itsu with bobbies

(Photo: Reuters, UK) 

How can you tell that American agencies aren't working on the poisoning case of Alexander Litvinenko?

Because they've figured out who did it.

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. (Times, UK)

The man, known as "Vladislav" who is described as being "tall and powerfully built, in his thirties with short, cropped black hair and distinctive Central Asian features", has a connection to former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi, who has tested positive for polonium exposure and met with Litvinenko on several occasions before his death, and another Russian expat named Dmitri Kovtun.  The interesting thing is that there may have been several attempts to poison Litvinenko.  Maybe even twice at the London sushi restaurant Itsu, once on November 1st when Litvinenko met with Italian security expert Mario Scaramella and once at a meeting in October :

Itsu first came to attention in the investigation into Litvinenko's murder because of a meeting he held there with Italian contact Mario Scaramella on November 1, the day the Russian fell violently ill.

But the BBC said radioactive contamination discovered there by investigators was in a different part of the restaurant from where Litvinenko and Scaramella were sitting.

It said the traces were "most likely" at the seats where Litvinenko had met two Russian businessmen, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, at Itsu on October 16.

Scaramella told the Panorama programme, due to be broadcast on Monday evening: "I know they closed (the restaurant) because they found the polonium, but (it) seems it was not in the place where we (were) seated. So lots of things must be clarified. Where we (were) seated there is no polonium." (Reuters)

But Scaramella was poisoned somewhere, because he was the second person to test positive for exposure to polonium, which leads me to believe that multiple poisoning attempts were made at Itsu and again on November 1st at London's Millenium Hotel:

Lugovoi and Kovtun also met Litvinenko at London's Millennium Hotel on November 1. Traces of radiation have been found there too, and eight staff and at least three guests of the hotel have tested positive for small doses of polonium.

Both the Russians strongly deny involvement in Litvinenko's death and have themselves received treatment at a Moscow hospital, although details of their state of health are unclear.

Hmmmmm.  

The Times newspaper on Saturday quoted Litvinenko's friend, former KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky, as saying the tea was made by a man introduced to Litvinenko as Vladislav.

Litvinenko believed "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", Gordievsky said.

Okay, how's that for creepy?  And here is where we meet "Vladislav", the man who purportedly carried the polonium-210 into the UK and administered the poison.  Who has he working for?  The Kremlin and the FSB?  The Russian oligarch who Litvinenko was allegedly trying to blackmail?

We may never know.  As I pointed out in my second piece on this case, the assassin is probably dead himself from exposure to the isotope.

Scotland Yard police declined to comment, saying they would not discuss details of the investigation. 

Bloody British.  Why do they have to be so discreet and professional?  Don't they know that solving a crime isn't as important as getting credit for it?  We need to get some American investigators on this case so we can have some serious leaks to the media.  What's Ken Starr doing these days?

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