UK'S DAILY MAIL: 'ALEXANDER LITVINENKO WAS MI6'

“Litvinenko became an agent who left the control of (British) special services and was killed. ...If not by the (British) intelligence services themselves, then under their control or with their connivance." --Former FSB operative Andrei Lugovoy, accused of poisoning former FSB-operative Alexander Litvinenko in November of 2006.

London,The United Kingdom--Even casual observers of this whole international incident have had ample reason to suspect that Alexander Litvinenko was working for British Intelligence, but the UK's Daily Mail has come forward with this possibility now as being a solid assertion.

It's hardly a stretch: in 2000, Litvinenko and his family were rapidly given political asylum after fleeing Vladimir Putin's government and a number of charges relating to what could best be described as treason against Russia. Were his FSB handlers suspicious or aware that he might have switched sides? By all appearances, this seems likely. Did he ever really defect? His UK recruiter? It could have been the man in the photo above, Sir John Scarlett who now heads MI6.

Reports today suggest he was recruited to the Secret Intelligence Service. Lugovoy reportedly claims that Mr Litvinenko tried to recruit him to supply information to MI6. The apparent revelation could provide the key to the 43-year-old's killing. Lugovoy claims Britain’s MI6 was behind the killing. (The Sun, 10.27.2007,http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article397108.ece)

Lugovoy (a millionaire owner of a private security firm, soon expected to run for a seat in the Russian Parliament which will grant him immunity from extradition) has made this assertion almost from the start of this affair, beginning with the charges made against him by Scotland Yard, and underscoring the fact that this has always been a political case.

It seems that SIS/MI6 have been very busy these last-few-years. Just ask Paul Wolfowitz and Shaha Ali Riza, the former World Bank President's lover. Why would an unknown British subject like Ali Riza have a Pentagon security clearance? While it's uncertain whether Ali Riza is an operative for a Middle Eastern entity (or entities), it's even money that she's MI6. The issue of citizenship is often the most telling sign.

In the case of Litvinenko, he was granted his UK citizenship status just a few weeks before his assassination by elements still essentially unknown. This doesn't make the Home or Foreign Offices look very good. In both the case of Ali Riza and Litvinenko, British citizenship was granted, but what the State got in return is a mystery. A Sun story appears to be heading towards what that was exactly. Surely, we know some of this meant spying for MI6, providing information that only these particular individuals had access to.

Lugovoy's assertions of a set-up are now apparently being fleshed-out, and now being 'corroborated' by the recent story in The Daily Mail and The Sun:

It is understood that Sir John Scarlett, now the head of MI6 and once based in Moscow, was involved in recruiting him to the Secret Intelligence Service. The fact that the 43-year-old ex-Russian spy was actually working for Britain when he died could provide the key to his extraordinary killing. (thisislondon.co.uk, 10.27.2007)

We know Litvinenko's story has an air of desperation to it, but what of Ali Riza? A number players within the world's intelligence community would certainly like to know--if they don't already. Remember that most operatives work more than one side, almost as a rule.

Their handlers generally assume this, so what you have is an ocean of double and triple agents running-amok throughout the globe, a criminal class in the service of the State. This is very much like a picture of intelligence between Russia and Britain exactly a century ago.

All this aside, Lugovoy is still claiming that Litvinenko attempted to recruit him into supplying MI6 with information, probably against Putin's FSB, as well as other remaining Russian energy 'oligarchs' (the poisoned 'ex-spy' was working for exiled energy oligarch, Boris Berezovsky) still residing in the country.

Oddly, all of this appears to be headed towards oil interests in the Caucasus region, and who controls the flow and ownership. Litvinenko appears to have been paid reasonably well for his ongoing activities, according to The Daily Mail, and one could imagine there were bonuses for specific-jobs being expedited:

The Daily Mail published an article Saturday saying Litvinenko who died in London in November 2006 "was receiving a retainer of around ? 2,000 [$4,000] a month from the British security services at the time he was murdered." ..."British secret services know the names of those who ordered and committed this crime," he said, adding that Litvinenko had repeatedly told him about his patrons in British secret services.

(RIA Novosti, 10.28.2007, http://en.rian.ru/world/20071027/85680757.html)

$4,000 USD doesn't sound like much, until one looks at their own paycheck. Alexander was paid a very good stipend, so he must have been a useful asset. What he may not have known was that that meant being poisoned with polonium-210 just weeks after being granted British citizenship to create an international event meant to weaken Russia's standing in the world community for purposes of obtaining control of the oil fields of Baku, and pipeline-routes throughout the region by British oil interests.

Was Litvinenko a double-agent, still really serving FSB or other multifarious interests? It's even money, and in various currencies and denominations. His widow's comments should be met with suspicion.

THE POISONING OF ALEXANDER LITVINENKO: A NEW DEVELOPMENT? (Repost of a June 2nd Piece)

MOSCOW, RUSSIA--Vladimir Prybylovsky (Владимир Валерианович Прибыловский) is another journalist who writes critical-works on Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer and lieutenant to Boris Yeltsin.

At almost the same time that former FSB agent Andrei Lugovoi was denying his role in the assassination of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, Prybylovsky's apartment was raided, and computers containing...well, that's the question. We're being told it was his new book, and the primary information and documents that were his sources.

British prosecutors have named Andrei Lugovoi, a Moscow businessman and former FSB agent, as their chief suspect in Litvinenko's murder. The search of Pribylovsky's apartment took place the same day that Lugovoi held a news conference to protest his innocence, and to claim there was evidence the British secret services were involved in the slaying. (AP, 06.02.2007)

Prbylovsky was collaborating on a book with an exiled Russian historian and writer named Yuri Felshtinsky, who had collaborated on another book with Litvinenko titled "The Blowing Up of Russia," published in 2004--and promptly seized by FSB operatives in December of 2003 before it was to be distributed in Moscow.

The 4,500 copies were printed in Latvia, when they were intercepted and seized. According to Amazon.com, the book has only been widely-available in the United States since April 2nd of this year, and it's a best seller on their site.

"The Blowing Up Russia" is a blistering critique of the Chechen war--like Iraq, it's a conflict that's approaching genocide, forget the other allegations in the book--that alleges the 1999 multiple apartment block bombings in Moscow and elsewhere were coordinated by the FSB to justify further crackdowns and repression. As we know, that would never happen in the US.

The book goes further, stating that Putin wants to reinstate KGB-style repression and purges, a pretty lofty claim in-itself. It should be noted at this point that Felshtinsky has written several-books, some of them during the Cold War period. He defected to the United States in 1978, begging-the-question of whether he is himself a former-KGB operative. Is the whole event Western propaganda? Who knows? Andrei Lugovoi, Felshtinsky, and Mario Scaramella probably do.

The raid on journalist Vladimir Prybylovsky's apartment and the seizure of his computers can be seen in a different-light: it could have been Putin and the FSB trying to corroborate Lugovoi's allegations that he and Litvinenko were approached by British military intelligence--SIS, also known as MI6--for recruitment, a long-tradition of recruitment within Russian emigre circles in London.

Lugovi also alleges that exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky is in the employ of MI6, one that the tycoon denies. This is how Sidney Reilly (his real name may have been "Salomon Rosenblum") was recruited 100-years-ago, to report on sentiment within radical and Russian-nationalist circles, as well as the actual conditions in Russia.

Mr. Lugovoi claimed that British intelligence were at least aware of the murder plot and may have given it their blessing. “I cannot get away from the thought that Litvinenko was an agent who had gone out of control and they got rid of him,” he said. “The poisoning of Litvinenko couldn’t have taken place outside the control of Great Britain’s special services.” He went on to claim that British intelligence attempted to recruit him in a London flat in 2005. He said he was provided with a special mobile phone and claimed that Mr Litvinenko gave him a Russian novel that agents used to communicate in code. In London, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “This is a criminal matter and not an issue about intelligence.” (The Telegraph, 06.02.2007)

Since the FO handles most intelligence matters directly, calling this a "criminal matter," while pushing the international-side of it all raises some troubling questions. Limiting it to a criminal probe, yet making it an issue of national sovereignty (Litvinenko, a British subject, was murdered) doesn't give the British FO's claims much of a ring-of-truth. It's definitely having one certain effect--the souring of Anglo-Russian relations.

"Instead of a professional inquiry, we're seeing an attempt to turn the criminal case into some sort of a political campaign,'' Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters. "It's having an impact'' on bilateral ties, he said. The statement was in contrast to First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov's assessment last week that the case was having little effect on relations. (AP, 06.01.2007)

The FO seems to want things both-ways, making the event both domestic and international. That should be setting-off some alarms. It's possible that the FO ordered MI6 to recruit Litvineno in 2000-2001, and was successful. It's common for such operatives to work all-sides in this arrangement, an almost incidental component of being an intelligence operative.

What's also possible is the Western desire to isolate Russia diplomatically, reducing her influence on the U.N.'s Security Council--making Litvinenko a British subject just weeks before his murder raises many questions. But why do all of this--why create an international incident to isolate Russia?

That's easy: the Caucasus oil fields, as well as natural gas fields, and pipeline-infrastructure throughout the region in break-away Republics that were once part of the Soviet Union. Russia's support and economic-ties with Tehran must also figure-in somewhere. As-it-stands, Russia is one of the votes blocking the Bush administration to act militarily against Iran. That's all the motivation you need if you're the Bush administration, the people who likely pressured the British government and her ministries into these intrigues--the question is, what were/are Washington's and London's roles in all of this besides the obvious?

The plan might have looked like this: we want to attack Iran, penetrating into Central Asia to control the oil and gas fields, but Russia is vetoing it on the Security Council. An international incident must be created that impairs the sovereignty and reputation of Russia, and limits her influence on the Council. This can be accomplished through the extraordinary elimination of a Russian-operative who has been "turned" and naturalized as a British subject. The appearance of guilt will be accomplished with the call for extradition.

Is this scenario possible? It certainly is in the intelligence, commercial, and diplomatic underworld (often, they're all the same thing). Here's the legal basis for Lugovi's extradition to the UK:

The fundamental legal basis for any possible extradition is the 1957 European Convention on Extradition. Russia signed up to this general treaty in 2001. Any request from the UK to Russia would be made under the 1957 convention. However, the convention allows nations which sign up to it to stipulate that they will not extradite their own citizens, as opposed to foreign national who may live in their country. Russia has stated that its citizens cannot be extradited. (Telegraph, 05.23.2007)

The timing of all of this is interesting, especially Russia's signatory-status that begins in 2001--shortly after Litvinenko entered the UK to work for exiled Russian oligarch, Boris Berezovsky. It's likely that Andrei Lugovoi did aid in the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, but it's also likely that both Russians were working every side they could--or had to.

The raiding of Prybylovsky's apartment can be viewed as a fishing expedition, possibly for information pertaining to Litvinenko and Lugovoi, and much more. Regardless of their guilt or innocence, the Kremlin is correct in stating that Britain is "politicizing " the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. Lugovoi is probably being allowed freedom-of-movement by the Putin regime because he's useful as a double-agent. What a tangled-web we weave...Russia will never allow the extradition of Lugovi, which is probably what the British FO was expecting.

The Telegraph Today: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/31/nlitvin231.xml

AP Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070601/ap_on_re_eu/russia_computers_seized;_ylt=AkBRDsmw7N2qt7kLwYhA3eFbbBAF

The Telegraph, 05.23.2007: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=J1S2VAAPJSFJ3QFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/05/22/npoison322.xml

AP Yesterday:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6677594,00.html

LITVINENKO POISONING: A PRIVATE SECURITY HIT?

London, UK--Now that the case is a murder investigation, a reiteration is in-order. It now appears that the sushi bar was probably not the site-of-contamination, but the bar at the Millennium Hotel, or thereabouts. So? It's right next-to the British offices of two private intelligence/security firms:

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)

"Private" could be a coy means of saying it's an MI6 front company, a common occurrence in the world of spooks and operatives ("ops," a very old term). Could they obtain polonium-210? If they have State security-clearances, or they were 'hired' as contractors to do the hit, most-certainly.

Considering the possibility that they really are a private firm, a hit could go to the highest-bidder, regardless of nationality or motives. Since most ex-spooks and analysts have to do something after "retirement," this is a possibility--you have interlocking-networks where the State and corporations fuse.

The shadowy Titon International Ltd. and Erinys UK Ltd. have a lot of answering to do, even if it means an army of Bobbies have to drag it out of them. We can even expect deportations of some of these folks if it is found they had any involvement in the murder of Mr. Litvinenko. At-stake here is the sovereignty of Great Britain, and if private contractors were used, the finger could point to the American State Department, meaning the executive branch.

Nothing is out-of-the-question here, nothing. These are individuals and organizations that owe no allegiance to any nation or people. They are the essence of corporate-terrorism, and the public mind is in for a huge-shock. That dystopian future is upon us, unless we dismantle such organizations and neutralize their operatives. This will be a tall order.

Titon International Ltd.:
http://www.titoninternational.co.uk/

Erinys UK Ltd., Security Contractor in Iraq (works for Bush):
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Erinys_International_Ltd.

LITVINENKO'S SUSHI BAR CONTACT CHANGES HIS STORY A TAD, WORLD PRESS MISSES IT, BUT LEARNS MORE ELSEWHERE...

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

Shake-Hands With Beef:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2473384,00.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/27/nspy127.xml
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2473385,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1957704,00.html