I haven’t been posting on two of the biggest news stories — the bogus news coming out of Iraq, and the radioactive poisoning of the former KGB spy Alexander Litvenenko — because other bloggers are doing such a great job on them.
The manufacture of fake news by the terrorists in Iraq has become so outrageous, and the credulous (or complicit) peddling of it by the MSM has become so shameless, that you would think that surely the whole “news media” edifice has to come crashing down. But somehow it can keep piling treason upon disinformation upon propaganda, without hurting its business model. Very peculiar.
See this post by Gateway Pundit, or go to his main page and scroll to look for others. Flopping Aces digs very deeply into the topic, and deserves much of the credit for turbocharging this meme.
The Alexander Litvenenko poisoning affair is so bizarre and labyrinthine that it’s hard to know what to make of it. When you peer into it, you not only run into the lies and disinformation put out by the Russian government, but also those put out by the intelligence agencies within Russia to deceive their own government. It’s a hall of mirrors of indefinite extent.
The best summary I’ve seen so far is by AJStrata; see his main page at The Strata-Sphere for other posts on the topic.
Hat tips: Larwyn.
Living in Russia, I have a personal interest in this and there’s been a raging debate and a series of posts in the last days. I’ve been asking people over here in the know about it as well and the results were surprising.
I agree it is a hall of mirrors but
I am curious about this Polonium 210.
Besides its use in atomic triggers it appears to also be used as in industry to reduce static electric charges.
I recall that one of the problems associated with weaponizing anthrax spores is the need to eliminate their static electric charge so they will stay airborne longer.
Is there a connection between the US anthrax letters and the London polonium 210 poison.
It was on in October 2001 that the anthrax letters began to appear. As
I recall the first targets made no
sense ( politically) though later letters showed up in Senator Daschle’s office. Could there be other polonium poisoning cases in London? It took almost 3 weeks before the toxin in Mr. Litvinenko’s body was identified so
unless you are an ex KGB Colonel with a close relationship with a Russian oligarch it seems likely you could pass away with no one the
wiser.
I don’t think AJStrata provides a summary as much as a complex of his own conspiracy theories. He seems awfully eager to brand anyone anti-Putin as pro-Chechen on little evidence. I didn’t see anything even remotely critical of pooty-poo.
Besides, it seems to me there are a heck of a lot more players over there than just the (angelic?) Putin and the devilish Chechens.
BTW, the best phrase to describe the world of intelligence is the one James Jesus Angleton borrowed from T.S. Eliot – “A wilderness of mirrors”
There is a good actual summary on Wikipedia. Check it out here
Note that Litvinenko has spent years accusing the FSB of staging acts of domestic terrorism and blaming them on Chechen rebels. He claims Putin had personal involvement with corruption and terror during his KGB days and that he has basically siezed the Russian state my means of an FSB coup d’etat. It’s possible his claims are motivated by a desire to whitewash the Chechen rebels, but it’s hard to imagine why a man with his background would have that as his primary motivation. If the claims reflect his actual knowledge and sincere beliefs (and he was in a position to know) then it hardly makes him a Chechen rebel “sympathizer”.
Some Russian emigres feel Putin basically engineered a coup and has returned Russia to a state ruled by security agencies.
Be that as it may this polonium incident is looking to be another terrorist homerun.
Like the anthrax letters the actual damage is dwarfed by the economic damage and shocking vulnerability it reveals.
33,000 BA passengers now have to be traced over, hopefully, just a
fraction of a gram of a radioactive
isotope. Jesus, help us if some terrorist bunch is this sophisticated.
I would also note that one of the problems encountered in molecular medicine is the need to manipulate the electric charge of various drug
molecules to get them to pass through or adhere to cell membranes. As Polonium is reported to be used commercially to eliminate static electric charges does anyone know if it is used in this fashion? If so the thought that polonium, anthrax and god knows what is next could all be coming from a bio warfare lab operated by …. ?