Did I miss something?

This is one post from Mr. Roberts that I don't understand, and as it is written, it lacks substantive facts that would make his allegations and/or assumptions believable.

He refers to "what appears to have been the accidental poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko by a rare and tightly controlled radioactive isotope."

Ok, what about the teapot, the tracing of the Polonium-210 on several aircraft that originated from Russia, and the rest of the story as told by England? It certainly makes sense that if the Neo-cons did stage a false-flag attack, this would be a substance that is "made in heaven" for that purpose. It would kill hundreds or perhaps thousands of people while allowing the city in which the bomb was exploded to return to business in a fairy reasonable amount of time without making one of our major cities a permanent wasteland.

I agree wholeheartedly with the rest of the article, but in this limited scope, it needs more facts and proof rather than a vague allegation that the Polonium-210 originated from Israel. When we look at how many people who have recently been assassinated in Russia and abroad, unless Litvinenko was a double, or even a triple agent, this hardly makes sense to me. Mr. Roberts’ posts are usually excellent and spot-on, and based on that, there must be something I missed… Can anyone add to this?

Thanks.

William Cormier

by William Cormier (90 articles, 4 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 220 comments) on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 10:27:14 AM
 

Polonium-210

Yes, William Cormier missed something.  Indeed, he missed everything and appears to be totally misinformed.  According to investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein, there is no radiation trail from Moscow to London; rather it is the other way around: "When Mr. Lugovoi flew from Moscow to London on October 15 on Transaero Airlines, no radiation traces were found on his plane. It was only after he had met with Litvinenko at Erinys International on October 16 that traces were found on the British Airways planes on which he later flew, suggesting to the Russian investigators that the trail began in London and then went to Moscow. They also found that in London the trail was inexplicably erratic, with traces that were found, as they noted, 'in a place where a person stayed for a few minutes, but were absent in the place where he was staying for several hours, although these events follow one after another.'" 

Also, why does William think I know things that I report are unknown?All we know is that Polonium-210 somehow got into private hands.  From whence it came we do not know.  We do know that Litvinenko had recently been to Israel.  We do know that Israel's undeclared nuclear programs are not subject to international inspection.  We do know that Israel has been strongly lobbying their Bush/Cheney/neocon ally to attack Iran.  We do know that 9/11, which possibly was a false flag event was in any case used to invade Iraq.  We can safely surmise that another attack in the US whether real or orchestrated would equally play into the hands of the "bomb bomb bomb Iran" crowd that controls the US government.  

Polonium-210 because of its short shelf-life is not useful for a weapon that is not to be almost immediately used after construction.  The substance can be used to initiate a nuclear test, and Iran might have wanted Polonium in order to test their ability to make a weapon.  However, if Iran were to test a nuclear weapon, it would reveal their government as liars and play into the neocon/Israeli hands just as effectively as a terrorist attack in the US that could be blamed on Iran. Also, for Iran to be in a position to test a nuclear weapon would imply the total failure of the IAEA inspections, which would imply that no country's inspections were reliable. Every country with a nuclear energy program could be hiding a nuclear weapons program.

A logical speculation is that Polonium-210 from Israel via a Russian to a not especially harmful dirty bomb somewhere in the US was a plot for initiating war with Iran, and that possibly the plot has been blocked by the accidential death of one of the smuggler's.  The esoteric story connecting Litvinenko's death to an alleged Russian agent served to divert attention from the real and unexplored fact that Polonium-210, a rare and tightly controlled substance, was in private hands.  Once this fact dawns on the public, the obvious question is: For what purpose?  There are not too many answers to this question, and considering the Bush/Cheney/neocon/Israeli desire to attack Iran, a dirty bomb explanation must rank high on the list of answers.

Epstein's report is here: click here

by paul roberts (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments) on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 11:05:21 AM
 

Tracing polonium's path

There will be no trace of the polonium until the sample was opened. A fresh isotope ablates (boils) and there is a good chance that the contamination traces back to Litvenenko opening the containment vessel to take a peek. In other words, the fact the flights from Russia appear clean is not significant.

The fact that the British managed to find traces is testomony to thier technology - it is extremely hard to detect traces of polonium 210 from more than a couple of inches away.

by cam (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 49 comments) on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 5:45:01 PM
 

Re: "Did I miss something?"

Mr. Cormier:

If you click on Dr. Paul Craig Roberts name you see that there are 3 articles and no comments. However, if you click on Paul Roberts who has responded to your question, it shows there are 9 comments and no articles. 

Just thought I'd let you know.

by Munich (0 articles, 38 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 577 comments) on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 3:33:01 PM
 

You took the comment wrong.

Mr. Roberts;

I think you might have taken my comment in the wrong context. I have referred to your work many times and admire your tenacity and the insight that you attempt to convey to those of us who are not privy to the inner workings of the government. The post specifically stated "Did I miss something?" This is an event that I did not research myself except for the first few weeks when it was a hot news item. I missed that information and specifically asked if I had.

I'll admit the info might have been in one of your links, but I'm guilty, as are hundreds of thousands of others who read the main piece and fail to follow every link contained therein.  I write myself and see it happening all of the time by looking over the stats. I also understand. Many of us read as many interesting Op-Eds as we can attempting to get a handle on the current wave of scandal and speculation. Admittedly, if this was an area that was within what I consider to be my expertise, I would have followed every link.

Instead, I chose to ask what I thought was an obvious question - and one that wasn't in the least bit interested in attacking your credibility. I expected it to be answered, but certainly didn't mean to offend the author in doing so - and for that, you have my apology.

William Cormier 

by William Cormier (90 articles, 4 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 220 comments) on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 12:18:39 PM
 

Polonium-210

Perhaps OpEdNews should have posted my previous column on the subject:

CounterPunch 24 March 2008

Secret Schemes and Undeclared Agendas

Inside the Shell Game

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

The investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein has taken up the Litvinenko case.

The media used the Litvinenko case as sensational propaganda against Russian President Putin and then tossed it aside. For those whose memories of the case have faded, Alexander Litvinenko was a former KGB officer living in England who died in 2006, apparently from the radioactive isotope Polonium-210.

The British government encouraged the tale that Russian President Putin had sent Andrei Lugovoi to poison Litvinenko's tea at a meeting on November 1, 2006. The story appealed to people brought up on James Bond thrillers, but the story never made any sense. Polonium 2-10 is a rare and tightly controlled substance as likely to contaminate the assassin as the victim. There are far easier and more effective ways of killing someone.

Moreover, there is no evidence to connect Russia to Litvinenko's death. But this didn't stop the British government from grandstanding, sending an extradition request for Lugovoi in July 2007. The British government sent the request despite the facts that there is no extradition treaty between Britain and Russia and the Russian constitution prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens. Epstein suggests that the purpose of the extradition request was to block the Russian government from investigating Litvinenko's death in London. Litvinenko had a false passport provided by the British government. A real investigtion might have opened up the shadowy world of security consultants in which Litvinenko rubbed shoulders with former British police and intelligence officials.

The Russians asked to see the evidence. The case file delivered by the British contained nothing of substance. Not even the autopsy report was provided to the Russians. Epstein managed to convince the Russians to let him see the file and to question them about the case. In brief, if the British have a case, they are withholding the evidence.

The charge that Putin was behind Litvinenko's death seems to have originated with Boris Berezovsky, one of the Russian Jewish oligarchs who had grabbed the lion's share of privatized Soviet assets during Yeltsin's presidency. Epstein reports that Berezovsky's protector in Russia was Litvinenko, the deputy head of the organized crime unit of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB. When Berezovsky fled Russia to escape fraud charges, Litvinenko followed. Epstein reports that Berezovsky has declared an agenda of "overtrowing the regime of his archenemy, Mr. Putin." According to Epstein, "Alex Goldfarb, the executive director of Mr. Berezovsky's foundation, prepared for Litvinenko's end by writing out his 'deathbed' statement, which, according to Mr. Goldfarb, was drawn from statements Litvinenko had dictated to him."

Epstein writes: "A few hours after Litvinenko died on November 23, 2006, Mr. Goldfarb arranged a press conference and released the sensational deathbed statement accusing Mr. Putin of the poisoning." Web sites supported by Berezovsky spread the story that Litvinenko was murdered by the FSB.

The effort to link Putin and the FSB to Litvinenko's death might be a tale designed to cover-up a more serious crime in the making. Polonium-210 is an indication that someone is trying to build a nuclear weapon. Epstein finds reasons to suspect that Litvinenko had, and perhaps Berezovsky has, connections to a Polonium smuggling scheme, and Litvinenko's death resulted from accidental or careless exposure to Polonium-210.

Who would be trying to build a secret nuclear weapon or perhaps only a "dirty bomb" that would serve to spread some radiation and massive amounts of fear and hysteria? The public has been carefully prepared to suspect Iran. If such a device were exploded somewhere in the United States, Bush, Cheney, and the neocon nazis would have their second new Pearl Harbor to justify their planned attack on Iran.

We know that the Bush regime wants to attack Iran. Despite the NIE report that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program several years ago and despite no signs of a weapons program having been uncovered by IAEA inspectors, Bush, Cheney, and the neocon nazis continue to agitate for striking Iran "before it is too late." Their politicized military commander in Iraq, Gen. Petraeus, keeps insisting that Iran is training Iraqi insurgents and supplying weapons that are killing US troops. Bush and Cheney themselves have made trips to Europe and the Middle East trying to marshall support for an attack on Iran. Anyone who is not deaf, blind and stupid knows that the Bush regime is doing everything it can to create circumstances that will permit a US attack on Iran.

We know for a fact that the Bush regime created false evidence, lied, and deceived in order to attack Iraq. All the reasons given for the US invasion have proven to be false. The real agenda has never been declared. Yet, five years later the traitors in high office who deceived Americans into a war in behalf of a hidden agenda have not been held accountable. As Agatha Christie said, getting away with one murder makes it easy to commit another.

There is so much that Americans do not know about secret schemes serving undeclared agendas. Those who have attempted to clue in fellow citizens are invariably frustrated, because Americans have been trained to dismiss the messenger who brings news of "false flag" events as a "conspiracy theorist."

Best-selling author Steve Alten in his recently published book, The Shell Game, attempts to reach Americans with a thriller that mixes fiction with fact. Alten describes a conspiracy, beginning in 2007 and ending in 2012, by a Black Op group in a Republican administration to set off nuclear weapons in two American cities, with planted evidence pointing to Iran. It is a historical thriller predictive of our immediate future by an author who has no illusions about the US Government or the interest groups that control it.

Alten's book is a first class thriller set in the real world of today. It is a perfect read for Americans who need their dose of reality to be watered down with fiction and delivered as entertainment.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

by paul roberts (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments) on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 1:48:43 PM
 

Polonium 210

A nuclear physicist tells me that these days there are much better means to initiate fission-chain-reactions than Polonium-210. Two likely uses of the Polonium would be a dirty bomb or an intercepted "plant" that could be blamed on Iran as an attempt to smuggle Polonium into the US.

by paul roberts (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments) on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 1:58:09 PM
 

Better ways?

If there are then I don't know of them. You need a reliable means of injecting slow neutrons in to the core of a nuclear device with sub-nanosecond precision and your trigger cannot interfere with all the mechanics and dynamics of acieveing and maintaining critical mass. In short, putting a polomium 210 pit at the heart of a bomb is aboiut as simple and as reliable as it gets.

by cam (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 49 comments) on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 5:27:39 PM
 

Most likely scenario

I know of at least three scenarios that would encompass the facts as I know them. The most likely one is that the Polonium was intended as a nuclear trigger for a uranium bomb. Someone, perhaps Litvenenko himelf, thought he would have a look inside the sealed cannister – an extremely stupid thing to have done. The story that he ingested it in a cup of tea is possible but unlikely – he probably inhaled the lethal dose. The source was almost certainly Russia.

by cam (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 49 comments) on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 5:21:14 PM
 

Keep Your Fingers Crossed!

Keep your fingers crossed that we make it through the next 10 months or so without King George declaring "Catastrophic Emergency!" upon discovering a secret Iranian plot to vaporize Israel and the USA with nuclear devices. The clock is ticking and they're hunkered down in the White House, hoping to pull out some fourth quarter Hail Mary pass, hoping they can manufacture the perfect scenario to engage us all in the mother of all battles, against Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, China, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt (almost forgot Iraq...) and anyone else who dares to question our God-given right to dominate our Universe. The United States must unite with Israel and Great Britain to battle the axises of evil! Might as well cross your toes while you're at it....

by Peace Brother (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 41 comments) on Friday, March 28, 2008 at 3:59:40 AM