"Dunlop's thesis is in itself an alarming one." Yeah but I'm sure it's one most of us suspect.
Via Cannonfire blog.
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2006/12/litvinenko-and-family.html Quote:
Litvinenko and "The Family"
I am preparing what I hope will be a major piece which will attempt to connect the Litvinenko affair with, god help us, 9/11. If that seems outrageous -- well, I beg you to withhold judgment until you see the details.
In the meantime, this teaser:
The late Alexander Litvinenko was a former FSB spook who became a paid liar in the employ of Boris Berezovsky, the shadowy exiled Russian oligarch (and business partner of Neil Bush). Berezovsky hopes to destabilize Putin and take control of what was once the second superpower.
Before the assassination, few in Russia respected Litvinenko. Few outside of Russia heard of him. Now, a film will be made of his life. The project, starring Daniel Craig (the new James Bond), will derive, in large part, from Litvinenko's book Blowing up Russia.
In that work, Litvinenko attempts to demonstrate that Vladimir Putin was responsible for the apartment bombings of 1999. However, in “Storm in Moscow”: A Plan of the Yeltsin “Family” to Destabilize Russia , an extremely important paper written by the Hoover Institution's John B. Dunlop, a starkly different picture emerges. (Oddly, the Hoover Institute has wiped all trace of this paper from its site.) As Peter Dale Scott summarizes:
Dunlop's thesis is in itself an alarming one. It is that men of influence in the Kremlin, building on the connections established by the wealthy oligarch Boris Berezovskii, were able to arrange for staged violence, in order to reinforce support for an unpopular Russian government. This staged violence took the form of lethal bombings in the capital and an agreed-upon incursion by Chechens into Russian Dagestan.
Dunlop argues that Litvinenko's one-time employer, Boris Berezovsky -- the man who would rule Russia -- arranged these provocations in the final months of the Yeltsin era to prevent reformists from taking control.
Yeltsin, a heavy drinker in poor health, was not the true leader of Russia. Decisions were made by a conspiratorial group calling itself "The Family," which still wields enormous power. Despite the title of Dunlop's monograph, the leader of the Family was not Yeltsin; Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana, Boris Berezovsky (who was vying to become the Rupert Murdoch of Russia) and a handful of others held the real power.
Putin was once a member of this Family. Upon achieving power, he turned against the oligarchs. Ever since, Berezovsky has plotted vengeance.
Long-time readers of this blog will recall that we have encountered the term "The Family" before, in relation to 9/11. I will argue in my upcoming piece that the Berezovskii Family and the Family mentioned by Mohammed Atta were, in fact, one and the same.
You will see subtle evidence to that effect for yourself if you carefully read the Dunlop and Scott pieces cited above. You should also study an important piece by Yuri Yasenev (obviously derived from Russian intelligence files), "An Orange Revolution is in store for Russia."
A mysterious company called Far West Ltd. may have functioned as a business front fro the Family. One of the partners in Far West is Dick Cheney's Haliburton.
An officer of Far West described the firm's business as "connected with the secured transport of commercial shipments from Afghanistan." Decide for yourself how best to interpret those words.
The Family established a wide array of international contacts. Key decisions were taken at a 1999 meeting in Adnan Khashoggi's villa in the south of France. That such a meeting took place is beyond question; Khashoggi himself has admitted as much, although the actual topic of the discussion remains disputed. It is known that French intelligence and the Israelis had a good idea of what went on.
And yet the very existence of this meeting was denied by none other than Alexander Litvinenko. (See footnote 24 of Scott's piece.)
Why would Litvinenko lie about such a thing?
We have many indications that, after the publication of this book, Litvinenko and his patron had a falling out. We know that Litvinenko had planned to blackmail certain exiled oligarchs. Although he did not mention Berezovsky by name, we may fairly presume that he was a potential target.
Virtually all of the suspects in the Litvinenko murder have some tie to Berezovsky.
What was said at Khashoggi's villa? What did Alexander Litvinenko threaten to reveal to the world?
Nota bene: If you are going to do follow-up research, I suggest beginning with Dunlop's thesis, which will reward a leisurely study. Professor Scott covers a wider scope and spotlights some of Dunlop's shortcomings; however, Scott writes in an academic style which some will find impenetrable. (Like many scholars, he assumes that his readers have already familiarized themselves with the material listed in the footnotes.) Dunlop provides a clear, linear narrative which manages to be both gripping yet scrupulously annotated.
I know that I have offered a simplistic and crude introduction to a very complex tale. This is, as I said, but a teaser.
PDF
A Plan of the Yeltsin "Family" to Destabilize Russia.
PDF file
By John B. Dunlop
The Hoover Institution
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/programs/res/papers/Dunlop_paper.pdfinteresting post from my friend robertpaulsen at DU
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=125x130666 130879, Here's more on the Halliburton link.
Posted by robertpaulsen on Thu Dec-28-06 03:50 PM
How much do you want to bet all these companies are tied into A.Q. Khan's Nuclear Walmart?
Far West Ltd, Halliburton, Diligence LLC, New Bridge and Neil Bush
The connection to Far West Ltd of Filin, Likhvinsky, Surikov and Saidov (along with Alfonso Davidovich) has since been stunningly corroborated by a news story on the Pravda-info website (May 3, 2005) about Far West Ltd and Kosyakov's resignation from it.
At a meeting of its stockholders on May 2 in the Hotel Ritz Carlton in Dubai, Far West Ltd accepted the retirement of the president...Leonid Kosyakov, who moved to government service in Ukraine. Vladimir Filin, member of the Editorial Board of Pravda-info, was elected the new president, at the same time retaining his previous position as executive director. The meeting of stockholders, in accordance with its charter, selected new members of the board of directors of Far West Ltd, which will now contain nine members. Besides Vladimir Filin, Anatolii Baranov and Anton Surikov, it will include four more members of the Editorial Board of Pravda-info: Audrius Butkevicius, Aleksei Likhvintsev, Natal'ia Roeva, and Ruslan Saidov, and also Valerii Lunev,(59) a veteran of the Armed Forces, and Alfonso Davidovich, a political scientist from Venezuela.
Far West, the story said,
...specialises in consulting work on questions of security in conducting business in regions of the world with unstable environments and hiring personnel for foreign private military companies (last three words in English). Its head office is located in Switzerland. In addition, the Agency (Far West Ltd) has a network of representatives in the OAE (United Arab Emirates), Afghanistan, Colombia, the autonomous region of Kosovo, the autonomous republic of Crimea, Georgia, and the Volga Federal District of the RF (Russian Federation).60
In 2005, Filin gave Pravda-info (September 2) some details about Far West's work, and revealed that the firm had been co-founded by "a sub-division of a well-known American corporation". He said that the company's new contract is:
...connected with the secured transport of commercial shipments from Afghanistan, where we have an office, to ports on the Black Sea. In Afghanistan there is a well-known US air base in Bagram. It is connected by an aerial bridge with a number of other US air bases. For example, with the largest base in Frankfurt-on-Main, that's in Germany, with an intermediary landing in Chkalovsk, in the Moscow area. But the most commercially attractive route seems to be that from Bagram to the US air base in Magas, in Kyrgyzstan. By the way, it is quite near the Russian air base in Kant. A significant flow of shipments passes through Magas; there is a niche there for commercial shipments, too. This is very profitable. It is much more profitable than routing commercial shipments from Afghanistan through Tajikistan. Therefore last year we completely withdrew from all shipping through Tajikistan and closed our office in that country.
(Pravda-info:) Who are your partners?
Who our partners are is a commercial secret. I can say that they are four private firms from three countries—Turkey, Russia and the USA—which engage among other things in shipping. One of these firms is a sub-division of a well-known American corporation. This firm is a co-founder of our agency.61
We can assume that Pravda-info is an inside source for information about Far West, for the two organisations seem in fact to be two different manifestations of the same group. Among the directors of Far West on the masthead of Pravda-info we find first of all Anton Surikov, followed by Anatolii Baranov, Aleksei Likhvintsev, Ruslan Saidov, Vladimir Filin, Natal'ia Roeva and Audrius Butkevicius.62
Also on the Pravda-info masthead is Boris Kagarlitsky, who, as we saw in the first part of this essay, is a main source for the Western accounts of the meeting in southern France, written by Patrick Cockburn, Nafeez Ahmed and John Dunlop.63 Many of the Far West directors, notably Anton Surikov, are or have been associated with Kagarlitsky at the Moscow Institute of Globalization Studies (IPROG).64
Although Filin and Pravda-info did not identify the foreign private military companies with which Far West worked, Yasenev did:
Filin and Likhvintsev do business with foreign private military companies (PMCs):
– Meteoric Tactical Solutions (South Africa)—in Angola;
– Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR Halliburton)—in Colombia, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Georgia, and Iraq.
– Diligence Iraq LLC (controlled by the Kuwaiti Mohammed al-Sagar)—in Iraq.
Their cooperation with these companies began in the end of 1994 in Angola on the initiative of Victor Bout, who was involved in the shipments of Soviet-made arms to the antigovernment group UNITA in exchange for raw diamonds.(65) Apparently, Bout became interested in Likhvintsev's contacts (L. worked in Angola in 1986–87). Later, in October of 1998, Filin, Likhvintsev's wife Liudmila Rozkina (b. 1966) and Anton Surikov (at that time he worked in the Russian government) established the company Far West Ltd, with the office in Lausanne, which officially does security consulting for business ventures in countries with unstable regimes. De facto, this is a legalized form of recruiting mercenaries for PMCs.66
Furthermore, Yasenev claims that some of Far West's work with Halliburton is apparently approved by the CIA for geopolitical purposes:
In 2003–2004, Filin and Likhvintsev worked on the Georgian project, financed by KBR Halliburton, apparently, with the approval of the CIA. The project had the goal of weakening the competitors of Halliburton in (the) oil business and, in a broader context, of facilitating the geopolitical objectives of the United States in the Caucasus. The OPS man in Georgia is Audrius Butkevicius, former Lithuanian minister of defense, presently advisor to Badri Patarkatsishvili.67
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/DrugMetaGroup2.html 130895, Gee, I wonder if maybe Brewster, Jennings & Associates tracked this.
Posted by robertpaulsen on Thu Dec-28-06 04:30 PM
Before Novakula's loose lips sunk the whole ship, of course.
US Companies Linked to Vice-President Cheney Supervised the Transfer of Ukrainian WMD to Iran
On 27-30 November 2006, the Russian news agency Novyi Region published a three-part investigation, signed by Valery Briusov, of the illegal sale of Ukrainian KH-55 cruise missiles to Iran in 2001, which contains new and quite sensational information. 1 According to the news agency, the new information-- which includes copies of the SBU internal correspondence--comes from a “former officer of the SBU” (Ukrainian Security Service), who has accused the Ukrainian leadership in suppressing the report on the investigation prepared by then SBU Chairman Alexander Turchinov in the spring of 2005. In April of that year Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko acknowledged the illegal sale of strategic cruise missiles KH-55 to Iran and China from Ukraine. But Turchinov soon was fired and so far only one member of the criminal group was tried and sentenced to prison, while another suspect, Oleg Orlov, extradicted to Ukraine from the Czech Republic last spring remains “out of his mind.” The news agency quotes its source as rhetorically asking:
Is it believable that two petty middlemen were able to carry out such a grandiose operation, during which several great powers for the first time in history blatantly violated the holy of holies: the international agreements on the non-proliferation of strategic arms? Where are the rest of the people involved? Where are the crews of the heavy transport planes loaded with those missiles, which took off from the airport near Kiev and flew to Iran and China instead of Zhukovskoe, near Moscow? Where are those who allowed these flights? How could these planes cross the borders of several states? Who received them in Iran and China and where did they get afterwards?
snip
The article describes close relations between Alfa Group and the circle of Vice-President Dick Cheney. The highest level management of Alfa Group includes US citizens linked to the Anglo-American intelligence community. The leaders of Alfa Group have close contacts with Dick Cheney and the management of Halliburton.
The best known example of these relations was the $600 million credit that the Tyumen Oil Company (TNK), controlled by the consortium of Alfa Group and Access Industries Inc, received from the American Exim-Bank after the political lobbying by Dick Cheney. The deal was followed by TNC's strategic alliance with Cheney's Halliburton in the reconstruction of the huge Samotlor oil fields and the inclusion of several managers from Diligence LLC in the leadership of Alfa Group.
more...
http://www.left.ru/burtsev/ops/novyiregion.phtmlIn 2005, he and two other co-founders,Anton Surikov, and Alexei Likhvintsev, visited President Bush in the White House. Thereafter he and his partners relocated to Dubai and Europe to escape possible arrest. Surikov is considered a retired officer of the Russian GRU as well as a political scientist who opposes Boris Yeltsin and President Vladimir Putin. He admits a connection to CIA agent Fritz Ermarth, who served on the National Security Council twice and retired in 1998. At a 2003 conference in Geneva, Surikov was accused of being a CIA man. As late as 1999, Ermarth was arranging for guns and money to reach a Chechen group that also sold drugs in Europe.
http://forwardamerica.blogspot.com/2006/10/victor-boutand-russian-mafia-americas.htmlDer Spiegel suggests that Scaramella allegedly tried to enlist the services of his vis-a-vis who needed money in compilation of materials implicating Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
Scaramella was arrested on his return from London on December 24. The Italian justice turned out to have a great deal of question to the "consultant."
First, the Italian was charged with slander against Alexander Talik, ex-agent of the Ukrainian KGB, who had allegedly planned the assassination of Senator Paolo Guzzanti, chairman of the so-called Mitrokhin Commission. Talik and his three Ukrainian assistants living in Naples were detained. The investigation was thoroughly
dismayed to discover that all of that was a tall tale invented by Scaramella and that he himself had sent hand grenades to the alleged assassins.
Scaramella then said that he had received this information from Litvinenko. The investigation exposed this as another lie. The investigation maintains that Scaramella deliberately misled the Mitrokhin Commission presenting himself as the only authority on KGB activities in Italy and misinformed the police. He told the Naples police in 2005 that a grenade launcher had been smuggled into Italy for terrorist acts. Secret services arrested an Ukrainian
truck with two grenades without fuses in it. Truck owners were vigorously interrogated but kept saying that they had no idea where the grenades had come from. The consultant then informed the police of a weapons cache in Naples. The team dispatched to the site he had indicated found an air gun, a small caliber automatic rifle, and 160 rounds of various ammunition. Prosecutors suspect that Scaramella
himself planted grenades in the Ukrainian truck and the weapons in the heap of rubble but pinned the blame on Russian and Ukrainian secret services. In fact, it was these suspicions that led to Scaramella's arrest.
Surprisingly enough, the exact nature of Scaramella's
activities isn't even known in Italy itself. The "consultant" has described himself as a professor at the University of Naples, but the university's personnel department denies it. The first interrogation made it plain that the investigation would take time and Scaramella will have to meet the New Year behind bars despite his defense's efforts.
http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=252 18.07.2005
Russian Secret Services' Links With Al-Qaeda
Michel Elbaz, AIA general coordinator
The right hand of bin Laden, the Number Two in "Al-Qaeda" was trained at the secret base of the Russian secret services on Caucasus, the former Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Litvinenko told the Polish Rzeczpospolita newspaper. Until the end of 1998, Litvinenko had served in several top-secret units that specialized in struggle against the terrorist and the mafia organizations.
Litvinenko claims that Ayman al-Zawahiri, who headed at that time the terrorist organization "Al-Jihad al-jadid" (it was formed from the Egyptian emigrants - activists of "Al-Jihad" and "Al-Jamaah al-Islamiyah"), in 1998 secretly stayed on the territory of Russia.
Alexander Litvinenko
Up to the beginning of 1998, the process of merging of the two most radical Islamic organizations – "Al-Jihad al-jadid" and "Al-Qaeda" was completed. Al-Zawahiri became the second person in the hierarchy of the Osama bin Laden's "Al-Qaeda". In February 1998, being together in Afghanistan, they have created the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders. However, at that time the Western secret services yet did not pay any special attention to al-Zawahiri's activity (several years prior to that, he freely visited the USA, and several countries of the Western Europe). The hunt for him, as well as for his fellows in arms began only after the explosions in the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in August, 1998.
Only then the CIA analysts with the help of the Egyptian and Israeli colleagues managed to restore retrospectively a part al-Zawahiri's "activity schedule" for seven months prior to the attacks in East Africa. As it was discovered, since January till the end of July, 1998, he personally supervised the preparation for the terrorist attacks in Kenya and Tanzania.
Communiqué of the Islamic Front for Liberation of Sacred Places concerning the attack against the American embassy in Nairobi. August, 11, 1998.
For this purpose al-Zawahiri had left the territory of Afghanistan several times, in particular traveling to Sudan (in the middle of May, 1998). In parallel, he paid a lot of attention to strengthening "Al-Qaeda's" ties with secret services of Khartoum and Tehran.
Strange links
Although our American and Israeli sources do not know about al-Zawahiri staying in Russia, they have supplied us with some other interesting details. According to this information, in the first half of 1998, leaders of "Al-Qaeda" tried in every possible way to increase the level of coordination with terrorist groups worldwide. For this purpose the leaders of many such groups and cells of "Al-Qaeda" were invited to Afghanistan. Getting close to the large-scale attack on the USA, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have organized a "congress" of the adherents from all over the world. It took place on June, 24, at the capital of the talibs - Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. Among the visitors were the representatives of the Balkan countries, the Middle East and Africa, and even of the radical Islamic groups from the republics of the former USSR. The Uzbeks and the Chechens were especially outstanding. Besides them, the Kazakhs, the Kyrgyz, the Dargins, the Lakks, and the Tatars had also secretly arrived to Kandahar. All of them came here separately, using sideways. A week prior to the beginning of the conference, a group of well-armed al-Zawahiri's assistants had left by jeeps in the direction of Herat. Following the instructions of their patron, in the town of Koh-i-Doshakh they met three unknown men that arrived from Russia via Iran. The latter called themselves by Muslim names, despite the fact that the two of them had a clearly Slavic appearance. After their arrival in Kandahar, the 'guests' split up. One of the "Russians" was directly escorted to al-Zawahiri, and he did not participate in the conference.
Later on, this 'Russian guest', for almost six years disappeared out of the secret services' sight. He reappeared only in 2004. On February, 13, in the capital of Qatar the car of the ex-president of the Chechen Republic Zelimhan Yandarbiev was blown up.
Yandarbiev's car after the explosion
Couple of days after his death, the authorities of the United Arab Emirates detained two Russian citizens. They turned to be the officers of the secret services. For the last three months they had been working in the embassy of Russia in Doha. After Yandarbiev's assassination these two Russians together with several other of their fellow citizens have hastily left Qatar. Having found out all this, investigators have carefully studied video and photo materials made by the counterspies during the last months on a course of supervision over the Russian diplomatic mission. The results were surprising not only for the Qatar's secret services, but also for their Western colleagues. It appeared that at the end of November, 2003, the embassy was visited by the above-mentioned "Russian", who met al-Zawahiri in the summer of 1998 in Kandahar. Although he had changed his appearance, the special computer software precisely established that he was the one, who had met bin Laden's right hand…
Russian Secrets of Al-Qaeda's Number Two
Michel Elbaz, AIA general coordinator
Previous article
Ayman al-Zawahiri – number two in ”Al-Qaeda" - at least in the 1990s, had connections with the Russian secret services. Not only do the former Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Litvinenko, and our confidential sources provide evidence to this. Some additional data was acquired by the Americans in autumn, 2001, after the overthrow of the talibs' regime in Afghanistan. All available information allows drawing a certain picture, though not a complete one, of the mysterious liaisons between the architect of the September, 11th attacks and the successor of the almighty KGB.
Azeri route
A mysterious guest from Russia visited Ayman al-Zawahiri at the end of June, a little more than a month before the bombing of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. According to Alexander Litvinenko, the same year al-Zawahiri visited Russia. Such voyage could have stayed unnoticed by the Western secret services only if it had taken place during the first seven months of 1998. It is known that at this period al-Zawahiri had been leaving Afghanistan several times, without drawing much attention of the Americans and the Israelis.
Litvinenko points out that, once in Russia, al-Zawahiri had undergone a 'stage' at a secret FSB base located in the North Caucasian republic of Daghestan. In mentioned period of time, there existed several routes through which the "Afghani Arabs" arrived from Afghanistan to Daghestan. Iranian and Turkmen routes were considered the most convenient ones. Both of them led to Azerbaijan, the North of which borders with Daghestan. After the beginning of the warfare in Afghanistan, in autumn, 2001, the CIA got hold of al-Zawahiri's portable computer. It contained information about the first trip of Al-Jihad al-jadid leader to Azerbaijan, and then – to Russia, in 1996. In December that same year, he arrived in Daghestan under the legend of a Sudanese businessman, accompanied by two assistants. All three were detained by the Russian Border Guard for violating the local passport regime, and were then delivered to the FSB officers.
Al-Zawahiri in jail
Al-Zawahiri's and his men's laptop, electronic agendas, and various documents were confiscated. The electronic devices and the papers contained encoded messages in Arabic as to the activity of Al-Jihad al-jadid in the Caucasus.
Suspected of links with the Chechen separatists, the three detainees found themselves in jail. They spent there about half a year. Their trial took place in April, 1997. FSB representatives then assumed an air of not understanding who the Sudanese businessman really was. This appears to be rather strange, taking in account the fact that by then al-Zawahiri was already for several years leading one of the world's most dangerous terrorist groups. Moreover, in the first half of the 1990s, his emissaries on several occasions were in Tajikistan, where the Russian special services till today have rather strong positions. Besides that, until al-Zawahiri's arrest, articles about him, as well as his photos, had been already published in the Arabic and the French mass media. One can hardly believe that the successor of the almighty KGB – the Federal Security Service – knew nothing about all this. Even more impossible seems to be the fact that in the period of six months, the Russian experts were unable to decipher the writings that were confiscated from al-Zawahiri and his 'assistants'.
Tablet in the entrance of Makhachkala court
In may, all the three went free. Then al-Zawahiri leaved his companions for about two weeks. It is unclear, where he was in this period of time, and what his activity was. Only afterwards did al-Zawahiri leave Russia.
Mosaics fragments
After summing up all the available information, an interesting picture becomes visible. In the end of 1996, al-Zawahiri comes to Russia for the first time. He is detained for violating the passport regime. He is put under arrest, being suspected of links with the Chechen separatists. During the trial, representatives of the FSB acquit him of all the suspicions. Once free, he "disappears" for almost two weeks. Only then does al-Zawahiri leave Russia.
In the first half of 1998, al-Zawahiri is totally occupied by the preparation of the terrorist bombings against the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In the same period, using the same route as previously, he secretly visits Russia. After crossing the border, al-Zawahiri disappears once again, but this time his destination is known – it is a secret FSB base in Daghestan.
By all appearances, already after his return to Afghanistan, al-Zawahiri receives a strange envoy from Russia. This happens a little more than a month prior to the terrorist blasts in the East Africa. In consequence, there appear most serious suspicions that the man, who visited al-Zawahiri in June, 1998, is directly connected to the Russian secret services…
http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1186 Quote:
Russian diplomat’s mysterious death possibly related to murder of Litvinenko
Igor Ponomarev
German weekly magazine Focus in its latest issue has paid its readers’ attention to the fact that shortly before poisoning of the former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko in London, a Russian diplomat had died at similar mysterious circumstances.
Last autumn Igor Ponomarev, 41, representative of Russia in the International Maritime Organization (IMO), died in the British capital October 30, 2006, after he collapsed at home after a night at the opera.
Focus writes that the diplomat was attending a theatre performance when suddenly felt badly, and a friend revealed he had been “gasping for water” — a symptom of radiation poisoning.
The Russian had drunk three litres of water, then had died. British daily The Sun writing on this mysterious death today, cites Ponomarev’s friend who said that “Igor’s wife was going to call an ambulance, but when she entered the room he was dead. He had fallen from the sofa and hit his face.”
A heart attack was declared the reason of his death, though Ponomarev had no UK post-mortem or inquest due diplomatic status and his body was quickly flown to Russia. The pal said Ponomarev’s family were shocked as he had no heart problems. And they were puzzled by his link to “intelligence consultant” Scaramella, who met Litvinenko the day he was poisoned, according to The Sun.
Sudden thirst is not known as a symptom of heart attack, according to Dietrich Andresen from the German Society of Cardiologists. Experts believe the thirst was consistent with poisoning by polonium-210, the radioactive substance that killed Litvinenko. In opinion of experts-toxicologists, Gabriela Gerber-Zupan from the Poisoning Emergency Centre in Munich, told the Focus, it could be thallium (it was firstly assumed as a cause of Alexander Litvinenko’s poisoning, too) that might cause similar thirst. Ponomarev’s death came hours before he was due to meet former KGB agent Litvinenko’s Italian contact Mario Scaramella with whom he wanted to go to the appointment with the Russian ex-security officer, according to the late diplomat’s relatives.
Ponomarev’s relatives, according to the Focus, do not exclude that the destruction of the Russian diplomat is connected with the poisoning case of the former FSB officer.
Scotland Yard did not launch investigation of the reasons of death of the Russian diplomat as, according to its spokesman, nobody had applied about its excitation.
Yukos Creator Found Dead in London Flat
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2007/01/11/002.html Quote:
A founding father of the one-time Yukos oil empire, Yury Golubev, has been found dead in his London apartment, former and current Yukos shareholders said Wednesday.
Police are investigating the death on Sunday of Golubev, a shareholder in Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Group Menatep, friends said, but added that they had no immediate cause to think it was suspicious.
(...)
Golubev led negotiations for the proposed 2003 sale of the newly merged YukosSibneft to one of two U.S. oil majors, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, Yukos shareholder and former vice president Alexander Temerko said.
In a sign of his importance, he continued negotiations even after Khodorkovsky's October 2003 arrest effectively torpedoed the sale, Temerko said....
Russia detains suspect for ordering banker murder
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070111/wl_nm/russia_murder_centralbanker_dc
Russia detains suspect for ordering banker murder
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has detained a powerful businessman suspected of ordering the 2006 murder of deputy central bank governor Andrei Kozlov, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor-general's office said on Thursday
Kozlov, who led a crusade against money laundering, was shot last September as he left a soccer game in Moscow. His killing raised concerns about stability and the rule of law under President Vladimir Putin.
"As a result of an operation the suspect was detained at night between January 10 and January 11," the spokeswoman told Reuters. "He is a Russian citizen and head of a large commercial structure."
Kozlov, 41, was Russia's chief banking supervisor and had shut down dozens of banks accused of money laundering.
After his murder, Putin called for urgent action to clean up Russia's banking system, which he said was being used for criminal ends.
Seven people have been detained as part of the investigation, including some who confessed to having been hired to carry out Kozlov's killing, prosecutors said. Kozlov's driver was also killed in the shooting.
Many high-profile contract assassinations, a feature of post-Soviet life, remain unsolved and in cases where killers have been brought to justice, those who ordered the "hit" have often remained at large.
The person or people who ordered the deaths of Paul Klebnikov, the editor of the Forbes business magazine in Russia killed in 2004 and journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a Putin critic shot dead a few weeks after Kozlov, have not been arrested.
Kozlov, a father of three, was well respected in financial circles at home and abroad for the fight against financial crime in Russia's banking system, where prosecutors say hundreds of tiny "pocket" banks are used to launder billions of dollars.
In 2004, he intervened in Sodbiznesbank, a small Russian bank that was accused of laundering ransom money from hostage-taking. Central bank officials took control of the bank.
Rumors spread that other banks were in a similar position, triggering a mini banking crisis. The former owner of Sodbiznesbank was shot dead in 2005 along with his wife.
Scaramella link to Bush's CIA Miami operations
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1627.shtml
Scaramella link to Bush's CIA Miami operations
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jan 11, 2007, 00:52
(WMR) -- WMR previously cited the links between Alexander Litvinenko colleague Mario Scaramella, now under arrest in Italy, and a 22-year CIA veteran based in Miami named Louis Palumbo.
Palumbo's Miami-based security firm, Ackerman & Palumbo, the forerunner of Incident Management Group (IMG), which has been linked to Scaramella and his colleague Filippo Marino, was founded in 1977, just after George H. W. Bush's stint as CIA director.
Recently released CIA documents point to the presence in Miami of a major CIA front company operation that for some time involved George H. W. Bush's Zapata Petroleum and Zapata Offshore. In fact, internal CIA memos from 1975, written at the time Gerald Ford selected Bush to succeed the late William Colby as CIA director, cite a number of Bush-affiliated front companies in which CIA veteran Thomas J. Devine was also involved. These include Zapata; the Wall Street investment firm of Train, Cabot and Associates; and CIA proprietary firms using the cover names WUSALINE and WUBRINY/LPDICTUM.
The minute Bush was nominated as CIA director by Ford, Miami was restored as a major center for CIA proprietary operations. The CIA's Miami station, code-named JM/WAVE, was responsible for planning the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, an operation that involved Bush and Zapata.
After Bush's one year stint at Langley, not only did Miami draw Palumbo, Ted "Blond Ghost" Shackley (who was to assist Bush in the 1980 October Surprise negotiations with Iran in Paris), and other CIA officers but Ackerman & Palumbo hired a senior Foreign Service officer who had been First Secretary of the US Embassy in Paris at the time Bush was in Paris hammering out the "no hostages for arms" deal
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/europe/article1294705.ece
Police match image of Litvinenko's real assassin with his death-bed description
January 20
Police have identified the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko. The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder.
Friends of the ex-spy say that the man was a hired killer, sent by the Kremlin, who vanished hours after administering a deadly dose of radioactive polonium-210 to Litvinenko.
He arrived in London on a forged EU passport and reportedly slipped the poison into a cup of tea he made for Litvinenko in a London hotel room. Litvinenko was reportedly able to give vital details of his suspected killer in a bedside interview with detectives just days before he died on November 23 at University College Hospital.
Police have decided not to publish pictures of this man, who was seen on CCTV cameras as he flew in from Hamburg on November 1, the day that Litvinenko fell ill.
He is described as being tall and powerfully built, in his early thirties with short, cropped black hair and distinctive Central Asian features.
He reportedly travelled on the same flight as Dimitri Kovtun, a Russian businessman who is being investigated for trafficking the radioactive material used in the poison plot.
Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB agent and friend of Litvinenko, who has worked closely with police on the investigation, said: “This man is believed to have used a Lithuanian or Slovak passport. He did not check into any hotel in London using the name or that passport, and he left the country using another EU passport.”
German police are investigating how polonium-210 was found in various locations Mr Kovtun visited in Hamburg.
According to police sources, until now it has not been revealed that Litvinenko visited a fourth-floor room at the Millennium Hotel to discuss a business deal.
He had gone to the room with Mr Kovtun and another former Russian agent, Andrei Lugovoy.
The three men were joined in the room later by the mystery figure who was introduced as “Vladislav”.
Mr Gordievsky told The Times yesterday how “Vladislav was described as someone who could help Mr Litvinenko win a lucrative contract with a Moscow-based private security company.
“Sasha (his name for Litvinenko) remembered the man making him a cup of tea.
“His belief is that the water from the kettle was only lukewarm and that the polonium-210 was added, which heated the drink through radiation so he had a hot cup of tea. The poison would have showed up in a cold drink,” he added.
The hotel room where Litvinenko thought he was poisoned remains sealed off. This room reportedly showed the heaviest concentration of polonium-210 found at a dozen locations across London.
Both Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun were questioned by Scotland Yard detectives in Moscow last month. They strenuously deny playing any role in the posion plot.
Scotland Yard have asked to return to Russia so that they can continue their hunt for the suspected murderer, but have been told that they will not be allowed back until after a team of Russian investigators have completed their own inquiry in London.
The fear is that the Russian investigators will use their trip to pursue enemies of President Vladimir Putin living in London. The Kremlin has offered an amnesty for some on its wanted list in return for information against Mr Putin’s main foes given asylum in Britain. They are thought to include former executives of the fallen oil giant Yukos, whose assets have been seized by the Kremlin.
Alexei Golubovich, former director of corporate finance and strategic planning at Yukos, came back from Italy this month after striking a deal with Russian prosecutors, who had issued an international warrant for his arrest.
Mr Golubovich was held in Italy last year but fought off extradition attempts. He is now said to be co-operating actively with Russian prosecutors.
The Kremlin agreed apparently to drop fraud charges if he returned to Moscow and provided testimony against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the founder of Yukos, and his deputy, Leonid Nevzlin.
Khodorkovsky was jailed for fraud and tax evasion in 2003 in what was widely seen as a government vendetta against the oligarch, who had been highly critical of President Putin. Mr Nevzlin fled to Israel.
Yuri Chaika, the Prosecutor-General in Moscow, has accused Mr Nevzlin of involvement in Litvinenko’s death, a charge dismissed by the former Yukos number two. Mr Nevzlin told The Times how Litvinenko flew to Israel shortly before he was poisoned to warn him about a plan by the Kremlin to claw back millions of pounds from exiled Yukos executives through a covert campaign of intimidation and murder.
At least a dozen former Yukos personnel have been given asylum in Britain. Three attempts by the authorities in Moscow to have them sent back to Russia were blocked by the English courts.
All these executives are understood to be on the list of people the Russian investigators want to question in their murder inquiry.
Mr Chaika added to the intrigue this week by announcing that Moscow had “evidence of attempts to poison several witnesses in the Yukos case with mercury”.
He also asked Scotland Yard to investigate the sudden deaths of two Russians working in London, although police here insist the men died of natural causes.
the paper is the one Anna Politkovskaya wrote before she was shot.
http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2007/01/novaya-gazeta-on-kremlins-killers-full.html
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/01/it_was_in_the_t.html
ABC News Exclusive: Murder in a Teapot
January 26, 2007 12:11 PM
Brian Ross and Maddy Sauer Report:
British officials say police have cracked the murder-by-poison case of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, including the discovery of a "hot" teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for Polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing.
A senior official tells ABC News the "hot" teapot remained in use at the hotel for several weeks after Litvinenko's death before being tested in the second week of December. The official said investigators were embarrassed at the oversight.
The official says investigators have concluded, based on forensic evidence and intelligence reports, that the murder was a "state-sponsored" assassination orchestrated by Russian security services.
Officials say Russian FSB intelligence considered the murder to have been badly bungled because it took more than one attempt to administer the poison. The Russian officials did not expect the source of the poisoning to be discovered, according to intelligence reports.
Russian officials continue to deny any involvement in the murder and have said they would deny any extradition requests for suspects in the case.
Sources say police intend to seek charges against a former Russian spy, Andrei Lugovoi, who met with Litvinenko on Nov. 1, the day officials believe the lethal dose was administered in the Millennium Hotel teapot.
Lugovoi steadfastly denied any involvement in the murder at a Moscow news conference and at a session with Scotland Yard detectives. Russian security police were present when the British questioned Lugovoi, and British officials do not think they received honest answers from him.
British health officials say some 128 people were discovered to have had "probable contact" with Polonium-210, including at least eight hotel staff members and one guest.
None of these individuals has yet displayed symptoms of radiation poisoning, and only 13 individuals of the 128 tested at a level for which there is any known long-term health concern, officials said.
The Millennium Hotel has closed the Pine Bar and other areas where Litvinenko and Lugovoi met on Nov. l, although the hotel says the remaining public areas "have been officially declared safe" and are open to the public.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article2187571.ece
Litvinenko killer 'will die of poisoning within three years'
Russian caught trying to sell weapons-grade uranium
129 people test positive for Polonium210 in London
Friday, January 26, 2007
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
The person who poisoned the former Russian counter-intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko in London will pay the ultimate price for his crime and die of radiation poisoning within three years, it has been claimed.
Mr Litvinenko died in a London hospital in November after being poisoned with polonium-210, a rare and expensive radioactive chemical, in a Cold War-style plot reminiscent of a John le Carré novel.
But according to Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB spy to have ever defected to Britain, the extraordinary story has not reached its conclusion yet.
Mr Gordievsky, who was a close friend of Mr Litvinenko, has suggested that the radioactive poison used to kill him will claim at least three more lives before the curtain falls on a mystery that has raised more questions than answers.
In an interview with the Russian daily newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, Mr Gordievsky said that the person who administered the poison supposedly in a cup of tea in a London hotel would inevitably have received a fatal dose of polonium himself and will be dead within three years.
Two Russian businessmen, who have variously been described as suspects or witnesses, will also lose their lives due to their involvement, he claimed.
The two men, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, held several meetings in London with Mr Litvinenko before his death and have both been questioned in Russia in the presence of Scotland Yard. According to Mr Gordievsky, both will be dead within five years from leukaemia.
The Crown Prosecution Service is deciding whether Scotland Yard has gathered enough evidence to press any charges in what has become a politically-charged case between London and Moscow. The officers were allowed only limited access to both men. But last night, it was reported that there is sufficient evidence against Mr Lugovoi for the CPS to decide whether he should face prosecution. Mr Lugovoi has consistently denied having any involvement in Mr Litvinenko's death and repeated that denial yesterday. Scotland Yard refused to comment.
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