BREAKING: Scaramella arrested (Re: Litvinenko poisoning)

[Greeby]

According to the AP and Sky News, Scaramella has been arrested in Naples for possible arms trafficking and "violating the secrets of his office"

Curiouser and curiouser

[helderheid]

1. link?

Thanks! :hi:

[Greeby]

2. None yet, this was on UK TV nt

[babylonsister]

3. I was out of the country when this story broke, and I called it!

This guy seemed the most likely culprit, plus he has signs of a bit of poisoning, too, IIRC.

[dave_p]

4. BBC link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6208065.stm - not much detail yet

Hardly surprising considering the circles these guys moved in.

[Scout1071]

5. Who is Scaramella? nt

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. A major player - this is big news

This could have ties to the US and the yellow cake forgeries.

[Pale Blue Dot]

6. Could someone provide a little more background?

I'm aware of the story in general but I have no idea who any of the players are.

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Here's ya go.

The Times
November 20, 2006


Exile's contact in hiding after 'being made a scapegoat'


Mario Scaramella, the self-described “security consultant” who was with Alexander Litvinenko when he was allegedly poisoned in a sushi bar in London, is a shadowy figure with possible links to both Italian and Russian Intelligence. Yesterday he was reported to be in hiding, fearing for his life.

A close friend of Mr Scaramella, who did not want to give his name, said yesterday: “Mario is worried that the Russians and the Chechens are after him. He has obviously been made some sort of scapegoat. Mario is very well connected and has a lot of sources within the intelligence agencies but he did not have any involvement in the attempt on Mr Litvinenko’s life.

“Mario was very good at finding and gathering information in Russia and has very good connections there. The last time I spoke to him he felt very worried and threatened. He was very concerned because he feels he has been set up.

“Mario was the last man to see Litvinenko before the attempt on his life so there is going to be some suggestion that he was involved, but he is adamant he had nothing to do with it.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2462162,00.html




Mitrokhin Commission

In 2002 Italian Parliament, then led by a center-right coalition, created a Parliamentary Commission to investigate alleged KGB ties to opposition figures in Italian politics. These allegations included former (and current) premier Romano Prodi, among others. The commission's President was Paolo Guzzanti, a member of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. The commission was shut down in 2006 without any concrete evidence given to support the original allegations of KGB ties to Italian politicians. The final report maintains that the former Soviet Union was behind the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, without providing evidence to back this claim.

The Italian Mitrokhin commission received criticism during and after its existence <8>. According to an interview of former KGB agent Yevgeny Limarev published in La Repubblica<9>, Italian left-wing politicians were discredited through the Mitrokhin dossier, included Romano Prodi, Massimo D'Alema and Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio. Tellingly, Vasily Mitrokhin, the source of the Mitrokhin Archive, refused to meet Commission's members before his death<10>.

On December 1, 2006<8> several Italian newspapers published interceptions of telephone calls between Paolo Guzzanti and Mario Scaramella, a consultant on the Mitrokhin Commission, who became involved in the events surrounding the death of KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in Great Britain. In the interceptions, Guzzanti declared that the Mitrokhin Commission's unstated goal was to depict Romano Prodi as tied to the KGB, and financed by Moscow. This was meant to discredit him. Scaramella, according to the interceptions, was to collect false witnesses among KGB refugees in Europe to support this aim.

Recently the Italian parliament instituted a new commission to investigate about Mitrokhihn Commission<9>.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitrokhin_Archive

[Flubadubya]

16. Signore Mario Scaramella...

Looks kinda like a cross between Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee! Obviously in the same league. :rofl:

[seemslikeadream]

19. lots here

http://rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewtopic.php?t=9355

[dave_p]

7. Rogues' gallery

Alexander Litvinenko's the guy who was killed with polonium in London. A former agent of the Russian FSB (successor to the KGB), he fled to the UK where he was associated with the opposition exile business circle of billionaire Boris Berezovsky, one of the richest of the oligarchs who struck it rich under President Yeltsin's "shock therapy" giveaway of state assets but aren't so happy now his successor (and ex-FSB chief) Putin wants his economy back. Litvinenko's alleged to have had a damning dossier on a senior Russian figure, rumored to be Putin. He also supported Russia's Chechen rebels and converted to Islam on his deathbed, though I think that's a sidebar to the real story.

Mario Scaramella's the shady Italian "security expert" who was with Litvinenko on November 1 when the latter's thought to have ingested the polonium. Formerly employed as consultant to right-wing Italian ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's official attempt to smear then opposition premiership candidate (and now PM) Romano Prodi as an ex-Soviet agent, he's also been named in connection with alleged arms and uranium smuggling.

[Stephanie]

8. He's the one who met with Litvinenko at the sushi restaurant the day he was poisoned

But he only drank water. He was there to tell Litvenenko that they were both on a hit list. Correct?

Welcome to DU, dave_p! :hi:

[dave_p]

12. Yes, that's him

Hi, thanks!

That's his recollection. He says he doesn't like sushi. That bit I can relate to. :D

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. Then order the teryaki

I'm sure he wasn't 'hungry'.

[Peace Patriot]

10. Any idea why a bad guy would trail Polonium 210 all over Europe just to do

a hit on another bad guy? It doesn't make sense. I can't think of ANY reason for anybody to do this.

[dave_p]

15. Maybe...

Either it's a calling-card, or they figured it would be untraceable but got the dose wrong.

Scaramella's said to be genuinely knowledgeable about nuclear by-products, so he may have had some genuine knowledge from a contact.

Or it's not what it appears to be at all. Time will tell. Possibly.

[CJCRANE]

9. Sounds like an arch-villain from a Bond film n/t

[Greeby]

17. Golden Gun not included

;)

[drm604]

18. That's it! Scaramanga.

I kept thinking that this guy had the same or similar name as some film villain but I couldn't quite place it. This whole affair resembles a corny spy movie, doesn't it? Maybe the people involved are living out some childhood fantasy of being a double-nought spy! (Let's see who get's that reference.)

[walldude]

20. Sadly I actually get the reference...

God my brain is full of usless crap... Next thing you know I'll be hanging with Granny at the cement pond ;)

[drm604]

21. In spite of my light hearted reference, I wonder if there really is a serious point here.

Why do they do things in a dramatic over-the-top fashion that's worthy of Jethro Bodine? As Peace Patriot said, why would a bad guy trail Polonium 210 all over Europe just to do a hit? Are they influenced by childhood viewings of spy movies and novels? Or are they perhaps playing to public perceptions that have been shaped by such fiction? I suspect it's mostly the latter but that the former does play some small part.

I should add that I sense a fellow boomer in walldude. :hi: