UK poisoned spy probe widens to U.S. and Russia

[deminks]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/03/uk.spywrap.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

LONDON, England (AP) -- An inquiry into the death of a poisoned ex-KGB spy was expanding outside Britain, the country's senior law and order official said Sunday, as investigators visited Washington and prepared to travel to Moscow.

A potential witness in the investigation into the death of former Russian agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko had been interviewed in the United States and a team was ready to leave London for Russia within days, a police official said.

(snip)

Home Secretary John Reid said Sunday the inquiry was expanding and would go wherever "the police take it."

"Over the next few days I think all of these things I think will widen out a little from the circle just being here in Britain," Reid told Britain's Sky News television.

[dipsydoodle]

1. See also

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6203222.stm

"Shadow home secretary David Davis welcomed news that the investigation was expanding"

What isn't mentioned is that in that interview David Davis said that Tiny Blur had made it clear he had no intention of this matter upsetting Anglo Russian relations.

[Heidi]

2. Kick. (nt)

[seemslikeadream]

3. Poison spy probe moves to Moscow

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-6256209,00.html

Press Association
Sunday December 3, 2006 6:38 PM


Detectives investigating the death of ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko are planning to fly to Moscow in their hunt for clues into the dissident's poisoning, sources confirmed

It has also emerged that anti-terror police from Scotland Yard have already taken the investigation to the USA where they are thought to have interviewed a key figure behind the Ukrainian "Orange Revolution" of 2004.

Mr Litvinenko, a fierce critic of president Vladimir Putin, died of radiation poisoning last month, convinced that he had been the victim of a Russian murder plot.

A second man has tested positive for the deadly radioactive substance polonium 210 which is believed to have killed Mr Litvinenko.




Anti-terrorism unit takes over investigation into poisoned spy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2624773

Key ministers sacked in Ukraine
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2636813

Orange Revolution party squeezed out
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2545624

Yushchenko was poisoned with Russian, U.S. or U.K.-made dioxin
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2501847

CNN Breaking: Doctors say Yushchenko poisoned by dioxins
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1063264

AP: Yushchenko Sure Gov't Poisoned Him
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1076452

Ukraine's Yushchenko blasts govt over fuel crisis
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1484141

Anger as US backs brutal regime
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1473236

Russia spy chief says foreigners plotting uprisings
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1466629

Yushchenko's party 3rd as Orange Revolution fractures
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2189421

Russia Halts Natural Gas Sales to Ukraine
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2015488

Ukraine and Russia go to brink over huge gas price rise
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2007527

[seemslikeadream]

4. Almost all those seeking the truth about a Russian terror campaign are now dead,

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20865994-2703,00.html


In the case of the Moscow bombings, curiosity kills
Almost all those seeking the truth about a Russian terror campaign are now dead, writes Mark Franchetti
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 04, 2006
THE series of bomb attacks on apartment blocks in September 1999 claimed 300 lives and brought terror to the streets of Moscow and two other Russian cities.
Unknown terrorists had rented rooms on the ground floor of the apartment blocks and filled them with explosives that destroyed the buildings. Hundreds of dead and injured were plucked from the rubble as the attacks continued over many days and more than 30,000 Moscow buildings were searched as panic took hold.

The Kremlin pointed the finger at rebels in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. It used the blasts to justify a new wave of "anti-terrorist" operations and, a few weeks later, troops were sent back into Chechnya for a second time.

But doubts have persisted about the Kremlin's official version of events. Sceptics have argued that Chechen rebels had nothing to gain from planting the bombs. The Chechens had won the first war in 1996 and had already gained de facto independence.

The new war, however, benefited one man: Vladimir Putin, now Russian President. At the time he had only recently been appointed prime minister and was a little known figure among Russian voters.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=100475&mesg_id=100475

[CJCRANE]

9. Interesting....Russia's very own MIHOP...n/t

[seemslikeadream]

5. Ex-KGB agent says he named spy suspect

http://www.localnewsleader.com/kindred/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=31564

Staff and agencies
03 December, 2006




By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer 5 minutes ago

LONDON - Britain‘s senior law enforcement official said Sunday an inquiry into the death of a former KGB agent had expanded overseas, and a U.S.-based friend of the former agent said he told police the name of the person he believes orchestrated the poisoning.

"The truth is, we have an act of international terrorism on our hands. I happen to believe I know who is behind the death of my friend Sasha and the reason for his murder," Shvets said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press by telephone from the United States, referring to Litvinenko by his Russian nickname.

"This is firsthand information, this is not gossip. I gave them the firsthand information that I have," Shvets told the AP.

Shvets said he was questioned by Scotland Yard officers and an FBI agent in Washington last week. A police official in London, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case, confirmed officers had interviewed Shvets.

"Over the next few days I think all of these things I think will widen out a little from the circle just being here in Britain," Reid told Britain‘s Sky News television.

[judaspriestess]

6. this story is fascinating

the plot thickens almost daily.

[seemslikeadream]

7. almost by the hour!

:hi:

[951-Riverside]

8. ...I wonder if he took his car or public transportation around the time he was poisoned

[Peace Patriot]

10. I'm still thinking: Where was our WMD counter-proliferation network when

we needed them? You know, the worldwide network of covert agents and contacts, twenty years in the making, that was headed by Valeries Plame, and whose job it was to track down items like stray jars of Russian polonium-210 and keep them from getting into the wrong hands?

Oh, yeah--they all got outed by the Bushites!