described the murder as "a miniature nuclear attack on the streets of London." For the deadly substance appeared in trace form at every point on the London compass where the two suspects had visited, including the aircraft they had flown in on, both in October and November of 2006. Traces were found in the hotel where they stayed. Samples of Mr. Litvinenko's hair revealed that he had ingested polonium 210 twice, weeks apart.
Evidence has emerged that one of the suspects had asked a contact in Hamburg, Germany whether he knew a chef in London who might slip a "very expensive poison" into Mr. Litvinenko's food or a beverage. This was a very specialized 'poison'. Easily concealed for its alpha radiation can be contained, nor does it emit gamma radiation that might have been picked up by airport scanners.
The first time the two men whom Mr. Litvinenko had agreed to meet slipped a dose of the poison in a drink, he had vomited at home afterward, but felt he had somehow been exposed to transitory food poisoning. That was in October. A month later, the two men were more successful; they met again in the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel where the men were staying. When Mr. Litvinenko fell seriously ill and was hospitalized, doctors were unable for weeks to diagnose his illness.
With no traces of gamma radiation they had already discounted radiation poisoning On a hunch, though, a sample of his urine was tested at the Atomic Weapons Establishment and the much rarer alpha radiation of the type emitted by gamma radiation was detected positively. And it was too late to administer any kind of remediating therapy; the dreadfully ill man simply continued on his inexorably and excruciating journey to death.
Acute Radiation Syndrome: The onset and type of symptoms depends on the radiation exposure. Relatively smaller doses result in gastrointestinal effects, such as nausea and vomiting, and symptoms related to falling blood counts, such as infection and bleeding. Relatively larger doses can result in neurological effects and rapid death. Treatment of acute radiation syndrome is generally supportive with blood transfusions and antibiotics, with some more aggressive treatments, such as bone marrow transfusions, being required in extreme cases.
Labels: Assassination, Britain, Political Realities, Russia
posted by Pieface | 8:08 PM
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