Rome--Italian Professor Mario Scaramella is beginning to talk, but he just contradicted-himself. Originally, he mentioned that he felt-strongly that the Russian mafia were involved in the assassination of former FSB Colonel, Alexander Litvinenko.
But now, the London Times is reporting that he's saying 'he had no doubt that the Kremlin was behind the death of Mr Litvinenko.' It might be nothing, or it might mean a lot. Scaramella is insisting on his innocence in the affair, and is still under-suspicion. It gets worse:
...and La Repubblica yesterday published interviews that it conducted last year with Mr LitvinenkoEvgeny Limarev, another former Russian intelligence officer, in which both men claimed that Mr Scaramella used his status within the commission to run a shadowy parallel intelligence operation with right-wing aims.It seems possible that Mr. Litvinenko was well-aware of another-side of Professor Mario Scaramella, and wanted to pump him for information on Russian intelligence networks in Italy and elsewhere. There is a linchpin here somewhere that is typical of the modus operandi of all intel-operations, and it is ugly. It's possible a variety of interests feared information Mr. Litvinenko possessed--including Western ones. Bets are still on Vladimir Putin's regime and the FSB.
The other theories make some sense, but the hit seems very personal and not based on rational aims...yet. The London Telegraph has stated it would have been impossible for Litvinenko to drink polonium-210, as "the drink" would bubble and the heat would be too intense.' The notion that the ex-spy committed suicide to defame Putin isn't worthy of comment, and simply favors Putin.
Speculation about missing radioactive elements from Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union are also preposterous, as polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days. He could certainly have become poisoned by it after this duration, so it is a wait-and-see. The fact that Litvinenko left a radioactive trail is disturbing, however, scientists assert that the element must be ingested or inhaled.
There is a strong-possibility that Litvinenko's clothing was dusted with the material and inhaled over the period of one day. Another possible motive has emerged: Litvinenko had passed-on a dossier to a Russian billionaire living in Israel, and it covered FSB infiltration-tactics (directed by Putin) into the Yukos energy company--the largest in the world. Russia is a major supplier of energy to the EU. Another twist:
The building near the Millennium Hotel [Ed.-site of a bar Litvinenko visited and contaminated] contains a business intelligence company, Titon International Ltd. — whose CEO was a former U.K. Special Services director, and Erinys UK Ltd., an international security and risk management company. Erinys confirmed that Litvinenko had visited the office "on a matter totally unrelated to issues now being investigated by the police," but declined to elaborate. (AP, 11/27/2006)It could be a constellation of interests are involved here at a time when oil and natural gas have reached dazzling heights in value. It could even be a corporate hit. An autopsy might commence this week. Curiouser and curiouser, further and further down the rabbit hole we go, Alice. People are forgetting another possibility: America was also involved.
This isn't as strange as it might sound, and (geo)politics makes for strange bedfellows. In 2004, American intelligence helped the FSB assassinate Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Qatar. The State Department has been curiously supportive of the genocidal war in Chechnya since its inception in the late-1990s.
If it was rogue elements of FSB, Putin is still responsible, and in serious trouble from his own security agency. This, however, seems doubtful as he is a creature of the KGB, and has survived this long. I believe Vladimir knows exactly what he's doing.
A final question: why was Professor Scaramella allowed to exit Great Britain so easily?
Maybe MI6 has some questions to answer. The contention that the polonium-210 was purchased on the black market sounds dubious in the face of a 138 day half-life. You have to have state-clearance to obtain it in this form. What would the world reaction be if it came from an American or British reactor? Or what about an Israeli one?
Revised 09.10.2008
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