Radioactive substance in ex-spy's body

[deminks]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061124/ap_on_re_eu/britain_poisoned_spy

LONDON - A former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic who blamed a "barbaric and ruthless" Russian President Vladimir Putin for his fatal poisoning had a toxic radioactive substance in his body, the British government said Friday.

In the statement dictated from his deathbed, Alexander Litvinenko accused the Russian leader of having "no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value." In his first public remarks on the allegations, Putin said he deplored the former spy's death but called the statement a political provocation.

The Health Protection Agency said the radioactive element polonium-210 had been found in Litvinenko's urine.

The agency's chief executive, Pat Troop, said that the high level indicated Litvinenko "would either have to have eaten it, inhaled it or taken it in through a wound."

"We know he had a major dose," she said.

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Has Putin made any public comments

about this?

[deminks]

4. Not about the radiation,

but he has stated that he doesn't think this was a "violent death"

from the article in the OP:

The Russian government has strongly denied involvement, and Putin told reporters at a European Union summit Friday in Helsinki, Finland, that British medical documents did not show "that it was a result of violence, this is not a violent death, so there is no ground for speculations of this kind."

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Well I guess that theory

just got destroyed.

[Bassic]

24. He's trying to trivialise it.

Cause there's a hell of a good chance he's responsible for it.

[Christa]

2. I am not even surprised

:mad:

[MannyGoldstein]

3. The Spy is Lying

The Smirk looked into Putin's soul, and saw he was a good man. Good enough for Smirk, good enough for me.

[DBoon]

20. and when Putin looked into W's eyes he thought,

"That's the stupidest person I've ever met. I could pull ANYTHING over on him."

[SpiralHawk]

53. That's right, Pooty Poot is held in high esteem by Commander AWOL

So he must be "special" and no doubt has good old republicon "values."

[deminks]

6. UPDATE: Police find radiation in sushi bar

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-11-24T163400Z_01_L24616549_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BRITAIN-POISONING-SUSHI.xml

LONDON (Reuters) - Police investigating the death of a former Russian spy from suspected radiation poisoning have found levels of radiation in a London sushi bar where he ate just before he became sick, health officials said on Friday.

"The police reported that they had found some radiation there (in the Sushi bar). We are assessing the level of that and the potential risk to people that might cause," Pat Troop, head of the independent Health Protection Agency, told the BBC.

The HPA said polonium 210, a radioactive isotope, had been discovered in the body of Alexander Litvinenko, who died overnight at a London hospital after wasting away during three weeks of illness.

[NorthernSpy]

34. I'm NEVER eating there!

:9 ><> :9.....................................:puke:


:yoiks:

[UKCynic]

50. Why, its not bad sushi?

It's shut at present, but when it reopens it will fill up again, with both the curious and the regulars. It isn't as if they found half a rat in the freezer. No-one is suggesting that this is connected to the restaurant. Anyway where is your pioneering spirit? One should never be put off by things like this. Rise above it.

[NorthernSpy]

61. ...bbbut it might glow in the dark!

:scared:

[mogster]

7. Without exonerating Putin, there's some questions

Wouldn't it be easier to just make Litvinenko disappear? Accident? Not to mention the victim in the case he was investigating; Politkovskaya, who was shot by gunmen in her flat. It is the hard and very public way of disposing of critics from a person that has - at least internationally - been keen on keeping up appearances. This just seem so out of proportion when the compass needle of guilt would point straight to Putin, that must have been foreseeable.

"Earlier, Home Secretary John Reid said Litvinenko's death Thursday night was "linked to the presence of a radioactive substance in his body.""

John Reid is just as close to Bush as is Putin, I'm just mentioning. It would be interesting to look at the evidence mr. Litvinenko had just recieved from the Italian security expert Mario Scaramella, and also the rest of the facts he had collected.
Anyhow who did it, it's a shame to see an investigative journalist die this way in times when investigative journalism is rare, and most journalists are toothless panderers to power.

[sweetheart]

8. as a deterrence

If everybody knows that oj simpson putin did it, then no future girlfriend
would be fool enough to cheat on him, the same deterrence as lynchings have,
long after the death, a power that is useless unless the killer is known.

[mogster]

10. Yeah, you may be right

There's a point, I agree.

[Canuckistanian]

9. Polonium? I thought it was Thallium.

Were both of them present? They really wanted him dead. Polonium-210 is deadly:

Polonium is so radioactive that a 0.50 gram sample will reach temperatures greater than 500 degrees all by itself. The radiation energy is so great that an amount too small to see would be a lethal dose!


From the "Fun Trivia" section of a toxicology site.
http://www.ilpi.com/fun/toxic/index.html

[deminks]

15. That is what is being reported - Polonium 210

thank you for the info. Here is an article from Alertnet, too.

Polonium - deadly, hard to make and rare poison

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24150888.htm

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Polonium 210, the highly toxic radioactive isotope found in the body of poisoned former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko is a very rare, exotic material that is difficult to obtain, scientists said on Friday.

Radiation and chemistry experts say large-scale equipment, such as a nuclear reactor, would be needed to produce sufficient amounts to cause death.

"It is not as simple as the idea that somebody might have broken into a radioactivity cabinet at some local hospital and walked off with some polonium," Dr Andrea Sella, a lecturer in chemistry at University College London, told Reuters.

"You can't make this at home. This is in a different league," he added.

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. Points to this being an inside job

Inside whose government is the question? Who and where did someone gain access to this stuff?

[deminks]

18. Agree.

Who has the ability, who had access, are any of them sick or missing.

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. Going radioactive

puts this in a whole other league.

[mallard]

48. Re: "Inside whose government is the question"

Maybe these various external affairs types have subcontractors all over the world, kinda like McDonalds, KFC and 7/11. Just the local 'ticket' - only an e-mail and visit to Paypal away?

[MrPrax]

60. No it's not...

It's BS like this story or the one from CNN that makes me suspect it's NOT Putin. First it was Thallium and then it was Polonium...could it not be that the radiation they are detecting in the urine be the 'barium' they usually give to patients for various purposes?

As Canuckistan points out; this stuff creates a 500 degree heat source...it's alpha radiation. If you want to do all this undetected, then that 'radioactive' is probably not the way to go.

Is it rare?

Nope...it was used for decades and still is on high-end photographic anti-static brushes...since Polonium 210 has a half life of 138 days, the photographer was expect to 're-dust' his brushes yearly...hardly makes it rare.

Available to ONLY the most advanced government programs...nope. It's available for sale at UnitedNuclear for $69.00 US. In fact the company notes that this the ONLY alpha radioative isotope you can buy without a license.

So the frame the media is using to make this 'scary' doesn't really pass the smell test no matter how many times they quote a chemist claiming this is "in a different league" and "you can't make this at home"...I reckon there are many many things you can't make at home, so this really doesn't tell us much, now does it.

He was poisoned by radiation...they aren't certain which one.

[mogster]

11. Some bits and pictures from this story found googling

Litvinenko was told that he was marked for death

On the day he was poisoned, Alexander Litvinenko was shown a hit list of Kremlin targets that included his own name, it emerged last night.
An Italian security expert who met Mr Litvinenko in a London restaurant on November 1 said yesterday that both men were on the list, with other exiled Russians living in Britain.

Mario Scaramella revealed that he had turned to the former KGB spy for help.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2465271,00.html

Scaramella:

Picture taken in November 2004 shows Mario Scaramella, the Italian who had lunch with a former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Scaramella said he met Litvinenko because their names featured on a mysterious "hit list."
http://uk.search.news.yahoo.com/bin/search/photos_gallery_ukie/uknews/?p=eventnames:uknews_photos&b=33&sp=-1


Alexander Litvinenko


Anna Politkovskaja


Anna Politkovskaja

Dying spy's message to 'barbaric' Putin

Published: 24 November 2006
Former spy Alexander Litvinenko sent a message to Russian leader Vladimir Putin from his deathbed, it emerged today.
In it he told Mr Putin: "You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed."
Mr Litvinenko, who died of suspected poisoning in a London hospital last night, said: "You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office."

And addressing Mr Putin directly, he added: "You may succeed in silencing one man, but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life.

"May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me, but to beloved Russia and its people."
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2011310.ece

Murder in Moscow: The shooting of Anna Politkovskaya

A discarded Makarov, pistol of choice for Russian hitmen, and four shells were found next to her body. Evidence that points to the assassination of the journalist who hounded Putin and was about to expose the Chechen PM
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow and Cole Moreton in London
Published: 08 October 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1819666.ece
------------------
Osborn, he's a fav of mine.

Assassin's bullet kills fiery critic of Putin
The woman who exposed the Kremlin's dirty war in Chechnya is found dead near her Moscow flat
Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist who did most to uncover the Kremlin's dirty war in Chechnya, was shot dead close to her Moscow apartment yesterday in a killing that sent shock waves across Russia. Her body was found slumped in a lift next to a pistol and four bullets.
Politkovskaya, 48, was a constant critic of the Kremlin and her murder will throw suspicion on the security services and the pro-Moscow regime in Chechnya. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called the killing 'a grave crime against the country, against all of us'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/chechnya/Story/0,,1890488,00.html

[Coaster City]

12. Faux full of laughs

Amazing. The Faux News Channel of Enlightenment had a guest on suggesting that the Moscow bombings were the work of the KGB and Putin. I am trying to grasp this........we can state as fact that the Russian leader bombed his own people but in our free society we can't ask questions about 911 without being dismissed as a conspiracy nut? Am I missing something here? Putin blamed the Muslims. It has been so long ago what did we do?

[Minstrel Boy]

21. see this

From this thread:

After four apartment complexes had been demolished and 300 killed, residents of a fifth in the city of Ryazan discovered a huge bomb in their basement and called the local police. Initially, federal authorities claimed terrorists had been thwarted, but when the perpetrators were apprehended shortly thereafter by Ryazan police, and found to be agents of Russia's security service FSB, the story changed: it was now claimed to have been an "exercise," and the sack of explosive hexogen was said to have contained nothing but "sugar." (Disbelief, a documentary regarding the bombings and the revelation of state guilt, may be viewed here. The story of Ryazan begins at approximately the 36 minute mark.) In 2002, an incurious Duma voted against a parliamentary inquiry into the bombing campaign.

...

It's interesting to note how Western pundits who would likely dismiss as nonsense the mere suggestion of a 9/11 conspiracy have no problem at all assessing the Russian apartment bombings as state terror. David Satter, a fellow of the Hoover Institution and the Hudson Institute and former Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times of London, wrote "The Shadow of Ryazan" with funding from the Smith Richardson Foundation, an abbreviated version of which was published by The National Review. It's funny how easily the generalized dismissals of conspiracy, such as how it meets a "psychological need," or that "something so big couldn't be kept a secret," vanish into one's political blind spots. That is, to the opinion makers, conspiracy can be the most reasonable explanation of events, so long as it's over there, and it's something they do. Satter finds the FSB guilty of waging a false-flag terror campaign against the Russian people and pronounces the Putin regime illegitimate, but don't expect him to be called a kook in a tinfoil hat for it.

[mogster]

58. Salient point

In that last paragraph ;-)

Good post.

[deminks]

13. Thank you for posting. A few more pics here from today

A British police officer guards the entrance to a luxury hotel in central London, where former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko had tea with Andrei Lugovoy, an old colleague, and two other persons, before he fell sick, is seen in central London's Piccadilly, Friday Nov. 24, 2006.



Police gather in the lobby of the University College Hospital in London, hours after the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko was probably poisoned by radioactive polonium 210, health officials have said, adding they were studying the risk to dozens of people who came into contact with him.(AFP/Odd Andersen)



British police officers cordon off the pavement area in front of a closed sushi food bar, which is believed to be where former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko had lunch with Italian academic Mario Scaramella, before he fell sick, in central London's Piccadilly, Friday Nov.



British police officers stand guard beside a forensic tent erected outside the north London home of the dead former Russian spy turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, Friday Nov. 24, 2006. Litvinenko was poisoned with a radioactive substance, the British government said Friday, calling his death an 'unprecedented event.' Home Secretary John Reid, the country's top law-and-order official, said experts were searching for 'residual radioactive material' at a number of locations, including Litvinenko's north London home. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

[Dover]

14. Many more investigative reporters have died "by accident"

under Bush's watch in Iraq and elsewhere in the last few years. Much easier to 'cover' legally, but the message to reporters is as clear as is this one from Putin. That is, if indeed it IS from Putin. Bush and Putin have much in common.

[seafan]

16. Update: Radiation found at Itsu sushi restaurant , Millennium Hotel, Grosvenor Square, and at home

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6180682.stm">Radiation found after spy's death

24 November 2006, 18:59 GMT

Police probing the death of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko have found above-normal levels of radiation at three locations in London.
Mr Litvinenko's death has been linked to the presence of a "major dose" of radioactive polonium-210 in his body.
Scotland Yard confirmed traces were also found at his home, a sushi bar and a hotel, but the risk to others was said by health experts to be very low.

The Kremlin has denied UK citizen Mr Litvinenko's claims it was involved.

The traces were found at the Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly, the Millennium Hotel, Grosvenor Square, and at Mr Litvinenko's home in Muswell Hill, north London, Scotland Yard said.

snip

Police have been examining two meetings Mr Litvinenko had on 1 November - one at a London hotel with a former KGB agent and another man, and a rendezvous with Italian security consultant Mario Scaramella, at the sushi restaurant in the West End.

Mr Litvinenko, who was granted asylum in the UK in 2000 after complaining of persecution in Russia, fell ill later that day.
In an interview with Friday's Telegraph newspaper, former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi said he had met Mr Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel but vigorously denied any involvement in the poisoning.
Mr Scaramella, who is involved in an Italian parliamentary inquiry into Russian secret service activity, said they met because he wanted to discuss an e-mail he had received.

[T_i_B]

47. "Itsu sushi restaurant"

Something tells me that, despite everyone on BBC News 24 saying there is no health risk you won't find that place doing much business for a little while. I don't think that it's good for business when Russian defectors get poisoned at your resteraunt.

[MGKrebs]

22. How would you package/transport that stuff?

How would you adminiter the dose?

Sounds like very bad stuff. The fatal quantity isn't even visible to the naked eye?

[Akoto]

23. On the news ...

Just heard this on CNN. They found indications of the radioactive substance in the restaraunt he ate at, just before he was hospitalized. Maybe it was in his food.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. It's an alpha particle emitter, so packaging/transport shouldn't be a problem

because alpha particles can be stopped by cardboard - it's when they're next to live tissue they are dangerous.

"Polonium is readily dissolved in dilute acids" - so you might be able to put it in some acidic liquid/drink - eg vinegar, cola, something with citric acid in it. That might make administering fairly easy too - eg a syringe to put a little into a drink.

[benEzra]

31. Even a sheet of paper would block the radiation, as would a few inches

of air. The radiation from an alpha-emitter is EXTREMELY short-range. You could keep a solution of it in a small, capped plastic syringe or something like that, and as long as it was sealed well, you could carry it in your shirt pocket. Or it could be incorporated into a fine powder, or (if you were really fancy) incorporated into a food item. Say, somebody in the kitchen injects a piece of sushi with the solution, or puts it in his beverage.

The problem comes if you ingest it, because heavy metals like to collect in your bones, and if the metal happens to be a short-half-life, high-specific-activity alpha emitter, your bone marrow cells, immune cells, etc. can be killed outright if the initial dose is high enough. Some metals (possibly polonium) may also get incorporated into cellular enzyme systems, and screw things up royally. A high dose would be a little like an overdose of cancer chemo drugs, I suppose.

[mogster]

26. Some translations fra a Norw. article 'To Hell with Anna' (2002)

Anna Politkovskaja is one among few journos who covers Russias 'anti-terror campaign' in Chechnya in a critial manner. But president Putin don't have room for spirited and investigative journo's in his reinstallment of a migty and proud Russia.

The journalist Anna Politkovskaja works in the Moscow-based paper Novaja Gazeta, and has since summer of 1999 covered Russia's intervention in Chechnya in a critical and fair manner. Politkovskaja refuses to follow the laws adverse to freedom of speech that is implemented for journo's in Chechnya, and won't let Russian officers and generals set the agenda for what's legal to report from the war arena. First and foremost, Anna Politkovskaja wants to get to talk to the civilian population, and see for herself how Russian soldiers behaves in the break out republic.
(...)
During the first conflict in Chechnya (1994-1996) the Russian press was very much against the war started by then president Jeltsin. and the strong critical stance of the media was a major reason Jeltsin withdrew his forces.
After several acts of terror in Moscow in September 1999 and growing unrest in the neighbour republic Dagestan, gave then prime minister Vladimir Putin, which practically ruled Russia, a welcome opportunity to attack Chechnya again.
Chechen terrorists was appointed to be the perpetrators behind the bomb attacks, and Putin 'had to strike back' (There's still no proof Chechens was behind the terror attacks). This fitted well with plans of the Kremlin to get Putin elected as Russias next president half a year later.
The government had learnt from the failed information strategy during the start of the first campaign. The govt. didn't want to get the people and the press against the policies. Subsequently, all communication was sentralized and a vertical stream of information ensured. Before the war the Kremlin had started a press ministery, and the same day the intervention started, a press centre, Rosinformsentr, was started.
This is where the journo's got access to loads of official information. But most important: The government started to arrange press tours into the war areas. The journo's should be invited to write home about what the Russian state considered important, and under the pretext that it was very dangerous to travel the Chechen republic by their own, journo's was refused entrance to Chechnya.
Almost all media was enrolled into the Kremlin media strategy. In a thought-provoking article in Nordic East Forum (nr.2, 2001), the correspondent for Aftenposten, Per Kristian Aale, shows that recognized papers like Izvestija and Nezavisimaja Gazeta almost exclusively used (official) Russian sources in their reporting. Aale also shows that the rethoric used by the government on press conferences and in press briefings was swallowed raw by the media. Chechens was labeled 'bandits', 'terrorists', 'rebels' and 'islamic fundamentalists'. Instead of 'Chechen platoons' the term was 'bandit groups'. The Chechen point of view and unbiased terms are not present at all. Anna Politkovskaja is one of the few who tries to correct this unbalanced picture of the conflict.
(Strange to read a situation so similar to the situation in the US, no? Perspective ...)
(...)
So, what's so special with the reporting Anna Politkovskaja does, and what set's her apart from the most of other Russian journo's?
(...)
The following is picked from an article in November 1999:
- We don't need a Putin threatening to 'crush the terrorists, even if we have to follow them into the loo', but a Putin who would defend the weak. A Putin who would keep an eye on his cabinet. We don't need a Putin who is genuflecting to the power structures, but a Putin who would stand in solidarity with his fellow citizens, with the people who suffers, with those who dies in the bombings or becomes hostage to terrorists who's pressured into a corner.
(...)
The journalist (Politkovskaja) writes in a very Soviet tradition, where subjective point of views and personal experience is very present. The Soviet and Russian press has for a long time been heavily influenced by the New Journalism paradigm, originating in the US in the 60's.
But what makes the strongest impression in Politkovskaja's reporting is her meeting with both Russian and Chechen people, and also this is a marked difference between Politkovskaja and the majority of her colleagues. She let both Russians and Chechens have their say, and tells many tragic tales.
(...)
Politkovskaja has for herself experienced arrests and harrassment from Russian troops. In February 2001 she was taken prisoner inside Chechnya and accused of supporting Chechen rebels. She was released after spending some days in prison, and tells of being accused of supporting terror, threatened with harm to her children, and almost raped. The Russian authorities would probably try to frighten Anna Politkovskaja into silence. But her cry for help has only gotten stronger. Anna Politkovskaja is recognized internationally for her work, but in Russia she's no hero. In an interview with the magazine Journalisten in summer 2001, she told that 70% of the feedback on her work is negative. The Russian people sees her as an enemy of the people, and also her colleagues is giving her a hard time. More than often she's seen as a threat to national security. In autumn 2001 she had to escape to Vienna, when a group of Russian officers printed an ad in a Russian paper where they declared Politkovskaja to be an enemy of Russia. Today, she's always surrounded by bodyguards when she's in her home city of Moscow.
(...)
The Russian authorities does not want a strong and independent fourth state power in their frail democracy, and it seems they've managed to succeed in their project to guard the population from journalism critical towards the power of state. In March 2002, Politkovskaja's paper Novaja Gazeta was fined 1,5 million USD for having printed incorrect claims about corruption inside the state apparatus. It is very visible how this paper was singled out for investigation from authorities, says Russian and international campaigners for free speech.
The Russian authorities has time after time shown that if a paper or TV-channel trangresses the limit for what they see as justified criticism, economic sanctions are applied. The accuses is tried for a court that is many cases are corrupt and biased. This form of 'hidden censorship' is proven in many times in today's Russia. In Easter 2001, the system-criticizing TV-channel NTV was taken over by the state, just to mention some cases that, after all, has been mentioned in the Western press.
Now they want to erase Politkovskaja's pen as well.

----------------------------------------------------
This is a quick translation from a Norwegian article from the Oslo university, Media faculty, by Arne Vestbø:
http://www.media.uio.no/mediert/artikler/2002/2002nr2/2002nr2s14.html

Any mangled English should be attributed to me, not him ;-)

The title of the article play's on the title of her book; A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya.
A note on edit: It may not be that book, the Norw. reference says 'A translation of her book "A Travel in Hell"' in Norwegian. I see the other one came out in 2003.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya_assassination

R.I.P. Anna Politkovskaja and Alexander Litvinenko. Hopefully, your job will be taken up by others.

[raebrek]

27. May I speculate freely?

What if this spy/former spy was making a move to sell this stuff to someone? What if it was not a plan to kill him but a messed up sale? He was checking out the goods and messed up? He was delivering the goods and messed up? Just wandering out loud.

[deminks]

28. Anything is possible at this point.

It is a big mystery, and an unprecidented event.

Speculate away!

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Barrett808]

29. Welcome to DU, raebrek!

:hi:

[wickerwoman]

30. I was thinking the same thing

but then they said in that dose he must have eaten or inhaled it. And they found traces at the sushi restaurant as well.

Maybe a deal gone bad though... he was trying to sell it, screwed someone over and they were getting back at him.

[benEzra]

32. The half-life of polonium-210 is only 138 days,

so he'd have to have had recent access to a source (i.e., somebody with a nuclear reactor or big particle accelerator), and since he was a major persona non grata in those Russian circles that would have access to such things, I suspect that he was indeed a victim and not a courier.

The fact that traces were found in a restaurant, where he and some others ate, tells you that it likely was not a transfer (unlikely place for that), but was a poisoning.

[Zensea]

33. Putin or Russian Mafia? Check this ---

Mafia Hit On The Media

In the article click on the link for "The Godfather's PR Firm" if you'd like to examine some provocative links (as well as the other links of course, but that one in particular).

[InkAddict]

35. Nicotine and phosphate fertilizers

http://www.webspawner.com/users/radioactivethreat/index.html

1. Polonium-210: A Volatile Radioelement in Cigarettes (1964)
Polonium-210, which emits alpha particles, is a natural contaminant of tobacco. For an individual smoking two packages of cigarettes a day, the radiation dose to bronchial epithelium from Po210 inhaled in cigarette smoke probably is at least seven times that from background sources, and in localized areas may be up to 1000 rem or more in 25 years.

http://www.lenntech.com/Periodic-chart-elements/Po-en.htm

...is reactive, silvery-gray, it dissolves in dilute acids, but it is only slightly soluble in alkalis. it is fairly volatile: about half of a sample of it will evaporate within 3 days (unless it is kept in a sealed container).

Applications

Polonium was once used in textile mills (to eliminate static charges) and by the manufacturers of photographic plates (in brushes to remove the accumulated dust). It is used as a source of alfa-radiation for research and, alloyed with beryllium it can act as a portable source of neutrons, which normally only access to a nuclear reactor can provide.
In addition, polunium-210 is soluble and is circulated through the body to every tissue and cell in levels much higher than from residential radon. The proof is that it can be found in the blood and urine of smokers.

...the level of polonium -210 in American tobacco had tripled. This coincided with the increase in the use of phosphate fertilizers by tobacco growers - calcium phosphate ore accumulates uranium and slowly releases radon gas.

As radon decays, its electrically charged daughter products attach themselves to dust particles, which adhere to the sticky hairs on the underside of tobacco leaves. This leaves a deposit of radioactive polonium and lead on the leaves. Then, the intense localized heat in the burning tip of a cigarette volatilizes the radioactive metals. While cigarette filters can trap chemical carcinogens, they are ineffective against radioactive vapors.

http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/fluoride/fluoride_phosphates.html

Polonium-210, a decay product of bismuth-210, has a half-life of 138 days and gives off intense alpha radiation as it decays into regular lead and becomes stable. Any polonium-210 that might be present in the phosphate concentrate could pose a significant health threat. A very small amount of polonium-210 can be very dangerous, giving off 5,000 times more alpha radiation than the same amount of radium. As little as 0.03 microcuries (6.8 trillionths of a gram) of polonium-210 can be carcinogenic to humans.

The lead isotope behaves like calcium in the body. It may be stored in the bones for years before turning into polonium-210 and triggering a carcinogenic release of alpha radiation.

Drinking water fluoridated with fluorosilicic acid contains radon at every sequence of its decay to polonium. The fresher the pollution concentrate, the more polonium it will contain.

Hmmmmmm....spin?

[NorthernSpy]

36. shutting up Litvinenko wasn't really the point of this, in my opinion...

It the point had been merely to shut up Litvinenko, why choose a relatively slow method of murder? The classic bullet to the head would have been much quicker, and would seem to make more sense if you wanted to kill someone before they had a chance to reveal something you'd rather have kept secret.

Also, in spite of Litvinenko's deathbed statement, polonium poisoning seems like overkill as a method of intimidating Putin's critics and dissenters in general -- who it seems are not especially great threats to Putin's regime anyway.

No, I think that this was meant as a very graphic warning to a select number of persons -- or maybe even just one specific person.

I wonder who they might be, and what they might know.

And are Putin's bunch the ones responsible for this in the first place? Or might it have been somebody else?


Mind you, this is just more idle speculation; you know, for what it's worth. Other people have other theories.

[Henny Penny]

51. Its an interesting theory

worth considering certainly.

[Heidi]

37. Kick.

:kick:

[DeepModem Mom]

38. LAT: Ex-spy's death raises health fear: Radioactive traces found at sites he visited

Ex-spy's death raises health fear
Radioactive traces are found at sites visited by the anti-Putin Russian.
By Sebastian Rotella and Janet Stobart, Times Staff Writer
November 24, 2006

London -- Counter-terrorism police investigating the mysterious death of a Russian spy turned dissident warned Friday of a potential public health hazard at two hospitals that treated him and three other locations where officials found traces of the radioactive material thought to have killed him.

On a day of dramatic revelations and accusations, authorities announced that they believed Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, died Thursday night from a lethal dose of polonium-210, a radioactive substance that is deadly only if ingested. Concern about the danger to the public prompted meetings Friday of a government crisis committee that responds to national emergencies such as terrorist attacks.

Contamination could result from direct contact with the dead man's bodily fluids, authorities said, or by ingesting polonium-210, inhaling it or taking it into the body through an open wound. Investigators suspect that the 43-year-old was poisoned on Nov. 1, when he had meetings in central London at a sushi restaurant and a luxury hotel. Traces of the radioactive material have been found at both locations and his home in North London.

Health officials said they had worked overnight interviewing staffers at the hospitals that treated Litvinenko and were trying to determine the number of people at risk. The government appealed Friday night to anyone who ate at the restaurant Nov. 1 to contact health officials because they may have been contaminated.

"This is an unprecedented event in the U.K. in which someone has apparently been deliberately poisoned with a type of radiation," said Pat Troop, executive director of the Health Protection Agency, which advises the government on major health threats such as radiation and infectious diseases....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-spy25nov25,0,3481762.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Bobbieo]

39. What a horrible way to die -

Someone must have really hated him to make him suffer like that. I watched my husband die from accidental radiation poisoning. I still shudder when I think about it.

[DeepModem Mom]

40. I'm so sorry for your tragic loss, Bobbieo.

[Erika]

42. Yep My respects n/t

[Bobbieo]

43. My husband's tragic death is one of the reasons

I am so against the Divine Stake Bombs Tests currently being sought at the Nevada test site. Too many downwinders have died from cancer related diseases as a result of those nuclear tests in the 1950s.

[Erika]

41. But I thought only Islamfascists were capable of such evil

That's what Hannity, Rushbo, Coulter, Malkin, Ingraham, Savage has found as a far right titillating issue.

You mean western society could actually be as evil as the Islamofascists? Wonder if the right wingers can accept this.

[Bobbieo]

44. To me the horror lies with the idea that anyone

would deliberatly inflect that kind of pain on another human being. I imagine the nurses and doctors were praying he would die as quickly as possible.

I was told by a nurse it was that way with my husband as his body was being burned black from the radiation and there were no drugs strong enough to even dull the pain.

[Erika]

45. Yet so many saying "nuking the enemy" is the answer

Without a thought to the incredible pain.

[Bobbieo]

46. After having seen my husband die in such a horrible way

I would rather have a person die from a bullet wound in the heart. Someone on DU wrote earlier today that the Russian might have committed suicide. I really don't think so - not in that way.

The coroner told me that my husband's body looked like the photos he had seen of Hiroshima victims. I had nightmares for a long time after his death. It has been 25 years and it still affects me.

[Stephanie]

59. How was he accidentally poisoned, Bobbieo?

You mentioned nuclear testing above, was that it?

[NorthernSpy]

62. horribly enough, there have been a number of lethal radiation accidents in the US...

Everything from mishaps in nuclear medicine, to faulty industrial irradiator facilities, to contact with lost radioactive sources from nuclear gauges and and other equipment, to the occasional criticality accident with fissionable substances: all of these things have resulted in radiation injury, radiation sickness, and death.

In case privacy is an issue for Bobbieo, she might choose not to answer your question in detail, because all known radiological accidents resulting in injury are thoroughly documented, often identifying the victims by name, and this info is available to the public. (I know you mean no harm in asking: wanting to know details of things that terrify us is just how we teach ourselves to recognize and avoid dangers.)

I can point you to an online catalogue of radiological incidents, if more info about these kinds of things would be helpful.

[Henny Penny]

52. There isn't much mention of the "packages" that he appeared to

have swallowed anymore. Last night I saw on Newsnight that his body may be too radioactive to carry out an autopsy, which seems odd given that the Polonium is only an alpha emitter. Could it be they are worried about the contents of the "packages" and don't want them removed in an ordinary everyday autopsy???

[mogster]

49. Alexander Litvinenko before being poisoned

Alexander Litvinenko in 2002

[michael_1166]

54. And here's an article he wrote in July this year

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:vA38XOLDXnYJ:www.chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2006/07/05/01.shtml+putin+pedophile&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2/">The Kremlin Pedophile

Unfortunately, the website is no longer online, but the article is still present in Google's cache.

Link via http://rigint.blogspot.com/2006/11/bobby-and-alexander.html (excellent blog).

[mogster]

57. Interesting article ..

Yes, I like that blog ;-)

[Dick Diver]

55. Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

The Russians have a history of this type of killing. Gheorghiu-Dej, during a period in which he, to some extent emulating Tito, was trying to move Romania to a more independent position in the Warsaw Pact, died of a fairly rare form of cancer a few months after returning from a state visit to Moscow. Speculation in Romania is that he was irradiated while in Russia.

[mogster]

56. BBC: Radiation tests after spy death

Radiation tests after spy death

Tests are set to be carried out on members of the public who may have come into contact with Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko.
(...)
The government's civil contingencies, Cobra, has met to discuss the case.

Anyone who was in the Itsu restaurant, or who was in the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel on 1 November has been urged to contact NHS Direct on 0845 4647.

The 'itsu' sushi restaurant. You'd imagine this isn't good for business ... Pic from here

An HPA spokeswoman said: "We expect that we are going to do tests and we expect that they are going to be negative and we have no reason to think customers are at risk."
(...)
A post-mortem examination on Mr Litvinenko has not yet been held.

The delay is believed to be over concerns about the health implications for those present at the examination.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6182804.stm
-----------------------------------------------
This is breaking news and should maybe be in a separate thread, but what the hell.

Post Mortem is delayed because of concerns for health implications for personnell doing the examination? Really?
For how long, one wonders.

So, what's going on?

DoYouEverWonder's post earlier:

Moscow dossier embarrasses US and Britain ahead of Riga summit

November 24, 2006

In a move likely to inflame tensions ahead of next week's Nato summit in Latvia, Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, yesterday declassified documents claiming that Britain and the US had approved of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states a year before Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1955807,00.html

I'm just saying; if you poison somebody with a radioactive element in this fashion, you really want to make news about it. There's just no reason to do it this way if you have any concerns at all about your public reputation, or your country's reputation.

Remember this guy?







Yushchenko aide 'warned of danger'
(CNN) -- The chief of staff to Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko says he was warned more than four months ago that the politician's life could be in danger.

Former Secret Service police officers told him in late July "that they would try to get rid of or 'take care' of Yushchenko, and that the primary way would be poison," Oleh Rybachuk told CNN.

In response to the threat, the candidate's security was beefed up, "but obviously, not enough," he said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/12/14/ukraine.yushchenko/index.html

Now, if you want to get rid of your worst critics - and we have to say that at both Anna Politkovskaja and Alexander Litvinenko was vocal critics of Putin - why would you do it in a fashion where their criticism towards you is made even more credible by them dying a public death that points directly at yourself?
That just don't make sense.

Yet, there's no doubt that these people was threatened by the Putin regime, here's a pic of Litvinenko and unknown friend at a press conference in 1998, according to this Norw. article (NB: article published a couple of days ago).



Here's a timeline of this story from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6179074.stm

I sometimes feel like we're just scratching the surface of what's really going on in this world.